Managing Human Resources, Eight Edition

What Is Diversity?

Although definitions vary, diversity simply refers to human characteristics that make people different from one another. The English language has well over 23,000 words to describe personality2 (such as “outgoing,” “intelligent,” “friendly,” “loyal,” “paranoid,” and “nerdy”). The sources of individual variation are complex, but they can generally be grouped into two categories: those over which people have little or no control and those over which they have some control.3

diversity

Human characteristics that make people different from one another.

Individual characteristics over which a person has little or no control include biologically determined characteristics such as race, sex, age, and certain physical attributes, ...