Workplace: Case of BMW
BMW
BMW is considered as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. It is due to the fact that the company outperformed its peers in the automobile industry through corporate social responsibility activities and organizational endeavors. The company fulfilled its responsibilities in an effective manner like investments in the innovation, low level of turnover among employees and low ration among salary of CEO to the average employee (Luxury Daily, 2016). In other words, the company invests in sustainable efforts to achieve success (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). Hence, it is one of the ideal companies to work on the basis of feasible working conditions. The report identifies the driving forces that shape the environment of the company and the attitudes of the employees to consider it a preferable company to work with.
Driving Forces that Shape the Organizational Environment and Specific Practices
Competitive Global Marketplace
The company i.e. BMW compete in the global workforce. To make sure the company is fit for the future, it makes investments in the integrating sustainability on continuous basis in relation to the business model. The company develops innovative products and services, invests in technologies and implements strategies to improve working conditions and to be a credible employer for employees. In turn, sustainability makes long-term contribution to the business success of the BMW Group. To compete in the global marketplace, the company strives to overcome issues by developing an attractive workplace, attracting and retaining talent, diversity and equal opportunity and employee development and training along with focus on ethics and morality.
Workforce Diversity
According to Snider, Hill and Martin (2003) diversity is a key to improve the ability of the companies to serve the marketplace. The efforts include employee development and work-life balance, etc. The company through its diverse workforce enhances the competitiveness and increases its innovative strengths. It can be ascertained by the fact that the company ensures the equal employment opportunities. The main reason of focus on the diversity strategies is that the unique and diversified talents as well as personalities are the valuable resource for the company. The Legal Compliance Code of the company outlaws any type of discrimination. The key strategies of the company includes give share to women in management positions. In 2015, the ratio of female managers in the BMW Group was 14.5% i.e. 18.1% share of women in the whole workforce. In Germany, the ratio of women in the total workforce is 15.3% and in the Board of Management 12.5% (BMW, 2015). Figure 1 identifies the share of female employees in the management positions at the company.
Figure 1: Share of Female Employees in Management Positions
Source: BMW (2015)
In addition, figure 2 provides a notion of the share of female employees in total workforce of the company.
Figure 2: Share of Employees in Total Workforce
Source: BMW (2015)
Moreover, the company focuses on women in not only its academic youth talent programmes, but also in vocational training programmes to recruit more female employees. The ratio of women in the Global Leader Development Programme in 2015 was 44%. In turn, new generation of leadership is developed with the focus on feminism, technical competency, and social and cultural issues. In Germany, the company employs employees from 115 diversified countries (BMW, 2015). Figure 3 provides an overview of the share of employees in the company from Europe and from non-EU countries. Furthermore, figure 4 provides a notion of age diversity.
Figure 3: Share of Employees at Company from Europe and non-EU Countries
Source: BMW (2015)
Figure 4: Age Diversity
Source: BMW (2015)
According to Earley and Peterson (2004) cultural understanding is a key factor in managing diverse workforce. They specified cultural intelligence as one of the effective strategies to avoid cultural issues. The company also works to increase the communication level and optimizes the positive consequences of diversity inclusion. The efforts of the company include promotion of intercultural understanding and social inclusion partnering with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). Moreover, initiative of “WORK HERE!” is another efforts made by the company. In relation to this initiative, the company collaborated with the German Federal Employment Agency and job center to provide qualified refugees the opportunity to participate in the non-week course of practical training. The lessons include language lessons and integration training. Moreover, the company is shaping the society through foundations. For example, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt gathers people from diversified cultures, nations and sectors together to increase social innovation, enhance global dialogue, and promote decision makers to act in a responsible manner (BMW, 2015).
Ethics and Morality
As part of ethics and morality, the culture of the company is featured by clear responsibility, mutual respect and trust. Lawful conduct and fair competition are the key factors as part of business activities to achieve success. The company developed a Compliance Management System that provides an insight of the instructions and measures to enable employees to handle legal issues. Fair competition in relation to ethics and morality develop trust with respect to relationships with customers and business partners (BMW Group, 2017a).
