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Ageism in america today
Managing cultural diversity in the workplace
Managing cultural diversity in the workplace
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The focus of this paper is to elaborate on the changing landscape of work in America during the twenty-first century. According to the researchers, as the economy continues to slowly recover from the recession and economic crisis, more of our baby boomers are reentering the workforce. In addition to the introduction of automation and computer technologies into the workplace, this has dramatically changed the nature of jobs for the older workers (Czaja and Sharit 2009). As stated in the Government Accountability Office in 2006, the number of workers over age 55 is projected to increase significantly over the next 20 years. Evidence shows that ageism, stereotypes, and misinformation about our older population continue to be major issues across …show more content…
This strategy aims to employ workers from different backgrounds to provide tangible and intangible benefits for the business. The employers are the ones who control everything from the wage, promotions, incentives and the termination of the older counterparts. They are increasingly concerned about updated skills, physical demands, early retirement, and the cost of maintaining an older worker. Despite how employers may feel, companies cannot afford to neglect talent at any age. The employer should take advantage of the skills that the older employee posses, and carefully position them in jobs that matches their skill level as well as the job to be done. “Regardless of the change organizations make in the structure and functioning of the workplace of the future, it appears likely that older workers will play a crucial role (Hedge,Borman,& Lammlein, 2006). Different acts and laws are governed to respond to any discrimination against older employees in the workforce. Employment agencies, labor unions, local, state and Federal government are bound by these laws such as: Older Workers Benefits Protection Act (OWBPA); The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Older Americans Act (OAA), to name a few. Funds for service by the Congress are provided in forms of grants for various programs yearly. States, counties, and cities recognize the value of the servicing and are generous in providing additional funds, benefits and in-kind economic benefits too. Because area and state agencies on aging are doing very little in a way to use mass media to promote themselves, the aging network is probably missing a large number of disadvantage people who should be receiving services but who are unaware of them. Much more emphasis has been placed on tying together the federal services for the older workers, but it should not have taken a federal initiative to make states see
Workforce diversity refers to the existence of individuals with different cultural, economic and social backgrounds within an organization (Claretha, 2014). In the modern world, there is increased level of diversity in the workforce due to increased level of awareness and socioeconomic interactions among people. Therefore, organizations have become multicultural places which require effective communication to ensure organizational success. That is, in the modern global community, the workplaces in various organizations have become more culturally diverse (Claretha, 2014). This has had serious impact on the personal and professional relationships among employees depending on the communication model that is established in an organization. In addition, due to the increased level of competitiveness in the business environment, organizations have been forced to establish suitable framework to effectively manage human diversity. This paper will analyze the concept of workforce diversity and organizational communication and determine its benefits and possible disadvantages in relation to business success.
Diversity can be differences in age, gender, ethnicity, and religion. Having such a diverse workforce can be very challenging. (1) Today’s workforce is very diverse in respect to age. Before, corporate America consisted of workers ranging from twenty one up to late thirties to early forties. Now, we see people in their mid to late fifties going back to work. This trend has both advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of an older employee over a younger employee is his ability to use his years of experience in situations where a younger employee lacks experience. Another advantage for an older employee is his built relationship with existing customers. The disadvantage of an older employee over a younger employee is his inability to quickly adapt to his changing environment. Younger employees are more “hungry” compared to their older counter parts. Their hunger is fired by their goal to quickly move up the corporate ladder.
Diversity refers to the ways people differ from each other. These ways are significant and plentiful. Culturally, people vary in gender, age, ethnicity, race sexual orientation, educational background, religion, lifestyle, as well as veteran and/or immigrant status. Functionally, people vary in the ways we think, learn, process information, respond to authority, show respect and reach agreements (Pollar & Gonzalez, 2011.)
"The Aging Workforce." NTAR Leadership Center/U.S Department of Labor, 2007. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. .
Older adults face ageism in work place also. The employer consider older adults as inflexible, unwilling to adapt to technology, resistant to new ways, having some physical limitations, costing more for health insurance and so on. Many researches also show that the older worker was less favored for continued career development and training and unlikely to be promoted. Similarly, the older workers also have the disadvantage shorter interviews, fewer commissions, fewer job offers and are less likely to be hired (Dennis & Thomas,
This paper is aimed at providing a framework for discussion of diversity and how it pairs with demographic characteristics. It is divided into four parts. Part I represents diversity in the workforce, which reflects the rational of organizations and how they handle diversity in the occupations of their workers. Parts II characterize diversity and age, as it responds to the fact that older people have the skill set to keep them working well past retirement age. Part III denotes religion, where as more employers are beginning to recognize the need to allow employees to take time to pray. Part IV symbolizes the personality traits in diversity and how “different” is not always viewed as wrong but can be an incentive to other employees.
