Cultural diversity is a system of beliefs that recognizes the presence of diverse groups in an organization. Values or differences, and encourages enables their contributions to the organization. These differences include race, ethnicity, age, ability, language, veteran status, nationality, socioeconomic status, gender, religion or sexual orientation. An organization is considered diverse if a wide variety of groups are represented. Cultural diversity matters because it can benefit the work place people from various backgrounds have different perspectives, which allows a group to look at problems from all angles. Diversity can bring strength if it is valued in the corporate philosophy and integrated into company practices. Workers must be willing to be open minded and non judgmental about differences. Without that commitment, cultural diversity can weaken a group, instead. Differences in interpretation of events can lead to miscommunication, awkwardness, hostilities and prejudices that will worsen the effect. Cultural diversity has become a hot button issue when applied to the workplace. Good supervisors recognize that they must understand, accept and embrace cultural diversity in order to be completely effective. The protected group is a group of people who are qualified for special legal protection in employment matters. In the USA, this term is applied to certain minority and or disadvantaged groups in the population who have historically experienced discrimination in the workplace. Some examples of protected groups are ethnic and racial minorities, women, disabled workers, veterans and military personnel and persons over 40 years of age. Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of human beings based on their groups, classes or other categories to which they are perceived to belong. In a business sense, discrimination is any action or decision that favors or penalizes individuals on the basis of characteristics that are not related to their work performance or professional qualifications. US Equal Employment Opportunity laws say that an employer cannot discriminate because of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or age. Various agencies of the US Government are involved in trying to make these laws work and have applied them broadly to all forms of prejudice and discrimination. It's important to point out that although we've been talking about US law and not all countries have the same legal protections, regardless of where supervisor works, it's important to treat all people with the same respect and value them equally. It should be obvious that supervisors must act in an unbiased manner when hiring and providing workers with opportunities for advancement. They must support the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity and be careful not to use these guidelines unfairly to discriminate against non-minorities. It's a balancing act that requires a lot of careful thought and action. A stereotype is an idea or belief about a person or group which may be untrue or only partly true. Stereotypes are a way to simplify our social world since they reduce the amount of thinking required when we need a new person. Instead, we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Stereotyping is a type of prejudice, because any given characteristic is only a small part of who a person is. Stereotypes are often based on a person's appearance, sex, race, religion, where they live, or what a person does for a living. The golden rule for avoiding stereotyping is treating each person as an individual. Don't mentally categorize people or groups according to the way they speak, act or look, and then treat everyone accordingly. Allowing preconceptions to intrude is sure to damage your relationships. Supervisors are expected to get results while being concerned for protected employees and employee rights. This could make a supervisor's job complicated at times, but it can be handled if you follow these priorities. First things first, it's a supervisors job to deal promptly and firmly within subordinates whose performance is unsatisfactory. Act in an unsafe manner or are uncooperative or abusive. This is consistent with laws about management and Labor Relations. Furthermore, it matches what most employees expect of their supervisor. Thereafter, full respect and attention should be given to Equal Employment Opportunity laws and other legislation intended to protect the rights and welfare of people at work. This should include an attitude of accommodation, toward social concerns that are increasingly reflected in workplace practices such as family leaves and child care or parental assistance programs. In the next module we'll talk in greater depth about laws that define the fair treatment of people in the workforce.
