Elyce Emily

MBA 525

Reaction Paper 6 June 9, 2013

Over the past century we have seen many changes in the workforce. We have seen the impact of the Industrial revolution, the importance of technology when expanding a business, and many changes in the face of the workforce. We have become a more diversified workforce that we cannot deny. With a more diversified workforce we have seen differing policies to handle the differences in everything from language to religious holiday vacation. But, in having a workplace accommodate for diversity something that we should think of as a luxury, or is it something that is a necessity in today’s workforce? Companies have differing philosophies about almost everything, and accommodating diversity is definitely one of them. Jaya Bohlmann, Vice President of PR at Sodexo states “Diversity is primarily a business requirement — without it, we could not respond correctly to our clients’ needs” (Jacques, 2010). Companies have come to the conclusion that if our country is going to continue to be a diverse and including place, then our businesses must mirror this idea. Like Sodexo, if we see accommodating diversity as a business requirement then we have also made the employee’s interest a business requirement. Employees feel important to the business plan. Pace states that a team cannot be effective without appreciating each other’s individual differences, and showing tolerance to those that are different than ourselves (2006). When employees are looking for that right place to work, they do not want to work for a company that sees accommodating diversity a luxury. Gorki De Los Santos, Communications Manager at Coca Cola believes that diversity has help Coca Cola to retain and attract employees because they provide support systems for people with diverse backgrounds (Jacques, 2010). In today’s job market you have to have an edge to attract the best employee. These employees are the beacon for your product, and if an employee feels valued because of the support they receive internally from their company, they will be a positive beacon out to the world for your product. Providing a diverse workforce does have its difficulties. When an employer is trying to select a new employee they have any “tests” that can help them choose a candidate that is aligned with their company mission. With the growing diversity of cultures, the tests that employers use has not been able to keep up. For instance, some of the tests that were created to tell us how good an employee will be were tested on a Caucasian population. This means that they do not accurately test for other races and populations (Jeong, 2010). There has been shown to be different values in different races for leadership, management and work related preferences. This is not fair to test a population in which the test was never meant to be given. This also applies to non-Western cultures. In order to make sure that a workplace can accommodate diversity without too much work is to make sure that the system is working efficiently every step of the way. If we start out with tests that can inaccurately put an employee into a workplace where their diversity is not appreciated, then this employee will never realize what it is like to have diversity appreciated. On the other hand if we are able to read employees more accurately then we will be able to place them in jobs where their diversity if appreciated, instead of forced to be recognized.

References:
Jacques, A. (2010, October 01). Diversity at work: Public relations makes a difference for global giants. Retrieved from http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/8828/1021/Diversity
Jeong, S. (2010, September 12). Employee selection and workforce diversity. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/employee-selection-and-workforce-diversity-are-current-tools-up-to-the-task-3249950.html
Pace, J. (2006). The Workplace: Interpersonal Strengths and Leadership. The Professional Development Series: Book Two. Boston: McGraw-Hill