Older works may encounter a lot of stereotypes in the work place both positive and negative. Older workers are often viewed as being inflexible when it comes to technology use and unwilling to adapt. They are also commonly look at as if they have less energy and drive to work. Older workers are often viewed as having less physical prowess in the work place. Even with legislation passed about discriminated against older works in the hiring process studies still show that two workers with the same credentials, one being older and one younger, the younger candidate is more likely to get the job. Older people are still viewed as a less valuable worker even if they have all of the same experiences as someone else. Another form of ageism that workers
At the same time that the number of older persons available for and willing to work is increasing, the workplace is changing as businesses seek to become more competitive. The most notable changes include downsizing, increased use of technology, and less-hierarchical work structures that use teams. As a result of technological changes and greater dependence on teams, training and retraining are hallmarks of today's workplace. Older workers have not fared particularly well during these changes. During the downsizing that took place from 1986 through 1991, proportionately more older workers were laid off, and, at the expense of retraining existing employees--especially older workers--firms spend more on training new entrants (Hall and Mirvis 1994). Kantor (1994) refers to the aging work force as a "mixed blessing [because] many companies associate it not with a loyal, experienced workforce knowledgeable ab...
Companies such as Buzztronics are leading the way in the global economy because of their dedication to diversity in the workplace. In order to build a diverse and successful workforce, a business needs to recruit, train, and retain capable and talented minorities.
In a world that has grown increasingly smaller due to mass media, world travel, and readily available information, the workplace has grown increasingly diverse in both gender and cultural aspects. Individuals no longer live and work within the confines of their geographic locations. At almost any position with any company the individual employee is a part of a larger world economy that harvests assets from the ends of the earth. Because of this, companies seek to capitalize on diversity to become more creative and flexible in their business models.
Changes in demographics affect the work force in that the number of mature and elderly workers is more than the number of the youth. A typical aging workforce is characterized by an increase in the number of older workers and low rates of entry into the workforce by the youth. This forces organizations, both private and governmental to change their policies to cater for the aging workforce. The effect that the aging revolution has on the composition of the workforce is that in the near future, the number of elderly workers will be more than that of youth workers. By the time the elderly workers reach the age of retirement, therefore, there will be a sharp decrease in the number of workers available in countries all over the world. Another risk associated with aging revolution is the increase of the number of workers who attain the age of retirement coupled by the few number of entrants into the
To accurately explain why the workplace has become more diverse for minorities over the years, one needs to understand first, what workplace diversity is. Workplace diversity is defined as all forms of differences among individuals including but not limited to age, culture, religion, personality, social status and sexual orientation. For minorities particularly teens, this diversity has grown into a global phenomenon. For some leaders, the word teen and workplace don’t mix. One cannot see such young, mainly inexperienced people benefitting their company and outlook in any way. Diversity can create a portal for innovation. By being exposed to different people and cultures, a teen can understand the significance of different thought processes and problems.
When considering the sheer amount of people in the world, it’s fair to say that meeting different people with different thoughts, ideologies, and experiences is basically inevitable. As such, I too have met my fair share of different people, despite being shy and introverted, however the people that had the most impact on me came from my first workplace. The people who I met at my workplace where people whose different experiences in the same workplace helped me start enjoying working for Whataburger.
Over the past several decades, the corporate workforce has seen an exponential rise in diversity (Fischer, 2011). America has always been known as a “melting pot”, and this is to say that as a people we come from a wide breadth of backgrounds and global combine cultural differences. Women have also become a much larger staple within the corporate structure. There are several advantages to utilizing a more diverse workforce, but those advantages do not come without difficulty.
Workplace diversity is an important component to promote and encourage cultural differences amongst employees. Most companies view workplace diversity as an investment towards creating a better business. While workplace diversity is usually beneficial to companies, it can create many challenges for management and employees to welcome the opportunity of workplace discrimination. Discrimination within the workplace is an injustice work issue that should be prevented in order to ensure equality amongst employees. The purpose of this paper is to look into a company’s promotion policy to determine if management has wrongfully eliminated an employee from consideration for a promotion. The content will reflect the employee perspective, Maria, who