MGMT 416 - Workforce Diversity Assignment

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Running head: Workforce Diversity
Managing Diversity and Equal Opportunities
Student
Institution

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Workforce Diversity
Introduction
Workforce diversity refers to the differences and similarities at the workplace which
include age, race, social cultural, religion, physical abilities or disabilities, sexual orientation
among others, amongst the employees of a particular organisation (Bedi, Lakra, & Gupta, 2014).
A diverse workforce means that its workers, suppliers, customers and even the managers
comprise of different backgrounds in terms of culture, language, religion, values and others
(Mujtaba, 2007). An organization that takes advantage of the diverse talents from different
backgrounds benefits from strengthened productivity. Workforce diversity is the policies and
those practices that an organization has in place that foster inclusiveness of people who are
different from the majority in that prevailing constituency (Bedi et al., 2014). When an
organisation manages workplace diversity properly, it can benefit from the strengths and
complement the weaknesses of each individual and leverage on the knowledge and skills from
each person to make a huge impact on performance. Therefore workforce diversity needs to be
managed for any organization to realize its full benefits. This paper will discuss managing
workforce diversity, why it is important, theories of diversity management, its benefits and
negative effects and why it is important to manage diversity at the workplace.
Managing Workforce Diversity
Managing diversity in an organisation is an important yet difficult task. An organisation
may need to make changes in order to accommodate the changes of each and everyone and
maximize their potential and thus be well positioned to meet the business demands in a global
environment. There is therefore need for policies and practices and also new ways of thinking
and doing things in order to accommodate the different groups of people.

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Workforce Diversity
Organisations have to be ready to transform the workplace culture so that it is in line with
the values of the different people. They have to start by understanding their own identity, the
culture and the biases that exist, the prejudices and the stereotypes. Only when this is
acknowledged can they move forward towards changing those practices that are biased towards
certain groups of people. They must recognize that diversity runs through all the aspects of
management in the organisation (Bedi, et al., 2014).
Recognition that managing diversity means recognizing people are different and that
those differences can be used to add value to the organisation is important for firms. Good
management practices can be used to maximize on the benefits that accrue from diversity so that
all employees feel valued and have freedom to contribute to organization’s goal achievement.
The strategies for managing diversity that work in one situation may not work in another
situation. There is no rule to how organisations should manage diversity and each organisation
has to devise the strategies that work for their circumstances.
An organisation response to diversity can range from doing nothing to having a full
strategy to deal with workforce diversity that places various interventions in to the organization
framework. Organisations’ possible reactions to diversity may include exclusion, denial,
assimilation, suppression, isolation, tolerance, relationship building to mutual adaptation. They
may choose to ignore or address the diverse backgrounds of their employees, view it as a
challenge or an opportunity or choose to be proactive or reactive to diversity (Podsiadlowski, et
al., 2013). With globalisation and internationalization of organisations, diversity is likely to
continue to grow in workplaces in the long run (Okoro & Washington, 2012).

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Workforce Diversity
Diversity in our current global world is a fact of life and is a necessity for one to function
appropriately in the universe especially important at the work place. It makes a workplace more
interesting and attractive but if not managed properly can cause people to be annoyed by
comments or behaviors from others in a diverse team. This makes the workplace more
challenging and unpredictable as diversity can be both a good thing but yet create conflict if not
well managed. Some of the beliefs challenge people’s values embedded in their minds since they
were young thus making them uncomfortable (Mujtaba, 2007).
The differences in the world today continue to be reflected in organizations. Each then
has the responsibility to be aware of these differences and become respectful towards individuals
who are different and unique. Understanding, tolerance, respect of those differences is important
for one to take advantage of each person’s unique skills and maximize on productivity of
employees for competitive advantage. All employees and managers must be culturally competent
for them to be successful. This means they must continue to learn how to function well in a
culturally diverse environment (Mujtaba, 2007). The organization must therefore invest in
training employees for them to become culturally competent.
Theories of Managing Diversity
There are two broad approaches to workplace diversity management. These are
Institutional Theory and secondly Resource Based Theory (Yang, & Konrad, 2011).
Institutional Theory
This approach emphasizes that organisation structures cannot be separated from their
social environments (Yang, & Konrad, 2011). The structuring of organisations provides meaning
to the social behavior in those organisations. They include the regulative institutions which are