¶ … Francoise Roy's Diversity Management Plan PBQ (Panaccio & Waxin case study) applying conceptual framework Shen, Chanda, D'Netto, Monga (2009) related readings. Human resource management case 3 -- Diversity management plan

The current HRM context

The status of the personnel has evolved dramatically throughout the past recent century. The bases of the modern day labor force were set in the commencement of the Industrial Revolution, when the people moved from villages to towns to become factory workers. Then however, they were exploited, underpaid and forced to work and live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Today however, the employees in the modern companies are protected by legislations, pursued by employers and cherished as the most valuable organizational assets. These changes were brought about by evolutions in the micro and macro environments, such as changing customer needs, environmental pressures, intensifying competition, technologic advent or globalization and market liberalization. Diversity in the workplace as such became a more important issue and it was important to integrate it in the human resource management programs.

The economic agents then develop and implement a wide array of strategies regarding their staff members. It is usually a common acceptation that the firms should develop and implement their own strategies based on their own features; still, despite this, the literature is filled with models and frameworks of how the HRM strategies should be developed and implemented.

One relevant example in this sense is represented by the conceptual framework created by Jie Shen, Ashok Chanda, Brian D'Netto and Manjit Monga (2009). The scope of this project then is that of assessing the diversity management plan implemented by Francoise Roy at PBQ through the lenses of the Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga framework.

2. The conceptual framework

Jie Shen, Ashok Chanda, Brian D'Netto and Manjit Monga (2009) set out to reveal how diversity is and can be managed through programs of human resource management. Their analysis found that academicians and practitioners focused mostly on equal employment rights and affirmative action, yet placed little focus on diversity.

"Our review shows that inequality and discrimination still widely exist and HRM has focused mainly on compliance with equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action (AA) legislation. Our review reveals limited...

At the strategic level, emphasis is placed on the creation of an organizational culture focused on diversity, as well as the creation and implementation of diversity policies and strategies. At the tactical level, emphasis is placed on staffing, training, reward and evaluation. Finally, at the operational level, the focus falls on the education of the employees, the communications, the flexibility of the workplace and the provision of support to ensure balance between personal and professional responsibilities. The diagram below reveals the graphical representation of the Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga conceptual framework for diversity management.
Source: Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga, 2009

3. Critique of Francoise Roy's diversity management plan for PBQ

When she received support to pursue her agenda, Francoise Roy had been employed with the People's Bank of Quebec (PBQ) for only one year. Still, during that time, she had witnessed numerous discriminations and had concluded that the lack of diversity integration represented a real problem within the financial institution. She as such sought out to resolve this issue and believed that her approach should be an integrated one that included changing the minds of people and integrating diversity in the organizational culture (Panaccio and Waxin, 2009).

At an initial level, since both Roy and the creators of the conceptual framework propose an integrated and multifaceted approach, there seems to be compatibility between the two approaches. Nevertheless, in order to generate a better informed and clearer conclusion, it is necessary to conduct a more through analysis at the level of the three dimensions of the Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga conceptual framework.

3.1. Roy's approach at the strategic level

According to Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga (2009), the strategic approach to diversity management is represented by the development of the organizational culture is a sense that it integrates diversity, by capturing the support of the executives. Then, the emphasis falls on the redesign of…