Diversity and Multiculturalism at Workplace: Analytical Essay

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Abstract

All companies no matter the size require direction when it comes to ethics, morals, structure, not to mention diversity and multiculturalism. Without more than two of these elements a company may be in serious trouble. Diversity is so much more than what the first thought is that pops into your mind. Diversity is more than just race, color, gender. There are both strengths and weaknesses when it comes to implementing diversity and multiculturalism that we will cover later in this report. Overall incorporating diversity within an organization can be a an asset and can contribute and change an organization to make it better. The report will provide an understanding of diversity and multiculturalism with regards to the workplace.

Keywords: Diversity, Multiculturalism, Civil Rights, Discrimination, Human Resources Management

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Introduction

The top fruitful companies in the world congratulate themselves in having diversity within their organization, which is made up of their employees populating from multiple backgrounds. Previously, companies have gone back and forth regarding whether or not they should implement diversity within their organization. Actually, according to Gausepohl (2017), some company executives think that they should hire employees that already fit the existing company’s culture. However, over the last few decades company’s views on diversity have begun to shift; they are beginning to realize that in order for them to be successful they must be open to diversity. Kossek, Lobel, and Brown (2006), have found that many HRMs have initiated diversity and inclusion programs and training into their onboarding and training development. This could be a result of so many studies revealing company’s growth after accepting diversity into their organization. Major companies like Macy’s, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all well known for their abnormal diversity, that are also very successful in what they accomplish. So, what exactly is diversity? Diversity goes further than just being able to ‘deal with’ change or differences; it’s more than that. Diversity is being able to understand and accept that everyone is one-of-a-kind.

The value of this paper lies within the reader creating a better understanding for them regarding diversity and multiculturalism. This paper analyzes both terms using scholarly readings to include articles and books. Information provided in this paper includes an overall presentation of diversity and multiculturalism, advantages and disadvantages of diversity, and diversity laws within the workplace.

Defining diversity and multiculturalism

Diversity in the workplace has been an ongoing controversial topic for quite some time. Since diversity in the workplace is strictly prohibited, corporate America is more diverse now than it has ever been in the past. It’s been noted that for the first 150 years of America’s existence, diversity was unknown (Wagner, 2019). Diversity has many definitions. Diversity is a public issue that focuses on the likeness and differences of people, usually employees, within the same organization. According to Saxenaa (2014), diversity is defined as “similarities and differences among employees in terms of age, cultural background, physical abilities and disabilities, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.” A person doesn’t simply choose to be diverse, rather yet, it happens naturally. When a human being is born their race, gender, and age are pre-determined prior to birth, a person does not have the ability to choose.

Multiculturalism, similar to diversity, has many definitions and interpretations. If you were to ask any number of company executives, you would likely get as many answers as you asked company executives! Multiculturalism, the term, first began to arise between the 1960s and 1980s as more and more minority groups (African Americans, Latinos, and other backgrounds) began to dig more into their own histories. Generally speaking, multiculturalism can be defined as how a particular group within society looks at culture in regards to equality, respect and success (Gorski, 1999). Multiculturalism can also be looked at as a system; in which, the systems looks to see what race, color, gender, is first in social settings and rules.

Knowing the difference between diversity and multiculturalism is vital in running a successful company; specifically, it allows for Human Resources Managers to create a healthy workplace environment for the staff by decreasing the number of conflicts that arise around diversity and multiculturalism affairs. In sequence, in being well versed on diversity and multiculturalism this has many benefits and disadvantages to any organization, as anything else would as well.

Diversity in the workplace

Diversity in a work setting is when a company has an open culture or an open mind-set of hiring people to be employees that come from various backgrounds; this is not based on race or religion. Diversity is extremely difficult to avoid in the workplace now-a-days. When HRMs bring in talent of a diverse background to the company, it can develop different benefits to the company overall, and the employees as well. Generally speaking, think about our species, mankind. We are very diverse. We have many different countries, languages, races, colors, and beliefs (just to name a few). These channels can and should be monitored through company onboarding and training/development.

