Diversity in Workplace - Essay Example

Diversity in Workplace Introduction Diversity can be defined by the presence of variety. A diverse organisation is composed of employees and staff which belong to different cultural or ethnic background. This can be further extended to include diversity on the grounds of gender, race, religion, age, personality, education, etc (Barak, 2013). These factors largely vary among individuals and it also impacts how they perceive themselves and how they perceive others and their environment. It influences the way they interact with each other in the workplace. The organisations face several challenges while maintaining diversity in the workplace. In order to foster social balance and promote unbiased treatments, the governments and several PR groups forces the organisations, mostly the big MNCs, to increase the level of diversity in the workplace. This paper will discuss about the evidence of discrimination and biasness in an organisation. It will also cover how the authorities have taken effective initiatives to tackle the challenge of creating a diverse work environment. Organisational Diversity According to Hofstede (2001), the culture background of an individual largely varies across different nations or their place of origin. It also influences how they interact with other people in the society, display social behaviour, perceive different stimuli and practise social customs. Thus, it can be stated that the individuals belonging from different cultural or ethnic background bear different psychological profile personality trait (Dipboye and Colella, 2013). stated that a workforce is more effective in delivering higher output if it is composed of employees from different cultural background. It gives the organisation a diverse employee base with employees bearing different personality traits suitable for different organisational activities. Green et al., (2012) further stated that diversity in an organisation should also be maintained on the grounds of gender distribution. As of now, in a typical organisation the male employees outnumber the female employees. These situations have become quite challenging for the organisation and they have taken several steps towards its improvement. Evidence of discrimination The racial discrimination in the US against the minority group of Muslim is quite prevalent. Major terrorist attack incidents have been linked to the entire community, which as a result has led to the increased discrimination of the Muslims by a large number of western population. According to the reports of Greenhouse (2010), the religious discrimination against the Muslims has found its way into the organisational behaviour of several firms. As of year 2009, there has been 803 official complained lodged against religious and cultural discrimination on the Muslim population in the workplace. This number has hiked by 60% from 2005. Dobson (2014) has further mentioned that the discrimination against the Muslims is also quite prominent in the UK. It has been stated that the Muslim candidates are 76% less likely to get jobs as compared to British Christian candidates of same age and qualification. Starting from the employment prospects, to getting promotion or salary hikes, the Muslims have been severely suppressed and kept underprivileged. These evidences clearly suggest that the Muslim population in the western country face severe discrimination in the workplace. They are often being disrespected and harassed by their fellow colleagues and supervisors. As a result, such practices are fuelling the social turmoil and conflict in the society as well as in the workplace, thereby reducing organisational productivity and negatively affecting the work environment. This poses a clear violation of rules and regulations of the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission and needs effective initiatives to address the issues. Addressing the issue The growing intolerance against the Muslim religion in the workplace is increasing at a steady pace. The inception of “islamophobia” among the western population has created severe outrage in the society and has made it even more difficult for the Muslim employees to sustain in the organisation (Dobson, 2014). In order to address the issues of workplace diversity, strict actions need to be taken by the authority of the organisations and also by the governments. Even though there are laws to protect people against discrimination, but the implementation is barely visible. Most of the organisations fail to avoid discriminatory practices in the workplace, because the people who are positioned higher up in the hierarchy are also involved in such practices. The authority should implement strict regulations and penalty for anyone engaged in discriminatory activities (Greenhouse, 2010). Moreover, the awareness of workplace discrimination is more important that practicing strict regulations. The organisations must take initiatives to create a general awareness among the employees and educate them about the severity of the situation and how it can negatively impact the organisational output and its reputation. A separate session should be conducted for the employees about workplace behaviour, where the current issue on discrimination against the Muslims should be discussed. Simultaneously, in order to ensure social harmony, the government should also implement strict laws for the organisations and must ensure that they are being enforced in the proper way. The growing issue of religious discrimination has become a severe menace in the organisations, where the work environment is largely affected by unbiased practices, thereby making it harder for the minority groups to sustain their jobs. Not only does it hampers organisational output, but is also affects the corporate image of the organisations. Examples of good practice Amidst several organisations known for their discriminatory practices, there are some which has take serious initiatives to bridge the gap caused by discrimination and biasness. Google can be considered as one of the most ethical organisations in terms of fair practice and treatment of employees. According to Google (2015), the company has designed a work culture that promotes workplace diversity, suppresses racial, gender or religious discriminations. Although the company is still working on creating a discrimination free work environment, but its initiatives should motivate other companies. Conclusion The paper has set forward a strong example of workplace discrimination towards a certain minority group and it has also shown that the work place diversity is a rare occurrence. Even though some organisations have taken strong initiatives to curb the issue, but it takes the effort of the government as well to fully manage the problem of increasing workplace discrimination on the grounds of religion. It can be recommended that all the organisations should make strict policies against discriminatory practices and should also promote such initiatives. The government needs to implement the human rights and fair practice laws with more strictness. Thus, it can be stated that the trend of discrimination and the ignorance of workplace diversity can impact the organisations and eventually the economy. Reference List Barak, M. E. M., 2013. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. London: Sage Publications. Dipboye, R. L. and Colella, A., 2013. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organisational bases. New York: Psychology Press. Dobson, R., 2014. British Muslims face worst job discrimination of any minority group, according to research. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 30 November 2015] Google, 2015. Diversity. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 November 2015] Green, K. A., López, M., Wysocki, A. and Kepner, K., 2012. Diversity in the workplace: benefits, challenges, and the required managerial tools. Florida: EDIS. Greenhouse, 2010. Muslims Report Rising Discrimination at Work. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 30 November 2015] Hofstede, G., 2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviours, institutions and organisations across nations. London: Sage Publication. Read More