Gender Diversity In The Workplace Essay

In today’s turbulent business environment, once successful methods and practices are no longer as useful as they once were, and the changing circumstances in this environment can result in the failure of a company. (Daft, 2008) This is a major issue for managers since if they are unable to adapt their methods and practices to the changing business environment there is a possibility of the company failing. This report will focus on some of the potential issues that a manager could face as a result of this turbulence, and will also look at some ways in which a manager could combat these issues.

2. Potential Issues Facing Managers

The two issues that this report will be focusing on concern social diversity as well as how knowledge can be extracted

For example, in India “Just 39.5% of India’s women between 25 and 54 years of age were economically active… in 2010”, meaning that almost two thirds of Indian women are unemployed. (Madgavkar, 2012 in Pant and Vijaya, 2015). Additionally, “Forty-eight percent of females drop out of the workforce before they reach mid-career” (Pant and Vijaya, 2015) meaning that only roughly 20% of the Indian female workforce will reach mid-career, which is described by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management as “Having more than 10 years’ work experience and… looking for opportunities that will capitalize of [sic] their expertise.” As a result of this, it becomes extremely unlikely that many women will be able to gain positions in the higher levels of management within a company as they often end their careers before they gain the necessary experience required to move into the senior ranks of a company. This seems to be supported by what Daft refers to as the “Opt-Out Trend”, which shows that women are much more likely to voluntarily leave a career due to a disliking for the “fast-paced, competitive, aggressive environment that exists in most corporations.” (Daft, 2008). These are all issues when considering the belief that women are “better able to deliver in terms of what modern society requires of

These groups are generally focused upon a specific social identity such as gender or race and are organized by employees in order to focus on issues and concerns which the group feel are important. (Daft, 2008) These groups would be great for attempting to go against the “opt-out trend” as they can give women in the workplace a sense of comfort and mutual support. In addition, some companies, like Visteon for example, will work to keep their top managers informed on the issues that are being raised by these groups in an attempt to raise awareness within the business and hopefully lead to change. (Daft,