Diversity in Workplace: Importance and Challenges

This study highlights the importance of diversity in the workplace and the challenges that come with it. It discusses the benefits of diversity, conflict management, and proper training to create an effective diversified work environment.

Running head: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

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DIVERSITY IN WORKPLACE
Introduction
A diverse workplace is a very common thing in today’s world and most importantly, it is a
necessity. This concept of workforce diversity and the performance of the company has been a
subject of discussion for at least five decades. With the increase in diversity in today’s business
world, it is said the diversity is the source of innovation and that innovation is the source of
success. When diversity in introduced, a new and fresh viewpoint is also introduced through
which the perspectives related to experiences, culture, sex and how old the person actually is.
This is very much needed to create the underpinning variable that increases the chance of
underachieving or overachieving in the performance of an employee. The purpose of this study is
to give an overview of the organizational culture’s literature by highlighting the goals of a
business towards the important facets that creates the involvement and dedication of an
employee.
Discussion
Hoffman, G. D., & Mitchell, T. D. (2016). Making diversity “everyone’s business”: A
discourse analysis of institutional responses to student activism for equity and
inclusion. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 9(3), 277.

3ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
According to Hoffman & Mitchell’s (2016) study, diversity is a necessity because of the
perfect sense it makes when looked from a business term. It is known that the financial returns
are higher in those companies that invest a lot in diversity rather than investing in national
industrial medians. In addition, from the customers perfective the companies are popular and the
consumers keep on coming back to them. Diverse companies are also much better than other
companies are when it comes to producing talent. The company can also relate themselves well
with the customers they serve and when it comes to decision making, these companies excel in
that category. A profitable business does not build diversity later on after creating the business
and thinking that diversity would be a nice thing to have (Day, 2016). Diversity in introduced or
implanted since the time the owner is thinking about creating the business as it is not an add-on
or a marketing strategy. With that said, it is not an easy job to create the best kind of diversified
work environment. A lot of planning and ideas are required to get the right kind of number that
would make the whole concept attractive and ideal. When there exists a combination of
competition accommodation, avoidance, collation and compromising, these dimensions results in
such behaviors (Mencl & Lester, 2014). When the employees are introduced to diversified
training then their concept towards the others culture is taught to get a mutual understanding.
However, there would always lie a chance of conflict even after diversification so therefore it is
up to the employees on how they would deal with deal other.
Franks, D. M., Davis, R., Bebbington, A. J., Ali, S. H., Kemp, D., & Scurrah, M. (2014).
Conflict translates environmental and social risk into business costs. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 201405135.

4ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
According to the study conducted by Franks et al., (2014) conflict can be identified as a
situation where two or more parties share an incompatible goal and their perception towards that
goal is appropriate with incompatibility. Conflict can also occur due to difference in ideologies,
behaviors, interests and such. However, this does not identify the term conflict as a negative as
the result matter on how the entire situation is handled (Torelli et al., 2014). If it is cleared out
immediately then it can the start of development and if not then it can be the start of hostility and
chaos. Either way, conflict is a foreseeable authenticity as it cannot just fade away or can be
ignored, the only way to deal with conflict is to confront it. Sometimes when in organizations
there is a clash in between two or more employees then the manager is the one who usually a
step up to put an end to the issue. However if the managers simply ignores the clash then the
problem can arise to a personal conflict and it may cause damage to the organizational culture
and even the morale of the workers (Yi et al., 2015). A positive aspect of a diversified is to
overcome challenges related to cross-culture as there is a chance of expansion, globally. This can
be identified as a benefit taken from cultural diversity of the workers mainly due to the fact if
these companies work to serve their customers globally. By adopting policies and integrate
diversity into the organizational culture deems decrease in cost and chances of lower turnover of
the employees. However, there are many companies that are just responding to the
diversification of workforce just as a reason just to avoid legal repercussions while on the other
hand, other companies are just reaping from the programs that has been adopted.
Zhang, M. M., Xia, J., Fan, D., & Zhu, J. C. (2016). Managing student diversity in business
education: Incorporating campus diversity into the curriculum to foster inclusion and

5ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
academic success of international students. Academy of Management Learning &
Education, 15(2), 366-380.
According to Zhang et al., (2016) proper training is a necessity to make the employees
aware about the total concept of diversity. As per the recent study by (Smith, McPherson, &
Smith-Lovin, 2014) a proper workplace makeup involves race, age, ethnicity, culture gender and
religion. Other aspects such as physical, mental and physical challenges also come into the list.
The new group of workforce that normally exists in all the companies are those who ranges from
the ages of 18 to 35. Studies also show that having women in the top-level management in
increases productivity and profit significantly. As per study (Denissen & Saguy, 2014) it has
been reported that around 70% of women who are above 30 and those working in an
organization have children, and with the rise of single parent families the number is going to
increase (Little et al, 2015). It is also proven that around 20% of the people who are considered
mentally or physically disable are in the workplace. The average age groups of the employees in
a workforce have increased significantly and this is sure to increase. By the year of 2020, almost
half of the workforce number will be of age of 50 or above. An organization that normally looks
for the best employee for them also appeal those who look for work in that organization. The
new generation or the millennial workforce work as team-oriented basis, and by valuing diversity
it creates the best result. With the introduction of proper training program, many organizations
with complete control over workplace diversity have introduced new methods of providing
education to the employees in a simple and effective manner. By providing exciting
opportunities for the employees to learn more and more about the people of different culture with
who they are working with. When an employee is taught about diversified subjects like culture,

6ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
religion, ethnicity of his or her co-workers then it is easier for that person to know how they
should interact.
Dzhogleva, H., & Lamberton, C. P. (2014). Should birds of a feather flock together?
Understanding self-control decisions in dyads. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(2), 361-
380.
According to Dzhogleva & Lamberton (2014) bird of a feather always flock together.
That is when five different individuals are in a room who shares the same background and the
same ideologies, they will come up with a solution which would be the same from all their
perspective. However, when five people of different background are put into the same scenario
then their solution would definitely be different. What diversity does is the second approach,
when people from different background with different ideologies work together, then they would
provide multiple valid answers to the same question. Most companies use this as a tool to
become world leaders in the same industry. With the power of the internet, it is easy to connect
to any one in any part of the world (Al-Dabbagh, Sylvester, & Scornavacca, 2014). Most
companies use this as their opportunity to hire people from all over the world as different people
share different views. When diversity is introduced on top of this, then these people of different
background work together effectively. However, with these advantages, there also exist many
disadvantages with that. As there would exist hindrance such as lack of freedom of speech and
communication issues. Many companies exists where they cater to international customers
therefore hiring multilingual customer service increased the cost. Sometimes when the
employees do not accept the others culture, the chances of competition increases, this can be
productive or this can lead to conflict (Martin, 2014). However, it is through these problems,

7ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
many advantages also exist on the same platform. There is the high possibility of adaptability
and creativity as different people always share different approaches. In counties like Unites
States or United Kingdom, due to high-diversified work environment, there is a high increase of
productivity in their results. Even large multinational companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft,
and Sony also have a highly diversified work environment.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be agreed that diversification is necessary for
all companies nowadays. As businesses are hiring employees all over the world for different
state of approach then it is also vital to implement a plan where that can all work on the same
team and avoid conflict as much as possible. It is evident that the positive effects of diversity are
more than the negative ones. When proper training and strategic plans are introduced to the
highest level of the management can improve the positive results of the company when it is
looked from the business perspective as well the consumers.

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REFERENCES
Al-Dabbagh, B., Sylvester, A., & Scornavacca, E. (2014). To connect or disconnect–that is the
question: ICT self-discipline in the 21st century workplace. ACIS.
Day, W. M. (2016). Workforce Diversification. South Carolina State Documents Depository.
Denissen, A. M., & Saguy, A. C. (2014). Gendered homophobia and the contradictions of
workplace discrimination for women in the building trades. Gender & Society, 28(3),
381-403.
Dzhogleva, H., & Lamberton, C. P. (2014). Should birds of a feather flock together?
Understanding self-control decisions in dyads. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(2),
361-380.
Franks, D. M., Davis, R., Bebbington, A. J., Ali, S. H., Kemp, D., & Scurrah, M. (2014).
Conflict translates environmental and social risk into business costs. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 201405135.
Hoffman, G. D., & Mitchell, T. D. (2016). Making diversity “everyone’s business”: A discourse
analysis of institutional responses to student activism for equity and inclusion. Journal of
Diversity in Higher Education, 9(3), 277.
Little, L. M., Major, V. S., Hinojosa, A. S., & Nelson, D. L. (2015). Professional image
maintenance: How women navigate pregnancy in the workplace. Academy of
Management Journal, 58(1), 8-37.
Martin, G. C. (2014). The effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. Journal of Diversity
Management (Online), 9(2), 89.

9ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
Mencl, J., & Lester, S. W. (2014). More alike than different: What generations value and how
the values affect employee workplace perceptions. Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies, 21(3), 257-272.
Smith, J. A., McPherson, M., & Smith-Lovin, L. (2014). Social distance in the United States:
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China. Employee Relations, 37(1), 66-82.
Zhang, M. M., Xia, J., Fan, D., & Zhu, J. C. (2016). Managing student diversity in business
education: Incorporating campus diversity into the curriculum to foster inclusion and
academic success of international students. Academy of Management Learning &
Education, 15(2), 366-380.