DIVERSITY TRANSFORMS A WORKPLACE INTO A BETTER PLACE

 

• What is Diversity?

Diversity is a set of conscious practices that involve understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment; practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own; understanding that diversity includes not only ways of being but also ways of knowing; recognizing that personal, cultural, and institutionalized discrimination creates and sustains privileges for some while creating and sustaining disadvantages for others; and building alliances across differences so that we can work together to eradicate all forms of discrimination (Kumar & Patrick, 2012).

Workplace diversity is described as the variety of differences between people in an organization. This sounds simple, but diversity contains race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background, and more.

 

• Why is Diversity good for an Organization?

There are several benefits of a diverse workplace. Some economic benefits include an increase in the pool of qualified personnel from different backgrounds, and it widens the scope of eligible candidates for hire. Another benefit of a diverse workplace is it improves communication with an organization’s clients. Additionally, a sense of harmony is recreated when a company recognizes and accommodates the differences within its diverse workforce. A diverse workplace increases productivity, increases creativity, and improves problem solving (Foma, 2014).

• What Advantages of Diversity in a Healthy Working Environment?

• Are there any challenges in modern day workplaces for diversity?

• The worldwide influence of a diverse workplace    

A decade before, HR professionals and management were always stressed while working with multicultural employees inside the organization for reasons of communication, training cost, and employee relations. On the other hand, modern HRM assumes the multicultural workplace as a strategic advantage with persistence and alignment of organizational goals. 

As practice, HR professionals in the UAE select at least 20% of diverse profiles for the companies to improve abilities of higher performance, innovative decision-making, creativity, and problem solving.

The whole UAE country merged with large numbers of multinational companies, brands, products, employees, and their consumers. Therefore, famous organizations such as Emirates Airlines, Noon, Damac, Danube and Berkeley are preferring to recruit different nationalities since “better understanding of customer mindset and employers branding as well.”

Organizations may not effectively use innovative ideas of its own using their own employees. The diversity of workers, thus, will often lead towards open innovations. They will embed outside–in external concepts and best practices into that organization’s own innovation process. An organization’s participatory and decentralized approach would surely contribute to an effective organizational culture in the pursuit of innovation. Therefore, it is always better to incorporate the underutilized ideas that are effectively shared among the employees of various countries (Cherian, et al., 2021).

• Conclusion

 

Diversity in the workplace is a deliberate activity that entails understanding and respecting interconnected people, cultures, and the environment. Diversity expands the pool of skilled workers, enhances client communication, and ultimately makes a company a better place to work. Modern HR experts see multicultural workplaces as strategic advantages in the global setting, as seen by the hiring of varied nationalities by organizations to meet ultimate goals and objectives.

•  References

Cherian, J., Gaikar, V., Paul, R. & Pech, R., 2021. Corporate Culture and Its Impact on Employees’ Attitude, Performance, Productivity, and Behavior: An Investigative Analysis from Selected Organizations of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity.

Foma, E., 2014. Impact of Workplace Diversity, s.l.: s.n.

Kumar, V. & Patrick, H., 2012. Managing Workplace Diversity:Issues and Challenges. Sage Journals, 25 April.