Changing Demographics: Implications for Organizations

The rapidly changing demographics of the world population will bring about unprecedented changes in the global economic environment, creating unique challenges and opportunities for organizations worldwide. These challenges and opportunities will span multiple organizational functions, including strategy, human resources, cross-cultural management, and marketing, while operating simultaneously at the functional, corporate, and public policy levels nationally and internationally. In this entry, we focus on three of the major drivers of these changes—the rapid aging of the workforce, the increasing diversity of religion, and the changing ethnic composition of employees, [Page 165]along with the implications of these for different organizations.