Discuss The Ways In Which Diversity Confers A Competitive Advantage

If your company actively assesses the handling of diversity, and develops and implements diversity plans, your organization will reap the benefits. Benefits of diversity can range from small to enormous, depending on how your organization plans, implements and manages diversity. Your company may increase its ' adaptability with your organizations ' diverse workforce supplying a greater variety of solutions to problems such as service, sourcing, and resources allocation. A diverse workforce

For an enterprise to become diverse, it has to concentrate on its internal workforce. A worst practice in diversity is by initiating a corporate diversity effort focused on customers and external public relations. It leads to false expectations. Focus of diversity initially should be on internal culture. A dedicated and motivated diverse workforce will automatically lead an organization to diverse society. There can be many factors that motivate organizations of all sizes to diversify their workforces. Legal requirement of non discrimination is a major cause but then there are few organizations which make their workforce diverse taking it as a social responsibility. The diversity may be adopted for economic payback, particularly through initiatives like welfare-to-work, thereby effectively turning tax users into tax payers. Companies may be motivated towards diversity for many other reasons like resource imperative, or as a marketing strategy. It can also be used as a capacity building

When an organization partakes in “proactive behavior…for the benefit of society,” it is deemed as socially responsible (P. 155). However, prior to labeling a organization as socially responsible, it is important that we first identify what specific elements of proactive behavior constitute a socially responsible business. To begin, for an organization to be considered socially responsible on the highest level, it must take a proactive approach to doing business. This is defined as “[taking a] approach to social responsibility in which an organization goes beyond industry norms to solve and prevent problems” (P.155). In addition, it is standard for a socially responsible organization to incorporate a larger scope of stakeholders, to include external stakeholders, in their business decisions to create positive externalities, and mitigate negative ones, to benefit society as a whole.

First off, the population of the world isn’t just one type of people therefore having a diverse work group will allow for business to be conducted with a wider segment of the population. Being able to provide a goods or a service to a wider segment of the population directly impacts sales and company profits especially when starting to cut out its own niche’ in a new market. Having a diverse group of people working for you translates into a larger customer base and a larger language ability as well as knowing customs and traditions of other groups of people. Repeat business will increase as ones customer base increases. Being a diverse company is simply good

Employing employees from a more diverse culture, a background can bring more talent and new ideas within processes to increase the organisation to an advantage to make it more productive which could be also an advantage.

Many factors contribute to a diverse workforce this maximises the potential of all employees, which benefits the organisation reaching its goals both internally and externally.

The impact of diversity is a successful learning experience for companies, and is equally as important to a company as its mission statement because of the educational and work ethics of its employees. Awareness and knowledge of diversity in addition to the similarities that humans possess can build relationships between employees and employers. Diversity helps employees and employers to be well educated and informed as to what forms a person’s values, attitudes, and behaviors.

The U.S population is known for its diverse nature and blends of various colors in day to day life. Most of the population we see around consist a lot of immigrants. Even in the early history of United States, besides the Native American Indians, a major part of population was immigrants. The heritage of American history is frequently seen in downtown china town of small city to the metropolitan New York. The diversity is immersed in all roots on United States. When the individuals of different backgrounds come together, work together and there is gradual gain of more knowledge. Someone who is raised in mountains of Himalayas will be far different from someone raised in hungry. Almost all ethnicities are present in United States and almost cover the entire globe in count. When new people come together, there is rise in new ideas, creativity, mechanics, artwork, culture and food on top of all.

The general line of reasoning is that if we learn to incorporate each other’s diverse traits and characteristics in the workplace, we can then use these differences to foster an innovative environment, which will give the company a competitive advantage over the competitors that do not accept workforce diversity. According to the Allied Academies International Conference, “Diversity is rapidly becoming a common practice among companies due to the increasing number of minorities entering the job market today. As these groups become more prevalent throughout companies, upper-level employees are facing numerous challenges when determining what changes must take place to create a positive working environment for everyone. Management is responsible for the development and implementation of effective policies directly relating to diversity to ensure the acceptance of minorities into the workplace and to aid in minorities’ success through equal opportunities and treatment.” (Marcia L. James, 2001, Academy for Studies in International Business Proceedings)

It creates a level of respect and promotes communication. A diverse organization encourages the breaking down of barriers, promotes communication, effective business solutions and customer relations. Diversity can be a competitive differentiator, in both employment and customer markets. A diverse organization can foster innovation and creativity in a comfortable and safe environment.

Over the last several years, corporations have become increasingly focused on social responsibility. This is when the firm will engage in practices that are designed to promote and address areas that are of social interest. To include: sustaining the environment, the standard of living inside communities and improving the quality of the life in different neighborhoods. The main reason why most organizations are engaging in these kinds of activities is to favorably standout with: customers, regulators and other stakeholders. (Farrell, 2012, pp. 73 81)

With the changing demographics of the U.S. workforce (Ng & Burke, 2005) and the need for organizations to continually innovate their products and services to remain competitive, embracing diversity and the benefits its brings is going to be key to driving a successful organization

There are many ways that diversity can be summarized into. There are many companies that are currently not as diverse as they should be. Energizer is a very diverse company and will continue to grow into a more diverse company. “As we strive ahead into the future, recognizing, understanding and celebrating our differences and similarities will be what powers us ahead of the competition and strengthens us not only as individuals, but also as a team.” (Energizer Steering

Sustainable business has become a crucial factor in the long term prosperity of a business due to a paradigm shift in societal, environmental and corporate values. According to Hawken et al (2000) and Reid (2014), radical changes have occurred within the corporate world from the agrarian era (extensive use of human capital) to the industrial era (profit maximisation at the expense of natural capital) and to the ‘digital’ era or more precisely, ‘the sustainable development era’ (concerned with value creation and the triple bottom line principles). Corporate social responsibility is viewed as a force for good by the various stakeholders of an organisation, including environmental pressure groups.

They are increasingly aware that Social responsibility can be of direct economic value.  Companies can contribute to social and environmental objectives, through integrating Social responsibility as a strategic investment into their core business strategy, management instruments and operations.   This is an investment, not a cost, much like quality management.  So, business organizations can thereby have an inclusive financial, commercial and social approach, leading to a long term strategy minimizing risks linked to uncertainty.