Diversity

Introduction

In this paper, you will be reading about diversity and demographic characteristic and the impact that it has on individual behavior. The four major diversity problems that you will be reading in this paper are gender, age, religion, and differences in skills and abilities. I hope that this paper will be very interesting as you read along and also educative so that you get a better understanding of diversity.

Diversity

Diversity is otherness or those human qualities that are different from our own and outside the groups, to which we belong, yet are present in other individuals and groups. It is important to distinguish between the primary and secondary dimensions of diversity. Some primary dimensions are age, gender, and abilities or qualities. Secondary dimensions are those that can change but are not limited such as religious beliefs: (Diversity at UMCP, Moving Toward Community Planning 1995)

Gender involves social, cultural, sexes, and psychological aspects linked to issues. In the past, all women in the workplace were automatically assigned to temporary or part-time or low-responsibility jobs because it was understood that their first priority was taking care of their families. Unmarried women were likely to quit as soon as they married. In the past, there was a widespread thought that women are not as capable as men are. Today, women are not generally seen as inferior to men. Organizations have been slowly adjusting to these changes, learning to treat women as the equals of men and not as a pool potential dates. Discriminating against female employees and treating them in a sexual manner are now against the law. However, since there remain some women in the workforce who do place family first, (Felice Schwartz) has suggested creating a “Mommy Track” which would allow them to have more flexible and shorter hours and lesser responsibility in exchange for lower pay and limited career growth. In other words, recognize the wider diversity of needs of employees today and set systems to accommodate them all. When this is done, employees especially women would be comfortable and feel good at what they are doing

Some individual tries to eliminate issues of treatment of various employee groups, such as gender. Women should be given the same career opportunities as men; homosexual couples should also be given the same health insurance benefits as heterosexual couples. Cultural discrimination in the American society has changed drastically on these issues over the last 150 years, and most organizations are asked to not only follow suit but lead the way. Organizations compete for human resources and as the workforce becomes more heterogeneous, organizations will have to serve the diverse needs of the workplace or they will lose their employees to their competitors.

Age diversity at work means employing people of all ages and not discriminating against them because of how old they are. The main factor in successfully delivering good practice is the genuine commitment by management to put it into practice and communicate it throughout the organization and beyond. Many times individuals in an organization tend to treat the people who are older as if they are not part of the environment. When individuals ask about the main reason why, many of employees would say because it is time for the young people and not for the old people. What many of these young people do not understand is that people whose ages are way higher than their own, own many of the organizations. Many times management fear to hire people who are in the average age which is 35 or over because the employer thinks that they cannot do the work and they would procrastinate a great deal. When employees realize that only young people are being hired in that organization, the older people who were already in the organization will think about giving up because they cannot handle the conflict with the young people and there is also less of them and more young people.

Age should not be a prime factor in the hiring process because management thinks that the older individuals cannot fulfill the job description. Any employer who discriminates against age should be punished or sued or better yet put out of business. Everybody is equal and should be equally treated in every aspect.

Not too long ago in American history, one’s coworkers were not only Christian, but also of different denomination. This uniformity of religion in the workplace changed dramatically as new immigrant groups like my family, particularly those, who were Catholic and Jewish, immigrated to the United States and entered the workplace. Religion has to do with culture.