Introduction
Organizational behavior reflects how employees or people interact within an organization. Individual behaviors and interactions significantly influence the overall behavior of an organization and its performance. Within the organization behavior realm, organizations face multiple issues, including managerial challenges and environmental issues. Workplace diversity, organizational, and global challenges (Murphy, Laczniak & Harris, 2016). The paper focuses on workplace diversity management issues. The United States industry has been dominated by companies facing multiple workplace diversity issues, including Coca-Cola, TOMS Shoes, Johnson & Johnson, Sodexo, Mastercard, and many more. Therefore, the paper focuses on the workforce diversity management issues for TOMS Shoes Ltd.
TOMS Shoes Ltd Work Force Diversity Management Issues
TOMS Shoes is a privately owned company specializing in eyewear, kids’ shoes, apparel, and coffee. The company focuses more on building a public reputation through its brand offers. To achieve this objective, the company formulated a One-for-One model that requires the company to give one pair of shoes to a poor kid for every sale (Miedema et al., 2022). For every pair of shoes sold, the company donates one pair to needy kids. One-for-One model used by TOMS Shoes has created a lot of concerns about whether the company is ethical or unethical. The model is funded at the expense of internal employees, the use of eco-friendly materials, no evidence on how it reduces greenhouse emissions, and no evidence of water reduction initiates (Miedema et al., 2022). Outlined below are some of the TOMS shoe workforce diversity management issues;
First, TOMS Shoes does not employee respect and acceptance as it devotes much of its efforts to donations to the poor. Without respect for the employees who are the primary and critical stakeholders, workplace diversity cannot be achieved. The company does not value the service offered by the employees but instead puts more emphasis on achieving a positive reputation from the public through its One-for-One program. Lack of acceptance for beliefs and diverse cultures creates conflict within an organization, thus resulting in demoralization and consequently increased labor turnover (Murphy, Laczniak & Harris, 2016).
Secondly, although TOMS Shoes appears to have embraced diverse cultural values and beliefs, the beneficiaries are the general public and significantly benefit from the free pair of shoes donated. The principal significance for the company is a caring heart and kindness, but it’s only made to win public trust and maintain relevance to its global presence (Miedema et al., 2022). The cultural beliefs of the internal employees are not honored, which sometimes poses workplace job dissatisfactions. Although the company embraced the culture of giving, the focus is on addressing public issues.
Thirdly, TOMS Shoes’ workplace is dominated by multiple cultural and ethnic differences. Most donations are given to people of color and other marginalized communities in the United States. The company forgets that even the white community has poor people who wish to benefit from the donations (Murphy, Laczniak & Harris, 2016). As a result, it promotes workplace conflict on a racial basis, with white employees mistreating the black and Latino employees because they benefit more from the company than others. TOMS Shoes has failed to formulate policies to regulate any form of prejudice in the workplace (Miedema et al., 2022).
Fourthly, like many organizations in the United States, TOMS Shoes has failed to address gender inequality issues in the workplace. The company workforce is more than double men compared to women. Moreover, women employees are assigned lighter roles than their lower pay (Agrawal, 2021). Even for the few who managed to occupy the positions that are believed to be men’s positions, the payment is far low compared to those of their counterparts. In contrast, more than 80% of TOMS Shoes are for females. As a result, the more significant percentage of the company donations in kind will benefit more poor girls kids than boys (Miedema et al., 2022).
Lastly, TOMS Shoes failed to embrace diversity for people with disabilities. Not only were they unable to avail the necessities for disabled people, but they also failed to employ the disabled in their workforce. In this case, the disabled in society are discriminated against and find it difficult to secure employment with TOMS Shoes ltd (Murphy, Laczniak & Harris, 2016).
Causes of TOMS Shoes Workplace Diversity Issues
Workplace diversity issues are caused by many factors outlined below: discrimination against gender, age, race, ethnicity, and ableism. The perceived racial or ethnic by the TOMS shoe leadership has contributed to many workplace issues, including loss of focus, depression, anxiety, and negative stereotyping. Discrimination results in workplace conflicts between employees from the diversified background (Gelb & Longacre, 2012).
Secondly, favoritism by the supervisors resulted in diversity issues. In this case, the black Americans get mistreated compared to the white people. Also, the production of female shoes is more than those of their male counterparts (Mihalciuc et al., 2020). Additionally, TOMS Shoes favors the male employees at the expense of their female counterparts in terms of remuneration, assignment of responsibilities as well as sharing of executive positions. The company has nine executive officials, and only three are female. Male employees are most preferred and paid more than their female counterparts. As a result, it becomes impossible to promote diversity in the workplace (Gelb & Longacre, 2012).
Thirdly, TOMS Shoes’ leadership perception has contributed to the diversity issues in the workplace. The perception that male employees are more productive than their female counterparts made the company employ more males than females. Lastly, a toxic organizational culture that does not embrace diversity has contributed to many diverse issues in the workplace (Mihalciuc et al., 2020).
Recommendations to Solve Workplace Diversity Issues
The paper recommends the following management strategies that help to cover the workplace diversity challenges. First, TOMS Shoes ltd leadership should provide diversity training to support the workforce accept the values and differences in opinions. The training would also strengthen and foster workplace diversity initiatives (Griffin, 2021). Secondly, TOMS Shoes should best hire recruitment practices that promote neutrality and eliminate biasness to attract applicants from diverse backgrounds. The interview sections should also be conducted by individuals with no personal prejudices (Agrawal, 2021).
Thirdly, the management should go beyond diversity and prioritize inclusion in the workplace, whereby employees feel that their differences, ideas, and skills are valued and respected. The inclusion will only be achieved if the company accommodates the cultural requirements of the employees. Fourthly, TOMS Shoes should establish mentoring opportunities to challenge preconceived perceptions. The mentoring sections should be from diversified cultural backgrounds and ages to promote diversity and build relationships (Agrawal, 2021).
Fifthly, the company should promote teamwork and create cross-functional teams to encourage employees to respect each other’s strengths. Collaboration also helps eliminate generation gaps and supports employees’ feelings to believe their voices are respected and honored. Lastly, the company should promote social listening by keeping an ear to the ground. They must listen to the clients, employees, and competitors to understand the general diversity issues (Griffin, 2021).
References
Agrawal, S. (2021). A Study to Evaluate the Impact Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Diversity Management at Workplaces in India. Issue 3 Int’l JL Mgmt. & Human., 4, 5486.
Gelb, B. D., & Longacre, T. E. (2012). Acknowledging religious diversity: Opportunities and challenges. Business Horizons, 55(5), 509-518.
Griffin, R. (2021). Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.
Miedema, S. S., Browne, I., & Yount, K. M. (2022). An intersectional burden: Gender and sexual stigma against toms in Thailand. Social Science & Medicine, 292, 114591.
Mihalciuc, C. C., Grosu, M., & Apetri, A. N. (2020). Supporting the Sustainable Development of Companies Through the Use of Social Responsibility Practices In International Affairs. LUMEN Proceedings, 13, 206-225.
Murphy, P. E., Laczniak, G. R., & Harris, F. (2016). Toms Shoes: One for One Movement Robertmeara, Matthewterilli Andjennifersawayda. In Ethics in Marketing (Pp. 171-183). Routledge.
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