Conclusion

In conclusion, diversity not only involves how people perceive themselves, but how they perceive others. For a wide assortment of employees to function effectively as an organization, human resource professionals need to deal effectively with issues such as communication, adaptability and change.

Diversity will increase significantly in the coming years. Successful organizations recognize the need for immediate action and are ready and willing to spend resources on managing diversity in the workplace now (Greenburg, 2006).

Improving Communication Among Diverse Workplace Audiences

If diversity in the workplace is effective, it can enhance productivity and reach a company to success. On the other hand, if diversity in the workplace is ineffective, it can become a drain on a company's time and resources. Miscommunication often results when one person’s style of communicating differs from that of another person. Miscommunication can be a source of discomfort and conflict, and it is a given in today’s diverse workplace that you will work and interact with many coworkers whose communication style differs from yours. Therefore, learning how to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds is an essential skill. The following suggestions can help you and your organization find ways to improve communication and interaction:

1. Seeking Training: A lot can be learned in diversity training programs. Take the time to read and learn about workforce diversity and how it can benefit organizations.
2. Learn about your cultural self: Take the time to learn about your culture and how others see it. Your culture was designed to help you succeed and survive in a certain environment.
3. Understand the value of differences: Diversity makes and organization innovative and creative.
4. Make fewer assumptions: Avoid making insignificant, innocent work-place assumptions. Valuing diversity means making fewer assumptions that everyone is like you or wants to be like you. 

Capitalizing on Workforce Diversity

Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue for management today. The world's increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. Diversity issues are now considered important and are projected to become even more important in the future due to increasing differences in the Canadian population. Companies need to focus on diversity as society and workforce becomes more diverse. Managing and valuing diversity is a key component of effective people management, which can improve workplace productivity (Black Enterprise, 2001).

Beyond having a workforce that mirrors the changing demographics of the global consumer market and the ability to better understand their desires and preferences, productivity, and costs can be analyzed to assist in building the business case for diversity. According to statistics Canada projections, the number of visible minorities could climb to between 19 and 23 percent. Women will represent nearly 50 percent of the workforce.

Cultural Diversity

Each person needs to know that their culture is important to others. In order for people to commit to working on diversity, every person needs to feel that they will be included and important. Whether the person is a Japanese-American, Asian, a fundamentalist Christian, or speaks with an accent, has a disability, is poor, or is wealthy--each person needs to feel welcomed in the effort to create a diverse community. Often people are afraid that recognizing differences will divide people from each other. However, learning about cultural differences can actually bring people closer together, because it can reveal important parts of each other’s lives. It can show us how much we have in common as human beings.  When presenting diversity issues you can say things like, "This is an excellent opportunity to build on the strengths that this organization has," or "There is no reason why we can't solve this problem together."

Building a team around us is the most effective way of creating institutional and community change around diversity issues. The Governor General of Canada officially declared June 21st to be National Aboriginal Day. Every year on this day Canadians come together to celebrate and learn more about Aboriginal peoples, their history and diverse cultures and the important contributions they have made to Canada.  Please click on the National Aboriginal Day link to read more.

Changes in Today's Increasingly Diverse Workforce

As we enter the 21^st century, workforce diversity has become an essential business concern. The changing demographics in the workforce is dramatically different than in the past. Companies that diversify their workforces will have a distinct competitive advantage over those that don’t. According to Dr. Santiago Rodriguez, Director of Diversity for Microsoft, true diversity is exemplified by companies that “hire people who are different – knowing and valuing that they will change the way you do business.”

Diversity is important in the workplace because a diverse population has different backgrounds, experiences, knowledge and understanding. Employers should be aware that employees from different cultures come with different expectations, values, and communication styles. These, in turn, must be understood and integrated into the organizational culture for a successful work atmosphere.

Benefits of Workplace Diversity

Organizations are understanding the need and importance of Workplace Diversity:

Increased Productivity

Diversity breeds creativity and innovation!  Bringing together workers with different qualifications, backgrounds, and experiences is the key to effective problem-solving on the job and brings together a more creative, innovative and productive workforce.  When companies recruit diverse set of employees, they are more likely to hire the best and the brightest in the labour market.

Retain Talent

Companies hiring top new talent find a better chance of finding top-quality employees when it recruits from a more diverse set of candidates. Employees from different cultural backgrounds are able to communicate with companies and clients from different countries and areas.