Advantages and disadvantages of diversity in the workplace

There are pros and cons when it comes to dealing with diversity in the workplace. Some benefits of having diversity in the workplace include: a wide variety of creativity, increased productivity/involvement, and increased amount of services that you can offer your clients and/or employees. Incorporating diversity in the workplace can increase employee productivity because this will bring a group of people with different backgrounds into the same room (that they usually would not be in together) to work towards a common goal for success. Think of it this way, you ask a group of people if they like bacon. In this group, you have a millennial African- American female, a middle aged Muslim male, and an 80 year old Caucasian lady. All three people that you asked may not even eat bacon, therefore, all their responses may be different or their answers all could be the same but for different reasons. If a company increases the different amount of talent that a company can offer, your services will be able to increase simply because all or most of your employees can contribute different talents to the table, which may extend to your clients.

You have to take the bad with the good. On the other hand, some cons on diversity in the workplace are: increased competition within your organization, integration issues, communication issues, and it may increase the cost of training programs for an organization. Diversity increase competition for the same reason, diversity can increase productivity. If you are able to get talents with different backgrounds they may know more or can do a task better simply because of the background that they offer, therefore, creates competition because the company’s target talent search grows. Although some expertise is necessary, it’s furthermore imperative to develop mix among gatherings to keep up a vital separation from partners from different countries working in division and confining learning trade. This can be a set up or a test to endure, particularly if there are shrouded favoritisms between social orders, making them less inclined to coordinate. Negative social speculations regarding culture can be truly troublesome or hurtful to association confirmation and impact productivity. When diversity is introduced to a company’s culture you run the risk of communication being interrupted. But, keep in mind that communication can still be an issue even if diversity is not present within an organization. However, just because communication can be interrupted doesn’t mean that this has to be negative necessarily. You do have to be cautious of language barriers. Language barriers happen to be only on challenge. A lot of times with language barriers, people will not speak up for themselves because they do not know how or they simply do not understand. There are ways to get around language barriers; however, you have to find out what works best for your company. Some ways around language barriers would be: send written communications, have on-hand translators or translator devices or apps available, or frequent team meetings to name a few. All disadvantages of diversity within any organization do not only affect the employees it also affects the company executives and overall company moral.

Diversity laws for the workplace

Laws are put into place, usually, to protect the humans from harmful doings no matter whom or what may be the influencer behind the scenes; laws also help enforce consequences on those who break these same rules. There are many laws that protect the average Joe at work. According to Laws.com (2017), the following legislations promote diversity in the workplace:

  1. Title VII Civil Rights Act of 1964: this is a federal law that prevents employers from discriminating against race, color, sex, national origin, and religion (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.).
  2. Pregnancy Discrimination Act: this act amended the Title VII Civil Rights Act of 1964; employers can’t discriminate against any person that is pregnant. (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.)
  3. Americans with Disabilities Act (1990): In 1990, this act gave individuals with disabilities civil rights protections against their disabilities (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). The ADA defines a disability as any condition (physical or mental) that prevents a human being from performing one or more major life activities, such as, getting dress, driving a vehicle, etc. (Guerin & J.d., 2018). However, this act only applies to organization that has more than 15 employees. This act also gave individuals with disabilities more access to the public; meaning business had to accommodate these establishments to meet the needs of those with disabilities (ramps, less steps, elevators, ets.). Public transportation was also made more accessible for people with disabilities. Public buses were purchased that had ramps and elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks were implemented in public transportation places.
  4. ADA Amendments Act: In September 2008, the amendment act amended the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.).
  5. Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967): Protects individuals 40 and older from being discriminated upon to receive employment at an organization (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). So in the case that a person is 40 or older and is as qualified as someone that is 25 recent college graduate, an employer cannot simply chose the 25 year old because they are younger and have a greater chance of staying with the company longer.
  6. Equal Pay Act (1963): This act mandated employers to pay both, men and women, the same wage for matching job titles (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Although, this act was passed in 1963, women today, still find themselves fighting for equal pay in comparison to men.
  7. Employment and Reemployment Rights Act: In 1994, this act passed that gave civilians the right to go back to their same jobs they had, if they were called to active duty (The United States Department of Justice, 2015). This act isn’t as important now, as back in the 1990s, it was more common for young people to be demanded to go to war at the drop of a dime.
  8. Civil Rights Act (1991): This act amended several previous laws: Title VII, The Americans Disability Act of 1990, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). This act was put into place to make some changes to the above listed laws and acts.
  9. Rehabilitation Act (1973): This act makes it illegal to discriminate upon disabled people within federal programs and/or activities (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009). Therefore, people with disabilities can’t be denied for food stamps, Medicare, etc. based on the fact that they are disabled, it would have to be for a different reason if they are denied for a program or activity.
  10. Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (2008): Protects all individuals from discrimination regarding a person’s personal genetics from health insurance and employment (The National Human Genome Research Institute, 2017).

