1 2 Compiled Comprehensive Research Robert Benders Columbia Southern University BSL 4000- Managing Diversity in Organizations Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Section 1: Benefits of Organizational Diversity 4 Assessment Findings in Miami, FL 4 Assessment Findings in Kansas 5 Recommendation to ELC 6 Section 2: Improving Organizational Culture 6 Assessment of Religious Beliefs and Practices and its Impact on Organization Culture 7 Assessment of Gender and Sexual Orientations and its Impact in Organization Culture 8 Plan of Action to Address Raised Concerns 9 Section 3: Gender and Work-Life Balance 10 Analysis of Demographics of Gender in Workplace 10 Advantages and Disadvantages Flexible Schedules and Responsibilities 12 Benefits of offering child and elder care in the organization 12 Work-Life Balances to Achieve Greater Results in Organization 13 Section 4: Age Demographics 13 Advantages and disadvantages of a younger workforce 14 Advantages and disadvantages of an older workforce 15 References 16 Executive Summary Organizational diversity is a growing concern that takes various dimension. Fig Technologies that has been rocked with various issues relating to diversity. Executive Leadership Council contracted consultancy services on numerous diversity issues which Fig Technology was experiencing. Steps to improve organizational diversity have been covered in the detail in the project. First, benefits of organizational diversity are discussed on how to improve working conditions reported on Miami, Florida and Kansas City. Second, improving organizational culture is another area of interest that has been explored and emphasized by embracing religious diversity. Similarly, concerns raised on the perception on LGBTQ celebrations is addressed with recommendation made to ELC integrate diversity on the basis of gender and sexual orientation. Third, gender and work-life balance and lastly, question of age demographics and its dimension is analyzed and how can be applied to enhance organizational diversity. Section 1: Benefits of Organizational Diversity The workplace is becoming more and more diverse necessitated by globalization, cultural integration and the development of digital communications. Small to big organizations are operating in the global market. This requires an organization to embrace diversity to enable them successfully manage employees and customers from diverse backgrounds. It is commonly said that the world has become a global village. This simply means that the world has become more diversified creating demand for companies to adopt global corporate culture where employees from any part of the world can comfortably work without a feeling of estrangement (Inegbedion et al…, 2020). Benefits of organizational diversity is discussed by evaluating organizational environment in three locations-FL, Miami and MO. Assessment Findings in Miami, FL Organizational culture in both offices has been perceived ...

1. 1
2
Compiled Comprehensive Research
Robert Benders
Columbia Southern University
BSL 4000- Managing Diversity in Organizations
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3
Section 1: Benefits of Organizational Diversity 4
Assessment Findings in Miami, FL 4
Assessment Findings in Kansas 5
Recommendation to ELC 6
Section 2: Improving Organizational Culture 6
Assessment of Religious Beliefs and Practices and its Impact on
Organization Culture 7
Assessment of Gender and Sexual Orientations and its Impact in
Organization Culture 8
Plan of Action to Address Raised Concerns 9
Section 3: Gender and Work-Life Balance 10

2. Analysis of Demographics of Gender in Workplace 10
Advantages and Disadvantages Flexible Schedules and
Responsibilities 12
Benefits of offering child and elder care in the organization 12
Work-Life Balances to Achieve Greater Results in Organization
13
Section 4: Age Demographics 13
Advantages and disadvantages of a younger workforce 14
Advantages and disadvantages of an older workforce 15
References 16
Executive Summary
Organizational diversity is a growing concern that takes various
dimension. Fig Technologies that has been rocked with various
issues relating to diversity. Executive Leadership Council
contracted consultancy services on numerous diversity issues
which Fig Technology was experiencing. Steps to improve
organizational diversity have been covered in the detail in the
project. First, benefits of organizational diversity are discussed
on how to improve working conditions reported on Miami,
Florida and Kansas City. Second, improving organizational
culture is another area of interest that has been explored and
emphasized by embracing religious diversity. Similarly,
concerns raised on the perception on LGBTQ celebrations is
addressed with recommendation made to ELC integrate
diversity on the basis of gender and sexual orientation. Third,
gender and work-life balance and lastly, question of age
demographics and its dimension is analyzed and how can be
applied to enhance organizational diversity.

