Diversity In Workplace: Challenges And Benefits" - Essay

1. Why has diversity in the workplace been given so much attention lately?

2. What are the workforce diversity challenges and opportunities confronting new managers in the 21st century?

The Definition of Workplace Diversity

The variation of differences among the people working in any organization regarding their ethnicity, race, gender, experience, cognitive style and academic background is simply referred to as the “diversity in workplace”. It not only includes the way people perceive each other but also looking at their own selves. The unacknowledged barrier against the longing to achieve the leadership posts in workplaces by the women and minorities were referred to as the “glass ceiling”. The corporate sectors have been frightened regarding the shattering of the “glass-ceiling”. This inequality regarding the “glass ceilings” has affected the interactions of employees and workings as a team.  The professionals from human resource team have been required to frame-up with these arising problems. These may include changes, adaptability and communication (Barak 2016).

The diversity at the workplace has been a significant matter of attention for the management of an organization. The employees and managers have been pledged to value and identify the problems regarding diversity. Active programs were also been initiated in many cases, to improve the diversity and ambience of the workplace. As the ambience of the workforce of various countries was advancing continuously, various questions were raised. It was regarding their success and paying attention over the diversity issues (Kirton and Greene 2015).

The various factors for the late attention of this issue on diversity in this current century have been explored in this discussion. Besides this, the challenges of workforce diversity and the problems arising against the initiatives taken by the new managers are also taken into consideration.

The expansion of the globalization cult had conceded people to engage with others from various backgrounds. The people have been no longer living and working in a parochial surrounding but have emerged into a situation of worldwide economy running after a global framework. This has resulted in coming up with more diversified approach in order to stay competitive. Capitalization and maximization on diversity in workplace became a crucial factor for the management as a serious organizational challenge. As a result of this the managerial skills should have been adopted thoroughly to provide space for a multicultural working environment (Schmidt, MacWilliams and Neal-Boylan 2016).

The socio economic values have been still playing bigger roles in these inequalities at the workplace of this century. However, women have actually come forward in changing the scenario of the business world by attaining education and skills to occupy pivotal positions in management. The obstacles against the women and the minorities urging to achieve the leadership positions have been considered as a metaphoric “glass ceiling”. The corporate world has been found to be afraid that the minorities and women group might shatter this traditionally dominating “glass-ceiling”. These backward groups were been able enough to make changes in the dynamics of the corporate world with their diverse approaches in management (Berrey 2014).

The Glass Ceiling: A Barrier to Leadership

As a result of this, the organizations needed to adopt the diversity and search for paths to turn into an inclusive one. This was because the diversity possessed the potential to outturn more competitive advantages and work productivity. According to the co-chairman of the “Business-Higher Education Forum”, Stephen Butler, the diversity is a very helpful competitive resource. Managing this diversity is the fundamental part and parcel of effectual management at the working place. The amount of dual incoming families and single women working was also responsible for the changing of the dynamics. The changes in the structure of family meant that the traditional roles of family have been falling off. These outsourcing and downsizing have highly affected the “human resource management” (Wambari 2014).

Further the latest technologies and globalization were also responsible for the changes of practices in the workplace.  The organizational restructuring in general has resulted in less people doing larger work. The changes in “federal and state equal opportunity legislations” have declared the discrimination at office as illegal. These types of law have put down the responsibilities and rights for the associates, the employees and the employers and bind both the groups accountably together (Sabharwal 2014).

Thus, despite being late, the diversity training has got an important attention ultimately. The ambience of the workforce of various countries like the United States has been advancing continuously. As a result of this, the managers were asked to take care of those areas where the society was struggling for years. The question raised was whether more success could be brought from the society other than it has faced previously. The diversity was already creating impacts on individual learning, organizational culture and performance management. This area was little understood and less researched. The human resource development team has been facing problems to impose actual concerns for the diversity into programs and practice (Reisch and Andrews 2014).

The circumstances were in favor for initiating diversity. Despite that, most organizations failed to acquire the racial balance. The current initiatives to adopt the diversity are not driven by changing the composition of workforce. It was planned by using heterogeneous workforces and inability of the team to integrate overall. The recovering initiatives of diversity have concentrated on the readiness to sustain diverse personnel. It has also assessed their present disposition to train, manage and evaluate diversity completely. Unfortunately, there laid the fact of getting it late attention. The companies have cooked-up a cult which was lying somewhere between intoxication and death when the matter of encouraging diversity was concerned (Lu et al. 2015). 

Workforce Diversity: A Significant Concern

There were many organizations afraid of focusing in these problems as it may result with lawsuits. The investment on diversity was also too burdensome to impose. The diverse talents were not necessarily going to prove positively at the interviews (Ellis and Keys 2015). An organization that has been much tolerant about giving value to diversity has to undergo through attraction and retaining best diverse talents. This was done by the minority and specialized publications and advertising in diversified environments.  Again for many organizations the extent of value of the diversity was not understandable. Many inclusion and diversity industries have not progressed to produce standardized measure in this issue. As a result of this, the return from the investments was not always pleasant to the executives (Rhode and Packel 2014). 

