Discuss about the benefits and challenges of a diverse workforce in an organization.
The essay is a discussion on business writing in the context of a topic related to diversity. It refers to understanding each of the individual as unique along with recognition of the individual differences (Wrench 2016). Manzoni, Strebel and Barsoux, (2010) put forward the benefit and challenges of diversity through a simple statement: “When it comes to corporate boards and diversity, the conventional wisdom is simple: Diversity is good. When directors are too alike, the thinking goes, they look at problems — and solutions — the same way. There’s no one to challenge prevailing ideas, or to speak out on issues important to certain groups of customers and employees. By contrast, diversity leads to more innovation, more outside-the-box thinking and better governance. Sounds great. And it is, in theory. Unfortunately, few boards that pursue diversity ever see the wished-for returns. Many report no significant change in their performance, while others bog down in conflict and gridlock.” The essay further puts forward a discussion on the benefits and challenges of a diverse workforce in an organization
According to Okoro and Washington (2012), the increase in the mobility of the workforce during twenty first century organizations are facing a diverse work environment. A diverse workforce determines usually comes with the right combination of competencies and skills. Diversity in the workforce amongst the business organizations helps in increasing it competitive advantage (Saxena 2014). Sustenance and preservation of diverse workforce helps in serving the urgent need of the organization. Both the domestic and the global organizations shares a common philosophy that takes birth out of experience and portrays the fact that diversity in workforce is vital for fulfilling the organizational goals and living up to the objectives of quality and equal education. According to Pollitt (2006), diversity of the workforce helps in enriching the work ambience by the creation of relationships of a lifetime in addition to building support. In addition, a diverse workforce ensures mutual respect and teamwork.
Therefore, diversity in workplace results in five key benefits, which includes driving innovation, increasing creativity, makes the process of recruitment easier, helps in avoiding a higher turnover and ensures capturing more market. According to the Thomas (2004) in the Harvard Business Review, Laura Sherbin and Melinda Marshall highlighted and identified companies with two-dimensional diversity possessed three inherent traits and three acquired traits. Working in some other countries helps in appreciating the cultural differences. Abreu (2014) stated that firms with a diverse workforce do better business not only in the short run but also in the long run. Through correlating diversity in leadership with the outcomes of the market, it showed that companies with two-dimensional diversity not only outperform but also out innovates. Diverse workforce leads to the increase in creativity. A team that includes the workers from the diverse experience and backgrounds comes up with better methods of problem solving and creative ideas (Jonsen et al. 2013). The more the network includes the individuals from the different cultural backgrounds the more is the stimulation of the different perspectives and ideas. A diverse workforce also leads to an increase in the productivity thereby resulting in competitive advantages. Diversity allows the employers in offering better solution to the customers as a result of the newer processes and ideas introduced within the organization. Workplace diversity thus helps in enhancing the morale of the employees and enables them in working more efficiently and effectively. The presence of workplace diversity also helps in enhancing the language skills. Diversity in the workforce makes the process of recruitment easier by allowing the employer in recruiting a variety of candidates. This helps in improvement of the bottom line of the organization in a competitive economy. The diversity in workplace helps in avoiding higher turnover rate. This is because companies which are successful ensured the creation of resources, internal programs and networking groups after they listened to the employees and supporting the efforts. This not only supported diversity but helped in the creation of a more invested and tighter community amongst the workforce. Lastly, one of the benefits of diversity that requires mention lies in creation of the positive reputation (Phillips 2014). Job seekers are increasingly drawn towards the companies with a diverse workforce since it becomes evident that such companies do not indulge into employment discrimination. One of the vital concerns amongst the potential employee lies in the fact whether the employers ensure fair treatment of the staffs regardless of the gender, ethnicity and race. These firms not only help in attracting newer talent but they can also ensure retaining the existing talent due to the higher morale of the employees resulting from the diversity in the workforce. For instance such firms are not only known for the attitude of inclusion and openness but also for being adaptable and flexible to the change.
