Executive Summary In this report we will be talking about diversity, but focusing on personality, gender, and ethnicity. This report should allow for our reader to learn about the importance of these topics and will hopefully allow for a more open mind and a larger scope of both the issues minority groups face and the benefits of have people from all walks of life, as well as the aspects of personality that affect the whole workplace. The workplace should be a welcoming and motivating environment for every individual. Companies achieve goals and success from arising ideas, diversity creates a realm of different views and expertise to be taken into consideration when problem solving and creating ideas. Personality in the Workplace Personality has a major impact on every aspect of your life from how you interact with others, the career you pick, whether you can hold a job and much more. While personality testing is very popular, in both the corporate world and day to day life, there are many holes in the system that people don’t know about. Through proper testing we can determine many things about your aptitude, your ability to learn, and even measure your potential to he a hazard. Personality testing can also help us to find employees who may be at risk of breaking ethical standards. Gender Diversity in the Workplace Gender diversity in the workplace is increasingly growing around the world, but many issues still remain. Unconcious bias in the workplace plays a major role that affects a team’s work ethic and ability to acheieve goals. Men and females are continued to be categorized into traditional gender roles instead of being categorized by their knowledge and accomplishments. Gender equality is still a developing idea around the world and needs to be recognized. Without gender diversity in the workplace, work places are limiting their amount of knowledge and perspectives that are taken into consideration which doesn’t allow for ultimate success. Summary Ethnicity Ethnic diversity is a very hot topic in todays day and age, many companies have policies to protect and encourage ethnic diversity. Cultural diversity has been shown to produce a higher morale and a major increase in community relations. Even outside of the workplace it has been shown that helpfulness, friendliness, and social acceptance are greater in more diverse cities. Conclusion Our report covers the idea of how diversity affects a workplace. We discussed three major characteristics of diversity; personality, gender and ethnicity. For the topic of personality we discussed the different types of behaviour that exist, how certain characteristic traits are required to successfully achieve goals and tasks in the workplace as a team. As well as how mental health affects the capability to be successful in daily work. For gender we discussed the bias outlook on gender diversity, how gender diversity benefits team and company performance. As well as the positive and negative affects of gender diversity in the workplace, how different values and views can decrease a team’s capability to communicate and have an effective work ethic. We discussed the development of gender equality around the world, the treatment of each gender and how individuals are viewed by traditional roles depending on their gender. We discussed Ethnicity as our third topic, explaining what ethnicity means and how it is viewed. The importance and advantage of a diverse ethnic work place.

Introduction

We have compiled our research into one report to show how different characteristics such as; personality, gender and ethnicity affect a work environment. Firstly, is discussed personality and how an individual’s personality displays different levels of accomplishments and actions. Secondly, we describe the affect resulted of being surrounded by a gender diverse work place and the ongoing issues about categorizing males and females into certain traditional roles. We discuss the steps that need to be taken in order to eliminate gender bias workplaces and the benefits that will arise from these actions. Lastly, we discussed ethnicity and its important role in developing a successful work environment.

Purpose

The purpose of this report was to analyze the major aspects that a diverse team consists of. In the evolving business landscape, it is important to be both openminded and educated on these issues. Individuals need to take the time to truly acknowledge the current issues about diversity and action to resolve them. In this report we hope you gain valuable knowledge on personality, gender, and ethnicity. With proper utilization of this report one should be able to understand what makes a diverse work force and its benefits.

Background

In the developing world we are reaching new heights when it comes to universal acceptance and equality. Our developing world is improving in not only eliminating racism and sexism, but as well as promoting and supporting multiculturalism and equality. This report examines the benefits of having a diverse work place and the issues still present in the work place.Scope We ensured to leave bias opinions and statements out of our report, as it isn’t information instead an opinion. We ensured to check our information from several different sources in order to only display correct information. We used journal articles, news articles and reports on diversity in the workplace as our sources of research.

Methods

We achieved the completion of this assignment by managing our time effectively and communicating. We viewed several websites of information to confirm the information was correct as well as sometimes bias. We made sure our information was sources from recent websites, journal articles and reports to confirm information was still valid.

