Workforce Diversity Essay

Introduction
The qualities that make individuals different from (unique characteristics or various cultural groups) or similar to others is diversity(Meeting The Challenge of Diversity, 2005). Workforce diversity in the other hand, refer to as policies and practices that seek to include people within a workforce who are considered to be, in some way, different from those in the prevailing constituency(McInnes, 2013). There are two categories of Dimension of Diversity as shown in Figure 1 below. The first category is in the inner circle which is called primary dimension. It is inborn difference which will impact a person throughout his or her life. The outer circle is the second category called secondary dimension. It is acquired or changed

Cultural diversity in the workplace is growing because of the globalization of business and it requires careful strategic attention in order to create a positive effect on all participants. Ignoring cultural diversity groups could have negative consequences when using such groups to further the development of organizations around the globe. The negative aspects of culturally diverse workplace include conflicts, communication problems, formation of negative dynamic, lack of cohesiveness, slow decision making, resistance to change and development of

These negative dynamics can in turn combine with imbalanced power structures to create work disadvantages for women and minorities. For example, in studies of ratings of promotion potential, minorities are rated lower than whites and females are rated lower than males (Landau, 1995). Another classic example would be the religious discrimination. For example Muslims are negatively stereotyped especially after the 9/11 event. Issues on religious discrimination will be discussed further in the case