Challenges and Benefits of Managing a Diverse Workforce
What are some of the challenges and benefits of managing a diverse workforce?
Introduction
As globalization continues to take effect in different countries worldwide, the nature of the work force is also becoming more dynamic and diverse. The success of any organization will definitely be affected by the way it’s handling and managing diversity.
Diversity involves the acknowledgement of accepting the different backgrounds of people with respect to nationalities, race, gender, spirituality, religion, class or physical ability.
A diverse workforce is the result of the changing world and the reflection of the needs of the emerging markets. Creating an environment of mutual respect where individual differences are respected increases the firm’s productivity and also creates a competitive advantage against other companies in the same industry.
The major challenges of diversity are open discrimination and measures to combat it. Measures like court petitions and other lawsuits may damage the reputation of a firm when affected members try to fight for their rights in court rooms. Other staff members may also protest in various ways like striking or resigning from the company altogether. Companies may spend a lot of time and money defending themselves in court or they may incur extra expenses to promote its public image. (Devoe, 1999) Other challenges include communication barriers due to different languages and lack of team work and also reduced morale which may discourage performance and reduce production. Some employees are basically opposed to any changes whether they are positive or not. Diversity comes with a lot of changes that may be resisted by some employees. For instance learning foreign languages may be resisted by some employees.
Negative behaviors and attitudes may also discourage diversity. These behaviors and attitudes include prejudice, negative stereotypes and other forms of discrimination. Other challenges of diversity involve the exploitation of employees from poor nations who are paid less than other employees from developed nations. They also terminate, hire or retain employees irregularly.
Diversity aids associates in the creation of fair, sound and safe environment where opportunities are equally shared irrespective of race or nationality of the employees. Management should encourage the enlightenment of all the employees of the benefits of diversity. The diverse cultures and different languages should be used as a source of strength to the company and not a way of discouraging other cultures and nationalities. (Koonce, 2001)
Diverse workforce provides a resourceful opportunity where different communication methods may assist in providing different services while utilizing different languages to meet different business strategies and meeting other needs of different customers. Diversity encourages performance to be based and compared with other international standards and in the process improves the quality of service and performance.
Managing diversity is more about providing equal opportunities in employment and also encouraging affirmative action. These developments may take time to be implemented in some companies as some managers are conservatives and are reluctant to embrace change and people from diverse backgrounds.
References
Koonce, R. (2001). Redefining diversity: It’s not just the right thing to do; it also makes good business sense. Training and Development, December.
Devoe, D. (1999). Managing a diverse workforce. San Mateo, CA: InfoWorld Media Group.
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