Personality

Types of Personalities

Personality plays a large roll in everything from how individuals interact with others to the type of career they excel at. When looking at personality types and the psychology behind it one can quickly tell that the science is not always exact, and is continuously evolving as time goes on. The most common form of personality testing in today’s society is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. A report by Forbes in 2014 found that there were over 2 Million people a year using this test, its popularity extends into the corporate world with many companies using the Myers-Briggs test (Essig, 2014). The issue with this statistic is the test, the Myers-Briggs model has no scientific backing, in fact the founders of this test, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabell Briggs Myers had no Psychological background. Briggs possesses a degree in Agriculture, and Myers a degree in Political Science (Johnson, 2016). If the Myers-Briggs model is incorrect then what is right? Throughout the years there have been arguments for other analysis, some having thousands of personalities some having less than three. Aspects of personality include; Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, more commonly referred to as OCEAN (Cherry, 2018). Studies have shown that these factors of personality can all be measured accurately across more than 50 cultures. When looking further into personality, many psychologists say that nature and nurture are two major players in the development of your personality. Findings also show that personality has hereditary origins, with the five traits average heritability being 48% (Cherry, 2018).

Illustration 1: Multiple Personalities Source: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/465981892673473711/

The Affects of OCEAN on Your Career

OCEAN can be very useful in the work place, it is a model that can be applied to predict things such as work place social behavior and performance. Conscientiousness is a strongest indicator of job performance, those with higher conscientious are more likely to be strong leaders and tend to learn more. While that may sound wonderful, life is about moderation, people with extremely high conscientious scores are not as likely to adapt and may not be as creative. High neuroticism scores may indicate an employee with a higher chance of an emotional break down. Emotional stability is heavily linked towards career satisfaction as well as life satisfaction. A high score on the extroversion category shows strong leadership abilities but extroverts tend to behave impulsively. Agreeable people have a tendency to stick to the rules and are less likely to be involved in any workplace incidents, those who are less agreeable have a tendency to be counterproductive and have decrease career success. The openness trait is what allows for a more versatile employee and results them in being effective leaders, they also have more consistent performance over the course of their career. A deeper understanding of leadership and OCEAN can give an individual a more in-depth view on how each trait affects employees and can let managers and coworkers utilize to their fullest potential. While also helping an individual understand how another individual thinks and the reason as to why they behave in the manner they do (Florida Tech, N/A).

Personality Disorders & Business

When people think of personality disorders they think of the common things such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse, and depression. Most people don’t think about psychopaths, but why would they? The general perception of a psychopath is the deranged serial killer Hollywood has pushed for years. While some psychopaths may be deranged, many have skills that not only help them blend into society but excel, especially in business. Psychopaths are egocentric, they behave with grandiose, they come off as charismatic, and charming. Their ability to analyze the people around them, they can size a person up quickly and use the information to take advantage of those around them. While it is impossible to have an exact head count of how many psychopaths may be in the workplace, a study’s findings showed about 3% of those analyzed score in the psychopath range, the number is well above the estimated percentage in the general population which sits at 1%. It is estimated that around 15% of prisoners are psychopaths (Lipman, 2013). Now you might not think 3% is a lot but if we look deeper we see a scarier trend, an Australian study has found that about 1 in 5 CEO’s scored in the psychopath range. The study took 261 senior professionals from the United States and found that 21% scored in the psychopath range (The Telegraph, 2016). The issue with having a psychopath in the top tier of a corporation comes down to the psychopath’s disregard for others, they have no remorse and this can compromise both how the employees are treated and the way the company handles social responsibility. Business to a psychopath is a game, but it’s a game that they play without rules.

Gender

Bias Outlook on Genders Diversity in a Workplace

For many decades, males were viewed as worthy of achieving an education and a job, while women were not considered ideal for an education or job. The workplace has developed drastically in recent decades, women and men have equal opportunity for careers. Although, many believe that there still exists unfair treatment towards women when it comes to wages and bias opinions on their performance in the workplace. Unconscious bias toward males and females in the workplace is very common when it comes to feedback, job opportunities, and individual accomplishments. Unconscious bias towards women is drastically more common than it is towards men, and the company’s ability to be successfully competitive in the workforce requires a diverse group of members on the team (Martinelli, 2013). Assessments on employees in a workplace have been proven to result in different outcomes on job performance, depending on whether you are a male or female. Men’s accomplishments are recognized significantly more and are viewed as individual accomplishments whilst women’s are viewed as a team effort (Jessica Edge, 2018).Women being expected to be team oriented whilst men independent, creates stereotypes in the workplace which changes the perspective of each gender’s capability for success (Jessica Edge, 2018). This negatively affects a woman’s ability to gain leadership positions in a company, salary raises, and advancement. When unconscious bias is removed from a workplace atmosphere, it creates the ability to successfully pursue and achieve goals as a team.  It provides the opportunity to include everyone in decision making, taking each employee’s individual ideas and expertise into consideration.

