Elements to be Included in Fizzy Drink Co.’s Diversity Policy
Fizzy Drink’s diversity policy should include cultural awareness assessment to develop a diverse workforce. The approach is key in helping employees understand their knowledge gaps about cultural sensitivity and competence. In this sense, by assessing employees’ cultural awareness, Fizzy Drink will develop appropriate ways of addressing their knowledge gaps about the cultural differences among one another. As HRM and managing Global Workforces (n.d.) notes, cultural awareness assessment allows MCNs to implement international human resource management (IHRM) strategies that encourage multiculturalism in a firm. Thus, the policy reform and implementation of cultural awareness assessment strategy will help Fizzy Drink improve employees’ cultural sensitivity from organizational-bound and multicultural contexts.
Developing a diverse workforce for Fizzy Drink would require the inclusion of cultural competence training in the company’s diversity strategy. According to Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2022), cultural competence training increases employee awareness about cultural diversity. In the same case, cultural competence education and professional development initiatives enhance workers’ knowledge about ethnic differences among one another and external stakeholders. This program will help Fizzy Drink workers to respect the differences among the cultural practices and beliefs of one another. For instance, because of cultural competence education, Fizzy Drink workforce will appreciate expatriate managers introduced in its subsidiary companies in Vietnam, India, and Mexico. The employees will also be able to accept and accommodate new managers deployed in Australia, the company’s headquarters from different countries, as its diversity and inclusion strategy. Generally, cultural competence training will make the company’s junior, senior, and subordinate staff sensitive to the cultural needs and expectations of one another.
Introducing equality in employee compensation in Fizzy Drink’s diversity strategy will also create a diverse workforce for the company. This is an approach that Fizzy Drink can use to provide equal remuneration for workers from different social, economic, and geographical backgrounds. HRM and managing Global Workforces (n.d.a) indicates that the approach requires companies to provide equal and non-discriminative monetary as well as non-monetary compensation for its worker. Concerning the Fizzy Drink situation, the human resource department for the company needs to abide by the international labor standards (ILS) about equal and adequate compensation of employees of multinational companies. For instance, Fizzy Drink should provide equal salaries, commissions, and bonuses for women, males, youth, elderly, and adult workers on expatriate duties (HRM and managing Global Workforces, n.d.a). The company should also provide equal and healthy working conditions for workers in its diverse workforce regardless of their gender, age, geographical, and ethnic differences.
Incorporating equal employment opportunities in Fizzy Drink’s diversity policy will help the company build diverse employee teams. HRM and managing Global Workforces (n.d.a) illustrates that providing equality in employment opportunities for workers is an essential corporate social responsibility (CRS) practice for multinational companies. This approach also helps multinational companies uphold employment laws, policies, and ethics (HRM and managing Global Workforces, n.d.b). In this case, Fizzy Drink should employ applicants from different social, geographical, and economic backgrounds as expats and workers in Australia, its headquarters. The company should provide professional development, continuing education, training, and promotional employment opportunities for workers from underrepresented and represented communities (HRM and managing Global Workforces, n.d.b). As a result, this will enhance gender, age, and ethnic diversity among the country’s workers performing local and international duties in subsidiary branches.
Cross-cultural communication is also a major solution needed in Fizzy Drink’s diversity policy to create a diverse labor force. Monash University (n.d.) notes that allowing cross-cultural communication enhances Fizzy Drink’s workers’ abilities to understand and respect each other’s ethnic differences. The technique allows employees to use multicultural verbal, visual, audio, written, and non-verbal communication methods (Monash University, n.d.). For instance, the recommendation requires Fizzy Drink’s workers to communicate in different languages when addressing each other within and outside corporate settings. Ultimately, this change in the company’s diversity strategy will create a supportive working environment where workers from different ethnicities and cultures support each other (Monash University, n.d.). The reform will also help Fizzy Drink human resource department resolve conflict resulting from cultural disputes.
Finally, creating a diverse workforce at Fizzy Drink would require the company’s diversity policy to offer local employees international assignments. The strategy harmonizes with Harzing and Ruysseveldt’s (2022) discussion of the use of ethnocentric recruitment for multinational agencies. The approach requires Fizzy Drink human resources to recruit local staff in Australia to perform international duties in the company’s subsidiary branches in Vietnam, India, and Mexico. Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2022) also recommend the recruitment of employees from different gender, age, and ethnicities for international assignments. The company can also include employees from minority and underrepresented diversity groups in its expats’ teams for worldwide tasks (Harzing & Ruysseveldt, 2022). This will promote diversity and inclusion among workers in international branches of Fizzy Drink.
Alex’s Actions to Encourage Senior Staff to Work with People from Different Generations
As the chief executive officer (CEO) of Fizzy Drink, Alex should introduce diversity in top management recruitment to encourage senior staff to work with employees from different generations. Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2022) indicate that this approach is popular in multinational organizations in the eastern Asian region. For instance, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Chinese multinational companies have managerial employees from different diversity groups (Harzing & Ruysseveldt, 2022). The management structures of these companies include workers from different age groups, female, male, transgender communities, nationalities, religions, races, and other ethnic groups. Based on this, Alex should support the company’s human resource department to employ managers from diverse population groups (Boone et al., 2019). For example, the company should appoint female, male, youth, elderly, and adult managers to lead their subsidiary firms in Vietnam. Alex should also introduce diversity in the corporate ownership strategy of Fizzy Drink (Boone et al., 2019). This will create an inclusive and diverse managerial team that respects the values of workers from diverse groups and generations.
The Head of Office Lessons Vietnam Diversity Culture
The lesson Fizzy Drink’s head of office can learn from the Vietnam branch is the use of senior leaders and managers for competence-based training of younger staff. In this sense, the company’s headquarters should encourage top-middle-and-lower-level managers to mentor the juniors regarding their professional skills. The company leaders should also emphasize the importance of positive employee relations and trust between senior and junior staff during training, apprenticeship, and professional development activities. This will help build a stronger diversity culture of employees from different generations. The approach will also reduce the turnover of junior and minority workers at Fizzy Drink headquarter in Australia. Finally, the engagement and support from senior employees to juniors will enhance the professional skills of workers from younger generations at the company’s head office.
References
Boone C, Lokshin B, Guenter H, Belderbos R. (2019). Top management team nationality diversity, corporate entrepreneurship, and innovation in multinational firms. Strategic Management Journal; 40:277–302.
Harzing, A., & Ruysseveldt, J. V. (2022). International Human Resource Management, 2/E, the 2nd edition. Sage Publications Ltd., London. ISBN 0-7619-4039-1.
HRM and managing Global Workforces. (n.d.). Approaches to HRM.
HRM and managing Global Workforces. (n.d.a). Week 9 – Corporate social responsibility and ethical HRM.
HRM and managing Global Workforces. (n.d.b). Week 10 – Equal opportunity and diversity management.
Monash University. (n.d.). Week 3 – Organizational culture & cross-cultural management. HRM and managing global workforces.