Having a diverse workforce is a value to any company. Diversity is important in the workplace because it allows for innovation through different skill sets and background information. If a workforce has diversity it will be more capable of solving conflicts and creating resolutions. The following essay will summarize an experience where the lack of diversity caused problems in the workplace. This essay will also discuss the ramifications of lack of diversity, and it will identify strategies for avoiding and addressing the problem because it is important to have a diversified staff in the workplace.
Summary of the Situation
I have experienced how lack of diversity can cause conflicts in the workplace in the school district I work in. I am a food service helper, and on occasions I have to make pizza from scratch. The high school serves the students homemade pizza everyday. The dough is made from scratch and the pies are cooked in a real pizza oven. Most of the time the pizza comes out looking delicious, but there was a few weeks when it was getting moist on the bottom. It was not very appetizing, and several different people tried to figure out what caused it.
The workforce involved in this situation had all learned to make pizza the same way. This lack of diversity caused the problem to take a long time to get resolved. Everyone had ideas about what it could be, but none of the ideas really worked. A diverse staff with diverse knowledge would have had more background and information pertaining to this incident. The entire workforce had the same knowledge and skills, and this was a deterrent in resolving the issue at hand. Eventually an outside source suggested adding more salt to the dough, and it worked well.
Ramifications
As a result of this lack of diversity many different stakeholders were impacted. This situation had an impact on the players involved, the company, and the students in several ways. This event may seem trivial, but it actually caused a lot of problems over the course of its occurrence. Food service helpers were caused stress, students stopped eating lunch, and the company lost overall value.
The food service helpers were impacted directly by this lack of diversity. Many of the food services helpers were stressed, confused, and angered by this situation. The students complained, and this was frustrating to the food service helpers as well. The already existing conflict between the original pizza maker and the trainees was further irritated. The pizza situation was a mess, and it was troubling to may employees. Other food service helpers had to work harder to compensate for the loss in sales of pizza as well.
The students were not buying the pizza as much. This impacted the students because they had to go with out lunch or eat something else. This caused a loss in sales. It also caused the other workers to either over compensate or under compensate for the switch in customer demand. This caused product loss. Overall the company was impacted negatively from a loss of product and income. All of the stakeholders involved lost in this situation because of the lack of a diverse workforce, but there are ways of avoiding and addressing this problem.
Strategies
A lack of diversity in the workforce can hinder problems from be resolved, but there are strategies that will help you avoid and address these problems. Lack of diversity is an issue that can not always be resolved due to existing workforce and hiring policies, but it can be avoided. Addressing the issue of an non-diverse workforce may be difficult but the best possible resolutions should be considered.
In order to avoid this problem in the future management should be aware of the lack of diversity in the workforce. If management is aware they can expect these situations to occur and provide information from outside sources for employees to utilize. In this situation management could provide the pizza makers with recipe books and ideas about how to fix the problem. The manager could also provide training from other schools in the district that do not have the same problems. This approach will help avoid the problem because the current staff will be more knowledgeable and diverse in their skills. Outside sources will slightly address the problem, and they will help avoid them in the future.
In order to address the lack of diversity amongst the food service helpers a different standard for hiring is needed. Lack of diversity is caused by all of the employees being very similar. Many of the employees have no background knowledge of food service to draw on in times of crisis. If the management specifically hired more people with a diverse knowledge of the kitchen the workforce would have the diversity needed to handle conflicts easily (Workforce Watch, 2005). Creativity will increase with an increase in diversity (Workforce Watch, 2005). This method of addressing the problem is slightly more difficult because it required hiring new staff which is not always possible unless the manager lets employees go. This is a hard task to complete, but the benefits of diversity are overwhelming.
Benefits of Diversity
There are many benefits of a diverse workforce; this situation would have been aided by a diverse workforce through creativity, an increased ability to adapt, and more effective execution of a solution. In this situation it would have been beneficial to have employees that had diverse knowledge of cooking in order to create and execute a solution to this problem.
Creativity is a factor that is influenced by diversity. A more diverse staff would have been able to be more creative when thinking of solutions to this situation (Workforce Watch , 2005). Creativity would have also benefited this situation by helping to device an alternate method of attracting the students.
Increased adaptability is an important part of problem solving that diversity can facilitate efficiently. A diverse workforce is also capable of adapting to conflicts easier because there are diverse backgrounds, skills, and knowledge available (Greenburg, 2004). Solutions will be easier to create and implement as well (Greenburg, 2004). An increased adaptability in workforce would have also benefited this situation because the workforce would be able to handle the situation without so much stress and unhappiness. Loss of food and money would also be a benefit of diversity because employees would be able to adapt better to the change in customer demand.
More effective execution of solutions is another benefit of a diverse workforce. If there are diverse skills and talents then more areas of the solution will be catered to. Different skill sets allow for specialized work in different areas of a solution. In this situation an effective execution of a solution could have occurred much sooner if there was different diverse backgrounds. Diverse knowledge would have provided the workforce with the ability to fix the problem. In a place where diversity is encouraged all employees are encouraged to be diverse and do their best. This increases morale, and this directly affects the efficiency of solution execution (Greenburg, 2004).
Conclusion
This essay has discussed a situation where diversity in the work place would have beneficial to the workplace, the ramifications of lack of diversity, and possible strategies to prevent and solve this problem. This essay has also discussed in detail the importance and benefits of a diverse workforce. Diversity is important in the workforce for many reasons, and a workforce with a non diverse staff will inevitably suffer. Adding diversity and awareness of diversity to your workforce is the best way to improve your business and inspire productivity.
References
Greenberg, J. (2004). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions. The Multicultural Advantage: Career Management and Job Info for Professionals from Diverse Backgrounds. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recruit/diversity/Diversity-in-the-Workplace-Benefits-Challenges-Solutions.asp
Workforce Watch: Diverse Workplace = Successful Organization. (2005). eNews Builder | Email Marketing and HTML Email Newsletters, Create, Send and Track.. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from http://www.enewsbuilder.net/wcf/e_article000430401.cfm?x=b6WM9ch,b2p1lKWw,w
