Managing Employment Relations Assignment Sample

Introduction: Managing Employment Relations

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In the present times, globalization has resulted in diverse cultures in an organization. This has led to several issues and challenges for human resource departments to handle and manage the employee base in a specific workplace setting. Multiculturalism has been depicted as an issue for the human resource department in the present report. The report illustrates the background and significance of the issue for the human resource department at Amazon. Furthermore, the root causes of the issues have been elaborated clearly and concisely in the present task. Furthermore, approaches and strategies for mitigating the issues of multiculturalism have also been highlighted in the report. The recommendation in the context of legal compliance and improving employee-employer relations has been illustrated in the report.

Background

The effects of globalization on the business floor are increasing rapidly. The demographic trend toward diversity and inclusiveness in economically developed Western countries is consistent with changing social norms (Jakubowicz, 2020). Companies that hire people from different socioeconomic backgrounds or even other countries will reap the advantages of a more diverse company culture. As a business owner, one should think about how to include acceptance and variety in the recruiting policies and management practices (Vora et al., 2019).

Managing the effects of cultural shifts and intercultural communication at Amazon is important because of the many ways in which a company's culture may affect its performance (Martin, 2020). This will guarantee efficient operation in a multiethnic setting. Thus, the evolving organizational culture is affected by the diversity of the organization's interacting cultures, the nature of those interactions, and the way those interactions are handled.

Significance

With increasing globalization and diversity in the workforce, HR departments must recognize the importance of multiculturalism. The term "multiculturalism" is used to describe the practice of welcoming and encouraging people of different cultural backgrounds to work together effectively. Fostering a culture of inclusiveness, cooperation, and creativity requires the HR department, as the strategic partner for managing human capital, to acknowledge and embrace the importance of diversity. The effects of diversity on HR and business performance are the subject of this essay.

Competent Employees Must Be Attracted and Kept: A multicultural human resources department is better able to find, hire, and keep talented people from all walks of life. Businesses that promote diversity in the workplace attract a more diverse pool of applicants and create a more welcoming atmosphere for employees (Stahl & Maznevski, 2021). This not only helps boost employee satisfaction and retention rates in Amazon but also assures a trained and varied workforce. Fair treatment of all workers may be fostered via a multicultural approach to HR policies and practises that promotes equal chances and reduces possible biases in recruiting and promotion choices.

Improving Creative Capacity and Innovativeness: Human resources departments that actively promote diversity and inclusion may help businesses thrive. More innovative and problem-solving skills might emerge from a team that represents a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Human resource departments of the organization may encourage innovative problem-solving and increased productivity by fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace environment.

Developing Intercultural Skills: Employees in Amazon, particularly those in leadership positions, need to be culturally competent as their companies grow internationally. Human resources departments may help advance diversity by facilitating learning opportunities for staff members that deepen their familiarity with and appreciation of diverse cultural practises. Building trust and fostering clearer lines of communication between personnel of different cultural backgrounds is one of the primary benefits of encouraging cultural competency training (Lifintsev et al., 2019). Because of this, it's possible that decisions will be made more wisely, that teamwork will grow, and that productivity will go up.

Increasing Productivity and Morale in the Workplace: Diversity and inclusion efforts in human resources have been shown to increase motivation and productivity in the workplace. Organisations may foster a more welcoming and accepting work environment by recognising and appreciating workers varied cultural backgrounds. This has the potential to boost workers' motivation, dedication, and contentment at work, all of which feed into enhanced productivity. Workplace disagreements, lines of communication, and group dynamics may all benefit from a more open and accepting atmosphere.

Improving the Name and Image of the Company: In today's globally interdependent society, businesses are being evaluated more and more on their inclusiveness and diversity initiatives. By displaying its dedication to corporate social responsibility and ethical business practises, a company with a multicultural HR department may boost its reputation and brand image (Puente?Diaz et al., 2020). Organizations may stand out from the competition and attract a wider pool of consumers, investors, and future workers if they embrace diversity. This has the potential to boost competitiveness and expand market share.

Causes of problem

Organizations benefit from multiculturalism because it promotes variety, creativity, and a welcoming atmosphere. However, the difficulties it creates for HR can't be overlooked. The adverse impacts of multiculturalism on human resources departments are the focus of this essay.

