SAA Diversity Issues

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).

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..

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.

Three ways of gaining executive commitment to diversity are to gather data and to assess the organizations current commitment to diversity to show where and why there is a need for change. The development of diversity council can also garner executive support because it offers a way for executive members of an organization to have a dialog with other members of an organization about diversity. Systematic changes are also necessary such as hiring from a diverse roster of candidates when filling a position. (Moodian, 2009,

From Hollywood to the the social sector, diversity, rather the lack thereof, has been a topic of conversation. Although many organizations have begun to advocate for diversity, more work must be done. Across the social sector,women and people of color remain severely underrepresented in leadership positions. Organizations must become intentional about creating a diverse workforce and implementing inclusive policies that foster positive work environments. When employees feel represented and included they are happier and more likely to contribute to fulfilling the organization's mission.

The target of this research is to explore the diversity strategies of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ' (VA) with the objective of supporting its efficacy. Accordingly, this paper organizes this exploration into three correlating sections, the first of which introduces an overview of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) within the VA. In addition, this area summarizes the ODI installation of the VA diversity plan. This leads to the second exploration section, which outlines specific focus areas of the VA diversity plan as defined in the Standard University Publication: Best Practices for Managing Organizational Diversity (2007). The third and final segment offers a concluding synopsis along with recommendations for

Diversity at Target, like everywhere, is a work in progress. Target is ahead of the national average in terms of minority hiring. Additionally, the company has a higher percentage of minorities in management positions than the industry average. “The Strength of Many. The Power of One,” is Target’s tagline for diversity. It is realized that we need many points of view all working towards the common goal in order to be successful. The goals set forward in this plan are: to increase diverse hire mix by 30% over last year; improve retention rate by 30% over last year; and to develop high potential diverse talent in the ST. Louis market. This can be done

“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

In order for a company to survive in the twenty-first century, they most introduce diversity into their workplace. Affirmative action was only the beginning into bringing diversity to white collar jobs. If a company wants to be successful, they must learn to manage diversity in order to produce an effective workplace. Many companies have captured this idea of using diversity for their advantage to become some of the top companies to work for. As said in case 5.1, comparing the companies that were awarded diversity awards will show what other companies need to be doing in order to expand their diversity in the workplace. I have decided to compare the mission statements and diversity statements of the top five companies (Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Many organizations are beginning to view diversity as an organizational change. This could possibly mean changes in the power dynamics and organizational structure, the way decisions are made, and the way an

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)

“Diversity and diverse integration viewpoints into organizations are pertinent in a world of shifting demographic patterns and work practices” (Starlene M. Simons, 2011). Sun Microsystems

First, we will take a look at the hiring system. The drawback SAA faces is management prefers hiring/promoting white males, which a majority of the managers already are. Women and minority employees feel as though there is an absence of formalized employment policies and procedures. These ideas stem from Eva Ferguson, who wrote about shared decision making. According to Ferguson, “rules are agreed

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.

In a commentary written by diversity professionals, including a former Chief Diversity Officer from P&G, they suggest the adoption of voluntary standards. (Biga, Martin, & Brown-Davis, 2013) Suggested practices and processes included in these efforts should be to ensure inclusion in talent acquisition, talent management, and leadership training and development. They also propose that the success in these efforts be measured by three factors as well. Talent acquisition, measured by the diversity of the applicant pool and inclusiveness of the hiring process, and selection ratios need to be relatively equivalent across relevant demographic groups. If not, any selection methodology should be reexamined. Talent management - are high potential talent pools diverse? Are internal talent decisions