Fill This Form To Receive Instant Help
Fill This Form To Receive Instant Help
Homework answers / question archive / At Xerox, Diversity equals Success
At Xerox, Diversity equals Success. The equation certainly has worked for the company! According to Fortune1 magazine's annual reputation survey, Xerox is the world's most admired company in the computer industry. According to Anne Mulcahy, Xerox former Chairman and CEO, the firm's focus on diversity is based on an environment of inclusion within which each person can achieve to their highest potential. Xerox knows that employees with different ways of thinking, and different ways of perceiving the world, are employees who create innovative solutions. In a business like Xerox, whose lifeblood is fresh ideas, this variety of perspectives is a priceless resource—and a key to achieving critical business results.
With recent annual revenue of $23+ billion, Xerox is the world's largest technology-and-services company specializing in document management.2 Xerox provides the document industry's broadest portfolio of offerings. Digital systems include color and black-and-white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and "book factories," advanced and basic multifunction systems, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers, and fax machines. No competitor can match Xerox's services expertise, which includes helping businesses develop online document archives, analyzing how employees can most efficiently share documents and knowledge in the office, operating in-house print shops or mailrooms, and building Web-based processes for personalizing direct mail, invoices, brochures, and more. Xerox also offers associated software, support, and even supplies such as toner, paper, and ink.3
By recognizing and respecting diversity and empowering individuality, Xerox creates productive people and an innovative company. This corporate culture of inclusion with its commitment to diversity can be traced back to its very first chairman, Joseph C. Wilson. Chairman Wilson took proactive steps to create a more diverse workforce in response to race riots in the 1960s. With then Xerox President C. Peter McCullough, Wilson called for increased hiring of African Americans in an effort to achieve equality among its workforce. Starting in the 1970s, Xerox established an internal affirmative action office and began to hire a significant number of minority employees.4
Xerox placed emphasis on the advancement of minorities and females in the 1980s. It was during this time that Barry Rand, an African American, was named the first minority president of a division. Xerox's Balanced Workforce Strategy (BWF) aimed to achieve unbiased representation for women and minorities throughout the organization at all times, including throughout times of restructuring. During the influx of women into its workforce Xerox recognized women's struggle to balance work and family commitments. In response, Xerox Human Resources (HR) initiated "flex time" and other HR policies to maintain a high level of productivity and satisfaction among its workforce.5
In the 1990s sexual orientation was included in the company's Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Non-discrimination policy; GALAXe Pride at Work (a caucus group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees) was established; and Xerox began to provide domestic partner benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees. Annual diversity employee roundtables with senior managers were initiated, providing employees the opportunity to engage in unfiltered communication with management about the best practices, strengths, and weaknesses of Xerox's diversity initiatives.6
Xerox's view on a diverse workforce is most eloquently expressed by former Chairman Anne M. Mulcahy:
I'm convinced diversity is a key to success. Experience tells us that the most diverse companies—companies ruled by a hierarchy of imagination and filled with people of all ages, races, and backgrounds—are the most successful over time. Somehow, diversity breeds creativity. Maybe it's because people with different backgrounds challenge each other's underlying assumptions, freeing everybody from convention and orthodoxy. We provide a shining proof point that diversity in all its wonderful manifestations is good for business . . . good for our country . . . and good for people.7
Xerox is proud to say that women and minorities make up more than 50 percent of its workforce. About 48.2 percent of Xerox senior executives are women, people of color, or both. The employee roster is made up of roughly 30 percent African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. In fact, Xerox has been rated by Fortune, Forbes, Working Mother, Latino Style, and Enable magazines as one of the top ten companies in hiring minorities, women, disabled, and gay and lesbian employees. It is among Working Mother's top 100 family-friendly companies for women—and has been for the past fifteen years.8
In 2007 Ursula Burns was named the first African-American female president of Xerox Corporation. In July 2009 she succeeded Anne M. Mulcahy as CEO, the first female-to-female hand-off in Fortune 500 history. In May 2010 Burns was also named chairman, heading a company of over 140,000 employees. Her philosophy is consistent with the company culture and history. She says:
The power of our people development model is that it recognizes the value of diversity from entry-level positions to the top seats. When you've been at it as long as we have, the bench gets pretty strong of next generation leaders who represent the real world: black, white, male, female, Hispanic, Asian from different religions and with different beliefs. What they all have in common is strong skills, a solid work ethic, commitment and a will to win.9
With Ursula Burns at the helm, and a 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index and its Best Places to Work survey, there's no doubt about it: Xerox's commitment to diversity is still going strong.10 In a difficult global environment and highly competitive industry, Burns's leadership will surely be tested to the fullest in the days ahead.
