Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. Diversity encompasses race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and other differentiators. To have employees from a vast assortment of backgrounds function effectively in an organization, managers need to deal effectively with issues such as communication, adaptability, and change. Successful management of that diversity is intended to leverage the strengths of the diversities against the differences of the individuals to maximize their contributions and promote the overall success of the company.
Today, as always the world is evolving resulting in important demographic changes to come. The population will continue to diversify resulting in a skew of the workforce in areas of age, ethnicity particularly in regards to immigration, and gender.1 To be effective, managers have to be aware of the shifts and be prepared to make new implementations to accommodate their company and employees. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor the workforce is rapidly aging, in other words, age diversity at work will grow in the future.2 Managing teams with different age groups can be difficult because there is often the development of a “generation gap.” When managing groups of people from different generations they often have a difference of opinion in expectations and definitions of work within a department. This can often give rise to feelings of injustice or inequality within the organization.3 When dealing with older versus the younger employee managers must often take into account a difference in learning style. Technology today, which may have a recent graduate feeling very comfortable will impart tremendous consternation upon an older employee w...
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...longer have individual differences but a common ground to build a future structure on. By “Cross Cultural Managing” we can take people or organizations with different views and band together to increase the effectiveness of our cause, discussion, or objective.
Background Sources:
United States Department of Labor. (2006) Futurework: Trends and challenges for work in the 21st century. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/ futurework/conference/trends/trendsl.htm 1,2,6
Bauer, T. & Erdogan, B. (2013). Managing Demographic and Cultural Diversity. Retrieved from http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/3?e=bauer-ch02_s01#bauer-ch02_s01 3,4,5
Adler, N. (2008). Creating Cultural Synergy. J. Calhoun, & M. Acuna, International dimensions of organizational behavior (pp. 99-122). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. 7
In respect to diversity, one may wonder, “What is diversity?” Diversity is defined as all the ways in which employees differ. Diversity
In summary, most workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse as people from different genders, races, cultures, ethnic origins, and lifestyles find themselves working together. The key to making diversity work is management. Knowing what they are and understanding what effects (positive or negative) they have on the organization is very important to the success of the company.
While diversity is often a term used to refer specifically to cultural differences, diversity applies to all the qualities that make people different. From a management perspective, the key to diversity is to understand how different types of diversity and different demographic characteristics can impact human behavior. The four types of diversity that will be examined are: occupation, differences in skills and abilities, personality traits, and value and attitudes. For each type of diversity, the impact on individual behavior will be described.
Diversity, as it relates to thoughts, ideas, ethnicity, race, and a host of other areas, is the quintessential ingredient needed to establish a free nation. Amendment I of the United States Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Through this simple statement made so many years ago, the founding fathers laid down not only the framework for the basic freedoms that Americans cherish, but also the foundation for establishing a diverse nation. You see, without diversity, there cannot be freedom, and without freedom, there cannot be America.
Workplace diversity is having different people of different cultures, different languages, nationalities, and races, all working in an organization. When there is workplace diversity people are able to handle different types of situations because they probably handled a certain problem before so many times from where they come from. Throughout the years businesses have adapted to having more diversity in the workplace because of the benefits it offers. Workplace diversity helps organizations be productive, it builds a strong economy, and brings greater innovation, and moreover it leads to an organization making a profit.
Merriam-Webster defines diversity as “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements; especially the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). With diversity including many different elements, the concept of workplace diversity also covers a broad spectrum of topics, and continues to evolve as many companies look to expand globally. This subject has become increasingly important among managers over the last couple of decades, and has helped to reinforce other concepts such as affirmative action and equal opportunity employment. While most people believe that everyone should have the same opportunities available to them, and that we
Diversity also encompasses acceptance and respect proving that each individual is unique. It provides a safe and nurturing environment for the employee and will help the organization prosper and succeed. Diversity provides an understanding of each other and helping one to move beyond simple tolerance of embracing and celebrating the dimensions of
Traditionally, diversity refers to an assortment of races, ethnicities, genders, ages, disabilities and perhaps sexual orientations. A definition of diversity, however, should not be constrained by traditional categories such as these. Such a definition should also include categories such as religion, educational level, life experience, geographic location, socio-economic background, marital status and work experience. Indeed, each person employed by a company possesses unique qualities that encompass many factors.
The components of a diversity mixture can be people, concepts, concrete items, or abstractions. If you are reflecting on the many ways your employees can vary (by race, gender, age, education, sexual orientation, geo...
The impact of diversity in the workplace is contingent upon several factors. Across companies diversified workforces are becoming increasingly common. To successfully manage a diverse workforce, organizations are ensuring that employees understand how their values and stereotypes influence their behavior toward others of different gender, ethnic, racial, or religious backgrounds; are gaining an appreciation of cultural differences among themselves; and behaviors that isolate or intimidate minorities are being improved (Noe et al., 2010, pg. 302).
Diversity is defined as race, gender, age, language, physical characteristics, disability, sexual orientation, economic status, parental status, education, geographic origin, profession, life-style, religion, personality, position in the company hierarchy and any other difference[3]. In other words, diversity refers to ...
For the first time in history, there are four generations of people working side by side in the workplace. Think about your place employment and the different people who work there. It is sometimes hard to get your point across to someone in a different age generation. This especially becomes a problem in the supervisor employee relationship. In order to effectively communicate with your peers, you have to understand the context in which they view the world. This problem is a real concern for managers. There has even been a Center for Generational Studies created.
Diversity in the workplace can relate to having staff/employees from a wide rage and different backgrounds, this can include employees of different gender types, physical ability, age, preferred sex, religious belief, life experience, educational background, hardship, all of the above relate very strongly to diversity in the workplace. A workplace diversity policy is to create and manage a workplace environment that encourage
The researcher believes, in this fast-changing era, any kind of company or organization should be able to improve the quality of workplace diversity by having some important main factor to boost the new paradigm of a diverse workplace, such as:
Diversity issues will gain importance because of the effective interactions and communications between the people. Diversity is the reality of the business world. It can have negative and positive impact on the employee’s behaviour towards work and work results. This also depends on how the employees have understood it and grasps it.