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WORKFORCE
DIVERSITY

16/05/2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

Human Resource Management is the function within an organization that focuses on

recruitment, management, and providing direction for the people who work in the
organization. It deals with issues related to people. (Gary Dessler, 2008, p.2) Workforce
diversity is the similarities and differences among employees in terms of age, cultural
background, physical abilities and disabilities, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation it
includes all characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals. (Byeong
k y, 2006)

Each individual differs from each other on various aspects which defines diversity. These
differences play a major role in the organization as it influences the way individual
people perform and affect productivity. (UC regent 1997-2006) It is also important for
an organization to have a diverse workforce because people from different backgrounds
provide new and fresh ideas. Also an organization can touch on a wider consumer
demographic since they understand the various cultures. It is upon the organization to
handle these differences to either have a positive or a negative impact. This could be a
problem for the human resource manager because to manage people from different
backgrounds could be difficult. (UC regent 1997-2006)

The study discusses about the challenges and benefits faced by an organization when
dealing with a diverse workforce. It further gives solutions such as training the employees
and policies that will help an organization better manage a diverse workforce. Also the
study mentions the future of workforce diversity.

OUTLINE

These are the major topics that will be further discussed:

 Concept of diversity

 Diversity of the workforce used correctly

 Why hospitality and tourism firms focus on diversity?

  Ways of managing workforce diversity effectively

 Workforce diversity: the key to survival and growth

 Diversity in the work place: benefits and challenges

 Workforce diversity: what the future holds

1. CONCEPT OF DIVERSITY

Workforce diversity is there to give everyone an equal opportunity in the workplace. The
organization should have the ability to make most out of the differences from a diverse
workforce to be more effective and innovative in the market. (Ongori.H, 2007) Managers
need to understand that there can be many problems when dealing with a diverse
workforce, if handled well can be very beneficial to the organization.

There have been study’s conducted over the years investigating how effective a diverse
workforce is to the organization, there have been many definitions of diversity as well but
every study brings about different results because it depends on how the organization
handles a diverse workforce. A manager needs to ensure that everyone respects each
other, interacts with each other without any discrimination and also they get along and
work as a team. If a diverse workforce works as a team, provides innovative ideas and
supports each others thoughts then an organization can go a very long way.

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