Memo – Organizational Diversity and Discrimination

Memo – Organizational Diversity and Discrimination

Date: February 24, 2020

To: HR Management

From: Management Consultant

Subject: Organizational Diversity

The typical American workplace today is very diverse. Given the diversity in the United States, a typical organization is made up of diverse groups of people, including different ages, genders, races ethnicities, and abilities. Diversity can be very beneficial for a business. However, when poorly handled, it can cause significant issues for the organization. In particular, organizational discrimination is a major issue affecting diverse business organizations. The business needs to understand the appropriate measures that it can take to minimize the risks of workplace discrimination.

The purpose of this memo is to examine the issue of organizational discrimination and generate possible solutions to the issue. The memo includes an overview of the key problems of focus followed by an evaluation of the issues. The memo also proposes several possible solutions to workplace discrimination. It finally includes recommendations for the organization to take action against this organizational issue.

Issues/Problems

A major factor causing workplace discrimination is poor communication. Lack of communication is a major cause of poor integration of diverse workforces. When there is inadequate or poorly planned communication, employees fail to understand each other’s differences. Additionally, diverse groups of people may have different communication strategies. Therefore, colleagues are susceptible to misunderstandings when they have different communication strategies. This often leads to cases of discrimination or conflict.

Workplace discrimination is also a result of prejudice. People have accommodated beliefs about other groups that affect how they interact with each other in the workplace. For instance, gender-based beliefs about women lead to gender discrimination in the workplace. Similarly, beliefs about certain cultural groups can lead to racial discrimination. Failure to address discriminatory beliefs on others leads to a projection of those beliefs in ways that put the affected groups of people at a disadvantage. This is one of the major causes of diversity issues in a business organization.

Analysis of Issues/Problems

Effective communication is an essential component of an effective, diverse organization. Effective communication by people from different cultural backgrounds, genders, religions, and other factors that cause diversity builds rapport for dealing with the collective issues that affect the organization. Communication works as an ice breaker in an organization where people are very different (Patrick & Kumar 12). It brings people together and encourages them to share information on issues that differentiate them. Therefore, poor communication in an organization can be a major cause of discrimination. When people have a poor understanding of the people who are different from them, they tend to perform actions that could be interpreted as discriminatory.

Prejudice is a major issue that causes discrimination in the workplace. Prejudice refers to preconceived opinions about a person or a group of people that are not based on experience or reason. Prejudice often leads to biased decision-making in the workplace (Ng & Sears 7). For instance, the belief that people from a certain group are less effective in their work compared to others will often lead to artificially created barriers against that group. Therefore, to deal with discrimination, an organization must first address the impact of prejudice. Organizational decisions must be made without the influence of personal beliefs and attitudes toward certain groups of people.

Proposed Solutions

One of the ways to minimize risks of discrimination is to encourage open communication. The organization can organize events or activities that encourage communication and collaboration between employees. For instance, a team-building activity can help the employees to build cohesion within their teams. Through better communication, they will have a better understanding of their similarities and differences. They can learn how to accommodate each other in spite of their differences. A better understanding of differences can help to reduce discrimination.

The organization can also perform diversity training to improve employees’ understanding of the impact of diversity on organizational relations. Diversity training is a program or process that teaches employees about workplace diversity and discrimination issues. This training teaches employees how to be accommodating and inclusive of people from other cultures and social groups (Ng & Sears 6). It enables employees to cultivate respect for people’s differences. Diversity training can also teach employees on strategies for dealing with issues relating to diversity. Therefore, the training promotes the general equality and inclusion of the organization.

Lastly, the organization can review organizational policy to promote diversity and inclusion. Organizational policies can discourage discrimination (Lambert 68). These policies provide detailed processes and procedures that employees must follow to enhance organizational inclusion. Additionally, policies that are strongly against discrimination will discourage such behaviors from employees. The types of behaviors that the management nurtures through its policies will be translated to the employees. Therefore, condemning discrimination through policy will likely eliminate discriminative practices.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Discrimination is an issue that affects a lot of business organizations. The society is highly diverse; hence, the same diverse groups are translated into the workplace. Poor management of this diversity causes cases of discrimination that can affect businesses negatively. This memo shows that poor communication and prejudice are major factors that cause organizational discrimination. The memo proposes three solutions to dealing with discrimination. Organizations should encourage open communication, provide diversity training, and develop inclusive organizational policies to discourage discrimination.

The final recommendation is for the organization to organize diversity training. It is important that employees understand the importance of diversity and issues that may arise as a result of workplace diversity. The first step for the other recommendations to be successful is for the employees to fully understand the importance of accommodating everyone, in spite of their differences. Additionally, training teaches the employees the strategies of dealing with issues caused by workplace diversity. This includes lessons on how to effectively communicate in a diverse workplace and challenging their prejudiced beliefs about other people. Therefore, this training will help the members of the organization to be inclusive in all the decisions that they make.

Works Cited

Lambert, Jason. “Cultural diversity as a mechanism for innovation: Workplace diversity and the absorptive capacity framework.” Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict 20.1 (2016): 68.

Ng, Eddy S., and Greg J. Sears. “Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices.” Journal of Business Ethics (2018): 1-14.

Patrick, Harold Andrew, and Vincent Raj Kumar. “Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges.” Sage Open 2.2 (2012): 2158244012444615.

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You will turn in a two-page memo addressing the situation in the case study about “Opening Case Effectively Managing Diversity is An Ongoing Journey” the current state you see in the case in the opening paragraph of the memo and end the paragraph with a description of header formatting in the memo, ending with a recommendation. The memos do not read like a book report about the case. You identify and write descriptively a key issue(s)/problem(s), analyze the issues/problem, provide 2-3 possible solutions, and choose one of the solutions as a recommendation. You look at a specific issue or two issues interconnected in the case, and you don’t take a broad approach that defines little to nothing about what you think. Be precise and add direction for the problem/issue identification so the reader can make a decision from your memo.

Memo – Organizational Diversity and Discrimination

The first header after the introduction paragraph will address what you see as a problem(s) and/or issue(s). Write two paragraphs about this header content, made up of 6-7 lines per paragraph, not exceeding eight lines. I count lines per paragraph and deduce a point or two for excessive paragraph length.

The second header section will provide an analysis of the issue/problem, composed of a couple of paragraphs with a general length of between 6-7 lines, which applies to all paragraphs, with a max paragraph length of eight lines. I count the lines in paragraphs, and if you exceed the limit of eight lines, you will be deducted points. This standard applies to all paragraphs.

The third header will present an opening paragraph that describes the content in 2-3 solutions made up of the same number of paragraphs. You write a paragraph for each solution, not one paragraph for all three solutions for the issue(s)/problem(s) the team will address and/or design to meet what is/are identified as an issue(s)/problem(s).

For the Conclusion and Recommendation header, you will provide a conclusion paragraph that summarizes the main ideas in the memo and end with a recommendation paragraph at the bottom of the second page. The conclusion paragraph provides a high-level summary of the key items discussed in the memo, not to exceed eight lines. A recommendation paragraph selects one of the solutions to address your analysis and chosen solution. You don’t introduce new information in the conclusion and recommendation. Page 2 of 5
Use these headers as the outline for the memo, which I described above. The opening paragraph describes the basic situation, and the last sentence describes what the reader will read in the memo, ending with a recommendation. Use these headers below for the memo after your introduction paragraph.
Issues/Problems
Analysis of Issues/Problems
Proposed Solutions
Conclusion and Recommendation