Cultural Influences in the Workplace: A Rationale for increasing diversity at Vanguard West Airlines.
Introduction
Though many organizations today are going global, most do not embrace cultural diversity therefore, the majority are not actually global. This is the case at vanguard west airlines. Most companies are afraid to embrace multiculturalism because of the diversity in religion, culture but amidst that, the benefits are more as individuals are acknowledged purely on their performance level other than their ethnic group. In such an organization, employees are more motivated and are more productive.
The characteristic of culturally diverse work place is pluralism. This influence is experienced by a culture due to the interaction with dissimilar cultures. Another characteristic is the structural integration in that if half the workforce is Hispanic, then most probably, the half of top managerial posts are Hispanic. Another is the full integration of the informal networks therefore encouraging everyone to participate in all organizational activities without obstruction. Finally is the lack of bias and prejudice (Griffin, 2011, p. 189). This promotes the value of non-discrimination not only because it is a crime because there is no room of such a misdeed. This however is not the case at vanguard west airlines.
Cost Advantage
Multiculturalism has its advantages as it is expected in profit generating companies. Every change executed in its management is always expected to reflect in the financial statements. Numerous organizations are discovering that multiculturalism is a competitive advantage. A good example is Revlon that made enormous profits after it improved its marketing of skin tones for darker women due to the influence of a diverse work force (Griffin, 2011, p. 180). The profit margins anticipated if the airline switched to multiculturalism would be primarily based on the change in marketing. It is believed that a diverse workforce is better suited to understand varied market segments much better than less diverse organization. This translates to a greater competitive advantage. This is because different ethnicities have an awareness of the market satisfaction that members from different cultures would not understand.
First is the creativity argument. This suggests that the more the diverse the workforce is, the more original and creative its ideas are. This is because if an organization is dominated by a specific culture, they tend to stick to thoughts and ideas that replicate and affect that particular group. On the other hand, a culturally diverse workforce will have manifold ways of thinking therefore stimulating different school of thoughts hence more business ideas emanating from such a group.
Creativity related argument is the problem solving argument (Griffin, 2011, p. 181). A culturally diverse workforce has access to more information on different sectors of business since they interact with different groups of people. This works to the company’s advantage whenever it is faced by a dilemma. This however does not work for a less diverse culture since they are often exposed to similar problems in life so whenever a hitch out of the box shows up, the company is put at disadvantage and cannot meet the needs of the market.
Finally is the systems flexibility argument. This implies that an organization must become flexible in managing a diverse workforce. This is because statistics show that in the next ten years, other ethnic groups from different cultures will have dominated most work places and the number of whites will have reduced to percentage of sixty. This therefore will put companies that had not conformed to the necessary change leaving them with a managerial gap that will pull the profit making ability of the company lower. This also limits the company from expanding worldwide and even if it does, the company will be ill fit and full of wrangles that may affect the profit making ability of such a venture. Resource acquisition arguments and cost argument are some other advantages that may b experienced by more culturally diverse organizations compared to those that are less culturally diverse.
Causes of conflicts
Unfortunately, multiculturalism has its weaknesses as conflict may arise in the airline company due to actions that most often may occur unwillingly due to the poor understanding of other employee cultures. One probable cause of conflict is if an employee assumes that an individual has been hired, fired o promoted due to their diversity. An example would be if a white looses a promotion to a Latino and believes that the Latino got it due to the affirmative action implemented in the company. This may drive the white employee to bear a grudge against the Latino and ultimately the company yet the choice was made purely on merit and achievement.
Another cause of conflict is due to cultural misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and inappropriate interaction (Griffin, 2011, p. 184). An example would be if a male manager made a sexually oriented joke to a new female employee as way to show equality to every employee. However, due to the different culture and upbringing of the woman, she takes it offensively resulting to lawsuits, which results to a tarnished image of the company. This reduces the motivation of such employees and results to low profit in the financial year.
Conflict may arise due to mistrust, fear, and discrimination. Such an occurrence may be experienced if a member of a minor ethnicity secures a managerial position in Vanguard Airline Company. Since whites dominate the company, the other managers may be resentful or even hostile towards him. This is because most people are afraid and unwilling to accept dissimilar individuals and cases like this may lead to harmful conflict. Cases like this have resulted to lawsuits causing the downfall of such companies. An example is Shoney’s Inc a restaurant chain that was charged with racism and it took a huge toil on the company.
Managing Diversity
Affirmative Action Plan
There is no doubt that the current workforce composition at Vanguard West Air is in dire need of an affirmative action plan because of the ethnical/racial workplace composition. The affirmative action plan will not only enable Vanguard West Air to realize its objectives of increasing the percentage of minorities in its workforce but also assist the airline in providing a true reflection of the ethnic diversity in Los Angeles. Many an organization around the world has affirmative action policies to enhance cultural diversity levels within their workplaces. The implementation of an affirmative action at Vanguard West Air will enable the airline to control the composition of its workplace, examine its employment patterns, and as well, examine the discernable effects that might occur from having a diverse workforce.
