Managing diversity and equal opportunity - Essay Example

However, diversity is a concept that is more inclusive. People do not merely differ owing to their nationality, ethnicity or skin colour. People may also differ in their physical abilities, age, gender, sexual orientation, mental abilities and religious beliefs. In that context, diversity is a more holistic concept that it includes multiculturalism and all other notions by which people may differ from each other. Diversity could be a problem if taken to be so, or it may turn out to be a source of ingenuity, creativity and innovation if managed in the right way (Burke & Cooper 2005).

So the chief and pivotal concern of diversity management is to make the diversity visible as well as to manage diversity in a way that it turns out to be fruitful, beneficial and salubrious fort the society, institutions and organizations. The core concern of diversity management is the appreciation of diversity as well as, wrought out the associated organizational and institutional behavioural changes in a way that they end up being beneficial and salubrious (Burke & Cooper 2005). Diversity is a concept that forces the managers and the employees to rethink their social and managerial views and expectations.

Although the codification of organizational and institutional behaviour and modes of reference do help people size up their world view in a definite manner, these set views may also turn out to be sources of discrimination for some sections of the society. Considering the fact that the workforce in the UK is increasingly becoming multicultural, this has forced the organizations to restructure and rethink their attitudes and notions regarding diversity, so as to assure that everybody gets equal access to opportunities for growth and self realization.

Understanding Diversity Diversity could turn out to be a benign and salubrious asset for any community. However, in a broader context, diversity happens to be much more than merely inculcating tolerance, and abstaining from resorting to stereotyping or getting judgemental. In fact in a world given to variety and variation, recognizing and managing diversity makes an immense sense. Diversity constitutes the fundamental asset for a society given to variation and stands to be central to the development of the economy and culture.

It is the reverence for human dignity, freedom to differ and the liberty to express different views is what makes an organization inclusive and modern (Burke & Cooper 2005). The chance to perform and work in a way that is in consonance with what an individual actually is ensues from a realization of the relevance of the whole and the recognition of the constituent subsections. One of the plus points of recognizing diversity and differences is that it leads to recognition of the diversity and the inclusion of the varied diverse segment of the society in the workforce active in institutions and organizations (Burke & Cooper 2005).

Creating a work environment that recognizes diversity allows people to realize each other’s innate differences and similarities, and to be able to relate to each other through this understanding. Cross-cultural integration and the communication today play a central role in the management of employees and customers. Not only the workforce in the UK is getting highly diverse, the consumers and customers that access the goods and services produced by