According to Kandola and Fullerton (2005), there are three main categories identified in a diverse work environment o Proven

Benefits - those benefits that are an unavoidable consequence of becoming a diversity-oriented organization and include having access to a wider range of talented candidates thereby making it easier to recruit scarce labor, reducing costs associated with excessive turnover and absenteeism and enhancing organizational flexibility. o Debatable benefits resulting o Indirect benefits which are important diversity initiatives to the organization for reasons beyond social or moral responsibility:
What is Affirmative Action? Diversity? Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action Proactive efforts: recruit, hire, train, promote Focus on previously excluded or currently underrepresented peoples Rooted in Civil Rights Movement Strategic Remedial Inclusive Focused on minority groups/women Aimed at behavior/ Reflects demographics organizational culture

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Diversity

What is Affirmative Action? Diversity? Equal Employment Opportunity

Result of Affirmative Action, etc Focus on current employees: visible and invisible differences Managing Diversity Rooted in efforts to benefit the organization

What is Affirmative Action? Diversity? Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action Proactive efforts: recruit, hire, train, promote Focus on previously excluded or currently underrepresented peoples Rooted in Civil Rights Movement Strategic Remedial Inclusive Focused on minority groups/women Diversity

Result of Affirmative Action, etc Focus on current employees: visible and invisible differences Managing Diversity Rooted in efforts to benefit the organization

Aimed at behavior/ Reflects demographics organizational culture Equal Employment Opportunity Consideration based on merit Required by law

Matching people and jobs o Developing individual job profiles, assessment methods, orientation and careers. o Assess individual strengths and weaknesses o Review and change key human resource control processes. ii. Matching and rewarding performance o Examine different ways of work planning, motivating and rewarding, mentoring, coaching, feedback

o Institute flexible approaches in dealing with employee appraisals and development iii. Informing and involving people o Keep people informed all the time o Use flexible systems inclusive of ongoing and temporary teams. o Establish suggestion schemes, attitude surveys or focus groups. iv. Supporting life styles and needs o Identify peoples needs and interests and create supportive options o Develop new and equitable benefit policies. o Introduce special interest networks Managers must be supportive and creative.

Process and content model for diversity management (Jamieson and OMara, 1991), clearly outlines a comprehensive approach to for promoting and managing diversity which includes the following processes o An audit of the current situation covering the attitudes of employees including management personnel, the organizational culture ensuring the value system will support the initiatives of any equal opportunity proposal the company intends to implement and finally the work systems and processes. o Identify all the aspects that could hinder managing diversity o Implementation of a strategy to eliminate all hindrances Continuously evaluate and monitor the progress of the strategy crafted for managing diversity.

Affirmative Action Over many years segregation and the stereotyping of roles created barriers to employment opportunities for many people in society, especially women and members of minority groups. To counter these effects leading organizations took specific, positive steps known as affirmative action. Affirmative action is not statute bound and includes: o Monitoring of employment-related actions to prevent discrimination from occurring or to detect it and eliminate it; o Efforts to broaden the pool of qualified candidates for job categories in which fewer women and minority group members are employed than are available in the workforce Strongly encouraging female and minority employees to participate in educational and career development activities