Industrial & Organizational Psychology: Diversity at Lloyds-TSB

by sammychong92 (student)

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

DIVERSITY

Running Head: DIVERSITY

Industrial & Organizational Psychology: Diversity

SP 306

Industrial & Organizational Psychology

1001025185

1001024697

UCSI University

Summary

Lloyds TSB is the largest retail bank in the UK and they have more than 140,000 staff. Half of all people in UK now bank with Lloyds Banking Group. It is a diverse business, with stronger market presence in areas such as mortgages, insurance, finance and investments. They have taken a positive approach to employee who has disability such as creating an inclusive working environment so that their employees can reach their full potential. Besides, they also help the disabled employees to remove the barriers that restrict them from being work effectively and encouraging development opportunities. By developing a positive approach to employees who are disabled, Lloyds TSB adopts an equally positive approach to customers who are disabled as well. The understanding of disability provides benefits for Lloyds TSB such as retaining the staffs within the organization. In order to achieve the benefits, Lloyds has made some adjustments for the employees with disability so that they can continue to be effective in their roles. The approach has also helped Lloyds to focus on new developments for customers such as improve the training in customer service for disabled customers (The Times 100).

Diversity refers to the differences of gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and ethnicity (Equality and Diversity UK). An important part of diversity in the work place is how the company handles its diversities. This is called inclusion. Inclusion is described as an employee feel respected, accepted, supported and valued in the working. Basically, diversity is focuses more on organizational demography while inclusion is focuses more on creating an environment that enables full participation of every member in the organization (Avigdor, Braun, Konkin, Kuzmycz &Ferdman, 2007).

Lloyds TSB has a diverse working environment in terms of gender, age, disability, ethnicity and sex orientation (Lloyds TSB). They provide equality for all their staff. Equality means treating everyone as the same, regardless of their differences (Chron). According to Lloyds TSB, the number of female managers have almost doubled between 1998 and today. This shows that Lloyds TSB is promoting people based on their ability but not their gender. They have a thriving Women’s Network that provides networking and personal development opportunities. For age, Lloyds TSB recruits, train and promote people based on their strength but not age. Their staff can take flexible retirement options from the age of 55. Their staff has the rights to work until age 65 and can ask to work beyond. Besides that, Lloyds TSB provide an equal opportunity for disabled employees to get promotion as their non-disabled colleagues. They will equip them with the skills that they need to reach the senior management position. For ethnicity, Lloyds TSB will provide a leadership programme for ethnic minorities to move into the senior management position. Moreover, Lloyds TSB is also the top employer for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) people in the UK, and their best practice sexual orientation strategy was awarded first place in the 2009 Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. They provide the same entitlements for same sex partner as heterosexual partner (Lloyds TSB). All of these equalities will let their employees feel that they are being supported and accepted no matter how different they are; hence this will help to create an inclusive working environment.

Diversity is the central for Lloyds TSB to their business success. Why is diversity so important for Lloyds TSB? It is because people from different background can have different ideas and skills and this will improve the organization’s ability to deliver a better product, service and also sustainable competitive advantage. For example, the disabled employees from Lloyds can give some ideas about how to provide a better service for disabled customers based on their experience such as change the layouts of service desk to make sure that they are accessible to wheelchair users. In doing so, it will help Lloyds to retain the existing customer as well as to attract the new customers.

According to World Health Organization, disability refers to any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the range that considered normal for a human being. There are 2 types of disability, visible and invisible. Visible disability is the disabled that we can see from their appearance such as people with prosthetic leg and wheelchair. While invisible disability is the disabled that we cannot see from their appearance such as diabetes, cancer and asthma. On the other hand, there are several models of disability for example medical, charitable and social. Medical is a traditional model that views disability as illness while charitable model is views disabled people as they need helps. Lloyds TSB has promoted the social model of disability. This model describe that society is the main contributory factors for disabled people. They believed that all the impairments or limitations do not lead to disability unless the society fails to include people regardless on their individual differences (The Times 100).

