Importance of Diversity: It’s Meaning
Human beings are a valuable asset to any institution. For better functioning, there must be an exchange of ideas. With increased population and improved technology, diversity is becoming a key factor for development.
What is Diversity?
Diversity refers to the existence of a great variety of things. Diversity exists in two forms; the visible and the invisible diversity.
Visible diversity looks into the things that we can, see but can’t change such as gender, age, race and physical attributes. Invisible diversity, on the other hand, includes abstract qualities like work experience, income, marital status and other things.
What is its Importance?
Creates a healthy society. Stereotyping can lead to mistrust and hate among people. Through diversification, we are able to associate with others and change the previous negative views we had about them. This enables us to create a healthy society where people live together in harmony.
Diversity enriches history. Diversity makes the history subject a thrilling course to undertake. You’ll be able to learn about the different communities of the world, where they came from, their religion, culture, etc. Most higher education institutions have History as one of the most studied subjects in their curriculum.
Diversity fosters mutual respect. Respect is the single-most important reason for the success of a diverse environment. Diversity teaches human beings to learn to live with each other. People learn about other cultures and start appreciating their backgrounds. We learn to love and respect people who are not similar to us. Respect prevails when we learn to accommodate others’ opinion.
Help us deal with change. Dealing with change is not an easy thing. Accepting outsiders make uncomfortable. However, when we see the good ideas they have, we learn to appreciate their company and welcome the change.
Diversity enriches our intellect. Intellect refers to the power of the mind to observe and understand with reason. Diversity enables us to move beyond narrow mind set. Associating with other people has a lot to add to our knowledge base. We will be able to learn new languages, skills, and new talents. Being next to smart people make you smarter too. And if you are not smart yet, you are always inspired to try harder. Actually, socially diverse groups are more creative and more intelligent than homogenous groups.
Offers a pool of talents. Talent is the aptitude or skill to do a thing. Compared to a homogenous environment, a diverse environment offers better opportunity to learn new skills and techniques to do a thing. For business organizations, plenty of talent and expertise translates to the success of the business. Those who work on complex duties could use the knowledge and expertise of others to achieve the organization’s goals. This can help the company discover and understand new markets as well.
Diversity makes us global citizen. A global citizen or a world citizen is a person who places himself as a citizen of the world. He think beyond cultural multiplicity. He accepts multiple viewpoints. The spirit of humanity arises within him. Such people come forward to helps the oppressed section of the society – irrespective of whether they are of the same race or not. Fighting for the rights of others makes us better citizens of this world.
Diversity makes us curious. Living with people of a different culture and practices makes us want to learn more about them in order to understand why differences exist. For students, the curiosity to learn, understand and appreciate other cultures prepare them for the real world interactions.
Diversity drives future developments. Each day, we experience new hurdles in fields of technology, medicine, leadership, engineering, etc. Finding solutions to these global issues will need all people to come together and look for lasting solutions.
Conclusion: Everyone wants to be treated fairly and recognized as a human being. Through diversification, we are able to learn more about each other and appreciate our unique differences.
