Diversity's Advantages and Disadvantages

Modern organizations face many challenges because of globalization, but key among these is the challenge of diversity. America's workforce includes a much greater diversity of ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and other characteristics than ever before. More than just a question of demographics, "Diversity in the workplace is one of the most critical challenges facing US organizations today," and "Nearly every issue of Fortune, Business Week, or The Wall Street Journal addresses some problem related to workplace diversity (De Meuse, Hostager, Eau Claire, & O'Neill, 2007, p. 38). In fact, the Society for Human Resource Management conducted a survey in the late 1990s that found that "over 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies either had a diversity program or were planning to implement one within the next year" (De Meuse, Hostager, Eau Claire, & O'Neill, 2007, p. 38). Diversity has become a force to be reckoned with in American business.

April Taggart (2008) states, "Some argue that the demographic and cultural changes under way in North American society are akin to a 'paradigm shift,'" and that "the tectonic demographic shifts will impact every aspect of how we conduct business(big or small." As Taggart (2008) notes, "What was once global is now local." Diversity affects organizations on multiple levels, both positive and negative. It can provide a competitive advantage when it enables a

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izational structure. Otherwise, the same groups of people would simply end up talking to themselves." As she points out, an organization can consist of diverse groups of people, but if each group remains insular and does not interact with the others, the organization receives only limited benefit from its diversity. Her team resolved this problem by breaking down the divisions between diverse groups by "introduc[ing] virtual teams and project-based work" and changing the organizational structure into a flatter one with half as many organizational levels (Stephenson, 2006, p. 1). This resulted in a "more agile organization where people formed teams, disbanded, and joined new teams" (Stephenson, 2006, p. 1). Leveraged in this manner, diversity became a strong pro, as the precise strengths of each person were put into play just when needed for each team. Stephenson (2006, p. 1) points out, however, that preparation is needed within an organization before this approach can be effective. Her team "helped...people to unlearn old hierarchal behaviours and thereby enter into a new dialogue," instituting corporate-wide training for everyone aboard, including the executive team. As a result, "Employees learned new ways of interactin
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Bolman Deal, Prasad Pringle, Claire O'Neill, Demographically America, Diversity Scorecard, Brown Cornelius, North American, French People, Retrieved July, Edward Hubbard, bolman deal, espinoza 2007, deal 2003, bolman deal 2003, 2007 43, stephenson 2006, espinoza 2007 43, retrieved july, human resource, stephenson 2006 1, 15 2008, july 15, diversity initiatives, july 15 2008, retrieved july 15,
Approximate Word count = 3750
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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