Diversity Initiatives, Literature Review, Environment (Term Paper Sample)

DIVERSITY INITIATIVES
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Abstract
In this article, the focus is on the aspect of diversity in various contexts. The term diversity when referring to an organizational workforce means the individual differences in terms of religion, race, cultural background, sexual orientation, education level, age and mental and physical capabilities. Several peer-reviewed journals published recently reviewed to provide sufficient information concerning diversity initiatives. The essence of such initiatives as well as their implementation criteria is explored in a detailed manner. A diverse workforce has several benefits to an organization and thus managers are advised to pursue its implementation initiatives. The strategies of enhancing coexistence in a diverse workforce are readily available to managers and some of them are not too expensive to be initiated. Failure to adopt diversity has severe consequences than those encountered for neglecting the program. Managers are encouraged to embrace workforce diversity as it is beneficial to both the organization and the individual workers.
Introduction
The term diversity when referring to an organizational workforce refers to the individual differences in terms of religion, race, cultural background, sexual orientation, education level, age and mental and physical capabilities (Guillaume, 2013). With globalization and massive unification of modern business transactions, people of diverse personalities are increasingly interacting with one another. Globalized economy raises the probability that people with diverse beliefs, background, and cultures. Several peer-reviewed journals published recently were reviews to provide sufficient information concerning diversity initiatives. The essence of such initiatives as well as their implementation criteria is explored in a detailed manner. A diverse workforce has several benefits to an organization and thus managers are advised to pursue its implementation initiatives.
Literature Review
Diversity in the workforce can have both positive and negative effects. For instance, the diversified workforce is associated with more creativity and is flexible to changes. Workforce diversity capitalization has drawn the attention of most modern management organizations with an aim of maximizing the benefits. However, managing such diversities is not always easy. Organizational leaders ought to understand the efficiencies of working in multicultural work environments. To accomplish this, managers and supervisors should gain the knowledge required in accommodating and recognizing multicultural differences within the organizational activities so as to treat every employee with honor and dignity. Differences within populations are on the rise rather than decline and thus workforce diversities are likely to be a greater challenge in future (Homberg & Bui, 2013). In connection to these arguments about workforce diversities, leaders of companies and organization are supposed to come up with ways of becoming completely diversity oriented rather than discouraging the diversity since it has some associated competitively and productivity advantages. One of the key characteristics of an effective leader is the ability to coordinate effectively people with different abilities, knowledge, beliefs, and attitude to work towards realizing similar mission.
There are several strategies which experts advocate to be used by business owners and leaders who aspire to enhance diversity in the workforce. Such strategies are capable of creating a harmonious but multicultural workforce. Such strategies include but not limited to enhancing flexible workforce, creation of a revamped system of rewarding, creating room for social events, communicating through writing, giving the minority group an opportunity to contribute in management and also in decision making, implementation of training programs, continuous monitoring and through setting a goal example (Lyons & Kuron 2014). Apart from organizations, diversity affects other institutions such as higher learning institutions provided people of different characteristics are operating in the same place.
Leaders should focus on recruiting employees with varied characteristics, promoting some of the minority group individuals to the top management levels and retaining diverse talents (Homberg & Bui, 2013). For maximum advantage, past study results recommend for implementation of diversity practices at each level of an organization. In absence of properly articulated and designed initiatives, leadership involvement and diversity objectives will be compromised. The initiatives of recruiting, promoting and retaining employees of diverse background form the foundation of corporate diversity.
When recruiting workers, it is important to include candidates from different backgrounds. This is possible when the recruitment team is not biased. The minority professional groups should be given similar treatment as the other employees. When promoting individuals to higher positions, it should be done in an unbiased and uniform manner. This serves to make sure that the minority groups are represented on the board of directors and at the same time, they won't feel inferior. Through equal treatment of all workers, everyone feels equally valued hence minimizing turnover rate and retaining the diverse workforce.
When the diversity of workforce is effectively managed, grievances are minimized and at the same time better business reputation, creativity, and opportunities are realized. Nowadays, with an increase in completion in the global business environment, an organization needs to embrace diversity in order to increase its flexibility and thus better chances of surviving and coping in a dynamic environment. However, there are costs of running, maintain and coordinating a diverse workforce. Manager's competency in handling diversity is more than just recognition of individual differences (Homberg & Bui, 2013). It entails acknowledging the value of differences, developing inclusiveness and combating inequity. Some of the costs which an organization composed of a diverse workforce is likely to incur include loss of work and personal productivity caused by the discriminatory practices as well as complaints and legal actions among the employees or against the organization. Negative behaviors and attitudes are a great challenge associated with organizational diversity considering its adverse impact on the productivity, relationship, and morale. Managing workforce diversity can be highlighted as one of the components of enhancing the performance of an organization especially in the case of globalized dynamic business environments. In the context of dynamic global labor markets, the organizations which appreciate diversity are more likely to be successful and high potential. Different types of business organizations are keen on managing workforce diversity since they have recognized its role in sustaining competitive advantage.
Effective management of diversity entails accepting, acknowledging, valuing, celebrating and understanding differences among the people regardless of their ethnicity, class, mental and physical ability, gender, spiritual practice, public assistance statuses, and sexual orientation (Homberg & Bui, 2013). To be more precise, managing diversity can be described as an intended and logical effort of recruiting, retaining, rewarding and promoting heterogeneity aspect in an organizational workforce. Various diversity practices and systems management have been advocated and backed up by a large number of academicians, diversity consultants, researchers, executives, and specialists. The leaders who are capable of creating know-how of managing diversity are in a better position of attracting and retaining talented employees.
Embracing diversity at workplace means the coexistence of individuals from a different social-cultural background in the same organization. Cultural factors such as race, age, gender, physical ability, ethnicity, and color are some of the things which constitute diversity. In a diverse workforce, each of the employees should be at liberty to exercise his or her aspiration and at the same time ensuring there are no constraints based on elements of diversity that do not contribute to the quality and quantity of performance. In managing diversity, individuals with diverse workforce should be given equal opportunities to utilize their potential maximally. Discriminating employees based on their elements of diversity serves to prevent an organization from achieving the best performance possible. Managers committed to achieving success in their organization ought to improvise strategies for dealing with diversity. In most cases, there are certain stereotypes developed at workplaces regarding people of a particular group and this can be the foundation of either discrimination or favor. If at all duties allocation of roles, duties, and tasks within an organization is justified to be done selectively, then this selection should be on the basis of actual performance differences but it should not be implemented in a way that a certain group or individual will experience intimidation.
An organizations competitiveness, productivity, innovation level and viability partly depends on their efforts and capability to make use of the diverse workforce either within the organizational activities or and even with external stakeholders. In a certain research which was conducted recently to determine the relationship between gender diversity and corporate performance, the results suggested that organizations which had some women on top management level had relatively better financial transparency than the organizations whose top management comprised of only men. This contradicts common stereotype in the most organization that women are generally less eff...