3. Section 1: Benefits of Organizational Diversity
The workplace is becoming more and more diverse necessitated
by globalization, cultural integration and the development of
digital communications. Small to big organizations are
operating in the global market. This requires an organization to
embrace diversity to enable them successfully manage
employees and customers from diverse backgrounds. It is
commonly said that the world has become a global village. This
simply means that the world has become more diversified
creating demand for companies to adopt global corporate culture
where employees from any part of the world can comfortably
work without a feeling of estrangement (Inegbedion et al…,
2020). Benefits of organizational diversity is discussed by
evaluating organizational environment in three locations-FL,
Miami and MO. Assessment Findings in Miami, FL
Organizational culture in both offices has been perceived
properly. However, it seems employees are deficient in
interpersonal skills that sour interactions between employees
leading to friendly rivalry on the subject of professional sports
and local college teams. Since the rivalry that exists among
employees is friendly, it simply means that employees are free
to each other, talk and share and this has not affected the
quality of work. In an ideal situation and in the working
environment where employees are from different backgrounds,
different ages, different geographical locations and even gender,
ideological differences are expected. However, ideological
differences should be within manageable levels and even serve
to the benefit of an organization by promoting problem-solving
through enhanced quality decision and consideration of
different alternatives (Hofhuis, van der Rijt & Vlug, 2016). To
Miami, friendly rivalry interactions is healthy because it
demonstrates that leadership accommodate different views and

4. encourage employees to differ within levels they can consider
views of others.
In FL, it has been noted that rivalry has grown to extreme
levels. This potentially could have been caused by weak
leadership practices that promote organizational diversity
compared to Miami. Lack of effective leadership to manage
diversity in FL, created room for conflict to grow because
employees became intolerant to divergent views and friendly
rivalry grew sour. Organizational diversity promotes
adaptability, flexibility, and tolerance. Further, it is noted that
software from Brazil and South Africa have not been able to
make employees happy about futbol instead of football. This
shows that employees are not adaptable to change, a skill that
they should develop to enable them to appreciate different ideas
from employees from other cultural backgrounds. Assessment
Findings in Kansas
For employees in Kansas City Office, it is noted that they do
not stick to organizational culture. Some employees are devoid
of a code of conduct that governs how employees. Employees
are engaging in unethical practices such as intimate
relationships among employees which could hinder productivity
because employees tend to spend most of the time sharing about
love matters, how they would have homosexual and
heterosexual encounters creating an environment that is not
effective for working.
The leadership must come clear on ethical principles that
employees should adhere to when at the place of work. Instead
of engaging on personal, sex and love matters, employees
should be encouraged to share ideas on how to increase
productivity and serve customers better. Further, there is the
petition that states behavioral practices that employees are
engaged in has already been banned. This brings another aspect
of legal ethics which requires employees to follow rules and
laws that have been set by the governing authority in the
jurisdiction of operation. Therefore, it is illegal for employees
to continue hanging out and sharing the matters that pertain to

5. relationships and sexual partners. Recommendation to ELC
For Miami and FL, the main issue of concern is organization
diversity. Diversity promotes quality decision making, promotes
cordial interpersonal relationship, promotes creativity, reduces
conflict, enhances adaptability and also allow an organization to
leverage on benefits wide pool of skills and competencies in
global space from different cultural backgrounds (Saxena, 2014;
Hofhuis, van der Rijt & Vlug, 2016; Inegbedion et al…,2020).
Organizations that promote create systems that make employees
from different cultures feel free to work and interact with others
(Inegbedion et al…, 2020). Teamwork, enhanced
communication, cultural competence training and emotional
intelligence development are potential ways ELC should
consider to enhance organizational diversity. For Kansas City
Office, ELC should consider redefining the code of conduct and
also training the employee on the importance of aligning their
organizational behaviors with organizational culture. Section 2:
Improving Organizational Culture
Fig technologies is a global company that is experiencing
problems which are related to diversity management. There are
reasons to believe that organizational culture does not embrace
diversity even though it is operating in the global context
considering complaints that are raised by some of the
employees. Precisely, it is enumerated that the company does
not observe the non-Christian holiday and LGBT celebrations.
Diversity in two areas of concerns are assessed in this section
and plan action drafted which Executive Leadership Council
should consider address raised issues and have organization
culture responsive to concerns raised by the
employees.Assessment of Religious Beliefs and Practices and
its Impact on Organization Culture
In Fig Technologies, some employees are complaining that the
organization does not provide an opportuni ty for the non-
Christians to observe Holidays. This simply shows that
organization is dominated by Christianity culture yet it is
global. Organizations cannot ignore other religious groups