Communication barriers: The difficulty of communicating across cultural lines is a major obstacle for human resources departments in Amazon. Disagreements, delays, and inefficiency might result from linguistic barriers. Conflicts and legal challenges might arise from misunderstandings caused by misunderstandings of information or nonverbal signs (Roberson, 2019). The HR team of the enterprise has to put out effort to remove these obstacles to communication, which might take some time and money.

Cultural conflicts: Employees may have disagreements with one another if their cultural backgrounds are different. Values, beliefs, and practices of employees from diverse cultural backgrounds may collide. The HR team of Amazon has to find solutions to these problems and promote teamwork among staff members. However, HR specialists may find it difficult and time-consuming to deal with these delicate issues, which puts extra burden on the organisation.

Increased cost: The expenses of human resources management rise when dealing with a workforce with varying backgrounds and perspectives. Additional training and development programmes may be needed in a multicultural workplace in order to help workers better comprehend one another's perspectives and work together (Choudhury et al., 2021). In addition, businesses may need to provide translation services or modify existing employee perks to meet the requirements of workers from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. The HR department's budget can take a hit if the company has to pay for these extra costs.

Compliance with Anti-Discrimination Laws: Claims of discrimination, whether intentional or not, are more likely in a multicultural workplace. The HR division has the challenging task of ensuring the company complies with anti-discrimination rules despite its varied workforce. When businesses make mistakes in this area, it may cost them in terms of both reputation and money.

Difficulty in assessing employee performance: Multiculturalism might make it hard for human resources experts of Amazon to provide fair ratings of employees' work. It's possible that workers' work habits, ways of communicating, and strategies for completing tasks might be affected by cultural differences. Human resources departments may find it difficult to design objective performance assessment processes that are sensitive to the needs of workers from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Discontent, lack of drive, and arguments might result from this.

Retention challenges: Problems with Employee Turnover Higher turnover rates may occur in a multicultural workforce owing to misunderstandings and biases. Strategies to improve employee retention must be implemented by the HR department of Amazon, which may be time- and energy-consuming (Jason Del Rey, 2021). A persistent loss of talent and the expenditures of recruiting and training might result if these issues aren't addressed.

Integration issues: The success of every business relies on its ability to integrate workers of diverse backgrounds and cultures. Human resources departments may find it difficult to foster group cohesiveness and counteract the emergence of insular cultural subgroups. This might lead to a decline in production, efficiency, and cooperation.

Different approaches to mitigate the problem

Fostering an inclusive working environment at amazon is one of the approaches that can be used to mitigate the issue of multiculturalism in the business. The human resource management of the enterprise needs to create policies where leaders and mentors are bound to listen to the concerns of the employees and assist them with their issues and problems. In this process, a positive environment can be created among employees and leaders. Introducing cultural competence training is another way of mitigating the issues of cultural diversity. With cultural competence training, employees will be able to develop knowledge and ideas about different cultures. This will enable workers and staff to respect each other's culture thus mitigating the issues of multiculturalism.

Implementing employee resource groups is another way of reducing the issues in the workplace. This enables the business to bring together employees with shared cultural backgrounds under one roof. Implementing appropriate and strong leadership principles will help in guiding and assisting employees with their job roles and duties. This will reduce conflicts and misunderstandings among employees (Peña-García et al., 2020). Furthermore, having a strong leadership approach in the business will ease the process of the human resource team in implementing a positive workplace for the stakeholders. Evaluation and feedback from senior authorities may allow the employees to develop ideas about improvements in the workplace. Furthermore, the business can also offer rewards and recognition to the employees for maintaining appropriate cultural diversity. Collaboration with external trainers and organizations that help in implementing cultural diversity can also be enacted by Amazon in their respective workplaces. This is one of the approaches that can be implemented by the business to mitigate the issues of multiculturalism.

