Running Head: DIVERSITY, IN OUR
Diversity in Our World, Good or Bad
Renee Richardson
Employee/Employer Relations
Professor Bagwell
December 3, 2008
Abstract
Diversity is a wider concept than just ethnicity, race and gender. Other unique characteristics such as age, culture, style, education, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation also contribute to diversity. Promoting workforce diversity is difficult for organizations especially the larger ones. If conflicts can be controlled performance and productivity may be increased. There are also many advantages to diversity especially in the workplace. We can all gain if we learn how to accept and
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What these people were experiencing is known as cultural shock. Because we often look at a person differences instead of the similarities there are many issues in dealing with diversity such as disabilities, physical appearances, and personal habits. Promoting workforce diversity is difficult for organizations especially the larger ones. A large issue is the increase of conflicts because people of different groups may see things differently. These conflicts often arise because of prejudice, not wanting to accept those that are different, or just plain old ignorance. Sometimes these conflicts come from one feeling superior and if these conflicts are not addressed by management they may cause overall performance to suffer. Employees that feel valued will work harder but those feeling out place may not be as productive. If conflicts can be controlled performance and productivity may be increased. Although diversity training can be a disadvantage it may also be an advantage. There are also many advantages to diversity especially in the workplace. Increased creativity and productivity can make the company stronger and more competitive. Integrating various cultures in the workplace will help people better understand and accept that we all are different. Different cultures bring different ideas,
Benefits of a high workplace diversity environment is it not being stuck to conformity in group thinking, or being narrow-minded with similar thoughts and having preference to only be around people who think like you do which is known as the “diversity paradox”. According to a quote stated from Friedrich Nietzsche, Hackett (2014) “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently” (p. 415). Instead, it reiterates the importance of having a diverse workplace because it constructs better ideas, coming from different minds, and build upon each other through brainstorming. However, a poor workplace diversity can also adversely affect one’s motivation, which leads to overall job dissatisfaction and demotivation. When there is poor workplace diversity, you can see less communication barriers and cultural resistance, but it also makes it harder for individuals to get used to working with others that aren’t the same as them. This can become a form of adversity for businesses if their employees cannot develop a strong skill set to adapt with not only coworkers but also customers in the environment. Therefore, better communication and interaction skills are essential to promoting a business and making it successful.
Diversity in the organization can affect the employees and their behavior in many ways. The effect can be positive and negative in the same time. The positive effect is, it will wider employee knowledge, skills, and attitude which will allow the organization to become more competitive globally. Higher diversity of employees mean higher diversity of knowledge, skills and abilities. Sharing experience inspires innovative thinking (Claudia Quaiser-Pohls, 2013, p. 41). Today in the modern workplace, most organizations will have
* Greater diversity leads to greater innovation and productivity which is crucial in being successful on the market. It encourages different perspectives and ideas whilst fostering innovation as well as ability to come up with wider range of solutions to a business problems and challenges. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/fred.zimny/forbes-innovation-through-diversity?related=1 (Accessed:13th October 2015)
As it mentioned in the class lecture, typically, workplace diversity is the presence of individuals who are different by race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and sexual preference. This topic shows us about how to deal with diversity
Today, due to the different demographics, and the increase of women, and minority joining the workforce also with the immigration. More organizations recognize diversity in a workplace. For example, for continuous improvement, the organizations recruit diverse group as individuals some with innovative minds. I understand that employers open to diversity allow employees to be flexible and favorable to innovation. Again, a diverse environment brings different skills, talent and culture that can profit business. For instance, an employee that can connect with customers from various background and culture brings business opportunity. Furthermore, an organization that values diversity and utilizes it has an edge to compete and positions itself in the marketplace (Rice, n.d.).
The importance of having diversity in today’s work world has never in the history been more crucial. A lot of companies and their CEO’s are finding ways in include diversity by creating different types of jobs and duties and in efforts of being more inclusive. The article stated that the companies that are creating more jobs in effort to be more inclusive are the companies that will end up surviving and being successful in today’s challenging professional world. Change is occurring, change or
Diversity at a workplace includes people from different ages, cultural backgrounds, ethnicities and genders to be managed by supervisors in order to serve as one branch of an organization. Below are some of the advantages of diversity. Employees and Managers are admired by business communities if they strive to increase diversity throughout the workforce. This is because diversity encourages the participation of everyone i.e. majority and minority groups that are a part of the population. However, companies do face challenges when managing diversity in the workplace.
Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. Workplace diversity is about acknowledging differences and adapting work practices to create an inclusive environment in which diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds are valued. It is about understanding the individual differences in the people we work with that arise from a broad range of backgrounds and lifestyles, and recognizing the value of using those different perspectives, ideas and ways of working to enhance the quality and outcomes of work. Our diversity is shaped by a variety of characteristics including age, ethnicity, gender, disability, language,
As companies become more diverse in the work field employees are getting harder to manage and understand. One issue in the global market today is workplace diversity. Workplace diversity is defined as all characteristics and experiences that defined each employee as individuals, but it can also be misunderstood as discrimination against employees. Diversity can include race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability and sexual orientation discrimination. One reason why workplace diversity is important is because when you respect your employees productivity rate rises and many companies do not know that. A diverse workplace targets to create an inclusive culture that values and uses the talents of all employees.
Diversity is no longer exclusive to recognizable differences such as race, gender, and culture; diversity now includes the viewpoints and methods of observable and unobservable variances a group offers to the workplace (Hewins-Maroney & Williams, 2013). Multicultural work environments add to the complexity of a diverse workforce because the units consist of three or more
Workforce diversity includes the obvious differences we see when we look around: race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, age, religion and ethnicity. But it’s also the less obvious traits, the subtle differences that often register with us unconsciously, such as socioeconomic status, marital status, educational background, language, accent and appearance. We all have something that makes us unique, some special talent or ability that we bring to the table that differentiates us from our colleagues. That’s diversity at its best.
Diversity has a very important impact on organization behavior because it is the source of innovation and it creates a competitive advantage among employees. On the global level, it helps to enhance the acceptance of differences, decrease turnover and leads to less lawsuits. From the information and decision making theory side, diversity results in better task-relevant processes and decision making.
Diversity in the workplace means bringing together people of different ethnic backgrounds, religions and age groups into a cohesive and productive unit. Advances in communication technology, such as the Internet and cellular phones, have made the marketplace a more global concept. In order to survive, a company needs to be able to manage and utilize its diverse workplace effectively. Managing diversity in the workplace should be a part of the culture of the entire organization.
Diversity can be defined as the differences among the people working in the same workplace. Those differences can be related to gender, race, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, culture or personalities.
diversity is a work place where we find a range of following elements such as national difference- different language , religion , social status and sometime age also can be included in diversity . Managing diversity is very different job but if we manage diversity effectively then no one can gain competitive advantages. But if we fail then we have to be ready for facing the difficulties.