Abstract
Diversity must be created and maintained with in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of diversity onto an organization in addition to explaining the legally mandated and stakeholder driven explanations for mandatory diversity.
Diversity’s Impact on Organizations Diversity within an organization is a blending of people from various cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. Diversity has challenged organizations to set realistic goals for its leaders as well as its employees. The organization must look at the moral, ethical and social responsibilities it has toward its employees and understand their legal obligations set by laws. It is important for
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Gender The number of women entering the workforce has increased over the years. To reap the benefits of gender diversity and create an inclusive workplace organizations are developing flexible employment approaches. Flexible employment approaches include arrangements that allow job sharing so that employees are better able to care for their children or flexible employment conditions such as flextime that give employees input into the length and scheduling of their workweek. With the increase in gender diversity, organizations have developed sexual harassment training supported by top management. This training includes: defining quid pro quo, what hostile environments are, providing examples of types of behaviors that are prohibited and describing disciplinary actions that will be taken in instances of sexual harassment.
Education
Today employees’ educational backgrounds vary considerably; this has led organizations to enhance their training and development programs. “Functional illiteracy the ability to handle basic reading, math, and arithmetic is a serious problem at work (Dessler, 2002).” Employers are responding in two ways. First more organizations are testing job candidates’ basic skills and secondly more organizations are setting up basic skills and literacy programs. “For example, Smith and Wesson instituted a comprehensive program. A literacy audit revealed
I am very happy witht the progress that Vicky has made in her job so far. She has been with the Bureau about 8 months and she has become invaluable to us. She understands the division and bureau vision and direction. She is a real team player who actively participates in bureau meetings and activities such as coming up with a vision and mission statement for the PPI bureau.
a. Diversity is an ethical imperative for any organization; it is “A major local, national, and international challenge and an opportunity for every human being if we are to live in a peaceful and healthy world”. As a leading organization in the Healthcare industry, “The twenty-first century managers know that managing diversity is a key fundamental strategy to effectively manage employees to get results. Therefore, for the twenty-first century organization, the true sustainable advantages and a long-term competitive edge come from the success of each individual manager and employee within the organization” (Alexander, 2015 pg. 13). The case for diversity consists of diversity 's contribution to one or more of four factors. The four are, “increasing revenue or gross margin; enhancing compliance or reducing litigation risk; enhancing corporate goodwill (to become the "employer of choice);" and as part of tone at the top, when corporate leadership believes diversity is "the right thing to do." (Orenstein, 2005 pg. 22).
Managing diversity and demographical changes in the workplace presents many dilemmas. Confronted with constant change, management, business educators, and organizational consultants continue to meet the challenges of a new and diverse workforce in a number of ways. Diversity can be defined in numerous ways. Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. It is all inclusive and recognizes every individual and every group as part of the diversity that should be valued. A broad definition includes not only race, gender, ethnicity, age, national origin, religion and disability, but may include sexual orientation, values,
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..
Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organisation. Diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It is an understanding that each individual is unique, and a recognition of our individual differences. These differences can include ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, family status, religious beliefs, perspective, experience, or other ideologies.
Diversity is a popular topic in today’s business world, but the definition of the word varies vastly between organizations. Some definitions are one sentence where others are a paragraph long. To add to the confusion, employees have their own ideas about diversity when entering the workforce that may collaborate with or contradict the organization’s explanation. This paper will compare and contrast four definitions concerning diversity to highlight the similarities and differences of the word according to national and international organizations. Also, the author will explore diversity categories in regard to her own experiences in life.
Dissimilarities among people due to differences in characteristics can erode companies. Firstly, unequal opportunities and unfair treatment to one race or sect are immoral can prove illegal. More so, however, diversity can help an organization maintain competitive advantage by utilizing a wider range of creative ideas. Nevertheless,
According to the University of Oregon (1999), diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. Diversity is needed in all businesses and organizations. The reason diversity is needed is because different perspectives are needed to look at all the issues in an organization. Diversity gives a fresh look at problem solving and this is where creativity happens. In order for diversity to thrive it needs an atmosphere of acceptance and respect. This paper will look at four definitions of diversity and its audiences from: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), University of Edinburgh, Havering London Borough Government, and Wal-Mart. This paper will also describe the author of this paper’s view on diversity and compare and contrast this definition
The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.
Diversity is many things; a bridge between organizational life and the reality of people’s lives, building corporate capability, the framework for interrelationships between people, a learning exchange, and a strategic lens on the world” (para. 3). The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge that diversity poses, therefore, is enabling some managers to capitalize on the mixture of genders, cultural backgrounds, ages and lifestyles to respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively. According to Helium” A benefit of a diverse workforce is the ability to tap into the many talents which employees from different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring to the workplace” (para. 5). An impressive example of this is found at the BMC HealthNet Plan because of different languages necessary to serve their members fairly. Diversity of their workforce helps them reduce cost by not using the language line too often. Their own employees serve as interpreters to provide better customer services to their diverse populations.
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
God has challenged me to include the excluded by watching and help take care of my disabled nephew for many years Danny was deaf and had many health issues and I was his caregiver while his parents worked. In addition, people use to pick on him in school, on the bus, and in the neighborhood, however, my children were taught to stick up for Danny and because of that the kids starting including him instead of excluding him in activities.
Diversity in the workplace, in terms of gender, race, and other factors, is helpful, necessary, and even profitable, as shown by the four, black female engineers who accepted an award for the tech company Slack for TechCrunch’s “fastest rising startup.” No person’s physical identity should affect whether they get hired or not by an organization or business. In terms of getting hired, a person’s gender or race should not matter, as long as he or she has the right skills and tools for the job. In terms of running a company and hiring a position of power, however, I do not believe that diversity should be the main hiring factor. I believe the most qualified individual should get the job, regardless to if the company has met its diversity quota.
Workplace diversity is when there is diverse culture of individuals in the workplace. It is when there is a value placed on the variety of ideas, race, ethnicities, religion, gender, sexuality and orientation, which is flourishing in an environment. Depending on your employer and workplace, workplace diversity can vary based off several different factors. Usually, there is a preferential standpoint taken on the matter and it can be either display a high or a low context culture of diversity. According to Mason (2013) Workforce diversity has been described as “a double-edged sword; it has the potential for positive and negative outcomes” (p.659). Workplace diversity is important in a business setting because it carries forward a combination of different types of people to work together in unity, encourages uniqueness, innovative, creative approaches, and supports interesting divergent ideas to accomplish tasks or goals.
In the light of this change in the nature of contemporary workforce, the concepts of diversity and equality will be discussed vis-à-vis the reality of women in the workplace. As such, this research will address the following questions: what are diversity and equality policies? Do they work? Finally, do they open possibilities and opportunities for women?