Whirlpool is a well-known and respected company. It sells its products worldwide and has a large customer base with a variety of people each with different needs and desires. The company must also consider the different countries they sell to for each one has their own culture, style, and way of life. So how does a company like Whirlpool provide a product to fit all standards in every country? To this, Whirlpool has taken the advantage of diversity and created programs that allows them to take what is special about each of their employees and combined them into making the company stronger and more understanding of their large customer base and its needs. With diversity ranging in age, race, gender, and ethnicity the company can cover a large amount of their customer base by forming a diverse workforce. A workforce that makes Whirlpool one of the top in its market and will continue to be with the use of their diversity networks. According to the video, the three main objectives of Whirlpool’s diversity networks are: • “being a resource to the employee” o An example of this would be when a new employee is hired at Whirlpool. This new employee, because of the diversity networks, is able to join a group based on their personality and characteristics. They are then able to use their group as support while working at the company and bring new skills and experiences to the business. • “being a resource to the community” o This objective refers to how the different groups in the business can use their skills and differences to come together and create products that meet the large range of needs by the customers. It is an advantage of the employer considering the employee is also a customer. • “tying back to the business” o This final ob... ... middle of paper ... ...ut their career at the business. Also by using the networks an employee is able to get the best kind of support. They are able to get the kind of support only an experienced employee can give. For no one understands the challenges of a certain diversity better than someone who has experienced it and that is why networks work so great. Also, in the way of management, the diversity networks allow managers to easily supervise and motivate its employees based on their background. It is, in fact, found to be easier to motivate a group of similar individuals than a large number of employees that are motivate in different ways. Really, overall, these networks are beneficial to both employees and the employers. So as long as Whirlpool is committed to these networks their business will continue to have a diverse workforce and team keeping them at the top of their industry.
Diversity can be differences in age, gender, ethnicity, and religion. Having such a diverse workforce can be very challenging. (1) Today’s workforce is very diverse in respect to age. Before, corporate America consisted of workers ranging from twenty one up to late thirties to early forties. Now, we see people in their mid to late fifties going back to work. This trend has both advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of an older employee over a younger employee is his ability to use his years of experience in situations where a younger employee lacks experience. Another advantage for an older employee is his built relationship with existing customers. The disadvantage of an older employee over a younger employee is his inability to quickly adapt to his changing environment. Younger employees are more “hungry” compared to their older counter parts. Their hunger is fired by their goal to quickly move up the corporate ladder.
“Commitment to diversity is at best a distraction and at worst an essentially reactionary position that prevents us from putting equality at the center of the national agenda,” ()according to Walter Benn Michaels, in his 2004 essay, “The Trouble with Diversity.” Upon hearing the word 'diversity,' members of society may immediately think of race. and political correctness urges society to support racial diversity. According to many, celebrating diversity is the best way to combat societal inequality. This is because people are convinced that the differences that divide society are the results of racial prejudices. Michaels, however, feels that the biggest problem in America is not that of sexism or racism, but instead the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. So if the problem is actually in the economy... The fact that people re-describe economic inequality as racial inequality is counterproductive to equality because people are simply trying to solve a different problem. But how did the notion that what separates us is race even start?
“Without awareness and knowledge of gender, race, culture, and ethnicity, therapists and other helping professionals could unwittingly engage in cultural oppression (A. Dunklin, Ph.D., personal communication, October, 2009). Dr. Dunklin is accurate in his statement. After surviving the destruction of the Third Reich, the civil rights’ movement of the 1960s and the women’s movement of the 1970s, it is hard to understand why the need for diversity still has to be discussed except that as a society, we are infants when dealing with diversity issues. There have been but one or two generations since World War II and the outlawing of segregation in the 1960s (Sciame-Giesecke, Roden, & Parkison, 2009). During this time, society has dealt with tremendous heartache and pain in the past seven decades because of discrimination due to a person’s religion, hair color, sex, disability, body weight, color of skin (or lack of color), sexual preferences, ethnic heritage, and so forth. These issues continue as obstacles to achieving cohesive communities. Neighborhoods, schools, churches, and the worlds of science and psychology provide examples of how much discrimination still remains. It is impossible to not engage in cultural oppression to some degree. Working in a cross culture situation could be likened to working in a cross language situation; unintended oppression approaches zero as “fluency” is obtained in the other language or culture (Dr. K. Seaman, personal communication, October 16, 2009). What is crucial to the success of obtaining “fluency” in diversity is to constantly submit ourselves to self-examination to improve our interactions with everyone we come in to contact with, in order to reduce ...
Diversity, as it relates to thoughts, ideas, ethnicity, race, and a host of other areas, is the quintessential ingredient needed to establish a free nation. Amendment I of the United States Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Through this simple statement made so many years ago, the founding fathers laid down not only the framework for the basic freedoms that Americans cherish, but also the foundation for establishing a diverse nation. You see, without diversity, there cannot be freedom, and without freedom, there cannot be America.
