Effective Diversity Management: Solutions For The Australian Airlines Company, 'No Name'

Organisational Diversity Management

The paper would ideally focus on generating effective solutions to diversity issues faced by the Australian airlines company, ‘No Name’. The paper would ideally incorporate both empirical and practical insights for understanding different types of diversity management, performance appraisal, training and development programs and also other types of cultural parameters that need be evaluated and incorporated by ‘No Name’ for helping in the effective inclusion of expatriate staffs belonging to different international regions like China, Vietnam and Indonesia where ‘No Name’ had set up its subsidiaries.

Organisational diversity associates with the inclusion of people belonging to diverse cultural settings in an institutional framework. Workplace diversity specifically reflects on the inclusion of people pertaining to different gender, race, ethnicities, educational and experience backgrounds and also of different personality and cognitive attributes. Further, diversity in the workplace also identifies the manner in which individuals in the organisation perceive themselves and also their colleagues, peers and superiors in the firm. Diversity management in a workplace setting ideally focuses on development of strategies for generating a positive environment in the institution through rendering of values to cultural similarities and differences of people involved in the institution. Management of workplace diversity earns significance in that the same encourages individuals for contributing in addressing the firm’s strategic objectives and performance goals (Patrick & Kumar, 2012).

The management of ‘No Name’ needs to effectively focus on the development of effective communication channels based on the incorporation of different activities like conducting of office retreats, holding of diversity meetings with people belonging to Chinese, Vietnam and Singaporean origins at the Australian headquarters and also holding of cultural seminars reflecting diversity in workplace settings. Similarly, different training programs are required to be designed by ‘No Name’ for helping the organisational members of diverse origins to effectively understand the objectives, strategies and goals of the firm. The same would help in generating role clarity among the international members and reduce the chances of misunderstandings amongst each other  (Rozkwitalska, 2012). Similarly, effective training is also required to be rendered regarding the cultural variances of different ethnicities like Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean origins which in turn would reduce the chances of culture shock in the firm. It would help the organisational members to respect and honour the different cultures and work in a collaborative fashion for meeting of group objectives. Appointment of a mentor would also help in serving the goal where the mentor would help an expatriate to adjust with the cultural setting of the firm  (Shi & Wang, 2011). Further, other diversity management mechanisms also needs to be undertaken by the airlines firm, ‘No Name’ for helping in the inclusion of people with needed talents, skills and potentials without judging their ethnicities and also other parameters like physical disabilities. The performance appraisal process in the firm also needs to be effectively formulated for helping in promoting growth of individuals in firm that reflect needed skills, knowledge and performance potentials  (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, & Kogler, 2013). Effective benchmarks are required to be developed for both recruiting and performance appraisal processes that needs to be applied in a fair and unbiased fashion without prejudicing on cultural, physical and ethnical differences. Diversity management activities in ‘No Name’ also require the incorporation of rewards and positive reinforcements that encourage the growth of teams including people from diverse settings. Rewards can be generated by the management of the airlines firm for organisational teams that reflect greater flexibility and innovation based on inculcation of diverse knowledge and experiences (Ferdman & Sagiv, 2012). Further, career and performance goals are required to be ideally set by the management of ‘No Name’ based on effective understanding and evaluation of individual and group potencies in the culturally diverse institution. The same would enhance the accountability and commitment of the staffs in meeting the set goals within the stated period (Kinyanjui, 2013).

Organisational Culture

The organisation culture of the internationally diverse workplace of ‘No Name’ can be effectively analysed based on the use of the Hofstede Model. The use of the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Model is carried out in three phases involving the host country Australia with other countries viz. China, Vietnam and Singapore. In the first phase the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Model is used for comparing the cultural traits of people of three countries viz. Australia, China and Singapore. The same is reflected as follows.

