In a world which is marked by the globalisation and the disappearance of borders within the European Union, it seems obvious that the diversity is a main issue in the workplace. The population within a country is more and more compared to a melting pot so as the workforce. Therefore in order to struggle against that issue, there are two main approaches which seem prima facie really close: Managing diversity and equal opportunities.

Managing Diversity/Equal Opportunities

Managing diversity is “the concept of recognizing the wide variety of qualities possessed by people within an organization. It emphasizes the individuality of people, and the importance of valuing each person for his or her unique combination of skills, competences, attributes, knowledge, personality traits, etc.” (Heery & Noon, 2001) Equal opportunities “reflects a moral concern for social justice, which recognizes and involves implementing measures to eliminate social group-baser discrimination and disadvantage” (Kirton & Greene, 2005) The common point for those two approaches is that everybody has to be treated in the same way without marginalize differences (colour, race, gender, sex, disability). But if those two expressions seem really close to each other, the approach is different. In fact, the first one tries to integrate and value the difference in the world of work. So it is internally initiated. Anyone has to feel comfortable at work no matter his gender, race, sex, etc. People have to use their differences in order to bring something to their work. The second one seems to defend the opposite. Delete the differences and put everybody on the same pedestal by applying “clear rules to control behaviours (externally initiated)” (Anglia Ruskin University, 2009). And the goal is to avoid the risk to hire someone because of his gender, race, sex, etc. Those two approaches can be combined in the workplace. An equal opportunities approach will be focused on giving the same chance for