Francoise Roy\'s Diversity Management Plan Pbq (Panaccio

¶ … 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 literature examining how diversity is managed in organizations through effective human resource management" (Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga, 2009).

In response to this limitation, the four authors have developed their own conceptual framework of how managers could implement strategies to improve diversity management at three specific levels, namely strategic, operational and tactical. 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 the organizational mission, vision, policies and business and HRM strategies in order to integrate diversity.

At People's Bank of Quebec, Francois Roy has placed a decreased emphasis on the attraction of the managers and executives in her plan to better implement diversity. And even when this approach was present, it was engaged in during the development of the plan, instead of before the implementation, in order to raise awareness and support.

Then, another aspect to be criticized is represented by the manager's approach to the HRM policies within PBQ. At this level, Roy made some observations of workplace discriminations and sought to change the policies, but she did not, in fact, assess those policies. She as such should have reviewed the company's policies as well as their application and she should have created a more objective background to her change program.

3.2. Roy's approach at the tactical level

Within the conceptual framework for diversity management proposed by Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga (2009), the emphasis falls on the staffing activities, the training of the personnel, their remuneration and their evaluation. At this level, Roy's mistake was represented by her focus on integrating the already diverse workforce, but she placed little emphasis on the attraction of new and diverse workforce. Specifically, she should have also become more involved in the hiring process in order to ensure that the new employees within the bank would be able to support and become integrated in the diversity management program.

3.3. Roy's approach at the operational level

Finally, in the case of the operational dimension, Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga's focus falls on the education of the staff members, networking communications, flexible employment and the provision of support for a work-life balance. Francois Roy strived to implement these measures, but fell back dramatically on communications. While, at the first stage, she did not adequately communicate with the executives, throughout this last stage, she neither communicated adequately with the employees. These staffs then found themselves in the middle of a change process, to which they became resistant, yet without knowing its scope and agenda were for their benefit.

4. Recommendations

Based on the analysis so far conducted, several recommendations can be forwarded in an effort to support the improvement of the diversity management plan at the level of the three dimensions proposed by Shen, Chanda, D'Netto and Monga in their conceptual framework.

In this order of ideas, at the strategic level, more emphasis should be placed on why it is important to support and integrate diversity. In other words, it is essential and recommended to raise awareness among the organizational members, including both executives as well as staffs. From now on, this stage should be completed before the actual commencement of the implementation process. Then, it is also recommended for the manager to become more objective and base any future decisions on objective assessment, rather than observations and interpretations.