Workforce Diversity

Business environments today display diversity, a numerical composition that reflects different kinds of people, such as men and women of different ethnic origins, educational experiences, and professional backgrounds (Beamish, Morrison, Inkpen, & Rosenzweig, 2003). A vast amount of organizations are emulating a diverse workforce. Fair treatment of employees is the responsibility of the human resource management team within a firm. Footsteps of past generations are the facilitating mechanism allowing today’s generation to participate in a safe and fair workplace. Specific rules and regulations assist in equal employment opportunities for every employee. The Equal Employment

This raises more problems than it solves because people are being hired for who they are rather than the skills that they possess. In this type of situation people who are more qualified for a job may be pushed aside in order to hire someone who meets the company’s diversity needs. Instead of following this Noah’s Ark model

Slowly, society is changing its views about diversity. Beginning with strong legislation regarding anti-discrimination in the workplace, laws have been established, in the United States, from the Civil Rights Act and Title VII of 1964 (which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and natural origin), Age Discrimination Act of 1967, Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, just to name a few. These, and a multitude of other laws, have been created as a need to comply with equal opportunity employment objectives as well as a personal feeling of wanting to “do the right thing.” Now, many decades later, it’s not just doing the right thing but rather doing the “smart thing”. With a global economy, a technological revolution, and both customers and suppliers coming from diverse backgrounds, it makes

America: Land of the free and home of the brave. That was the idea that the people had hundreds of years ago. How they would feel now that we are a country that is enslaved to profit and not the least bit brave when it comes to speaking truth. Mark Shield, author of the article “Missing: Any Challenge for the Common Good,” brings to the attention of how todays tactic of running things has become more than a little undermining. The presidential campaign of 2016 has been no more than a bumbling mess for the past few months. Republican front-runner and celebrity, Donald Trump, has led his campaign with racist remarks and the promise of a wall he will not pay for, to separate borders. While the popular vote of the Democratic Party,

During the last part of this century, businesses and organizations have heavily relied on affirmative actions laws to ensure equal employment opportunities. The failure of this dependence upon legislation is that is doesn't address the full spectrum of diversity in the workplace (6). Affirmative actions laws have limitations, discriminating against people holding protected-class status such as women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans,

Of the Homewood trilogy, Sent for You Yesterday is the last novel which appeared in 1983. Just as The Lynchers is the last novel of the early period, and it is the transitional shift from white perspective to the Homewood’s black perspective, Sent for You Yesterday is the last of the Homewood trilogy, and it exhibits transitional shift from the Homewood’s perspective to the full-fledged Homewood life and its representation in the form of traditional black culture. The main protagonist of Sent for You Yesterday, Doot, is again a black intellectual, who hears the black folk stories and forms his own subjective opinion on the music and literature of the black community. Moreover, Doot tries to relate to the black culture, and make himself an inseparable

Diversity in the workplace has always been an interesting topic to explore. When studying the topic, one is able to see how minorities and women do not get the same job opportunities at career growth as non-minorities. The lack of diversity in the workplace can definitely keep a company from reaching its full potential. Our guest speaker Patrick McKay explored different topics dealing with diversity in the workplace that shed light on why trying to diversify the workplace occasionally fails. McKay also mentioned how it is important to be mindful of the location you choose to live when beginning your career. In the article Doing Diversity Right, Derek R. Avery and Patrick F. McKay explain how “managing diversity” in the workplace is vital in today’s workplace. Over the years there has been a greater emphasis put on insuring diversity within the workplace. McKay and Avery explain the importance of creating a diverse environment in which companies promote. It is not enough to solely recruit minorities or women but also the environment of the workplace must allow the individuals to thrive. In the article Warning! Diversity recruitment could Backfire, Patrick McKay and Derek Avery explain how companies should implement diversity into their company programs. Having a company culture that embraces diversity is the key to successfully diversifying a company.

With minority numbers growing in the workforce it is becoming vital for managers to maintain an organizational culture of inclusiveness. All across the country businesses are taking steps to diversify their staff and tap in to the unique skillsets of a unique workforce. But according to authors Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, diversity practices and programs instituted by companies are failing” (1). In the an article titled, “Why Diversity Programs are Failing,” authors Dobbin and Kalev, illustrate how the institution of diversity programs into organizations all over the country are failing to counteract discrimination

In 2015, the United States civilian labor force rose to 157.4 million (Unemployment rate nears prerecession level by end of 2015: Monthly Labor Review: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). About half of the workforce were women and of the 157.4 million, about thirty-eight percent were non-white workers including Asian, Black, and Hispanic ethnicities. By 2024, it is projected that women will make up more than half of the United States labor force, in which, roughly twenty-three percent of the women will be of non-white ethnicities (Women 's Bureau (WB) Latest Annual Data - Labor force by sex, race and Hispanic ethnicity, 2015 annual averages and 2024 projections, n.d.). As women start to dominate the workforce, and younger workers continue to enter labor force, organizations in the United States are becoming more and more diverse. What was once dominated by white males, organizations are now a rich combination of different cultures, backgrounds and different belief systems. To ensure an ongoing efficient and productive work environment, a diversity training program should be put in place to address the tension and conflicts that arise from diversity in the workplace.

This has been a high topic of controversy in recent time regarding the practice of work place hiring’s. One topic that comes to mind involves the hiring coaches in sports. The NFL had to implement the Rooney Rule to give a fair chance for minority coaches to have a chance to be hired. This rule makes teams interview at least one minority person in their hiring process. This also relates to college and high school with the good-old-boys network. This network occurs when coaches are continually rehired by different schools of referrals or personal relationships and not based off skills or experience. This bias can cause companies to form bad habits in corporations by limiting the amount of people a company will look at during the hiring process. This would result in them missing out on opportunities to find hidden gems in a field of

Diversity/Equal Employment

Harvard Business Review September, 1996 / October, 1996 HEADLINE: MAKING DIFFERENCES MATTER: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MANAGING DIVERSITY BYLINE: by David A. Thomas and Robin J. Ely; David A. Thomas is an associate professor at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. Robin J. Ely is an associate professor at Columbia University 's School of International and Public Affairs in New York City. Their research and teaching focus on the influence of race, gender, and ethnicity on career dynamics and organizational effectiveness. ABSTRACT: MAKING DIFFERENCES MATTER: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MANAGING DIVERSITY DAVID A. THOMAS and ROBIN J. ELY Diversity efforts in the workplace have been undertaken with great goodwill, but, ironically, they often

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 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