Gender Diversity in the Workplace Assignment Sample

Subject Name : Social Work

Introduction to Gender Diversity in the Workplace

With emerging business needs and requirements, several organizations look for professionals from a wide array of creativity, skills, and knowledge, irrespective of class, colour, gender, and race. Employing such professionals helps an organization to create an engaging workplace where only skills, collaboration, and knowledge play a vital role in augmenting organizational effectiveness (Mousa et al., 2020). Concerning this fact, gender diversity is an important factor when it comes to balancing its socio-economic policy with the organization's guidelines and ethics effectively. There has been a huge gap of gender diversity since decades where men used to play the main part and they were been considered as capable, efficient, and skilled subsequently (Mousa et al., 2020). Women or other non-binary gender employees were not given any chance to climb the ladder of corporate leadership or lead any top-level role within the organization (Mousa et al., 2020).

However, in modern times, the business organization has implemented a drastic change in policies and has successfully set up an essential and strategic decision to promote gender diversity within organizations (Mousa et al., 2020). Several organizations across the globe are encouraging women leadership and giving massive chance to scale the hierarchy of corporate leadership and prosper growth (Mousa et al., 2020). Conversely, some instances show, there is still negligence of gender diversity in the workplace and companies are negatively declining in creating more balanced workforce, especially for higher-level designations significantly (Mousa et al., 2020).

A study indicates that organizations who have effectively implemented and promotes gender diversity within their workplace have gained considerable benefits in terms of profit maximization and generating rapid revenue (Ruiz-Jiménez & Fuentes-Fuentes, 2016). Understanding the crucial importance of gender diversity in the workplace will help analyze its effectiveness towards gaining organizational success, how it encourages diversity, and how it creates a positive impact on improving productivity, satisfaction, and welfare within the employees. Thus, conducting in-depth research on the proposed research title will be obliging in knowing and understanding the facts precisely which will enlighten readers and work as a point of reference for a further related study.

Research Questions

The research questions of the proposed research title will be as follows:

Why gender diversity is important within the workplace?
How businesses promote gender diversity in the workplace?
How gender diversity in the workplace helps improve productivity?

Research Aim of Gender Diversity in the Workplace

The research aim for this particular research will be:

To analyze how gender diversity in the workplace can play a significant role in augmenting organizational effectiveness.
To critically evaluate the impacts of the negligence of gender diversity in the workplace.

The main idea of undertaking this specific area of study concerning gender diversity as it is an emerging social issue among corporate and employees who falls under the bracket of women and non-binary genders. There is an end number of evidence which indicates that how low commitment of organizations towards incorporating and embracing gender diversity in the workplace creates nuisance among minority employees who wants to be part of the healthy employee community. Thereby, to explore more about the negligence and how it impacts the organizational effectiveness will help to understand the root cause and its implications significantly.

Concepts of Gender Diversity in the Workplace

In every research topic or title, there are certain concepts which need to breakdown into segments to help understand the factors more accurately and precisely. Thereby, the following concepts will be the key prospects to develop the research report accordingly to make sure it has a logical flow throughout the paper to ensure clarity and precision at the same time.

Gender diversity: It is an umbrella term used to refer equality or equal representation of genders, irrespective of their identities ahead of the binary structure. A binary structure can be explained as having to choose to express oneself as men or women (genderrights.org.au, 2020).
Workplace: It is a place or location where employees work together as a team to succeed in any organizational goal or objective (Sulphey, 2019).
Productivity: In a business ecosystem, productivity is a measurement of how effectively resources are managed to achieve well-timed objectives concerning quality and quantity simultaneously (Ali, 2016).

Literature review of Gender Diversity in the Workplace

Reviewing past literature helps to gather a significant knowledge about the topic that is essential to perform the research analysis effectively. It does not assist in providing a vast and in-depth understanding of the research topic, but also in identifying facts and issues related to the title significantly. There are several pieces of literature presented by researchers to articulate the reason why workplace gender diversity matters the most in business organizations. According to a study by Fine et al., (2019), provides a significant discussion on identifying the differences among genders and their interrelation between vocational behaviour and results (Fine et al., 2019). Besides, the study also reveals that the genders are neither noticeably diverse nor have any similarity to be exchangeable (Fine et al., 2019).

A study by (Turban et al., 2019) found in the Harvard Business Review journal, states that companies who have adopted gender diversity within their workplace have witnessed more productivity among its business processes and employees (Turban et al., 2019). Gender diversity plays a crucial role in making one believe that the organization has adequate possibilities to progress irrespective of any type of biases in gender or favouritism. Gender diversity within the workplace ensures that the organization is fully transparent and can embrace equality at every vertical of an organizational hierarchy.

Another research study by Kato and Kodama, (2017), explains about how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and gender diversity in the workplace works together to create a positive impact on society as well as among employees (Kato & Kodama, 2017). The study reveals that gender diversity is crucial in ensuring its social reputation is well sustained and progress toward reaching organizational objective (Kato & Kodama, 2017).