Disability Discrimination Act 1995 stated the meaning of disability as “a person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment, which has a long-term or substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” The Act places a duty on the organization has to make a reasonable adjustment to accommodate the disability on an individual basis (Legislation). Lloyds TSB has made adjustments for around 4000 of its employees. They provided JAWS which stand for Job Access with Speech for employees who are blind and visual impairment. It is a screen reader programme that allows blind or visual impairment people to gain access to information on their computer in 2 different ways, convert text to speech and Braille. Through the adjustment, disabled employees are given the necessary tools and assistance to work effectively. In doing so, all employees with or without disabilities can be productive in the workplace.

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In order for Lloyds TSB to ensure disabled employees have the same opportunities for career progression as non-disabled employees, Lloyds provide a Personal Development Programe which is a 3 days course for them (The Times 100). This is a formal training which the course is led by one of the UK’s top disability consultant. This programe has helped to promote and retain the valuable staff (Lloyds TSB). Besides, Lloyds also provide a network called ACCESS for disabled employee, this network enable them to share information and received support on day-to-day issue that affects them. In addition, Lloyds approach to disability is to involve all employees. They provide brochure “positive about disability” and a disability resource toolkit for all staff. They also provide training for line manages so they can provide help, advice and support for disabled employees (The Times 100).

We believed the adjustment, training and development that provided by Lloyds TSB for disabled employees will lead them to develop a sense of organizational commitment. This theory means that the employees will be loyal to their organization, they willing to put more effort into the organization and also they will accept the goals and values of their organization. It is determined by a number of factors, including personal factors such as age and tenure in the organization as well as organizational factors such as the leadership style of their manager (Nortcraft and Neale, 1996). A research shows that the disabled employees will more likely to stay with the company because they have the difficulties in getting a job (Seek). Tang and LiPing (1999) report that there is a strong correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Another research finds that organizational commitment relates to job satisfaction (Library Philosophy and Practice, 2007). We believed the disabled employees of Lloyds TSB will satisfy with the working environment such as supportive, equality and the adjustment that provide by Lloyds TSB. When they are high job satisfaction, they will retain with company and it will lead to low turnover rate. Hence, their skills and knowledge of their fields will be keeping and it will leads to high job performance. So it will help Lloyds TSB to retain its image and increase their productivity.

IBM, also known as International Business Machine Corporation, is a multinational information technology and consulting company which practices a similar approach towards their disabled employees compared to Lloyds TSB.

IBM’s workforce diversity policy emphasis on equal opportunities. Other than making the working environment and company goals that breaks the boundaries for ethnicity, gender, age and disability, IBM also realized that inclusion can help the company to include and cover a wider pool of talents.

Since disabled people have lower self-esteem compared to the general population due to their disability, having a right job description is important for attracting them to work for IBM. For example, a vacancy for Service Delivery Manager, other than stating what the jobs that are included, requirement and preferred, there is a “Additional information” section that stated “All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.” This shows that IBM does not look at disability the same way other companies do. IBM takes people’s talents seriously, asking what you can do, rather than what you cannot do.

Physical disabilities have no problem working in IBM because IBM sees disability as a pool of talents as long as disabled workers are able to perform the jobs that they are responsible to do. Similar to Lloyds TSB’s perspective on looking disability positively, other than fulfilling the law provided by the government, IBM does something beyond that responsibility of not discriminating disabled people. IBM recruits and includes disabled people as a part of the company.

An inclusive environment of IBM helps foster employees’ involvement and also enhance disabled employees’ abilities by making computing easier. Since IBM is a multinational technology company, IBM is familiar on changing its computer and tools that makes disabled employees work easier and also faster, thus, able to compete freely among other employees that are not disabled.

Normal changes that IBM embraces to make disabled employees feel more comfortable which are providing a lift with lowered buttons for motor impaired employees that are using wheel chair, providing lift buttons with brail for visually impaired employees and enlargement of front sizes on screens and printed materials for visually impaired or low visual clarity employees. Other than the environment changes, IBM provides a change in the use of software to help disabled employees to be able to assess to better work competitiveness. In IBM, JAWS (Job Access with Speech) is also used by blind or visually impaired employees. It is the exact same software that used by Lloyds TSB. JAWS is a text-to-speech software which helps visually disabled employees to able to get information from their computers by the output of sounds or speech. Other than using JAWS, IBM also uses speech-to-text technology software called Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance. This speech-to-text software is the opposite of JAWS, which helps motor impaired employees who are unable to use a keyboard, to provide input to the computer by just saying what they want to key in.

In order to make disabled employees feel that they are being cared and be a part of the company, IBM provides mentoring program that take care of disabled employees’ well being. IBM’s mentoring program is similar to Lloyds TSB’s Personal Development Program; the goal of the program is to let disabled employees realized that there are talents in them rather than just focus on their disability. By doing so, disabled employees are able to feel positive and enable them to explore their talents further by focusing on their talents and abilities. Positive thinking is important for disabled employees because they are exposing to a working environment that includes other workers that are not disabled, therefore, by strengthen their positive thinking, disabled employees are able to compete better in the work place.

Moreover, IBM also provides a network for disabled employees in the form of forums. Similar to the network provided by Lloyds TSB to its disabled employees – ACCESS, IBM’s forums are specially created for the blind, deaf, and mobility impaired employees. These forums are paired with assisting software to help the disabled employees to access and use these forums. The concept for these forums is simple: which is to enable disabled employees to coach each other regarding to issues at work and also able to share ideas that could help them work better or feel better. Other than sharing issues at work, disabled workers also allowed to share free ideas and issues outside of work. By providing these forums, IBM’s disabled employees are able to feel that they belongs to a social group, giving themselves identity and a sense of self, thus, increasing their self-esteem and confidence.

Other than fulfilling company’s social responsibility that are imposed by the government, as I mentioned earlier, changes that IBM makes in its work place and technology helps disabled employees to work more easily, because of the experience of taking care of disabled employees, IBM also take this experience and deal with disabled customers to meet their consumer satisfaction. IBM established the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center that helps people to access to information technology easier by changing the formats of any type of software which include IBM’s customers.

IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center makes information technologies and also information in other formats with the complement of assistive software that is easily accessible to people who have visual, auditory and motor disabilities by applying IBM’s own research technologies. One of the assistive software is voice recognition software. It is software that helps the users to resize window’s panes and change background color for better contrast by reading the webpage aloud. By doing so, more people in the world are able to access to information technology without boundaries. IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center is now operating in seven worldwide offices: Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan and the United States.

Merck & Co. is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. The company was established in 1891. Merck & Co. believes that diversity is the power of differences. The company believes that having a diverse and inclusive workforce makes the company more innovative, agile and attuned to customers’ needs. The company provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified job applicants disregarding their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability.

Similar to Lloyds TSB and IBM, Merck & Co.’s policy seeks to create a work environment that attracts the best people and provides them with the opportunities to develop and advance. Moreover, as a social responsibility, Merck & Co. ensures that it continues to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local law, such as Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Merck & Co. has partnered with Hire Heroes, U.S.A, a charitable organization that provides employment opportunities nationwide to disabled veterans, to create a more inclusive recruitment. By doing so, disabled veterans are able to have opportunities to work, develop and earn a living after they’re disabled due to war or training.

For training and development program, Merck & Co. develop training materials that reflect to its commitments to diversity. Every employee in Merck has a opportunities to participate in interactive programs that emphasize the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In Merck, other than providing training and an inclusive workplace, Merck & Co. also has supporting networks that helps all employees. These networks are created differently to suit employees’ needs. These networks are called Employee Resource Groups. For disabled employees, they would refer to Disability Advisory Council. This Employee Resource Groups helps foster professional development, find informal mentors, participate in teams within and across work groups, and serve as an educational and cultural resource for other employees and business groups at Merck.

