Curtis Oakley

MGT 357
31 Oct 2014
Professor Wilson
Diversity in the Workplace
Todays society in America is a very diverse place. We live in society where all genders,
races, and religions are amongst each other and are required to coexist daily. With that being said
the workplace in our society has generationally become much more diverse with the passing of
time, as opposed to the strong traditional roles that were once upheld. Although we have reached
a moderate level of diversity, there is still much improvement necessary for companies to be able
to consider themselves diverse in every sense of the word. To do so, they must seek development
in three key areas that are lacking, gender, racial and religious diversity.
It is very apparent in todays corporate world that men are still dominant and occupy the
majority of executive positions over women. To use concrete facts, Google, one of the most
successful American companies, is predominantly male. Seven out of ten employees are men,
83% of their engineers and 79% of their managers are also male; of the 36 executives only 3 are
women (Farhad Manjoo). This shows a clear gap in men and women professionals in the
corporate world, this is a reality for many companies such as Apple, Facebook and Yahoo.
Although businesses are more acceptable of women in the workforce and recognize that women
are equally capable as men, women have natural disadvantages that leave them one step behind
of men. Womens domestic responsibilities are seen to get in the way of work. Women tend to
work less once they are married and choose to have children, having to take maternity leave

every time they decide to have a child. This makes it very difficult for women to work towards
growing into these executive positions. However, these are not circumstances that women can
control and often women choose to delay or not to have children to be able to excel in their
career. This proves a lack of flexibility and sympathy from companies to the situation of women.
Companies could do a better job of being flexible with women so that they dont feel as though
they must choose between work and family. Along with this, the issue of unequal pay increases
the gap between men and women working in the same positions. It is false representation when
companies claim they are diverse but we see these statistics that prove otherwise. As a society we
have moved away from the traditional roles that men and women had to fulfill and women have
made a clear presence in the corporate world, but the situation is nowhere near where it should
be to be considered diversified.
Race has been a very sensitive subject when dealing with the workplace. Our society has
experienced extreme forms of racism from slavery and segregation during the Jim Crow days.
Where we are today with race in society and consequently in the workplace has obviously
improved dramatically since those times. However, white males, again, remain the dominant
figures in the business world. With the movement towards globalization, companies are very
aware of the need for their companies to be diverse and to achieve this they must increase the
percentage of minority employees. This brings up the issue of racism because there are still many
stereotypes and biases that govern the decisions made by employers. In efforts towards trying to
prevent racism, discrimination and prejudice in the workplace companies have tried to
implement the colorblindness strategy. This strategy is when you try to ignore race when
organizational decisions are being made in your work environment. Most seem to believe that if
we ignore race then we wont engage in racist behaviors. This is a great strategy that companies

are trying to implement with their employees, however the reality is that it is impossible not to
notice racial and cultural differences regardless of what we are told or taught. Thus, it is better to
confront the issue head on, avoiding it will never bring a resolution. In my opinion, this is where
companies need to being strategizing for diversity, finding ways to implement racial and cultural
awareness into their training programs and corporate culture.
The affirmative action policy has also taken us further in the process of making the
workforce more diverse. This policy uses a system where a specific percentage of jobs are set
aside for minorities. This has been put into play so that we can work towards having equal
opportunities of employment and salary regardless of your racial background. The downside to
this strategy of affirmative action is that many criticize it saying that some people are obtaining
jobs simply because they are a minority but not being hired based on qualifications for the
position. Regardless, if companies are hiring people based on qualifications only, there should be
no need for such a strategy to gain more minority employees because it implies that already
employers are assuming minorities are underqualified and need to be given an easy pass to get
these positions. In a written paper called Racial Colorblindness: Emergence, Practice, and
Implications, Michael Norton goes on to say, Though once emblematic of the fight for equal
opportunity among racial minorities marginalized by openly discriminatory practices,
contemporary legal arguments for colorblindness have become increasingly geared
toward combating race-conscious policies, if racial minority status confers an advantage in hiring
and school admissions and in the selection of voting districts and government subcontractors
the argument goesthen Whites right for equal protection may be violated. (Norton, Color
Blindness) It is evident that racial diversity in the workplace will continue to be an issue that

companies have to face and so they must try to implement new strategies and methods to dealing
with these situations.
In regards to religion in the workplace, it has been one of the more difficult things to
manage but has been progressively coming along in terms of the acceptance of many different
beliefs and the practices that come along with them. With so many people of so many different
religious beliefs, America has become a big melting pot which has forced many workplaces to
become more flexible with their employees. These religions include Christianity, Mormonism,
Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism and many others. We have been much more accepting of people
of different religions as a society. Over the years workers have realized that talking about
religion is a very uncomfortable topic and is considered one of the few topics not to bring up
while in the office or at business related events. But even more of a problem than talking about
their religious beliefs is the inability to take off days for their religion specific holidays. In a
survey, less than 44 percent said that the companies they worked for had flexible hours for
religious observance or prayers and in the survey only 21 percent said their companies had
policies where you were allowed to swap holidays to suit your religious beliefs. Other findings
include 14 percent of workers said that their employers have programs to teach their employees
about religious diversity. (Gibson) As you can see by those numbers that a small percentage of
companies are making an effort to accommodate for religious practices that may not be a priority
for them but are for their employees. If companies are working towards being diverse, this is an
area that needs much improvement. Work and religion are best kept separate, however, for a
positive work life balance, companies must work towards being more understanding and
accepting of their employees religious practices outside of the workplace. I feel that we have

made many strides in terms of religion but I think it will be one of the slower areas of growth in
terms of diversity development going forward.

Exposing Hidden Bias at Google by Farhad Manjoo, Sept. 24, 2014, New York Times