Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Abstract A few years ago, diversity in the workplace was rather a rarely discussed concept, but today, more and… [605128]

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Abstract A few years ago, diversity in the workplace was rather a rarely discussed concept, but today, more and more companies include issues related to Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in their organizational policy. We discuss this topic to find out what "diversity" really means, why it is an asset for a business and what is the importance of diversity in thinking, inclusion, and equal opportunities. According to the definition given by the Oxford Dictionary of Business and Management (Oxford University Press, online edition, 2009), diversity refers to the understanding, assessment and acceptance of differences between people related to age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical and mental abilities, race, ethnicity, religion and other attributes. It includes individuals that are heterogeneous in terms of culture, ethnicity, religious belief, and political affiliation. The growing diversity of the workforce in most countries today means that many former assumptions about shared attitudes, values, and cultural norms no longer apply.
Fig. 1 – Diversity Wheel as used at Johns Hopkins University Diversity in the workplace has a strong impact on employee involvement and the emphasis is on what unites people and their common values. As a result, it was noticed that the companies that support diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business outperform their competitors. The beauty of diversity lays also in the fact that we think different. Research shows that diversity of thought is important for creativity, increasing innovation by about 20%. It also allows groups to easily identify risks, reducing them by up to 30%.

The diversity of thinking in a company is valuable, for at least three reasons: – it contributes to creating an environment in which every employee counts and feels that they have common goals with others; – it reflects more on the complexity of people, rather than focusing on a single specific aspect of social or demographic identity; – it recognizes demographic equality, which is useful because it is an indicator of progress toward diversity of thought. Therefore, each employee will have a contribution supported by his own cultural and educational background, as well as his sets of skills, experience and knowledge. Also, there will be differences in how to solve tasks or achieve objectives. Diversity is needed in order to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued. The current report examines the potential barriers to workplace diversity and shows ways that can benefit the University, as well as suggesting strategies to enhance workplace diversity and inclusiveness. It is based on a number of sources, including legal documents, research papers and press articles. The report concludes that successfully managing diversity can lead to more committed, better satisfied, better performing employees and potentially better financial performance for the University while also fostering an innovative environment that bring in new ideas on a yearly basis. To conclude, employee diversity improves performance when it comes to common creative tasks, such as product development or identifying new opportunities. Therefore, managers are attentive to this aspect, in order to obtain the benefits that innovation and new ideas bring. Also, each different perspective of employees becomes a new opportunity to improve the strategy, processes, but also the procedures of the organization. Introduction Equality and diversity are key topics in today’s world. They represent the power to understand others, communicate with them and value them for their abilities, no matter how different they might seem. Promoting diversity is something that is needed if someone want to thrive. By integrating others, one can both benefit from what the other party has to bring to the table.

Diversity means understanding that each individual is unique and different. The differences are many and diverse and can be along race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. Taking advantage of these differences in a safe, positive, and fostering environment can lead to more performance in the workplace and to happier employees. “Diversity is a set of conscious practices that involve understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment; practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own; understanding that diversity includes not only ways of being but also ways of knowing; recognizing that personal, cultural, and institutionalized discrimination creates and sustains privileges for some while creating and sustaining disadvantages for others; and building alliances across differences so that we can work together to eradicate all forms of discrimination.” – Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges, Harold Andrew Patrick As seen above, diversity has many aspects to it and that it spans beyond race, encompassing beliefs, attitudes and event personality. Therefore, organizations such as companies and universities should provide an environment in which employees can explore their differences and get to know each other, offering a diversity-friendly environment. Also, diverse environments promote an innovation-first culture which brings many benefits in the long run 1. Workplace Diversity Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple in theory, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background, and more. Most importantly, these characteristics are also part of laws meant to protect the citizen from discrimination. This makes the idea of diversity important from a legal standpoint and is something that should be taken into account by the management team of every organization if conformance to the laws is to be had. One of these laws is the UK Equality Act of 2010. This piece of UK Legislation stipulates that protects against being discriminated by: • Age • Disability • Gender reassignment • Marriage and civil partnership • Pregnancy and maternity • Race • Religion or belief • Sex • Sexual orientation “Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and maximize their contributions to an organization’s strategic goals and objectives. Diversity is extremely important in gaining agility as an enterprise or organization, because it allows for more data to be available with less bias.” – Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges, Harold Andrew Patrick

