Diversity in the workplace essay

Diversity in the workplace essay

Copy to clipboard. Importance of Diversity in the Workplace In actuality, the importance of diversity in the workplace environment is determined by the cultural diversity of the contemporary society. There should be a proper guideline of conduct in the workplace and various motivational programs should be conducted in order to encourage intercultural communication. Home About Us Order Our Services Writing Services Essay Samples Essay Types FAQ Terms of Services Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Testimonials Contact Us Order Sign In. In every organization, employees should be open-minded and treat others with dignity, respect, courtesy and consideration and not tolerate harassment or discrimination. The second dimension of diversity deals with individuals from different social strata. Socialisation is primarily a process wherein members of an organisation or group learn to assimilate and internalise the behavioural norms, attitudes, diversity in the workplace essay, thought processes and work ethics of diversity in the workplace essay parent body Harris,

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Managers, as is widely known, play a critical role in modern day organisations. With businesses having grown rapidly over the course of the second half of the 20th century, ongoing developments like the growing separation of ownership and management, the ever increasing sizes of businesses, and increasing specialisation have made managers critical to the successful functioning of all but small and diversity in the workplace essay owner handled enterprises. Modern day managers, especially those who work with people in line and staff positions are responsible for supervising and enhancing the activities and productivity of their workers. They play an important role in managing the performance of their staff, and are deeply involved in selection of employees, the development of their careers, planning of succession, and in many other aspects of human resource management, diversity in the workplace essay, including compensation, rewards and training Devoe, With modern day managements increasingly thinking of their employees as their most important organisational resource, managing employees is among the most important of managerial responsibilities Devoe, Order custom essay Cultural Diversity in the Workplace essay with free plagiarism report.

The second half of the 20th century has seen increasing diversity in the workplace, particularly in the UK and the USA because of a number of socio-economic reasons related to immigrationeconomic and educational emancipation of ethnic groups, and the increasingly greater roles assumed by women in social life Devoe, Increasing workplace diversity has created a fresh set of challenges for managers who have been used to working in predominantly white and male environments Devoe, With effective communication between managers and the members of the workforce being critical for managerial effectiveness, this essay deals with the importance of communication between managers and the organisational workforce, the challenges and opportunities to management that have arisen out of diversity in the workplace essay workplace diversity, diversity in the workplace essay hindrances that can arise in communication in organisations with workplace diversity, diversity in the workplace essay, and the importance of managers to have a good understanding of workplace diversity to be able to fulfil their responsibilities effectively.

Commentary and Analysis Role of Communication Modern day organisations, business or otherwise are substantially dependent upon communication, horizontal and vertical, external and internal, for their successful working. All organisations, large or small, business, governmental or not for profit, have agendas that could range from the very complex to the extremely simple. Communication diversity in the workplace essay a demanding organisational issue and vitally important to organisational functioning for the execution of these agendas, regardless of size, nature or industry type.

Professor Leif Aberg of the Department of Communication, University of Helsinki states that communication gives these organisations momentum by fulfilling four basic functions, namely a supporting core functions, b profiling, c informing and d socialising, diversity in the workplace essay. While the relative importance and scope of these four functions depends, to a great extent upon the size and nature of individual organisations, all four diversity in the workplace essay, taken together, undoubtedly account for most of the formal communication that occurs within organisations.

Managers depend upon the effectiveness and scope of communication with employees for optimising organisational working and performance. Core functions of different organisations could range from manufacturing products to providing services; or as is the case with many governmental bodies, executing administrative work Harris, diversity in the workplace essay, Core processes, irrespective of their nature, can occur only through effective communication between organisational members Harris, Communication can be top down, bottom up, horizontal or diagonal. Again it can relate to any or more of the issues involved in the carrying out of core functions Harris, Effective communication between the management and the workforce has, as such, become an accepted imperative for organisational excellence, and breakdowns in this area are inevitably regarded as issues of major concern Harris, The dissemination of information within an organisation is another key component of organisational communication structure Harris, Very typically, significant amounts of information are regularly processed within an organisation.

