Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Demographic changes in the workforce and consumer demands, combined with international competition in the globalized markets are some major dynamics of diversity in organizations. Organizations with increasing diverse workforces and more demands in the labor markets have faced the challenges in managing the organizational diversity. In order to overcome the challenges, organizations have incorporated varying approaches in the diversity management literature. Meanwhile, researchers have also investigated the different challenges in diversity and proposed several research framework to manage the diversity. The objective of this paper is to synthesize the existing diverse literature on different aspects of workforce diversity and to enlighten the avenues for future research in managing the organizational diversity. This study reviewed the diversity research on work related outcomes of workforce diversity and presented an agenda for future investigations. The literature review identified several aspects that are related to definitions of diversity, dimensions of diversity, theories used in diversity management research, reasons for existing equivocal and conflicting empirical findings among the relationship between diversity and outcomes. The assessment of diversity literature founded several issues related to inconsistent findings and recommended the opportunities to manage the diversity effectively. This study contributes a theoretical perspectives that enhances the understanding of existing diversity in organizations and develop diverse organizations to take optimum advantage of organizational diversity.