Statistics and Business Research Methods Diversity Management

Question: Discuss about the Statistics and Business Research Methods for Diversity Management. Answer: Introduction: In the present competitive business environment, diversity in workplace has emerged as one of the most prime issue that the organizations have to face in order to sustain its position in the market. The concept of workforce diversity and its impact on the performance of the organizations has been a real concern for every economy. Australia is also not an exception, as the economy is facing huge amount of challenges in order to maintain its diversified workforce focused towards the organizational goals. However, the concept of workforce diversity management has able to increase its importance in Australia in past few years, as the economy has experienced lot of challenges to handle its diversified workforce. Therefore, the study will focus on the diversity management issue in the workplace so that it can able assess on the overall organizational performance. Research Aim: The research study aims to identify and evaluate different ways to handle workplace diversity. In addition, the research will focus on providing a necessary guideline to the management so that they can able to handle challenges related to workplace diversity management. Research objectives: In this research study, the focus will be on several factors of the workplace diversity management that the Australian organization is facing in recent times. Thus, the objectives of this research study are as follows: To identify and evaluate the factors that are creating challenges for the Australian organizations to manage its workplace diversity To highlight the potential limitations and advantages of workplace diversity To explore several necessary tools that can help the Australian organizations to manage workplace diversity To recommend best possible way for the Australian organizations to handle workplace diversity Literature review: Workplace diversity: As per the article by Chrobot-Mason Aramovich (2013), workplace diversity is a controversial, complex and political phenomenon. The article also mentions that the workplace diversity has been conceptualized from different viewpoints. Many studies have analyzed the concept from narrow perspectives while many studies also have analyzed it from a broader view. As per the narrow perspective is concern, workplace diversity should be restricted to specific cultures such as gender and race. Many also describe that diversity based on ethnicity, gender and race cannot be understood in the same way as diversity based on companies abilities, functions or cognitive orientations. As describes by Bond Haynes (2014) key issues regarding workplace diversity are those that occur due to the factors like exclusion of cultural groups from traditional companies and discrimination among different cultures. Therefore, the article highlights that if the concept of workplace diversity is inclusive to all t he people, it will become very hard to identify this workplace discrimination practices. On the other hand, Patrick Kumar (2012) describes the concept of workplace diversity from the broader perspectives. In this article, workplace diversity is describes that the differences among the people at the workplace is same. Therefore, workplace diversity studies reflect that every individual is different. The article mentions that workplace diversity has several definitions that have been developed by several studies over the years. As per the article by Chua Joshi (2015) workplace diversity represents a workforce that consist a broad mix of employees from several ethnic and racial background of different ages and genders, and different national and domestic cultures. On the other hand, Thomas (2012) mentions that workplace diversity mean that the companies are becoming more and more heterogeneous mix of people in terms of age, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. For this particular reasons, Barak (2013) highlights that implementation of diversified workforce can create lot of obstacles on the path of success for an organization. However, many studies have counter this conclusion that workplace diversity has negative impact on the organizational success. As per the article by Babalola Marques (2013) implementation of diversified workforce can create huge amount of positive impact on the path of organizational success as well. For instance, workplace diversity allows people from different culture and country to work for an organization with the same organizational goal. Therefore, it allows organization to enrich the knowledge of the employees. In addition, workplace diversity allows organization to have the best possible talent from the market. Thus, it helps organizations to increase it productivity and efficiency level as well. As per the article by Lawton De Aquino (2015), workplace diversity can be categorized in to two dimensions namely primary dimensions and secondary dimensions. Primary dimension regarding workplace diversity includes factors like physical ability, sexual orientation, gender and ethnicity. On the other hand, secondary dimension regarding workplace diversity mainly includes factor like religion, education, believes, marital status and family background. Thus, it reflects that organizations not only have to consider primary factors but also the secondary factors in order to manage their diversified workforce. Workplace diversity management: As describes by Mahadevan (2015) there are numerous ways by which workplace diversity can be describe. It also highlights that there is no specific definition is present for workplace diversity. Thus, organization will have to consider several factors in order to manage workplace diversity. For instance, the article highlights that significant increase in the minority and women population in the community enforces the organizations to increase the diversity within the organization. Thus, there is no unique solution for managing workplace diversity. However, as opined by Grivastava Kleiner (2015) organizations can follow five steps in order to manage workplace diversity. Firstly, organizations will have to focus on the communication process. Since, people from different culture have different ways of sharing their thoughts and believes. Since, effective communication process will help employees to understand policies, procedures and other important information. It also helps employee s to overcome cultural and language barriers. Secondly, the article mentions that the organization will have to view all its employees as a separate individual so that it can able to avoid both positive and negative stereotypes. Thus, organizations have to evaluate success and failures individually so that it cannot able to create a negative