Advantages and Disadvantages of Diversity in the Workplace

1% was left for ethnic/race minority. Workplace diversity can be described as the variety of differences between persons within an organization. It sounds modest but diversity comprises of gender, race, ethnic group, personality, age, tenure, education, cognitive style, personal background, organizational function and other elements. It’s all about the differences that exists between people with regards to their different social, economic, and even political life. Firms normally gain from the diverse experiences and perceptions an all-inclusive workforce offers. Taking time with diverse employees has the potential to effectively break down the subconscious obstacles of xenophobia and ethnocentrism, inspiring workers to be all-inclusive members of the business community. In a research done by researchers from the University of Illinois in the year 2009, both gender and racial diversity were realized to have contributed greatly to the customers, sales and even the profits.

Racial diversity can also greatly influence the market share, however, the effect of gender on the market share was not that vital in the study (Mor-Barak & SAGE Publishing. Additionally, firm normally elevate their creativity and knowledge base by promoting diverse perspectives and opinions. Firm employers can also broaden the talent pool if they employ workers based on vital experience and qualifications, instead of limiting their recruitment search on gender, race, age and other elements that are not key to the responsibility of the workers (Gröschl & Bendl, 2015). This is mainly because most organizations can experience informal divisions in their work staff, making a scenario where socially, economically and politically diverse workers dodge exposure to each other during breaks and also after work (Heitz, Walton & JWA Video (Firm), 1997).

Though there seems to be nothing significantly wrong with this particular case, it can prevent the efficiency of sharing skills, knowledge and experience, hence curbing growth, productivity and the proficiency of work groups. As such, it can be mentioned that diversity at work place makes it totally possible for all the workers and the stakeholders to socially integrate and share ideas regarding the system of things and how life issues must be handled. Checking on some of the disadvantages of workplace diversity. It can be mentioned that although hiring a diverse staff has several advantages, it as well comes with some limitations. When a firm builds a work team with workers from diverse countries and cultures, one increases the number of communication sifts and language barriers that affects the external and internal communication processes (In Aquino, C.

T. E & In Robertson, 2018). The work cultures that are more diverse normally get communication simpler because workers do not have to service as hard so as to overawed culture issues and language. Some bigger firms employ diversity trainers and interpreters to assist the workers to work though the communication challenges of diversity. Greenberg, for instance in his commended steps to the efficient diversity management, adds diversity development, implementation and assessment of the workplace plans and the different methods to diversity teaching (In Aquino, C. T. E & In Robertson, 2018). All of these particular techniques have both direct and indirect costs related to the firm. For instance, the use of consultants supplies and even external experts/specialists, and other equipment that add up the direct costs.