Importance of Workforce Diversity - Coursework Example

Workforce diversity Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive summery Workforce diversity is a major concern for many organizations. Workforce diversity is the development of organizational policies which help an organization to avoid any form of discrimination based on ethnical backgrounds, religious or gender. This report discussed the main motivation factors of workforce diversity and they include social responsibility, resources imperative and communication strategy. Further, this report discussed the positive impacts of workforce diversity which are improving productivity, increase problem solving techniques and ability to attract and retain competent skills. The negative impacts discussed are communication issues, cultural resistance and increased organizational costs. Workforce diversity impacts on organizations in that it can help to create a competitive advantage but if not properly managed can lead to failure of the business. The labor force trends further should be managed to ensure ethical practices in all organization and ensure each organization has the right number of employees with required skills. Introduction In the current 21st century, workplace diversity has become a major concern among many businesses. There is no company which is being rigid and cannot accept changes as a result of the market changes. In this regard, workforce diversity is being practiced by many organizations. The main reason there is a changing trend in the workforce is that organizations want to achieve competitive advantage through their employees (Harvey 2012). One way to achieve this is through workforce diversity. Each organization wants to attract and retain customers despite their cultural backgrounds as long as they have competent skills which can enable the company to improve its performance in the competitive market. In this regard therefore, workforce diversity is the process of developing organizational policies and practices which will enable an organization to attract and retain human skills from different backgrounds not necessarily the employees who are dominant in the constituency. Motivation factors for workforce diversity There are some motivation factors which influence most organizations to adapt workforce diversity. The first factor is the corporate social responsibility (Eisenberg et al 2010). An organization can consider improving the living standards of the less privileged in the society to earn a living. For instance, employing the disabled can help them to realize their dreams through diversity. Another motivation factor is the resource imperative. The labor pool nowadays is not dominated by a single group like the male employees. The human skills are currently overwhelmingly provided by all people who come from different backgrounds (Eisenberg et al 2010). This enables many organizations to avoid discriminative practices, hence promoting workforce diversity. Workforce diversity also leads to effective communication strategy. This is because when the workforce is diversified, the organization will be able to interact well with the outside partners like the vendors. As a result, there will be a good relationship between the company and its external partners (Page 2007). This desire enables companies to practice workforce diversity. Finally, workforce diversity is one way of promoting a company products and services. When a company has diversified workforce, it will be able to consider their needs and offer products which meet their needs (Page 2007). The diversified workforce helps to market the company’s products to their cultural backgrounds, hence promoting the company’s products and services. The impacts of diversified workforce Workforce diversity offers positive and negative impacts in an organization. The positive impacts of workforce diversity are; Positive impacts First, it helps to increase productivity of a company. This is in the context that when the employees are diversified, they bring in different skills and talents which they can combine to improve the productivity of an organization (Vaughn 2006). They combine their skills and work together in teamwork towards achieving a common goal or objective. Further, workforce diversity helps to improve problem solving techniques. When the minds of the employees are diversified, they can be creative and provide better solutions to problems due to their experience. This is because different minds can offer different opinions which are helpful when finding a solution to a certain problem (Vaughn 2006). Moreover, workplace diversity helps to attract and retain experienced employees in the organization. Diversity ensures that an organization has a large pool of experienced employees. The organization can have the chance to select employees from different backgrounds because there is no restriction where to select the employees from (Brownell 2003). This will help to improve the reputation of the company and in the process, they will be able to attract and retain more experienced employees. Workforce diversity also leads to better communication due to changes in attitudes. When the employees are diversified, they can change their attitudes towards other cultures and groups in the society and in the process, they will learn to appreciate other people (Brownell 2003). This will help to profit the organization by creating a favorable working environment. Finally, workforce diversity helps to increase the market share for an organization. This is because the organization will be able to relate with many people from different backgrounds who in turn become the customers of the company (Brownell 2003). This will enable the organization to succeed in the global business and can be the market leader due to its good reputation. Negative impacts Despite workforce diversity having many positive impacts in an organization, there are also some negative impacts of workforce diversity. The first negative impact is communication issues. When the employees