Diversity

Introduction

Diversity relates to gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief. Diversity also refers to the myriad ways we are different in other respects such as educational level, job function, socio-economic background, personality profile, geographic location, marital status and whether or not one has family.

I have taken the opportunity to explain my perception of age, gender, personality and ethnic types of diversity and demographic characteristics and differences.

Age Characteristics

With the fact that today's workplace has individuals that vary in age, most employees can be placed into one of 4 categories: Mature, Baby Boomer, Generation X'ers and Millenials. The members of each group, based on age, are generally easy to identify; however definitely have different characteristics.

The Mature group consists of people born prior to 1946. Generally speaking, members within this group have a high respect for authority, place duty before pleasure, are patient, avoid challenging the system and are dedicated to the project or job once they accept it. They also place a high value on honor and integrity.

The Baby Boomers are primarily characterized by a sense that they live to work, maintain an sense of optimism, willing to go into debt, count on future income, and strive for convenience and personal gratification. They also are team and process oriented. Additionally, many are taking steps to try to preserve their youth.

The Generation X'ers are born between 1965 and 1980. Their characteristics are work to live - not live to work, view jobs more in terms of a contract, and believe in clear and consistent expectations. They usually stay at jobs longer if there are promotional opportunities. They also desire versatility.

The Millenial's characteristics are almost at the other end of the spectrum from that of the Mature group. Millenials appear to be living in the moment, rely on technology to perform as much of the assignment as possible, "demand" clear and consistent expectations to ensure productivity and either question or challenge many things. This group is the most diverse demographically.

Gender Characteristics

Gender characteristics are one the most visible of the diverse and demographic characteristics within an organization. Historically speaking, women really have not been a part of the workforce for very long, yet they often bring new and refreshing ideas and approaches.

"Women managers tend to have more of a desire to build than a desire to win," says Debra Burrell, regional training director of the Mars-Venus Institute in New York. "Women are more willing to explore compromise and to solicit other people's opinions." By contrast, she says, men often think if they ask other people for advice, they'll be perceived as unsure or as a leader who doesn't have answers.

Other female leadership strengths include:

* Empower teams and staff better than men

* Encourage openness and are accessible.

* Respond quickly to calls for assistance.

* More tolerant of differences, so they're more skilled at managing diversity.

* Identify problems quickly and more accurately than men.

* Define job expectations and provide valuable feedback.

Men tend to be quicker at making decisions, compared to women. Male managers are also more adept at forming what management psychologist Ken Siegel calls "navigational relationships," or temporary teams set up to achieve short term goals.

Men also tend to be decisive, logical, aggressive, and often more independent than woman. As men and woman work more closely together, they are learning from one another and picking up characteristics from one another; thus improving the quality of working relationships and becoming more productive.

Personality Traits

There are several types of personality traits that are used within an organization. A person's personality consists of not only mental traits, but physical traits as well. Understanding a personality, although difficult, is important as the employee's individual personality determines in many cases their work ethic, their professionalism, their attire and their dedication among many other traits and behaviors ultimately leading to their overall job performance.

Most employers are dedicated to obtaining the best personality trait to fill a position and many conduct extensive personality testing to achieve that goal. The testing primarily looks for positive traits as opposed to negative traits:

One type of test is the Workplace Personality Profile; whereas through a series of 70 questions, is focuses the following:

* Drive to Achieve

* Self-Confidence

* Introversion/Extroversion

* Assertiveness

* Service Orientation

* Flexibility

* Reliability

Another type of test is the Applicant Risk Profiler; whereas through a series of 30 minutes of questions, the test administrator can determine the following: