Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits and Challenges by Jalal Armache

I decided to do a summary of a very interesting journal. I chose Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits and Challenges by Jalal Armache which was published in March 2012. 

To begin with what is Diversity? Diversity is any dimension that can accept, understand, celebrate value, tolerate, and celebrate the differences in people, age, ethnicity, race, age, class, gender, mental capability, physical capability, financial status, religion and spiritual practice.

According to “Diversity in the Workplace” diversity is defined as “acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing, and celebrating differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and public assistance status.” (Armache, Dr. Jalal., 2012)

Today in every part and profession of the world, we are required to interact with people around the world and work with multicultural people. I strongly believe that as we get advanced with technology and era we have become more tolerant of each other.  An example would be of employers becoming more acceptable of employees having a tattoo. Few years ago, it was considered unprofessional for a white collar job and now employers are becoming more broadminded focusing on one's talents and capabilities rather than judging them based on their looks. This is an example of diverse workplace that everyone is a unique individual and brings their personality to work and tries to cope along with everyone

I found the introduction of the journal so interesting. It says that due to the increasing globalization it's important to interact with people from diverse cultural, ethnic background that is because of worldwide economic competition. Due to globalization and advanced technology, organizations around the world are promoting, accepting and capitalizing diversity to gain maximum competitive advantage and productivity. I believe that this journal is great in describing what is diversity? What are the advantages and disadvantages of diversity? The challenges of diversity and the required tools for managing diversity are some of the great topics covered in this journal. 

According to the journal, diversity is not only among people it is also within us. How we perceive ourselves is important before we perceive others. How we judge and look at others can depend on the experiences, background and culture one has grown up with. Sometimes an individual goes through a cultural shock but if the individual can learn to adapt the culture accept and respect the culture it will make it easy for the individual to survive in a workplace. 

This article also focuses on managers and team leaders. As they are a strong part of organization and an organization is recognized through them. It is important that a team leader should be able to value and accept and respect multicultural differences. they should be able to handle diversity issues and should know how to handle every each individual of their team/organization. It is believed that managing diversity is just more than providing equal opportunities. Managers should adapt and encourage change in the workplace. Changes in a workplace can enhance great customer services and work performance. Diversity in the workplace is a great tool because it decreases the globalization barriers for the company. For example employees come from multi cultural backgrounds and are able to speak various languages. We can use these employees as a tool (translator) for clients who have language barrier. This way the client feels welcome, homely and valued. The employee feels value, and appreciated as well. Another example is, expanding a business in another country (Japan). Employees who come from Japan or have worked in Japan can give their input on how to create and increase business relations, the business culture, the do's and don'ts, and etc. This will help in impressing the international client; will help the employee feel important. This shows a great example of accepted diversity. 

In addition, in today's world, diversity is a key to success. Having increased diversity in the workforce can help organizations increase marketing opportunities, innovative ideas, talent, experience, reduce law suits, recruitment, business image, creative and a good change. Flexibility in any business is important and everyone should be able to adapt to the changes in a work environment in order to be successful. Diversity teaches us to be acceptable, fast learners and respectable towards everyone. An example would be some employees may have a fast typing speed while others may take some time to type. Either way, they should be able to treat everyone equally. These are some of the examples of diverse workplace mentioned in the journal. 

Some of the challenges that are faced in multi cultural organizations are negative treatment. If an individual feels that he/she was not treated equally they will look for opportunities in other organizations causing high turnover. It involves recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination, and promoting inclusiveness. Due to discrimination, employees’ low performance can affect work productivity. An organization can face legal actions against prejudice and discrimination. Discrimination and negative behaviours are the biggest barriers of workplace diversity. This can include, prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, being judgemental, which should always be avoided by the employees and the management, It is important to be fair and neutral in hiring, retention and termination practices. If a positive and neutral behaviour is not practised this can be costly for the company’s reputation and litigation.

Furthermore to increase workforce diversity, one on one training sessions can be used a great tool to accept diversity. Diversity is not about differences among groups, but rather about differences among individuals. Each individual is unique and does not represent or speak for a particular group. If managers are willing to adapt to the change they can implement the change in the organization too. If they know it is not working, they should be willing to change the workplace environment completely. Do different team exercises to promote diversity. Like a cultural dress day at work, or department potluck, or a diversity day at work. These are some of great ideas which can help increase workforce diversity.  In order to create a successful workplace, yes it is important to treat everyone fairly but sometimes there are exceptions to the rule. A Muslim who prays five times a day may ask his supervisor to adjust his breaks according to his prayers times to be able to pray in his breaks. It is important to promote a respectful environment. It is important that everyone is given equal rights. During a meeting or a conference, every individual should be able to raise his voice for his opinion, ideas, or concerns. The others should be respectful, and should to listen to one’s concern. Associates should never be denied necessary, constructive, critical feedback for learning about mistakes and successes. There is not a one way to success for diverse workplace. It is important to create a road map to success. The roadmap to success can take time to be implemented. It is important to have workplace diversity as a social responsibility, for economic development, legal and resources imperative, marketing and business communications and technology and for capacity building strategy. In conclusion for companies to be success in global market, they must try their best to hire and retain the best minds, right skills and handful resources, (despite of cultural differences). Due to the advancement in communications and technology, diversity is becoming a vital key of growth and success.

For further information on/of this journal, I have included the reference below. I have done summary of this journal and used it as a reference. 

Reference:

Armache, Jalal  (2012) Diversity in the WorkPlace: Benefits and Challenges. Journal of International Diversity, volume 2012, issue 1, pages 55–75.