Reflecting on the parameter of Power Distance it is observed that both the countries China and Singapore bear higher scores compared to Australia. This reflects that the organisational members belonging to Chinese and Singaporean origin have regard for hierarchy and superior-subordinate relationship. They thus require the flow or transmission of orders along the organisational framework. In terms of Individualism, Australia reflects a higher score of 90 compared to a score for both China and Singapore. This reflects that Australians focus on working in an independent fashion compared to Chinese and Singaporean that focus on working in a team framework. Thus, the management of ‘No Name’ airlines is required to encourage the Chinese and Singaporean expatriates to work in teams with their Australian counterparts for generating greater productivity (Khanaki & Hassanzadeh, 2010). In terms of Masculinity, both Australians and Chinese organisational members reflect higher scores compared to Singaporeans that reflect a feministic approach. Thus, in ‘No Name’ the management is required to deploy and encourage an ideology reflecting both individual growths based on performances and also enhancement of group performances and productivity that suits the Australian-China and Singaporean cultures respectively. Relating to the aspect of Uncertainty Avoidance, Australians are observed to reflect higher scores of 51 compared to 30 and very low, 8 of China and Singapore respectively. The same reflects that Australians are not ready and flexible to changes and innovations compared to Chinese and Singaporeans (Ongori & Nzonzo, 2011). The management of ‘No Name’ thus requires the development of new vision and mission objectives reflecting the existence of greater flexibility to changes in external business situations and environments. In terms of ‘Long Term Orientation’ Australians reflect lower score of 21 compared to 87 and 72 of China and Singapore respectively. The same reflects that Australian firms are more dependent on setting of short-term targets compared to Chinese and Singaporean firms that set long-term targets for the firm and its business. Management body of ‘No Name’ thus requires revising their targets based on identification of long-term goals along with setting of short-term objectives and communicating the same to different members (Olsen & Martins, 2012). Finally, Australians reflect a higher score of 71 compared to 24 and 46 of China and Singapore respectively regarding Indulgence. The same reflects that Australians render increased importance to leisure and recreational activities at the workplace compared to Chinese and Singaporeans that render greater importance to work. This further reflects that management of ‘No Name’ would require the Singaporeans and Chinese expatriates to understand the role and significance of leisure and recreation in the workplace with also requiring Australians to understand and respect the foreign culture (Bhatia & Kaur, 2014).

Comparison of the cultural parameters of Australia with other countries like China and Vietnam and also Singapore and Vietnam is reflected in the following illustrations.

The analysis of the above graphs potentially reflect that the Vietnamese culture is encompassed by traits like having higher power distance, low individualism, moderate masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, high long-term orientation and moderate indulgence scores. The same reflects that management of ‘No Name’ while requiring working with Vietnamese is required to generate communication percolating through management hierarchies. Further, the management is also required to develop a team culture and encourage group performance and growth while also ready to adapt to flexible situations. The management of ‘No Name’ is also required to focus on the development of both short and long-term goals and performance objectives with also helping the Vietnamese to understand the significance of leisure and entertainment in the workplace (Bhatia & Kaur, 2014).

Global performance management practices required to be undertaken by ‘No Name’ Airlines of Australia is required to essentially meet the regulatory and legislative standards of the different international regions like China, Vietnam and Singapore where the airlines company has its branches. Along with meeting the regulatory and legislative standards of the international regions the global performance management practices are also required to be effectively designed based on evaluating and understanding the cultural parameters of the international workplaces (Rozkwitalska, 2012). The performance management practices in the international context are thereby required to address the cultural differences of the global work sphere. The parameters and benchmarks of the performance appraisal programs in the international context are required to be formulated based on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Model. The management of ‘No Name’ is thereby required to evaluate whether the people belonging to Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean origin effectively adhere to organisational hierarchy in terms of reporting relationships (Olsen & Martins, 2012). Similarly, the management of ‘No Name’ is also required to evaluate whether the Australian people in the workplace are adept in taking decisions in an independent fashion and whether they have the ability to rise along the organisational hierarchy based on their individual ability and skills. Again, the performance appraisal programs are required to evaluate whether the people belonging to the Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean cultures have the ability to work in a team framework and focus on meeting group and institutional objectives in a concerted fashion (Salas et al., 2012). Likewise, the performance appraisal systems in a global context designed by ‘No Name’ can also endeavour to evaluate whether the people belonging to Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean cultures have ideally contributed in meeting the long term objectives whereas whether the Australians have effectively met the short term business and firm’s objectives (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). Again, the inclusion of reward programs based on the performance appraisal systems can be designed based on individual or group fashion. For, the Australian workforce the generation of individual incentives would work the best compared to the incorporation of group incentives for the Chinese, Vietnamese and the Singaporean workforce. The incorporation of the right pattern of incentives for the workforce belonging to different global cultures would rightly contribute and encourage increased productivity at the workplace (Dartey-Baah, 2013). Importance must be rendered to the existence of feedback system such that the Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean workforce dependent on organisational hierarchy requires the generation of effective feedback by the appraisers while generation of feedback is not considered important for the Australian workforce. The above analysis thus reflects that the performance appraisal process in the international context is required to be designed keeping in mind that one approach does not fit all global cultures (Slavi? et al., 2014). People belonging to China, Vietnam and Singapore require effective communication from the headquarters which in turn require the headquarters staff of ‘No Name’ to incorporate effective communication tools for sustaining effective interaction with the expatriates and also in rendering needed feedback from time to time (Ferdman & Sagiv, 2012).  