The Purpose of the Affirmative Action Plan
The implementation of an affirmative action plan at Vanguard West Air has the implications of altering the structure and size of its workforce. For instance, the implementation of recruitment quotas can enable the management to minimize the number of whites or increase the number of the targeted minority groups in its workplace. Having in mind the availability of quotas to be fulfilled will create pressure to the reluctant upper level management (Central Influences, p. 136). Additionally, the implementation of an affirmative action plan will provide critical guidance on matters that constitute a diverse workplace and improved performance levels. Increasing diversity among its workforce will lead to improved functional diversity.
Another critical aspect that can be achieved from the implementation of an affirmative action plan is the use of merit-based selection when recruiting employees. It not only improves the morale of the workers but it also encourages career development. For this reason, the implementation of affirmative action at Vanguard West Air will provide the procedure for hiring workers and influencing the procedure of managing promotional objectives of the higher management. As such, it will enable the airline to alter the composition of its demographic characteristics.
Preference
The implementation of an affirmative action at Vanguard West Air will favor the minority groups that comprise 18% of the total workforce. Primarily, the 18% is composed of Blacks (3%), Hispanics (7%), American Indians (0%), and Asians (2%) despite Los Angles’ community ethnic mix (Central Influences, 2012, p. 13). Therefore, a quota must be set in order to ensure that at least each of the above-mentioned minority groups are evenly represented in the workplace composition.
Patterns of preference
Ethnicity or racial backgrounds should be used as the criterion for implementing the affirmative action plan at Vanguard West Air (Griffin, 2011, p. 177). This is partly due to the need to improve cultural diversity within the workplace and in part due to the poor composition of ethnic groups (Non-whites) in the workplace composition.
Implementation
The American constitution should provide the source of authority to guide the implementation of the affirmative action plan (Griffins, 2011, p.127). The Constitution does emphasize the need for affirmative actions to disadvantaged groups in addition to providing the rules and guidelines to govern the implementation of the affirmative action plan. Griffin (2011, p. 174) asserts that both judicial and legislation decisions have forced organizations to hire broadly in order to increase the workplace diversity. Another source of authority according to Griffin (2011, p. 174) is the globalization movements and other efforts related to assigning international assignments to a section of its workers.
Institutional Framework
This entails the identification of the body system to notify Vanguard West Air the ethnic/racial groups to be included in the affirmative action place. This depends on the analysis of the workplace composition at Vanguard West Air. As earlier identified, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians are the less represented groups and hence, the institutional framework should identify these groups. The federal, state, and local governments including the worker unions are the ideal institutional frameworks to provide guidelines and rules for implementing the affirmative action plan.
Patterns of implementation
These patterns comprise of communication channels that can be used to inform the affected groups on matters concerning the availability of job placements. Examples of such communication channels include placing newspaper adverts, and other popular channels that will attract a large pool of qualified applicants. Second, specific patterns such as employment rosters that minimize difficulties associated with hiring workers. Such rosters will enable the recruiting staff at Vanguard West Air to determine the number of vacancies that should be reserved for specific candidates from the preferred minority group. Such reservations can be made for future recruitment objectives aimed at changing the workplace demographics. Equally, an affirmative implementation can be set up to appraise the performance of senior management officials concerning their cooperation in implementing the affirmative action plan.
Monitoring
Since the affirmative action plan is implemented based on the rules and regulations stipulated by the constitution, the legislative and judicial authorities could be used as a tool for monitoring the affirmative action plan (Central Influences, p. 135) depending on how affirmative action is defined. The hiring and recruiting staff at Vanguard West Air can submit recruitment reports to these the Board of Directors and other authorities concerning the progress made in implementing the affirmative action plan. Equally, the Human Resource Department, which is largely responsible for recruiting and hiring workers can help in providing the criteria for monitoring the implementation of the action plan.
Compliance
Persons who violate the rules and instructions stipulated in the affirmative action will be liable for prosecution according to the rules governing the land. These include being subjected to disciplinary action under the rules governing employment and recruitment of workers and staff members. Aggrieved individuals can file reports regarding the offenses suffered and the relevant authorities will go ahead to investigate the allegations.
Evaluation of Results
The outcome of implementing the affirmative action plan at Vanguard West Air can be evaluated based on a number of key factors. This includes the employment of the targeted number of preferred non-blacks that were intended to benefit from the affirmative action policy, and the level of diversity in the workplace. Performance changes can also can also be evaluated due to changes brought about by changes in the workplace.
References
Griffin, R. W. (2011). Management: Chapter 6- The Multicultural Environment, 10th
Edition.
Cultural Influences in the Work Place, (2012). Student Guide. Azusa Pacific University
