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In the book With World is Flat”, Thomas Friedman states that ‘the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet”. (Friedman, 2005) A definition as I see it, that clearly shows the way of the future. Although Friedman shows how the internet, in essence, is bringing down berries to conduct global business. He rarely mentions that with the removal of any barriers come challenges.
I look at it like this, you can’t remove a damn without expecting to do a lot of work to divert the water feely, and if you don’t, expect damage to occur. In the article “A New Mandate for Human Resources” by Dave Lurch he focuses on increasing challenges that human resource faces. Among them is globalization. In this article Dave Lurch states that “with the rapid expansion of global markets, managers are struggling to balance the paradoxical demand to think globally and act locally” (Lurch, 1998).
A challenge that needs thought, it’s not hard to see that some of this is do to diversity. Those managers not having the required diversity training, multi cultural sensitivity, experience and clear business strategy that assist them in capitalizing on the challenges, instead of struggling in the situation will drown in this globalization world. Lurch further argues that having a strong HRS department can help an organization deal with globalization. Globalization requires that organizations increase their ability to learn and collaborate and to manage diversity, complexity, and ambiguity. ” (Lurch, 1998) Lurch continues to explain his case that boils down to what we have heard in this class before, full integration of a diversity management in the fabric of an organization is required for successful execution. Something that we have not had a discussion about, is what type of manager it takes to manage diversity. The soft stuff like culture change and intellectual capital – are critical to business success. ” (Lurch, 1998) I agree, plus I also say that this is just one condition of effectively manage diversity. So is a strong HRS department with senior management support, the sole solution to controlling the challenges that globalization brings? It could be. In part of my study I reviewed one additional article about managers taking the critical role of being the effective changers of culture, to a more diverse organization.
In Peter F. Trucker’s “How to Make People Decisions”, read the following passage “The soldier has a right to competent command”, followed with, “It is the duty of managers to make sure that the responsible people in their organizations perform. ” (Trucker, 1985) We have yet to really discuss the people characteristics that will lead the change that is needed to bring change to an organization in improving the understanding of the role of diversity.