Diversity: concepts, applications, and significance

Diversity is the blending of different genders, ethnic backgrounds, cultures, religions, ages, and mental physical and abilities to enhance an organization's chances of success. David Kurtz (2010) reports that several studies have demonstrated that diverse employee teams and workforces tend to perform tasks more effectively and develop better solutions than homogeneous employee groups. This can be attributed to in part to the variety of perspectives and experiences that foster innovation and creativity in multicultural teams.

In a recent study by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam of nearly 30,000 people from across the United States found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. Furthermore, in the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. This study is the largest ever on civic engagement in America. Findings indicate that nearly all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings (Jonas. 2007). These findings can only make one speculate on how this behavior translates to educational settings and the workplace.

In order to promote diversity in the workplace certain issues must be successfully confronted. Employment and educational opportunities must be appealing to a wide variety of workers, and recruitment must effectively target diverse groups. Furthermore, recruiters must overcome their own bias in the interview process, questions, and responses (UCSF, NDI).

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) recommends the following strategies in order to create a diverse group of individuals including: 1) Specifying the need for employees to possess the skills necessary to work effectively in a diverse environment. 2) Ensure that good faith efforts are made to recruit a diverse applicant pool. 3) Focus on the job requirements in the interview and assess experience, but also consider transferable skills and demonstrated competencies, such as analytical, organizational, communication, and coordination. 4) Understand that prior experience does not necessarily mean effectiveness or success on the job. 5) Employ the use of a panel interview format and ensure that the interview committee is diverse and represents different perspectives to eliminate bias from the selection process. 6) Run questions and process by the interview committee to ensure there is no unintentional bias. 7) Ensure that appropriate accommodations are made for disabled applicants. 8) Know your own biases, including what stereotypes you have of people from different groups and how well they may perform on the job, what communication styles you prefer, and acknowledge that what one may consider to be appropriate or desirable qualities in a candidate may reflect more about personal preferences than about the skills needed to perform the job (UCSF, NDI).