Diversity is the fact or quality of being different. Diversity as a social issue is not new to the United States. The United States has always been a merger of cultures, and has undergone periods of discomfort from being the world's melting pot. A census predicts that the United States" population in 2050 will change drastically (Fernandez 123). According to McHugh the total population is expected to increase by approximately thirty-five percent: 383 million verses 280 million today. The United States" demographic makeup will differ too. An estimation that the Hispanic population will increase from nine percent to twenty-five percent, and Asian population will rise from three to eight percent. African Americans, the largest minority group now, is expected to increase its numbers by sixty-two percent over the next fifty years (McHugh 91). Some might think that diversity is limited to race, but it is not. Diversity can be people's gender, religious or moral upbringings, different cultural backgrounds, sexual orientation, age, and disabilities. Businesses prefer to have diversity to help their organizations: identify and capitalize on opportunities to improve products and services, attract, retain, motivate, and improve quality of decision-making. Other businesses engage in diversity as a defensive measure to help head off employee lawsuits and government prosecution. Diversity has many advantages, disadvantages, and there are ways to make a diverse work place work. .
First, diversity in the workplace in the United States will always be a factor. Since the United States is the melting pot of the world, diversity is everywhere. Being a diverse country and having a diverse workplace has many advantages. According to McHugh, research has been done to show that heterogeneous groups are more productive than homogeneous groups in the workplace (McHugh 215). All cultures, ages, and genders cannot only learn to work together but they do it successfully.
