In this chapter we discuss managing diversity and inclusiveness. It is an ethical and legal obligation to develop a diverse workforce. A diverse workforce is having employees who have similarities and differences with age, sex, cultural backgrounds, disabilities, religion, etc. To be able to manage diversity ethically, management needs to deal with employees as individuals and be supportive of differences and have the understanding that being diverse can lead to enhanced creativity and be resourceful to create a competitive advantage for the organization.

History and Diversity today

Many immigrants were considered outsiders due to the lack of speaking English. Therefore, led to many different customs and work styles. It also made it hard for them to work in industries such as steel, coal, automobile manufacturing, insurance, and finance. Most businesses were unable to hire nonspeaking immigrants. It was also hard for women to be accepted. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became the beginning of eliminating sex discrimination. The most difficult struggle was for nonwhite minorities. After years of struggle and protest, organizations formed by blacks and whites, including National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), began to use court systems and the Constitution to fight for equality.

There is more to diversity than the color of skin. Diversity includes education, political belief, religion, and income in addition to gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. Being able to manage diversity means using the differences between people, whether they are the same race, age nationality or completely different. And supporting them and using the differences to the organization's advantage. Time is slowly changing into women becoming 47% of the workforce, families have both parents working and more women are earning college degrees. Although, women and minorities are moving up they still encounter a glass ceiling. A glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that makes it difficult for women and minorities to move past a certain level. Unemployment is still high for blacks and minorities and earnings for black and Hispanic coworkers are still behind those of white and Asian workers. These are reasons managers work hard help employers find strategies to attract and motivate skilled and knowledgeable workers.

Understanding Diversity and Inclusion

Inclusion is not the same thing as diversity. Inclusion is providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might have otherwise been excluded, such as those who have physical or mental disabilities and members of other minority groups. People in inclusive workplaces feel safe when sharing ideas and opinions with others, they feel as though they belong in the workplace, and also feel respected and valued. Diversity is about representation of many kinds of different people as inclusion is more about how well the contributions, presence and perspectives of different groups of people are valued and integrated into an environment.

Multicultural Organizations

Monolithic is where companies are biased to the people they hire. They will hire people they know or who have affiliations with the company. This turns into people who aren't of the "norm" tend to work lower status jobs, leading discrimination, no intermingling of the two groups and the people working the lower status jobs tend to not identify with the company. A pluralistic organization has lots of diversity within the company. They train everyone equally to ensure discrimination isn't being used. On the other hand, multicultural organizations are diverse and value differences. Managers see this as leverage as all their employees have different knowledge and different ways of doing things.

Top Management Leadership and commitment

Your top management needs to be very invested in what they are doing, making sure that their mission statement means something to them. An example of this is Michael Jordan he is a high-profile minority team owner in the NBA.

Organization Assessment

Organization is key to diversifying your company. This means finding what is not working well and trying to find a solution to the problem. Not all the values of the company are going to be key for everyone, know the employees' strengths and weaknesses.

Attracting Employees

Managers need to make sure that what they are doing is satisfying the customers' needs. When running a business, you need to be flexible when hiring new employees, remembering they have a life as well. You can try doing this by rearranging the work schedule.

Training Employees

When training new employees there are usually two types of diversified training, awareness building and skill building. Awareness building is just being aware of yourself and what you feel comfortable doing. Skill building is helping with how to deal with people effectively.

Question: As a leader or manager, how would you go about making your employees feel inclusive in their work environment?