Diversity

24 Pages 5959 Words

Diversity is what we chose to analyze based on the desire to understand an inclusive environment and be able to incorporate this into our companies. This paper will describe diversity and it’s importance to the workplace environment. We plan on describing how a company should evolve into an inclusive environment. We will analyze three different companies and discuss the importance of diversity in these organizations. We then will create a diversity benchmark for corporations to incorporate into their policies.

Defining Diversity
Diversity is defined as “describing human qualities such as race, gender, and ethnicity that are different from our own and outside the groups to which we belong” (Gibson, pg. 477). Diversity is important to companies because with a diverse environment people can benefit and learn from others’ ideas. Other reasons for the importance of diversity to many organizations are the recognition of differences as prerequisites for high performance and continuous improvement, enhancing the effectiveness and creativity of the organization, and valuing conflicts as opportunities for more effective decision-making and problem solving (CIGNA’s seminar).
Diversity has a major impact on our behaviors and the decision making process. The success of individuals in the organization and the organization as a whole is effected by these decisions and behaviors (CIGNA’s seminar). Our cultural values and beliefs influence our way of doing things. For example, if I strongly believe in women’s rights then I am going to potentially hire more women and take their viewpoints into higher consideration.

The Importance of Diversity
With society integrating so many different cultures into one working melting pot, we need to take into consideration these differences and understand how they will all work together. “As in any relationship, the key to its strength is mutual understanding, facilitated by ...