These can a relate to events as well as developments that are internal or external to the organisation, or b concern organisational decisions taken at senior levels Harris, Such information may need to be conveyed to members of the establishment Harris, Decisions to communicate this sort of information are usually taken by members of senior management in consultation with communication managers. Information about internal decisions could cover a very broad ambit and possibly include details about organisational performance, targets, personnel policies, promotions, increments and the like Harris, It is imperative to ensure that real time business information reaches all ranks and functions in the organization Harris, Considering the bulk of such information, it is thus but appropriate that the majority of communication matters within organisations deal primarily with dissemination of routine information Harris, The last regular function of communication concerns socialisation.

Socialisation is primarily diversity in the workplace essay process wherein members of an organisation or group learn to assimilate and internalise the behavioural norms, attitudes, thought processes and work ethics of the parent body Harris, In most cases socialisation occurs when new entrants join organisations and take up their responsibilities Harris, Its need could arise for existing organisational members too if they have to be transferred to different locations or departments Harris, Socialisation is essentially a learning process and could be needed, both at the time of induction of employees into diversity in the workplace essay organisation, or at the time of their induction to work Harris, It is one of the primarily responsibilities of the Human Resources function and normally takes place through training and induction protocols Harris, These protocols are obviously dependent on communication through written, audiovisual, personal interaction, mentoring, or classroom mediums for their actual operation Harris, Apart from these four standard functions, diversity in the workplace essay, informal communication takes place constantly within organisations and groups and serves to increase social interaction between colleagues and co-workers; thereby helping in building relationships, diversity in the workplace essay, inculcating feelings of belonging and strengthening organisational loyalty and commitment.

Communication is not thought of any more as a routine and peripheral function. Its role as a driver of organisational success is well accepted and managements are increasingly trying to ensure its optimal use in the shaping and steering of organisations. Richard Luss and Steven Nice of Watson Wyatt state that communication serves organisations because a employees feel connected to the business and understand how their actions can support it, b new employees exhibit solid connections to the company culture starting from their initial days on the job, c it quickly connects employees to changing business challenges, facilitating faster adjustments to fluctuating market conditions, and d connects management with employees through strong leadership during times of organizational change.

While managers have for long been told about the importance of communication and in fact constantly trained to improve their communication skills, recent years have seen the emergence of challenges to effective communication that have arisen from the progressive diversification of the workplace. Diversity in the Workplace. Achievement of diversity in the workplace is an essential constituent of the last boundary that needs overcoming in diversity in the workplace essay effort to ensure equal opportunity for all segments of society, locally, nationally and globally. Business firms, public offices policymakers and many business leaders are seriously considering and implementing measures to enhance the representation of various communities, as well as women, at many levels, diversity in the workplace essay, in their places of work Fine, Achievement of diversity in the workplace has now become an area of priority and important for image, as well as political correctness.

With there being little abnormal for democratic and developed countries in the modern age to strive for equality of faith, religious conviction, gender, age and ethnicity, a really multicultural and essentially civilised society should, in the normal course, have the ability to provide the same opportunities to all its people. Similar work opportunities in the place of work, the same value systems for all individuals, ought to be an indisputable and irrefutable actuality, and the very fact that it continues to be an issue for deliberation, debate, and discussion, and that too in the modern day, and not in the historical perspective, is very distressing.

Diversity in the workplace, in actuality, is still a distant phenomenon. The employment configurations of most firms tilt in favour of recruiting white males, despite the availability of perhaps more appropriate persons from other social sections. Fine, While the official electronic and physical information dissemination vehicles of many business firms have suitably framed statements about equality in matters of employment, as also the organisational commitment to the achievement of greater diversity, very few businesses and companies can actually even come near achieving the local or national demographic structure in their workplaces, the single accurate gauge of workplace diversity Fine, The tendency to place individuals in compartments and to approach different social segments separately continues to survive.

Reasons for the Need of Managers to Understand Workplace Diversity There is nevertheless, an increasing consciousness of the huge and enduring advantages that can come the way of western firms businesses and society through the realisation of diversity in the workplace. Much of this awareness is being provided by large transnational corporations, which, diversity in the workplace essay to their substantial familiarity with managing workforces drawn from various nations, ethnicities and social segments, have come to understand the advantages of a varied diversified workforce Allison, Many of these organisations, e, diversity in the workplace essay.

