by Managing workforce diversity implies creating an organisational climate in which a heterogeneous workforce performs to its best potential; without the organisation favouring/dis-favouring any particular segment of workforce with a view to facilitating the best attainment of organisational goals.
Dimensions
(i) Gender:
Male workers are usually aggressive, bold and materialistic; while female workers possess sympathy for others and are more concerned with quality of life. What is important to observe is that people of both sex have material differences in outlook, nature, habits etc. as differences between males and females are the design of God who created mankind.
(ii) Age:
People belonging to different age groups cause diversity in workforce. Young people may be enriched with health, merit, capacity for hard-work etc.; while elderly people may possess more maturity than their junior counterparts and are full of experiences of life.
(iii) Culture:
Culture is a complex of race, religion, language, social traditions and values etc. People from different cultural backgrounds may have ethnic orientations i.e. a sense of favoritism towards their nation, race or tribe, which they belong to.
(iv) Education:
In an organisation people may range from less educated to highly educated. Educated people have a broad outlook and are open-minded. They are endowed with logic and rationality and usually dislike discrimination among individuals on petty grounds of caste, colour, religion etc.
(v) Psychology:
(Psychology is the kind of mind that one has that makes one think or behaves in a particular way). In a organisation, there are people with different psychology. Some may be optimistic or pessimistic; some may be bold or timid or so on. Psychology may be a gift of Nature or a manifestation of family background or social affiliations.
Factors Increasing Workforce Diversity
(1) Expansion of the services sector: The services sector jobs, such as banking, tourism, and retailing entail lots of interaction with customers of diverse backgrounds and cultural moorings. In order to sell to a diverse customer base, and because customers tend to prefer to buy from people of the same background, organizations these days have realized the need of a diverse workforce.
(2) Globalization of markets: To satisfy needs and preferences of global customers, organizations have to get closer to their customers. Some organizations have established a strong local presence (for example, American companies advertising their products like soft drinks) while others have forged international alliances (for example, Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) having alliance with Suzuki of Japan for automobiles manufactures). Either way, diversity gets introduced and must be managed.
(3) Requirement of teamwork for successful implementation of business strategies: For success in business, organizations rely heavily on teamwork. Diversity is an inevitable by-product of teamwork, especially when teams are drawn from a diverse base of employees.
(4) Mergers and alliances: As mergers and alliances become commonplace, it has become important that the corporate culture of the merging entities work together. Workforce diversity, then, becomes inevitable and desirable for the success of such mergers and alliances.
(5) Changing labour market: The rapidly changing labour market is also responsible for injecting diversity in workforce. Increasing demand for knowledgeable workers and also more and more women taking up jobs add an important dimension in workforce diversity.