All of these laws collectively protect all individuals’ rights from discrimination from employment regardless of a person’s personal characteristics or background of all types. If any person feels that they have been discriminated upon or their rights stated above have been violated have the ability to file a claim with the office of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Recommendation

Do you want to increase your company’s diversity? A current diversity and multiculturalism assessment should be performed on the company; this way you can see where the company currently stands, and where the company wishes to be in the future. Once the company has been assessed, the training and development program should change in line with that the company’s future goals are. HRMs and company executives would be very instrumental pieces to this process as the changes are made and are implemented throughout the company.

Conclusion

To conclude, diversity was meant to enhance a group of people from different backgrounds to bring about peace, togetherness, and advancement within an organization, whether inside or outside of work; this also allows people to learn acceptance of others that are unique. Now that workplace diversity is here, it isn’t going anywhere! Diversity is vital to maintain communication and rapport with one another in a goal setting environment. Also, it is important for HRMs and company executives to embrace and prompt the need and want for diversity within their company. Every company is different because each has different needs and a different niche market; there isn’t one method that works across the board for every company. Each company should take this time and research to see what methods will work best for their organization. When it is all said and done, no two people are exactly the same; this allows people to give input from different perspectives based on their different backgrounds, which is why most organizations thrive when they introduce and maintain a well-placed diversity plan.

References

  1. Gausepohl, S. (2017, February 27). Hiring for Cultural Fit? Here’s What to Look For. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6866-hiring-for-company-culture.html
  2. Guerin, L., & J.d. (2018, September 26). Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Cover Short-Term Illnesses? Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.disabilitysecrets.com/resources/disability/short-term-disability-laws/does-americans-disabilities-act-ada-cover-short
  3. Kossek, E. E., Lobel, S. A., & Brown, J. (2006). Human resource strategies to manage workforce diversity. Handbook of workplace diversity, 53-74.
  4. Laws.com. (n.d.). Diversity In The Workplace – Employment | Laws.com. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from https://employment.laws.com/diversity-in-the-workplace
  5. Saxena, A. (2014). Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity[PDF]. Science Direct.
  6. The United States Department of Justice. (2015, August 12). Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from https://www.justice.gov/crt-military/uniformed-services-employment-and-reemployment-rights-act-1994
  7. Gorski, P. C. (1999, November). A Brief History of Multicultural Education. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/edchange_history.html
  8. The National Human Genome Research Institute. (2017, April 17). The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.genome.gov/27568492/the-genetic-information-nondiscrimination-act-of-2008/
  9. U.S. Department of Justice. (2009, July). A Guide to Disability Rights Laws. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm
  10. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adaaa_info.cfm
  11. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Pregnancy Discrimination. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/pregnancy.cfm
  12. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adea.cfm
  13. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/1990s/ada.html
  14. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). The Equal Pay Act of 1963. Retrieved February 22, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm
  15. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). The Civil Rights Act of 1991. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/1990s/civilrights.html
  16. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm
  17. Wagner, R. (2019, February 11). The History of Diversity in the Workplace. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://bizfluent.com/about-5463620-history-diversity-workplace.html

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