Illustration 2: Gender Equality https://www.insidewaste.com.au/general/news/1053182/arcadis-recognised-employer-choice-gender-diversity

Positives and Negatives of Gender Diversity in a Workplace

Many studies have proven that gender diversity in the workplace drastically improves team performance. Males and females each hold certain characteristics and when joining these individual characteristics, improves team effectiveness in problem-solving and creating ideas. Gender diversity and equal treatment of genders changes a company’s culture and boosts company profits as it allows for several different perspectives to be taken into consideration when problem solving and decision making (Tuson, n.d.). Having a gender diverse workspace benefits a company’s capability to generate new ideas and problem solve, because of the different perspectives and expertise each individual holds (Mossevelde, 2012). There are many disadvantages that may be caused due to gender diversity according to others as well. The issue of communication is one factor, one individual’s beliefs or ideas may contradict another individual’s beliefs or ideas. Communication issues hold working teams back in their capability to achieve a goal or an idea. That is the reason why companies need to create an atmosphere that educates employees to respect and dignify each other to avoid tension. Companies need to be aware of who they are hiring to become apart of the team, they need be certain that an individual holds characteristics such as; respect and open mindedness towards change. Employees need to be respectful and open minded to be able to work as a team effectively, especially when each individual has contrary beliefs to another individual’s beliefs. Values that are different can affect a team’s productivity as well, a team lacking similar things in common can cause unproductivity or inefficiency in completing a task.

The Development of Gender Diversity in the World

In many countries, women still aren’t provided with equal opportunities in the workplace, countries such as Guatemala, India, Egypt and many more. Women are portrayed as having a domestic role and are not encouraged to gain education and achieve a career (Argintar, 2013). Countries that encourage diversity in the workplace have shown significantly more achievement in the economy’s success. Although, countries that claim they support gender equality, still display behavior that would prove otherwise. For example, offering the same job positions to both genders but males still achieving a higher salary than women. As quoted by (Report, 2014),“The highest paying fields are still dominated by men, it could take a full 45 years before this gender inequality disappears.” In order to begin minimizing gender inequality in the workplace, males and females shouldn’t be categorized into traditional gender roles. Efforts should be made to encourage women to pursue careers that are viewed mainly as traditional male occupations. As well as men should be encouraged to pursue careers that are mainly occupied by females, if that is an interest of theirs. Employees should be familiar with anti-discrimination laws, in order for each gender to respect the opposite gender fairly. Individuals should not be categorized by gender in the workplace, instead by each individual’s expertise and how much they contribute to their team.

Ethnicity

Ethnic Diversity

What is ethnicity, and how is the ethnic diversity preserved in a workplace? An ethnic group is a social group that shares a specific distinctive trait, it can be considered as type of generalizing. According to a Gary Hurd, a professor that is known for his study in Forensic Taphonomist, states that there are currently 6909 distinct languages spoken, excluding the rule of mutual intelligibility (Hurd, 2018). Ethnicity can be defined through many ways such as history, culture, language and more characteristics. Though diversity is a good thing, it is a topic that has much debate. Ethnic diversity and immigration tend to reduce social solidarity and social capitol, in the short run.

Illustration 3: Ethnicity in a Workplace Source: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2012/07/12/11900/the-top-10-economic-facts-of-diversity-in-the-workplace/ Ethnicity Advantage in Workplace

There are numerous distinct types of ethnic groups, for example religion. Diverse types of religion for example are like Hinduism, or Christianity. Another identifiable ethnic group can be such as the nature of the skin tone of an individual, just like black, brown, or white skin tones. Ethnic diversity in the workplace is believed to be an advantage for some organizations in several ways (Poppy Lauretta McLeod, 1996). Cultural Diversity can lead to higher morale, as well as it can have a major increase in community relations (Smith, 2017). Ethnicity is a social construct of genetic justification, which can include a combination of different ethnic traits. A study on twitter that analyses the sentiments of tweets across 200 metropolitan areas in the United States, shows the helpfulness, friendliness, positivity, and social acceptance was greater in a more diverse city.

Importance of Ethnic People

In conclusion, ethnicity resembles a great force in the structural implication of any organization. It is said that the greater the ethnicity in an organization, the better the output. Organizations that implement programs and fairs for people of different backgrounds are sought out as leaders in their environment. This information provides you with the importance and value that multiple rings of ethnicity displays in any work. High human capital beings, also known as talent, is a major key to success in the new generation of economic growth. The individual’s creativity and ideas are the most essential material in the economic success of a territory or firm.

