Workplace diversity
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A workplace diversity program (also known as a "diversity strategy") is designed to create an equitable employment system for all employees. Such a program includes both policies and practices.
Globally, workforces have become more diverse because they have included increasing numbers of the following groups of people:
- women;
- immigrants (and those who speak foreign languages);
- representatives of a minority religion or ethnic group;
- people of various sexual orientations;
- members of unconventional family structures, including single-parent families,
- elderly people,
- people with disabilities, etc.
Organizations who implement workplace diversity programs are concerned about the diversity of a global customer base. Foreign language and culture skills, ingenuity, humor, and careful listening, are examples of traits that workplace diversity programs typically require. It would appear that these evidence a general shift to the human capital point of view, and an acknowledgement that human beings do contribute much more to a productive enterprise than "work": they bring their character, their ethics, their creativity, their social connections, and in some cases even their pets and children, and alter the character of a workplace.
Resources
- “A diverse group is comprised of individuals who are different in some ways and similar in others” Understanding and Managing Diversity, third edition E Carol Harvey, M. June Allard,(eds.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Prentice Hall, 2005, p. 3.
