Managing change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing change - Essay Example Clearly, there is a separation of vision within the executive leadership group mandating an immediate necessity to unify this group by way of establishing a singular strategic goal for securing the banks continued growth and obtaining policies which enhance internal productivity. A common purpose derived of senior-level unity of vision is a missing element from the organizational climate and this level of division is having a profound trickle down effect on the banking staff which further creates a disorganized and uncertain culture. Further, the rigid top-down leadership hierarchy of command established within the bank prevents empowering staff to utilize their vast skills through self-managed contributions. The breakdown of communication in the Australian Regional Bank can best be defined in the organizations lack of development regarding customer relationship management and this collapse of communication is impacting productivity on all levels. Despite the banks history of substantial successes, radical change in terms of internal practice is proposed in order to move forward as a cohesive business entity. Developing a common purpose within the executive leadership group should be recognized as a primary objective in order to establish a clear path forward in terms of how the company intends to sustain growth in its industry. While some new executives continue to resist the direction proposed by the Chief General Manager, others are attempting to mimic opposing successes established in the executives previous career position. This division amongst leadership is substantially visible to the bank employees, creating a sense of confusion, doubt, and mistrust in terms of perceived manager/employee relationships. Lack of management visibility and support, especially for companies experiencing a transitional phase, will directly affect employees perceptions about whether or not the company is well-managed (Boles & Sunoo, 1998). Faith in

Current Status of Security Awareness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Current Status of Security Awareness - Essay Example Therefore, perspectives and items that represent information security awareness should meet basic operational or user-level information security concerns. Organizational size should not differentiate among the information security concerns for desktop computer management, computer virus protection, and local-area-network issues. These types of information security concerns are applicable to basic user-level information security awareness in the business computing-environments. Therefore, in developing an information security awareness construct, two questions must be considered: â€Å"A domain definition of a concept is the specific meaning of interest for a given research context and an adequate domain can be extremely useful in furthering a topic of interest to academic societies† (Templeton, 2000, p. 57). The literature expresses three interrelated perspectives of technology, policy, and threat context for a definitional meaning of information security awareness (ISA). Schou and Trimmer (2004) stated that technology is the most obvious and expensive countermeasure, which summarizes the technology view. The technology perspective views ISA as an assortment of hardware and software capabilities that individual IS users, with sufficient computer literacy, manipulate as tools. However, the costs associated with technology acquisition, implementation, and training can be prohibitive. The information security literature provides a theoretical basis leading to the belief that different technology capabilities and associated computer literacy will affect ISA. Through the technology view, ISA represents an individual IS user applying a specific, appropriate technology for a specific security concern. Schou and Timmer. (2002) illustrated the technology view with the variety of technologies made available to secure Internet computing. A second ISA measure from the technology view is user comprehension, or understanding specific technologies to address

Western Civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Western Civilization - Essay Example The Lutherans, according to Alles & Ellwood (pp.270), believe that salvation of the human race comes from the grace of God. The same applies in the case of Calvinism, whose basics are of the belief that God’s grace is the final, and that He chooses who save unconditionally. Catholicism is also of the belief that through God’s grace, human beings are spared from destruction (Kielbasa & Singer-Towns,  pp.7). The three religions also hold the view that there is life after death. More so, the believers of the word are bound to have an eternal life that is rewarding. In this context, therefore, these religions advocate for building a lasting rapport between the followers of the religion and God. On the contrary, Lutheranism does not advocate for total reliance on the church. Though Lutheranism has churches and ministers of the word, this religion is of the opinion that the church need not be there for the individuals to develop a relationship with God. Both Calvinism and Catholicism believe in the church and the need to have total