Palma rivas the main focus of this report is to describe in detail the literature on diversity in the workforce to bring about an understanding of the complexity and breadth of workplace diversity issues. The report also intends to provide insights on the trends that have emerged in the field of diversity, and information that can be used to develop new and unique approaches that fit the specific needs of particular organizations. To accomplish this, the authors summarized information on workforce diversity issues from research studies, books, reports, journal articles, related magazines, and newspaper articles on diversity in the workforce.

The literature reviewed was summarized and categorized under the following sections: diversity defined, the changing society and workforce, why organizations are managing and valuing diversity, barriers to managing diversity, strategies for managing diversity, diversity training, and future trends. In addition, readers are provided with useful information such as a glossary of diversity terms and a list of videos on the topic. The literature review also showed that although there are numerous ways in which diversity has been defined, there is no definition that fully includes all the characteristics that a diverse population may bring to the workplace. It also showed that there are many forces that are driving diversity issues in organizations. For example, there is a significant increase in women and minority populations in the workplace americans continue to mature an increasing number of minority youths are becoming part of the workforce gay men, lesbians, and bisexual individuals are becoming an important part of the workforce and marketplace people with disabilities are also increasingly entering the labor force and more business is becoming global.

This literature review indicates that the demographic composition is affecting not only the makeup of the labor workforce but also the makeup of the marketplace. Therefore, having a diverse workforce and managing it properly is perceived as a competitive strategy that can not only help attract diverse customers but also employees who have different perspectives that can contribute to the creativity of the organization. This review also indicated that researchers have found that an important reason for implementing diversity initiatives in organizations is to improve corporate productivity and profitability. The literature review also showed that there is a wide range of approaches, strategies, or initiatives for managing diversity in the workplace. No single initiative is comprehensive enough to solve all diversity issues or to successfully manage diversity in organizations however, diversity training is one of the primary and most widely used initiatives to address diversity issues.

The information collected also revealed that diversity issues will continue because the population will become even more diverse and more companies will become global. As diversity is becoming more and more complex, diversity training will continue to be an essential element of the overall diversity strategy. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Organizations have realized that a multi cultural workforce can prove to be a great asset especially if the business is to be expanded to international markets. So the focus has somewhat shifted to come up with strategies to handle such an employee base and how to sustain that program. In his assessment of the value of a multi cultural workforce, konrad, 2003 states three reasons why companies are changing their attitudes and strategies regarding recruitment of employees with different backgrounds. Firstly, the best talent is not always local you need to look globally to recruit the best minds in the business.

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Secondly, he talks about market share, that is, a culturally diverse workforce can better cater to an increasingly diverse customer base, hence increased market share. The insight that a local can provide into the workings of the local market and also of the mindset of the local consumer is invaluable. Finally, he states that each culturally different individual brings with him something different to the table, and when you combine all these different attributes, it results in making the organization more competitive.

In a non business related argument, jayne amp dipboye, 2004 suggest that increasing workforce diversity is the ethically right thing to do and also that it is a better way to address race and gender issues. This argument may seem insignificant considering that the current competitive environment means companies care more about capital than the 'right thing to do'. But amaram, 2007 brings up a very interesting argument about why corporations are moving to diversity programs. In addition to ethical and social responsibilities, he says that these programs have become necessary to avoid legal problems namely due to civil rights laws. Furthermore he states that to gain competitive advantage corporations have been forced to bring forward new strategies to bring out the best from a diverse workgroup and avoid conflicts. Level it has been realized that effectively managing cultural diversity is vital to economic success. Policy, where diversity management is governed by a state policy namely, productive diversity.

The aim of this policy is to make full use of the experiences and skills of people raised overseas, therefore gaining priceless intel on international markets. Leveson, joiner, amp bakalis, 2009 however what has been discussed above is based on theories and rhetoric. Is there any solid evidence that cultural diversity leads to a prosperous organization? the answer is a big maybe. Countless research and studies have looked at this issue from many different angles, each with their own differing conclusions. After reviewing various researches on this issue jayne amp dipboye 2004 came up with four conclusions regarding the relationship between cultural diversity and organizational performance. Increased diversity does not necessarily improve the talent pool increased diversity does not necessarily build commitment, improve motivation, and reduce conflict increased group level diversity does not necessarily lead to higher group performance. Diversity does not necessarily improve organizational performance a study choi amp rainey, 2009 suggests that it all comes down to the type of diversity i e race, gender, religion etc.

The findings were consistent with previous research milliken and martins, 1996 williams and o'reilly, 1998 that suggest that racial diversity is inversely proportional to organizational performance due to less cohesion within the group and more conflict. It should be noted however that this study was specifically based on us federal agencies so it cannot be considered to represent the global business environment trend or even the national business environment of the us as a whole. Various other studies on the subject matter provide some very interesting results.

He chose 63 banks from 3 states based on 3 different factors: california high racial diversity , kentucky low racial diversity and north carolina financial wealth. The study showed that there was no direct relationship between diversity and performance instead it depended more on the firms' business strategies. When the strategy was more focused on growth there was a positive relation between diversity and performance but the result was opposite when the strategy shifted towards downsizing. The results showed that at high as well as low levels of racial diversity, there was a curvilinear positive relation between racial diversity and intermediate firm performance. The result also showed a positive correlation between racial diversity and long term firm performance. But these results were dependent on the type of industry and environmental stability, meaning that the u shaped relationship between racial diversity and firm performance would be weaker in unstable environments compared to a stable one. Till now i have reviewed how cultural diversity affects businesses and also related the theoretical assumptions to actual studies done on this very important issue.