bus 100 introduction to business

Workforce Diversity

All employees come from different cultural and social environment they have different social statuses and class location , different religious beliefs and belong to different cultures . Differences are bound to exist , due simply to the physical characteristics of the employees , such as sex , nation race . These differences create a certain tension between employees which requires special intervention actions of HR department to manage workforce diversity . There are always certain groups in any society that are discriminated against unfavorably due to the prejudices and preconceptions of the people with whom they

have to deal . These preconceptions are sometimes verbalized , but often not , and the people holding these preconceptions may well be unaware of the way that they see and judge things and people (Beardwell et al 2004

The effects of this can be seen in the employment arena , as this is inextricably linked with discrimination in the rest of society . These offer some useful perspectives and practices , although the underlying concepts also raise some issues and concerns . Organizations play a major and continuing role in the lives of people , especially with the growth of large-scale business organizations and the divorce of ownership from management . Organizations of one form or another are a necessary part of a society and serve many important needs . The workforce diversity need not be considered as a barrier to achieving wide objectives , but a facilitator of achieving improved competitive advantage . Human resources have an individual as well as a corporate existence , each person having certain goals and aspirations

The best example of poor workforce diversity policy is Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is a global retailer operating in diverse social and cultural environment . It employs people from different backgrounds including gay and lesbian employees and minority groups . For a long tome , Wal-Mart did not manage workforce diversity which led to punitive sanctions against the company . At the beginning of this year , the company announced new direction aimed to reduce social and cultural differences , provide fair treatment of minority groups , female and gay employees

References

Beardwell , I . Holden , L , Claydon , T (2004 . Human Resource Management London Pitman Publishing

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Workforce Diversity...