Contributions of Diversity to the Workplace
Diverse employees bring a wealth of creativity, insights, and skills to their jobs; it is up to employers to recognize, cultivate, and value these contributions (Walton, Sally, 1994). Diversity is about setting a mindset of valuing the differences in people and recognizing the similarities, it is not only about achieving results. Once this way of thinking is established, the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace tend to come naturally, (Goessl, Leigh 2008). Diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more, (Greenberg, Josh 2004)
With today's business environment moving towards a global
Employees are a valuable resource because this increases marketplace understanding and staff members will better understand customers and may see things that a more 'like' organization may miss due to those aforementioned differences and experiences; in addition to the internal processes, this rolls over to better customer service as well.
• Stronger Global Relationships: The potential customer and partnerships which can be forged to help facilitate great business deals can be augmented by diversity. When engaging business on the international level, different beliefs, value systems and philosophies are going to be met.
With a diverse team of employees, a business has a better ability to reach out and interact on the global level because there is a higher degree of understanding how other cultures doe business; this is a necessary element when doing business on the international level.
Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace Taking full advantage of the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace can not be possible without its challenges. In the article: “Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions,” Josh Greenberg refers to the following steps to help a company to address the challenges in the workplace. Some of these challenges are:
• Communication: Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be overcome for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective communication of key