Workforce Diversity in an organization
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Diverse Teams Within an Organization
Introduction
It is worth noting that organizations commonly employ employees from diverse cultural backgrounds. The difference in diversity is highly brought about by the different religious, ethnicity and political affiliation (ANJORIN & Jansari 2018). The diversity in the workplace poses a significant challenge in integrating the diverse groups to result in a cohesive team that works together. This is because diversity profoundly affects human being thinking and their opinions. The difference in judgment due to political, religious or cultural beliefs might lead to intentional or unintentional conflicts (ANJORIN & Jansari 2018). However, diversity in the workplace brings about a rich representation of people from different walks of life working together to achieve the objective of the company. The difference in thinking and opinion can result in innovation and a great heritage that can make the working environment beautiful. However, in order to achieve cohesion in diversity, there need to be various strategies put in place within the organization to foster acceptance and tolerance. This paper discusses some of the advantages and difficulties in utilizing diversity in the work environment and potential strategies to avert the challenges.
Advantages of Utilizing Diversity in the Work Place
There are myriads of merits in employing employees from diverse backgrounds. First and foremost, diversity offers the employees an environment that has an opportunity for personal improvement and growth due to the fact that the employees are able to get diverse ideas concerning a particular issue at hand (Urbancová, Čermáková, & Vostrovská, (2016). For instance, the different school of thoughts brought by employees in tackling work challenges and exchanging the ideas makes the employees have a rich and diverse knowledge in handling the work challenges such as a deep in sales. This might not have been achieved if there were employees from a specific group. Secondly, employing people from diverse background encourages integration and inter-community interaction. This reduces prejudice that is attached to religion or political affiliation. When people from different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds work together, they begin to view each other as brothers and sister or friends.
In some instance, the employees from a diverse group can end up into a relationship and form a family (Urbancová, Čermáková, & Vostrovská, (2016). Work environment is the best way to foster national cohesion. Third, diversity foster innovation in that different people are able to come up with different tactics or methods of achieving the same results. The various school of thought is spearheaded by the up brining, beliefs and even different educational backgrounds. For example, having different department representatives work on a particular project brings together people from a diverse educational background which fosters ideas from various disciplines. The ability to bring onboard a holistic solution based on different educational background profession result in significant innovation as denoted by Morris (2018).
Difficulties in implementing diversity in the workplace
One characteristic of diversity entails the difference in opinion. Diversity can result in a great source of conflicts in the workplace if not management prudently. This is because the different opinion brought together might lead to inability to make decision that pleases the various parties involved (Schaffer 2019). If the leadership fails to be firm, diversity can lead to the conflict and a feeling of confusion because of the diverse opinion that is subjected to a problem or issue at hand. Giving everybody a chance to be heard can slow down the implementation process. Secondly, diversity can lead to domination by the more influential group.
Studies have shown that in the majority of the workplace with diverse groups, the decisions are usually centred on favoring the majority or the strong group (Schaffer 2019). The rest of the minority or weaker groups are left feeling that their opinions are not valid. This can lead to challenges in the implementation of the decisions whereby their minority groups might not feel that they are part of the decision-making process (Schaffer 2019). Even though the utilitarian approach denotes that the best decisions are the decisions that make the majority happy, sometimes, the majority are not always right (Schaffer 2019).
Methods that can be used to Overcome Potential Diversity Difficulties
According to human resource management principles, creating strong work conducts and codes is one of the best ways to overcome the difficulties that come with diversity in the workplace. The human resource guidelines and regulation should be applicable to everybody irrespective of management or junior employees (ANJORIN & Jansari 2018). Firm guideline acts as a constitution which everybody must adhere to. The guidelines ought to be improved periodically to conform to the changing needs of the workplace. For instance, if the organization has guidelines on religious practices within the workplace, the employees are likely to become more tolerance towards a different religion. Furthermore, the management ought to empower the staff to be accommodative. There is a need to foster acceptance of different opinions and foster activities that promote cultural cohesion. This can include religious tolerance or work cultural day (ANJORIN & Jansari (2018).
Conclusion
In summary, it is worth noting that diversity in the workplace is one of the most substantial assets that the organizations have. Having people from diverse nationalities, cultural, religious and political affiliations gives the organizations the opportunity to get diverse ideas based on experienced and cultural setting. However, in order for the organization to use diversity as a tool that can make it thrive, it is essential to foster practices that remove prejudice and encourage tolerance of different cultures and opinions. Lastly, proper corporate guidelines are the key measures that can be used in place to foster diversity. Corporate guidelines act as a standard measure that all employees adhere to. Failure to which the employees who go against the guidelines face the consequences.
References
ANJORIN, R., & Jansari, A. (2018). Managing Cultural Diversity at Workplace.
Morris, J. (2018). 5 advantages of a diverse workplace no one is talking about. Strategic HR Review.
Schaffer, B. S. (2019). Examining reactions to workplace diversity: The role of dissimilarity–attraction in teams. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l’Administration, 36(1), 57-69.
Urbancová, H., Čermáková, H., & Vostrovská, H. (2016). Diversity management in the workplace. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 64(3), 1083-1092.
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