Diversity
MGT 331
Peter Stein
November 15, 2006
Diversity
Diversity in the workplace has taken center stage in recent years. Executives at all levels cannot afford to ignore the richness brought about by having a truly diverse workforce. Nick Montagu explained diversity as, "a major business imperative that is about enriching the corporate culture while adding to the bottom line". He feels that success through diversity is, "Making the most of your own people through the use of internal diversity, which means attracting and retaining the best people for the job, and external diversity, which means understanding your customers" (2006, p.8). There are many forces which impact diversity in the workplace. Gender, age, geographical differences and differences in skills and abilities are a few examples.
Gender is one factor in the consideration of a diverse workforce. When comparing men and women in the workplace Dr. Schermerhorn states, "The research on women in general tells us that there are very few differences between men and women that affect job performance" (2006, p. 55). This may be true when it comes to performance but not when compensation is considered. Female workers are often under compensated when compared to a male worker doing the same job. Dr. Schermerhorn explains this inequity as follows, "Females have faced prejudice in the workplace when conforming to their expected gender (communal) role would produce a failure to meet requirements of the leader role and conforming to the leader role would produc ...