Economic Growth

Diversity provides organizations to compete with global markets.  Doing business across borders is now a commonplace. Diversity helps organizations to better manage the impact of globalization and technological changes as well as employees with different cultural background assist in the development of new products, services and marketing strategies.

Managing Diversity in the Workplace

In today's business world managing diversity is one of the biggest challenge faced by organizations. New immigrants and professonals  that come from different countries to work in North America may speak English well, but may have learned it as a second language. Recognizing diversity helps businesses to link variety of talents within the organization. Managers should be educated on the skills and benefits of diversity and should treat all employees as equal. In the business world diversity is visible through how:

• Communication and language are used;
• Reports, Seminars, documents and so on are presented
• Procedures are undertaken;
• Organizations are structured and
• Dress and appearance are given importance.

As stated by By Elizabeth K. McArthur in her article on Managing Diversity for Success, Businesses that fail to successfully manage diversity will suffer economic and social consequences. A workplace culture that allows low morale, employee turnover, harassment, discrimination, absenteeism, and disruption to work teams results in a loss of productivity. When individuals are marginalized or isolated by their co-workers and/or managers because of cultural differences, the outcome is a loss of productivity, business opportunities and the potential for charges of harassment and discrimination.

Want to find more about Managing Diversity in the Workplace? Here are some other resources:

Glenn Llopis (2011, June 13). Diversity Management is the key to growth: Make it authentic. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2011/06/13/diversity-management-is-the-key-to-growth-make-it-authentic/

Glenn Llopis (2013, January 7). Diversity Management is outdated and demands a new approach. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/01/07/diversity-management-is-outdated-and-demands-a-new-approach/

How to foster innovation through diverse workgroup. Inc. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/how-to-foster-innovation-through-diverse-workgroups.html

Challenges faced by Diversity in the Workplace

There are challenges to managing a diverse work population. Managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging differences in people. It involves recognizing the value of differences, combating discrimination, and promoting inclusiveness. Some of the challenges faced by increasingly diverse workforce in today's world are the following:

• Communication- when an organization hires employees of other cultures whose first language is not English, employees and managers may experience difficulties communicating with one another. This can lead to misunderstandings and a decrease in productivity. Sometimes it helps for companies to hire bilingual employees who can mediate and reduce language and communication barriers.
• Resistance to Change - Although workplace diversity benefits an organization as a whole, some employees and managers may not react positively to changes made. Employees who oppose workforce diversity usually reject new ideas and make work environments more difficult. To deal with opposition, companies should explain the reasons for diversity and what benefits changes in diversity bring to management and employees.
• Implementation- Although on paper workplace diversity may seem like a good idea, many companies experience challenges when attempting to implement changes. Employers must develop strategies for implementation, analyze results and make necessary changes if results do not meet the established goals. To help with implementation, employers may decide to hire experienced professionals who specialize in workplace diversity.
• Managing Diversity - Once workplace diversity is implemented, companies must effectively manage the changes in policies. This presents a challenge for many organizations. Challenges in managing workplace diversity can stem from several reasons, such as taking the wrong approach to solving diversity issues. For example, a company may adopt affirmative action policies in an attempt to solve diversity problems. Hiring based solely on race may not solve diversity issues. Many companies offer training programs to managers to help them effectively manage their newly diverse departments.

Diversity and Cultural Awareness

“Why is cultural diversity important?”

Cultural Diversity gives us all the insights we’ll ever need to honor differences and interact in ways that facilitate understanding and cooperation. As a result of globilization of markets, increasing immigration, and technological advancement there is an increasing importance of intercultural proficiency.As we build our cultural awareness, we also build bridges to trust, respect and understanding across cultures and within a multicultural workplace, fostering productive interactions and agreements.

In the workplace, cultural awareness helps us remember to honor beliefs and sensibilities that are not necessarily our own, so that as we interact with people from other cultures, no unintended breach of good manners or conversational blunders occur. For example, did you know that in some societies, the “okay” sign is a definite no-no; in other cultures, burping at the dinner table is a sign of great pleasure and a compliment to the cook! Unless we become aware of cultural diversity in its many guises, relationships can die (or never begin) simply for the lack of understanding.

Definition of Workplace Diversity

Workplace Diversity can be broadly defined as difference between people whether those differences are cultural, gender-related, education, intellectual or work experience. Diversity in the workplace adds value to an organization by allowing workers to approach their jobs from different perspectives. Many organizations face challenges in managing the needs and differences of a diverse workforce. In these days companies that hire more diverse employees tend to inspire the employees to perform to the best of their ability.