Rev. Integr. Bus. Econ. Res. Vol 3(1)

382

Impact of Workplace Diversity
Elizabeth Foma
University of Guam
School of Business and Public Administration

P. O. Box 5169 UOG Station
Mangilao, Guam 96923 efoma@uguam.uog.edu; drmayuk@yahoo.com

Abstract
Diversity is an important part that all employees have to deal with at one point during their careers. There are many positive aspects to diversity in the workplace, such as exchange of ideas because of the diverse cultures of employees, the development of friendship without discrimination, workers learn to cope up with the diverse environment, stereotyping is eliminated, retention of employees are more likely due to healthy competition. On the other side, there is are negative parts which includes communication gaps due to language barrier and resistance to change. Diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another, in which these dimensions can be visible or invisible. The existence of workplace diversity, within an organization, indicates that the workplace is heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, in which employees possess distinct elements and qualities, differing from one another (Robbins, 2003).
Key words: Race, gender, inequality, ethnicity, organizations, discrimination, lifestyle.

1. Introduction
Diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another, in which the dimensions can be visible or invisible. The existence of workplace diversity, within a workplace, indicates that the workplace is heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, in which employees possess distinct elements and qualities, differing from one another (Robbins, 2003, Buckingham, 2012 ). Also Hazard (2004) defines workplace diversity as a broad range of differences that influence how people