impression about among a particular group within the organization. Thirdly, the article mentions that organizations will have to encourage employees to work in a diverse group. Therefore, organizations will have to educate employees about the kind of benefits that they can able to receive by working in a diverse group. As it allows the employees learn about different perspectives regarding a particular work, it will help them to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Fourthly, organizations will have to formulate its decisions based on the objective criteria. It reflects that organizations will have to set same goals for the entire group. Sin ce, creating separate goals for separate set of people increases the negative impact of workplace diversity. Similarly, organizations also will have to formulate administrative decisions same for all the employees in order to manage its diverse workforce effectively. Fifthly, the article highlights that organizations will have to be open minded at the time of including any employee from different culture. The organizations will have to ensure that all the employees is treated in a similar fashion in order to manage its workplace diversity effectively. Literature gap: From the above discussion, it can be assess that the concept of workplace diversity management is a very vast concept. Therefore, it does not allow organizations to have a unique solution in order to handle the diversified workforce challenges. Furthermore, globalization has allows organization to recruit people from different part of the world so that it can able to have the best possible talent available in the world market. Therefore, it increases the ratio of workplace diversity. Specially, in the countries like Australia where people from all part of the world come to have a better job opportunity, management of workplace diversity has become a huge challenge. Therefore, the focus of this research study will be to analyze all the factors related to workplace diversity so that it can able to identify a best possible way for the Australian organization to handle the issue. The study will also focus on to highlight the kind of advantage an organization can able to receive by handli ng its diversified workforce in an effective manner. Research questions: The research questions for analyzing workplace diversity management are as follows: What are the prime factors that can create challenges for the Australian organizations to manage its workplace diversity? What are the potential limitations and advantages of workplace diversity? Which are the necessary tools that can help the Australian organizations to manage workplace diversity? What will be the recommended way for the Australian organizations to handle workplace diversity? Research methodologies: As describes by Miller et al. (2012) research methodology is among one of the most significant factor that can help any research study to fulfill its objective. The article highlights that research methodology includes many techniques and tools that can assist the researcher to analyze the objective of the research. The article also highlights that the selection of research methodology is highly correlated with the nature of the research study. Since, diversity management workforce is an extremely vast topic the researcher will have to implement specific methods so that the research topic can able to fulfill its objective. Traditionally, research design has three parts such as exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research design (Taylor, Bogdan DeVault, 2015). For evaluating workplace diversity, the researcher will utilize exploratory design. Since, it has the potential to help the researcher to explore the research topic in a detailed way. The researcher will also focus on the exploratory research design, as it can help the researcher to gather in-depth information about the workplace diversity. The researcher will gather in-depth information so that the research study can able to evaluate all the factors much more effectively. The researcher will also focus on the exploratory research design, as it can assist to identify different elements and factors related to the research topic. It also helps the researcher to categories these elements and factors in different groups or team in order to have an in-depth study of the research topic. On the other hand, the researcher will not consider other research design, as it can create barrier on the path of completion of the research within the given timeframe. As per the article by Creswell (2013), research approach can be a significant factor that can help the researcher to have in-depth information about the research topic. Traditionally, researchers utilize two research approaches deductive research approach and inductive research approach. For this particular research topic, the research will implement inductive approach. Since, it has the potential to help the researcher analyze gather information about the research topic. In addition, data intensity is extremely high for inductive approach that can help the researcher to analyze the collected information about the research topic in an effective way. Furthermore, the researcher will select inductive research approach, as it will help to develop empirical generalization and also will help to develop relationship among all factors of the research topic. Research philosophy is another significant factor that the researcher will have to consider in order to fulfill the objective of the study. Traditionally, research philosophy divided into three parts namely positivism research philosophy, interpretivism research philosophy and realism research philosophy. For analyzing diversity management issue, the researcher will focus on the positivism research philosophy. Since, it can assist to cover all aspect of the research study. Furthermore, positivism philosophy allows the researcher to analyze the captured information in an effective way. Moreover, the researcher will look to utilize positivism approach, as it can help the researcher to focus more on the factual evidence and real facts regarding to the workplace diversity. Project plan: Gantt Chart Final Research Proposal: Diversity management at workplacein Australia Research Activities 1-3 week 4-8 week 9-11 week 12-14 week Selection of the Research Topic Research Discussion on topic Literature review Selection of Research Methodology Development of project Plan Selection of Research process Selection of Data Collection and Analysis Techniques Compilation of all the research work Submit Final Proposal Table 1: Gantt chart (Source: As created by the author) Research process description: As per the article by Repko Szostak (2016) utilization of correct research process can help the researcher to complete the entire research study within the