Concepts Of Diversity

Diversity is basically a different dimensional view to differentiate people or population from one another. Diversity as a concept is to understand the uniqueness of each and every individual and recognizing the difference in them. The study of Concepts of Diversity has different dimensions like race, ethnocentrism, prejudice, sexual orientation, selective perception, feminism, social distance, physical abilities, beliefs on religious aspects, political beliefs and other ideologies.

Cultural Diversity or multiculturalism refers to the various human societies and cultures all over the world. It consists of the beliefs of different people, their values and attitudes which guide the behaviors of the groups. The concept of ethnicity is the most complex one since it recognizes people who belong to a social grouping of different cultural backgrounds including life style, language, religion, food, religious aspects and origins.

This world is full of differences and has an infinite variety and diversity. A race is a group or population that can be distinguished from other groups or populations by genetically transmitted natural and physical characteristics. Racism is basically an attitude towards a population or person which is based on the person’s or population’s race and not about the objective knowledge.

Ethnic Diversity is the recognition or promotions of multiple ethnic cultures which is for the sake of diversity and practical reasons and applied to specific places particularly in organizations like businesses, educational institutions, neighborhoods, cities and nations. Ethnocentrism is a belief in which the own culture and its values are considered as superior to all others. Humanitarianism is the concept about human welfare and it is expressed by the humanitarian activities and through the interest in social reforms. Stereotyping is considered as development of prejudice in which we label other persons based on their membership in one population or group. Social Distance is the space that operates between groups or individual persons as a result of differences in the culture, ethnicity, age, race, etc. Sexism is the attitude of a person toward other person based on the gender, not on his/her objective knowledge.

In a diverse environment, the knowledge of managing a diverse work force is very important for the people. It helps the society or an organization to increase the retention and productivity of the working people. It enhances the responsiveness of the organization to meet the diverse world of customers, to improve relationship with other communities, to increase the ability of the organization to cope with different cultures of people and to increase accessibility and accountability to all people of diverse environment.