Technological Innovation
Technological innovation is one of the key strategies employed by the company. Its policies and practices include automatic car parking. It refers to the multi-story car park with four laser scanners to scan all areas and develop clear images. Moreover, 3D development with virtual and mixed reality developed from the elements used in gaming industry. The system developed opportunities like fully simulated city drive-throughs to test the panoramic view. In addition, BMW labs lead to testing of new ConnectedDrive services by taking into consideration the opinions of customers to design efficient models. Integartion of IFTTT contributes to connection of more than 260 services in the car. Another technological innovation is the use of robotics. The company provides opportunity to young technology enthusiasts to work with machines to input in designing through ground-breaking future topics (BMW Group, 2017b).
Outcomes of Practices
The outcomes of earlier described practices are positive as the company is considered one of the most sustainable companies in the world. The employees like to work in the company due to the fact that the company invests in technology and people to achieve competitive edge. Apart from gender discrimination, male and female are provided with equal employment opportunities and training and development. Furthermore, it is known as the leader in intercultural understanding to foster learning. It can be understood the fact that in 2012, the workforce was 105, 876 and in 2015 the workforce is 122, 244. Effective working conditions and sustainable efforts attract employees.
Work Attitudes affected by Diversity
The work attitudes in the U.S. organizations that are effected by the diversity issues include communication and resistance to change. It is due to the fact that perceptual, cultural and language barriers create issues in communicating in an effective manner. Communication gap leads to role ambiguities and lack of teamwork and morale. In addition, it also contributes to high turnover. Moreover, resistance to change is another factor as the employees do not accept change instantly (Kearney & Gebert, 2009). It is important to overcome the diversity issues to optimize the capabilities of diverse workforce in gaining competitive edge. BMW is a key example of having diverse workforce. The company has taken steps to overcome diversity issues as identified earlier like education and training. However, an effective strategy should be developed to further enhance the input of diverse workforce and increase productivity and employee morale.
Strategy
The organizations like BMW should involve all employees from diverse workforce in formulating and executing the diversity management programmes. In addition, the management should increase the attitude of openness in the organization by encouraging employees to offer opinions. Diversity should be promoted in leadership positions to optimize its benefits along with training and development programmes. Furthermore, effective feedback system like employee satisfaction survey should be used to identify gaps and develop solutions to overcome issues. Cultural intelligence is a key strategy to manage diversity as it enhances the communication level between team members with diverse backgrounds and increases the intercultural understanding to improve employees’ morale and productivity by reducing resistance to change (Shen, Chanda, D'netto & Monga, 2009; Bassett‐Jones, 2005).
References
Bassett‐Jones, N. (2005). The paradox of diversity management, creativity and innovation. Creativity and innovation management, 14(2), 169-175.
BMW Group. (2017a).Compliance at BMW Group. Retrieved from: https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/company/compliance.html
BMW Group. (2017b). Innovation. Retrieved from: https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/innovation.html
BMW. (2015). Sustainable Value Report. Retrieved from: https://www.bmwgroup.com/content/dam/bmw-group-websites/bmwgroup_com/responsibility/downloads/en/2015/BMW_SVR_2015_RZ_EN.pdf
Dyllick, T., & Hockerts, K. (2002). Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability. Business strategy and the environment, 11(2), 130-141.
Earley, P. C., & Peterson, R. S. (2004). The elusive cultural chameleon: Cultural intelligence as a new approach to intercultural training for the global manager. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3(1), 100-115.
Kearney, E., & Gebert, D. (2009). Managing diversity and enhancing team outcomes: the promise of transformational leadership. Journal of applied psychology, 94(1), 77.
Luxury Daily. (2016). BMW awarded top position in global sustainability rankings. Retrieved from: https://www.luxurydaily.com/bmw-awarded-top-position-in-global-sustainability-rankings/
Shen, J., Chanda, A., D'netto, B., & Monga, M. (2009). Managing diversity through human resource management: An international perspective and conceptual framework. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(2), 235-251.
Snider, J., Hill, R. P., & Martin, D. (2003). Corporate social responsibility in the 21st century: A view from the world's most successful firms. Journal of Business ethics, 48(2), 175-187.