The only companies supporting the diversity either possessed visionary leaders or have understood the social justice and capital aspects of accumulating diverse individuals.  It is a fact that some companies never want to put additional effort in order to get benefits they do not understand or give value to (Homan and Greer 2013).

In a diverse workplace, the associates have been found interdependent while working. The respect for individual diversities has proved to upturn productivity. Diversity have further scaled down lawsuits and enhanced recruitment, business image and marketing opportunities. It has established itself critical for achieving success in this era of creativity and flexibility. The nurturing of negative behaviors and attitudes in a workplace has imposed stereotyping, discrimination and prejudice (Byrd 2014). Due to a diverse culture, the personal growth of the employees has evolved.  They regularly got exposure to latest and innovative ideas and views in such environment. This has helped them to possess a clearer perspective of their position in the world. They were also able to exchange ideologies and reach out to each other intellectually. The subconscious obstacles of xenophobia and ethnocentrism could slowly be broken down. This has encouraged people to become a more well-rounded part of the culture and society. Here laid the primary benefits of diversity (Chrobot-Mason and Aramovich 2013). 

Despite the positive aspects of diversity in a workplace, it was also not without challenges. Communication was one of such general challenges. The language, cultural and perceptual barriers were needed to overcome here. Ineffective communication may lead to low morale, lack of team work and confusion. There might be several employees denying the change of cultural and social makeup. These resistances for the change have silenced innovative ideas inhibiting the progress. The imposition of diversity on the policies was another overriding challenge to the diversity advocates. A proper planning must be set up and imposed to build an ambience of diversity passing through every function and department of the company (Stone and Deadrick 2015).

Managing Diversity in a Multicultural Environment

These above factors were some generalized problems. However, the most important problem has been arising from the challenges faced by women and minorities. These problems in executive positions remained an essential issue in the current corporate world. The minorities and women have been restrained in their aspiration to climb upwards in their corporate ladder. These inequality issues about their executive salary payment have their root cause at the socio-cultural perceptions. Even after years of giving effort to acquire equal rights in the workforce, the view still prevailed. These socio-cultural factors have been biased in evaluation of employee’s performance. This has been termed as “gender and ethnic prejudices”. However, the rule of men and women occupying the similar positions in leadership were needed (Hunt, Layton and Prince 2015).

Because of this gender-bias, the women has been evaluated and considered separately from men. This has resulted into a negative impact in the proper appreciation of the talent of women. Female leaders has been facing greater standards than the men but was rewarded less. For the preparation and training of advancement and entrance in various management positions, the men have been given more priority. Women was also been lacking behind in encountering jobs with higher salaries that were traditionally executed by men. Thus the women needed to go for chances to seek attention of the government. They should demand for a society to build up laws and policies that should be feasible for all genders. The condition must be from being well paid to be actively indulged in running their families (Klarsfeld et al. 2014). 

Another major challenge to sustain the diversity at workplace has been coming from tackling the minority groups. The signs for this discrimination have been denial for promotions that any individual has deserved. The minorities were also seen not to be trained properly. Mental tasks have been assigned to them outside their job descriptions. They were not only been ignored in many cases but also excluded from vital meetings (Jansen 2016).

These gender and racial discriminations could be confronted by identifying the problem first. Then a second opinion has to be obtained and the offender must be encountered. Complain files must be registered by the company and outside agencies (Singh, Winkel and Selvarajan 2013).  The new managers of this twenty first century needs to confront these opportunities and challenges by becoming more proactive, concerning both the equalities and inequalities in the workplace. The diversity of workplace is firmly encouraged at all levels as it allows space for greater competitions. A manager of any company with a well-rounded team member must maintain a balance in the views of business decisions. This could lead to more reasonable decision makings. The proactive route to manage the equality and diversities should address the mentality of the employees. The necessity to change the procedures in realigning the workers with the bottom line was also identified by the approach (Barak 2016).

Factors Contributing to Late Attention to Workplace Diversity

Conclusion:

Thus, it was seen that the diverse workforce was nothing but the reflection of the developing marketplace. Since the society has been turning more diverse it has affected the marketplace also.  The equality and inequality, both the terms are used to support the morals of human rights in the society as well as in workplace.  The working teams with diversity import immense value for the organizations. The mutual respect of the individual differences has benefited by creating a competing edge and an increase of productivity.   This benefit associates by building a safe and fair surrounding. In this type of surrounding everyone posses access to new challenges and opportunities. This has lead to more global workforce and economy. The diverse work team shall become more a concern of the business than a social one. The diverse population has the capacity to both earn and spend more money.  All the angles of the strategy of the human resource management must be retrofitted and examined. The senior managers should be getting more involved in this type of issues. Every employee must be involved in executing and formulating diversity initiatives if possible. Promoting of diversity in the leadership levels should be done. The management tools of a diverse force must focus on educating members about the diversity factors. This education should also include regulations and laws. Lastly, a customizable survey of the employee’s satisfaction could be launched providing comprehensive reporting. Thus the organizations diversity plans and policies must be evaluated. In this century most organizations are made up of a culture of diversity. Hence, the organizations definitely need to know how to get accustom to it in order to become successful. 

References:

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