Different types of training and development programs are required to be undertaken for training of expatriate staffs based along international countries. Didactic training in the form of lectures and also informal briefings incorporating the issue of booklets and brochures are required to be rendered for rendering facts and information associated to the home country. Didactic training is considered as the most common form of training used by multinational firms to expatriate staffs before deploying them to international assignments. The didactic form of training can be effectively used by the Australian airline firm, ‘No Name’ for introducing expatriate staffs belonging to Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean origins to the Australian culture. Different types of cultural parameters pertaining to Australia like dress codes, manner of greeting and other workplace practices and behaviours can be presented before the expatriate staffs for helping them in gaining a refined understanding of the firm’s and region’s culture  (Dartey-Baah, 2013).

Likewise, the management of ‘No Name’ can also incorporate Experiential Training methods involving the designing of workshops, seminars and also rendering practical experiences of the host country. Trips can be organised by the airlines firm for encouraging the expatriate staffs to gain a practical understanding of the Australian way of life. The above training program can be undertaken before the conducting of the induction training. Further, another mode of training like the Attribution Training can also be undertaken by ‘No Name’ based on encouraging expatriate individuals to freely interact with Australian staffs for understanding the workplace culture  (Olsen & Martins, 2012).

Along with the above training methods, the expatriate staffs also need to be effectively trained based on the language and also the formal language used in the Australian organisations. The use of the language training method contributes in enhancing the confidence of the expatriate staffs pertaining to communication practices with the host firm.

Different types of role plays and other self-assessment exercises can be developed by the host firm, ‘No Name’ for generating needed cultural awareness about Australia and also the objectives and goals of the airline firm  (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, & Kogler, 2013).

On-the-job training approaches like Interaction Training can also be developed by ‘No Name’ for enhancing interaction of the new expatriate staffs with other experienced expatriates and local mentors appointed by the host firm. The use of Interaction Training programs would help the new expatriate staffs gain adequate knowledge of the local culture of Australia and also about the work culture of the Australian business institutions. Finally, Sequential Training programs involving both the pre-departure and also post-arrival training activities are designed based on the integration of the above training types and are identified collectively as Sequential Training. The development of the Sequential Training program is carried out for enhancing the cultural expertise of the expatriates both before the joining of the Australian airline firm and also in the course of working along the different subsidiaries located in international regions  (Rozkwitalska, 2012).

Conclusions

The analysis of the diversity management exercises reflects that the management of ‘No Name’ can rightly formulate effective strategies for reducing the level of cultural shock amongst the expatriate and headquarter staffs located along international and Australian regions. The analysis also reflects different types of cultural understandings and also new performance appraisal systems that can be designed by ‘No Name’ for inclusion of expatriate staffs pertaining to foreign origins. ‘No Name’ is required to design the performance appraisal systems based on the scores of the cultural dimensions as highlighted in the Hofstede’s Model. Further, different types of training programs can also be designed by ‘No Name’ like the use of Didactic, Experiential, Interaction and Sequential training for helping in the generation of adequate training to the expatriate staffs relating to cultural viewpoints of the Australian region and different workplaces.

References 

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