Conclusion

The main goal of this report is to educate the readers on how work performance is greatly impacted due to personality, gender and ethnicity. Readers are initially presented by a summary of the report and an introduction. Following that, the three core subtopics:

• Types of personalities and the effect on the work place
• Outcome of gender diversity at work
• Importance of ethnic diversity

The personality section displays how different types of personalities play a large roll in a work environment. Personalities define how people of differing personalities and mindsets can affect the people around them, as well as their contributions to their work place. It discusses the ways of measuring people’s personalities, and how our methods have developed over time. It then merges in to the topic of gender inequality. Gender inequality has been a topic of much controversy since for centuries and still is to this day a topic of many issues, especially in the work place. Women have, in many cultures and countries around the world, always been regarded as ‘nurturers’, whereas men have been known as the providers of the household. Although many people are content with this mentality as they have been bred with it, this stunts the progression of women around the world who strive to excel in the workplace alongside their male counterparts. The last and final topic of the report describes the impact of ethnicity in the work place, and how it can provide a positive outcome. Many types of talents are expressed at work due to diverse ethnic people, providing an advantage in creation of ideas and problem solving. All in all, having distinct personality, gender, and ethnicity in the work place, is an important aspect that provides many benefits and supportive offerings.

Glossary

Agreeableness – How easily someone gets along with others Extraversion – The act of being outgoing Conscientiousness – how mindful you are of the things you’re doing and their impact Contrary – opposite in nature, direction or meaning (Dictionary, 2018) Grandiose – viewed gloriously and monumentally Neuroticism – A measurement of the degree to which a person views the world as threatening, distressing and unsafe Openness – ability to be open and frank Psychopath – A person suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal social behavior (Wikipedia, n.d.) Unconscious bias – social stereotypes about certain groups of peoples that individuals form outside their own consciousness awareness (Navarro, n.d)

References

Argintar, L. (2013, December 18). Retrieved October 15, 2018, from Elite Daily: https://www.elitedaily.com/women/separate-unequal-countries-worst-gender-inequality-education Cherry, K. (2018, October 19). The Five Big Personality Traits. Retrieved from verywellmind: https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-2795422 Dictionary. (2018). Essig, T. (2014, September 29). The Mysterious Popularity Of The Meaningless Myers-Briggs (MBTI). Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddessig/2014/09/29/the-mysterious-popularity-of-the-meaningless-myers-briggs-mbti/#3b268b791c79 Florida Tech. (N/A, N/A N/A). How the Big Five Personality Traits Influence Work Behavior. Retrieved from Florida Tech Online: https://www.floridatechonline.com/blog/business/how-the-big-five-personality-traits-influence-work-behavior/ Hurd, G. (2018, 07 25). How many ethnic groups are there in the whole world? Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/How-many-ethnic-groups-are-there-in-the-whole-world Jessica Edge, E. K. (2018, April 19). The Conference Board of Canada. Retrieved from The Conference Board of Canada: https://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=9620 Johnson, J. A. (2016, March 21). Are Scores on the MBTI Totally Meaningless. Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/cui-bono/201603/are-scores-the-mbti-totally-meaningless Lipman, V. (2013, April 25). The Disturbing Link Between Psychopathy And Leadership. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/04/25/the-disturbing-link-between-psychopathy-and-leadership/#48ba79c4104a Martinelli, V. (2013, March 31). The Truth About Unconscious Bias in the Workplace. talentculture. Retrieved October 27, 2018, from https://talentculture.com/the-truth-about-unconscious-bias-in-the-workplace/ Mossevelde, C. v. (2012, February 8). universumglobal.com. Retrieved from universumglobal.com: https://universumglobal.com/the-pros-and-cons-to-diversity/ Navarro, R. (n.d). Office of Diversity and Outreach. Poppy Lauretta McLeod, S. A. (1996). Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in Small Groups . Sage Journals. Report, S. (2014, June 6). 10 Examples of Gender Inequality in the World. Borgen Magazine. Smith, H. (2017, 03 21). GlobalIT.com. Retrieved from Global.LT: https://global-lt.com/advantages-cultural-diversity-workplace/ The Telegraph. (2016, September 13). 1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths, study finds. Retrieved from The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/13/1-in-5-ceos-are-psychopaths-australian-study-finds/ Tuson, S. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2018, from Hr Gazette: https://hr-gazette.com/the-benefits-of-gender-equality-in-the-workplace/ Wikipedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy