EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY AT WORK

Equality and Diversity at Work



Equality and Diversity at Work

Organizations throughout America face an extraordinary new challenge. This challenge will have a powerful impact in our future as a productive society, and managers and organizations should be prepared to deal effectively with this momentous change. What is the challenge? The challenge is the increasingly changing diversity of the American workforce. Diversity is everywhere in the workplace, but what is it? Simply put, diversity means “any attribute that another person may use to detect individual differences” (Kravitz, 2005). Technically speaking, diversity refers to the representation of different social categories, often based on an employee's age, gender, race, or ethnicity, in an organization (Enchautegui-de-Jesus at al, 2006, p. 212).

Today, the challenges and potential opportunities posed by employee diversity in the United States (U.S.) workforce have evolved into reality. Only recently has it become common for people of different ages, race, and gender to work side by side. Women have entered the workplace at a rapid pace, resulting in a near majority. The few visible ethnic groups of past generations have expanded and scores of new culturally diverse groups from around the world have found their way into the U.S. labor force. Furthermore, there is a huge variety in educational levels, which range from the illiterate to the highly educated. Countless people with mental, physical, and medical disabilities have found new opportunities to move or stay in the workplace. As anyone can see, shifts in attitudes and values have brought upon us a wide variety of lifestyles, motivations, and an array of unique circumstances for employers to deal with.

Researchers (Billings-Harris, 1998, Hellriegel & Slocum, Jr., 2007) show the U.S. workforce is around 150 million people. Minorities make up one-third of all newcomers to this force each year, which indicates the U.S. workforce will have 16 million African Americans, 15 million of Hispanic origin, and 10 million of Asian origin by 2007. By 2012, white males will only make up 40 percent of the workforce, down 10 percent from 1980. Women currently constitute 47 percent of the workforce. During this decade, U.S. women are projected to account for more than 51 percent of the total work force, and 61 percent of all U.S. women will be employed. Age is also another major factor to consider. Studies show the U.S. workforce is aging along with the baby boomers. Over 50 percent of the labor market from 2007 through 2012 will be made up of people 55 years of age or older, growing almost four times the rate of growth of the overall U.S. workforce.

As you can see, America's future workforce will continue to become more and more culturally segmented. To prepare and prosper in the future, managers and organizations must value, understand, and better utilize diversity. In other words, managers and organizations must learn to use employee diversity as a vital resource to accomplish goals and objectives. To do so, there are many aspects or challenges of diversity managers and organizations ...