Work Place Diversity in Engineering Profession

Question: Discuss about theWork Place Diversity in Engineering Profession. Answer: Introduction: The objective of the current report is to provide a comprehensive information to the company executives regarding the workplace diversity in engineering profession. The report will provide briefing to the company executives regarding the facts and the findings in association with the workplace diversity. The report do discuss the benefits and pitfalls of the workplace diversity policy and also provided in the discussion are the steps that might be undertaken to foster a diverse and discrimination free workplace. Work place diversity is very essential particularly to the engineering profession. Since the profession is talent oriented, the main requirement for professional success is right talent pool. Inorder to achieve the same, an inherent requirement to be followed is to provide zero discrimination based on gender and ethnicity in the work place. The current report emphasizes the need for diversity in the work place in engineering profession, also presented in the discussion is correlation between the business performance measures and workplace diversity. Other issues discussed in the report are about unconscious bias, social privilege. The presentation of the content is done along with incorporation of the necessary evidences. The write up ends with providing appropriate recommendations to key stakeholders, applicable to any organization in general and EGB100Ltd in particular. Work Place Diversity in Engineering Profession Diversity in work place does mean diversity in several aspects, right from gender, racial diversity, ethnic diversity, diversity in language, diversity in physical abilities, diversity in religion, sexual orientation, nationalities, culture etc. With Globalization there is increase in work place diversity throughout and accordingly companies are making changes in their operating culture with provision towards adaptation. When compared with several other professions in countries like Australia, there is limited diversity in engineering profession. It is mainly due to the reason that several groups like women and Australian ethnics showing less interest in the profession. This can be overcome with changing the organizational policies. Few committed leaders with right policies can made difference by infusing diversity in engineering profession. Since engineering profession demands and sustains on talent, there should not be any type of limitation based on discrimination of any type. However diversity along with incorporation will bring few challenges to the engineering profession, perceptual, cultural and language barriers raised through the diversity in workplace should be eliminated with proper team spirits and high morale. Not only implementation, even managing the same is a challenge for any engineering profession. Business Performance and Work Place Diversity: By default, Work place diversity has capability to provide better performance and can work to improve the outcomes of the business. However the key requirements is better management of the diversity. If not managed properly, workplace diversity will result in poor business performance. Diversity can become an in hindrance of growth if not managed well, since it has potential to prevent open communication, can inhibit transparency, can result in groupism and can result in system failure. Hence it is to be managed well for better results. In literature it is evidentially reported that the high diversity in the workplace can contribute to the firm performance, whereas moderate diversity in the workplace can contribute to the groupism and can hinder the communication speed in the workplace. Also it is indicated that the low diversity work place can limit the workplace adaptability but still has potential to contribute to firm better performance. Also curvilinear relationship is proposed in literature between the leadership diversity and the firm revenues. There are evidences reported based on quantified results of Forbes fortune 50 companies and the results are in agreement with the claims made (Kochan et al, 2003). Hence the positive and negative implications are relational they do change with the extent of diversity in work place. However the general finding is that it is possible to leverage the business diversity for the betterment of organizational performance (Jayne, 2004). A Fair Go and Fair Reward for Effort Unconscious bias is the unintentional bias human beings express towards the people who we consider similar to us, an opposing bias will be exhibited towards the people whom we consider are different from us. Social privilege is the special privilege provided to particular group of people or persons based on the social inequality status, which can be any factor such as age, disability, ethnic or racial category, gender, sexual orientation, religion and/or social class. Unconscious bias and the male societal privileges are actually reducing the women and indigenous Australians to get a fair go opportunities. However they can be countered through policies and the right approaches. Homes(2013), indicated in his research on Unconscious bias, that the gender bias and racial bias have really grown to the level of menace in Australian companies and counter measures needed to ascertain gender equality and to ascertain support to indigenous Australian ethnics. Similar views are expressed by Ol ding (2014), while addressing racial unconscious biases in Australian army. Hence to enforce a fair go for the disadvantage policy changes are needed, even diversity at leadership can have positive results in this regard. Recommendations and Conclusion: Appreciating the benefits of the diversity and the need for change, EWB100 Ltd should incorporate necessary policies and should enforce diversity from leadership to the team members. Recommendations based on reservations and promotions in recruitment and hiring should be made mandatory. Recommendations in this regard should be made mandatory to all the hiring managers as appropriate. References: Kochan, T., Bezrukova, K., Ely, R., Jackson, S., Joshi, A., Jehn, K., Leonard, J., Levine, D. and Thomas, D., 2003. The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research network.Human resource management,42(1), pp.3-21. Jayne, M.E. and Dipboye, R.L., 2004. Leveraging diversity to improve business performance: Research findings and recommendations for organizations.Human resource management,43(4), pp.409-424. Holmes, S. and Flood, M.G., 2013. Genders at Work: Exploring the role of workplace equality in preventing mens violence against women. Olding, M. B. (2014).Cultural Crisis? An Analysis of the Issues Affecting the Ascension of Women in the Australian Army. Army Command and General staff College Fort Leavenworth KS.