Making Differences Matter A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity (original) (raw)

Beyond the Business Case for Diversity in Organizations

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2006

Many organizations and institutions are spending extensive time, money, and resources to justify a focus on diversity. In this paper, we argue that, instead of justifying demographic diversity, the more appropriate focus is on properly managing the processes and outcomes of a diverse workforce. Demographic diversity in the workplace is a reality. In terms of both composition and sheer numbers, the workforce today is more demographically diverse than it has ever been, and there is every indication that it will be even more diverse in the future. Accordingly, this paper argues that we must go beyond the business case for diversity to effectively utilize the diversity that already exists and create a just workplace.

Workplace Diversity: A Resource or a Source of Conflict?

SpringerBriefs in Psychology, 2014

Diverse workforces have become more than a reality in contemporary workplaces under conditions of increasing globalization and migration. Diversity as a concept is invested with a variety of meanings and connotations, encompasses multiple dimensions and entails different group and organizational outcomes. Extant literature has so far focused on specifying the relationship between diversity and performance, identifying various beneficial, as well as detrimental outcomes and suggesting variables that are in a position to moderate this relationship. Most importantly, organizational interventions in view of managing diversity as an important business issue tend to occupy a critical position among other established HR practices, thus claiming more legitimacy and further organizational support.

The Diversity Ideology in the Business World: A New Oppression for a New Age

Critical Sociology, 2011

Diversity has become a common term in the business world. But, what exactly does it mean to be diverse? In this article, I examine the notion of diversity in the business world and explore how, in the wane of progressive programs such as affirmative action and organizational multiculturalism policies diversity has become the post-civil rights mantra of equality in America. Using interview data from upper-level managers in Fortune 1000 companies I argue that diversity ideology has enabled many organizations to curtail deeper investigations into the gender and racial inequalities that continue to persist in the workplace. I find that managers tend to exclude race and gender in their definitions of diversity. Further, I find that most managers, even while claiming that their companies were interested in promoting diversity, could not effectively elaborate on their company's diversity policies or practices.

Diversity in organizations: Where are we now and where are we going?

Human Resource Management Review, 2009

A great deal of research has focused on workforce diversity. Despite an increasing number of studies, few consistent conclusions have yet to be reached about the antecedents and outcomes of diversity. Likewise, research on different dimensions of diversity (e.g., age, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and culture) has mostly evolved independently. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to examine each of these dimensions of diversity to describe common themes across dimensions and to develop an integrative model of diversity.