Diversity in the Workplace

Today, people are no longer narrow minded like before. They are now a part of competitive, diverse, and improved modern world. For this reason, companies and organizations need diversity to become more creative and open to change. Understanding workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today. People always think of diversity as different cultures like Asian, Arabic, black, etc. it is not just that. “people differ by gender, age, ethnicity, physical abilities or differences, religious and spiritual beliefs, sexual orientation, nationality, life experiences, and other societal factors” (O’Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, 2011, p 64). Diversity is needed not only in workplace, but in all aspects of living because it gives each person a chance to learn new things. Each individual has something unique to offer. Diversity in work place can give individuals a chance to use some brilliant minds, which could aid in growing of an organization. By opening up the workplace to a wide variety of people, a company will gain a larger population of qualified individuals with competitive, ingenious, and intellectual goals that will guarantee its success. Since managers and Supervisors have the most responsibilities, they need to learn and understand the challenges of managing a diverse workplace, and offer effective strategies for managing diverse employees. They also need to use all their managerial skills to learn and educate the importance of working in multicultural environment and how to treat diversified customers. However, it is important to treat everyone with dignity, respect, and equality.
Diversity is generally defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing, and celebrating differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and public assistance status (Esty, , Griffin, & Schorr-Hirsh, 1995). Diversity is very important in our lives, because we