Managing Workplace Diversity Interview

The aging workforce and the establishment of anti-age discrimination legislation have brought about an interest in age miscellany and the issues intrinsic in handling an age-diverse workforce. However, organizations consist of various generations with different potential cultures, beliefs, and expectations. Nonetheless, managers are trained to understand and play to the strengths of age-diverse teams, design workforce teaching that looks at the needs of various age groups. Managers should focus on the values of the company and show that these values should be maintained for the benefit of the team and the company (Konrad & Pringle, 2006). Therefore, this will assist to reduce problems brought about by different generational perspectives that pull a team in different directions. Members of an organization are to function as an effectual work unit by understanding each generation brings a couple of views, opinions, and creativity. The management, however, must comprehend the agitation that jaunts the workforce and appropriately handle it.

Managers are to comprehend the amplitude of cultural differences that are in the firm hence acknowledging the presence of differences between diverse cultures. It is therefore important to educate the staff about the differences with the aim of aggrandizing strengths and attenuating weaknesses of the differences. Commitment is however made clear by reviewing policies to make sure that there is no systematic barrier in admittance. Managers are to state support for assortment in inside and outside communication approaches to celebrate diversity by holding and supporting cultural events.

An environment is created where people are comfortable discussing their differences and learning from one another. Accepting and appreciating both commoners and the differences are important to effectual working relationships. Comprehending and practicing good communication helps to eradicate major barriers faced by people from different cultures working together. Some of them include: learning to listen to what is being said and not what one wants to hear, avoiding unnecessary judgments based on grammar or accent of the speaker, adapting to communication style to fit the situation, striving for understanding content and focusing on how things are said more than what is said.

Q. Tell us a little about your background.

A. I have twenty-five years of experience working with Fortune fifty companies, diversity-related organizations, ten years with Delta and Atlas and Warner technologies. The duties assigned were equal employment opportunities, investigating discrimination cases, training professionals and amateurs, and affirmative actions. I continued my education and completed my master’s and Ph.D. The degree is focused on male and female workplace communication.

Q. What is diversity in simple terms?

A. This is how people differ and the qualities of uniqueness in a group or individual level.

Q. With regards to diversity in the workforce, does the size of the organization matter?

A. Not at all, organizations deal with a large workforce and therefore need to develop a handling process that is built on the individual differences in benefit of their organization. If an organization fully utilizes the potential of the employee regarding awareness of the uniqueness of the employee it can positively affect the bottom line.

Q. What is to manage diversity?

A. Back then it was something we had an obligation to do, today it is however financial and the organization has a selection of ignoring issues concerning diversity and is open to a potential lawsuit and also handles issues before any further action is carried out.

Q. Why is it important for a business owner to care about diversity?

A. An organization that values diversity adopts an environment of inclusion in which all individuals are valued for their differences and are given a chance to contribute to their talents, abilities, and knowledge. Every employee should be given a chance to fully enrich their skills.

The interviewee explained that delegation is the assigning of duties to other people while still being held accountable. The important thing to know during delegating is who to delegate and when. A job manager should exactly know the efforts required to accomplish the job. It is important for the manager to assign a task in order to analyze his staff. Employees feel trusted when the employer assigns a task. This empowers employees and gives them a chance to focus on larger issues. Delegation saves time and energy (Konrad & Pringle, 2006). Delegation of duties also helps in tasking employees work regarding their competence. Proper duty delegation ensures that no employee is tasked work outside their area of competence. For this reason, delegation is important when reducing work pressures comes from within the organization and may negatively influence employee performance and health.

The interviewee used nursing as an example of job profession that requires proper delegation. The example shows how delegation is effective to both the employees and hospital management. Nursing entails many challenges. Nurses should take care of people without preferences on tribe, race, age, or status. In the nursing profession, there is an increase in workload and usually, the workforce remains constant or decreases. For this reason, it will be essential to delegate duties. The delegation, in this case, is important since it provides adequate time to cater to the patients and reduces workload for the managers. Nurses may delegate nursing acts, functions, or tasks. A nurse delegating duties should choose qualified individuals in terms of experience and education, and competence. Nurses should employ individuals who perform excellently under minimum supervision. Nurses should provide guidance, support, and clinical supervision (Konrad & Pringle, 2006). This ensures that the individuals understand their duties and are willing to accept the delegation. Moreover, the nurses should asses the individuals who accept the tasks and evaluate them to ensure success during completion.