6. whereas it is operating in the global business environment
which comprises multiple religious segments. Further, Fig
Technologies does not employ employees from one religion,
which is Christianity but does recruit employees that are from
other religions and that is why they are complaining and
agitating for non-Christian holidays. Similarly, employees
profess other religions other than Christianity, citing that they
are being harassed by other employees. This makes the working
environment volatile and unconducive for non-Christian
employees.
In the survey report by SHRM, the value and importance of
accommodating religious diversity is given paramount attention
and argued as one critical element organizations should
consider implementing in the sphere of growing diversity
(Victor, 2008). It is noted spirituality is not only practiced at
home but has become part and parcel of life to employees.
Therefore, employees need to find ways to implement religious
diversity at the workplace. Implementation of religious
diversity is a way to create an inclusive organizational working
environment where all employees feel accepted, recognized,
respected for who they are and aligned to the organization's
culture (Victor, 2008). This is what lacks in Fig Technologies
where some employees feel a sense of belonging and superior
while non-Christian employees continue lamenting for lack of
recognition and also harassment by other employees. Religious
diversity influence employee retention and morale and this will
only be attained by embracing an organizational culture that
accommodates religious practices and beliefs for all employees
(Victor, 2008).
In the research conducted in 2015, Christianity was the largest
religious group with 31% of the world population, Muslims
assumed the second position with 24% and Hindus closed the
list of the third-largest religious group with 15% (Hackett &
McClendon, 2017). Each of these religious groups have their
own beliefs and practices which significantly influence their
way of life. Worship services, holidays, pray hours,

7. celebrations, wearing traditions and other practices differ
among these religions. However, to encourage religious
diversity, organizations must look for ways to accommodate all
these religious groups because they have a diversified
workforce which are drawn from different religious groups.
This helps to motivate employees and also increase employee
retention as wells as promote acceptance of its products and
services in the global marketplace.
For example, important holidays to observe for Christianity are
Easter Holiday and Christmas Celebrations; to Muslims, Eid al-
Fitr is the most important celebration to observe and lastly,
Diwali is the most important festival to observe to Hindus.
Therefore, the organization needs to look for ways to
accommodate different religious groups instead of fostering
religious discrimination by selectively accommodating one
religious practice. Assessment of Gender and Sexual
Orientations and its Impact in Organization Culture
Some employees in Fig Technologies are loudly complaining
lack of LGBT celebrations. This shows that Fig Technologies
possibly ignore or discriminate against LGBT, creating a hostile
environment for them to carry out their duties. This is unfair
because companies are giving opportunities for employees to
explore their sexual orientation without intimidation,
harassment and exploitation. It is noted that pursuing
discriminative practices against LGBT, potentially causes some
to try suicide, others suffer from mental health conditions such
as major depressive disorder, depression and generalized
anxiety disorder (Moleiro & Pinto, 2015). Interpersonal
relationships in the organization are also ruined to employees
that they feel their sexual and gender orientation is not
recognized organization. For example, LGBT employees may
shy away from making contributions to the organization because
they fear negative compliments and harassment from other
employees. The morale of employees could be affected when
organizational culture does not protect their interests. Plan of
Action to Address Raised Concerns

