Diversity Management Theory And How It Affected My Academic Experience

Diversity is a wonderful asset to an organization and brings with it many benefits. Employees bring in their own personal experiences and knowledge to the team (Burns & Kerby, 2012). Having diverse teams allows for the possibility to fix a problem or perfect a process by using different employee’s experiences and past knowledge to find solutions. A diverse workforce can drive economic growth and capture a greater share of the consumer market (Burns & Kerby, 2012). With diversity as a core value, the recruitment pool is widened to find the most qualified candidate and reduces employee turnover as a result. An organization can be highly competitive with a diversity initiative by adapting to a changing environment (Burns & Kerby, 2012).

The purpose of this paper is designed to introduce, educate, and promote diversity within your company. Your company will be shown the merits of diversity and how diversity within your organization can be a benefit. This paper will be broken down into three main areas: Benefits of Diversity, Challenges of Diversity, and Recommendations for an effective diversity within your organization..

The way in which an organization tackles diversity determines its negative or positive outcome. All the 5 companies agreed that diversity has contributed to their success. Some barriers were identified in managing diversity like the difficulties faced by women in managing the work and family, fear of discrimination, resistance to change, diversity is not seen as an organizational priority, resistance to change and unsupportive working environment for diverse employees. Diversity contributes to more productivity but if not properly managed could hinder success.

When looking at diversity in the workplace, many people and companies encourage it. “Cultural diversity has become a defining characteristic of an increasing number of societies” (“Consequences of Cultural diversity” this should be the author and the date). They feel that it is a great thing to have diversity in the workplace, however, what some companies do not think about is the negative effects of having too much diversity in the workplace. “A workforce that has significant differences in ethnicity, race, religion, gender and other individual traits can produce negative effects, especially if not well-managed. These negative effects of diversity are understandable if the work culture does not support tolerance and acceptance of

According to Ozbilgin (2008), diversity is one of the top global issues and requires management attention. There are both benefits and challenges in managing diversity. However, Golnaz and Hoa (2002) stated that most organizations agree that diversity is a reality and while managing the same, it can be either an asset or a hindrance towards goals (Gleason 2004). Diversity helps the organization become proactive and flexible to new aspects and scenarios (Pwc 2011). To manage a successful diverse workforce, organisations need to promote self-awareness, openness, clear-headedness, adaptability, candour and egalitarianism. This can be a challenging task due to complex human behaviour and biases (Parkin 2009).

This paper is the first part of a training manual that will help employees to have a better understanding of diversity in the work place and how to act towards different diversity issues that may arise in the workplace. It will also give current statistics and recent trends of the demographics in the United States as well as the forecasted trends. Also included will be a rough outline of the entire contents of the manual and the table of contents for the manual.

Since public and private organization uses managing diversity concept ,this chapter addresses how managing diversity concepts is use several ways such as organizational and management level, group performance, group dynamics, group perspectives, and individual identity.

Diversity is what makes people different, not just culturally but in human differences. Having a multitude of differences in the workforce gives an organization the ability to use many ideas to reach a common goal. A person could say that a diverse group of people together in one room can accomplish greater achievements than a room filled with the same types of individuals. Managers understand the concept of diversity, and how important diversity is to the success of a company’s ability to implement programs that continue to develop a harmonious and diverse workplace. The recognition that diversity is a reality in the workforce has generated an enormous amount of activity over the years among leaders in business, government, and civil

According to the University of Oregon (1999), diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. Diversity is needed in all businesses and organizations. The reason diversity is needed is because different perspectives are needed to look at all the issues in an organization. Diversity gives a fresh look at problem solving and this is where creativity happens. In order for diversity to thrive it needs an atmosphere of acceptance and respect. This paper will look at four definitions of diversity and its audiences from: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), University of Edinburgh, Havering London Borough Government, and Wal-Mart. This paper will also describe the author of this paper’s view on diversity and compare and contrast this definition

Diversity is a popular topic in today’s business world, but the definition of the word varies vastly between organizations. Some definitions are one sentence where others are a paragraph long. To add to the confusion, employees have their own ideas about diversity when entering the workforce that may collaborate with or contradict the organization’s explanation. This paper will compare and contrast four definitions concerning diversity to highlight the similarities and differences of the word according to national and international organizations. Also, the author will explore diversity categories in regard to her own experiences in life.

Our reader for this class does a great job in describing the benefits of diversity management and I do agree with all of it. Diversity is the way for the future, in business, community, education, and for national or federal social events. But our reader also describes the problems that are common and current within the business environment upon adapting, or should I say, implementing this agenda. For many people, the word “diversity” has taken on a different meaning, it has become a descriptive for “those others that are not white males.”

The general line of reasoning is that if we learn to incorporate each other’s diverse traits and characteristics in the workplace, we can then use these differences to foster an innovative environment, which will give the company a competitive advantage over the competitors that do not accept workforce diversity. According to the Allied Academies International Conference, “Diversity is rapidly becoming a common practice among companies due to the increasing number of minorities entering the job market today. As these groups become more prevalent throughout companies, upper-level employees are facing numerous challenges when determining what changes must take place to create a positive working environment for everyone. Management is responsible for the development and implementation of effective policies directly relating to diversity to ensure the acceptance of minorities into the workplace and to aid in minorities’ success through equal opportunities and treatment.” (Marcia L. James, 2001, Academy for Studies in International Business Proceedings)

Workforce diversity is not a transient phenomenon; it is today's reality, and it is here to stay (Barak, 2013). A successful entity must provided a tool for cultures integration for its employees. Therefore Diversity training is important part of successful management. The most important components of an effective training diversity training are support of the organization. Training can be put out, but the company management level must also endorsed the training. The critical information that must be included in the training is respect of other differences. The attitude of the trainer can directly impact the attitude of the trainees on receptive of the information put out. If the trainees understand

The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.