Introduction
Ford motor company boasts to be the largest producer of trucks and pickups in the whole world. In addition to these, it also produces cars which are distributed in many parts of the world. Its main location is in Dearborn and operates in the entire United States of America.
A close look at the way it operates will reveal that the company operates in different parts of the world, its employers are diverse and it also makes diverse products including jaguar, Volvo, Ford Taurus, Mazda’s, BMWs, land rover, and many others which can not be listed. This paper describes the diversity in the ford motor company in depth. It explains how the company has achieved this diversity, the importance of diversity, and some of the concerns and challenges that have faced the company in its bid to attain diversity. (Hayles, 1997)
When is a business considered to be diverse? This is when employers of that business come from different parts, ethnic groups, ages, languages, and even gender. A diversified company will include all kinds of people in the operation of the business including the minority groups. The company employs people of all ages, masculinity, belief, dreams, race, convictions, and many others. This ensures that the services offered are in conjunction with what customers want and therefore increasing the sales. (Gardenswartz, 1998)
Overview of ford motor company using diversity
The ford motor company has diversity. It has different talented and gifted people working together. One of the greatest priorities of the company is to include all employees in the business and ensure that each person participates in its day-to-day operations. “The chief executive officer Allan Mullay is concerned too much about diversity and this is what he says about diversity. “My priority is to ensure that inclusion at ford is at the highest level of performance so that we include all employees deeply, thoughtfully, and broadly in the business. It’s about respecting each other and listening to each other. It’s about one global team working together.” (Gardenswartz, 1998)
Importance of diversity at ford motor company
Diversity at ford motor company is taken seriously and it has seen the company rise to greater heights. In the ford motor company, diversity promotes three main aspects; quantity, quality, and creativity. How are these aspects attained?
Due to diversity, ford motor companies will eventually hire employees from different places. They have a wide field to choose from and this presents the company with a human resource that is gifted in different aspects. This in turn leads to diversified thoughts on the way to improve the business which eventually maximizes the profits. This is simply because many ideas on the business will be received. (Fox, 2002)
The ford motor company has employees from all the countries in which it operates. This ensures that the customers from different parts can be understood well. Understanding the customers will lead to appropriate adjustments where possible. This will not happen if all the employees in the ford motor company come from the same race and particularly from the race of the country of origin of the company. The ford company can for example understand the likes of the customers in a small country in Africa called Kenya because it has employees and maybe subsidiaries in that country. (Gardenswartz, 1998)
A diverse business can be accessed by many and different people. This is possible in the case of the ford motor company. The more the number of people who access the business, the higher the number of customers and therefore the higher the profits. Diversity in the ford motor company is important because it increases the number of customers. (Gardenswartz, 1998)
Explanation of diversity at Ford Motor Company
The ford motor company uses diversity to maximize its profits. It runs other subsidiary companies performing other activities apart from the distribution and manufacture of motor vehicles. For example, it owns a finance company called the ford motor credit; it owns a car rental farm called Hertz which happens to be the largest car rental firm in the world. It operates in many countries and it has subsidiaries that operate in those other countries.
Ford employee African American network in both the two continents ensures that they receive the required services and employ people from every corner of these continents. In these countries, they do many other things which are a benefit to the society including; training the communities on leadership skills, promoting the education sector by offering engineering courses, and supporting education funds. The ford Asian Indian association works in India and Asia not only to operate its business but also to promote the culture of India and Asians by organizing cultural fares and events. There are many other groups within the ford motor company which work with the communities.
These include; the ford finance network, women in finance, professional women network, Ford Hispanic Network Group (F-HNG) Ford Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees (GLOBET), and Ford Parenting Network (FPN) all these groups work accordingly as their names suggest offering services other than business in the places in question. Through these groups, diversity is achieved because the company works with people from many parts of the world and even with minority groups. This is the greatest form of diversity one can think about in the 21st century. (Hayles, 1997)
Identity of initial concerns of diversity at Ford Motor Company
Diversity is good for the company as has been explained in the discussion above. However, there is some concern about diversity in the ford motor company.
After the company engaged in a diversification program, where women and minority groups were employed in the company, the sales decreased at a great rate. The chief executive officer then ‘Nasser’ found out later that the company was not able to maintain and keep for a long time the talented women who were employed in the company. It also had difficulties keeping minority professionals and managers. This is the greatest concern in the diversity in the ford motor company. Women and workers from the minority group are leaving and living the whites. There must be reasons for that and research is still underway to explain the same.
The reason may be because they work in low-level jobs or what they call entry-level positions while the whites work in high-level positions. The African American workers are also considered to be leaving because of the new challenges they face in the new workplaces. This could be solved by placing the minority groups and some women in the top supervisory jobs to supervise their fellow workers. But this is also an issue because there will be no whites to show them the way (Fox, 2002)
Reference
Fox, R. (2002) Change Equation: Capitalizing on Diversity for Effective Organizational Change. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Gardenswartz, L. (1998) The Managing Diversity Survival Guide: A Complete Collection of Checklists. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Hayles, R. (1997) The Diversity Directive: Why Some Initiatives Fail & What to Do About It. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.