Diversity
Diversity
With diversity comes differences, and with differences comes the potential for problems in relationships at work or any other unfamiliar places. Diversity cannot be ignored or denied. But importantly, too, with diversity comes the great potential for new outlook. Workforce diversity refers to the presence of individual human characteristics that make people different from one another. More particularly, this diversity include key demographic differences among members of a given workforce, including gender, race and ethnicity, age, and abilities (Hunt, Osborn, & Schermerhorn, 2003, p2). Sometimes diversity also includes other factors, such as marital status, parental status, and religion. The challenge is how to manage workforce diversity in a way that both respects the individuals unique viewpoint and contributions and promotes a shared sense of organization vision and identity. My main objective I will be discussing in this paper will be the impact of each individual behavior on gender, age, differences in skills and abilities, personality, and the differences between value and attitudes.
Demographic characteristics are the background characteristics that help shape what a person becomes. An example of this attribute would be an employees current medical status and where and how long a person has worked at various jobs. Another example would be working women and men in general tell us that there are very few differences that affect job performance. Men and women show no consistent differences in their problem-solving abilities, analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, learning ability, or sociability. On the other hand, women are reported to be more in compliance and to have lower expectations of success than men do. Womens absenteeism rates tend to be higher than those of men. However, as we see men starting to play a more active role in raising children; absenteeism is also likely to be less frequent as telecommuting, flexible working hours, and the like become more common. As far as pay and salaries, womens earnings have risen slowly from 59 percent of mens in 1975 to 76 percent most recently (Hunt, Osborn, & Schermerhorn, 2003, p7). Undoubtedly, this rise is not consistent with the doubling of women in the labor force since 1970. Women are now on the rise of becoming more independent and successful in the upper level management position.
An individual behavior also depends on a persons social ability. This can impact their skills and ability to do their job. Problem-solving style is one measure representing social traits. Social ability reflects the way a person goes about gathering and evaluating information in solving problems and making decisions. Information gathering involves getting and organizing data for use. Styles of information gathering vary from sensation to intuitive. Here are some examples of different types of personalities in work or group environment. Feeling type individuals are leaning toward agreement and try to accommodate themselves to other people. They try to avoid problems that may result in disagreements. Thinking type individuals use reason and intellect to deal with problems and downplay emotions.
Personality is defined as enduring patterns in a persons thoughts, feelings and behaviors across situations. Personality traits are behavioral disposition. Many things other than our personalities affect how we react to various situations and interact with other people, so our personality traits are not hard and fast rules for predicting our behaviors, but they are behavioral tendencies (Robbins, 2001). Personality dimensions are the areas in which our personalities differ. Appreciating personality diversity means respecting the strengths and limitations of each individual, and knowing how to take advantage of an each individuals strengths. Appreciating personality diversity is the opposite of strictly expecting everyone to view situations the way you do, no matter how successful you have been using your approach. Everyone does not always think alike but that is a very good thing.
Combining demographic and personality characteristics are as important as an individual difference characteristic and the values and attitudes. Values can be defined as large preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a persons sense of right and wrong or what ought to be. Equal rights for all and people should be treated with respect and dignity are representative of values (Hunt, Osborn, & Schermerhorn, 2003, p7). Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organization that treats its managers much better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude that the