How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

A conversation needs to be had regarding the effects of diversity. Diversity in practical terms is the inclusion of people from different walks of life whether it be color, race, or heritage. This topic is one that is sensitive for many people because of the history attached to this subject. In the past decade there has been instances where the supreme court has had to address the topic of “Diversity” to justify this ongoing debate. Like in the supreme court, college campuses have also discussed diversity in their college for a multitude of reasons. Additionally, they too have found many reoccurring problems relating to diversity, which will be addressed in this paper.

* 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)

Regardless of how diversity is defined, it is an issue that is sweeping the nation. By the 21st century, racial and ethnic minorities will constitute 25% of the U.S. population, affecting the makeup of the U.S. labor force (7). By the year 2000, women will constitute 47% of the total workforce and the average age of the workforce is expected to increase from 36 in 1986 to age 39 (7). If the corporate society does not address the issue by learning how to manage diversity, they will fail.

However, Thomsen et al. (2012) has a different conclusion and argued that diversity is not without its challenges. Diversity can also result in lower levels of cohesiveness and team work. This can lead to inability to agree on mutual goals, increased conflict and reduced information sharing. The empirical evidence (Bohren & Odegard, 2006; Wang et al., 2010; Ahern & Dittmar, 2010) does not support the idea that there is a business case for board diversity. They concluded that if anything, the available and emerging literature finds negative performance effects of

Growing up as a minority in a close-knit small town with people of various other cultures around the world, diversity is a topic I am accustomed to. However, in the entirety of my eighteen years on this earth, I had never attended a university-level diversity lecture. Dr. Mindy West’s faculty lecture on Friday the twenty eighth of October at three in the afternoon, in the BAC building was my first university-level lecture on diversity. Dr. West’s lecture on diversity to the half-full room of anxious business students shocked and astonished me on multiple different levels.

“Businesses started caring a lot more about diversity after a series of high-profile lawsuits rocked the financial industry.” (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016). This first sentence in the Harvard Business Review’s article, “Why Diversity Programs Fail”, states a key fact about all organizations, do not want to “waste” or “lose” money because of a lawsuit such as; a race discrimination lawsuit or a sex discrimination lawsuit. There are many procedures and programs that can be implemented to prevent these types of issues in the workplace, are they still going to happen, yes, can these issues be addressed before a lawsuit is even a thought, yes. Therefore, this paper will look at two organizations that have been at the forefront of the diversity and inclusion

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)

Findings and Conclusion: Two types of diversity was analysed in this research- inherent diversity and acquired diversity. Inherent diversity includes traits a human is born with like sexual orientation, gender and ethnicity. Acquired diversity includes traits gained with experience like appreciating cultural differences. The research shows that companies which have 2-D diversity perform better than others by creating an environment of innovation. A growth rate of 45% in market share and 70% in capturing a new market is shown by firms having 2-D diversity.

I believe that "Diversity" plays important roles in our lives. Without diversity, we cannot widen our field of view. Diversity helps us to open up our eyes and our world. From reading the essay "How diversity makes us smarter", written by Katherine W Phillips, I learned that there are some negative effects brought up by the social diversity where dialog of inclusion is advanced, but mostly diversity is something that has positive effect in our society and even individual. I could also reflect and make connection with my experience of moving from non diverse community to diverse community.

What is diversity and what does it entail? Luther College defines diversity as “complex differences and similarities in perspectives, identities, and points of view among members of an institution as well as among individuals who make up the wider community.” Diversity has been a hot topic in today’s news and social networking arenas with the ever-changing race relations that are prevalent in our country and around the world. The changes in perception towards minorities and women hasn’t just affected these groups socially, but has brought forth different questions about the benefits that a truly diverse would place would have on companies. What this work will attempt to do is elaborate on the treatment of

Historically, diversity in the workplace was seen as an employment equity issues. As the years passed by, it all changed. The surge of globalization has needed the collaboration among people of different backgrounds and cultures. Nowadays, organizations are now creating a diverse workforce beyond just gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Many U.S. organizations are embracing women, ethnic minorities, and foreign-born employees more than ever before in history. Diversity calls for organizations to recognize individuals for themselves, regardless their designated groups. This paper will be focusing in three different parts of diversity in the workforce: type of organizations, the benefits & cost, and measurements taken by CEOs to promote diversity.

Purpose: My purpose is to share my research on diversity and how it makes an individual more creative with my intended audience. I am researching to find three authors that have three different perspectives and answers to the question, “How does diversity make us more creative?”

It has become an accepted business practice to meet a certain quota of hiring from diverse racial groups. This trend of identifying racial diversity began with “the idea of setting targets has its roots in affirmative action policies in the US and South Africa” (Jacobs, 1). Previous social movements resulted in the push to identify numbers regarding grouping those of different ethnic groups. As of the year 2016, the United States government issued “a three-hundred-dollar diversity fund” (Jacobs, 2) to identify the rate of hiring diverse groupings. Companies began to feel pressure from social activism resulting in this new quota that they must meet to stay respected within the community of those who fight for diversity on the internet.

Irrespective of literature, diversity is widely accepted to be positive by reducing staff-turn over, and enabling the attraction of higher caliber candidates (Lewis and Cox, 2007). Furthermore, indigenous representation in engineering will allow developmental projects in remote, Aboriginal communities to occur in a more culturally appropriate manner. The most substantial argument for diversity is the ability to improve profitability via full productive capacity (Sharp et al., 2011). For example, Mckinsey & Company (2007) found “companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 % more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” Further empirical evidence from

ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Review Research Question/Issue: This review examines how gender diversity on corporate boards influences corporate governance outcomes that in turn impact performance. We describe extant research on theoretical perspectives, characteristics, and impact of women on corporate boards (WOCB) at micro, meso, and macro levels: individual, board, firm, and industry/ environment. Research Finding/Results: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review of WOCBs, incorporating and integrating research from over 400