Philip Morris, British Petroleum, and Citibank, have been able to achieve considerable diversity in their organisations with consequent corporate advantages Allison, With business firms realising the substantial advantages that can accrue out of diversification of their staff structure, it is being predicted that diversity will progressively become integral to western corporate frameworks Allison, Again, with many firms already putting programmes for diversification in place, management experts stress that accomplishment of workforce diversity will become important for achieving competitive advantage Allison, Whilst it is inevitable that enhancement in the numbers of suitable people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds will result in the erosion of the proportion of white males in western organisations, it also needs to be realised that delays in such actions will also lead to gradual declines in the availability of internal talent pools and in the erosion of competitive advantage Fine, Progressive organisations are in the process of building up skilled, creative and innovative manpower resources by providing unobstructed workplace diversity in the workplace essay, clear objectives and a range of skills, knowledge and abilities Fine, It is also becoming widely accepted that the achievement of diversity in the workplace leads to a substantial increase in the production of ideas and in the innovative ability of organisations Allison, Managers across a broad spectrum of industries and organisations in the advanced nations are now actively progressing diversification programmes with varying commitment and results.

There also appears to be general agreement on its utility in bringing about a significant number of business and operational advantages, along with the accomplishment of social equity. In fact organisations that have diversified workforces become far more flexible and are able to provide a greater number of solutions to workplace challenges. Employees from different backgrounds add depth to organisations and enable them to understand the nuances of the marketplace far more effectively. A range of abilities and skills, diversity in the workplace essay, including knowledge of different languages and cultures, diversity in the workplace essay, empowers organisations to absorb different viewpoints, absorb different ideas and deal better with the demands of the global marketplace, diversity in the workplace essay.

Diversified organisations are able to draw from a larger reservoir of experiences and awareness for purposes of strategy formulation and satisfaction of customer expectations Fine, With organisations becoming progressively diversified it becomes essential for managers to develop a sound understanding of the various social and organisational issues that relate to diversity; such awareness will help them to relate to a diversified workplace, appreciate the needs of employees, respond more appropriately to workplace challenges and optimize the working of their organisations Fine, The lack of understanding of such issues will invariably lead to mistakes in communication efforts, misunderstandings, resentment, and adverse impact upon productivity and operational and financial performance Fine, Managerial Responsibilities in Diversified Workplaces Managers of modern day western businesses face significant challenges in understanding, coming to terms with, and effectively utilising their progressively diverse work environments.

Most of the difficulties faced by organisations in implementing diversification and effectively utilising diversified workforces arise from issues that exist in latent form under the working and public surface. This is demeaning for LGB Lesbians, gays and Bisexuals people and they may fear a negative reaction if the assumptions are challenged. Whenever they do challenge these assumptions, they must come out to the person who made them. This can often be a daily occurrence and can be very draining. Negative attitudes and behaviors in the workplace include prejudice, stereotyping, and discriminationwhich should never be used by management for hiring, retention, and termination practices could lead to costly litigation.

Such companies, whilst visibly recognised to be unbiased, often overlook and agree to influence and authority disparities between groups of employees. Diversity policies in such circumstances become symbolic rather than actual, and ethical and principled issues become cloaked by the need to be lawfully and politically proper. Diversity frequently becomes a publicly appropriate pretense rather than a strategic and agreed aim, the dismantling of fences and obstructions to diversity in stated policies not being backed diversity in the workplace essay by its actual accomplishment. Women, individuals from different ethnic backgrounds, and disabled people, in such workplaces, are given place but expected to behave in accordance with the expectations of the prevailing male, white employees.

Gaining understanding of diversity issues will enable managers to recognise deep rooted prejudices, not only in their employees, but also in themselves, and empower them to build an equitable workplace. Many managers may also suffer from their lack of exposure to multiculturalism, making it more important for them to understand the benefits of a diversified workplace, the challenges that arise during the implementation of diversity and the ways and mans by which such challenges can be overcome. In many cases, members of the dominant group suffer from a severe lack of exposure to minorities and while they are sincere in their desire to promote diversity, tend to feel much more comfortable with what they feel to be familiar, with consequently undesirable consequences.

