Future Effects of the Minorities in the Work Place and Managing Diversity to Increase Productivity

This paper will discuss the trend toward a diversified labor market, as we move toward work force 2000. Statistics show that the upcoming work force will have fewer white males, with most studies showing a decrease to 39% of the total. Significant increase in the numbers of minorities, women, and immigrants will have a serious effect on how Human Resource Departments operate within companies. These demographic changes in the face of the labor market will require new methods of managing and training in all sectors of the corporate structure. Moving forward to manage and train individuals for the challenges of the year 2000 and beyond will require corporations to address these needs in one of two fundamental ways; 1. The corporation can change its philosophy to provide a diversified work place to meet the needs of the individuals that are employed there. 2. Assist minorities in adapting to the corporate culture and successfully master the environment. The hypothesis for this project is that diversity training can be the bridge that unites the two basic approaches into a new understanding of diversity issues and their impact on productivity and competitiveness. Organizations will align training and education, particularly on diversity management, in their strategic planning. Training needs to be more future oriented. If a corporation hopes to succeed in the future they must closely examine its customer base and work force to determine whether it is meeting the needs of those individuals. Diversity management training & education will be incremental in the process. The Hypothesis is that diversity training can be the foundation that eventually builds the two very basic approaches into a new understanding of diversity issues and their utmost impact on productivity & competitiveness