Verizon Wireless recently announced its intentions to establish its international operations particularly in the Asian region and diversify. In this light, the company hired US based marketing experts in response to this goal. The HR department only checked on the marketing skills of the candidates, but not their experiences and capabilities to relate on the various and complicated Asian cultures.
The major problem that the company realized later on, however, was that they lacked the workforce diversity to provide them with choices and relevant information regarding their plans to diversify and function in Asia. As most of their employees they hired were based locally, they had no idea on how to relate to Asian cultures and gain the trust of their potential clients there. The most obvious consequence resulting from the lack of knowledge of the employees of Verizon Wireless was the emergence of quarreling and bickering among their workers as they discussed their expansion plans. Quarreling and bickering scenarios were the most typical forms of misunderstandings that can be seen in among the employees of Verizon as they tackled and discussed about their plans to expand in Asia. Quarreling can be seen among workers in various job positions while bickering can be seen among workers of the same job positions. Truly, the lack of workforce diversity wreaked havoc and became disadvantageous to Verizon.
Another dilemma that Verizon faced concerning this topic was the lack of information that their workers possessed for the appreciation of Asian races and ethnicity. The lack of information regarding Asian races and ethnicities then established a selfish perspective regarding the people of the Asian minority. Sad to say, instead of making initiatives of understanding the Asian races, ethnicities and lovable aspects of the minority communities, the marketing people of Verizon chose to behave inappropriately as an obvious sign of ignorance for these people. For instance, the HR department in Verizon believed that the existence of other cultures in their working environment would illicit bad impacts which could hinder their proper functioning; this was their guideline for the hiring process which eventually proved to be a failure.
As a result of this incompetence by the workforce of Verizon Wireless, various Asian expansion deals fell through. This resulted in significant financial losses for the company and dented their reputation as a powerful telecommunications company. The company also fired people who were incompetent on their fields and planned to change their HR policies.
Workforce Diversity as the Answer
In the case of Verizon’s planned expansion to Asia, workforce diversity definitely would have helped them secure those Asian deals. Despite the various dilemmas concerning workforce diversity, research studies prove that this is an essential factor of an excellent firm as well as gives positive points. What Verizon should have done was to hire an extremely diverse workforce with regards to Asian race and ethnicity which could have been very helpful as it would have given them a greater roster of highly qualified individuals that would have helped them in their Asian expansion plans. This could have also improved the chances of the company to recruit workers that are capable enough for particular organizational deficits and necessities. In this case, workforce diversity could have supported Verizon in providing a variety of helpful concepts that are critical in making informed choices. Therefore workforce diversity would have widened the company’s views and improved its choices for establishing Asian expansion deals. Arredondo (1996) identified that the quality of choices is hugely enhanced because of workforce diversity.
For organizations like Verizon who wish to function internationally, workforce diversity is an essential element. In the issue of marketability of Verizon, the objectives can be achieved if varied workers will do the marketing initiatives to other Asian societies. Moreover, using varied workers to manage some of the marketing endeavors in the company can aid in the establishment of correct global initiatives. More often than not, diversity in the workforce can aid Verizon in managing the problems of international functions (Rasmussen, 1995). The responsibility of workforce diversity should be emphasized not only due to its advantageous impacts but also due to the fact that it is a valid approach.
The variance of cultures is another essential element that could have resulted to workforce diversity advantages for Verizon. In accordance to past studies, this typical phenomenon can be linked to the issue that other people have the possibilities to treat their colleagues in fair manners as opposed to individuals whom they cannot relate with culturally. This phenomenon is a result of numerous elements, including advances to interaction that cause understanding. In the situation of Verizon, the individual marketing capabilities of the marketing people they hired were given too much emphasis, but not on their experiences in working with other cultures.
REFERENCES
- Arredondo, P, 1996. Successful Diversity Management Initiatives: A Blueprint for Planning and Implementation. Sage Publications, Inc
- Chemers, M, 1995. Diversity in Organizations: New Perspectives for a Changing Workplace. Sage Publications, Inc
- Morrison, A, 1996. The New Leaders: Leadership Diversity in America. Jossey-Bass; Reprint edition