Conclusion A diverse workforce is a manifestation of an evolving society and its various constituents. Diversity augments competitive advantage and adds value to organizations. With most workplaces progressively becoming diverse in their staffing, managers need to understand that the acknowledgement of individual differences creates advantages in the workplace and increases productivity. The effective management of diversity creates a safe and equitable environment that provides equal opportunities and challenges to all employees.

Understanding of diversity issues by managers helps in improving communication between managers and members of the workforce, both in formal and informal communication processes. Efficient and productive managers must contribute to the building of successful and diverse workforces. Managers must first realise of the complexity of discrimination and its consequences. They must also learn to become aware of their own cultural predispositions and prejudices. Lastly managers diversity in the workplace essay be willing to bring in necessary changes in missions, strategies, policies and procedures, to bring about workplace diversity. It mainly depends on the manager's ability to understand what is best for the organization based on teamwork and the dynamics of the workplace.

Managing diversity is a comprehensive process for creating a work environment that includes everyone. When creating a successful diverse workforce, an effective manager should focus on personal awareness. Both managers and associates need to be aware of their personal biases. Therefore, organizations need to develop, implement, and maintain ongoing training because a one-day session of training will not change people's behaviors, diversity in the workplace essay. Black Enterprise Magazine Armstrong, P,Managing diversity in the workplace: representation of difference in The Office, SCUTREA Conference, Devoe, D,Managing a diverse workforce. San Mateo, CA: InfoWorld Media Group. Diversity and NASA,Final Frontier, Ad Astra to the stars, Retrieved March 21, from www.

pdf Esty, Katharine, Richard Griffin, and Marcie Schorr-Hirsh,Workplace diversity, A managers guide to solving problems and turning diversity into a competitive advantage. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation.

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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. Conclusion There is a mix reaction towards cultural diversity in the workplace. Some people easily adapt to the new environment and embrace cultural diversity, some are shy and negative towards the idea but come around after a time and some are just adamant to change. This research tries to find out the limit of tension a company is willing to handle in order to post up its capacity.

There should be a proper guideline of conduct in the workplace and various motivational programs should be conducted in order to encourage intercultural communication. This study can determine what, if required, measures company should follow in order to maintain harmony in the workplace. 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, To establish constructive diversity at the workplace, managers should institute feasible diversity-friendly policies, vision and.

Introduction Diversity in the workplace is becoming more and more common. Companies must take this into consideration when hiring and interacting with employees. Putting forth policies that educate and train employees will help eliminate discrimination. Diversity can include differences in age, gender and ethnicity "Workplace Diversity Benefits Chron. com," n. These behaviors range from cultural norms to religious beliefs. In business, the effectiveness of an organization rests on the ability of the management to interact with its employees and to motivate the wo middle of paper such as accurate interpretations, formal expectations, and positive reinforcement can improve the relationship between manager and employee.

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. Managers must recognize that there is a need to train, inform, and sensitize their employees to deal with issues relating to this type of diversity. Consequently, managers must recognize the effects of diversity in their firms and plan to deal with potential conflicts. They must also recognize the different strengths of individuals and groups so that they cay utilize their skills more effectively.

The second dimension of diversity deals with individuals from different social strata. For example, education levels differ among various employees. Introduction: The project is about diversity of the workplace. Our objectives is to show how important it is to have diversity in a workplace, how the manager has an important role in the diversity workforce and what challenges can the workplace faces with the different types of diversity. The idea stemmed from how an individual may react when dealing with different people that have various diversities. The importance of this project was to gain an understanding of the methodology and concepts contributing to the diversity of the workplace.