come from different cultural backgrounds, it is hard to harmonize communication due to different languages and social issues (Bacal 2004). The communication barrier hinders both internal and external communication, thus there is ineffective coordination of tasks. Workforce diversity also leads to cultural resistance. When there is workforce diversity at workplace, the nature of the workplace and the relationships changes. The changes may be negative and this could lead to stress among employees who will in turn develop a negative attitude lowering the employee morale (Bacal 2004). These changes can also lead to poor working relationships and the end result is that the employees may resist change hence it can affect the performance of the organization. In addition, workforce diversity can promote discrimination among the employees. This is in the circumstance that when there is a dominant group of employees, they may discriminate other employees who come from minor groups (Bacal 2004). In addition, if there is no clear policy to be used when selecting the employees, the human resource manager may discriminate some people due to some issues such as cultural backgrounds and this could lead to conflicts among employees. Finally, workforce diversity can increase the expenditure of an organization. The new employees should undergo training and also the process of hiring diversified workforce is costly and long (Bordia et al 2003). Further, diversity management also consumes some organizational resources because the experts are hired to manage the workforce so that there will be no conflicts among the employees. Workforce will have a great impact on human resource management in the future. This is because all the organizations should practice global employee sourcing so that they can select the best qualified employees. In future there will be no organization which will not consider diversity of the employees since workforce diversity will help to improve the performance of the organization (Coakley 2003). Therefore, workforce diversity trend is likely to ensure all groups in the society despite of their cultural backgrounds, age, sex and origin will have equal employment opportunities. Why organizations need to address these issues Organizations need to address these trends of workforce diversity, ageing workforce and skill shortages because if they are not managed well, they may lead to ineffective human resource planning (Cross 2000). For instance, when there is a high number of ageing workforce, there should be appropriate succession plans to ensure the retired employees are replaced by experienced human resource skills. Management of the labor force trends can help an organization to motivate its employees. This is because the organization will be able to develop an effective employment policy which will ensure equality of all employees (Dunlop 2004). This will promote good relationship among employees. The policy will also ensure effective hiring of employees as well as promotions hence the employees will be satisfied and in the process they will develop a positive attitude towards their work. Moreover, workforce diversity should also be managed so that there is no discrimination of any group in the society. Since there is no dominant group with skills, it is important for organizations to develop appropriate policies which will help to promote equality when offering jobs (Goodman 2001). This will help to improve the living standards of all people in the society despite their cultural backgrounds. Therefore, managing workforce diversity will help to improve the performance of an organization by improving the reputation of the organization, increasing sales and also ensuring good communication with both internal and external partners. On the other hand, workplace diversity should also be managed well so as to avoid the negative effects of workforce diversity. If this issue is not well addressed, an organization will have many challenges which will lower its productivity and performance in the competitive market (Southard & Lewis 2004). Some of the negative effects of not managing these issues include inability to select qualified and competent employees and also the organization might experience surplus employment or underemployment. This will affect the competitiveness of the organizations and will bring inequality in the society due to discrimination. Conclusion Workforce diversity is an aspect where an organization has effective strategies to accommodate all groups of employees in an organization without discrimination for instance gender equality and cultural backgrounds. The negative effects of workforce diversity include language barriers, cultural resistance and discrimination issues. The positive impacts of workforce diversity include improved productivity, improved competitive advantage, improved problem solving techniques and it helps to attract and retain competent and skilled employees. If these issues are not well managed by an organization, they may hinder the success of an organization, but if well managed they can create a competitive advantage for an organization. References Bacal, R 2004, Organizational Conflict, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. The Journal of Quality and Participation, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 21-32 Bordia, P. Gallois, C & Hobman, E. V 2003, Consequences of Feeling Dissimilar from Others in a Work Team. Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 301-325. Brownell, J 2003, "Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse Organizations". Listening Professional, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 5-25 Coakley, J 2003,  The Territorial Management of Ethnic Conflict. 2nd edition Portland, Oregon . F. Cass Cross, E 2000, Managing Diversity: The Courage to Lead. Westport, Connecticut. Quorum Books. Dunlop, T 2004, The Impact of Diversity and Culture on Organizational Conflict, Quorum Books. Eisenberg, E. M. 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