Diversity In The American Workplace

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Diversity in the American Workplace This paper will discuss the issue of lack of diversity in the American workforce today. Even with the changing culture and racial mixture of the United States, there still are too few minorities, women, gays, and older workers in top positions. What is diversity? Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. Diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more. Why the greater need for inclusion? Because there is a definite need to reach out beyond what used to be the norm for top executive talent: white men. . In the article “Diversity in the Workplace: How it Affects the Bottom Line”, Shellie Kerabell describes numerous reasons why companies are going outside the box to incorporate diversity in the workplace. Kerabell (2008), details this is a panel discussion with Sodexho CEO (the food services corporation) Michel Landel and economist-author Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding President of the Centre for Work-Life Policy. Ms. Hewitt explains that the connection between greater diversity and larger profits is well known. She includes in her article that innovation and creativity is another added benefit of today’s emphasis for diversity in modern businesses. Larger incorporation of minorities Another explanation for inclusion of minorities in the workplace is that the talent pool today is diverse. Hewitt points out that only 17 percent of working individuals with a Bachelor of Arts degree is a white male. The rest of the talent pool is women and multi-cultural workers. Racial Discrimination Another common issue of diversity concerns is racial discrimination. It is often less overt discrimination than a subtle preference for non-minorities. Perhaps because of that preference, it

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