Diversity : An Organization's Success And Competitiveness

Over the past 25 years, society has shifted dramatically in a new direction. The demographic makeup of the United States continues to change drastically. Because of this change, everyone will be required to become increasingly aware of the people in their surroundings. Some may argue that diversity is based on gender, sex, creed, origin, or some other form of tangible trait however; diversity is much more than that. The American Nurses Association produces the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. This publication has written several scholarly articles about diversity and healthcare. The article, Many Faces, Campinha-Bacote, states “Diversity. It is a word that means something different to each and every person”. What a great definition. As I continue to do research I am seeing more and more information about diversity and other people’s definition of what it is. One website I came across while compiling this research included http://www.diversityrx.org/ This particular site is devoted to providing resources to the community and healthcare employees about trends in diversity. This website is for anyone interested in cultural diversity issues. Healthy People 2010, is a ten-year

The purpose of this paper is designed to introduce, educate, and promote diversity within your company. Your company will be shown the merits of diversity and how diversity within your organization can be a benefit. This paper will be broken down into three main areas: Benefits of Diversity, Challenges of Diversity, and Recommendations for an effective diversity within your organization..

When helping clients, it is important to be aware that diversity issues may be encountered everywhere. According to Barker (2003) diversity is defined as, “Variety, or the opposite of homogeneity…usually refers to the range of personnel who more accurately represent minority populations and people from varied backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and viewpoints,” (pg. 126).

Diversity and inclusion are critical strategies for any organization that wants to be successful in business. Organizations cannot expect for diversity and inclusion to appear and work smoothly within the workplace automatically. Diversity and inclusion is a journey that companies must take to reap the rewards of being a truly global business. There are eight steps that organizations can apply to their workplace that will make diversity and inclusion a smooth and fun journey. Organizations can start the inclusion process by first learning the eight steps to inclusion in the workplace.

Diversity is an ongoing discussion in day-to-day life. Not many situations occur without diversity having a role. There are a multitude of topics that introduces or involves diversity, to include age, sex, race, gender, ethnicity and so on. Prior to participating in this Diversity Awareness class, I’ve always thought diversity was more geared around discrimination and racism. Through weekly readings and discussions, I have discovered that diversity is much broader than that. There are many countries that are mixed culturally

Diversity is what makes people different, not just culturally but in human differences. Having a multitude of differences in the workforce gives an organization the ability to use many ideas to reach a common goal. A person could say that a diverse group of people together in one room can accomplish greater achievements than a room filled with the same types of individuals. Managers understand the concept of diversity, and how important diversity is to the success of a company’s ability to implement programs that continue to develop a harmonious and diverse workplace. The recognition that diversity is a reality in the workforce has generated an enormous amount of activity over the years among leaders in business, government, and civil

Today’s management in the workforce is composed of all types of people verses thirty years ago when white males held a majority of upper-management positions in companies. These positions are now held by a mixture of ethnic back grounds and women who hold just as many if not more management positions then men. Just by looking at the changes in management demographics shows how important it is for people to understand cultural competency in the workplace. Dr. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. (1999) stated, “Diversity is the collective mixture of whomever we have in our workforce characterized by their differences and similarities” (p.11). Managers and supervisors must understand the characteristics of a diversity mature individual; they also need to be

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)

The world's increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity

The face of business has been changing very rapidly from national to global environment over the years through technological advancements (McFarlin & Sweeney, 2013, p. 4). Emerging markets in developing countries continue to provide tremendous business opportunities for big corporations and multinational companies (McFarlin & Sweeney, 2003, pp. 5-6). Consequently, many business organizations have begun incorporating strategic measures in their operations to align with the changing demands of a diverse global market. They acknowledge the fact that modern business opportunities have grown beyond national walls. However, there is no absolute guarantee that setting up international business ventures will automatically lead to better financial performance of a firm. It comes with a challenge – the challenge of incorporating workforce diversity and managing it efficiently with a view to achieving steady growth in productivity, revenue and profitability. Recognizing the enormous challenges of cultural differences and ideologies in cross-national business environments, McLauren (2009) believes that diversity management “needs to be seen as the business plan, essential to successful products and increased sales. This is essentially true in today’s global

Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.

Globalization, and the need for an improved economic integration, has led to increased cultural diversity of organisations’ fundamental values and also among individual employees of an organization. Globalization can be defined as a process by which national and regional economies, cultures and societies become integrated through a world network of trade, communications, transportation and immigration (Beck, 2000). For organisations to succeed in the increasingly competitive global stage there must be diversity leadership; a change is necessary from the traditional leadership values and norms. This is because to manage diversity is more than just acknowledging the difference in people. The concept of diversity therefore

In response to the growing diversity in the workforce around the world, many companies have instituted specific policies and programs to enhance recruitment, inclusion, promotion, and retention of employees who are different from the privileged echelons of society. The privileged groups may vary from one country to the next. The workforce of the world is a dynamic environment, and in order for this dynamism to be put to use for the benefit of organizations, they must develop an effective strategy for managing diversity. Global Diversity Management refers to the voluntary organizational actions that are designed to create greater inclusion of employees from various backgrounds into the formal and informal organizational

Past experiences have demonstrated that cultural diversity in an organization can lead to issues. For instance, the implementation of a strategy in a context different from where it has been created can be difficult, conflicts between subsidiaries and the headquarters can exist, or management of intercultural teams can be problematic. Walmart in Germany is a relevant example of the cultural context importance when it comes to HRM. In fact, in 1997 and 1998, Walmart acquired two companies in Germany but it was a failure. It can be explained by the fact that feedback of the employees was ignored by managers. For example, in the morning they had to do exercise while singing the name of the brand. This practice may be a morale booster in the United States but in Germany it was seen in a really bad way, such as the practice of spying on colleagues, what can surely be related to the country’s history, among others examples. The US management practices was not in accordance with the German cultural context. (Macaray, 2011)

Many opportunities are associated with a culturally diverse workplace and global expansion may have potential to provide just such a diverse work group. Cross-culturalism in business can provide leaders and employees with a wonderful opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures. In addition, “the more opportunities for business leaders to interact with people from different cultures, the more likely they will be to have positive attitudes from different cultures and identify, learn and apply diverse culturally-appropriate business behaviors” (Caligiuri & Tarique, 2012, p. 614). Culturally diverse environments offer a multitude of benefits including “the variety of perspectives, skills and personal attributes” (Matveeve & Nelson, 2004, p. 254). Moreover, multicultural teams have potential to “generate more ideas of higher quality in brainstorming tasks” (Matveeve &