Workplace Diversity in Organizations

Workplace diversity refers to the presence of people of different backgrounds within the workforce of a corporation. The backgrounds that form the basis for diversity in places of work include gender, race, sexual orientation, health, nationality, political affiliation, and religion. In modern business settings, it is not possible to escape the debate surrounding the concept of diversity. In this short essay, I shall provide evidence in support of the position claim that employing people of different backgrounds in a company improves the performance of the company.

To start with, a workplace that has employees from diverse backgrounds can access a large market than a workplace that has employees from one group. To explain this point, an example of a bank that has black workers will be used to make the point. If a white customer goes to a bank and realizes that the bank has employed only black workers, the white customer will feel left out. He or she will not feel that sense of belonging that comes with seeing one of your workings at a certain company or organization. This customer can’t come back to this same bank after having this feeling of being left out. This is a lost customer for the bank in question and the result will be a reduced market for the bank. On the other hand, if a customer goes to the same bank and finds a huge mixture in the workforce to the extent that people from his or her background are part of it, he or she will feel part of the bank. He or she will be comfortable coming back to this same bank for service given that good feeling of belonging that will emanate from the diversity of the employee pool. The fact that the employee will come back is a sure sign that the market of the bank will have expanded. Therefore, employing people from different backgrounds will be a big attraction to the market; a fact that will provide the concerned organization with sufficient clientele.

Besides the above, an organization that has a diverse selection of employees will be in a position to tap the variety of talents possessed by these diverse employees thus leading to company success. It is a fact that different people are endowed with different talents. What then happens when an organization decides to take employees who share a background? This company will inevitably miss out on the variety of talents that come with people who come from different backgrounds. To illustrate this point, an imaginary young man called Andrew who is Caucasian was employed in company C as production manager. In the process of looking for additional employees for the company, the hiring team came across another young man called Abel who is African American and is a specialist in data analysis; the position that was supposed to be filled. There may be a possibility that African Americans understand computer issues better than any other group and therefore the only way to tap into this exceptional talent is to employ Abel regardless of his race. Also, if Caucasians are better at handling production chains, denying Andrew the chance to work in the firm will deny the firm valuable talent. This example is for illustration purposes only in that it is not based on any verifiable study. A company that employs diverse people gets the rare opportunity to tap into these various talents and capabilities and therefore turns out to be more successful.

Far from the above, having a diverse workforce leads to a serene working environment because the various groups represented by the various employees will not have any issues with the company as far discrimination is concerned. For example, if a company has employed a worker who is HIV positive, a disabled person, a lesbian, or a gay man, it is not possible to have these groups complaining of discrimination against these groups in company employment. On the other hand, a company that is not diverse on these grounds is likely to suffer from frequent product avoidance on the grounds of having discriminative employment policies. It is difficult for any company or organization to carry out successful business activities in such an atmosphere; thus meaning that this company will fail while the diverse corporation will have a good chance of doing well.

Also, a diverse workplace is a good training ground for the management as far as dealing with different people is concerned. If an organization has only a uniform set of employees, the management will not know what it means to deal with people who are different from his employees. This is bad for the business given that if expansion takes place and a branch is opened in an area with different people, the management will not know how to deal with the new people in the new surroundings.

In conclusion, diversity in the workplace leads to success for the involved organization. Accessing a larger market, having the ability to access a large pool of talent and avoiding conflicts with special groups such as the disabled and gay people will give the organization the best business climate leading to success. It is therefore the duty of the senior management in organizations to liaise with the human resource management team and ensure that a diverse team of employees is assembled for the organizations as a way of reaping these immense benefits of workplace diversity.

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