Workforce Diversity and Organisational Success
Workforce Diversity and Organisational Success
The success of an organisation can be influenced by numerous factors such as increased service levels and customer satisfaction, increased financial performance, reduced labour turnover and absenteeism, good corporate image, organisational culture, competitive advantages, etc. It can be argued that, the impact of workforce diversity on these factors could lead to organisational success. For example, an organisation that engages in diversity initiatives may become well known and respected by the public and seen as socially responsible hence gaining a good reputation and corporate image through its involvement in diversity initiatives. The Minority Engineer Magazine (Web 1) revealed that in the Annual Readers’ Choice Awards for 2011, readers of the magazine nominated employers they believe are advancing in workforce diversity practices, and which they believe are the best employers to work for among all the employers in the U.S. The Readers ranked Boeing as No .1, Google No. 2 and General Electric No. 3. This is a clear indication that diversity efforts could in fact enhance the public image of an organisation as such company will be seen as a socially responsible employer.
Workforce diversity ‘is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace’ (Green et al., 2002). Organisations are increasingly becoming more aware that people are talented regardless of their ethnic backgrounds and that by including people from diverse backgrounds the best talent pool can be accessed and leveraged to gain competitive advantage. Evidence from a recent UK survey confirmed that there is an increase in the number of organisations that are participating in workforce diversity. The survey shows that ‘over 70 per cent of 850 organisations across the public sector in the UK had Human Resource Development activities focusing on discrimination and diversity, with the hope of raising awareness and changing behaviour that would eliminate
The success of an organisation can be influenced by numerous factors such as increased service levels and customer satisfaction, increased financial performance, reduced labour turnover and absenteeism, good corporate image, organisational culture, competitive advantages, etc. It can be argued that, the impact of workforce diversity on these factors could lead to organisational success. For example, an organisation that engages in diversity initiatives may become well known and respected by the public and seen as socially responsible hence gaining a good reputation and corporate image through its involvement in diversity initiatives. The Minority Engineer Magazine (Web 1) revealed that in the Annual Readers’ Choice Awards for 2011, readers of the magazine nominated employers they believe are advancing in workforce diversity practices, and which they believe are the best employers to work for among all the employers in the U.S. The Readers ranked Boeing as No .1, Google No. 2 and General Electric No. 3. This is a clear indication that diversity efforts could in fact enhance the public image of an organisation as such company will be seen as a socially responsible employer.
Workforce diversity ‘is a reflection of a changing world and marketplace’ (Green et al., 2002). Organisations are increasingly becoming more aware that people are talented regardless of their ethnic backgrounds and that by including people from diverse backgrounds the best talent pool can be accessed and leveraged to gain competitive advantage. Evidence from a recent UK survey confirmed that there is an increase in the number of organisations that are participating in workforce diversity. The survey shows that ‘over 70 per cent of 850 organisations across the public sector in the UK had Human Resource Development activities focusing on discrimination and diversity, with the hope of raising awareness and changing behaviour that would eliminate