DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

(D"Netto & Sohal, 1999:530 sited in Nankervis et al., 1999) Diversity workforce is generally believed as one of the critical vehicles which bring corporations competitive advantage. A survey named Impact of Diversity Initiatives on the Bottom Line in 2001 claimed that 79% of HRM experts at Fortune 1,000 companies in U.S. believed that diversity improved corporate culture, 77% for employee recruitment and 52% for client relations. (Campbell, 2003: 152) With the confidence of diversity which can benefit enterprises, a number of companies have engaged in managing diversity in Australia for many years. At Westpac, for example, a diversity program which focused on the advancement of female employees had been successfully implemented in 1990s. Other example was Hewlett-Packard, the company which stated diversity, work/life balance and development are their pillars of HRM policy. Ford Australia, similarly, used Natural Work Groups which represented their ethnically-diverse workforce. (Barrile, 2003: 6) However, two researchers argued that the overall performance of managing diversity is just about "mediocre" in Australia. (D"Netto & Sohal, 1999: 541; D"Netto & Sohal, 1999: 530 sited in Dagher et al., 1998) In other words, numerous challenges, difficulties and failures are still taken place within the diversity programs in Australian organizations currently. This essay will attempt to research on what kinds of challenges will accompany with the introduction of a diversity program in organizations and particularly in the context of Australia. Then, certain solutions will be recommended in order to overcome those challenges which are justified in this paper.
             This essay will highline the challenges which followed by diversity practices in organizations and the challenges under the Australian context meanwhile. Firstly, in the session of Concepts of Diversity Management, an integrated explanation of diversity management will be presented by examining the definitions of diversity and diversity management, followed by the framework of diversity management.