Diversity in the Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Diversity in the Workplace - Essay Example Capitalizing and maximizing on diversity in the workplace has become a very critical management issue today (Thiederman, 2008). The leadership and management teams in organizations need to recognize that workplace environment is diversifying, evolving, and changing. Management and employees must be equipped to value multicultural differences in both customers and associates in order for everyone to be handled with dignity. Considering that managing diversity remains an important organizational challenge, leaders and managers should learn the skills required in a multicultural and diverse environment (Devoe, 1999). This paper will discuss various aspects of diversity in the workplace. Generally, diversity is defined as understanding, valuing, celebrating, accepting, and acknowledging differences among people with regard to ethnicity, race, gender, spiritual practice, age, public assistance status, class, sexual orientation, and mental and physical ability (Shakhray, 2009). In the wake of globalization, diversity issues are considered fundamental and are projected to become even more critical in the coming years because if increasing differences in the populations around the world. As such, organizations are required to focus on diversity particularly within the work setting and to look for ways of becoming completely inclusive organizations since diversity has the potential of resulting to greater competitive advantages and productivity. Diversity especially in the workplace is believed to be an invaluable competitive asset that any organization cannot afford to ignore (Devoe, 1999). Valuing and managing diversity is an important component of effective people management that can go a long way in improving productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. Demographic changes such as the organizational restructurings, equal opportunity legislation, and women in the workplace will need organizations to assess and review their practices of management, as well as to de velop creative and new approaches to manage people. Such changes will increase customer service and work performance (Harvey and Allard, 2005). There is no doubt that diversity in the workplace is a reality around the world. this is not only reflected in the organizational demographic trends, but also in how issues are being addressed in the workplace including the issues of disability accommodation, flexible work arrangements, elder care and child care among others (Thiederman, 2008). Diversity is beneficial in many ways to the organizational as a whole and also to the management and employees. Even though employees are interdependent in the work environment, respecting differences of individuals can significantly increase productivity. Workplace diversity can increase marketing opportunities, business image and creativity. In the modern era when creativity and flexibility are critical to competitiveness, workplace diversity is important for the success of any organization (Lewis, 2000). Proper management of diversity in the workplace can provide a distinct advantage in this era of enhanced competitiveness. Various studies have shown that heterogeneity promotes productivity and creativity. In addition, heterogeneous groups have demonstrated to produce better solutions to challenges within a workplace