Diversity and its Impact on Globalization

As the chief diversity officer of your organization, you have been tasked to deliver a presentation to executive leadership regarding the implications of a global workforce.

You will create a report in which you will discuss 3 to 4challenges of implementing a diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy such as emerging markets, lack of skill and diverse talent in some functions across the globe, legal cultural, and multigenerational issues, etc.

You will want to assess the impact it would have on the organization and its D&I strategy and some of the areas to consider when doing so.

Support your assignment with at least three scholarly or professional resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.

4 pages- at least 3 scholarly resources

References:

Print

Diversity and Its Impact on Globalization

Globalization has been the catalyst to broadening the definition of diversity and unveiling its strategic value and challenges. As organizations begin to expand globally, many of them have learned that working within or marketing to new cultures requires a depth of knowledge and understanding of these cultures. The needs, preferences, and perspectives, and ways of working requires that an organization hire local people to fully understand these dynamics.

Global influences have also shaped the approaches to diversity and inclusion in ways that some organizations are not accustomed to. For example, there is a demographic split between developed and emerging countries. Developed countries are facing an aging workforce while emerging economies has a workforce that is much younger. Challenges arise for organizations in both economies. The challenges would lie in recruiting and retaining a multigenerational workforce and uncovering generational differences in work habits, motivation, technological expertise, and communication preferences, etc. Hence, globalization has put a spotlight on both cultural and generational diversity.  

Similarly, there is a responsibility to adhere to differing legal standards, measures, and requirements when operating in other countries. There are a number of countries that have laws prohibiting employee discrimination. However, from a global perspective, these laws follow two different codes:

• Equal Opportunity: This concept requires an employer, without using unfair practices, to provide an equal playing field for all marginalized groups of people.
• Reservation: This approach compels the local law to mandate special considerations and a percentage quota for specified ethnic groups and marginalized individuals.

The code of reservation is founded on the concept of historic national discrimination against a given minority requires a counterbalanced favorable “affirmative action.” You see that many developed nations have different names for this policy. In the U.S., it is called “affirmative action”, in Europe, “employment equity” in Canada, “employee equity,” and in India, “reservation.” Now, consider how a few countries define these codes. 

• Europe: “Positive action” as it is called in Europe and identified by EU’s European Commission as promoting “full and effective equality” for “members or groups that are socially or economically disadvantaged or otherwise have faced the consequences of past or present discrimination or disadvantage (Positive Action, 2019).”
• India: “Reservation” laws enforce a quota system to advance employment (in addition to government representation) of designated underprivileged groups, largely based on the historic caste system (Mishra, 2019).
• Canada: “Employee equity” policies require proactive measures by employers to improve the employment opportunities for four specified groups: women, persons with disabilities, aboriginal peoples, and “visible minorities” (e.g., Blacks, Hispanics, Asians) (McIntosh, 2000).

As you can see, these legal standards will undoubtedly affect how diversity and inclusion initiatives are implemented within an organization. This is especially true if an organization has global operations.

References

Mishra, N. (2019). An analysis of reservation in India – Law Times Journal. (2019). Law Times Journal.

Rutherford, T. D. (2004). Federalism, Democracy, and Labour Market Policy in Canada. Labour / Le Travail, 53, 277–279. 

Positive action. (2019). Eurofound.  

Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully.  You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.