Diversit in the Work Place
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- Date Submitted: 04/22/2011 01:23 PM
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Diversity In The Workplace
In the global economy today, diversity in the workplace is, and has become one of the most popular topics and a serious objective for many organizations. In today’s workforce many organizations say they value diversity, but have developed human resource programs that focus mainly on how similar we are. In this paper, I will provide different aspects of the meaning of diversity as well as touch on diversity management, diversity training and breaking the glass ceiling.
The U.S. Workforce will experience a huge change in its composition within the next decade. In R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.’s article, “Organizational Development: Redefining Diversity”, he states that diversity programs only focus on differences amongst people. He says diversity takes on a symbolic meaning and after much thought no one actually knows the true meaning so it then comes with people’s individual perceptions and biases. Thomas redefines diversity as something that should “apply not only to a company’s peoples concern, but to other critical areas as well.” He says, “It means that when making managerial decisions, you no longer have the option of dealing only with the differences or similarities present in the situation, instead, you must deal with both simultaneously.” To understand his point you must first define diversity.
Diversity is different things to different people; where some may consider diversity as a problem, or challenge, that hampers organizational effectiveness; others may define diversity as an opportunity to expand valuable perspectives and ideas, thus enhancing organizational effectiveness. It may suggest images of alienation of organizational constituencies from one another, it may suggest images of isolated individuals based on some defining characteristics, or it may suggest images of a colorful and interesting environment. Some people see diversity as all the ways in which people are different. They see this as the basic...
In the global economy today, diversity in the workplace is, and has become one of the most popular topics and a serious objective for many organizations. In today’s workforce many organizations say they value diversity, but have developed human resource programs that focus mainly on how similar we are. In this paper, I will provide different aspects of the meaning of diversity as well as touch on diversity management, diversity training and breaking the glass ceiling.
The U.S. Workforce will experience a huge change in its composition within the next decade. In R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.’s article, “Organizational Development: Redefining Diversity”, he states that diversity programs only focus on differences amongst people. He says diversity takes on a symbolic meaning and after much thought no one actually knows the true meaning so it then comes with people’s individual perceptions and biases. Thomas redefines diversity as something that should “apply not only to a company’s peoples concern, but to other critical areas as well.” He says, “It means that when making managerial decisions, you no longer have the option of dealing only with the differences or similarities present in the situation, instead, you must deal with both simultaneously.” To understand his point you must first define diversity.
Diversity is different things to different people; where some may consider diversity as a problem, or challenge, that hampers organizational effectiveness; others may define diversity as an opportunity to expand valuable perspectives and ideas, thus enhancing organizational effectiveness. It may suggest images of alienation of organizational constituencies from one another, it may suggest images of isolated individuals based on some defining characteristics, or it may suggest images of a colorful and interesting environment. Some people see diversity as all the ways in which people are different. They see this as the basic...