The Issue of The Gender Diversity in a Workplace

Introduction

The concept of diversity in workplace is thought to have originated in united states, with the publication of report Workforce 2000 (Farnham,D 2010). However, last two decades has observed development of strategy in order to have socio-economic and political gains. Diversity commences global understanding, productivity and flexibility and creativity in organisation and produce competitive edge. Diversity refers to a group of individuals belonging to unique cultures who acknowledge, understand, value and respect each other’s demographic, technological, biological, social and psychological differences.

Choy (2012) classified these characteristics of workforce diversity into three categories: demographic, organizational, and socio-cognitive diversity. Demographic diversity includes age, gender, nationality, and marital status. Organizational diversity includes job roles, job status, job tenure, and work experience. Socio-cognitive diversity includes sexual orientation, personality characteristics, knowledge, education, and beliefs (Choy, 2012).

Equal opportunities, Gender and understanding the different research of women’s working status in the organisation is a global issue within Human resource management for past several years. The relation between men and women in the labour market are characterised by hierarchical dimension where what men thought is high valued and high prestigious than what women do. The objective of the essay is to showcase the Gender diversity in a workplace and understanding the correlation between HRM and managing diversity.

Literature Review

In the past, all women in the workplace were automatically assigned to temporary or part-time or low responsibility jobs because it was understood that their first priority was taking care of their families. Unmarried women were likely to quit as soon as they married, and married women were likely to quit as soon as they became pregnant. Women with children were understood to care more about the children than about work. In addition, there was a widespread belief that women were not as capable as men, either physically or mentally or emotionally.

McKinsey research—including a new report, Women Matter 2016: Reinventing the workplace to unlock the potential of gender diversity—shows many companies are struggling to ensure women are represented fairly in top management. Only 5% women are the CEO. Construct a diverse team diverse team can bring various different opinions and approaches for problem solving as well as innovation. As per research women have power to read non - verbal cues. Give equal opportunities organisations need to line up their strategies, work culture and ethics towards declining the gender division, giving equal opportunities to ones who deserve and encouraging more women entering or re-entering the workforce.

Women should be trained and motivated constantly so that, they can become confident enough to take leadership positions in organisation. Mentor and motivate Instead of hiring new skilled workers, build the talent. Involving women more in boardroom meetings and business decisions is one such conscious effort. Organisational leaders should encourage the women who had taken a long break to rejoin the the corporate world. Flexibility in work schedule: women’s position in family is important but, organisation should help them.

Role of HR in gender diversity while active involvement of senior leaders in gender equity leads to greater representation of women in executive roles, the research found that only 56 per cent of such leaders globally are actively involved in diversity and inclusion programs. (Tamana Mirzada on August 17, 2015). As diversity helps organisation to deliver better, HR role in this policy is to influence the senior leaders or Board of directors to place a gender diversity issue amongst the top strategic plans for a company’s growth.

Conclusion

The study concludes that successfully managing diversity can lead to more committed, better satisfied, better performing employees and potentially better financial performance for an organization. Organisations can hire Men and Women at same rate, paid equally for equal work and promoted at the same rate.