However, attaining true workplace diversity can be a difficult task. The problem lies in the fact that many organizations fail to see its true potential and don’t make serious investments in increasing the fairness of the work environment. This is, in most scenarios, due to the lack of vision that management has. Most top-level management people see the efforts that need to be made for diversity simply as compliance and don’t fully integrate it into their organization. The people that really value diversity and understand its impact are the ones that will succeed in growing their organizations. This is further supported by the following Forbes article, by underlining the fact that many organizations fail to incorporate diversity into their overall goals: “Firstly, it seems that too many organizations make the fundamental error of failing to align their diversity practices with their organizational goals. And in such situations, no matter how much goodwill there is towards the concept of diversity, the harsh realities of running the business on a day-to-day basis, of keeping customers satisfied, of selling and delivering the product or service will keep undermining it. And secondly, there is often a mismatch between how organizations design diversity policies and how they implement them. Or to put it another way, what looks good on paper too often falls apart in practice.” – Shemla, M. (2018, August 22). Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard To Achieve. For example, more and more people over the age of 45 have difficulties in finding a job, despite their qualifications, experience and professional skills. Although they are perfectly fit for work and eager to value their professional experience, people over the age of 45-50 fail to find a new job. Prejudices and clichés about the employment of the elderly lead to discrimination which, in turn, leads to the waste of a significant segment of the workforce. Therefore, discrimination on the basis of age becomes one of the main factors affecting the labour sector all over the world. 2. Diversity in Relation to Culture and Performance Diversity is more of a culture than a concept. This means that it should be enforced as a way of running an organization. By being a diverse company or university, one can tap into the talents of a huge number of people and they can in turn benefit from working in an environment that treats them fairly and appreciates them and their skills. “As the importance of diversity in the organizational context has increased many times, most organizations would like to research on diversity–organizational culture linkage, its effect on diversity openness, and between diversity and performance both at individual and organizational levels. Patrick (2010) found that diversity determines not only the effects of the diversity within an organization but also the level of openness to dissimilarity characteristics among the organization’s members, work groups, and culture.” – Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges, Harold Andrew Patrick 3. Diversity in The Context of The Pandemic With the global pandemic that erupted at the beginning of 2020, communicating through online means has become the norm. Even though the technology is there, we still need to resort to talking face to face, even though a computer screen as the following fragment says:

“Despite the technological wonders of today’s communication, international relations require us to deal with one another on a person-to-person basis. For this to be effective, one has to overcome language and stereotype barriers. This may require the mental elimination of terms like alien and view the individual as having a background that is different (Moran, Harris, & Moran, 2011).” The spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) and the necessary or imposed measures in connection with the prevention of large-scale spread (quarantine, prohibition of certain events, etc.) rapidly affect the economies of states around the world and, implicitly, participants in these economies. When we talk about workers who are exposed to 'specific' or 'increased' risks, we refer to those who are exposed to specific risks as unemployment or underpayment because of their age, origin, sex, physical condition or status in a company, especially in a period of pandemic. These people may be more vulnerable to certain risks and may have specific needs at work. Concrete tools for risk assessment, which take into account the specific risks faced by people with disabilities, migrant workers, older workers, women or temporary workers are still few in number. This concern is addressed in this article, taken from Forbes: “The economic consequences of the pandemic will disproportionately impact minorities unless urgent steps are taken. Mckinsey data for the US shows that 39% of all jobs held by black Americans—compared with 34% held by white Americans—are now threatened by reductions in hours or pay, temporary furloughs, or permanent layoffs, totaling 7 million jobs. Research on organizational behavior has revealed that during disruption and crisis, we instinctively focus on survival. In this mindset, we tend to make more unconsciously biased decisions. We err on the side of caution, reverting to what has worked in the past; making the scaling back of diversity and inclusivity (D&I) efforts a genuine possibility. Indeed, a survey of D&I leaders in March revealed 27% of initiatives were on hold, and it’s likely this number has increased since. The seismic shift to remote working presents additional challenges. If not monitored or managed carefully, communication can break down, and feelings of isolation can intensify. Such factors can breed a non-inclusive environment. Other factors could place women and minorities at a disadvantage, such as broadband access, the availability (or lack) of home-office space, and childcare and home-schooling duties.” – Mursal Hedayat , Diversity in The Workplace is Now More Critical Than Ever… Advantages of Diversity Workplace diversity, while it might seem like simple jargon, should be one of the major goals of every organization. This is not because it is something that gives you a good reputation as an employer or because it accomplishes some social goal. The real reason for the pursuit of diversity is that a diverse workforce brings many tangible benefits straight away and the bottom line is that with diversity you can achieve many goals such as increased innovation and a more efficient work process overall. This section aims to highlight the benefits that are in for the University, if it chooses to become a more diverse place. A good example could be found in the following excerpts from the article “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Efforts Persist at Universities Despite the Pandemic”, written by Dom Nicastro