The organization should also access and monitor the perception and views of the employees towards cultural diversity. In doing so, the business can offer an online survey for the employees. This will allow the business to keep track of the approaches and their effectiveness in developing a positive workplace for the employees. A monthly inspection of the practices needs to be implemented for monitoring the effectiveness of the approach. The organization can use external auditors for analyzing the situation of the practices and approaches and their impact on the working environment of Amazon (Vitolla et al., 2019). Extra co-curricular activities are another approach that may help the business to mitigate the issues of multiculturalism. With extra co-curricular activities employees are offered situations where they have to interact with one another. Interacting with one another enables the employees to indulge in decision-making and group discussion thus enhancing cultural diversity in the workplace. These training sessions should be phrased in a manner that helps the staff adjust to working in a more multicultural and diversified economy and society. The business's context should also be taken into account. The ability to communicate effectively is essential for dealing with diversity at work. Effective communication in the workplace allows for creating flexibility and transparency of communication among employees and different stakeholders in the business (Vitolla et al., 2019). Furthermore, tone ability is also one of the vital elements that need to be considered while communicating with employees from different cultures. This helps in creating a positive and strong relationship even if there are issues in understanding each other's language.

Recommendation

Legal compliance and improvement of the employer-employee relationship are some of the areas that need to be improved for Amazon. Regulatory compliance is the practice of checking if an organization is following the norms and standards established for its sector. Compliance has always been seen as a burden, but there is evidence that businesses are starting to see it as an opportunity to enhance their operations (Mahanti & Mahanti, 2021). The organization needs to have a set of rules that will help in protecting the employees from sexism and biases in the workplace. When people don't follow the laws and regulations, a lack of communication may be a big factor. When one member of a team is focused only on his or her development and refuses to contribute to the advancement of the group as a whole, teamwork may suffer in today's fast-paced, competitive business environment. As a result, the effectiveness of a business declines over time when internal divisions are relatively small (Mahanti & Mahanti, 2021). Therefore, this lack of communication may reduce the company's effectiveness in satisfying effective regulatory compliances. As a result, everyone in an organization, from employees to managers, must work together to achieve success.

One of the most important policies Amazon can have is a diversity and inclusion policy. The policy should express the company's commitment to creating a welcoming and diverse work environment for all employees. The procedure for filing complaints regarding harassment in the place of employment and the means by which the organization will evaluate the policy's success should also be included in the policy. The recruitment and selection policy is another legal compliance that will help the business to initiate the issues of multiculturalism (Mahanti & Mahanti, 2021). The company's efforts to implement a fair hiring and selection procedure should be outlined in this policy. A good procedure will be open and honest about its goals, consistent in its approach, and show clear signs of proactive support for a diverse and welcoming workplace.

The process itself should include a job description that is both specific and inclusive, an application procedure that takes into account the needs of all applicants, and an interview process that makes reasonable accommodations for those with disabilities. Setting up tuition reimbursement is one of the recommendations which helps in improving employer-employee relations. The tuition reimbursement program enables employees to accomplish their additional studies and courses without spending external financial resources from the employee's side. This allows for improving the relationship between employee and employer (Ver?i?, 2021).

Building employee empowerment is another recommendation in improving employee-employer relations. When a business's owner and management are invested in their staff's success, they enable those workers to achieve their goals. The help is great for the company's culture and the relationship among employees.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the organization needs to consider numerous approaches for developing and maintaining an inclusive environment for the employees. This is one of the ways through which the issues of cultural diversity can be reduced in Amazon. It has been found that the human resources department feels the effects of misunderstandings and problems in the workplace as well. Cultures may differ substantially in terms of language use, preferred modes of interaction, and accepted social norms. The human resources team at Amazon has to deal with issues like creating more accessible channels of communication. Problems associated with diversity in the workplace may also be attributed to differences in working styles. However, the problems associated with diversity arise not only from cultural disparities but also from inadequate corporate rules and procedures. Happier employees will result from efforts to foster a more collaborative work environment for all employees. When workers feel comfortable enough to talk to one another about personal experiences like college graduation or the meaning of different holidays, the company knows they have a strong foundation for collaboration. These days, most young people learn about the history and core beliefs of a company before applying for a job there. Candidates give a lot of weight to a welcoming work environment. They'd rather work for a company that values and promotes diversity among its staff members. The likelihood of identifying and recruiting top-tier people improves when the workforce is more diverse. It will help retain valuable people on board, which is good for business and the HR department's reputation.

References

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