Workplace Diversity
...of their workforce. A diverse cultural background, genders, ages and lifestyles, offers organisations a mixture of talents that are sensitive to business opportunities more rapidly.
A common notion in the corporate world is that diversity is only equated with gender, race and perhaps ethnic differences. However diversity includes a wider spectrum of subjects including alternative lifestyles, age, religion, socio-economic status, and ability. (De Meuse, 2007). Many firms realize that diversity can enhance organizational effectiveness. This is good for companies, employees and also their customers. Most innovative firms purposely establish heterogeneous work groups in order to get multiple views on problems. Homogenous groups are more prone to group thinking where members share the same mind set and they view problems through the lenses of conformity. Heterogeneous groups have a broader reservoir of experiences and different cultural perspectives which will facilitate better problem solving. At the same time, huge challenges are posed on organizations as diversified workforces will have different needs and expectations compared to homogenous workforces. Improper handling of workforce diversity can back fire leading to tension among employees and hindering individual and organizational performances (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin & Cardy, 2003, p. 128). Hence a key human resource function in an organization is to handle the varying needs employees with diverse backgrounds.
This essay is to identify what workforce diversity is and how this topic gets further complicated when organisations conduct business in a global arena. Key theories and concepts will be defined in order to understand the sources of diversity. In addition reasons why organizations need to manage it. Key strategies and major goals of diversity training will be explored in order to answer the question why...
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