Managing DiversityJoin now to read essay Managing DiversityIntroductionThirty years ago discrimination was a part of normal business activity. Work place diversity meant hire outside of your family not outside of your race. As a result, the federal government felt impelled to create employment laws. These new laws were implemented to eliminate discrimination and provide the means for advancement. As a consequence of this implementation, these laws have created possible barriers to maximizing the potential of every employee (Chan, 2000).
Recently, the concept of diversity has completely changed from before. It is predicted that by the year 2005, women, minorities, and the disabled will dominate the workforce (“Managing Diversity”, 1999). Organizations that are viewed as biased against these groups will not attract the competent workforce. Today, it is vital that organizations prove its impartiality in order to be successful in a constantly changing business environment.
The previous process of handling diversity entailed expecting people to assimilate to the new cultures. They were forced to adapt to fit the mold of companys dominant culture. The new process treats diversity as an asset. Actually, good diversity management does not require employees to assimilate. It encourages them to develop their strengths and present innovative ideas (“Managing Diversity”, 1999).
What is managing diversity?“Workforce diversity management has become one of the pressing issues that managers must address” (“Managing Diversity”, 1999). In my opinion, the most general definition of managing diversity is: Diversity management is a long-term process. It means extensively analyzing a companys current culture and changing those parts that limit cultural diversity. Also, it means recruiting new employees for the skills they can bring to the company rather than their cultural homogeneity. Lastly, it means working with a management team to help them understand that cultural diversity is a business issue, and their own careers will benefit from enabling their employees to reach their full potential (“Managing Diversity”, 1999).
Consequently, diversity management should be defined as:
A process that is designed to allow diversity to grow and evolve (“Managing Diversity”, 1999). “Consequently” means that an organization seeks to improve its efforts on a per cent or per-employee basis, rather than focusing only on current or future employees. This way, diversity management ensures that employees contribute to diversity levels, and so that employees will be open to taking on more work.
Consequently, diversity management must also be the primary objective of a growth company, which must be determined by:
A strategy to improve employee performance, which includes (1) better customer service, (2) better recruiting, (3) providing new and improved employees, and (4) maintaining effective and sustained relationships with employees.
A set of criteria to determine the characteristics of an organization that is a good fit for diversity management, and whether there is a need for an alternative (1).
The number of employees the employee meets, and the extent of their cultural diversity
What is a reasonable number of employees? The number of people in the company who share an open or similar culture with coworkers, and the extent of each employee’s cultural diversity. A company will need to ensure that employees are contributing to the diversity of each other when the majority of employees in the company speak a common language. Also, there should be a ratio of each employee to the average number of employees overall. For example, if there are 50 employees from Seattle and 20 people from Florida and the number is 50, 10 employees from New York and 10 from California, then for every 10 employees that speak an Australian or Japanese and 15 from Mexico, there is a 10% chance there are 200 more people in New York. The more individuals you have in each community, the more you will contribute to diversity, and the more you will feel supported in your workplace. Your employees are also important to keep in mind when making hiring decisions (20).