discipline whilst in the house of the Lord. Catholics, for instance require their members to attend mass on the Lord’s Day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ (Kielbasa & Singer-Towns,  pp.8). Lutheranism believes that it is only God who can save. Lutherans have the permit to pray to God directly, without confessions to a person. Catholics believe that the pope has some form of powers on the lives of the individuals. Through these persons- the pope and saints- the followers hold the view that God will pardon their sins. They also believe in confession of sins and praying on behalf of ‘pure’ persons (Kielbasa & Singer-Towns,  pp.8). The same would apply in the case of Calvinism, which believes that specific persons have been called to save the others from sin. From a critical view of the beliefs of the religion, the differences are more than the similarities. The concept of

Current Status of Security Awareness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Current Status of Security Awareness - Essay Example Therefore, perspectives and items that represent information security awareness should meet basic operational or user-level information security concerns. Organizational size should not differentiate among the information security concerns for desktop computer management, computer virus protection, and local-area-network issues. These types of information security concerns are applicable to basic user-level information security awareness in the business computing-environments. Therefore, in developing an information security awareness construct, two questions must be considered: â€Å"A domain definition of a concept is the specific meaning of interest for a given research context and an adequate domain can be extremely useful in furthering a topic of interest to academic societies† (Templeton, 2000, p. 57). The literature expresses three interrelated perspectives of technology, policy, and threat context for a definitional meaning of information security awareness (ISA). Schou and Trimmer (2004) stated that technology is the most obvious and expensive countermeasure, which summarizes the technology view. The technology perspective views ISA as an assortment of hardware and software capabilities that individual IS users, with sufficient computer literacy, manipulate as tools. However, the costs associated with technology acquisition, implementation, and training can be prohibitive. The information security literature provides a theoretical basis leading to the belief that different technology capabilities and associated computer literacy will affect ISA. Through the technology view, ISA represents an individual IS user applying a specific, appropriate technology for a specific security concern. Schou and Timmer. (2002) illustrated the technology view with the variety of technologies made available to secure Internet computing. A second ISA measure from the technology view is user comprehension, or understanding specific technologies to address

Main Problems Facing Pride Industries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Main Problems Facing Pride Industries - Essay Example Pride Industries currently boasts of two departments of which one is the IFS, which is, undertakes activities such as clean room, commercial custodial and facilities maintenance, offering services in the military base operations and transportation. In addition, IFS provides specialized services to both private and public customers such as food services, maintenance of grounds, and provision of shipboard and commissary operations. The other division of the Pride Industries is the Manufacturing and Logistics Services (MLS) division. There is service provision such as offering production contracts to original manufactures of electronics, contract packaging, fulfilment services and supply chain solutions. Print services, mail and e-store to Fortune 10+ companies, as well as logistics services are also crucial for the company. HP as its service supplier of the year recognized the business in 2010. Pride Industries has its foundation with the core mission of creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities. There is an implication that, the company can have classification as a social enterprise whose main purpose is to fulfil a specified social need as well as make profits to support its operations. Pride Industries is facing various problems with respect to its operations as well as the company’s core social mission. Since its initiation, the core social mission of the pride companies was to provide employment to the disabled individuals in the society. However, the company is facing problems in integrating the long-term operations strategies into its core social responsibility. The major problem that arises is the adoption of more efficient and modern production line, which has an expectation to cost the company approximately $2.6 million. There is quite a high investment given the fact that most of the returns of the company have the direction towards the fulfilment of its core social mission or responsibility. Majority of the senior workers in the business including it director of finance operations and the vice president of the company’s sales operations are not optimistic about the current project by the company.  

