Abstract
Diversity in the workplace is a strategic tool that has been adequately used by the IBM company for decades. The firm has developed an international reputation as one of the best when it comes to embracing diversity and providing the best working environment for different sets of characters. This tool is a crucial one because it provides the company with numerous benefits such as new perspectives in operation as well a diverse skill set that would amount to a higher rate of productivity. The paper seeks to determine the extent to which IBM’s claim to be an advocate for the practice is true. This means that there will be an analysis of its operations, especially in terms of involvement of women. It will cover some of the programs that it has introduced to favor this group, followed by the provision of a deeper insight into the HR policies in terms of position advancements, reviews, and compensation.
Introduction- Summary of the IBM Company
IBM (2003) explains that its workforce is made up of individuals from different backgrounds presenting different talents to the multinational corporation. The firm understands that for it to reach its full potential, it has to embrace workplace diversity and make it a priority because it is a possible chance to for it to gain a competitive advantage in the technology industry. The human resource process entails diverse activities such as hiring, compensation determination, and promotions, all which are presented to the workers with equal opportunity. At IBM, there is no room for discrimination in terms of gender, race, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation among others. These rules are so strict that all the executives introduced in the company have to adhere to them.
The International Business Machines is a world famous company known for its delivery of innovative technology and services including software and data management systems. To maintain its success, the firm has to engage a large workforce, and in so doing, it has employed almost four hundred thousand workers. This section of the paper seeks to explore diversity as a strategic tool used by the technology company and how it has benefited from the process. It will cover a particular group to determine how effectively the organization has applied this tool. The literature to be reviewed will reveal the benefits, and hardships that it has encountered in the process and conclude by offering recommendations on any of the gaps that shall be identified. The primary objective of this audit is to reveal if IBM has enough diversity in regards to the involvement of women in its operations.
Managing Diversity in IBM in terms of Gender
IBM (2003) states that its adoption of the diversity policy is one of the main reasons why it has come to be a global leader among other enterprises. In this consideration, the firm clarifies that the practice should be considered to be more than merely applying fair employment approaches and acting to protect the workers. These make up the essential elements of diversity. However, IBM stresses that for a company to realize the actual benefits of the approach, the firm has to formulate a way in which the differences in the workforce complement each other. Doing this would increase the level of innovation and integration, which will translate to better output for the firm. Childs (2005) agrees with this approach, and in his article, he states that diversity, in terms of gender or age among others, is a fundamental component in a business’s success, especially if it needs to maintain its performance for the long run.
The focus of diversity to be studied in this text is that of gender, particularly the female presentation in the international company. Childs (2005) explains that women make up more than 50% of the global population, yet their representation in the workplace is way less than that. These statistics reveal that parity is a goal that is yet to be achieved. World Bank (n.d.) reports that IBM started its quest for diversity almost a century ago when it hired its professional female in 1934. This incident happened way before the US government introduced the Equal Pay Act in 1964. The person who spearheaded this project was the Founder, T, J, Watson, who also fought for equal pay for this plight.
Improving Diversity
The actions towards diversity have set apart IBM from its competitors in the technology industry (Marcus, 2015). This industry has for long been associated with lack of diversity since the workforce of most of the companies has been predominantly male and either Asian or white. Thomas (2004) in his article explains that this company has had a good reputation when it comes to progressive management and equal opportunities for employment.
The call to improve diversity, especially regarding women was adopted in 1995, with the introduction of an initiative that targeted the variety of the whole company’s task force. This initiative had a goal of uncovering the ways of integrating the workforce to appeal better to the workers and also the employees. World Bank (n.d.) explains that the number of women being employed has significantly increased, and IMB showed greater commitment by hiring its first female vice president some time in 1943.
The organization further reveals that before the introduction of the Family and Medical Leave Act, IMB had already taken up the task of setting up a program which involved a three-month leave, which allowed women to take some time off after childbirth. By the 1960s, this program extended to a year and almost three decades later, it stretched out for three years. The generosity of IBM in this project revealed how committed the firm was to diversity leading to its global recognition as an active player in women empowerment.
Wells (2016) provides a success story of one of IBM’s employees who benefited from the maternity leave program. An engineer, Lisa Stephens, was favored after being out of the industry for almost two decades. She started off as an intern and rose to her current position. IBM defends the adoption of its policies and asserts that it is important to consider these programs considering how hard it is for firms to secure talented workers.
The claims made by the company has been having supported by real action witnessed in their payment policies, unlike in other firms which have made their compensations gender-based. Their performance appraisal programs have also been standardized (Shen et al., 2009). IBM does not discriminate based on this, instead, it has introduced numerous projects that are meant to harmonize their incorporation back to the firm even after a hiatus.
Business success can also be measured through the efficiency project management, the evaluation of the various organizational and cultural set objectives and goals. The success can also be measured through the human dimensions, which is a great combination of the people’s ingenuity, the contentment people get from the products, the social link people have with the organization as well as what people have with a certain product produced by the firm (Kennerley & Neely, 2003).
