Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity is a composite of racial, gender, ethnic, nation origin, cultural, attitudinal, social-economic, and personal differences. With the many legal implications and issues surrounding every aspect of the Human Resource function, the human Resource department must be prepared to resolve issues in a timely and cost efficient manner. With the saturation of laws surrounding personnel, nearly every decision made by the Human Resource Department has the potential for legal suits. Even if the Human Resource department has done everything that is required of them, it can still be costly to defend it. That is why supervisors, managers and workers must be trained on managing diversity in the workplace.

The diversity in the population indicates diversity in the workforce. By the year 2005 for every 100 workers there will be 15 immigrants; 16 U.S. born Black, Hispanic, other; 32 U.S. born White man, and 47 women, including women of color. The workforce will be made up of more women due to economic necessity and personal choice. In 1950 the work force was 30% female, in 1985, 54% of working age women were in the work force. This figure is expected to rise to 65% in 2005. Six out of seven working age women are projected to hold jobs by the middle of the 21st century. The work force will be made up of more minorities, not only due to population growth rates, but also due to immigration. Minorities and immigrants will be one third of the new workers entering the work force between 1985 and 2005. 1.3 million immigrants enter the country each year, most are in the south and west. From 1983 to 1992, 8.7 million legal immigrants arrived in the U.S., the highest number in any ten-year period since 1910. There has also been an e...

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...onfront behaviors, be comfortable asking about preferred terminology and treat people as individuals.

Works Cited

Bennett, Milton J. Sharing the Vision: Moving Beyond tolerance. School Safety. Fall 1993

Blank, Renee and Slipp, Sandra, Voices of Diversity. American Management Association, 1992

Dominguez, Cari M., "The Challenge of workforce." The Bureaucrat, Winter 1991-1992.

Gardenswartz, Lee, and Rowe, Anita, Managing Diversity: a Complete Desk reference and Planning Guide. San Diego: Business One Irwin/Pfeifer & company, 1993.

Gardenswartz, Lee, and Rowe, Anita, Diverse Teams At Work, Capitalizing on the Power of Diversity. Irwin Professional Publishing 1994.

Johnston, William, and Parker, Arnold, WORKFORCE 2000. Hudson Institute, Indiana, 1987