Corporate Diversity

Facing Up to Corporate Diversity

The definition for diversity is "otherness or those human qualities that are different from our own and the groups to which we belong, yet present in other individuals and groups" (Berkeley.edu). The components of diversity are not only race and nationality; there are many things to consider; age, educational background, military history, religious affiliations, parental status, employment experience, income, and sexual orientation are all issues to consider when discussing diversely in the workplace.

There are certain perspectives of functionalism in the questions to ask when managing diversity, how does an organization think in terms of different societies, cultures and their impact? What policies are in place and how are they being successful to the corporation as a whole? Corporate diversity is a struggle because executives often hire employees like themselves. These same employees are favored by the executives they resemble, move up the ladder with more ease, and with more advantages. Others who may be very talented with great potential become resentful and despondent because they are treated with less favor, and inadvertently fulfill the executives misplaced stereotypical thoughts. This nurtures a conflict perspective in that it encourages employees to think in terms of inequality and prejudice. When executives unfairly dispense privilege, responsibilities and rewards to their cronies, it fosters hurt feelings, resentment, and conflict. Whereas the conflict perspective is not entirely dysfunctional in a corporation for it does have some merits in developing healthy competition between employees and teams of employees, for the most part conflict as a management tool should be avoided.

In today's world, where there are so many people coming together from different cultures, with different languages and different beliefs it would be corporate suicide to not facilitate quality training to respond to this...