With this option, you will also complete Option # 1 for all remaining CT and Capstone assignments. Your paper must include: Title PageAn Executive Summary Section I: Organization/Industry Problem or O

Running head: FUNCTION OF DIVERSITY IN THE 21ST WORKPLACE 0

LGBT Employee and the Function of Diversity in the 21st Workplace

Name

ORG 579

Executive Summary

Today organizations are increasingly becoming diverse due to the adoption of an international and global approach to remain practicable and relevant in the 21st century. The organization implements a diversity policy aimed at attracting top talent, as the process does not restrict employees based on their sexual orientation. Organization benefits from a variety of skills, idea generation and staffs with a global mindset. Other benefits related to LGBT company policies include increased employee retention rates because employees have no reason to leave, higher employee satisfaction, and reduced recruitment costs due to lower retention rates and positive stock performance. The company is more likely to be voted as the most ethical company for publicly declaring support LGBT groups. LGBT corporate policies may face some hurdles when the corporate culture is not in line with the policies. This event is because there will be less buy-in from stakeholders. Strong religious stands may be barriers to the success of LGBT policy implementation especially when some employees believe gays' and lesbians are morally not right. Some employees may have some fears, not ready to share their sexual orientation openly and others will fear losing promotion opportunities. To address the issues, the investigative process is conducted to collect information relating to the problem and the report is used in implementing the program and easy follow.

LGBT Employee and the Function of Diversity in the 21st Workplace

Section I: Organization/Industry Problem or Opportunity

Introduction

Thanks to a global mindset that remains viable and relevant in the 21st century, organizations have become more diverse than ever. Most global companies, even local companies, have begun to adopt a diversity policy, with the goal of attracting and attracting future talents, so that they can obtain the largest talent pool, maximize recruitment and lower operating costs. Diversity policies promote thought creation, productivity, multilingual expertise, and experiencing a global way of thinking, which is essential to focus on the company in the future. Despite the adoption, research finding shows that most managers and employees are not ready to accommodate the LGBT community, and this creates a problem in the implementation of diversity and inclusion policies.

Companies focusing their marketing and vision on hiring future employees of the LGBT community may be able to improve their bottom line. There are employee’s rights that have been developed for example civil rights act of 1947 that established the right of employees to be free from any discrimination based on the religion. The united nation high commissioner for human right have developed new policies and strategies that address the protection of LGBT right with a key focus of ensuring public and private organization respect the right of this group as developed. The strategies of marketing the right include drafting a message that advocates for free and equal messages targeted to promote equal treatment of LGBT.

Organizational Problem

The focus on the human groups have also influence private and public organization in taking advantage of the LGBT community to improve the company publicity and ensure the company maximize on the available talents. An organization that has adopted diversity policies have a higher opportunity of making a higher profit and push the stock market price even higher. This is because an organization that recognizes the LGBT group is more likely to send a piece of positive information to the public that the company respects the right of the minority group and through that more customers will be interesting to be part of the company because of these policies.

A company that adopts rules that prohibit implementation of the LGBT supportive policies because of religious views may send a signal to the employees that the firm is not socially responsible when it came to issues of discrimination and support for diversity. LGBT supportive policies provide a company with a variety of choice for the company to select and also give a chance for potential employees to apply for any post they qualify (Fatmy, Kihn, Sihvonen, & Vähämaa, 2019). An organization with such policies is viewed by employees especially the LGBT group as open and supportive. The benefits that would be achieved through the implementation of the policies include employee recruitment.

The company job adverts will attract many talented employees because the policies will sell out the company as supportive and do not tolerate discrimination despite sexual orientation. Most LGBT group employees leave their job when they are mistreated by the managers, due to stress when employees make fun of them or when the companies have not developed washroom friendly to them to allow them to make choices on the areas to visit (Pichler, Blazovich, Cook, Huston, & Strawser, 2018). The organization incurs most cost when they have re-advertised again the post that would be left when employees leave his or her job due to stereotyping.

The company that implements the policies would not incur the cost of recruitment and burnout when more staff leaves their post leaving other staff with a lot of job responsibility. Diversity implementation and policies not only market the company vision but as well it lower stressful work environment because the LGBT group will not be bothered or always try to explain themselves to other members because they are known (Pichler, Blazovich, Cook, Huston, & Strawser, 2018). Staff would not need to hide and this boosts self-esteem on staff and still enables the employees to be more ethical when interacting with such groups.

