Diversity

Essay by kglogan79University, Bachelor'sA+, January 2010

download word file, 5 pages 3.0

IntroductionAs executives and managers in companies in the US continuously strive to bring innovated and talented individuals into their organizations strides must be made to embrace diversity. There are several elements that may diversify an individual such as ethnicity, gender, age and religion. As the United States continually undergo changes within the culture with more and more individuals migrating to the US from foreign countries, the number of individuals from ethic backgrounds is steadily increasing. What this means for the workforce is a pool of employees with various backgrounds, beliefs systems, and values. To remain competitive and develop the best products, services, create new ideas, embrace change or simply embark upon a successful journey, organizations must actively work towards building diverse teams that know how to effectively function in a diversified organizational culture.

EthnicityAn ethnic group or ethnicity is a population of human beings whose members identify with each other, either on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry or recognition by others as a distinct group, or by common cultural, linguistic, religious, or physical traits (Wikipedia, 2007).

Among many ethic groups are African Americans, Creole, Latino and Hispanic. Each of the ethic groups mentioned are from various countries around the world. Although ethic groups in the US account for less than 25% of the nation’s population, the number of individuals with ethic backgrounds is increasing tremendously in the workforce. What this represents for many organizations are groups of individuals with various beliefs and cultures working together to achieve a common goal. Anytime there are people from various backgrounds with different belief systems must work together to make decisions or take actions there is a large possibility for misunderstandings, miscommunication and disagreements which can have a large negative impact on an organization. However, if training and education on...