Zhuwao et al., (2019), has presented study on investigating the effect of gender and racial diversity on the performance of workforce within the particular educational institutions in South Africa (Zhuwao et al., 2019). The study shows that gender and cultural diversity are optimistically associated with employees' performance in gaining success and growth mutually (Fine et al., 2019).

However, there are a lot of opportunities to explore more about gender diversity in the workplace to know its importance and benefit more precisely. Several organizations across the world have not entirely and effectively encouraged gender diversity within their workplace which has lead to ineffectiveness and less productivity (Mousa et al., 2020). There is a lot of confusion regarding gender diversity within the workplace, some predict it as dissimilarity among genders or some misinterpret it as a bias towards one party. Nevertheless, the fact is, gender diversity within the workplace means to equate the ratio of both the genders such as men and women in terms of equal power and opportunity (Mousa et al., 2020). Besides, empowering or giving the right to women in having equal rights, salary, fair behaviour, and opportunities in the workplace (Mousa et al., 2020). There are several instances where women have had to face many biases and issues while obtaining equal rights and power within the workplace.

According to a study by Annabi & Lebovitz, (2018), which discusses intervention by the US organizations concerning gender diversity in the IT firms reveals several insights about how women employees are continuously declining and raising a question about organizational effectiveness (Annabi & Lebovitz, 2018). Besides, the study reveals that even though there is increasing awareness of incorporating gender diversity within the US IT firms, yet there is a lack of effective compliance to such important policies which leads to dissatisfaction, low esteem, and low productivity among women employees (Annabi & Lebovitz, 2018). This specific finding of the study indicates that there is a significant amount of biases and gender discrimination takes place even at the edge of incorporating gender diversity within the workplace of IT firms in the US (Annabi & Lebovitz, 2018). Thus, by allowing exploring the issue more in-depth shall help to analyse the key reason for such circumstances and cater possible solutions to such identified problems effectively.

Another study by Krivkovich et al., (2018) which was published by the McKinsey & Company, discusses the pace of commitment of organizations towards gender diversity within the workplace (Krivkovich et al., 2018). The study also reveals that the progress of the organization’s commitment towards embracing gender diversity in their workplace was progressing not only slow, but it is hindered, thus, causing women employees to face several hurdles to explore the unexplored opportunities (Krivkovich et al., 2018).

The findings of the research indicate that the competitiveness among men and women employees are almost the same; however, getting opportunities to lead in top-level leadership positions, the rate of ratio concerning women drastically declines within their career graph (Krivkovich et al., 2018). There are also indications that since 2015 till 2018, the progression of women employees in acquiring entry-level positions to progress towards holding senior vice president or president of the organizations, there is a considerable decrease of percentage and proportion of employees to take such positions (Krivkovich et al., 2018).

Consequently, this lack of commitment towards gender diversity in the workplace hinders the progress of overall organization negatively, causing less productivity and ability to maximise profit at least cost and time (Krivkovich et al., 2018). The authors have suggested that organizations must consider gender diversity as an important factor and incorporate such effectively to gain organizational goals and objectives proficiently (Krivkovich et al., 2018). Hence, this shows that how gender diversity is a key factor to consider by organizations to augment organizational effectiveness efficiently.

Methodology of Gender Diversity in the Workplace

Standpoint

Assessing employee’s personal experiences and knowledge about working on corporate, several cases have been witnessed that are closely associated with gender diversity in the workplace. Discrimination, favouritism, and office politics are some of the factors that embrace key issues of gender diversity in the workplace. Consequently, giving a scope to conduct in-depth research to know and identify the reason for such scenarios in the corporate world. The consequences of how women employee and other non-binary genders are treated in the workplace are beyond belief as many complications still lie within this modern prospect of business organizations. The negligence of corporate organizations in considering gender diversity and the instances where women employees are been biased and have had to face discrimination among employees in regard to promotion, opportunities, and fair treatment.

Theoretical framework

An employee's perspective towards gender diversity within the workplace seeks to concentrate on the factors that lead to such events. With the outlook for both and men and women, by critically analyzing what are the key differences in terms of productivity and job satisfaction, and will diversity creates an impact on solving the issue considerably. The theory of gender diversity considerably means employees hired at the same proportion with equal opportunities, rights, and promotional chances to prosper growth and success effectively irrespective of their gender. By embracing gender diversity and organizational encouragement to adopt gender diversity in the workplace will help companies to gain considerable success and growth. It is believed that when there is effectual gender diversity in the workplace, there will be a probability of more productivity, career growth, and ability to reach organizational goals effectively creating a win-win situation for both employees and firm. Thus, the theoretical framework of interpretivism approach will be used in the research and through its lens; the research will be concluded with a substantial findings and interpretation.