There are two main theories that we found, which are suitable to apply to the companies that we explained regarding the ways they make disabled workers work easier and maintaining their psychological well-being. These theories are: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and also self-efficacy. For Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we will be focusing on belonging and esteem needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, is a model of hierarchy of needs that determine a person’s motivation based on their fulfilled needs. In the case of Lloyds TSB’s, IBM’s and also Merck’s disabled employees, belonging needs is fulfilled. Every human being has the desire to belong to something and being recognized. Since these companies provide equal opportunities, disabled employees are able to feel that they are recognized as a part of the companies by receiving rewards by having the same opportunities to show off their talents and use the talents to achieve company’s tasks or goals. Moreover, Lloyds TSB and IBM provide supporting networks for the disabled employees. By doing so, disabled employees are able to come together and share their point of views and issue in their work place and also at home. This create a sense of belonging to the disabled workers by forming an identity that belongs to a particular social group, thus, increasing their self-esteem and also self-confident. After belonging needs are fulfilled, the desire for esteem needs arise. People want the sense of recognition in things that they did in order to feel satisfied and have the sense of accomplishment. Abraham Maslow identified 2 types of esteem needs, which are lower esteem needs and higher esteem needs. For fulfilling lower esteem needs, the desire for higher esteem needs would develop in the long-run after lower esteem needs are fulfilled.

When a person’s work has been recognized and praised, that person would be motivated to deliver more positive results. In the long-run, the recognition of work serve as an intrinsic motivation that makes that person move on and deliver more positive outcome. The internal state of motivation also comes in the form of self-recognition, which is a higher esteem that knowing what kind of tasks a person can achieve. This internal state of motivation – higher esteem, also applies to disabled workers. Since disabled workers are exposed to a working environment that allows themselves to explore their talents freely, the intrinsic motivation is important for them to work in the long-run. This internal state of higher esteem needs would develop after the lower esteem needs are fulfilled. After a disabled worker has been praised about his or her good work, in the long-run, that disabled worker would have self-esteem – the higher esteem that knowing what he or she can do. This higher esteem is fulfilled after that particular person knowing how to self-respect, develop self-esteem, and also be competent.

On the other hand, after the belonging needs and esteem needs are fulfilled, self-efficacy would develop. Self-efficacy is known as one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations. The concept is to emphasize the role of observational learning and also social experiences that lead to self-efficacy. An individual’s actions and reaction in almost every situation is influenced by the actions which that individual has observed in others. In the case of Lloyd TSB, IBM, and also Merck & Co., disabled workers, higher esteem needs are fulfilled in certain extend. After fulfilling this self-esteem, the disabled workers would realize that in certain situations, their skills would be exploiting to the fullest and achieve a particular goals. For the case of visual impaired workers, since self-efficacy emphasis about observational learning and social experiences, visually impaired workers can also achieve self-efficacy once they are aware of what is going on around them and through working experiences. Thus, self-efficacy is developed from external experiences and self- perception and is influential in determining the outcome of many events.

Conclusion

People often overlook that disability is a part of diversity and inclusion process for a company rather than focuses on gender and ethnicity. Every human has talents despite of their appearance, and in the case of disabled people, they are talented in their own ways. A company can include disabled people into their workforce so that a pool of talents is explored and not wasted. Companies should improve their working environment to enable disabled workers to improve and work more efficiently compared to other workers. Moreover, companies should also provide training for disabled workers, just like Lloyds TSB, IBM and Merck & Co., these companies provide training for disabled employees and make sure they realized and explore their talents rather than looking at themselves as disabled and a burden to the society.

Since workers’ well-being is important in order to maintain job satisfaction, companies should also provide a supporting network especially for disabled workers to support each other and coach each other. By setting up these supporting networks, disabled employees are able to have that sense of belonging to a particular social group, thus knowing that the companies care about them and acknowledge them as a part of the companies.

All these changes for disabled workers would eventually helps a company to grow further and beyond expectations. Other than earning profits, reputation and trust among workers are built due to fairness of the company to its employees.

Last but not least, most importantly, we agreed with the changes that those companies made (Lloyds TSB, IBM and Merck & Co.), they are the role models for providing the right environment and atmosphere for disabled people to find meanings and explore their skills and talents in the industrial and organization world, that we think any other companies should follow.

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