Diversity And Discrimination In the Work Place, Can It Ever Be Essay

Diversity And Discrimination In the Work Place, Can It Ever Be Overcome - Essay Example Therefore, to overcome this discrimination, diversity management policies should have a high focus on increasing awareness, sensitizing the staff and ensuring inclusive policies. Causes of Discrimination and Strategies to Overcome Awareness In the recent years, eliminating any discrimination due to diversity has been a topic that has received the attention of researchers and scholars. One of the main reasons because of which discrimination takes place in workplace is the lack of awareness that leads to insensitive and discriminatory behavior (Nishii and Wright, 2008). Hence, creating awareness should be one of the most important steps when it comes to diversity management. In addition, creating awareness does not mean having certain non-discriminatory policies at workplace, instead it means educating employees and making them understand how to acknowledge as well as accept the diversity that they would be experiencing. This is particularly crucial in a situation where the majority of employees belong to one particular group (age, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation and so on). In such a situation, discrimination can even happen in the form of isolation (Nishii and Wright, 2008). For example, most organizations have a policy of non-discrimination with regard to homosexuals, but due to the stigma associated with homosexuality, it is possible that the individual is looked at in a different manner because of the sexual orientation. Therefore, both the Human Resources team as well as the management should work in tandem through formal sessions, online trainings and need-based individual sessions to improve awareness. Acknowledgement and Acceptance According to Green, Lopez, Wysocki... The paper stresses that with rising competition and challenges related to economic recession, it is necessary for the organization to ensure that any form of discrimination is eliminated because it can result in not just the loss of productivity, but it can also compromise the ethical foundation of the organization. Across the world, the message of equality and acceptance is being propagated and hence, a good diversity management policy which is effectively implemented can help in overcoming the challenge of discrimination at workplace. The report makes a conclusion that , most organizations have a process called diversity training which aims at informing and educating the management as well as the staff about diversity and the advantages that a diverse workforce can provide to the organization. Additionally, some organizations have also implemented the policy of diversity audit. This audit is carried out through means such as surveys and personal interviews to understand if there are any hidden prejudices or discrimination that exists in the organization. A diversity audit can not only help in resolving any discrimination issues, but it can also provide information on how to improve the diversity management strategies from an employee’s perspective. The author declares that one of the major mistakes that organizations make with regard to diversity management is that they frame certain policies and implement it, but do not subject it to periodic review. This can be drawback because as trends related to divers ity change; the needs of diversity management also undergo a change. Hence, they should periodically review these policies to see if it suits their needs of the current set of employees that the organization has.