Workplace diversity as we know it is changing. Predictions from the U.S. Census Bureau of how the U.S. population will change over the next 40 years. The percentage of white, non-Hispanic Americans in the general population is expected to decline from 61.7 percent in 2015 to 43.7 percent by 2060. Other significant changes have already occurred. For example, today women hold 46.8 percent of the jobs in the United States, up from 38.2 percent in 1970. Furthermore, white males, who composed 63.9 percent of the workforce in 1950, hold just 42.8 percent of today’s jobs.
These rather dramatic changes have taken place in a relatively short time. And, as these trends clearly show, the workforce of the near future will be increasingly His-panic, Asian American, and female. It will also be older, as the average baby boomer approaches the age of 70 around 2020. Because many boomers are likely to post-pone retirement and work well into their 70s to offset predicted reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits, the workforce may become even older than expected.
Diversity means variety. Therefore, diversity exists in organizations when there is a variety of demographic, cultural, and personal differences among the people who work there and the customers who do business there. Surface-level diversity consists of differences that are immediately observable, typically unchangeable, and easy to measure. In other words, independent observers can usually agree on dimensions of surface-level diversity, such as another person’s age, sex, race/ethnicity, or physical capabilities.
Most people start by using surface-level diversity to categorize or stereotype other people. But those initial categorizations typically give way to deeper impressions formed from knowledge of others’ behaviors and psycho-logical characteristics such as personality and attitudes. When you think of others this way, you are focusing on deep-level diversity. Deep-level diversity consists of differences that are communicated through verbal and non-verbal behaviors and are learned only through extended interaction with others. Deep-level diversity is critical for managers to understand the differences that make a difference.
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