Diversity's Impact on Organizations
Abstract
Diversity must be created and maintained with in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of diversity onto an organization in addition to explaining the legally mandated and stakeholder driven explanations for mandatory diversity.
Diversity’s Impact on Organizations Diversity within an organization is a blending of people from various cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. Diversity has challenged organizations to set realistic goals for its leaders as well as its employees. The organization must look at the moral, ethical and social responsibilities it has toward its employees and understand their legal obligations set by laws. It is important for organizations to have an affirmative action plan in place and support the plan with positive efforts to prevent racial and gender discrimination in education and employment. To compete in the global marketplace organizations must acknowledge cultural diversity and embrace it.
Primary and Secondary Various facets of diversity can be divided into primary and secondary dimensions. The primary dimensions include cultural, race, age, and gender differences. The secondary dimensions include educational, socioeconomic, marital status, and career status differences.
Culture
Cultural diversity has influenced organizations; each cultural group has different values, behaviors, and personalities. One key area that has been impacted by cultural diversity is communication. When people from different cultures interact, communication difficulties arise because of differences in linguistic styles. Cultures also differ in terms of the physical distance between speakers and listeners deemed appropriate for conversations at work. According to George and Jones, people in Brazil and Saudi Arabia favor closer physical distances than do people in the United States. Americans may feel uncomfortable when Brazilians stand too close to them during
Diversity must be created and maintained with in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of diversity onto an organization in addition to explaining the legally mandated and stakeholder driven explanations for mandatory diversity.
Diversity’s Impact on Organizations Diversity within an organization is a blending of people from various cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. Diversity has challenged organizations to set realistic goals for its leaders as well as its employees. The organization must look at the moral, ethical and social responsibilities it has toward its employees and understand their legal obligations set by laws. It is important for organizations to have an affirmative action plan in place and support the plan with positive efforts to prevent racial and gender discrimination in education and employment. To compete in the global marketplace organizations must acknowledge cultural diversity and embrace it.
Primary and Secondary Various facets of diversity can be divided into primary and secondary dimensions. The primary dimensions include cultural, race, age, and gender differences. The secondary dimensions include educational, socioeconomic, marital status, and career status differences.
Culture
Cultural diversity has influenced organizations; each cultural group has different values, behaviors, and personalities. One key area that has been impacted by cultural diversity is communication. When people from different cultures interact, communication difficulties arise because of differences in linguistic styles. Cultures also differ in terms of the physical distance between speakers and listeners deemed appropriate for conversations at work. According to George and Jones, people in Brazil and Saudi Arabia favor closer physical distances than do people in the United States. Americans may feel uncomfortable when Brazilians stand too close to them during