Diversity In The Workplace

The World is a diverse place; changing demographics, globalization and generational gaps. Diversity is the mix of people who make your organization. The workforce, including leadership should represent and look like the community in which business is conducted. Work place diversity is the key to survival and growth and is an essential business tool. Diversity promotes inclusion within and across business units and help all employees understand and respect individual differences and the value of everyone’s unique talents. Different types of people bring different talents and competencies to the table. Inclusion allows people to be themselves at work and letting them know they are valued regardless of their age, gender,

This paper is the first part of a training manual that will help employees to have a better understanding of diversity in the work place and how to act towards different diversity issues that may arise in the workplace. It will also give current statistics and recent trends of the demographics in the United States as well as the forecasted trends. Also included will be a rough outline of the entire contents of the manual and the table of contents for the manual.

Diversity and demographics at your job determine how the business will run. The main purpose of this paper is to

The first factor that is increasing the diversity in the U.S workplace is welcoming social diversity meaning to recruit talented workers of both sexes, racial and culture backgrounds. The potential of employees requires meeting the needs of women and other minorities, which may not be the same as white men’s. The second factor is that the businesses must develop a way to deal with the tensions that are in the work place from social differences, which means they will have to work harder to make sure that everyone is treated equally and respectfully by having no tolerance for sexual or racial harassment. The third and last factor is that these

I spend the majority of my time in the WeViva office, working very closely with the WeViva staff. I am very fortunate to be working with a group of staff members that are extremely respectful, organized, friendly, and overall professional. I have not encounter any problems with any of them and I do not expect for any conflict to arise in the duration of my internship.

Franz Boas said, “If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.” Your parents’ prosperity and fortune does not determine the level of opulence that you are able to achieve in your life, neither does the color of your skin. The meaning of equality is that two or more things are the same or identical. Even if they have one or two characteristics that are equal they will not have equivalent qualities. People think that others have the advantage when they really do not. If one thinks another has an unfair advantage and that they should be blessed with the same advantage, they need to realize that an advantage isn’t really an advantage. When one person is

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)

Diverse employees bring a wealth of creativity, insights, and skills to their jobs; it is up to employers to recognize, cultivate, and value these contributions (Walton, Sally, 1994). Diversity is about setting a mindset of valuing the differences in people and recognizing the similarities, it is not only about achieving results. Once this way of thinking is established, the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace tend to come naturally, (Goessl, Leigh 2008). Diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more, (Greenberg, Josh 2004)

The changing composition of the labor force, in terms of ethnicity and gender, has driven businesses and organizations to reconsider their views on diversity in the workplace. In the past, American businesses have sought a workplace uniformity of workers who shared the same values, beliefs, and attitudes about work and the organization they worked for. They also believed that individuals with differences should be eliminated (Root, 2014). For many years, Corporate America adopted the “white male” model for the workplace. Managers used those who already held positions in the organization as role models, since they possessed the appropriate skills and behaviors required for these positions. These jobs were typically held by white males, and newcomers to the organization were required to possess or at least adopt skills and behaviors exhibited by those already there. This view implied that minorities and women possessed

Many outstanding articles, books, journals and papers have been written regarding the topic of workforce diversity. Some are relatively short papers such as Diversity in the Workplace published by the University of Florida, and seek to provide the reader with a basic understanding of what is meant by workplace diversity, as well as the potential benefits to both employers and employees alike. Other resources can be significantly more in-depth and explore subtopics of workplace diversity including the effects of marriage on work place attitudes, or how to effectively manage the cultural and demographic differences within a firm’s labor pool. Information regarding generalities in different cultures around the globe is also available as a resource for those seeking to understand customs in mannerisms and body language across varying cultures. In addition to the many websites and literature available to employers, there are also companies such as Big World Inc., whose does business under the name of Diversity Resources, offers training tools and services geared towards providing customized solutions for firms wishing to outsource training programs for employees including harassment, conflict resolution, international team building, gender bias or any one of a number of other topics related to diversity.

The topic of diversity is an ever-growing discussion to encourage inclusion of different people, cultures, and backgrounds into the global marketplace. In my issue paper, I will explore the idea of diversity, its benefits, and how it can be included within key sectors of the business world. Diversity is an important factor to the business place that allows employees and customers to interact with companies that value their background as an essential part of their business plan company culture.

With market globalization and international competition, firms have come to realise that a diverse workplace is a strong competitive advantage in today’s markets. It helps to attract

Cultural diversity is defined as “The existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society” (Oxford, 2017). Within the workplace there have been a trend towards promoting diversity by maintaining a workforce with workers differ in area such as race, sexual orientation, age, and gender. This is often times a daunting and difficult task for management. Effective communication can be challenging for diverse groups. Language barriers for example may cause confusion leading to conflict. Another risk to implementing diversity in the workplace is that some employees feel that individuals may have gained their respective position unjustly. Conversely, differing employees may feel out of place and not assimilate well with the rest of the group (Kirby & Richard, 2000). Promoting cultural diversity is not just relegate to the hiring of diverse individuals; rather the organization must also seek to create and maintain policies, procedures, training, and even incentives to truly cultivate a positive culturally diverse environment (Patrick and Kumar 2012). With all the time, money, and effort necessary to create and maintain a diverse work environment, leaders are left wondering what if any, benefits can be gained by promoting cultural diversity.

The need to understand diversity is also driven by women in the workplace. Today's workforce has the highest levels of employment participation ever by women. The number of dual income families and single working mothers has increased. Change in the family structure means that there are fewer men and women in traditional family roles (Zweigenhaft and Domhoff, 1998). Therefore, diversity issues cut across both race and gender.

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.