8. Raised concerns demonstrate that Fig Technologies has not yet
embraced diversity which may work at the disadvantage of the
organization when working in the global business environment
in which diversity management is central to the acquisition of
competitive advantage. The ELC should aggressively work to
implement human resource policies not only to recruits
employees from diversified cultures but also to enhance
integration and protection of varied beliefs and practices of all
employees.
Second, ELC should develop an organizational culture that
promotes the accommodation of different religious groups and
practices. Ideally, organizations should encourage religious
diversity. Third, ELC should develop policies to prevent
discrimination of employees based on their gender and sexual
orientation. The fact that an employee is LGBT does not mean
they are weak or less important. For example, Tim Cook, CEO
of Apple has openly confessed that he is gay and over the years,
he has led the company to soar higher where it stands as the
most valued company with a market value of over $2 trillion
(Wood, 2019). Therefore, it is unethical to discriminate against
employees because of their sexual and gender orientation.
Section 3: Gender and Work-Life Balance
Gender and work-life balance (WLB) are core issues that have
received varied perceptions over the years attracting series of
legislations to address them. Traditionally, people had
developed stereotypes with WLB issues being perceived from
gender dimension to an extent of creating disparities on the
earnings, assignment of roles, segregation in careers and even
determining jobs to be assumed by males and females. The
perception that employers and even society has developed
against gender continues to influence organizatio nal culture and
human resource policies adopted by some organizations (Bell,
2016). To close gender discriminative perception that over years
has dominated workplace environment, women have strongly
come out to advance on career development, undertake

9. professional development on careers initially dominated by the
men and also advocate for equality in the compensations.
Similarly, men are also undertaking career which were
perceived to belong to women such receptionist and beauty
related careers and also supporting women to pursue their
interest (Bell, 2016). WLB has also been a contentious issue
which has been used to consider women to be committed to
family issues more than work hence used to determine
compensation packages (Bell, 2016). This section seeks to
respond to gender and WLB attitudes with the view of
informing Fig Technologies on the diversity management
approach to take to address gender and work-life balance.
Analysis of Demographics of Gender in Workplace
Fig Technologies is a global company. Assuming it seeking to
recruit two project managers, one in the United States and
another in India. The project manager is equivalent to a team
leader. Two geographical locations have different attitudes on
pay and expectation in the relation to question of gender to fill
the said position.
In the United States, traditionally it was believed that women
gave more commitment to the roles than work and the opposite
perception was held about men. Similarly, men were regarded as
providers and breadwinners unlike women, a perception that
used to shape wage differential and in such advertised roles,
men would be given higher remuneration compared to women
(Bell, 2016). However, as time has progressed, wages and
expectations that people have towards jobs are not defined
based on gender but skills, knowledge and abilities are applied.
Ideally, to clinch such a position in the United States, it is not
the question of whether you are men or women but whether you
have the competencies and expertise to deliver on the
accountabilities and demands of the roles. Particularly, there
are some companies that in the past such as Walmart had been
accused of discriminating against women in the top leadership
position but have taken measures to create an environment that
accommodate women, who now occupy one-third of top

10. leadership (Bloomberg, 2020).
In India, gender discrimination is rampant which is noted by
discriminative pay, promotion with gender stereotyping taking
center stage from birth to workplace. Men are paid more than
women even when they work in the same role and also, a higher
executive position is occupied by the men (Bias & Abbas,
2015).To the advertised position of the project manager,
because of gender stereotypes which treat men as superior to
women, men are likely to be considered and given higher wage
compared to women (Bias & Abbas, 2015). Therefore, gender
discrimination influences wage differentials and positions to be
occupied by men and women.
Recommendation: To address the problem of gender
discrimination and the perception that men should be paid more
than women, organizations should embrace diversity and
equality. Wage and recruitment should not be based on the type
of gender but rather skills and expertise because this will help
to drive the organization to a higher mark of efficiency,
effectiveness and performance. Further, an organization should
create an environment favorable for women to thrive and
empowering instead of creating a perception they are weak
beings. Advantages and Disadvantages Flexible Schedules and
Responsibilities
Flexible scheduling has recently received considerable
attention, especially for low-wage workers. Flexible scheduling
is advocated for multiple benefits but also management should
never remain ignorant of related disadvantages. Flexible
scheduling enables workers to attend to family and work needs,
promotes job satisfaction, reduces incidences of absenteeism
and results to lower employee turnover (Bell, 2016). However,
lack of control on the flexible scheduling, rigidity, instability
and unpredictability of flexible scheduling especially for low -
wage workers are potential problems experienced by the
organization (Bell, 2016).
Recommendation: the organization should be informed that
workers have other issues that need their attention such as

