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Importance of managing diversity in an organisation
Importance of managing diversity in an organisation
Abstract on benefits of diversity in workplace
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Diversity
America’s workforce is continuously changing. Businesses today hire and retain culturally diverse employees to compete in the globalize market. Companies are developing ways to tap into and capitalize upon the talents of their workforces. They are discovering how to value the diversity of their workforces and the potential that diversity brings in flexibility, ingenuity and problem solving are helping them achieve their goals.
Diversity can be differences in age, gender, ethnicity, and religion. Having such a diverse workforce can be very challenging. (1) Today’s workforce is very diverse in respect to age. Before, corporate America consisted of workers ranging from twenty one up to late thirties to early forties. Now, we see people in their mid to late fifties going back to work. This trend has both advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of an older employee over a younger employee is his ability to use his years of experience in situations where a younger employee lacks experience. Another advantage for an older employee is his built relationship with existing customers. The disadvantage of an older employee over a younger employee is his inability to quickly adapt to his changing environment. Younger employees are more “hungry” compared to their older counter parts. Their hunger is fired by their goal to quickly move up the corporate ladder.
(2) Gender also poses a challenge in the work force. Today, more and more women are entering the workforce. As such, the working environment has greatly changed. Companies make sure that sexual harassment does not happen. Men are expected to carefully say things without offending the opposite sex. The same rule also applies to women.
Sexual harassment includes requests for sexual favors, sexual advances or other sexual conduct when (a) submission is either explicitly or implicitly a condition affecting academic or employment decisions; or (b) the behavior is sufficiently severe or pervasive as to create an intimidating, hostile or repugnant environment; or (c) the behavior persists despite objection by the person to whom the conduct is directed. Companies considers such behavior, whether physical or verbal, to be a breach of its standards of conduct. It will seek to prevent such incidents and will investigate and take corrective actions for violations of this policy.
There are two types of...
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...Filipina, he had spent some time in the Philippines a few years back.
(4) Religion plays an important part on an individual’s behavior. Being part of the same religious group can mean belongingness. For example, in a work place environment, if the four out of the six team members were Jewish, they would be closer to each other since they were all of the same faith. This closeness will result in openness among the four members which would improve productivity. However, such action could also have a negative effect. The other two members would feel excluded. They would also not be likely included in the other four members’ decisions which would mean that communication would not flow across the whole group, but only with in sub-groups. It would also lead to misunderstanding and poor performance.
In summary, most workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse as people from different genders, races, cultures, ethnic origins, and lifestyles find themselves working together. The key to making diversity work is management. Knowing what they are and understanding what effects (positive or negative) they have on the organization is very important to the success of the company.
Gender discrimination differs from sexual harassment. Gender discrimination “occurs when individuals of one gender are favored in employment decisions over the other gender” (Moran, 2014, p. 243). This can happen to both men and women. Gender harassment is non-sexual in nature, but rather is making offensive remarks about a person’s gender frequently enough to create a hostile work environment. Gender harassment can happen with people of the opposite sex and persons of the same sex (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [U.S. EEOC], n.d.).
Sexual harassment is defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature” (EEOC). In many cases, these can be hostile, aggressive, and violent. However, harassment does not have to be overtly sexual to be unlawful. It can include repeated offensive comments and verbal abuse. When sexual harassment occurs in the workplace, it can create an intimidating situation from which the victim feels he or she cannot escape.
Despite legislation for equal opportunities, sexism is still evident in the workplace. Women have made great advancements in the workforce and have become an integral part of the labor market. They have greater access to higher education and as a result, greater access to traditionally male dominated professions such as law. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is clear however, that they have not yet achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. Discrimination in the form of gender, sex and sexual harassment continues to be a problem in today’s society.
