Diversity in the Workplace

The atmosphere in which businesses are run has changed drastically over the last few years. The changes that have occurred have made it so delicate to the extent that a slight error in judgment will make it impossible to operate a successful business. One of the areas that have been affected by the dynamism in the business field is the nature of the workforce. In a more specific sense, diversity in the people who work in a particular organization has become a major issue with the potential of making or breaking the organization. What is workplace diversity? In simple terms, the existence of workers from different settings in a company is called diversity. It is a crucial element that can determine the success or failure of a business. Diverse workplaces produce better results while non-diverse ones face numerous problems. In this paper, sufficient support shall be availed in defense of the claim that diversity in the workplace is a sure way of building a prosperous workplace. What is the support for this claim?

First, the absence of a diverse group of employees in a company will lead to accusations of discrimination and this will affect the public relations of the organization. With spoilt public relations, the marketability of the goods and services that are being produced by the company will be reduced completely. It will not be surprising to see members of the public avoiding anything that is associated with the organization. What is the nature of discrimination that will trigger this type of action? Numerous groups are in a society that needs to be considered in times of hiring. If these groups are ignored either intentionally or accidentally, the above-described problem of boycott arises. The groups include racial minorities, disabled persons, and women, people who have served in the military, gays, and lesbians. A minority group that runs a business and keeps the major segment of the population from being part of the workforce can also be accused of discrimination.

Far from the above, diversity in the workplace is a source of market intelligence in particular and business knowledge in general. By learning the behavioral patterns of certain groups of people who are part of the workforce, the management will be in a position to deal with the larger group more appropriately. This includes dealing with the group as a market for the company’s goods or services or a locality in which the company can open additional branches. For example, if a company is diverse to the extent that it has gay men as part of the workforce, the management will be in a better position to deal with the wide population of gay men in terms of producing goods and services that are ideal for them. The reason for this is that they already have a gay employee whose behavior patterns can act as a template for the larger gay group. This is not something that can take place in a workplace where the employees are all from a single group. Therefore the diverse business is more advantaged in terms of information than the non-diverse one.

In addition to the above, diversity in the workplace is one of how the social wellbeing of the workforce can be enhanced which in the long run leads to improved performance of the company. The people who work in organizations come from families where they interact with people of different types. It is from such families that we get people of different types and if the workplace does not give them the necessary skills in dealing with such people, they are going to encounter problems in their families and this will affect their performance in their places of work. To illustrate this point, if a workplace fails to employ lesbians, and it happens that one of the employees at the workplace comes from a family where there is a lesbian, this employee may carry with him or her negative attitudes against lesbians to the family member leading to conflicts. The family conflicts will always have a bearing on the performance of the employee and this will injure the company. Is diversity in the workplace entirely a good thing?

The contrary opinion is that a workplace with a huge variety of people takes more time to understand and is therefore difficult to administer. The reason for this is that understanding every employee is required since they are all different and this takes time. This can be a source of poor performance for the company.

In conclusion, an organization that prides itself in a diverse workforce has more to be happy for than a company that does not have diversity in its workforce. The benefits of a workforce that is made up of different people include the insulation from accusations of discrimination and access to market intelligence which is vital for success in the corporate world. Also, the social well-being of the workforce is enhanced when people from different backgrounds are encouraged to work together as a team. This is because it exposes them to what is in the real world thus making them learn how to deal with issues healthily. There is a disadvantage of workplace diversity which is taking a long time to understand each different individual so as to gain effectiveness in administration. But this is only one disadvantage compared to the numerous advantages of workplace diversity. Thus workplaces with diversity are likely to be more successful than workplaces without diversity.

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