Diversity

(a) Organizations view social responsibility as the only area that benefits from the management of diversity. There are six areas where sound management practices could create a competitive advantage: cost, resource acquisition, marketing, creativity, problem-solving, and organisation flexibility. One way to view social responsibility is to go beyond the firm's compliance and engage in ‘actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law’ to afford all stakeholders (investors, employees, customers) respect and compassion.

Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to give equal access and benefits to people by organizations in all industries, so as not to exclude them from the activities of society (such as education, employment, health care, or social welfare). It places emphasis on members of various social groups, which might have at some time suffered from discrimination. Social groupings generally emphasized in such a way are those delineated by aspects of gender, race or religion. Equal opportunity is therefore primarily about compliance with discrimination legislation, accompanied by positive or affirmative action aimed at challenging and removing prejudice and stereotyping. In practice, equal opportunity is said to exist when “people with similar abilities reach similar results after doing the same amount of work”. No one really knows who originated the concept of managing diversity, but it is based on the premise that people should be valued as individuals for reasons related to business interests, as well as for moral and social reasons. It is where organizations become concerned with embracing the differences between people, and not erasing the innovation and creativity inherent in those differences to the overall success of the organization. These differences extend beyond matters of race, colour, gender, disability, age, religious belief and sexuality to include cultural differences, differences in working style, ethnic background and education. Management of diversity therefore acknowledges any differences that can impact on the fair or equitable treatment of people.

Whilst equal opportunity focuses on employment practices, the concept of diversity extends to the work environment, including individual attitudes and behaviours. Yet, management of diversity is related to equal opportunity as there is a direct relationship between individual attitudes and employment practices. Equal opportunity is the core concept that unifies diversity. Though related, there are various differences between the concepts. Companies are becoming proactive in making diversity a business issue because they want to benefit from the knowledge and talents of a wider pool of employees.

With reference to the various legislation that governs the treatment of employees in the workplace,