The interviewee defined conflict as a disagreement between two or more people. It is natural for human beings to disagree with. Conflicts involve other individuals, groups of people, or individual inner struggles. Conflict often affects employees’ actions and decisions. Employees and customers frequently experience conflict on a regular basis. Conflicts can contribute to negative impacts on an organization if the management fails to address properly (Konrad & Pringle, 2006). Apparently, it is impossible to reduce conflict levels to zero. For this reason, organization managers should work on reducing levels of conflict beyond the normal level. Establishing close relationships between employees and management is an effective way of managing conflict since management will realize employees in disagreement and the causes of disagreement. The close relationships will also help in forming relationships where the employees solve conflicts themselves without the management intervening.

From the interview, it is evident that management is important and necessary. It provides parties involved to speak their views. In delegating tasks, managers communicate activities involving delegation to the interested individuals. On the other hand, strategies for resolving conflicts require a manager who should act as a mediator between the conflicting groups. The management should overhear a suggestion from the group and come up with a common agreement.

The interviewee introduced planning and controlling by noting that every organization has incorporated planning and controlling. Planning is the process of setting targets and working towards achieving them (Mor-Barak, 2005). Controlling involves managing the strategies employed while making plans. Planning and controlling, are interdependent to ensure success in any organizational activity. The organization should know how to balance planning and controlling. An organization requires planning during the first stages of management and control during the process and the end of the activity planned. The controlling incorporated provides the basis for planning. In simpler terms, planning looks ahead while control looks back. Different ways that planning and controlling relate are: controlling sustains planning, the control provides information for planning. Despite planning and controlling focusing on organization growth, it also deals with controlling factors that may affect employees’ performance. For this reason, when the management is initiating planning and controlling they should involve all employees.

It is useless to have planned without controlling the manager adds. Planning will only succeed if controlling is present. If organization management does not employ the controlling process then, the people employed would take for granted the plans incorporated. Therefore, if the employers do not take the plans seriously, it means that the organization will fail them all its activities. Consequently, controlling depends on planning. If there is no planning in an organization, then controlling will not be available. Therefore, an organization depicts the importance of controlling if planning is available (Mor-Barak, 2005). The organization compares the standards of work performance to the actual work performance under the systems of controlling. Planning determines the standards of actual work. Therefore, the absence of planning means that there is no justification for control in the organization. Consequently, planning plays as a foundation for controlling.

Planning and controlling are ineffective without each other. Even so, their dependence on each other does not mean that they are not independent. Organizations always use planning when formulating and determining the future course of the actions for the accomplished goals laid down. On the contrary, controlling looks back. The interviewee denoted that under control, the manager analyzes whether the employers did the complete work according to the set standards. Therefore, the manager quantifies each activity that took place in the past concerning the organizations. The manager further examines if the activities followed the path, according to the plans that were set when assessing the objectives of the organization (Stockdale & Crosby, 2004). For this reason, the management should know when to employ controlling and planning. Inappropriate planning and controlling will lead to unfair distribution of work, the management might task some employees with more or less work than they deserve. Such cases may lead to ineffective work performance that may contribute to declining in the organization impact on society.

As the interviewee concludes, he explains that communication is an important tool while conducting planning and controlling process. Planning involves making careful decision-making. The managers derive the decisions made from the options set while evaluating the planning process. The decision made to determine the success of the organization. Additionally, through the controlling process, the managers can formulate future planning strategies that will have minimal errors compared to the errors made during the previous planning process. According to the vast definitions of control, control is more of a rectifier than punishment (Mor-Barak, 2005). Therefore, the vital objective of controlling is correcting the chances of deviating from the standards set during future planning. Furthermore, managers should implement the control systems in the organization regarding realities of the social, political, economic, and technology available environment of an organization.