A diverse workforce is one that can be viewed by the customers and the employees themselves, it creates a sense of fairness and acceptability, which is good for the firm regarding output and general performance in the market. Shivapriya (2012) agrees with Kennerly and Neely by adding that it is because of the diverse workforce that IBM has realized global success and constant growth, with markets in regions such as Japan and Western Europe among others. The author provides a quote from IBM, which states that diversity is an imperative tool for all business because the market is also diverse meaning that the inclusion of women provides the corporation with different viewpoints.
Organizational Diversity Initiative
There are various ingenuities that drive organizations to diversify their activities. The process demands that an organization incorporates different types of people in its workforce in terms of gender, age, political affiliation, religion and even social class. Many organizations adopt this strategic tool for them to attain their set goals and objectives in the long run. The process is meant to grow and develop the firm, based on the unique needs of a specific company’s human resource structure. There are seven major areas in which organizations seek to diversify their activities such as LGBT and age or gender among others. The company might attempt to save itself by creating the competitive advantage dissection at business‐unit levels, where the realization of the set goals might be easy (Kenny, 2012).
Choosing to empower women and create a conducive environment for them could be one of the best tools that the multinational has ever adopted. The firm argues that offering opportunities to women provide them with a chance to engage in the enterprise's activities, and in return, the corporation benefits from a better skill set in terms customer engagement and loyalty because most women do not like to switch jobs. The author, however, did not clarify if it is because they face discrimination in other companies (Shivapriya, 2012).
The IBM organization has been able to strategize its operation, by targeting all aspects of the business process, from the manufacturing level to the service creation and administration level. All these positions are available to all people depending on the qualifications and skill set. The organization has been able to target various areas of its operation, starting from the USA to all other continents in the world. The creations of the IBM Company are of high quality, which enables the company to be a highly competitive partner in the business world.
Diversity Application Strategies in an Organizational Performance
There are various strategies that companies use to diversify their activities. The firms employ the use of the diversity initiatives such as the ability to understand the dynamics of change within the organization, the definition of the organizational efforts and set goals, and the process of combining creativity with the will to work. The regulatory initiatives, therefore, gear the creation of diversity, especially when it comes to the involvement of women in the workforce.
Impacts of Workforce Diversity
The process is associated with various implications. The whole process is based on the understanding that the organization is set in pace to attain certain goals. Diversity enables and also enhances competition, which is necessary, based on the competitive advantage. The competition is based on the race, gender, training and retention as well as the creation of employee morale (Fortune, 2001).
This diversity tool increases the ability and the will if employees to contribute to the success of the organization through various ways. Diversity creates the changes that people need to experience in their lives so as to come up with more innovative creations. Shivapriya (2012) explains that the variety inclusion in the workforce to include women is advantageous because it encourages a different way of thinking and view of the tasks from a new perspective, which would otherwise be lacking significantly.
Working in a diverse environment means that people with different ideologies have been pooled together. The ability to diversify the actions of the organizations also pays a lot of attribute to the heterogeneous contributions to the higher levels of production and innovativeness in the organization. Furthermore, it enables the organization to reduce any chances of stereotyping and any cultural misunderstandings.
The process also opens the workers to a world of idea generation, new management styles as well as new business perspectives. The process also attributes to the advancements in the leadership process together with the achievement of the set goals and objectives. With a proper strategizing process, the firm can harvest idea from each one of them, and assimilate them to create a workforce that would be so productive and innovative that it would be unmatched even on a global scale.
The multinational has recently been reported to be still embracing this approach in its operations by passing a decision to employ more women, particularly in the Indian front. The criteria will be so open that it will entail even the potential female worker who had been on an extended break because of family matters (Shivapriya, 2012).
Conclusion
In this research, I have also been able to establish that the whole process of diversity that has seen IBM Company become a financial giant in the world did not just happen by mistake. The IBM Company diversity process is s strategy that came to be due to the employment of various strategies and even efforts that saw it succeed. This can be attributed to the good foundation offered by its founder who showed outright favor for policies that incorporate more of the female plight in the operations of IBM.
The leaders were able to recognize the needs of their clients, and move in the direction that provided the best options. It was a process that was based on good leadership, the incorporation of the best brains, through the highly selective selection process, the through training and the proper flow of information in the organization. The process of attaining the set goals and objectives was also based on the ability of the company to establish various businesses all over the world, to diversify its businesses and even lower the risks of losing talented workers and keeping them for the long term using the special programs that favor women, even those with children.
It is, therefore, clear that it is through the application of diversity as a strategic tool that the IBM Company has been able to gain a lot of wealth, through the employment of the task force that has otherwise been neglected by the other firms in the industry. By introducing the program that allows women to take a paid leave of absence to go and raise their children, they have initiated a program that would enhance worker loyalty.
The loyalty of the workforce means that the company will save a lot when it comes to expenses incurred in the recruitment of new staff. The women may take time off for long, meaning that some executives may doubt their usefulness at this period, however, it is important to note that the half programs introduced allows them to work half the day as a transition for them to be integrated back efficiently once their leaves are over.
References
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