ationality, functional or educational background, physical and cognitive capability, language, lifestyles, values and beliefs, sexual orientation, physical abilities, social class, age, socio-economic status, and religion (Dessler, 1998; Ferdman, 1995). The National Council for Voluntary Organisations defines Diversity as the integration of age, gender, sexual orientation, religious preferences, disability and ethnicity without biases into society (NCVO, 2007). According to CIPD, diversity has multiple levels like that of Social Category Diversity that includes demographic variances like age, gender, ethics and race; Informational Diversity which embraces organisational variances like that of education, experience in the field and utility and lastly, Value Diversity encompasses psychological differences like that of attitudes, behaviour and personality (Worman – CIPD, 2005). According to Anderson and Metcalfe, completely diverse people working together may lead to conflicts owing to diversity in their ideologies, experience, personalities, culture and attitude among other variables. Organisations that promote creativity need to find a way to satisfy such differences and lay out ground rules to ensure successful team working. Thereby, it assures competitive edge owing to the creativity and innovation brought by diverse perspectives in products, service pattern and methods of working. The downside is that organisations need to ensure that this does not let employees lose their individuality in the race to fit in (Anderson & Metcalfe, 2003).
'Diversity' is often associated with 'ethnicity' as in case of American Indian/ Alaska Native MBA students showed 89% in a survey. Least association was seen in case of Asian-Indian MBA students which showed 67%. 'Gender' was seen to be the second most common associate among all survey groups. It showed strongest association of 78% among American Indian/ Alaska Native MBA students and least association of 43% by Asian-Indian undergraduates (Fig 2.1, 2.2). Among all survey groups, Latino/Hispanic undergraduates associated 'diversity' with 'language skills' while Asian-Indian undergraduates relate 'diversity' with 'religion' and American Indian/Alaska Native undergraduates connected 'diversity' with 'age' (Black Collegian, 2006).
History of Diversity and Legislation:
Legislation:
The concept of diversity came into power in 1990's (Gatrell and Swan, 2008). In the 70's, 80's and early 90's the need for diversity in the workplaces in UK grew because of the diminishing talent sources as well as to curb the discriminatory HR practices that were carried out against colour and gender. The first piece of legislation to be passed to support diversity was the Equal Pay Act 1970 legislates against discrimination between men and women in relation to their terms and conditions of employment followed by Sex Discrimination Act 1974 which made it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of gender. After these came the following pieces of legislation:
Race Relations Act 1976 – protection against discrimination on the grounds of 'race or ethnic or national origins.'
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 – protection against discrimination for disabled people.
Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003 - made it unlawful to discriminate against workers on the grounds of religion or belief.
Employment Equality (Sexual
