The challenges and opportunities in developing an organizational approach to managing workforce diversity

For the past two decades, the concept of managing individual difference in the workforce has been popular in many Western organizations with calls to manage this diversity for the greater good of the organization and the individuals in it (Kossek, Lobel, & Brown, 2006). Paradoxically, there is no agreed definition for the concept and its description remains unclear, and often contested (Jonsen, Maznevski, & Schneider, 2011). Indeed, there are a range of terms used which include the word diversity: diversity at work, managing diversity, diversity management, workplace diversity; productive diversity, and others. The foundation of the concept of managing diversity rests on the idea that an organizations workforce displays a range of diverse characteristics. The characteristics that are included under the heading of diversity vary. According to Drucker (2007), diversity encompasses many demographic and socioeconomic aspects of society including the ageing population; the greater reliance on knowledge workers; increases in immigration; the changing role of women in the workplace; and the increasing cultural and gender differences in organizations. Kirton and Greene (2005) suggest that gender and race can be regarded as the major organizing principles of diversity in the labor market, with disability, age and sexual orientation being other features of workforce diversity. But many interpretations of diversity go further than these labor market demographic groups. For example, Heery and Noon (2001, p. 215), in the Oxford , describe Dictionary of Human Resource Management diversity as the concept of recognizing the wide variety of qualities possessed by people within an organization. The concept emphasizes the individuality of people, and the importance of valuing each person for his or her unique combination of skills, competences, attributes, knowledge, personality traits, etc. Managing diversity or having an organizational diversity program is the conce