Diversity in the workforce nurtures innovation and competitiveness in industry, commerce and business, as well as consistently illustrating that diversity drives innovation and fosters creativity. In a Forbes survey, 85 percent of respondents said diversity is an essential part for their businesses. Approximately 75 percent indicated that their corporations will put more emphasis during the next three years to influence diversity to accomplish their business objectives (Sophia, 2012). The undesirable element of all this is that many third world countries scowl upon uniqueness in social and scholastic settings, inhibiting workers from obtaining success in the U.S. market or even worse, discharged for not contributing to the corporations growth …show more content…
United States corporations intend to expand further in the international market. Improved competition means that U.S. companies will be competing with multinationals from around the globe. This amplified globalization will raise new challenges for U.S. companies when they consider how to train people interacting with clients and wholesalers around the world (Kochan, Bezrukova, Ely, Jackson, Joshi, Jehn, 2003). Diversity means that organizations must utilize the talents of people from all over the world in order to remain competitive. The impression will be that societies working together in the near future will be less alike, in regards to, gender, cultural background, and age, than they have ever been. Corporations face an even more diverse workforce, making effective management and training of diverse individuals’ tremendously challenging (Brown, 1973, Gardenswartz, Rowe, 2001). One of the challenges of working with such a diverse world population is cultural and religious values. Can the U.S. accommodate a strong religious faith based world labor market or tolerate the excessively long holiday breaks China workers enjoy? Working with diverse populations means setting aside ones cultural standards and adopting a more real world view of what it means to be a corporation in today’s global market. Letting go of biases and discrimination for the benefit of increasing presence in the world …show more content…
Many corporations will develop diversity work teams as a competitive strategy in order for corporations in the U.S. to become competitive organizations that produce high quality products and services. This high quality production and services will only transpire if U.S. corporations have effective work teams consisting of people who differ in ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, and numerous other categories of uniqueness. A well-managed diversity team will lead to effective diversity work teams that understand their labor differences, trust in each other, and value each member of the team (Lombardo, N.D). When managed effectively, employees offer potential for innovating, increasing creativity, developing collaboration and commitment to work and diversity is respected and supported. Issues that need revamping before business can call this a triumph would be that diversity training faces a number of issues as it evolves as an important element of many companies’ overall human resource and business policies. Key issues include the nonexistence of effective measurement tools, gaining clarity with desired outcomes, and assessing the aptness and effectiveness of technology-driven methods team (Lombardo,
Diversity is a wonderful asset to an organization and brings with it many benefits. Employees bring in their own personal experiences and knowledge to the team (Burns & Kerby, 2012). Having diverse teams allows for the possibility to fix a problem or perfect a process by using different employee’s experiences and past knowledge to find solutions. A diverse workforce can drive economic growth and capture a greater share of the consumer market (Burns & Kerby, 2012). With diversity as a core value, the recruitment pool is widened to find the most qualified candidate and reduces employee turnover as a result. An organization can be highly competitive with a diversity initiative by adapting to a changing environment (Burns & Kerby, 2012).
As we enter the new millenium, diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Businesses and organizations are living up to the great melting pot image the United States has always been popular for. Employees now reflect a diversity of cultural perspectives, ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, physical abilities, and levels of education. This wave of multiculturalism is here to stay and cannot be ignored. It is in need of attention in order to uphold the well-being and success of businesses and organizations all over the country.
The workforce in America today is enhanced with a significant mix of genders, race, religion, age and other background factors. For a business to be successful long term demands for a diverse range of talent that can bring perspective, fresh ideas and opinions to their work. The challenge of diversity is allowing managers to make the most out of different cultural backgrounds, lifestyles, plus different genders and ages to answer to different business opportunities more creatively and promptly. Diversity has changed in a way that the issue is no longer just male or female and black and white. It is greatly complex now. It is many things but it is greatly about the way we connect, emphasize and interact with different individuals. The advantages
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
I find it interesting that diversity is such an issue in technology companies. According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the estimated size of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce is expected to increase by 18% in the next ten years, (non-STEM increasing by 12%), reaching to 8.7 million by 2018 alone. Forbes hypothesizes that if current hiring trends continue, STEM jobs will be "largely unavailable" to women and minorities, who combine to make up over half of the U.S. population (Newlands, 2016).
In order to investigate that what will it take for organizations to reap the real and full benefits of a diverse workforce, a research effort taken by the article author’s team. In order to understand three management challenges for Diversity, it conducted its research over a period of six years. The challenges undertaken were:
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)
America's past should teach America's today that success lies within diversity. In order to achieve ultimate success, diversity is a necessity. Workforce diversity is a fact of organizational life. It is also a key concern for theory and practice in organizational behavior ( van-Knippenberg, De-Dreu, Homan, 2004).
Diversity is one of the most important aspects of an organization. According to Webster’s Dictionary, diversity is “the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.” The effort must be put forth to create and maintain a diverse work environment. The process is not over at the hiring
From our research, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity that people embrace, each with different implications for a work group’s ability to realize the benefits of its cultural diversity. We use these observations here to examine critically some of the themes and basic assumptions of previous research and to propose new directions for both researchers and practitioners interested in diversity (Ely &Thomas, 2001). When organizations have a diverse economy, it makes the company strong. Once our nation has embrace the changes from the demographics that reap the economic benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. Burns et al. (2012) stated in their investigation that:
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
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
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.
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
Diversity in workforce “include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience”(Thomas 1992). Diversity in the workforce is initially perceived as a response toward the increasing diversity of the consumers in the market (Agocs & Burr, 1996). From there, it has been observed that capitalizing on existing differences among the employees provide benefits to the organization. Diversity in workforce fosters and encourages