Dante, Plato, Aristotle Essay Example for Free

Dante, Plato, Aristotle Essay The assignment is poetry v. philosophy. Plato speaks of a quarrel b/t poetry and philosophy. He dismisses the arts while Aristotle defends them. DO we see traces of this quarrel in later traditions? If so, where? And how is it played out there? For this essay, in addition to Plato and Aristotle, focus on Dantes Inferno. (Please look to see if my thesis is clear and strong, my evidence is all relevant, and whether this whole essay persuades you) Throughout his life, Plato strongly believed that the arts and philosophy directly opposed each other. On the other hand, Aristotle defended poetry as an aid to philosophy. Dante, a philosophical poet, successfully synthesizes Plato and Aristotles views in the Divine Comedy of the Inferno without compromising either school of thought. He acknowledges the fact that while the arts have its uses within the material world and philosophy its uses in the spiritual, both need the other to be complete. Both Plato and Aristotle agree that poetry brings about great emotion which has a lasting impact on the individual and society. However, they disagree on poetrys emotional effects. In Meno, Plato believes it results in harm while Aristotle argues that it leads to improvement in Poetics. Upon closer inspection, we see that Dantes Inferno contains a philosophical significance underlying its poetic style. Poetry and philosophy work towards the same end, but in different ways. There is no doubt that poetry is an imitation. What Aristotle and Plato dispute over is the source of that imitation. Plato strongly states that the arts are mimetic, twice removed from the truth. They are an imitation of the ideal entities in the realm of the forms, in which all things are perfect. For instance, tragedy presents multiple possibilities and situations rather than a single essence. In Meno, Platos Socrates discusses the difference between doxa and episteme. Poets, politicians and priests utilize doxa, a type of knowledge that is not mediated through any intellectual reasoning. This further demonstrates the composition of the material realm. Right opinion, or doxa, flees from the mind just as the materialistic body quickly perishes. Socrates says opinion is not worth much until it is fastened with reasoning of cause and effect (Plato 65). He is alluding to episteme, true knowledge that remains in the brain. This is accomplished through intellectual inquiry in the ideal realm. Throughout the dialogue, Menon insults Socrates by saying he looks like a stingray, alluding to a type of numbing-drug. However, Menon proves to have false knowledge as Socrates shows how anamnesis occurs via the Socratic Method. Only when he experiences aporia, the state of confusion and realization of ones ignorance, can he reach true knowledge. The reference to the drug, pharmakon, symbolizes how Menon became numb to the false, material world in order to transition to the divine realm where all things originate. While Plato asserts that imitation comes from the true essence of things, Aristotle believes it has its roots in human action. In Poetics, he examines how humans have an instinct for imitation, harmony and rhythm. We often learn our earliest lessons from mimesis. Aristotle asserts that the only way to reach the ideal is through action. He views it as a horizontal developmental rather than a vertical one, as Plato did. By the process of energia, we move from potential to actuality. This is also analogous to the concept of the material to the ideal. We come out of the cave and into the sun through our own activities. As the arts best represent action, tragedy contains knowledge because it presents psychological possibilities and universal truths about ourselves. Each possible reality may be the ideal essence. Tragedy, after all, is an imitation of action and of life, not men. The stage externalizes whats within our souls. The actors play out the meaning of life which the audience can safely inspect without endangering themselves. This perspective is extremely human-centric compared to Platos divine ideal. For instance, tragedy contains plot that is action-centric and based on the structure of incidents. Unlike a story, a plots events can be resequenced in any fashion. This is like an experiment in which the stage is our lab. A plot can furthermore be split in two ways: complex or simple. A complex plot contains peripeteia and anagnorisis. The latter, similar to Platos Meno, shows the progression from ignorance to knowledge. Yet the characters on stage, even after making decisions, are still susceptible to Fortunes will. Thus peripeteia occurs, alluding to God and the divine realm we ultimately reach with the aid of anagnorisis. There are some things people cant control. However, what we do imitate and control are our actions within the material world. For Aristotle, action was the most significant aim to focus on. In Dantes Inferno, the poet Virgil guides Dante into Hell. Poetry begins to act as a gentler remedy compared to philosophy. It is more relatable to the human mind and physical world. Through catharsis, Dante must eliminate all emotional tumult to become enlightened. This process of catharsis is similar to the movement from the material to spiritual realm. Paradiso, the highest realm, is where true intellect exists and where we become one with God. In the second canto, Dante demonstrates the wickedness of emotions and the materialistic realm when Virgil tells him: Your soul has been assailed by cowardice, which often weighs so heavily on a man- distracting him from