Diversity Within The Workplace Has Become A Priority For...

Diversity in the workplace has become a priority for managers in many companies worldwide. This drive toward diversity has been stimulated by dramatic shifts from manufacturing jobs away from advance capitalism economies, a rise in service sector jobs, and, in some cases, a sincere business ethic. Diversity is generally defined as recognizing, understanding, and accepting an individual based on their differences and is typically classified into two categories. The primary category, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc., depicts the most noticeable differences between individuals. The secondary category, religion, education, geographical location, income, etc., are those that are not noticeable in the first encounter and can even change†¦show more content†¦This order also established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Three years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went further, ending discrimination in any activity. The promotion of workplace diversity as a whole continued to go on, setting a policy to promote equal employment chances. This was made possible by avoiding the discrimination of diverse characteristics such as nationality, race, skin color, etc. and moving towards a principle that to be fair, one needs to be committed to treating everyone equally (Dike, 2013). The changing composition of the labor force, in terms of ethnicity and gender, has driven businesses and organizations to reconsider their views on diversity in the workplace. In the past, American businesses have sought a workplace uniformity of workers who shared the same values, beliefs, and attitudes about work and the organization they worked for. They also believed that individuals with differences should be eliminated (Root, 2014). For many years, Corporate America adopted the â€Å"white male† model for the workplace. Managers used those who already held positions in the organization as role models, since they possessed the appropriate s kills and behaviors required for these positions. These jobs were typically held by white males, and newcomers to the organization were required to possess or at least adopt skills and behaviors exhibited by those already there. This view implied that minorities and women possessed