It improves understanding of your customer’s needs, a recent research suggests that customers differ in their value to a firm, this means customers may value a firm by its discounts, warranty and customer service and so on. The more diverse the workforce is the more understanding of customer needs, an employee with the same background as a customer may understand the customer which is employees empathizing with customers. Different ways of thinking increases productivity, employees may handle a problem or situation in different ways since every individual has their own way of thinking and handling a situation. With the different ways of thinking brings solutions that will get the company going. When an employee is good at something for example presentation skills, he or she may help someone which is not so good at it. Learning from each other and supporting each other leads to high morale and employee satisfaction. Greater Innovation and creativity, new ideas and skills are brought by different employees into the organization which increases employees to practice what they are good at such as talents; drawing for example. This will create creativity and production as well. When there is an increase in skills it enables an individual to master something in the organization. When there are challenges they can be overcome with the mastering and increase in skills. There will be a lot of opportunities due to the ever increasing growth in the market. A greater diversity within the workforce increases your company’s ability to succeed regardless of what may come
For whichever of these reasons that motivates them, it is clear that companies that diversify their workforces will have a distinct competitive advantage over those that don’t.
Diversity is a highly important issue in today’s business, especially in a globalized company. Workplace diversity helps to get better solutions to business problems (Schawbel, 2012). When you have a group of individ...
Diversity is a notion, when applied to the majority of circumstances, can create a positive conclusion. The trick to producing a positive outcome is often how the different aspects are brought together. Consider a classic dinner combination peas and carrots, the two colors look appealing and the two flavors comes together as one making a superb side dish. Now consider oil and water, these two substance are not often considered a good combination. Although, this is not always the case; olive oil and vinegar (which is water based) when mixed, come together into a delectable salad dressing. Diversity and inclusion should also apply to humans by bringing people together who are different it can creates a whole that is enhanced by the uniqueness of each individual.
In a world that has grown increasingly smaller due to mass media, world travel, and readily available information, the workplace has grown increasingly diverse in both gender and cultural aspects. Individuals no longer live and work within the confines of their geographic locations. At almost any position with any company the individual employee is a part of a larger world economy that harvests assets from the ends of the earth. Because of this, companies seek to capitalize on diversity to become more creative and flexible in their business models.
With the same spirited investment as the world's premier marketer and beverage industry leader for more than 118 years, Coca-Cola are focused on strategic workplace programs that help assure the success of our commitment to embracing the similarities and differences of people, cultures and ideas. Diversity Advisory Council - the Company’s corporate Diversity Advisory Council consists of a representative group of employees from all levels, functions and business units of the organization. The Council develops recommendations for senior management on advancing the company's efforts towards achieving our diversity objectives. Employee Forums – Coca-Cola believe that a sense of community enhances their ability to attract, retain, and develop diverse talent and ideas as a source of competitive business advantage In the United States, through employee forums, employees can connect with colleagues who share similar interests and backgrounds. In those forums and elsewhere, employees support each other's personal and professional growth and enhance their individual and collective ability to contribute to the company.
Diversity in the work place and the ideas from all its unique employees is crucial to enhancing the work environment and to boosting the company’s growth. Having a male dominated work place gives little room for outside ideas. In the article, Diversity - The Gift That Keeps Giving states that “According to Professor Roy Y.J. Chua, “The more your network includes individuals from different cultural backgrounds, the more you will be creatively stimulated by different ideas and perspectives...Importantly, these ideas do not necessarily come from the network members who are culturally different from you.” Having different perspectives give a company the upper hand when compared to other companies that only have similar minded employees working together.
In the future diversity in the workplace may be required for companies that want to be competitive, because diverse ideas help create new solutions to help overcome obstacles. To take advantage of the synergy that diversity brings to the workplace, companies must develop long term goals and strategies. A long term strategy acknowledges differences and embraces them to encourage free thinking among employees. By incorporating diversity as an asset, companies can better prepare themselves to face the future. As their customers become more diverse, so should their workforce.
Consultants and the managers as well as business leaders believe that effectively managing and handling the diversity is the competitive advantage. This advantage stems from the process in which diversity management affects the organizational
Diversity is all around us and how organizations deal with the notion of diversity can be complex and quite diverse. We know that being diverse in the workplace is important to the organization's success, should be recognized, accepted, and embraced. It’s how the organizations live up to what they believe in and must go above and beyond legal compliance and requirements to promoting diversity and inclusion. Otherwise, employees may view the organization's vision and policies as lip service and only be tolerant of diversity because the organization said so.
people who are different from each other to diverse the company culture to find different viewpoints and ideas to gain Competitive advantage (Simmons, 1996). Organizations that are lacking diversification and which are also being exposed to the general approach of minimizing the discrimination and injustice will unfavorably affect both customer and employee while diminishing the relationships with both parties (Kundu, 2001). Peters et al. (1982) conveyed that OC should create a diverse body of employees, customers and stakeholders that are being valued and integrated in to all dimensions of the work where that particular company may learn from the people they serve, by listening internally and externally to them.