honorable trails- as phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall. (lines 45-48) This is an extremely Platonian perspective. Partially right, Plato believed that tragedy produced cowardly leaders as it appealed to passion rather than logic and reason. Through Virgil, Dante demonstrates how the arts, especially poetry, are effective in cleansing the soul of emotion by experiencing or contemplating it. Much like the Socratic Method in Meno, Dante must become numb to false knowledge via catharsis and begin with a clean slate. He accomplishes this by observing the damned in the inferno. When he passes through aporia, only then will he become enlightened and obtain truth. The shadows are a reference to Augustines visio corporals, the cave of pure materiality, in which false knowledge resides. Dante says in canto one that man must come out of the shadowed forest (line 2) where he is so full of sleep (line 11). All this is accomplished through human action, represented through tragedy and poetry. Furthermore, Virgil symbolizes the coming emergence of Christian Rome through Dante. He has already taken Aeneas to the Underworld, setting up the entire story. Parallel to this, poetry lays the necessary foundation for the coming age of philosophy. Dante uses typology of the inferno to paradiso. Like the Hebrew Bible, the inferno remains incomplete and foreshadows whats to come. The New Testament completes the text, in the same way philosophy does to poetry. Each is interdependent on the other. In the Inferno, Dante fails to read the inscription to the Gateway to Hell, demonstrating how the archaic style of backgrounding no longer resounds in the new age of foregrounding. This method brings to light how the mind reads and interprets with reason. Because the material realm is incomplete, Dante cannot move to this abstract, spiritual meaning without first going through the forest. In the third canto, Virgil describes to Dante how those in hell have lost the good of the intellect (line 18). The mind can never be fulfilled as it is a pure sensory experience. This is proven when Virgil is only able to guide Dante so far. He cannot take Dante beyond the material realm because he is not a Christian. He represents the arts, the non-metaphysical. A higher entity, Beatrice, will lead him to paradiso. Virgil declares in canto one: If you would then ascend as high as these / a soul more worthy than I am will guide you (lines 121-122). Likewise, we can think of poetry, represented by Virgil, as a disguise to philosophy, the eventual remedy of Beatrice. While philosophy speaks of a thing itself, poetry uses metaphors as a transition to reach a philosophical conclusion. It is a vehicle for truth in its own peculiar way, addressing our minds through imagination, sensibility and feelings. Dante can synthesize Plato and Aristotles views because they are working toward one common goal: the divine, the cave of pure intellect. The mechanisms of philosophy are simply a more sophisticated turn on poetry. Traces of Plato are still seen in Dante, especially when he states in the fifth canto: Those who undergo this torment are damned because they sinned subjecting reason to the rule of lust (lines 37-39). However, in tragedy, what seems irrational and absurd to the audience becomes permeated with reason as it speaks the universal truth about ourselves. The arts show there is something beyond human thought and action as the audience learn how we cannot control everything. There is something beyond this human, materialistic world that we cannot begin to understand. This is God, which is exactly what philosophy aims at. It speaks the truth, not only of human action, but of the existence of the ultimate good. In this way, poetry consists of rational thought and intellect. Virgil tells Dante in canto eight: Forget your fear, no one can hinder our passage; One so great has granted it (lines 104-105). We are turning inward to our souls to reach the divine. This also speaks of Gods infinite and unexplainable power. God makes the impossible possible. Dante had to go down into the deepest level of hell to see the divine. This irony demonstrates catabasis and anagogy, the one single movement towards God. Furthermore, Cassius and Brutus foreshadow Judas betrayal. These three make up the material inversion of the Holy Trinity. We are able to see God in Lucifer. This demonstrates the typology from the inferno to paradiso as well as the process of recollection in Platos Meno and Aristotles Poetics. Just as Dante had to move through death to experience life, the reader must pass through poetry to obtain philosophy. All thinking about God involves moving from the material to the realm of the forms. The divine uses metaphors, our language, to help us understand. We are able to indirectly talk to God through poetry as He determines our fate. It was his will to send Dante into Hell. Like poetrys catharsis and philosophys pharmakon, Dante engages his mind as he journeys through the inferno. By looking and contemplating the suffering of the damned, he becomes reconciled to aspects of his life which would otherwise be nonsensical. Both the poet and philosopher seek the existence of God and of the metaphysical. Although Dante recognizes that the arts have limited utility, he realizes how poetry helps lay the foundation for philosophy through the Aristotelian and Platonian method. It has a cognitive function by helping to better appreciate and complete philosophy. As Venantius Fortunatus wrote in his hymn Vexilla Regis, by death did life procure. Likewise, by poetry did philosophy come about.

