Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity in generally defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing and celebrating differences (Andre, 1995). In today's workforce Managers are compelled to recognize and manage the similarities and differences that exist among the people in the workplace but in present time diversity in Corporate America is the bottom line (Pantea, 2007).

Diversity overall represents the differences that exist among people. Managing diversity enables companies and corporations to perform at their highest level and focus on changing the organization's culture and infrastructure. If effectively managed, it will definitely influence costs, employee's attitudes, and attract and retain some of the best personnel in the workforce (Pantea, 2007). For this to happen, corporations must value diversity and foster in awareness and acceptance of differences.

Diverse ideas and contributions provide a voice to leadership regarding barriers and opportunities. Companies and corporations win if they truly value diversity. In many ways valuing diversity means putting an end to the assumption that anyone who is not a member of the dominant group must assimilate. Historically managing diversity in the workforce began in 1964 with the Civil Rights Bill, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of such factors as race, religion, sex and national origin. This is why the issue of workforce diversity has become so increasingly important in the last few decades. As corporations and government recognize the effects, that valuing diversity is not just the right thing to do for workers; it is the right thing to do for organizations, financially and economically. Because of the complexity of managing a diverse workforce, managers must focus on and emphasize on building specific skills by recognizing potential leaders and being accepting to others.

Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Benefits of managing a diverse workforce lead to having a more creative and productive workforce that has less interpersonal conflict with each other because they understand and appreciate differences. Managing diversity can also help with such issues as decision-making and problem-solving and providing good training education that provides specific information to create behavior changes, which is very important to effectively manage, must impact all levels: the individual, the group, and the organization, certainly from the standpoint of integrating individuals into the company through the enhancement of their commitment and satisfaction and begins with increasing awareness of what the concept of diversity really means and why it is important. Other reasons to manage diversity are to obtain top management support to integrate diversity into all company functions so managers will become more involved in diversity issues, because