The Concept of Diversity at the Workplace: Importance, Pros and Cons

Knowing that each person is unique and appreciating their differences is what diversity actually means. Those inequalities can exist along racial, identity, cultural, and gender lines. To understand better what “diversity” means for this essay some pdf articles on this topic were analysed. Since the phrase 'diversity' can signify many different things to different individuals, many people see it as overused and unclear. Others argue that it concentrates too much on appearance concerns or broad objectives of diversity, rather than the deep disadvantages that exist across higher education and society overall. Following the implementation of fair employee rights and equal opportunities, workplace diversity training became common in the mid-1960s. Most businesses had a history of racial inequality before this.

Heritage Day is a public holiday in South Africa that takes place on September 24th. South Africans are urged to embrace their culture, as well as the diversity of their cultures and values, on this day, in the background of a nation that goes to all of its citizens.

It is necessary to have a diverse population because diverse backgrounds encourage creativity. It motivates people to seek out new knowledge and views, which helps them make better decisions and solve problems. Businesses can benefit from diversity, which can lead to unlimited findings and ideas. This individual assignment aims to critical discuss a brief and straight-forward definition about diversity as a broad concept. The various dimensions about diversity i.e. race, ethnicity, gender etc. within the Department of Higher Education and Training. The importance and impacts (advantages and disadvantages) of diversity in the workplace will be explained. This essay will be enclosed with a proper conclusion and bibliography.

What Diversity mean in the Department of Higher Education and Training? As stated by Rue, on university campuses around the country, the phrase 'diversity' has long been a “buzzword” (a saying). Furthermore, diversity appears to come easy to certain institutions simply because of their demographics. However, if one ask various individuals what diversity means, the responses will almost always be different.

Again, diversity means that the university is open to multiple of people who are all eager to study there. It explains that everyone on personnel ought to be able to get access to each individual's needs. It implies letting as many members as possible to express their views. It would include a desire to learn more about one another. To various organisations and individuals, it represents things differently.

Race and Ethnicity

According to Badat, as a result the social unfairness of blacks and women during apartheid era in South Africa, socioeconomic inequities was structured and evident in many sectors of social life. The institution of higher education was absolutely no exception. Furthermore South Africa’s higher education has been greatly affected and continues to be shaped by social, political, and economical discrimination including inequalities of class, racial, genders, institutions, etc. South Africa's newly elected government promised in 1994 to change higher education and also the old apartheid socioeconomic framework, as well as to initiate a better society. The apartheid higher education system was historically differed and diverse in such a way of 'race' and ethnicity, which resulted in historically white institutions benefiting in a variety of ways while historically black institutions struggled.

Socio-economic factors affecting the Department of Higher Education and Training. Jennifer stated that the value and accessibility of education, and also the effectiveness of education to better life situations, are all influenced by socioeconomic factors such as parental income bracket, parents' educational background, race, and ethnicity

The writer further stated that students' grades are influenced by socio-economic circumstances and that students with good grades come from higher social backgrounds, have much more help and support from parents, and also have completed primary school. Wherefore it is obvious that academic success is determined by the student's socioeconomic status, according to Jennifer.

Diversity Importance

Rue stated that diversity supports personal development as well as a good society. Diversity challenges accepted beliefs, improves critical thinking, and assists students in learning to communicate with people who come from different backgrounds, it benefits both communities and workplaces. In additional to that the more available a company is to various viewpoints from different individuals, the more productive and strong it becomes. Diverse teams not only work better, but they also deliver decent resistance that encourages debate and disrupts consensus. Furthermore, the author stated that usually, diversity is defined as 'the state of having or being built of several elements, mainly variety” and that inclusion of diverse groups of people (e.g., people of mixed races or ethnicities) in a team or organisation that helps to enhance diversity in schools.

Diversity Impacting Workplaces

According to Patrick and Kumar, a diversity management is a practice for building and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace in which workers' advantages and disadvantages are regarded so that everyone can attain their full potential and contribute to the company's performance objectives. The two authors further states several strategies to manage diversity in the workplace:

Stop using the word 'diversity' as a buzzword, to include diversity in the application process, building strong relationships to develop diverse talent among the employees. Ensure that the management is matched with objectives. Analyse strategies in the battle against structural inequality. Develop an understanding and tolerance environment.

Diversity Pro’s in the Workplace

As stated by Zojceska, benefits or advantages and disadvantages of diversity in the workplace are such of the following:

• Diverse range of viewpoints: Workforce diversity offers a wide range of viewpoints. Employees will be able to have a range of talents and abilities because they will have diverse qualities and backgrounds.
• Creativity: In regards to providing a diverse range of viewpoints from individuals from diverse backgrounds, access to such diversity leads to improved creativity.
• Increased level of innovation: Personnel in a diverse work environment are faced with a variety of viewpoints and outlooks. When these varied viewpoints are combined, they regularly come together in unexpected ways, allowing for new ideas to emerge.
• Problem-solving time is reduced: People from various backgrounds have a variety of experiences and perspectives, which allows them to bring a lot of possibilities to the worktop.

Diversity Con’s in the Workplace

Maintaining a diversified workforce can have a lot of disadvantages for businesses. According to Klagge, cultural differences and misunderstanding are the root causes of many culturally unique problems, it can be reduced by improving interpersonal skills and knowledge. Klagge, stated that it is the willingness to know and accept people from different cultures and it is known as interpersonal skill. 

Conclusion

Overall, a varied workplace involves changing structure of the world and the business. Institutions benefit greatly from diverse working groups. Individual differences should be respected in the workplace since they provide a strategy in order to increase productivity. Lastly, all aspects that was stated in the introduction have been explained throughout this diversity essay. This assignment will now be enclosed with a listed bibliography.