Answer:
1. ?Xerox believes in workforce diversity & give chance to all eligible individual in order to earn for their living and achieve their desired dream. This is where the diversified social responsibility of Xerox can be seen.
Day to day competition has raised and at same time unemployment is also a major problem.
So the organization today prefers the diverse work force. Hence the definition of diversity changed overtime.
Diversity means employing people of multi talent/skill/background etc.
The benefit of a diverse workforce is the ability to tap into the many talents which employees from different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring to the workplace.
So definitely the diverse workforce helps company to compete effectively.
A diverse workforce with fresh ideas and perspectives is one of the essential ingredients to a company's long-term success.
The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives and views to their work.
The challenge that diversity poses, therefore, is enabling your managers to capitalize on the mixture of genders, cultural backgrounds, ages and lifestyles to respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively.
2.
Mentioned below are the seven reason why Xerox should be motivated to diversify its workforce:
3.
3rd is answer in explanation
4.
Fortune's latest ranking of America's 500 largest corporations includes more women CEOs than ever before.
Women lead 18 of the 500 companies, including Hewlett-Packard (10th) run by Meg Whitman and IBM (19th) run by Ginni Rometty, both of whom started within the last year.
Other executives to have shattered the glass ceiling include Patricia Woertz of agricultural processors Archer Daniels Midland; Indra Nooyi who is CEO of Pepsico, Irene Rosenfeld who heads up Kraft Foods; Ursula Burns who is CEO at Xerox and Sherilyn McCoy at Avon.
Rometty is IBM's first female CEO and Xerox chief Ursula Burns is the first African-American woman to head a Fortune 500 company. The top five female CEOs on the list all held positions in strategic planning before being appointed.
There are an additional 21 female CEOs in the Fortune 501-1000, some managing steel, oil and energy companies.
Lists like the Fortune 500 typically generate debate about how to improve female representation in governance positions.
Catalyst, a nonprofit research organization advocating for more women in business, found that in Canada women hold 14.5% of board seats, a figure that rose by only half a percent between 2009 and 2011. In America, women hold 16.1% of board seats, an increase of less than half a percent from 2010.
About 10% of the top 500 U.S. companies, and almost 40% of Canada's 500 largest companies have no women on their boards, according to Catalyst.
In the UK, where only 9.8% of FTSE250 companies are lead by women, and 44% have no female board members at all, a report by former trade minister Lord Davies estimated that, at the current rate of change, it will take 70 years to achieve gender balance in the boardroom.
Baroness Mary Goudie is founder of the 30% Club, which encourages company chairs to commit to achieving at least 30% women on UK corporate boards. She notes that, while there is a record number of women CEOs in the United States, "on the other hand, you've got hardly any women on boards.
"The United States doesn't have the same regulatory situation as boards in the UK and parts of Europe. In the UK you can only do two terms on a board, so we're seeing a turnaround for women, whereas in the States, people seem to get on a board and stay for a lifetime, almost. The pipeline is blocked forever."
Despite this, Baroness Goudie feels female CEOs can influence the make-up of boards. "They can try to influence the chairman of their company by saying, 'Look at the shortlist: How many women are you bringing on?'"
They may also indirectly benefit others aspiring to senior positions. "A number of women CEOs have children. They are looking to make change and to encourage the pipeline. There'll be a few who won't be helpful but the vast majority of women CEOs are doing all they can to encourage other women to go after these jobs."
More from Leading Women: Want more female execs? Sort out the household chores
Companies with fewer females in senior positions might be shooting themselves in the foot.
Catalyst has also analyzed companies which had three or more women on boards for at least four of those years outperformed those with the lowest rates of female representation by 84% on return on sales, 60% on return on invested capital and 46% on return on equity.
Step-by-step explanation
