Workforce Diversity

Essay by antisheep November 2008

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

IntroductionWhen walking through many companies one will see many different types of individuals. The diversity in the workforce has changed dramatically over the last several years. According to Kaplan and Kunreuther, diversity is no longer just a black and white issue anymore just as America has become a melting pot of cultures, races, and ethnicities, companies have become diversified as well. By having these differences in a business environment companies now face issues of discrimination with factors such as culture, age, gender, skills, abilities, religion, and sexual orientation. Diversity becomes a problem when workers do not accept, understand, appreciate, or tolerate the differences between each other. The struggle to work together despite our differences continues for each of us. Incorporating diverse individuals into the workforce will present new challenges and issues to be addressed, but the rewards of doing so will be substantial.

EthnicityDiversity is a mixture of people with many differences as well as similarities.

As a group, the companies as well as the employees need to realize the differences as well as the commonality between them. Having a diversified company on the cultural side of an issue poses problems such as language barriers and religious beliefs. I have two companies that I personally have worked for. One company was a Chinese owned operation and a majority of the management team was Chinese. The cultural differences included the treatment of women, there the management team did not have much respect for a woman and this impeded my job considerably, my job was to find product that had past the date of being sent out and needed to the technicians on the floor to get it to me within an hour. When I would take a trouble order to the floor the gentlemen in charge of the area would turn...