The Importance of Diversity
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The Importance of Diversity
Diversity refers to incorporating various ideas and perspectives to achieve a general understanding of issues hence giving more profound feedback. The diversity ranges from ethnicity, economic status, religious beliefs, age difference, and gender (Carbado, 2012). Is diversity important? Well, diversity plays an essential role in society by; reducing discrimination and racism, improving productivity and innovation in workplaces, eradicating various groups’ biasness and promoting respect among them, and improving firm competence globally (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). Therefore, this paper will discuss the above-listed importance of diversity, including a recommendation on how different groups in society can achieve diversity.
With increasing diverse cultures and ideas around the world, there is a need to integrate individuals from different parts of the world to achieve coherence, understanding, and coexistence, especially in workplaces or companies (Carbado, 2012). Therefore, I recommend using materials that are accommodative to various cultural groups within the local community and the society, especially in workplaces and public settings such as educational grounds and clinical facilities. We should also try as much as possible to interact with people from diverse cultures by sharing ideas and knowledge to understand their cultures. This would eradicate the biasness that people have following a particular culture based on the various stereotypes that exist (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). Further, companies should employ individuals with different ideas and perspectives to help them improve efficiency and effectiveness in productivity and employee relationships in the company.
Diversity has played an essential role in eradicating racism and discrimination among members of society. Racism refers to the belief that people from different ethnic backgrounds are different in their abilities and qualities. Due to racism, people are discriminated against as opportunities that should be shared equally among members of a society land to a few ethnic groups. With diversity, people get an opportunity to interact, work together, study within the same environment; hence they realize that their abilities are different not because of skin color or speaking in different languages but because of things like education and experience (Carbado, 2012). Therefore, having this knowledge is essential in avoiding racism and discrimination. Another role played by diversity is eradicating biasness associated with people’s culture. Biasness refers to the idea of favoring one side of a debate and criticizing another (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). We tend to make assumptions concerning other people’s cultures without having evidence to substantiate the claim. These stereotypes, in most cases they become part of who we are. For example, if people from your culture are regarded as gangsters, then wherever you go, people will be careful not to associate with you closely. Therefore, diversity cases of biasness are reduced since people tend to see who you are as a person. If they thought all of you were gangsters and your actions prove them wrong, they will learn to respect your culture and form more positivity towards it.
Additionally, diversity improves productivity and innovation in an organization. The innovation process is the method of introducing a new idea to the existing ideas to improve productivity (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). Different cultures have unique practices. Think about the practices that are in your culture but not in other peoples’ culture. They are many if you identify them. When people from diverse cultures come together in an organization and combine all these unique practices, many innovative ideas are likely to arise. Therefore, an organization can be more productive when those ideas are implemented. Lastly, diversity improves the competence of a firm globally. Firms that employ employees from different backgrounds attract a global face to their organization. For example, having an African as a CEO, a white American as a deputy director, a black American as an HR manager, a Chinese as the production Manager, and a blend of employees from different backgrounds gives the company a global face in any country. With each employee having background knowledge on what their country’s preferences are, production becomes easy. Therefore, the organization can satisfy the needs of all people globally at a go since their needs are well taken into consideration (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). Through this, the purchasing power of customers tends to increase; hence the productivity rate rises.
Summarily, we cannot overlook the importance of diversity since it plays a significant role in our society. People develop an understanding of one another and eradicate many stereotypes they might have regarding that individual or group. For example, we do not need to be told that John is a witch simply because his culture is associated with witchcraft. We would instead argue that John is not a witch because his culture is associated with this act; he is an individual who is respectful because we have lived with him, and we know his character well. Since diversity is too important, every individual must learn the art of adopting it. People can do this by taking the first step of interacting with other people’s cultures and getting to know them better. Employers should also employ people from diverse backgrounds and cultures to bring innovative ideas to their organization. Therefore, diversity should be encouraged under all circumstances because it has benefits that one cannot assume.
References
Carbado, D. W. (2012). Intraracial Diversity. UCLA L. Rev., 60, 1130.
Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015). Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, 1(1), 15-29.