The company will take advantage of LGBT community-related benefits such as gay consumers are known as having a higher level of disposable income than their heterosexual counterparts. Research conducted on an income level of homosexual men and heterosexual counterparts indicates that the income of homosexual men is more than the income earned by heterosexual men (Pichler, Blazovich, Cook, Huston, & Strawser, 2018). Gay consumers are distinct and have brand loyalty and usually prefer to purchase products to companies that support LGBT corporate policies. Companies that have strict corporate policies that are anti-gay are at risk of losing the homosexual and heterosexual consumer.

A positive brand image or publicity is associated with stock price changes. Revenue growth will promote excess return leading to an increase in profitability and asset turnover. These ratios are important in shifting the prices of the stock higher if there is evidence of significant growth. The demand for the company stock will increase and this will influence more prices to shift to match the demand. A firm that requires highly skilled workers my value more employee recruitment and retention and this cannot be achieved when the filtering of employees is based on sexual orientation. Organizations that focus on skills and have employed diversity policies are more likely to attract skilled staff and attract the most innovative staff.

Workers from a variety of backgrounds bring in different skills need in the management of the organization and in managing global challenges. This is because staffs have a different understanding of the global challenges hence the strategy promotes productivity and idea creation. The company is increasingly capitalizing on youthful, gays, lesbian groups and the transgender group as one way of improving the company's competitive edge in this competitive era where each company finds ways they can remain competitive. Diversity policy that focuses on including the LGBT community promotes job satisfaction and commitment because staff would not be thinking about how to shift from their job.

Section II: Problem or Opportunity Background

The implementation of the diversity policies and inclusion in an organization faces some hurdles that affect the implementation of these policies. The most LGBT community faces unseen and uncounted attention that make it difficult for the LGBT group to feel free to share their sexual orientation even when an organization implemented the policy because some are ashamed of their sexual orientation which further affects the group freedom to engage with other sexual groups (Ozeren, 2014). Some fear being discriminated against when they reveal their sexual orientation and not be selected in the job. These create a challenge for the LGBT community in securing a job or even retaining a job. Job repercussions are some of the fears the LGBT community fears to reveal their sexual orientation.

This is because managers may take advantage of the information to mistreat the group by either threatening them to fire them. Others may not get the opportunity of promotion if managers realize that they are LGBT and this may strongly affect their job commitment and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is promoted when employees feel okay to interact with other staff are not stressed by the job but in a situation where there is stress emanating from them, the LGBT community will leave the organization and some will lose the will to work hard which may significantly affect job productivity and outcome.

The implementation of the inclusion and diversity policy may face some hurdles from management and managers who are not ready to relinquish their religious beliefs in support of corporate policies that support non-discriminative practice. As a result, the LGBT group may face some challenges while interacting with this group based on the strong stand of some of the managers and their perception of sexual orientation (Maket, Mollel, & Mulongo, 2015). This may create more pressure and failure while ensuring this policy meets the intended goal of ensuring the company improves its revenue and publicity because the policies would not meet the intended goal within an organization.

On the other hand, the LGBT group faces uncomfortable questions regarding their bodies so that the managers can guide them on the toilet they should use and this usually affects the LGBT community in sharing their sexual orientation. Some avoid revealing their sexual orientation to avoid paying a higher price like salary stagnation, loss of promotion and dismissal even when they commit minor’s offense relating to their job (Ng, & Rumens, 2017). Some organization has developed that perception that LGBT group issues are non-important despite allowing them to be integrated into the organization because the organization has not implemented enough measures that would ensure the LGBT groups are not discriminated based on sexual orientation.

The group is viewed by religious individuals as non-Christians because the traditional approach familiar to the people is when men and women get into marriage, get a wife and children but the behavior is outside the established standard where an individual has to get to marriage with opposite genders and get a child. This perception of will not disappear when the organization implements the policies because to some people the policies are not right and violates the biblical intention of marriage. These people may continue with discriminatory practice even though not directly but they would not be accommodating those who are said to be engaging in sexual practices that are not accepted biblically.

Implementing the policies is one way but ensuring the policies are effectively accepted maybe a challenge that might affect the success of the policies all together leading to poor publicity when the staffs are not accommodating each other. Even though the organization might have developed inclusion and diversity policies that accept LGBT group in the workplace and allowed them to interact freely with other employees they may still face a major hurdle when they are deployed as an expatriate in other countries because fewer countries may be allowing LGBT group and some might not be safe in those countries because of stringent policies that don't support the group (McNulty, McPhail, Inversi, Dundon, & Nechanska, 2018). This may affect the company if the employee is skilled and right for the job but due to policies of particular countries, the employee many not be deployed for safety purposes.