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Essay

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Essay Introduction: The worlds increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today. Human Resource management is on managing people within the employer-employee relationship. This involves the productive use of people in achieving the organizations strategic objectives and the satisfaction of individual employee needs. Where its objective is to measure target to be achieved within a certain time frame. Diversity management is management initiated, rather than required by law. This involved in integrating non-traditional employees (such as women and minorities) into the workforce and using their diversity to the organizations competitive advantage, as well as considering other workforce diversity characteristics that need to be addressed to ensure fair and effective utilization of employees. (Raymond J. Stone, 2008)Diversity in management includes: Cultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. (The term is also sometimes used to refer to multiculturalism within an organization. Management of cultural diversity has been suggested as the human resource strategy enabling the effective management of the workforce diversity created by demographical changes generally in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Retrieved from Oya Aytemiz Seymen(2006), according to Fleury (1999) explains cultural diversity management as an organizational answer or reaction to the need for competitiveness and to the increasing variety of the workforce. In the same resource, it has been stated that management of cultural diversity implies a holistic focus in order to create an organizational environment that allows all the employees to reach their full potential in pursuing the organizational goals. Gender diversity means the proportion of males to females in the workplace. It is a more even distribution or is the employee pool composed of mostly males or mostly females. This can have an effect on how people interact and behave with one another in the workplace and would impact culture and social environment. Similarly other demographics such as population, racial characteristics and such all contribute to the work environment. According to Kochan et al., 2003, organizations are finding that racial and gender diversity, if managed well, may even enhance performance(retrieved from Luis L. Martins and Charles K. Parsons,2007). Researchers have proposed that a greater organizational emphasis on gender diversity management programs will have a positive effect on organizational attractiveness among women, as women are the intended beneficiaries of the programs (Luis L. Martins and Charles K. Parsons,2007) Age diversity means the proportion of aged people work in the workplace. Age diversity was also positively correlated with health disordersbut only in groups working on routine decision-making tasks. Gender composition also had a significant effect on group performance, such that groups with a high proportion of female employees performed worse and reported more health disorders than did gender-diverse teams. As expected, effects of gender composition were most pronounced in large groups. Effects of age diversity were found when controlling for gender diversity and vice versa. Thus, age and gender diversity seem to play a unique role in performance and well-being. The moderating role of task complexity for both effects of age diversity and the moderating role of group size for both effects of gender diversity further suggest that the impact of these 2 variables depends on different group processes.( Ju ¨rgen Wegge and Carla Roth, Barbara Neubach and Klaus-Helmut Schmidt Ruth Kanfe r , 2008) Religious diversity is an important component of cultural diversity, which educators are now taking seriously in their pedagogies. However, cultural diversity and religious diversity are often evaluated quite differently. In our society now, there is at least a polite and superficial consensus that cultural diversity is here to stay and may enrich life. Minimally, people realize that cultural, ethnic, and class chauvinism create problems and are inappropriate, though they may be difficult to overcome. Regarding religious diversity, quite a different evaluation is often employed. Many people value the feeling that their religion is indeed superior to others and regard such religious chauvinism as a necessary component of religious commitment, or even a virtue to be cultivated among the faithful. In their official theologies, most religions have dealt with religious diversity only in a cursory or inadequate fashion. Frequently, religions have encouraged mutual hostility by teaching tha t foreign religions are not only different, but also demonic, or at least inferior. (Rita M. Gross(1999) retrieved from http://www.crosscurrents.org/gross.htm) Body: Benefits of Workplace Diversity An organizations success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported such as: Increased adaptability Organizations employing a diverse workforce can supply a greater variety of solutions to problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees from diverse backgrounds bring individual talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands. Broader service range A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g. languages, cultural understanding) allows a company to provide service to customers on a global basis. Variety of viewpoints A diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying points of view provides a larger pool of ideas and experiences. The organization can draw from that pool to meet business strategy needs and the needs of customers more effectively. More effective execution Companies that encourage workplace diversity inspire all of their employees to perform to their highest ability. Company-wide strategies can then be executed; resulting in higher productivity, profit, and return on investment. Challenges of Workplace Diversity Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity in the workplace is not without its challenges. Some of those challenges are: Communication Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be overcome for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack of teamwork, and low morale. Resistance to change There are always employees who will refuse to accept the fact that the social and cultural makeup of their workplace is changing. The weve always done it this way mentality silences new ideas and inhibits progress. Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies This can be the overriding challenge to all diversity advocates. Armed with the results of employee assessments and research data, they must build and implement a customized strategy to maximize the effects of workplace diversity for their particular organization. Successful Management of Diversity in the Workplace Diversity training alone is not sufficient for your organizations diversity management plan. A strategy must be created and implemented to create a culture of diversity that permeates every department and function of the organization. (Retrieved from http://www.diversityworking.com/employerZone/diversityManagement/?id=9) In preparing an organization to accept diversity, it is more important to change the corporate culture or to change structure of the organization. Organization Culture Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artefacts) of organization members and their behaviours. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms thats difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large, for-profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different that that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what members wear, etc. similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someones personality. Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. Inputs include feedback from, e.g., society, professions, laws, stories, heroes, values on competition or service, etc. The process is based on our assumptions, values and norms, e.g., our values on money, time, facilities, space and people. Outputs or effects of our culture are, e.g., organizational behaviours, technologies, strategies, image, products, services, appearance, etc. (Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm) Identification with an organization is a fixed sense of ones role in relation to the organization. When organizational members identify with their workplace, they define themselves in terms of the organization; they internalize its mission, ideology, and values and they adopt its customary ways of doing things. Eventually the member may see him or herself as an exemplar or microcosm of the organization. Organizational identification, in other words, suggests a feeling of oneness with the organization. Diversity makes open organizational culture more rich, and insights and innovation more applicable to a wide range of contexts. High levels of identification with an organization can limit diversity by reducing communication competencies in the area of social perception skills, including the ability to pick up on the subtleties of social situations and adapt to them. This skill is essential in a cross cultural context. High levels of identification among employees can also produce a la ck of organizational flexibility and creativity, over-conformity to organizational dictates, and tyrannical behaviour on the part of leaders. Highly-identified individuals could experience a lack of risk taking, loss of an independent self, and burnout. Redding indicates that a focus on high-performance goals in a context of trust and openness make it easier for employees to manage the ambiguity of gaining their sense of identity from shared visions rather than from a physical structure. Knowledge of self and openness in relation to shared goals create a safety zone in which people feel free to explore new ideas and new ways of approaching problem solving. (Retrieved from http://workplacewellness.blogspot.com/2005/08/identity-development-and.html) Organizational Structure Diversity is often viewed as a training program, limited to a human resources initiative focused on race and gender and separate from organizational change efforts. However, as the article describes, the definition of diversity is much broader, encompassing primary, secondary, and tertiary dimensions that go beyond race and gender. The aim of diversity is to allow all individuals to contribute fully to the success of the organization. Thus, integrating diversity and organizational change efforts can enhance the success of most types of organizational change. Organization development theory and principles can also add significantly to the outcomes of diversity initiatives through the effective use of contracts, assessments, action research methodology, and other critical components. In the current competitive world, diversity and organization development must be partners in successful organizational change efforts. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) The Contribution of diversity to organizational Integrating diversity and organizational change efforts can enhance the success of most types of organizational change. All major organizational change involves a cultural change, and a diversity effort is cultural change at its core. It requires an organization to search its collective soul and focus on essential aspects of its culture: seminal values; organizational demands for conformity in thought, interpersonal style, and action; power structure and power dynamics; employee participation; and inclusion/exclusion issues, to name a few. Cultural Differences In addition, most organizational changes involve diversity components. An organizational redesign, for example, may combine functions that have previously been separate, such as marketing and manufacturing. Certainly, marketing and manufacturing have two distinct cultures and a successful redesign needs to pay attention to those cultural issues involved. Diversity offers both the perspective and the technology to deal with these