11. family, social, friends, childcare and even care to elderly hence
flexible scheduling should be implemented to all employees,
higher to low wage workers. Benefits of offering child and
elder care in the organization
Some employees juggle both work and caregiving
responsibilities. Some organizations provide child and elder
care through programs such as flexible scheduling accounts,
elder care, onsite child care and other employer’s employee
assistance programs (SHRM, 2018). Provision of child and elder
care helps to reduce absenteeism levels, turnovers, stress and
also improves the morale of employees which leads to higher
productivity (SHRM, 2018). Therefore, it is potentially
important for an organization to consider adopting child and
elderly care programs.
Work-Life Balances to Achieve Greater Results in Organization
WLB has gained considerable attention in the public discourse
with employers deploying various strategies to encourage WLB.
Considerable benefits are associated with WLB and improved
productivity is one of them. Some of the domains which are
related to WLB include health, education, community
involvement, leisure, family and household management
(Gragnano, Simbula & Miglioretti, 2020). For example, WLB
creates an opportunity for employees to advance their careers
and increase their knowledge which works not only for personal
benefits but also for the organization. Similarly, improved
health which is positively related to WLB is potentially
important to an organization because healthy employees reduce
the medical cost to the organization and absenteeism which
results in improved productivity management (Gragnano,
Simbula & Miglioretti, 2020). Finally, WLB enhances job
satisfaction and improved the morale of employees which
translates to improved productivity management (Gragnano,
Simbula & Miglioretti, 2020). Therefore, based on the main
benefits related to WLB, Fig Technologies should consider
embracing WLB in its human resource management practices.

12. Section 4: Age Demographics
Organizations have levels of distribution of the employees
based on the age demographics. In some institutions, prefer a
younger workforce while other employers prefer older
employees. To encourage diversity in the workplace and prevent
the incidence of discrimination based on age, legislation to that
effect was enacted. In 1967, Age discrimination in Employment
Act legislation was passed which protect applicant and
employees that are 40 years and above against discrimination on
the ground of age during hiring, promotion, compensations,
working conditions, privileges and discharges undertaken by the
employers(U.S Department of Labor, n.d). Similarly, Section
188 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) prohibits
discrimination to the applicants, employees and participants in
WIA Title I-financially assisted programs and activities which
are parts of the One-Stop system based on age (U.S Department
of Labor, n.d).
To the organization of interest that is Fig Technologies, the
younger workforce forms the largest portion of employees as
supported by findings. Precisely, employees in the age 18-39
are 42 %( 18-25=11% and 26-39=31%) while employees that are
56 years and above are only 24%. Based on these findings of
age demographics at Fig Technologies, it is necessary to
investigate human resource policies that are applied during
recruitment, promotion and discharging of employees to
determine whether they violate ADEA. An organization needs to
promote age diversity by having employees evenly distributed
across all age groups where possible to counter negative
stereotypes developed based on age. For example, negative
stereotypes against older employees is revealed to be stronger
than younger employees which has far-reaching consequences
on attitudes and organizational behavior (Hertel, van der
Heijden, de Lange & Deller, 2013). Specifically, negative
stereotypes against older workers demotivate them continually
influencing their success and productivity in the organization.
To better understand dimension age demographic, its value and

