Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Introduction

The world's increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this reason, profit and non-profit organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today (UCSF).

Workplace diversity refers to having a variety of different types of people working together within a place of business. Employee gender, race, religion, sexual preference, physical appearance, family or marital status, education, culture, personality, or tenure establishes diversity in the workplace. Diversity is rapidly becoming a very important necessity in today’s business world. Diversity not only involves how people perceive themselves, but how they perceive others. Those perceptions affect their interactions. For a wide assortment of employees to function effectively as an organization, human resource professionals need to deal effectively with issues such as communication, adaptability and change. Diversity will increase significantly in the coming years. Successful organizations recognize the need for immediate action and are ready and willing to spend resources on managing diversity in the workplace now (UCSF)

Managing Diversity

To address diversity issues, consider these questions: what policies, practices, and ways of thinking and within our organizational culture have differential impact on different groups? What organizational changes should be made to meet the needs of a diverse work...

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Koonce, R. (2013). Redefining diversity: It's not just the right thing to do; it also makes good business sense. Training and Development, Web. 25 June 2014.

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http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/ UCSF Human Resources