about Bevlee Watford, the
first African-American female president of the American Society for Engineering Education. “The goal is simple. Make all students, regardless of race or gender, feel welcome and in a position to thrive in their chosen degree paths.” “The pandemic has made things challenging,” Watford said. “I’ve had Zoom calls with students telling them our job is to be here for them. Our job is to get them out of school. Our job is to help them earn their degree, whatever degree they want to earn. That's what we're here for. They have my email because I sent them a personal invitation to these Zoom welcome receptions. I tell them all they have to do is let me know how we can help.” – Dom Nicastro, “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Efforts Persist at Universities Despite the Pandemic”, reworked, 2020, Dec. 10 So, a direct advantage of diversity could be Higher Team-level creativity. Team creativity will have a higher level when the people who work together are different in terms of race, ethnicity, beliefs, gender, age, etc. Thus, where there are colleagues with training in various fields of activity, the unique and innovative ideas suggested by them will be more numerous, and the organization will increase in value and popularity. A variety of different perspectives Having diversity in the workplace is a very good way to bring together people with different points of view. Since diversity means more different skills, experiences and attitudes, you are granted to find more perspectives on the same subject and judge your decisions better by looking at all the angles. If you take a bunch of people from all around the world and put them into the same office, you will be able to extract better ideas because of a simple fact: when you have multiple ways of looking at things, everyone contributes a little part to something bigger that, in the end, trumps over the results that a more homogenous, less diverse, group of people could ever produce. For example, the work of Harvard Business School has shown that multicultural networks contribute to improving creativity, by diversifying ways of thinking and cultural references. Also, a study conducted by researchers at New York University showed that problem-solving groups in organizations function better when their members came from different cultural groups. Improved Business Relationships When we talk about companies working for clients around the world, forming employee teams from different cultural backgrounds can be a great advantage. For example, the existence of an employee of another nationality, who speaks another language, can facilitate the attraction of a client from his home country, given that he has the skills that will allow him to have a proper approach in relation to the potential partner. On the other hand, when there are several native speakers of a certain language in the company, this can be a business card for the entire organization, in order to attract partners from that market. Creating a climate that promotes the inclusion and integration of different individuals in the workplace brings other advantages, if we look at it from the perspective of employee retention and loyalty. People who do not feel part of the work environment in which they work