Some of those countries may lack clear sexual orientation discrimination policies in place that would help protect the right of this individual from the LGBT community. Some may not have that freedom to roam freely in the community for fear of the negative perception from the employees from foreign countries, and lack of consideration in terms of the washroom that addresses their needs (McNulty, McPhail, Inversi, Dundon, & Nechanska, 2018). Most countries have not recognized the transgender group and there are no washrooms, prison or any policies that are said to support this group. Therefore, the group may be at risk of facing discrimination if deployed as an expatriate in foreign countries that lack friendly policies of the LGBT community.

Section III: Investigative Steps

Investigation with an organization requires one of the investigators to ensure the information is confidential. The employers or interviewers should ensure they explain the parties involves the use of the information gathered and promise them that the information will remain confidential to them. The investigators should ensure they keep their information relating to the participant confidential even though the details from the interview relating to the response may be revealed but not those who were questioned. Collection of the information involves analyzing previous research and case studies to show and understand the correlation between the discrimination for LGBT employees and understanding an organization’s diversity policy and how their diversity policy help LGBT employees be successful in the workforce. Analyzing previous case studies on this topic helps point to the lack of diversity many LGBT employees deal with the current workforce.

Previous studies conducted with a focus on understanding the impact of the diversity policy in the organization and how it has helped the organization meet it its intended goal of achieving success and publicity. The group targeted included LBGT group and the other group which shares their opinion on the success of the policies and what measure they feel should be done to promote the success of the policies. Fear of bullying (25% to 75% of LGBT employees encounter discrimination in the workplace), lack of trust, damaging promotional opportunities, difficulty in proving discrimination, fear of job loss.

The second step involves choosing whether to investigate. The investigative process would be based on the need. For example, in this case, a company wants to understand the performance of diversity policy after developing marketing and vision that target to include the LGBT community.

There is enough need for conducting investigative process. The third process involves choosing an investigator. Qualified investigators should be selected to ensure it is impartial and they act ethically without violating the right of the parties. The company can use internal staff, especially if a staff meets job descriptions or source the investigators outside the organization. The essence is to have the best investigators that would assure the accuracy of the report after they are through with the investigative process. The fourth step in planning for the investigation. This process involves gathering information about the problem faced by the company. The information includes complaints, supervisors, reports, written warnings, and material that can be part of the problem.

All additional information sought may be included to ensure the investigator has enough information to conduct a report. The fifth process is reviewing previous studies to find answers to the research questions in this study. The essence of the investigative process is to gather information. The information may be collected by asking questions. The employees may be a primary source of information about the problem or any issues recorded in the organization. The next step involves documenting the information collected in the form of a report. This report explains the step the company has taken, how the information was conducted and the conclusion arrived. This information is important in implementing a program as it identified all root-cause problems hence helping the management implement the right strategy to address the problem and lastly is the follow-up stage.

Conclusion

Companies have implemented the diversity process in recruitment and inclusion and through that they enjoy high market share than companies that don’t have existing policies on LGBT. This is because an LGBT corporate policy shows that the company supports LGBT. This action promotes more employee satisfaction, fewer employees stress-related and promotes organization revenue. The LGBT community developed a loyalty to an organization that supports inclusivity and not discrimination. Despite the implementation, some problems are associated with less support for the policies when the manager doesn't approve the policies due to religious background. Other staff may not be ready to reveal their identity for fear of discrimination, loss of promotion opportunities and humiliation. The investigation process will act as the best process of diagnosing the problem and promote employees' job commitment and satisfaction.

References

Fatmy, V., Kihn, J., Sihvonen, J., & Vähämaa, S. (2019). Does Lesbian and Gay Friendliness Pay Off? A New Look at LGBT Policies and Firm Performance. A New Look at LGBT Policies and Firm Performance (March 25, 2019).

Maket, L. J., Mollel, E. R., & Mulongo, L. S. (2015). Workforce diversity management and global organizational growth in the 21 st century. Journal of Scientific Research and Studies Vol. 2(7), pp. 164-175, September 2015

McNulty, Y., McPhail, R., Inversi, C., Dundon, T., & Nechanska, E. (2018). Employee voice mechanisms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender expatriation: the role of Employee-Resource Groups (ERGs) and allies. The International Journal of human resource management, 29(5), 829-856. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1376221

Ng, E., & Rumens, N. (2017). Diversity and inclusion for LGBT workers: current issues and new horizons for research. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 34(2), 109-120.

Ozeren, E. (2014). Sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace: A systematic review of the literature. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 109(8), 1203-1215

Pichler, S., Blazovich, J. L., Cook, K. A., Huston, J. M., & Strawser, W. R. (2018). Do LGBT‐supportive corporate policies enhance firm performance?. Human Resource Management, 57(1), 263-278.