In: Economics
Define the term “workforce diversity” and describe benefits and management challenges associated with it.
Workforce diversity refers to the diversity in the workforce of an organization in terms of age, cultural background, race, sex, religion etc.
Benefits of workforce diversity are:
Increased productivity as people get competitive
Increased creativity as different ideas come from different people
Global expansion easier as the workforce is diverse and can aid in communication barriers
Reputation of the company increases and it gets respected
Challenges of workforce diversity are:
Managers might have to deal with groupism and racism in workforce
Managers might hire a diverse workforce just for the sake of it and not as per the job requirements
Too many different opinions can lead to clashes
Trust issues can persist
Employees might have pre conceived notions about a type of people in their teams which can create a non cooperative environment
Thus, having a diverse workforce has its pros and cons, as discussed above.