Workforce Diversity

What is Diversity?

Diversity is generally defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing & celebrating differences among people with respect to age, class, and ethnicity, and gender, physical & mental ability.

Over the past decade the work force in industrialized countries has become increasingly heterogeneous. These countries are spending huge amount for diversifying the workforce. Thus, diversity is increasingly recognized & utilized as an important organizational resource in regards to whether the goal is to be an employer of choice to provide an excellent customer service or to maintain a competitive edge. According to Dahm (2003), diversity within an organization can evoke an array of emotions. Many researchers view diversity as something to be dealt with rather than a tool to be used to improve the organizations.

Researches on the effects of within teams & small groups indicate that diversity can have both positive and negative effects. Domestic & global organizations are now designed to create products for their diverse customers & to ensure that there are benefits for their diverse stake holders. Thus, it is important to understand the importance of workforce diversity in achieving the objectives of organizations.

Here briefly explain few Diversity in workplace,

ETHINIC DIVERSITY: Ethnic diversity implies diversity in languages, religions, races & cultures (Alesina & La Ferrara, 2005). At least the majority of team members is ethnically diverse, then more ethnic diversity has a positive impact on performance.(Sander Hoogendoorn, Mirjam van Praag, 2012). Ehimare & Oghene, 2011 empirically explored that ethnicity is insignificantly negative in its relationship to both employee productivity and performance.

AGE DIVERSITY: Gellner and Veen,(2009) found that age heterogeneity on its own has a negative effect on individual productivity. Moreover, in the case of routine tasks, there are no substantial gains from age heterogeneity that could offset the increasing costs resulting from greater age heterogeneity.

GENDER DIVERSITY : Cox and Blake (1991) argued that diversity can result competitive advantage for organizations. However, theories and empirical research suggest that diversity can lead to either positive or negative outcomes. High levels of gender diversity are a source of competitive advantage, while moderate levels of gender diversity provide a competitive disadvantage.

Diversity Management

Theories and techniques of diversity management have been developed and enthusiastically supported by a growing number of chief executives, training specialists, diversity consultants and academics. Diversity can improve organisational effectiveness. Organisations that develop experience in and reputations for managing diversity will likely attract the best personnel (Carrel et al., 2000).

References:

Carrel, M., Elbert, N., Hatfield, R., Grobler, P., Max, M., & Vander Schyf, S. (2000). Human Resource Management in South Africa. Cape Town: University Press.

Cox, T.H. and Blake, S. (1991) Managing Cultural Diversity Implications for Organizational Competitiveness. The Executive

Dahm, Molly, J. (2003). The Development of a Needs Analysis Instrument for

Cox, T.H. & Blake, S. (1991). Managing cultural diversity: Implications for organizational Competitiveness. Academy of Management Executive, 5(3), 45-46.

Hoogendoorn, Sander and Parker, Simon C. and van Praag, Mirjam, ... and Team Performance: A Field Experiment (November 30, 2012).

Alesina, Alberto, and Eliana La Ferrara. 2005. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance." Journal of Economic Literature,

Ehimare, O. A., Ogaga-Oghene, J. O. (2011). “The impact of workforce diversity on organisational effectiveness: A study of a Nigerian Bank”.

Gellner, U; Veen, S (2009). The impact of aging and age diversity on company performance. ISU Working.

Beena S. Saji, (2004) "Workforce diversity, temporal dimensions and team performance", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 11 Issue: 4

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