Abstract:
World, today, has undergone demographic changes. These changes have profoundly
influenced the organizations also. Sociopolitical environment, economic trends or
changing workplace demographics and other such factors have changed the scenarios of
world. Immigrants came and mixed with locals, societies lost ‗originalities‘ and soon
diversity started reflecting itself in corporate world. As a result organizations allocated
budgets for diversity training and management. Diversity management was included in
their agendas. Sensing the importance and benefits of multiplicity, companies started
calling themselves as ―diverse‖. Soon the word ―diverse‖ became a word of pride for
them and many of top fortune companies chose this word to introduce them. In 2001, 12
out of top 15 fortune 500 companies opted to include the words ―diversity‖ or
―inclusiveness‖ in their company profiles. Organizational diversity is a source of
providing competitive edge to industries by evolving new ideas and innovation. On the
other hand misinterpretation, disbelief and skirmish are also associated with
‗heterogeneity‘. This may result in high level of employee absence, more employees
resigning from company and least productivity. So the situation becomes absurd. If firms
accept diversity conflicts may arise, while avoiding may risk innovation and
competitiveness. Organizations deploy different strategies to counter barriers impeding
workplace diversity. A quantitative study was carried out to study the barriers
encountered in accepting workplace diversity and various strategies adopted to counter
these barriers.
