Diversity In The Workplace

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).

Year after year, the various departments and agencies of the United States Federal Government are becoming more diverse. The discussion of workplace diversity is not a discussion that is likely to disappear anytime soon in the future. To explain, the literature from Starks (2009) notes that by the year of 2050, minorities groups will account for fifty-percent of the population, in the United States of America. As a result, the discussion of diversity in the workplace is likely to still be a constant topic, for the various department and agencies of the United States Federal Government.

“Businesses started caring a lot more about diversity after a series of high-profile lawsuits rocked the financial industry.” (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016). This first sentence in the Harvard Business Review’s article, “Why Diversity Programs Fail”, states a key fact about all organizations, do not want to “waste” or “lose” money because of a lawsuit such as; a race discrimination lawsuit or a sex discrimination lawsuit. There are many procedures and programs that can be implemented to prevent these types of issues in the workplace, are they still going to happen, yes, can these issues be addressed before a lawsuit is even a thought, yes. Therefore, this paper will look at two organizations that have been at the forefront of the diversity and inclusion

The purpose of the diversity audit project is to teach students how to analyze and measure diversity efforts of potential employers and as potential customers. In this globalizing world these skills are more important than ever. Many companies are making changes to diversify their employees and their customer base; this project is focused on investigating one company’s efforts. After this project students can expect to have gained a deeper knowledge of how to measure a company’s level of diversity and analyze its effects on both employees and customers.

Many organizations are beginning to view diversity as an organizational change. This could possibly mean changes in the power dynamics and organizational structure, the way decisions are made, and the way an

It has become an accepted business practice to meet a certain quota of hiring from diverse racial groups. This trend of identifying racial diversity began with “the idea of setting targets has its roots in affirmative action policies in the US and South Africa” (Jacobs, 1). Previous social movements resulted in the push to identify numbers regarding grouping those of different ethnic groups. As of the year 2016, the United States government issued “a three-hundred-dollar diversity fund” (Jacobs, 2) to identify the rate of hiring diverse groupings. Companies began to feel pressure from social activism resulting in this new quota that they must meet to stay respected within the community of those who fight for diversity on the internet.

Research stated that the Canadian companies leading the way in the area of diversity management have discovered that by embracing the elements of ethnic and cultural diversity in their workforce they have enhanced their ability to understand and tap new markets, both within Canada and abroad.

The article Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse by Alison Reynolds and David Lewis discusses the importance for companies to hire people that have different perspectives, processing styles, judgment and opinions from them. The article claims that if companies want to be successful they need to focus on hiring individuals who have different perspectives instead of those with different genders, age, or ethnicity.

Advancements in technology allowed companies to become globalized and have a further reach than in the years before. As companies expand on a global scale, it has become increasingly important to take into account different viewpoints from individuals all over the world. As companies became globalized, diversity is becoming a term that comes up frequently when discussing the management of companies. Businesses (especially global and national businesses) are moving away from a workforce that is primarily white and male, and moving towards a more inclusive environment of workers that includes different genders, as well as people from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Not only is diversity an important moral issue, it is critical to think about when discussing the success of businesses.

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)

* making. They do this by training their employees to address unconscious bias as well as celebrate diversity and inclusion. Google created the Diversity Core program to connect their employees to high impact diversity projects across Google and local communities.

Differences are an undeniable common thread in American culture and the global community at large. It should be expected that every individual is unique in his or her own experiences, views, beliefs philosophies and ideologies. Fortunately, these distinctive differences that have become a driving force for change and acceptance in the workplace environment. “Workforce diversity acknowledges the reality that people differ in many ways, visible or invisible, [by] age, gender, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture (Shen, Chanda, D’Netto, & Monga, 2009, p. 235). Support of individuals’ unique differences has assisted organizations

For example, 70% of Google’s engineers are Black or Asian American. This diversity led it to the No. 1 market share holder in the IT Software industry, by achieving one of the highest profitabilities. In absorptive capacity, diversity increases new business opportunities that come from diverse people.

The discrimination-and-fairness paradigm is considered the “dominant way” of understanding diversity by most organizations. It attempts to remove discrimination and create employment equality by seeking to increase diversity among employees. Progress is measured by how well the company is able to meet its diversity number goals but avoids looking deeper at the reality behind the numbers. (Thomas & Ely p. 81)

Diversity in workforce “include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience”(Thomas 1992). Diversity in the workforce is initially perceived as a response toward the increasing diversity of the consumers in the market (Agocs & Burr, 1996). From there, it has been observed that capitalizing on existing differences among the employees provide benefits to the organization. Diversity in workforce fosters and encourages