Literature View: Diversity has several meanings that can define and explain what diversity means. Home Page Diversity In The Workplace Essay. Diversity In The Workplace Essay Satisfactory Essays. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. In the workplace, it is common to encounter individuals of different cultures, ethnicities, and genders. This diversity can either lead to an introduction of new work methods, or it can lead to conflict between coworkers. In order to avoid conflict, and have all employees work as a cohesive team, managers must educate themselves, and their employees on the topic of cultural diversity. Employees from minority backgrounds are less likely to participate in the work place due to previous exposure to exclusion and discrimination in the work place.

Providing employees with an environment that promotes diversity is less threating to emp In a country, citizens are comprises of people with different genders, age and ethnicity. For example, United States of America is comprises of many ethnic groups such as Hispanic, Asians, African-Americans and other races Kinicki and Williams, In schools and colleges, there are students from different countries holding different beliefs and cultures and speak different mother languages. In politics, there are leaders preaching different philosophies and delivering their messages in different mediums and channels. For example, Barack Obama is a democrat while John McCain is a republican Gibbs, In multinational corporations, there are both male and female employees in different age range.

As the educational level increased and people have become more open-minded, more and more people are now willing to accept, adapt and tolerate the differences in each individual. Emergence of workplace diversity. The changing workforce demographic in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and educational level is one of the factors that caused the emergence of diversity in workplace. Women now made up more than half of all college students and about half of all medical and law students Luthans, This has increased the chances of women being employed in the workplace. Angela Braly and and Patricia Woertz are the best example of successful President and CEO of Fortune companies Cable News Network, In the near decades, many new laws and regulations were set by government in different countries to protect the rights of individuals in employment opportunities.

Examples of the new laws are Age Discrimination Act of , Civil Rights Act of and Americans with Disabilities Act of Luthans, These laws and regulations prohibit age and gender, physical disabilities discriminations as well as racism in employment. Many corporations started to take note of this issue and be less bias and more objective when selecting employees from candidates who apply for a particular job. As a result, more women, minorities and individuals who have physical disabilities have are benefited as more employment opportunities are provided to them.

Also, many organizations have realized the importance of diversity in workforce as it can help organizations to create competitive advantages. Many large corporations nowadays such as Coca Cola and Ford have diverse workforce. Organizations that practice an open policy in its employee recruitment regardless of age, gender and ethnicity are more likely to attract talented workers from different cultures, races and genders. The ability to leverage creativity and innovation increased as diverse workforce is able to give the organization more options and strategies to select in ts business strategic planning. Nevertheless, it helps to create a more resilient and strong workforce that is able to face constant changes. Furthermore, more and more businesses nowadays have started to enter the international business arena.

Many companies have business transactions overseas. irect investment abroad during the to period has increased about 36 percent Jackson, As these companies expand to other country markets, cultural diversity occurs. Therefore, many companies have started to promote diversity within the organization before entering the international markets as this will help employees in the organization to be more accustomed to work with people with different cultures, customs and social norms European Union, n. With the calling of corporate social responsibilities increased, many corporations began to concern about their corporate image and reputation. Therefore, many employment opportunities are provided to women, minorities and individuals with certain physical disabilities in order to create and build healthy corporate image.

Challenges of workplace diversity First of all, stereotypes and prejudices will exist as some people are ethnocentrism whereby they perceive they are superior to those people who are different from them in terms of country, culture, language, abilities or behavior Green et. They often view the differences of other people as weaknesses. For example, some managers are bias in selecting applicants for a vacant position due to the skin colour, religion and cultural differences. They select employees based on subjective values instead of the competence and quality of the applicants.

Secondly, diversity in workplace may result in inharmonic and unsupportive social atmosphere whereby the minority diverse employees may be excluded from office camaraderie and social events. For example, the blacks who work in a company that is white-dominant, they are likely to be boycott. In a diverse workplace, there will be a lot of people with different personality, values, attitudes and experience. When employees cannot reconcile and accept these individual differences, conflict occurs. A diverse workforce may also result in communication problems. People from different background can speak different languages, have different religion and culture and hold different value and beliefs. A word or a body language that is showing friendliness may be seen as impoliteness for other group of people.

All these cause conflicts to happen. The work-family issue is another challenge faced by organization. Working women may have difficulties in managing their time for work and family. This, in the end, resulted in high absenteeism and high turnover rate.