Business // Google Diversity and Inclusion + Case 8 – 360 Degree Feedback
Gains from Diversity and Inclusion – There is no way that globalization can turn back. It is here to stay and to continue. It is a reality that everyone must come to terms with and this is especially true with businesses. People of all colors have breached boundaries and have entered the workplace. Cultures mix or they collide but it is to the advantage of organizations to see the gains of diversity and adapt to inclusion. Employees of diverse nationalities and those with disabilities are potential contributors to organizational success with their respective cultural experiences and observations. The disabled can also contribute their perspectives that normally bodied employees may not possess. They are a source of information wealth to the organization.
Why Google needs Improvement with Diversity Training and Initiatives –
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs last month announced that it would file action against Goggle, Inc. for failing to file compensation information on its equal opportunity program (Winegarner, 2017 p 1). The company spent $265 million on its diversity effort, but its workforce has remained mostly white at 59%, 32% Asian, 3% Hispanic and 3% other ethnicities and only 2% are Black. The huge investment aimed at decreasing unconscious racial bias in the workforce, adjusting its policies so that pay scales would be more equitable and to deal with a “pipeline” problem as regards the insufficiency of minority engineers to choose from. There have been efforts to fill in the engineering slots with blacks by closely working with black colleges. The company is aware that improved diversity training and other initiatives would make employees feel safe, accepted and respected. A diverse workforce yields better-quality products and services. In comparison, non-diverse or homogenous companies turn out poor products and services. Tech companies like Google must be as risk-averse as possible so that they can realize and increase revenue early enough. The failure rate is 50% when production is bad. Google must avoid this through improved diversity initiatives and training (Winegarner, 2017 p 1).
Case 8: the Performance Impact – Performance assessment is an essential in organizations in informing employees about how they fare in their jobs, in adjusting pay scales, identifying work aspects that must be upgraded, encouraging commendable work, serving as basis for promotions or transfers, and as a source of information to justify terminations. But it has been severely criticized. The traditional or old evaluation format of human resource professionals has been done manually and on a downward path. Their overall performance has been appraised from the very top downward, based on traditional structure we have all grown accustomed to (Greer, 2000 p 297). Those on top evaluated those directly below them who in turn evaluated those below them too and downward. It was a convenient way for opportunistic superiors to please only those who evaluated them and exploit the accomplishments of subordinates or get the credit for themselves. It has also been used for coercive motives. It encouraged favoritism and discouraged productivity. It was also slow and difficult to carry out (Greer, 2000 p 298).
The Otis Elevator Company embarked on a truly revolutionary scheme that violates the traditional format on a complete 360-degree turnaround basis (Greer, 2000 p 298). Using both the internet and the intranet, the 360-degree feedback system evaluates everyone within the organization-subordinates, same-level employees or peers, direct superiors and even customers. It is a complete turnaround, hence, the name 360-degree feedback system. An outsider and independent contractor, called an E-group, created this revolutionary scheme. It collates and analyzes the data gathered and uses a 75-item survey called LEAPS to evaluate managers in 20 minutes. This process emails the result to the E-group, which in turn, makes it available to Otis executives within three days. These executives can then compare the managers’ actual performance with the company’s ideals. This allows them and other stakeholders to identify the strengths and weaknesses of managers for overall decision-making (Greer, 2000 p 298).
WORKS CITED
Greer, C. R. (2000). Strategic human resource management. second edition. Chapter 8: The
Performance Impact. Prentice Hall
Winegarner, B. (2017). Google’s hardest moonshot: debugging its race problem. Fast Company:
Fast Company, Inc. Retrieved on September 13, from
https://www.fastcompany.com/3066914/google-and-tech-struggle-to-hack-bias-and-diversity
2017/5183
