Critical Analysis and Review: How You Can Do Better on Diversity (Essay Sample)

Diversity in a Workplace Article Review
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Diversity in a Workplace Article Review
Summary
In her article, ‘How You Can Do Better on Diversity’, Anne Fisher discusses how diversity works in a workplace. Fisher starts her article by first mentioning Title VII, which abolished any form of workplace discrimination such as discrimination by sex, color, and race. Due to this piece of legislation, almost every organization within the country has some form of policy regarding workplace diversity. With this in mind, Fisher, in her article highlights some examples of companies that have made diversity a fact of life, different methods by which various organizations try to achieve diversity and some benefits of diversity in an organization
According to Fisher, Rent-a-Car recently commissioned a study carried out by the National Urban League, to compare its diversity efforts with other major employers. The result of the research showed that majority of employees (68%) thinks that their companies do a poor job of promoting and hiring those who are not white males. Top executives also have a bleak view on the subject of diversity, as less than 50% admitted that their diversity efforts are successful. Despite the negative outlook, the research identified eight companies that were successful in their diversity efforts, for example, UPS, PepsiCo, P&G and Pitney Bowes (Fisher, 2004).
Additional analysis in the article revealed that these companies all applied different efforts to achieve diversity. According to Fisher, although all the companies acknowledged that it is critical to train managers on diversity, individual companies also went further in their efforts by conducting various activities such as sponsoring the Hispanics, women organizations, and African Americans to give everyone a sense of mutual support and solidarity. Meanwhile, Rent-a-car has also made a tremendous effort to achieve diversity such as dispatching diverse recruiters and in the process; they got a diverse group of employees. Additionally, Fisher state that Rent-a-Car also rewards managers who hire employees that reflect their local markets (2004). It is with this kind of efforts that Rent-a-Car has gone on to become a market leader in its industry. The article concludes by revealing that of the eight companies that were successful in achieving diversity all reported a jump in productivity in the last four years than the entire country by 18%.
Critical Analysis
The article ‘How You Can Do Better on Diversity’, by Anne Fisher is well organized and supported with an actual study that was conducted on the same subject. The article is intended for various organizations that have not fully established a diversity culture to consider doing so for the interest of their business. However, the article's abstract is slightly confusing as it lacks the flow a reader needs to understand what the article is saying. Also, the author rightfully begins by quoting Title VII, which abolished any form of workplace discrimination, which is important since everyone is unique. However, the author fails to define what workplace diversity means, making the article somewhat confusing to a reader. Therefore, workplace diversity is defined as the differences between individuals in an organization.
Another drawback to the article is that the author did not explain why many companies are having difficulties in achieving diversity. The article is silent as to why a staggering 68 percent of employees do not believe their company’s workplace diversity efforts or why so many companies are lagging behind in implementing workplace diversity. Ensuring that an organization achieves workplace diversity can be extremely challenging, and as a result, most companies might be discouraged from taking it seriously. Some of the challenges that can hinder workplace diversity include communication and cultural barriers, which can result in confusion, low morale and lack of cohesion.
The article rightfully states the benefits workplace diversity can bring to a company, by using the success of Rent-a-Car as an example. However, the author could have strengthened her argument further by stating...