Diversity at Workplace(Pitch Proposal)

Diversity at Workplace

The issue of workplace diversity has been at the center of battles and conflicts at many companies when doing recruitment. Some organizations believe that diversity is achieved by simply meeting the necessary proportions for the gender and race of the employees. However, there is more to this issue than meets the eye. Companies need to know that diversity at places of work is a multifaceted subject and needs the attention and comprehensiveness that it deserves. True diversity in most organizations has been a challenge to realize since many companies feel that they are good to go once they have a given number of employees from a certain gender, race, or religion.

Misconceptions about workplace diversity: what it is and what it is not

Diversity at places of work cannot be complete if there is no respect, acceptance, and collaboration regardless of the differences in gender, race, religion, political beliefs, native language, styles of communication, or sexual orientation among workers. Unfortunately, many organizations think that they have embraced diversity once they have employed people from different ethnicities, religious backgrounds, nationalities, races, sexual orientations, and gender. It should be understood that while this is a good step, it is just one of the many aspects of a complete workplace diversity. Companies should move beyond this step and put in practice all the measures required to ensure diversity within their organizations.

Benefits of embracing true diversity at places of work

Embracing more diversity at places of work has numerous benefits. For instance, having workers from diverse backgrounds and demographics is likely to inspire product and process innovation. This is because when people with diverse minds come together and work as a team to realize a mutual goal, the outcome can be massive. Studies have demonstrated that organizations which practice inclusion and diversity in their workplaces perform better than those that do not embrace diversity (Shaban, 2016 ). This is because members of diverse teams usually challenge the perceptions of others, thus they are likely to arrive at decisions with better justifications. This is unlike the case in groups with low diversity where everyone seems to agree with each other even when such agreements are undue (Shaban, 2016 ).

Call for action

In order for an organization to diversify successfully, a number of issues need to be addressed. These include respect and acceptance, accommodation of others’ beliefs, appreciating cultural and ethnic differences, ensuring there is gender equality, helping employees with physical and mental disabilities, addressing the issue creating by generational gaps, and eliminating any barriers to language and communication. To achieve diversity at places of work, it is not enough to bring on board all groups of people and leaving it there. The management should spearhead efforts to ensure all employees are accepted and respected, their diverse backgrounds recognized, those who need help helped, and everybody treated fairly and equitably. The best way to do this is to have clear laws and regulations regarding employee treatment and making this part of the company culture. Doing this eliminates the possibility of a company encountering the negative outcomes associated with diversity if not managed well. Such include affective outcomes such as less group cohesion, interpersonal conflicts, and high employee turnover because of perceived stereotypes and dissimilarity among staff (Fujimoto, Härtel, & Azmat, 2013).

References Fujimoto, Y., Härtel, C., &Azmat, F. (2013). Towards a diversity justice management model: integrating organizational justice and diversity management. Social Responsibility Journal, 9(1), 148–166. http://doi.org/10.1108/17471111311307877 Shaban, A. (2016 ). Managing and Leading a Diverse Workforce: One of the Main Challenges in Management . Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 230, 76 – 84 .