DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

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Introduction

Today’s corporations are based on Globalization, Technology and the workforce. Due to the globalization of corporations, they are trying to increased Productivity, Sales and Quality of their products. Therefore, there is big competition among them to enrolment the most talented employees for the companies. Hence today workforce comprises a multi-cultural and multi-lingual in the many corporations. Due to that, the diversity of the workforce is growing each day. Hence managing these people with different religious, cultural and moral background is a challenging task for the human resource managers.

What is Diversity?

The diversity of workforce is the differences in the cultural, social, religious and social status of the employees in the company. Supervisors and managers need to recognize the ways in which the workplace is changing and amending. Managing diversity is a significant organizational challenge, therefore managerial skills must conversion to accommodate a multicultural work environment.

• According to the Esty et al (1995) diversity is acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc.
• Companies need to embrace diversity and look for ways to become inclusive organizations because diversity has the potential to yield greater work productivity and competitive advantages (SHRM 1995)
• As per the Stephen Butler, co-chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum believes diversity is an invaluable competitive asset (Robinson 2002).
• Managing diversity is a key part of effective people management in the workplace (Black Enterprise 2001)

Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace

Working with a diverse workforce, there is a lot of advantages for the workplace are: increased creativity, increased productivity, new attitudes, new language skills, global understanding, new processes, and new solutions for the difficult problems.

• Creativity increases - when people with different ideas of solving difficult problems work together towards a common solution. Maybe there is no best answer to any question but you can be obtained more different ideas from different peoples, accordingly that you can select the most suitable and workable answer. This is a tremendous advantage of diversity in the workplace.
• Productivity increases- exponentially when people of all cultures pull together towards a single inspiring goal. Hence this is increased productivity is an obvious advantage of diversity in the workplace.

Benefits of Workforce Diversity

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Diversity is beneficial to both associates and employers. Although associates are interdependent in the workplace, respecting individual differences can increase productivity. Diversity in the workplace can reduce lawsuits and increase marketing opportunities, recruitment, creativity, and business image (Esty et al. 1995)

Challenges of Diversity

There is a challenge to managing a diverse workforce. According to the Devoe (1999) Managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. It involves recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination, and promoting inclusiveness. Managers may also be challenged with losses in personnel and work productivity due to prejudice and discrimination, as well as complaints and legal actions against the organization.

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Diversity and HRM

A diverse workforce is an analysis of a changing world and marketplace. Diverse workforce brings high value to the organizations. Respecting individual differences will benefit to the workplace by creating a competitive and increasing work productivity. Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair and safe environment where everyone has access to opportunities and challenges. HR Managers should be used to educate everyone about diversity and its issues, including laws and regulations. Most workplaces are made up of diverse cultures, so HR Managers need to learn how to manage them, how to used them and how to control them and also how to guide to the goal.

References

-Armstrong, M. Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice 11th edition,   London: Kogan Page, pp 383-398

-Black Enterprise. 2001. “Managing a multicultural workforce.”

 Black Enterprise Magazine (July).

-Devoe, D. (1999). Managing a diverse workforce

-Esty, K., Griffin, R. and Schorr-Hirsh M. (1995). Workplace diversity.

-Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). 1998

  http://www.shrm.org/, accessed 3.30PM, 15^th April 2018)