Managing Cultural Diversity In The Workplace

That is why supervisors, managers and workers must be trained on managing diversity in the workplace. The diversity in the population indicates diversity in the workforce. By the year 2005 for every 100 workers there will be 15 immigrants; 16 U.S. born Black, Hispanic, other; 32 U.S. born White man, and 47 women, including women of color. The workforce will be made up of more women due to economic necessity and personal choice. In 1950 the work force was 30% female, in 1985, 54% of working age women were in the work force.

Need for Diversity The need for diversity in an organization arises in order to unleash the potential of every member of the company’s workforce. Diversity management will cater to develop the critical skills of the employee’s thereby decrease turnover and absenteeism. Organizations can serve a wide range of customer base in many different markets with its diverse workforce; appeal the global market by the understanding of how various communities and cultures in the different parts of the world distinguish the products and services. The labor forces entering the emerging market are going to come from highly diverse demographics. Therefore, companies should be prepared to employ them.

Diversity Training Work force demographics, which reveal increased diversity among the working population, are triggering a huge growth in diversity training programs. Although these programs typically are designed to improve working relationships, many of them are accompanied by a backlash from those who do not agree with the focus of the programs or the messages they deliver. Some people believe that diversity training should focus only on those categories protected by law—race, gender, and disability. Others argue for a more inclusive definition encompassing age, educational level, family structure, job function, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and values. However, it is the messages these programs deliver that spark the greatest controversy.

ABSTRACT: As companies are becoming more and more diverse it’s becoming more and more important for companies to understand and manage it. The people of different background, races, religion creates diverse workforce. There is an importance of having diverse workforce to provide better performance. There are perspectives of managing the diverse workforce, which require organization leaders and managers of being responsible of attaining better diverse workforce. INTRODUCTION Diversity means differences, difference of age, sex, race, religion and culture etc.

Work Force Diversity Business Firms and organization need to apply workforce diversity in their management. Diversity at the workplace is simply understood as the variation of skills, experience and ideas among employees. This can arise due to differences in various aspects like race, gender, religion and physical attributes. In addition to these, other discrepancies include national origin, medical conditions and so many more (Subbarao 98). Diversity among the workers is an important tool that often leads to prosperity in an organization hence the need for maximum application of this important business virtue.

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The rapidly increasing population and the continued growth of the global economy requires more interaction among people from diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures than ever before. The insular way of life is over and we need to be able to work together for the common good of mankind. John F. Kennedy once said " If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity." So what is diversity? According to the International Journal of Diversity, “Diversity is generally defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing, and celebrating differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and public assistance status.”(1) Diversity teaches us how to interact with others, to appreciate and respect people from different cultures, and how to learn from those people who differ from ourselves.

Cultural Diversity in the Work Place In today’s work environment, it has become more evident and vital than ever to foster cultural diversity. Business organizations that want to stay in business are integrating their global and local business efforts along with cultural diversification. However, the path that leads to cultural diversity is not an easy one. Issues and conflicts may slow down, and even restrain, efforts to integrate cultural diversity in the workforce, but the need to embrace and make cultural diversity work is a sensible and attainable prospect. Diversity refers to all those differences that can mark human beings such as age, nationality, language; color of skin and the way people behave due to different cultural background.

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