Overcoming Obstacles Of Diversity In The Workplace

Workplace diversity has received a large amount of attention in recent years, with more and more minority groups attempting to break through the barriers that has prevented them from reaching the same career goals as others. Diversity is becoming increasingly important into today’s workplace as more people are becoming aware of their potential and are willing to go against the obstacles that have previously prevented them from doing so. The glass ceiling is one of the many obstacles faced by women and people of colour, however once breaking through this obstacle they begin facing more obstacles. It is crucial for businesses to recognise diversity and take steps in creating a safer, more diverse workplace for minority groups, taking into consideration
These laws come under the Age Discrimination Act; 2004, Racial Discrimination Act; 1984, Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010). These discrimination acts prevent managers from denying career opportunities to minorities based on age, gender or race. Discrimination Acts like these protect the interest of minority groups from being denied work, however it does not remove all the obstacles they will face in the workplace. Ethical considerations need to be made by managers when working with people from backgrounds that they don’t have an understanding of. In order for managers to successfully run a diverse workplace they need to develop an understanding of their workplace, this can be done by talking to their employees, either face-to-face or anonymously so they can work on creating a safer workplace (Victorian Public Sector Commission, 2016). Paying attention and understanding the different needs of everyone in the workplace is important in modern day managers; Australia is a multicultural country and every workplace will have a number of people who have grown up with a different belief system to another. Obeying the discrimination laws and working ethically to protect employees is one of the many reasonability’s of
This is why it is important for minorities to break through the glass ceiling and create a larger, more diverse workplace that has a better understanding of their consumers. Managers have a responsibility to create a safe workplace for all those involved in their organisation; this means have an understanding about how the different beliefs and requirements of their diverse workforce and the effect of this on the organisation. Having a diverse workplace means that managers are required to have some degree of understanding to the different culture or religious beliefs that could affect an employee to complete certain aspects of the job. However, research has shown that non HR managers have very little understanding about how different beliefs in a diverse workplace can affect their employees (Davis, Frolova and Callahan, 2016). This lack of understanding of cultural differences can have a negative effect on a workplace and can result in employees feeling discriminated against based on the sex, religion or culture. It is important for managers to pay attention to diversity in their workplace and actively work on having a better understanding about what they can do to have a positive effect on their business and not be in violation of any discrimination Acts due to their lack of