Essay on Chapter 1 Business Now: Change Is the Only Constant

Diversity is a wonderful asset to an organization and brings with it many benefits. Employees bring in their own personal experiences and knowledge to the team (Burns & Kerby, 2012). Having diverse teams allows for the possibility to fix a problem or perfect a process by using different employee’s experiences and past knowledge to find solutions. A diverse workforce can drive economic growth and capture a greater share of the consumer market (Burns & Kerby, 2012). With diversity as a core value, the recruitment pool is widened to find the most qualified candidate and reduces employee turnover as a result. An organization can be highly competitive with a diversity initiative by adapting to a changing environment (Burns & Kerby, 2012).

Before we move on it is important to take the time and think what diversity means to your organization. How does your company define diversity? A simple definition of diversity is that every individual is unique, and has differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, mental abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, personality, cognitive style, or other ideologies. Your organization’s success and competitiveness may depend upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits.

Regardless of how diversity is defined, it is an issue that is sweeping the nation. By the 21st century, racial and ethnic minorities will constitute 25% of the U.S. population, affecting the makeup of the U.S. labor force (7). By the year 2000, women will constitute 47% of the total workforce and the average age of the workforce is expected to increase from 36 in 1986 to age 39 (7). If the corporate society does not address the issue by learning how to manage diversity, they will fail.

These losses necessitated governmental action in the financial markets. Companies such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns lost all of their stock’s value and were forced into bankruptcy. This risk spread throughout the American banks, forcing the American government to step in and buy all of the securitized, troubled assets from the balance sheets of

“Diversity is a variety of demographic, cultural, and personal differences among an organization’s employees and customers (Williams. 249)”. Diversity is having different people who have from different

1. What factors contribute to the rapid pace of change in business? Is the pace likely to accelerate or decrease over the next decade? Why? There are four factors that help the change of in business. They are natural resources, capital, human resources, and entrepreneurship. I think this is more likely to accelerate over time because people need these services. As people grow and develop their needs change. As things happen in people’s lives expectantly or expectantly they are more likely to need some type of assistance.

Many organizations are beginning to view diversity as an organizational change. This could possibly mean changes in the power dynamics and organizational structure, the way decisions are made, and the way an

If you are a manager living in the state of Florida, then you know human diversity has become an important part in human resource management and the workplace. Florida is a melting pot of many different races and ethnic backgrounds. I currently work at a university and our workforce is very diverse. I believe it is that way because HR uses common principles of the talent management agenda to create a unified and compassionate workplace culture. The role of diversity is part of their staffing strategy which drives organizational success (society for Human Resource Management, 2011). A good example is the PepsiCo. who believes its commitment to diversity makes it more competitive and successful. Pepsi believe that diversity isn’t just the right

In today's business world, corporations have become more complex and more unpredictable, in fact it is considered almost "healthy" that a corporation experience change and transformation. Companies need to be susceptible and ready to acknowledge the challenges that change presents with and try to overcome these for the benefit of the company as a whole. Due to the ever-changing business and social environments caused strongly by globalizations, this has meant that companies must keep themselves up-to-date, whether it is through using the latest form of technology or through the latest management fad. There are many factors involved with change and the successful management of it which can often be a difficult time for

1. What factors contribute to the rapid pace of change in business? Is the pace likely to accelerate or decrease over the next decade? Why?

AIG, one of the biggest insurance company was always considered to be way too much important for the economy 'too big to fail ' by everyone which is why the Federal Government had to use their bazooka for the bailout. What led the near collapse of AIG is the large amount of Credit default swaps that they were dealing with. The loan that consumer had taken under mortgage backed security had defaulted. Absence of stringent regulations majorly led AIG to accumulate huge amount of assets in the form of real estate. In due course of time the real estate was termed as 'toxic ' which was the major reason that led to the start of 'economic meltdown '.

We live in a world where, because of the Internet and the Web, we can communicate with someone in Africa or Asia as easily as we can communicate with someone in the office next door. A company like Xerox represents businesses all over the world, and the diversity of its employees is a big plus. Acknowledging our differences and

With the changing demographics of the U.S. workforce (Ng & Burke, 2005) and the need for organizations to continually innovate their products and services to remain competitive, embracing diversity and the benefits its brings is going to be key to driving a successful organization

Diversity in workforce “include, but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work experience”(Thomas 1992). Diversity in the workforce is initially perceived as a response toward the increasing diversity of the consumers in the market (Agocs & Burr, 1996). From there, it has been observed that capitalizing on existing differences among the employees provide benefits to the organization. Diversity in workforce fosters and encourages

The behavior in which a consumer keeps buying a product time and again instead of buying products from other competitive companies is called Brand Loyalty. Brand loyalty can often be termed as Customer Loyalty, Brand Commitment, Product Loyalty etc. Brand Loyalty is seen among consumers when they realize that the product is better than the other products that are available in the market. This affinity of a consumer towards a particular product is considered to be brand loyalty. Although, this consumer behavior is not limited to a simple repetition of a purchase, there is also a psychological reasoning behind the consumers’ affinity towards behavior.