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Workplace Diversity: a Contribution to Organisational Success

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Effective Diversity Management Essay

Workplace Diversity: A Contribution to Organisational Success

Abstract

Workplace diversity is vital for any organisation. The benefits diversity can bring are able to drastically change the performance of an organisation. The following essay explains the essence of workplace diversity, describes the difficulties that may arise in diversity management, and presents the key benefits that it can bring to an organisation. With these issues explained, it is evident that organisations can benefit from workplace diversity and how it can make them successful.

Workplace Diversity: A Contribution to Organisational Success

Workplace diversity incorporates more than it seems at a glance. Diversity presumes mainly cultural, racial, and gender differences, because these are the most visible distinctions between people.
There are, however, many other characteristics in which employees differ. Rice (2010) defines diversity as “differing cultures, languages, ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, religious sects, abilities, classes, ages, and national origins of individuals in an institution, workplace, or community.” (p. 96). As far as the workplace is concerned, diversity is crucial for it. Employees of different cultures, races, ages, classes and backgrounds can make their own unique contributions to the development and performance of an organisation. This is why numerous “business and governmental organisations have implemented workforce diversity initiatives to better serve their employees and external constituents while simultaneously enhancing productivity, effectiveness, and sustained competitiveness” (Rice, 2010, p. 96).
When working towards organisational success, companies can capitalise on having diversity among employees. To acknowledge the advantages of workplace diversity, any organisation should take care in

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