Like most developed countries, America has witnessed the benefits of racial and ethnic diversity for several years. This is because the workforce today is more diverse than say, fifty years ago. Particularly, whites occupied higher offices than other races in the past. Today, the workforce embraces the fact that diversification not only results in better talents, but is also a necessity for the global economy (Byrd and Scott, 2014). The global environment has facilitated diversification because businesses are extending their operations beyond local and regional boundaries. This requires an understanding of varied cultures and markets hence, the need to diversify the workforce. Consequently, businesses hired experts with cultural experience of different geographical locations thus increase job diversification based on racial and ethnic lines. Therefore, race and ethnicity affects the current workforce by increasing job performance, fostering globalization, and improving
Businesses that promote diversity in today's global marketplace are better able to attract and retain the best talent. Employing a diverse workforce allows a company to utilize the potential within the job market to its fullest and contributes to overall economic growth and prosperity. Differences among co-workers should not divide a workplace. Rather, differences among co-workers should be used to foster creativity and innovation, thereby driving profitability and business success.
Sexual Harassment is a prohibited conduct of inappropriate behavior in which an individual makes unwelcome sexual favors, requests, or any other form of verbal or physical acts in a sexual nature in which it creates a hostile environment to work in. any form of harassment that hinders or interferes with an employee’s work should be taken seriously and will not be tolerated.
In a world that has grown increasingly smaller due to mass media, world travel, and readily available information, the workplace has grown increasingly diverse in both gender and cultural aspects. Individuals no longer live and work within the confines of their geographic locations. At almost any position with any company the individual employee is a part of a larger world economy that harvests assets from the ends of the earth. Because of this, companies seek to capitalize on diversity to become more creative and flexible in their business models.
In a orgazaination you will see male, female, white, black, hispanic, and asian workers. When you have such a diversity in your workplace management has the ability to utilize all those diversity to benfift their organziation. With such diversity in culture backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles they will all work hand in hand with one another making their organziation a great organziaiton with
The impact of diversity in the workplace is contingent upon several factors. Across companies diversified workforces are becoming increasingly common. To successfully manage a diverse workforce, organizations are ensuring that employees understand how their values and stereotypes influence their behavior toward others of different gender, ethnic, racial, or religious backgrounds; are gaining an appreciation of cultural differences among themselves; and behaviors that isolate or intimidate minorities are being improved (Noe et al., 2010, pg. 302).
“unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature will be considered harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment” (Hoyman & Stein, 2005, p.
For instance, women are known to be more sensitive to anything around them and may interpret men's actions to improper behavior. For example, women identify harassment more than men and express more negative attitude towards social sexual behavior at work (Baugh & Page 1998). While men on the other hand, may take a friendly gesture as a sexual behavior towards them, causing confusion and further complications (Baugh & Page 1998). Both genders come to a conclusion that sexual harassment takes a role of threat, but men seem to be less sensitive and less likely to report it than women. As a result of sexual harassment acts, employees can be easily held liable to these acts causing the companies their unspoiled image and millions.
In our society sexual harassment has been in the workplace for years. The use of sexual harassment in the workplace has been remembered best as a weapon used to keep women in their place which would cause them to forfeit promotions within their organizations. It was once believed that women were the only victims but the shift is now changing men are also reporting that they are also victims of sexual harassment on the job. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and employers began to recognize that they were liable for two types of sexual harassment. The first kind of harassment is Quid pro quo when a supervisor offers the employee sexual advances in order to get or keep a job, and also this harassment is used to determined if an individual will get a promotion. The second form of harassment is when supervisors or coworkers make working conditions hostile and unbearable. In both instances the legal ramification will cost an organization to suffer a financial loss in productivity, time, and money. Throughout this research my finding is that it's to the company's best interest to provide a clear policy on sexual harassment.
Diversity issues will gain importance because of the effective interactions and communications between the people. Diversity is the reality of the business world. It can have negative and positive impact on the employee’s behaviour towards work and work results. This also depends on how the employees have understood it and grasps it.
Sexual harassment can happen in the form of belittling remarks regarding specific gender.... ... middle of paper ... ... To conclude, sexual harassment is a tremendously huge issue that should be taken seriously.
We have around 30 nationalities working in our organization with varied gender, race, and age range of 24 to 67. A key benefit of having a diverse workforce is that they bring in different opinions and perspectives based on their varied background. They think out of the box and come up with appropriate solutions to the issues based