The diversity of an organization’s workforce and taking affirmative steps to attract, develop and retain diverse employees has become an essential component to business success. It is to encourage managers to use all resources when recruiting to enhance the cultural diversity in their work place as “dynamic atmosphere of collaboration”. Ethic represents the principles by which people distinguish what is morally right. “Diversity is characteristics of individuals that shape their identities and the experience they have in society” (Certo, 2010, p.117) Workplace diversity is similarities and differences among employees in terms of age, cultural background, physical abilities and disabilities, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, education personality. It is how people perceive others and how they perceive themselves. Those perceptions affect their interactions. For most of us it is a lifelong process of learning and dealing successfully with diversity.(Diversity in the work place, Oregon.gov) If supervisors wish to see a high standard of ethical behavior in the workplace they must behave ethically themselves, exhibiting important dimensions of ethical behavior including loyalty, fairness and honesty with contribution to an environment that encourage ethical action. Code of ethics is and organization’s written statement of its values and rules for ethical behavior is good starting point for supervisor to meet the challenges to ethical behavior. Ethical standards can be different from country to country and meeting them is very challenging for those who work with people from another countries and more than one culture. Understanding cultural differences also can help businesspeople interpret behavior so they can arrive at agreements that are acceptable on both sides. People from different cultures may have different measures of ethical or unethical behavior. Sometimes the supervisors can promote ethical decisions making by involving others in the process where group members can offer their perspectives on the situation and the underlying values. Discussing the ethical implications of the decision can help the supervisor see consequences and options that he or she might not have thought of alone. Being ready to work successfully in a multicultural environment is a goal supervisors can set immediately and work toward in every business encounter. Progressive leadership of a diverse workforce is to learn, invest, value, experience, commit and change. M.Khalil Zonoozy Diversity and the Dynamics of Pluralism 1993. Knowledge of different cultures, awareness and acceptance of difference, ethics across cultures are elements of successful leader who actively promote cultural awareness in the workplace by providing training opportunities to staff, maintaining contact with minority organizations in the community and inviting them into workplace, making cultural awareness a frequent topic at staff meetings.
Mor-Barak (2011), takes a global perspective and defines workplace diversity as “the division of the workforce into distinction categories that have a perceived commonality within a given cultural or national context, and that impact potentially harmful or beneficial employment outcomes such as job opportunities, treatment in the workplace, and promotion prospects-irrespective of job-related skills and qualifications”. This definition provides a broad leeway by not including specific examples of the distiction categories, thus leaves open the opportunity to include relevant categories that match s...
Being successful at managing workforce diversity involves attracting and retaining the highest quality individuals in the talent pool. For managers it means learning how to manage human potential sensitively. It requires an ever-increasing awareness of how people from different backgrounds deal with authority, communication, overall business etiquette, and relate to their communities of affiliation. Successful management of workforce diversity is a process that takes place in many stages and on many levels. It requires managers to first recruit a competent and qualified staff, then to accommodate individual needs within the context of the work team and the organization.
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
They have to understand and practice the tools needed to manage a diverse workplace. As discussed in The Loudest Duck leaders can employ these methods to obtain a harmonious, all-inclusive environment: appreciate, promote, employ and celebrate diversity. Leaders must show appreciation and interest in the diversity of their workforce, not just look at percentages and how those are fulfilled but truly engage in understanding and developing the challenges and successes diversity brings. They need to understand how their subconscious is predisposed towards other's differences and develop a character and attitude that is not biased or predisposed to people and situations that are only similar to them. It's important for leaders to have an open-door policy that encourages sharing thoughts, rationale and feelings will help unify the diverse workforce. Leaders more than others need to understand that for a company to succeed everyone needs to feel valued and appreciated regardless of the
First, the management may be able to apportion the right resources and efforts in hiring the best and most diversified employees. Different perceptions on diversity indicate that diversity not only has benefits to an organisation but also presents several challenges, especially to the management. The different perceptions on diversity imply that managers should focus on solving diversity-associated problems to create an integrated workplace (Klarsfeld, 2016). To establish constructive diversity at the workplace, managers should institute feasible diversity-friendly policies, vision and
Having diversity in the workplace allows for greater growth within a company due to the different opinions and perspectives of people from all walks of life. To remain competitive, many companies are being advised to recruit, develop and retain men and women of all different backgrounds, ages and races (Cox and Blake, 1991). By doing this and also accommodating the needs of their demographically diverse workforce, companies will become much more appealing places to work therefore reducing turnover and absentee
Workforce diversity has become a reality in organizations. More organizations have written workforce diversity policies or programs. Although there is still no consensus on how to define workforce diversity, diversity policies and program are producing positive effects in organizations. Diversity in the workplace is a way of defining acceptable behaviors of employees. Diversity represents all the ways in which individuals are both similar and different. It involves a variation of characteristics such as: age, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, or any other differences. Although diversity initiatives are common in the workplace today, this is due mainly to the federal government use of constitutional amendments, legislation, and executive orders, along with court decisions to interpret the laws for equal rights (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2010). The way an organization defines diversity and how it manages its diverse workforce may determine its effectiveness.
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 main purpose of this research paper will be to explore what methods organizations and leaders can use to successfully manage increased cultural diversity within the workforce. This research will reflect not only why it is important for organizations to embrace the differences in a diverse workplace, but will discuss the consequences that may occur if they do not incorporate effective methods for addressing a multicultural population. A clear discussion of the educational tools used in this project ...
Cultural differences plays a huge role in growing and sustaining a business. It helps companies understand different cultures to provide greater services not only to their customers but a greater work environment for their employees. Some aspects include gender, race, nationality, religion and age group. (Seymen 2006) proposed that values and morals each individual hold have influences on behaviours and ideas in different scenarios. According to (Bateman and Snell 2012), there are many advantages towards the organisation in terms of better market connections, improved international competition, multiplicity points of view and a better team performance.
Diversity within a company will benefit the company’s bottom line and help the company to keep the competitive edge (McCuiston, et. al., 2004). Improving the bottom line can be also be improved by retaining employees and improving customer service (McCuiston, et. al., 2004). So utilizing a diverse work group is very rewarding for the companies who implemented it correctly. The profitability that the company will see may not be seen on the front end, but the long term results will yield a better profit for the company by helping to reduce turnover rates, improving employee morale, and the recruitment of new
The issue of managing diversity in the workplace is relevant, interesting, fresh and useful. Managing diversity focuses on maximizing the ability of all employees to contribute to organizational goals. Affirmatives action refers to actions required to defeat the effects of past discrimination, or other barriers to equal work opportunity. The shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, the globalization of markets, new business scheme with more teamwork, work together with different corporate cultures of mergers and alliances and changing labor market are the five reasons why diversity has become a dominant activity in managing an organizations human resources. (Wayne F. Cascio, 1998)
Therefore, it is imperative for employers to put in place a deliberate training program that explains in detail the benefits and positive outcomes of a diverse climate in the workplace. Employers must communicate the effects of diversity in the workplace to ensure that the employees understand and embrace the climate. The most common practice to unleash diversity is through continuous training and mentoring. A continuous learning environment promotes understanding, improvement, and develops interpersonal skills. Employees must understand that diversity is an organizational attribute and not just a policy. When that understanding is achieved, the organization’s workforce is united and has a better chance of success in their mission. Therefore, organizations must adopt a diversity management practice that retains talent, improves satisfaction, and augment the organization’s
While workplace diversity means similarities and differences among employees in terms of age, cultural background, physical abilities and disabilities, race, religion, gender, and
Increasing globalization needs more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. Developing and enhancing on workplace diversity has become an important issue of management today.