Personal and Managerial Effectiveness: a critical evaluation of workforce diversity for 21st century organisations - Essay Example

However, there are many challenges that come with work diversity. Prejudice, discrimination and bias are experienced and expected in an organisation with a diverse workforce. The managers have a challenge in managing the diverse workforce. Good management strategies and policies can manage the diverse workforce effectively making the organisation better, more profitable and better reputation in its jurisdiction and world over. Workforce diversity has improved the performance of organisations leading to better profitability, good reputation and an all round workforce but presents many challenges to the management as certain perceptions are hard to change but can be addressed by good management strategies involving recognition, appreciation, open communication and harmony in the diverse work force.

Work Force Diversity The world is changing a lot in the current times especially in government and organizations. Employers and politicians in the United Kingdom were put on notice by the Race to the Future report which predicts that one in five people in Britain will be a minority in four decades. At the same time, the number of women in employment is increasing dramatically. Another issue that has come to be appreciated is that some people have gender reassignment in which they believe they are men or women yet they are women and men respectively.

Young people and the old are also competing in the work place. All these people have their strengths in the work place and employers have to ensure that there are equal opportunities for all these people. The race to the future report stated that the changes in the population could be very beneficial to organizations and the United Kingdom economy. In that regard, employers have to rethink their recruitment procedures. As it has always been, some people are always marginalized and do not have equal opportunities (Booth, 2010).

Towards a diverse work force Governments across the world realized that some people in the society were always marginalised and could not get equal opportunities compared to others. In the United Kingdom for example, women and minorities have always had challenges finding well paying permanent jobs. On the other hand, qualified white men can get job as easy as ABC. These challenges compelled the government to propose changes in the employment. The United Kingdom Government has been working towards equality for close to six decades by passing the Race relations act in 1965 with the objective of decreasing discrimination against races, the equal pay act in 1970 to facilitate equal pay regardless of race and gender, the discrimination ac of 1975 to reduce discrimination basing on gender, race, sexual orientation and religious beliefs, the race relations act of 1976 to encourage harmony among races, the disability act of 1995 to reduce discrimination against the disabled, the second equality act of 2006, Employment Equality act on Religion or Belief Regulations 2003, the Employment Equality act on Sexual Orientation Regulations 2003, the Employment Equality act on Age Regulations 2006 and the Equality Act on Sexual Orientation Regulations 2007 (Hepple, 2010; The United Kingdom Legislation, 2013).

Diverse work force challenges For decades, the work place regulations have not been taken seriously. A look at the current employment situation is very different from what is expected. Findings by Verkaik (2008), (Lee 2002) and (Hills 2010) indicate what has been