L01 Benefits of Inclusion and Diversity

A very basic reaction to the identification of these employment disparities is that they should be eliminated because they are unfair: people ought to be treated the same, irrespective of their differences or their diversity. This is perhaps the most basic understanding of inclusion, which is a higher standard than simple “tolerance”.

At the same time, most of us would agree that those who work harder or offer some unique value to their employer deserve to be compensated better than those who do not. In order to survive and thrive, employers have to be willing to reward some of their workers more generously than others. 

A very influential study written by Taylor Cox and Stacey Blake-Beard (Cox & Blake, 1991) explains six specific, recognizable business reasons for organizations to value diversity: cost, resource acquisition, marketing, creativity, problem-solving, and system flexibility. You will be reading excellent summaries of these six reasons in your assigned textbook readings for this lesson. But those are not the only reasons why organizations should value diversity and strive to create climates where people—especially those who are not “typical” or representative of the majority—feel included, not just tolerated or brought in, for cosmetic reasons.

In this lesson’s assigned textbook reading, Bell (2025) also identifies three more areas for which diversity provides employers with competitive advantages: cooperative behaviors, financial returns, and positive interactions with organizational strategy. She also reminds us that these benefits are not automatic; there are difficulties such as negative perceptions about diverse workers (i.e., those who are different from the mainstream), particularly when those workers are first brought into the organization. Studies have shown that, with time and work-related interactions, these difficulties decline; “people stop attending to outward appearances and begin attending to work-related differences” (Bell, 2025).

Lastly, Bell reminds us that business reasons should not be the only motivation for us to study and better prepare ourselves to seek diverse and inclusive organizations. There are moral and social reasons as well, both for organizations and for individuals (Bell, 2025).