HARRIET OLIVIA PARKES “Today’s workplace has become increasingly diverse in terms of gender, age, culture and ethnicity. In light of this, why and how can organisations attract, select and retain controlling and demographically diverse employees?” Introduction: What is diversity? Diversity in general terms, relates to personal qualities that is different from ones own qualities. People may be culturally diverse or demographically diverse including elements such as age, race, gender and culture. The rapid internationalization and globalization in recent years has resulted in an increasingly diverse workforce across a number of westernized and western countries. There are both advantages such as attracting minority talent and innovation and disadvantages such as increased conflict, communication issues and additional training cost of have a diverse workforce. These will be discussed further in the essay. Effective diversity management is required in order for organisations to utilize the ability to capitalize on workplace diversity and as a result of this, reduce possible negative impacts and consequences of diversity. Organisations, in order to be continuously successful, must adopt strategies in order to attract, select and retain culturally and demographically diverse employees. This is done through a number of processes, mainly through effective diversity management and human resource practices. Diversity, namely ethnicity is an important part of the Australian workforce with 24.8% born overseas and 26% of the Australian workforce having at least 1 parent born overseas. Migrants and ethnically diverse employees make up 30.8% of the workforce in the manufacturing sector (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2007), this is the highes... ... middle of paper ... ... Another important factor of training and development of culturally and demographically diverse employees is that it can be structured to fit the specific individual in correspondence with the organisations needs also, with the need of the candidate being fully informed of the aim, purpose and outcome of the training. By doing so, this improves job satisfaction, employee morale, whilst also helps retain employees. In the training and development process, the organisation or those who are in charge of it need to determine individual and personal development needs of each minority employee, creating personal training plans for the employee as well as continuous constructive feedback (as well as some constructive criticism). This allows for the employees needs to not only be tailored for, but also to be able to know where and how they can improve in certain aspects.
The modern world has experienced tremendous changes, which have contributed to changes in people living in the global world. These changes have mainly been brought by globalization, which is a major phenomenon in the 21st Century. Leaders across various professions, businesses, and governments need to cope with globalization since it forces them to cross borders more often and communicate or conduct business with people from other cultures. This process involves developing necessary skills for working effectively in the modern complex world. Actually, the ability of these leaders to work effectively not only requires the development of essential skills but the application of leadership principles in the global work environment. In essence, leaders must develop their ability to apply leadership principles across culturally diverse workforce in today’s global work environment.
America’s workforce is continuously changing. Businesses today hire and retain culturally diverse employees to compete in the globalize market. Companies are developing ways to tap into and capitalize upon the talents of their workforces. They are discovering how to value the diversity of their workforces and the potential that diversity brings in flexibility, ingenuity and problem solving are helping them achieve their goals.
A diverse workforce more closely reflects the global marketplace that the organization competes in. With the growing number of Asian, Hispanic and other minority populations, it makes sense for companies to promote and strive for diversity in the workplace. By doing this, businesses create the very conditions needed to produce more creative outcomes to the problems and challenges they will be faced with.
Training and development is essential to employee’s retention, loyalty and overall satisfaction. When employees feel there is opportunity within a company and diversity leading the way employees pride and productivity is enhanced.
Diversity in the workplace is very important in today’s global workforce because workers in the economy all over the world are currently made up of many different ethnicities, varied cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. People that are involved in management such as managers, and supervisors could greatly benefit from being accustomed to diversity in the workplace because their job entails dealing with a multicultural work environment on a daily basis. Knowing how to handle diversity in the workforce and having the necessary skills for supervisors would be beneficial not only to them but also to the success of the company and economy because a strong, diversified workforce will create a more “creative, innovative, and productive workforce.” (Kerby, 2012).
Within an organization, diversity is considered a having a population of people that are of different races or cultures working collectively. From this collection of people, a variance of perspective is formed and talent is fostered in order to maximize performance. These great minds work
Businesses that promote diversity in today's global marketplace are better able to attract and retain the best talent. Employing a diverse workforce allows a company to utilize the potential within the job market to its fullest and contributes to overall economic growth and prosperity. Differences among co-workers should not divide a workplace. Rather, differences among co-workers should be used to foster creativity and innovation, thereby driving profitability and business success.
Diversity is a term used most often to describe the different types of race, religion, and nationalities but in today’s business world, it is used to describe the different individual behaviors of employees. Diversity is about characteristics and demographics that differ from person to person and how they affect human behavior. To understand how diversity affects the work place let us look at four types of diversity--Differences in skill and abilities, Values and attitudes, Occupation differences, and Age.
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).
Living in a country where it was founded by immigrants, diversity is everywhere you go especially in the workplace. There are many types of diversity; ethnicity, gender, religion and age just to name a few. Working in a diverse organization it can give you a taste of the real world, and what you will deal with wherever you go. There is so much diversity in the world today so it is a benefit to experience it in the workplace as well. You are given the chance to learn so many things from different cultures, why wouldn't you want to work in a diverse organization?
For the purpose of this paper, I will define what the term Diversity means, and then I will concentrate on the diversity as a result of geographic origin or ethnic diversity. I will look at how ethnic diversity is managed generally and then how my employer, deals with the diverse ethnic groups in its organization and what it needs to improve on.
Diversity in the workplace is important for employees because it manifests itself in building a great reputation for the company, leading to increased profitability and opportunities for workers. Making sure all members, students, parents and guarding’s are welcomed at all times in a well-mannered environment Workplace diversity is important within the organization as well as outside ensuring all different are put aside and everyone can come together and work well as a great team.
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 in business today is unavoidable. Due to labor markets, immigration, and the increase in women in the workforce, managers must develop new strategies and behaviors to effectively manage these diverse workers. As culturally different people enter the workforce, organizations need to take advantage of this labor pool. Not only does this resource solve declining labor growth, but it also gives the organization a different perspective in the industry and will potentially bring new diverse customers. Managers who change their interpersonal behavior towards diverse employees and learn to understand the cultural differences between them will undoubtedly increase productivity and gain a competitive edge in the market place.
The importance of diversity in the workplace that it can aid in a competitive framework