will not be fully dedicated to the work they do. Thus, the characteristics and aspects that make them different from other colleagues will turn into inferiority complexes, reasons for frustration and fear of marginalization. A reluctant environment could make employees less involved, increase absenteeism, and decrease productivity. Creating an environment in which everyone feels integrated requires an education of this spirit. Where there is a danger that certain categories of employees will be discriminated against, it is good to promote a positive approach to diversity, perhaps even through specialized training, to encourage interaction with those who are different. Promoting Diversity Makes It Easier to Find New Employees We must take into account that any candidate looking for a job will be attracted by organizations that promote themselves through having a diverse workforce. They will have the certainty that those companies do not discriminate and treat their employees equally, even if they are different. In the context of an intense promotion of cultural diversity, new talents will focus on environments in which they will find different people, rather than those in which people are the same. Thus, even if the preservation of identity remains a priority, it does not exclude interaction with individuals who are different. Consequences of Ignoring Diversity Certainly, diversity, when poorly received or perceived, can harm an organization. Focusing on differences between individuals can increase the possibility of conflict or misunderstanding. Harassment and disengagement can be symptoms of a deeper malaise related to prejudice and lack of acceptance of diversity. In addition, discrimination (actual or perceived) by certain groups of workers can greatly damage the organization's reputation. One of the most common problem when we speak about discrimination or ignored diversity is the gender pay gap. The website www.payscale.com follows the differences in payment between men and women for years and the conclusions are disappointing. In comparison to 2015 or even 2010, the report for 2020 shows little improvement. “Our research shows that the uncontrolled gender pay gap, which takes the ratio of the median earnings of women to men without controlling for various compensable factors, has only decreased by $0.07 since 2015. In 2020, women make only $0.81 for every dollar a man makes. The controlled gender pay gap, which controls for job title, years of experience, industry, location and other compensable factors, has also decreased, but only by $0.01 since 2015. Women in the controlled group make $0.98 for every $1 a man makes. New to the gender pay gap report for 2020 is analysis on the impact of lost wages on lifetime earnings. By calculating presumptive raises given over a 40-year career, we find that women in the uncontrolled group stand to lose $900,000 on average over a lifetime. Lost earnings narrow to $80,000 for the controlled group, but this is still significant, especially if you consider how lost earnings due to the gender pay gap would grow with compound interest if invested each year for 40 years.” – The State of Gender Pay Gap in 2020, https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap#section14

Ultimately, diversity management problems can result in difficulties in attracting and retaining the best talent, regardless of their origin and demographic profile. Strategic partnerships can fail for the same reasons. In the end, it turns out that valuing diversity is rather an undeniable competitive advantage. Several large companies have successfully demonstrated this. SMEs are now following suit. It is a question of survival and sustainability for organizations. Managing diversity in the workplace is in itself an organizational development intervention. Obviously, managers have a major role in establishing an organizational culture that respects diversity. But the fact remains that, ultimately, it is up to each individual to perceive the "other" as an asset in his team, not as a threat. In this way, our organizations will become more tolerant, open and, ultimately, more efficient. Conclusion Diversity is more important than it may seem. This is not only because it allows everyone equal chances, but also because it promotes a certain culture. Diversity promotes the idea that you can combine multiple kinds of people to cover a broader range of topics and to handle processes more swiftly by using the power of diverse, shared experience. Therefore, diversity is a must for any institution that wants to excel at what they are doing. The key to success always lays in people, and to have the most agility and best tactics you also need the best team and for that you need the best talent from all over the world. Let's not forget that we live in a world where borders are no longer a problem and that the free movement of people has led to the diversification of the labor force, and that the only barriers we can face are those that we impose on ourselves, in interaction with others. Bibliography Harold Andrew Patrick, V. R. (2012, April 25). Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges. Retrieved from Sagepub: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244012444615 Shemla, M. (2018, August 22). Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard To Achieve. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rsmdiscovery/2018/08/22/why-workplace-diversity-is-so-important-and-why-its-so-hard-to-achieve/?sh=57d849273096 UK Equality Act. (2010). UK Legislation. Paul, M. (2020, May 29). Coming back to the workplace in pandemic times. Retrieved from Maastricht University: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/blog/2020/05/coming-back-workplace-pandemic-times Payscale. (2020). The State of Gender Pay Gap in 2020. Retrieved from Payscale: https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap#section14 Hedayat, M. (2020, June 24). Diversity in The Workplace is Now More Critical Than Ever. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mursalhedayat/2020/06/24/diversity-in-the-workplace-is-now-more-critical-than-ever/ Nicastro, D. (2020, December 10). Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Efforts Persist at Universities Despite the Pandemic. Retrieved from Reworked:

https://www.reworked.co/leadership/diversity-equity-inclusion-efforts-persist-at-universities-despite-the-pandemic/ Chua, R. Y. (2011). Innovating at the World’s Crossroads: How Multicultural Networks Promote Creativity. Retrieved from Harvard Business School: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/11-085.pdf Lu Hong, S. E. (2004, November 16). Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers. Retrieved from PNAS: https://www.pnas.org/content/101/46/16385.full