It can be concluded that the much we have been able to achieve as the human race is by coming together. Basically, as humans, we find strength in working together to achieve common goals and that is why at times, our diversity does not seem to matter. Diversity can be experienced in different ways including in the workplace. Barak (2013) defines workplace diversity as the need to value, respect and appreciate the differences n employees. Employees are diverse not only in their work-related skills, experiences, and intellect but also through race, age, gender, religion, and personality to mention just a few. Workplace diversity has become more than a norm in today’s organizations due to the growth of globalization. As businesses expand to establish roots in foreign countries, they are finding the need to be diversity a necessary tool to survive global competition. However, in as much as this is the case, there are studies that show that workplace diversity has its advantages and disadvantages. In as much as there are downfalls to this, employees need to encourage workplace diversity simply because the benefits eventually outweigh the disadvantages. Below is an analysis as to why employees need to encourage workplace diversity.
Reduced labor turnover
According to O’Brien, Scheffer, Ness & Lee (2015), employees require mutual respect from both their co-workers and employers and the lack of it can often lead to high turnover rates. As an organization, there is the need to ensure that the business is in a position to retain its employees for the longest time possible. This is due to the fact that a high turnover rate has a negative impact on the business’s image as well as affecting its productivity. Employees are important because they are responsible for the implementation of strategies so as to achieve the set objectives. With a high turnover, it simply means that employees are not valued and as such, they are not happy or satisfied working for that particular organization. Encouraging workplace diversity can show how much an employer values and respect the differences in employees thus allowing them to feel appreciated and wanted.
Furthermore, employers who value and encourage workplace diversity often see an increased level of productivity from their employees. As explained by O’Brien, Scheffer, Ness & Lee (2015), employees work best in an environment that does not hinder them in any way. By encouraging diversity, it simply means that an employer is realizing that the employees all have different sets of skills, experiences and can be innovative in unique ways. Therefore, by creating an environment that allows for an employee to show their individualism can result in increased productivity as the employee is in a position to compete in a creative environment. The benefit of this is that not only is the organization benefiting from the employees’ input but the environment is allowing for personal growth and development for the staff members.
Organizational Growth and Development
One of the main aims of any organization is to realize profits and be in a position to grow from where they started from. A sure way of achieving this is by making effective decisions and or formulating strategies that will stir it in the right direction. By encouraging workplace diversity, an employer is simply allowing for different opinions to be communicated with the aim of finding the best solutions and strategies. The more inclusive decisions are within an organization, the more effective they can be towards answering a problem. Different experiences allow for diverse perspectives to be considered thus encouraging alternative solutions which can only be realized if the opinion or experiences of different individuals are encouraged to allow for improved results (Green et al, 2015).
Employers who encourage workplace diversity also encourage organizational growth by allowing the businesses to enhance its global growth and management capabilities. Any firm that is looking to grow globally has to be in a position to realize workplace diversity because of the foreign environment they will be operating under (Barak, 2013). In the global market, there are employees from different races, religions, and with different sets of skills and experiences. By being flexible enough to understand that in order for them to prosper in a global market which is basically diverse in its own way, an organization will need to practice and perfect workplace diversity, thus preparing itself for any future globalization move.
Another way that employers encourage organizational growth and development by encouraging workplace diversity is because it allows for the reputation of the firm to be enhanced. Any business that is in a position to respect the differences in its employees as well as incorporate it in its strategies often develops a positive reputation within the work environment (Barak, 2013). This further encourages a culture that reflects on its activities thus allowing it to achieve competitive advantage over its competitors. The reputation of an organization can either hinder or foster its market growth based on the perspectives of its target population. European Commission (2003) explains that buyers are allows considering firms that have a good corporate reputation based on its social responsibility, employee treatment and the quality of its goods and services. Therefore, by encouraging workplace diversity, employers are thus in a way promoting a positive reputation which eventually benefits the implementation of organization’s strategies.
Encourage Interpersonal Relationships
Encouraging workplace diversity results to the development of great interpersonal relationships between employees and well as with employers. According to Saxena (2014), it is important that employees have cordial interpersonal relationships as this means they have mutual respect for each other thus being in a position to work together in teams. Interpersonal relations affect every functioning organ of an organization and it is important to encourage a network environment where people, regardless of their differences, can come together to share in and achieve a common objective (Saxena, 2014). Through workplace diversity, employers are able to formulate ways to encourage interpersonal relationships that are not biased or discriminative in any way. The result of this is often felt in the productivity output of the firm as it clearly shows how employees are in a position to work together or not.
Acknowledging difficulty in managing a diverse workplace
Given that the above are reasons as to why employers ought to encourage workplace diversity, it is only important to acknowledge the disadvantage employers often face when looking to have a diverse workplace. Hays-Thomas (2016) explains that realizing the need for diversification is never the problem, the transitioning often is. Creating a diverse workplace means constantly inventing ways to amicably address conflicts and to find a culture that befits everyone. Just from the fact that everyone is different, there is never a one solution fits all. Those in management constantly have to come up with strategies that will recognize the value of each employee without discriminating on others least they are faced with a lawsuit (Green et al, 2015). From this, workplace diversity becomes a bit difficult to manage because where there is a difference; people are bound to collide all the time thus bringing about managerial and administrative problems which can be costly to the organization.
Conclusion
It is only through diversity that we are in a position to understand that every one of us is uniquely an individual. There are certain human traits that make us alike but also, we ought to accept that we are different in with regards to race, ethnicity, religion, and generational gaps and when it comes to the workplace, expertise, and experiences will greatly differ. Workplace diversity ought not to be considered as a hindrance as it can encourage a lot of personal and organizational growth. As analyzed above, employers who appear to encourage workplace diversity benefit from reduced labor turnover, increased growth and development and great interpersonal relations. All these show that workplace diversity when well implemented and managed can help an organization to realize its objectives. This is more so due to the fact that it directly affects the backbone of the organization, which is the employees. Therefore, in conclusion, there are more benefits to be realized as opposed to suffered losses when workplace diversity is encouraged in an organization. This is not to say that there will be no disadvantages but just as explained above, the downfalls will eventually be offset by the advantages workplace diversity allows for both employees and organizations to realize.
References
Barak, M. (2013). Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. California: SAGE
European Commission (2003). The costs and Benefits of Diversity. A Study on Methods and Indicators to Measure the Cost-Effectiveness of Diversity Policies in Enterprises. Retrieved from https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/mars/source/resources/references/others/17%20-%20Costs%20and%20Benefits%20of%20Diversity%20-%20EU%202003%20ExSum.pdf
Green, K. Et al (2015). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HR/HR02200.pdf
Hays-Thomas, R. (2016). Managing Workplace Diversity and Inclusion: A Psychological Perspective. New York: Taylor & Francis
O’Brien, K., Scheffer, M., Ness, E. & Lee, R. (2015). “How to Break the Cycle of Low Workforce Diversity: A Model for Change.” PLOS One 10(7). Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0133208
Saxena, A. (2014). “Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity.” Procedia Economics and Finance, 11. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567114001786
