Diversity in Organizations

Workplace Diversity: More than Affirmative Action

Workplace diversity is a broad and complex phrase that means many things to many people, perhaps because as a larger society, we are continually challenged by what it means to have a diverse society. For example, changes in the demographic makeup of the American population have accompanied an evolution in how society thinks and even talks about diversity. The diversity metaphor has progressed from talking about the United States as a melting pot to discussing society as being a mosaic. The “melting-pot” metaphor reflected a time in which a large number of immigrants who came to the United States traveled in order to escape persecution and/or to seize the tremendous opportunities offered by the “American dream.” At times, immigrants were willing to shed their ethnic identities in exchange for the opportunity to call themselves Americans. Yet over time, for some groups, such as African Americans, the melting pot came to symbolize the lack of choice in becoming American for many of their ancestors and the sense that to be anything other than White, blond-haired, and blue-eyed was something to be avoided. The melting pot did not represent an equal blending of ethnic identities of both voluntary and forced immigrants; instead, for many citizens, it represented an avoidance and exclusion of their differences and identities.

Today, an alternative diversity metaphor portrays the American society as a mosaic, a picture made up of many different and unique parts that are able to retain their individual identities yet meaningfully contribute to the whole. The setting aside of the melting-pot metaphor in no way represents a dismissal of one's American-ness, but rather signals the need to have both an American and an ethnic identity.

Given that the United States is largely a country of immigrants, workplace diversity in many ways is nothing new. The workplace has always been diverse, given that it has consisted of individuals with different nationalities as well as values, personalities, perspectives, and ideas. However, Workforce 2000 set into motion a growing concern about the future labor force and the roles of women, people of color, and older workers in the future of corporate America.

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