Diversity in Groups in the Workplace

Diversity in Groups within the Workplace

Differences in personal work style, skills, talents, education, and geographical location are examples of diversity dimensions that make a difference in how we work together in the corporate world. Management has to learn diversity in the workplace before they can actually execute diversity. Recognizing the sensitive subject is a start, but managers should be able to understand the various barriers ahead of them. They should also learn the necessities and benefits of managing workforce diversification; this concept should be fully explored.

There are numerous ways in which to define diversity. Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. It is all-inclusive and recognizes everyone and every group as part of the diversity that should be valued.

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A broad definition includes race, gender, ethnicity, age, national origin, religion and disability, but may include sexual orientation, values, personality, education, language, and physical appearance.

For an organization, diversity is important because a variety of ideas that are constructively pooled and managed wisely can be vital to the success of that organization. Individuals with different backgrounds bring different ideas to an organization. According to Dossenbach, "if you have a diverse workforce, you need to be proactive and employers need to invest time to understand their workers that support them." Dossenbach goes onto say, "that every employer, supervisor, and manager needs to act as though each one of their fellow workers are essential to the team and need to treat them as partners" (2004). For some companies, this is achieved by forming cross-functional teams that rely on talent diversity to solve problems. Each member of...