Methods

An effective research method is crucial to ensure that the entire research questions have been answered and the study provides a detailed understanding of the factors associated with the research topic. In this research, both the qualitative and quantitative approach will be used to critically conceptualize, evaluate, and interpret valuable information that is essential and important to conclude the findings effectively. Besides, interviews, surveys, and questionnaires will be conducted to gather helpful data about the respondent's experience. The sample size will be of 100 respondents from corporate sectors and retired personnel to assess their valuable input.

Ethical consideration

All the research conducts will be according to laws and regulations of corporate from where data collection will take place. Adhering to organizational policies will be a tier-one priority to ensure no ethics were harmed or disobeyed. Interviewing corporate employees is the key factor which determines a piece of ethical consideration in the research study.

Concerning the selected research topic, it is quite understood that the data collection approach will mostly take place in organizations (Sobočan et al., 2018). In any research study, it is important to adhere to the ethical considerations as it gives the study more meaning in terms of legitimacy and dependability for readers (Sobočan et al., 2018). Without genuineness and consistency, the research study will have no meaning to educate learners (Sobočan et al., 2018).

According to a study by Sobočan et al., (2018), which discusses ethics in research and considerable focuses on the ways to prevent any fraudulent activity or to safeguard human subjects significantly (Sobočan et al., 2018). As per the researchers of the study, there are ethical dilemmas which are intrinsic during the process of research from the range of what to study to how to study to the analysis of the research findings (Sobočan et al., 2018). This signifies that by paying attention to these ethical considerations will ensure discipline, compliance with ethical codes, and maintenance of privacy of the respondents (Sobočan et al., 2018).

Research on gender diversity in the workplace is a vast area of study which has many dimensions to explore. Within this specific research topic, most data collection will take place by doing surveys in corporate sectors, interviews with several communities of employees concerning gender diversity, and vulnerable respondents of gender diversity. While conducting interviews or approaching the proposed respondents of the sample, there will likely be conflicts arousal in regard to acceptability to participate or contribute towards the success of the research. It is evident that while interviewing some vulnerable respondents or employees who were the possible victim of biases in concern to gender diversity, act or behave more aggressively as it happens how they summon up the past events. Relating to such case, it will be beneficial and helpful; if the interview process has been conducted in understanding manners by making sure his/her psychological balance does not get disturbed by recalling the happenings in the past which they find those to be a disaster and exhausting.

Besides that, it is also crucial to identify the corporate culture, policies, and regulation while approaching the employees of any corporate sector in terms of meeting them and seek for their availability to conduct the interview and data collection process. Moreover, while asking questions related to the area of the study, it must be ensured that their privacy must be preserved as per their requests and oblige them is crucial that indicates an effective ethical consideration of the research study. Hence, every information and quotes provided by the respondents and from literature must be given consent accordingly to secure ethics in the study.

Reference list

Ali, M. (2016). Impact of gender-focused human resource management on performance: The mediating effects of gender diversity. Australian Journal of Management, 41(3), 376-397.

Annabi, H., & Lebovitz, S. (2018). Improving the retention of women in the IT workforce: An investigation of gender diversity interventions in the USA. Information Systems Journal, 28(6), 1049-1081. doi: 10.1111/isj.12182

Fine, C., Sojo, V., & Lawford‐Smith, H. (2019). Why Does Workplace Gender Diversity Matter? Justice, Organizational Benefits, and Policy. Social Issues And Policy Review, 14(1), 36-72. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12064

Genderrights.org.au. (2020). What is Gender Diversity?. A Gender Agenda. Retrieved from https://genderrights.org.au/information-hub/what-is-gender-diversity/.

Kato, T., & Kodama, N. (2017). The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Gender Diversity in the Workplace: Econometric Evidence from Japan. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(1), 99-127. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12238

Krivkovich, A., Nadeau, M., Robinson, K., Robinson, N., Starikova, I., & Yee, L. (2018). Women in the Workplace 2018. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved 29 July 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2018.

Mousa, M., Massoud, H., & Ayoubi, R. (2020). Gender, diversity management perceptions, workplace happiness and organisational citizenship behaviour. Employee Relations: The International Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2019-0385

Ruiz-Jiménez, J., & Fuentes-Fuentes, M. (2016). Management capabilities, innovation, and gender diversity in the top management team: An empirical analysis in technology-based SMEs. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 19(2), 107-121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2015.08.003

Sobočan, A., Bertotti, T., & Strom-Gottfried, K. (2018). Ethical considerations in social work research. European Journal Of Social Work, 22(5), 805-818. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2018.1544117

Sulphey, M. (2019). The concept of Workplace Identity, its evolution, antecedents and development. International Journal Of Environment, Workplace And Employment, 5(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijewe.2019.10019877

Zhuwao, S., Ngirande, H., Ndlovu, W., & Setati, S. (2019). Gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance in a South African higher education institution. SA Journal Of Human Resource Management, 17.

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