DIVERSITY AND ITS RELATION TO DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES 2
Groeneveld and Van de Walle (2010), provides the link between diversity and
representative bureaucracy. These authors argue that the link arises from democratic reasons
in which government bureaucracies sought to have representative groups in the same
proportion as the share in the population. However, this was mainly meant to ensure equal
opportunities and promotion of representative for the disadvantaged groups but this has
shifted to managing diversity in the organization (Groeneveld & Van de Walle, 2010).
Furthermore, Levine (2003), provides insights on strategies for advancing diversity in the
workplace. The article identifies two themes as it explores organizational commitment to
diversity. One of the themes is the denial of hatred which puts an organization in fantasy as a
peaceful kingdom. The argument in this regard is that the fantasy considers the organization
as a home for specific individuals who view themselves as those who belong to an original
group. As such, the strategy that can be used to advance diversity is for the organization to
banish hate thus enabling the people to cleanse themselves of it, thus it can be considered as
an effort towards promoting the policy of diversity. Furthermore, the other strategy is for the
organization to understand that individual differences in the sense that when a person bonds
with those of his or her own group, it can also be perceived as excluding others. In this
regard, it creates a better avenue for addressing any perceived exclusion among the
employees (Levine, 2003).
The basic democratic principles promoted by diversity emerge from the enablement of
workers and union officials whose main goal is to establish these principles similar to those
surrounding western democracies (Egels-Zande´n & Hyllman, 2007). The first democratic
principle promoted by diversity in an organization is that employing a diverse workforce
creates new opportunities. Secondly, bureaucracy tends to be responsive towards public
interest where the workforce is a reflection of the population it serves based on aspects such
as race and gender. The third democratic principle which is boosted by diversity is that by