intercultural issues, whether they are triggered by redesigns, mergers, or global expansions. When an organization is redesigned, some of its subsystems discover they have to transact a new form of business with new, unfamiliar partners. Naturally, they assume that their established styles of doing business, their traditional practices, priorities, values, and methods, will be perfectly acceptable, perfectly functional. Thus, marketing is surprised when this assumption turns out to be invalid for manufacturing. Marketing assumes that its new partner, manufact uring, simply has not appreciated the benefits of changing and adapting to marketings traditional way of doing business. Thus, organizational redesign invariably leads to organizational conflict. A diversity perspective adds insight to the identification of and techniques for the management of such issues. Conflict, by definition, means that differences exist. These differences may be based on style, role, values, priorities, power, mental models and patterns of thinking, or culture. The diversity perspective of valuing and utilizing differences offers a positive framework from which to manage conflict. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) Team Effectiveness Team effectiveness has even clearer diversity connections. For a team to develop and be effective, its members must find productive ways to both elicit and manage individual and subgroup differences. In any group development model, there is always some version of a storming stage fairly early in a groups development. The group must navigate this troublesome phase successfully to evolve toward more productive phases of development. Successful navigation cannot occur if differences are submerged or conformity is forced upon diverse members. To be effective means to acknowledge differences and to utilize them creatively to gain the teams objectives. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) Organizational Cultural Shift In the case of a complex organization change (for example, going from a production-driven to a marketing-driven focus or moving toward Total Quality), a fundamental shift in organizational culture must occur. A cultural change of this magnitude and complexity poses a major challenge for most organizations because of the ambiguity involved and the enormity of the task. An understanding of diversity enables organizations to find ways not to insist on conformity in a major change process, but to encourage employees to contribute, to take a fresh look, and to continuously evolve. (Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., 1998) Diversity oriented HRM policies It is the responsibility of the HR manager to facilitate the organizations ability to use staff efficiency and effectively to achieve strategic business objectives. The HR manager is also responsible for ensuring that all employees are rewarded fairly and equitably for their contributions to the organizations. Fair and equitable rewards not only includes wages and salaries, but also opportunities for training and career development and the provision of a work environment in which all workers are treated with respect. Ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and equitably is not only a matter of legal and ethical responsibility, but also recognises that employees who perceive that they are receiving unfair or inequitable treatment may be less committees to the organization and thus may be less productive. The HR manager can achieve these outcomes by: Identifying the significant difference in their organizations workforce and in the labour market from which they draw employees. Exploring the potential advantages to be gained from hiring persons from particular groups. Identifying relevant diversity factors existing in the present workforce. Developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating staff management practice that facilitate the ability of each employee to contribute effectively to the organization and to be rewarded appropriately. It is also the professional and business responsibility of the HR manager to establish audit measure that identify and quantify the advantage gained from diversity employment practice and that minimise the costs of diversity employment. (Raymond J. Stone, 2008)Diversity in management includes: Conclusion A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace. Diverse work teams bring high value to the organizations. Respecting individual differences will benefit the workplace by creating a competitive edge and increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair and safe environment where everyone has access to opportunities and challenges. Management tools in a diverse workforce should be used to educate everyone about diversity and its issues, including laws and regulations. Most workplaces are made up of diverse cultures, so organizations need to learn how to adopt to be successful practices. References: Stone, Raymond J., (2008). Human resource management, 6th edition Seymen, Oya Aytemiz., (2006). The cultural diversity phenomenon in organisations and different approaches for effective cultural diversity management: a literary review Martins, Luis L., Parsons, Charles K., (2007). Effects of Gender Diversity Management on Perceptions of Organizational Attractiveness: The Role of Individual Differences in Attitudes and Beliefs Wegge, Ju ¨rgen., Roth, Carla., Neubach, Barbara., Schmidt, Klaus-Helmut., Kanfer, Ruth., (2008). Age and Gender Diversity as Determinants of Performance and Health in a Public Organization: The Role of Task Complexity and Group Size M. Gross, Rita., (1999). Religious Diversity: Some Implications for Monotheism, retrieved from http://www.crosscurrents.org/gross.htm Lapid-Bogda, Ginger, Ph.D., (1998). Diversity and Organizational Change, retrieved from http://www.bogda.com/articles/DiversityandOrgChange.pdf http://www.diversityworking.com/employerZone/diversityManagement/?id=9 http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm http://workplacewellness.blogspot.com/2005/08/identity-development-and.htm