Diversity in the Workplace

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Introduction

“A group of diverse people with different backgrounds, experiences, and leadership

styles will out-think, out-innovate, and out-execute a homogeneous group of people anytime”

according to A.G. Lafley (“Diversity & Inclusion: RCF Group”) – CEO and President of Proctor

& Gamble, whom has enjoyed significant profits from their diversity inclusion approach.

Diversity has become a trending topic in societies around the world, with most trends being

associated with gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual identity; but what is diversity? Diversity is

“recognizing, understanding, accepting, appreciating, and enjoying peoples’ differences like age,

education, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, race, sexual orientation, and spiritual practice” (Esty et

al., 1995, as cited in Algahtani, 2013).

Workplace diversity is, therefore, the similarities and differences among employees in

terms of those characteristics which make them diverse (Saxena, 2014). With the increase of

activism worldwide, people are also increasingly learning to accept their authentic selves. This

places pressure on organizations to adapt to these diverse characteristics and find ways to include

them within their organization. Ankita Saxena views a diverse workforce to be heterogenous, but

also challenging to manage (2014). Intentionally creating diverse organizations does not only

make companies look good in the public eye, but also improves productivity according to Saxena

(2014). The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in a 2018 report, concluded that companies with

above-average diversity scores ranked 19 percentage points higher than companies with below-

average scores in innovation revenues (Lorenzo et al., 2018). Another study showed that “when

diverse teams made a business decision, they out-performed individual decision-makers up to 87

percent of the time” (PM Editorial, 2017).

The significant impact diversity inclusion can have on organizations is clear – improved

image, increased productivity, and increased revenues. To achieve these benefits, is not always

an easy fete though; these benefits are only reaped when organizations recognize the diverse

characteristics of their employees and learn to respect them (“What is Diversity & Inclusion?”,

n.d.). Managers are now forced to strategize around the idea of diversity inclusion – their efforts

and practices to culturally and socially accept, welcome, and give equal treatment to a diverse

workforce (“What is Diversity & Inclusion?”, n.d.). Large organizations and small startups alike,

are taking strides to boost their diversity score, by implementing initiatives centered around

persons with diverse characteristics. This essay examines three characteristics on which people

are characterized, and which organizations continuously seek to improve their inclusion

strategies for, namely gender equality, sexual orientation, and generational gaps.

Gender Equity, Sexual Orientation, and Generational Gap

Gender Equality

Gender equality refers to the “equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of women

and men and girls and boys” (“gender equality”, n.d.). The definition of gender inequality on the

other hand is:

Legal, social, and cultural situation in which sex and/or gender determine different rights

and dignity for women and men, which are reflected in their unequal access to, or

enjoyment of rights, as well as the assumption of stereotyped social and cultural roles.

(“gender inequality”, n.d.)

Within the workplace gender equality is achieved when people are able to access and enjoy the

same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of gender (“About workplace gender equality

| WGEA”, n.d.).

The fight for gender equality in the workplace has been around for centuries. In the 1900s,

women were seen to be housekeepers and not bread winners. In order to keep the status quo

balanced, women were paid significantly less than men, though they would be required to do equal

or more work than them. As early as the 1900s women would group together to fight for better

working conditions (“A brief history of women in the workplace | Randstad Canada”, n.d.). In its

2019 revision of the world population, the World Bank reported that an estimated 49.585% of the

world’s total population is female (“Population, female (% of total population) | Data”, 2019). In

January 2020, however, Catalyst reported that in 2019, only 47.4% of women participated in the