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ABSTRACT
This article investigates the previous research of the influence of workplace diversity on organizational performance. It provides a conceptual framework of the influence of diversity on performance, integrating the literature on the potential performance benefits of diversity and potential problems of diversity. The goal of the article is to provide practitioners and scholars alike with a framework that will allow them to design diversity initiatives based on a needs assessment and empirical research
Keywords: Workplace Diversity; Organizational Performance; Diversity Climate
INTRODUCTION
It is estimated that organizations spend $8 billion annually on diversity (Hansen, 2003). Firms are seeing the need to hire a workforce mat reflects today's diverse society, and a major competitive factor for organizations is attracting and retaining the best available human resource talent in the context of the current workforce demographic trends. As women and non- White men increase in proportional representation in the available labor pools in the United States, Europe, and many other parts of the world, it becomes increasingly important for organizations to be successful in hiring and retaining workers from these groups (Cox, 1993). The question managers often ask is how does diversity and its management affect the bottom-line performance of organizations and whether there is any tangible evidence that there is a relationship between them (Jackson & Joshi, 2004). Employers and management researchers have struggled during the past two decades to improve their understanding of how workforce diversity influences organizations, work teams, and individual employees (Jackson & Joshi, 2004). Numerous empirical studies seem to confirm what employers already know: namely that the potential benefits of workplace diversity do not accrue automatically (Jackson & Joshi, 2004). Some studies (Jackson, Joshi, & Erhardt, 2003; Webber & Donahue, 2001) have found that various forms of diversity are associated with greater innovation, improved strategic decision-making, and organizational performance, and other research shows mat various types of team and organizational diversity sometimes increase conflict, reduce social cohesion, and increase turnover (Jackson & Joshi, 2004). Cox (1993) also stated that there is evidence that the existence of diversity may affect certain organizational processes such as communications, creativity, and problem solving, which are closely related to performance. However, Watson et al (1993) stated that the combined impact of ethnic and cultural diversity...