Xerox Co. Diversity

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).

Diversity is very important on a workplace because it create a respectful environment, reduce conflict, help business reputations, and avoid legal issues. This accepting and managing of these cultural differences has over the years become an important factor of organizational success.

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.

Findings and Conclusion: This research shows that women are still unrepresented in top management globally. The difference in performance of the companies in the same country and same industry implies that diversity serves a competitive differentiator. Certain companies focus on gender diversity and others focus on ethnic and racial diversity but no company in the top quartile focus on both. Companies which have greater diversity are able to attract top talent, improve internal and external customer satisfaction, improve decision making and hence improve

According to Xerox Chairman & former CEO, Anne M. Mulcahy, diversity is not just about race, gender, age, sexual orientation or disability. She and the staff believed that diversity provide an environment for employee to grow for their fullest potential. Employee with different ways of

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

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

Xerox Services is a multi-national company that currently operates several call centers which handle the customer service calls for many other Fortune 500 companies. Founded in 1906, it currently employs over 140,000 people and had over 21 million dollars in revenue for the 2013 fiscal year (Xerox, 2014). With operations in over 180 countries, Xerox Services is one of the largest business process outsourcing companies in the world. Structured into many different smaller entities based on the industry it serves, the call center operations portion of this business is the backbone of Xerox’s services for the last 40 years (Chesbrough, & Rosenbloom, 2002). Xerox currently operates several hundred call centers that handle both incoming and outgoing customer service and sales calls for its vast amount of clients.

The marketing of products and services at Xerox has become culturally and demographically segmented. This requires the company to hire people from different backgrounds and nationalities to better serve the marketed area.

Becoming diverse does not just necessarily mean people of color alone, but also comes such as more women entering, and different sexual preferences (lesbian, gay, etc.,). Since the past 40 years, "Women went from holding 37 percent of all jobs to 47 percent" (Sophia Kerbey and Crosby Burns, Center for American Progress). It is believed that combining workers with different backgrounds can "breed a more creative, innovative and productive workforce" (Center for American Progress). Having diversity among co-workers can promote respect since it gives the opportunity to understand backgrounds such as work styles and experiences. By bringing in more employees with different backgrounds it can help a business reputation because it is important within an organization when they demonstrate

In the 2000s Xerox lost their competitive edge to lower cost copiers and developing technology. Xerox’s management decided to establish Anne Mulcahy as the new CEO in hopes of transforming Xerox into an industry leader as they were previously. Mulcahy worked her way up through the Xerox ranks through her leadership and communication skills; and as a result of her skills Xerox’s management believed she could transform Xerox back into an industry leader.

The need to understand diversity is also driven by women in the workplace. Today's workforce has the highest levels of employment participation ever by women. The number of dual income families and single working mothers has increased. Change in the family structure means that there are fewer men and women in traditional family roles (Zweigenhaft and Domhoff, 1998). Therefore, diversity issues cut across both race and gender.

With the changing demographics of the U.S. workforce (Ng & Burke, 2005) and the need for organizations to continually innovate their products and services to remain competitive, embracing diversity and the benefits its brings is going to be key to driving a successful organization

In response to the growing diversity in the workforce around the world, many companies have instituted specific policies and programs to enhance recruitment, inclusion, promotion, and retention of employees who are different from the privileged echelons of society. The privileged groups may vary from one country to the next. The workforce of the world is a dynamic environment, and in order for this dynamism to be put to use for the benefit of organizations, they must develop an effective strategy for managing diversity. Global Diversity Management refers to the voluntary organizational actions that are designed to create greater inclusion of employees from various backgrounds into the formal and informal organizational

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