13. demerits, two perspectives are considered. In the first
perspective, advantages and disadvantages of younger
Workforce and second perspective, advantages and
disadvantages of an older workforce. Advantages and
disadvantages of a younger workforce
Advantages organization stands to enjoy for having younger
employees include fresh ideas and perspectives at the
workplace, passionate and energetic workers, digital and
technology-savvy workers that are versed changes in the
business technologies, cost of reduction because of having a
lower experience that causes them to start at lower salaries and
finally, younger workforce are easier to manage. On contrary,
the younger workforce lack adequate experience especially in
the management scope and strategy development, irresponsible
and inability to manage pressure and lastly, lacks stability
because most do not have a firm grasp of the vision of the
organization as well as their career. Further, EEOC could apply
ADEA to legally challenge organizations that have a younger
workforce because such organizations could be discriminating
against older employees. Advantages and disadvantages of an
older workforce
On part of advantages, older employees are considered to exude
confidence warranted by extensive experience, to contain a high
level of experience for having worked on various fields,
provides reliable service, loyal and also know strategies to use
to save money (Dorion, n.d). On contrary, lack of proper
communication, resistance to adopting a new culture,
discomfort towards an attitude of others especially younger
workers are demerits of older workers (Dorion, n.d). To
counter this problem, embracing age diversity is a better way to
promote a balanced approach supporting older and younger
workers.

14. References
Bell, P.M. (2016). Diversity in Organizations 3rd Edition.
South-Western College Pub
Bias, R., & Abbas, S. S. (2015). Indian Organizations and
Attitude towards Women Managers: Gender Differential, Sex
Bias, Reaction and Perceptive Reality. Vol.2 (2), Yobe Journal
of Economics.
Bloomberg. (2020). Walmart Took Its Eye Off Black Managers
While Women Advanced. Retrieved from
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/walmart-
took-its-eye- off-black-managers-while-women-advanced
Dorion, D. (n.d). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Age
Diversity in the Workplace. Employer Articles. Retrieved from
https://www.employmentcrossing.com/employers/article/900049
084/The-Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-Age-Diversity-in-
the-Workplace/
Gragnano, A., Simbula, S., & Miglioretti, M. (2020). Work-Life
Balance: Weighing the Importance of Work-Family and Work-
Health Balance. International journal of environmental research
and public health, 17(3), 907.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030907
Hackett, C., & McClendon, D. (2017). Christians remain the
world’s largest religious group, but they are declining in
Europe. Pew Research Center.
Hertel, G., van der Heijden, B. I., de Lange, A. H., & Deller, J.
(2013). Facilitating age diversity in organizations–part I:
challenging popular misbeliefs. Journal of managerial
psychology.
Hofhuis, J., van der Rijt, P. G., & Vlug, M. (2016). Diversity
climate enhances work outcomes through trust and openness in
workgroup communication. SpringerPlus, 5(1), 714.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-2499-4
Inegbedion, H., Sunday, E., Asaleye, A., Lawal, A., &
Adebanji, A. (2020). Managing Diversity for Organizational

15. Efficiency. SAGE Open, 10(1), 2158244019900173.
Kappel, M. (2016).How Your Business Benefits When You Hire
Millennials. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikekappel/2016/09/03/how -your-
business-benefits-when-hiring-millennials/?sh=27cb776627a0
Moleiro, C., & Pinto, N. (2015). Sexual orientation and gender
identity: review of concepts, controversies and their relation to
psychopathology classification systems. Frontiers in
psychology, 6, 1511. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01511
Saxena, A. (2014). Workforce diversity: A key to improve
productivity. Procedia Economics and Finance, 11(1), 76-85.
SHRM. (2018).Managing Work/Life Fit: Dependent Care and
Elder Care. Retrieved from
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-
samples/toolkits/pages/managingworklifefitdependentcare.aspx
U.S Department of Labor. (n.d). Age Discrimination. Retrieved
from https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/discrimination/agedisc
Victor, J. (2008). Religion and corporate culture:
accommodating religious diversity in the workplace. Society for
Human Resource Management, USA.
Wood, C. (2019). Apple CEO Tim Cook said he decided to
come out as gay after reading letters from kids struggling with
their identity. Business Insider. Retrieved from
https://africa.businessinsider.com/tech/apple-ceo-tim-cook-said-
he-decided-to-come-out-as-gay-after-reading-letters-from-
kids/bg3hfdr