The Broad Concept of Diversity: Workplace Diversity

The broad concept of diversity has surpassed gender, race, and ethnicity. Diversity is what makes people and entities unique; it includes backgrounds, life experiences, personality, and beliefs (Deloitte, 2011),. Put differently, diversity is what makes people and entities to be what they are(Morfaw, 2009). Persons could agree more with the latter definition of diversity as it provides a clear picture of what diversity entail. Diversity is the combination of the invisible and visible differences that inform peoples view of the world as well as perspectives and approaches(Jackson et al., 2006). Diversity entails the unique characteristics displayed by persons in their relationship with one another at their place of work.

If this sample essay on"The Broad Concept of Diversity: Workplace Diversity " doesn’t help,
our writers will!

Trust an expert

Today, knowledge is a distinct form of workplace diversity owing to the fact thatindividuals elicited different capabilities in terms of their work performance (Jackson et al., 2006). Understanding how knowledge affects competitiveness at the organizational level is very critical for the betterment of institutes as it provides insight on the best strategies that could be employed in developing a competitive advantage over other establishments in individuals surroundings (Jackson et al., 2006). Persons with unique knowledge would exhibit high levels of performance in terms of their productivity thus encouraging other workers to work towards attaining the same standards as their colleagues now that people would always yearn to be seen as the best more so whereby different forms of motivation were involved. Thus, it is important for organizations to strive to create a good environment for learning and knowledge sharing to take place(Iwata, 2004). This can be achieved through examining, challenging, and removing the institutional structures and practicessuch as increased isolation between employees and their leaders and the notion of following protocol in reporting cases to superiors that hinder effective knowledge sharing in order to attain competitiveness in non-profit organization (Iwata, 2004).

Diversity brings about knowledge sharing. This is because individuals who exhibited diverse skills and expertise would enable their colleagues to develop curiosity in knowing what they knew so that persons could attain some sense of belonging. Knowledge sharing could be attributed to as a critical aspect of managing diversity to help organizations achieve competitiveness. Knowledge sharing is a critical channel through which the workforce can contribute to increased creativity in partaking to dissimilar tasks at the workplace. Knowledge application would eventually lead to the competitiveness of the organization. This is due to it being that individuals from diverse backgrounds are able to come up with unique ways they could go about their undertakings at the workplace thus surpassing competitors by exhibiting high levels of creativity (Jackson et al., 2006). This is seen in the manner in which non-profit organizations such as World Health Organization consistently finds unique ways of dealing with disaster situations. According to Collins & Smith (2006), knowledge sharing positively relates to lower production costs, speedier completion of projects, firm innovation capabilities, team performance, and firm performance in the form of revenue growth thus enhancing the progress of institutions (Collins & Smith, 2006). With knowledge comes power as it enables institutes to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses thus enabling firms to build on their strengths and alleviate their weaknesses.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

a) Diversity

While much of the existing literature has centered on the impact of diversity on profit making organizations, the non-profit sector is also greatly affected by workplace diversity as seen through the misunderstandings that surfaced among persons from unique backgrounds in undertaking their duties at the workplace(Noe, 2013). Non-profit organizations work with persons from different communities in empowering community members and making positive contributions in the development projects that were implemented in individuals communities such as the provision of basic necessities in the middle of refugees within diverse states undertaken by WHO (Morfaw, 2009).

It could be asserted that workforce diversity brings together individual employees from different backgrounds in terms of their culture, religion, race, age, abilities, and ethnicities. This is to mean that each person in the workforce has their own way of approaching issues and challenges in the organization.

Effective diversity management in organizations is very critical in strengthening an organizations competitive advantage. Embracing and managing diversity helps non-profit organizations to address issues of change in management, organizational performance, and customer relations as it encourages persons from distinctive backgrounds to always work together in resolving some of the problems that surfaced in their midst at all times (Jackson, Chuang, Harden, Jiang, & Joseph, 2006). If institutes tackle all aspects of diversity and use them to their advantage then they would be better placed to serve their customers, offer high-quality products and services, and face off any emerging or existing competition.

According to Jacksonet al. (2006), in an organization where proper handling of diversity in the workforce lacks, there are bound to be tensions among different cohorts of workers, which may derail the company from functioning properly to achieve its objectives. Socialstereotypes have in numerous cases escalated tension between young and older employees in the non-profit institutes. For instance, the thought that women were not better capable of tackling complex tasks has discouraged most women from contesting for leadership positions in non-profit institutions.There were times that young people were considered less capable of holding powerful positions in their establishments. On the other hand, the older employees with the necessary skills and expertise perceived themselves to be more knowledgeable and more experienced to take up leadership positions in the company. However, such stereotypes are baseless in situations whereby younger people have access to more information via the internet, the chance to advance their education, and various opportunities to learn new leadership skills (Kunze, Boehm, and Bruch, 2013). Therefore, any young employee who shows great potential in leadership after completing their studies on aspects of leadership must be given an opportunity to put their knowledge and experience into action for the benefit of the organization as long as they had the required credentials to assume leadership positions.

An organization that takes its diversity management seriously will be able to educate its employees on the importance of building strong relations and creating a viable environment for every person in the organization (Jackson, Chuang, Harden, Jiang, & Joseph 2006, pp.23).Diversity management in large organizations encourages cross-cultural communication and intercultural interactions. Cross-cultural communication refers to the ability of an organization to s...