Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Abstract

In the changing demographics of American society, workplace diversity is today's reality. Organisations that refuse to recognise this fact risk failure in the future. Managing diversity is a business issue, not a moral, social, or legal concern. The challenge is not creating a diverse workforce, but empowering one. It is about enlightening managers to persuade a diverse workforce to raise its productivity by utilising all members to their fullest potential, thereby increasing profitability or effectiveness. Diversity refers not just to race and gender, but encompasses differences such as ages, merged companies, union/non‐union, exempt/non‐exempt, organisational newcomers and organisational oldtimers. The goal is to get the level of performance from a heterogeneous group that was formerly attained by the homogeneous group. Learning to manage diversity makes companies more competitive. In order to effectively manage diversity, organisational culture change is usually necessary.

Citation

Bolen, L. and Kleiner, B.H. (1996), "Managing Diversity in the Workplace", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb008412