On the other hand, challenges of workplace diversity have considerable power in determining the success of an organization. Challenges, if handled in a proper manner, can help in improving employee relationship and the promotion of diversity. However, on being handled incorrectly, results in the company falling apart, facing lawsuits and spending more time in resolving the conflict instead of being productive. There are various types of challenges of workplace diversity. According to Patrick and Kumar (2012), a diverse workforce also comes up with its certain challenges. One of the most prevalent challenge remains in discrimination followed by ethnocentrism and prejudice. Some of the other barriers included blaming victims, stereotyping and harassment. However according to Rensburg (2017), challenges in a diverse workforce might also appear in the form of effective communication between the employees which might have a direct impact on the cohesiveness and productivity of the group. This is because each person as well as the cultural group communicates in a different manner. Most often employees belonging to a diverse might sometimes misinterpret the tone, body language as well as emails thereby failing to undertake proper interaction. Diversity in the workforce also leads to the formation of the social groups thereby destroying the uniformity and bonding between the team members. An organization with a diverse workforce will always have some employees who will refuse to accept change thereby inhibiting progress. It is to be noted that it is difficult for an employee belonging to a diverse workforce to adapt to the changes overnight since he or she might have been raised in a certain manner. While adaptation is easier for some employees but there are others who might find it difficult. Even a single resistant employee can ensure in throwing off the balance. Thus, diversity within the workforce can act as a stumbling block. Most often, it is also the case that some employees often perceive the concept of diversity in relation to the multicultural issues spanning differences in the sex, age, religion, background, power, position and the sexual orientation. Failure in recognizing and accounting for it might result in the unintentional discrimination against some of the groups. Nowadays, people get so much engrossed in the cultural issues that they miss out on providing fair treatment based on the age, religious group and sexual orientation.
There are exists various methods for overcoming the challenges of diversity in workplace (Hunt, Layton and Prince 2015). There however exists a difference in every workplace hence certain tactics proves to be better than the others depending on the settings. These include planning for an official weekend trip which will enable in spending time together. There might be creation of instances when the employees might go bowling together for a couple of months. Appointment of a full time motivator from amongst the staffs can also help in nullifying the challenges of diversity. The motivator will possess the responsibility of keeping office on the track even when there are prevailing diversity issues. Providing necessary motivation to someone in taking extra task through offering paid vacation of an extra week can also take care of certain issues related to diversity. Challenges might also get sorted through implementation of open door policy. In addition, human resource and management should remain approachable for dealing with any issues related to the diversity.
Conclusions:
To conclude one can say that organizations having diverse workforce remain better suite in serving the diversified external customers in a global market. These organizations however possess a better understanding of the political, social, legal, cultural and economic environments. Although most of the employees remain positive in coping up with the diversity prevailing in the workplace but there are some who not only adjusts but expresses enthusiasm in working and thereby leveraging a positive diversity of the workplace. The key strategies that the organization adopts in increasing its inclusiveness is through training the employees to only be sensitive towards the cross cultural differences but also encouraging the employees in accepting overseas assignments along with providing them with training in foreign language. The essay also portrays that diversity in workforce can lead to challenges in the form of discrimination, ethnocentrism and prejudice. Thus, the organization should not only ensure in managing diversity but at the same time leverage potential of the employees in dealing with the challenging issues and gaining competitive advantage.
References:
Abreu, K. 2014. The Myriad Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace. [online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240550 [Accessed 6 Jun. 2018].
Hunt, V., Layton, D. and Prince, S., 2015. Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, 1, pp.15-29.
Jonsen, K., Tatli, A., Özbilgin, M.F. and Bell, M.P., 2013. The tragedy of the uncommons: Reframing workforce diversity. Human Relations, 66(2), pp.271-294.
Manzoni, J.F., Strebel, P. and Barsoux, J.L., 2010. Why diversity can backfire on company boards. Wall Street Journal, 25.
Okoro, E.A. and Washington, M.C., 2012. Workforce diversity and organizational communication: Analysis of human capital performance and productivity. Journal of Diversity Management, 7(1), p.57.
Patrick, H.A. and Kumar, V.R., 2012. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges. Sage Open, 2(2), p.2158244012444615.
Phillips, K.W., 2014. How diversity works. Scientific American, 311(4), pp.42-47.
Pollitt, D., 2006. Diversity in the Workforce (Vol. 14, No. 3). Emerald Group Publishing.
Rensburg, B. 2017. The Benefits and Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace. [online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/benefits-challenges-diversity-workplace-belinda-van-rensburg [Accessed 6 Jun. 2018].
Saxena, A., 2014. Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. Procedia Economics and Finance, 11, pp.76-85.
Thomas, D.A., 2004. Diversity as strategy. Harvard business review, 82(9), pp.98-98.
Wrench, J., 2016. Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the EU. Routledge.
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