Diversity Management Case Analysis Paper

Alexandria Sananikone

Professor Kwon

MW 230-345

05 April 2017

Case Analysis Paper It is important for the public sector to have diversity. Its main focus is to have a work environment with employees of varying race, sex, and age. Therefore, the purpose of diversity management is to reduce racism within organizations to create a fair, open, and comfortable environment for both white males and minorities. According to Von Bergen, “it has been estimated that at the turn of the millennium only 15 percent of new entrants to the workforce were white males,” justifying that diversity is more prevalent since “white males are rapidly becoming a minority in the workforce” (239-240). Even though racism is not expressed as much today compared to the past,

Both Choi and Von Bergen agree that it is difficult to manage a successful diverse employee population effectively in correlation to job performance. Choi’s publication mentions that “Byrne’s (1971) similar-attraction-theory suggests that people prefer interacting with similar others and find interactions with them easier,” and “individuals in diverse groups tend to feel less safe and to trust each other less” (606). This makes diversity management difficult because it is not based on comfort of similarity, but creates an unfamiliar work setting where there is no sense of belonging or relativeness because everyone is racially and ethnically different. When the employee population’s ethnicity/race is different, they are “less likely to induce emotional conflict for teams working on the routine tasks than those with complex tasks” (Choi 607). With diversity, turnover is likely in the organization since the differing individuals “tend to be less psychologically committed to their organizations, less integrated with others in the majority, and more likely to be absent and leave their organizations” (607). Yet, if the employees get used to the diverse atmosphere and interact amongst their peers, then the “surface-level differences tend to become less important over time and people tend to pay more attention to deep-level differences, reducing prejudices and stereotypic thoughts”

In order for diversity to not be an issue, Pynes mentions that “management must acknowledge and demonstrate support for the differences that these employees bring to the workplace” (127). Instead of focusing and stressing upon how everyone is ethnically different, they should learn how to accept it and use it to understand the outside world. Society today is culturally and ethnically diverse, so having diversity in many organizations can be beneficial in accomplishing and meeting the organization’s goals. For example, if a company were to be dominant in only one race, yet their services target a diverse audience, then they would be incapable to relate to every individual. The lack of diversity creates language barriers, lack of familiarity, and lack of understanding between employees to customer interaction. Without proper diversity management, everyone will fray away from working together as a team. This will eventually lead to a high turnover rate. A “successful management of diversity leads to better interpersonal communication among employees, responsiveness to social and demographic changes, a reduction in equal employment litigation, and a climate of fairness and equity” (Pynes, 130). Without a doubt, when all ethnic and racial backgrounds are accepted by every employee, this will create a sense