given timeframe. For analyzing workplace diversity management, the researcher will try to execute a systematic process. Since, it can help the researcher to cover all the factors related to the research topic. Now, for implementation of systematic process, the researcher will implement a series of steps. First step of the research process will focus on the identification of prime elements regarding the concept of workplace diversity. In the second step of the research process, the researcher will focus on the formulation of research aim and objectives. The researcher will consider developing aim and objective so that the study can able to have a direction regarding the completion of the research study. In the third step of the research process, the researcher will focus on the construction of the literature review portion. In thi s part, the researcher will conduct an in-depth analysis of the previous studies, theories and concepts so that research study can able to increase its significance. In addition, development of literature review will also allow the researcher to gather in-depth knowledge about the workplace diversity management. In this part, the researcher will utilize several secondary sources to capture information relevant to the workplace diversity management. In the fourth step of the research process, the researcher will focus on the data collection technique. The researcher will consider data collection, as it will help the research study to have a practical outlook. Moreover, data collection will help the research study to consider different perspectives regarding the concept of workplace diversity management. In the fifth step of the research process, the researcher will focus on to the data analysis part. The researcher will utilize data analysis technique, as it can help the study to ful fill its aim and goals effectively. In the final step of the research process, the researcher will compile the entire study. The researcher will focus on the compilation so that the research study can able to depict the outcome of the study in an effective manner. Figure 1: Research process (Source: Gray Malins, 2016) Data collection and analysis techniques: Data collection techniques: As per the article by Giulietti et al. (2015), data collection is arguably the most significant factor that the researcher will have to focus for the successful completion of the study. For evaluation of the concept of workplace diversity management, the researcher will utilize both primary and secondary data collection technique. The researcher will collect secondary data for the effective development of the literature review. As the literature review is an important portion that can add value to the research study, the researcher will utilize newspaper, business magazines, trusted websites and books to collect relevant information about workplace diversity. On the other hand, the researcher will collect primary data in order to give a practical outlook to the research outcome. The researcher will implement both quantitative as well as qualitative research technique in order to collect primary data from the respondent. The researcher will select 80 respondents whom are working at ex ecutive level in different organizations. The researcher will prepare quantitative questionnaires that will include only closed-end questions for these respondents. The researcher will utilize social media and other online platform to collect information from these respondents. On the other hand, the researcher will select 8 mangers from different organizations to collect qualitative information about the research topic. In order to collect qualitative information about the research topic, the researcher will develop another qualitative questionnaire that will only contain open-end questions. The researcher will implement face-to-face interview process to collect qualitative information from the managers. The researcher will initiate face-to-face interview process in order to assess different perspectives of the respondents. Data analysis techniques: After the collection of primary and secondary data relevant to the research topic, the researcher will focus on the data analysis technique. For the effective implementation of data analysis, the researcher will focus on the sampling techniques. Normally, sampling technique has two parts namely probability sampling technique and non-probability sampling technique. For the evaluation of workplace diversity, the researcher will select non-probability sampling technique. The researcher will choose non-probability sampling technique, as it can assist to collect relevant information about the research topic. Furthermore, the researcher will utilize different types of statistical tools for the effective analysis of the captured information. Since, the researcher focusing on to utilizing both quantitative and qualitative technique, statistical tool can able to help the study to analyze the data for the fulfillment of the research objectives. In case of quantitative data, the researcher will use statistical tools like mean, median and mode so that the outcome of the analysis can able to describe a trend regarding the issue of workplace diversity management. On the other hand, the researcher will use statistical tools like regression, standard deviation and correlation technique to analyze the captured qualitative information about the research topic. The researcher will focus on the statistical intervention to add value to the research study. Expected outcomes: From the above discussion, it can be expected that the research study will highlight workplace diversity is one of the major issues that every organization will have to consider. It is also expected that the outcome of the research will able to emphasize that workplace diversity can have huge amount of positive impact on the organizational performances. Therefore, it is expected that the research study will able to exhibit that if an organization cannot able to handle the workplace diversity in a proper way then it have the potential to create huge amount of negative impact on the organizational performance as well. The outcome of the research study also expected to highlight the necessary tools that the Australian organization will require in order to manage workplace diversity properly. References: Babalola, S. S., Marques, L. (2013). Integrated Approach to Workplace Diversity through Human Resource Management.Journal of Social and Development Sciences,4(9), 435. Barak, M. E. M. (2013).Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications. Bond, M. A., Haynes, M. C. (2014). Workplace diversity: A socialecological framework and policy implications.Social Issues and Policy Review,8(1), 167-201. Chrobot-Mason, D., Aramovich, N. P. (2013). 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