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Diversity

Definition: the management of people on the basis of :


Gender; race; age; educational background; sexual orientation; physical abilities or qualities; social status; religion and/or economic status; marital status/ family status; lifestyle,

Diversity is ...
Diversity or diverse workforce refers to the co existence of people from various socio cultural backgrounds within the company.

The changing workforce.


Women Minorities Older Workers Workers with Disabilities

KEY DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY


RELIGION 2. PHYSICAL CHALLENGES 3. VALUES 4. WORKSTYLES 5. AGE 6. SEXUAL ORIENTATION 7. EDUCATION LEVEL 8. PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUNDS 9. MARITAL STATUS 10. GENDER
1.

Diversity Management- is enabling workforce to


perform its full potential in an equitable work environment where no one group has a advantage or disadvantage.

Goal:

High performance organization in which every individual can perform to his/her potential. maintaining and increasing market share reducing costs increasing productivity improving the quality of management

Benefits:

Challenges in managing the work force

Lower cohesivenesslack of similarity language, culture, experience , mistrust, miscommunication and attitudinal differences reduce cohesiveness. Some even quite out of frustration. Common set of goals and platform is required to achieve results.

Communication problems
Diverse might carry lot of misunderstandings, inaccuracies and inefficiencies. Things have to be clarified again and again.

Mistrust and tensions

- Because of limited interaction and low familiarity with members belonging their community, region, we do not like to share our feelings and opinion freely.

Stereotyping- we tend to see the world in a particular manner(stereotyping) based on our background and experience. For ex- we may stereotype Indians as good for software positions because they are good in English and Mathematics. Similarly, employees stereotyped as unmotivated or emotional will be be given less-stress-provoking jobs than their coworkers.

Areas Affected by Diversity


Ambition Work ethic:

Time consciousness & use Personal space Cleanliness Methods of conducting business

Problem-solving methods Group consensus vs. individual decisions Group conflicts Relationship building View of women Style of leadership

Diversity Affects:

Recruitment Interviewing Disciplinary actions Rules of conduct Dress codes Perceptions of time Work procedures Motivation for professional development Counseling Work schedule Role of women in operation

Methods of Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity/Open Communications.


create a truly multicultural organization where all members of diverse cultural and social groups are involved.

Encouraging Feedback.
From various groups regarding how they would like to be treated helps managers formulate appropriate strategies. For eg, managers can interact with the women employees to give their opinions on how to improve relations between male and female employees so that the nuisance of sexual harassment in the male dominated offices could be stopped by developing a strong policy stating that racial or sexual harassment violates company rules.

Awareness building.
Is designed to increase awareness of the meaning and importance of valuing diversity. Its aims to sensitize employees to the assumptions they make about others and the way those assumptions behave their behaviors, decisions and judgements.

Diversity training and skill buildingVarious programmes to identify and reduce hidden biases and develop the skills required to manage a multicultural, diversified workforce effectively. Eg, Motorola offer language training for their employees as a vehicle for managing diversity.

Organizational practicesPrepare flexible work schedules and arrangements. Differences in family arrangements and, religious festivals, cultural events may be accommodated in a flexible manner, keeping individuals and groups in mind. Benefit packages like full family insurance cover for employee having a bigger family, allowing employee schedule vacations to coincide with those of his spouse, parental leaves of absence, time off take care for sick family etc.

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