Diversity in Organizations
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The business world is constantly evolving; business owners are adapting diversity policies and strategies that appeal to their employees, clients, vendors, and suppliers. Diversity in the workplace can bring with it a host of benefits along with some potential challenges for business owners to manage. The concept of diversity is much larger than race, ethnicity, or gender. Diversity can encompass employees with characteristics that include, but are not limited to: religious and political beliefs, gender, ethnicity, education, sexuality, socio-economic background, and geographic location (Brookins, 2014). With demographic factors like immigration and economic factors like globalization, the modern workforce is far more varied in its composition than it has been previously (Simons & Rowland, 2011). The concept and inclusion of diversity is becoming more and more important to successful business outcomes.
The six aspects of organizational effectiveness include: the capability to attract human resources, cost, the issues of innovation, creativity, and problem solving, the marketing advantages of a diverse workforce, and organizational creativity. How does diversity within an organization impact different aspects of organizational effectiveness? Diversity within an organization can allow for positive marketing opportunities and having a variety of people can result in cost-reduction strategies. Multicultural management allows for more fluidity, and with increasing diversity, the organization is better prepared to react to a changing environment (Simons & Rowland, 2011).
Diversity is important in today’s business organizations because of the globalization of many companies. It may have started as a legal debate, but now is a positive reinforcement for many organizations as they expand internationally. Having a diverse workforce inspires an organization’s innovation and their consumer capabilities. Management needs to focus on not only having diversity training, but embracing the concept into the organization’s culture as well. Employees want to feel their opinions are appreciated and desired. Setting this type of culture allows employees to feel comfortable expressing their ideas with the organization. Once the level of comfort is there, employees can express their ideas to one another and produce innovative ideas. Management can use the open discussion to get to know their employees and understand their capabilities more fully. Having an organizational culture that supports individuals’ diverse ideas allows employees to feel empowered while at the same time helping management produce more of a variety of productivity and customer service.
There are clearly many advantages to diversity including: increased creativity, greater productivity, new language skills, new processes, global understanding, and new solutions to difficult problems. There are also many challenges involved whether diversity is embraced by an organization or not. Employees’ personal beliefs can be a hindrance to the advantages of diversity.
Employees in an organization can be resistant to change. While organizations are changing their social and cultural makeup, employees stuck in the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset may silence new ideas and inhibit progress. Cultural, perceptual, and language barriers can lead to communication issues which, in turn, can result in confusion, low morale, or lack of teamwork. Stereotypes and preconceptions based off wrongful, inaccurate notions assign an identity to an entire group, rather than judging each individual on their own merits resulting in conflicts in the workplace (Goessl, 2008). When people have negative attitudes towards persons who are perceived as different from them, harassment can become an issue. Discrimination of various kinds and on different levels can have a major impact on organizations including high turnover rate, absenteeism, and even lawsuits. In the Forbes article Why Diversity Can Be Bad For Business (And Inclusion Is The Answer), Sebastian Bailey makes the case that diversity is not enough; organizations must be dedicated to inclusion as well (Bailey, 2014). If organizations are not dedicated to both diversity and inclusion they risk serious consequences.
Employees in an organization can be resistant to change. While organizations are changing their social and cultural makeup, employees stuck in the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset may silence new ideas and inhibit progress. Cultural, perceptual, and language barriers can lead to communication issues which, in turn, can result in confusion, low morale, or lack of teamwork. Stereotypes and preconceptions based off wrongful, inaccurate notions assign an identity to an entire group, rather than judging each individual on their own merits resulting in conflicts in the workplace (Goessl, 2008). When people have negative attitudes towards persons who are perceived as different from them, harassment can become an issue. Discrimination of various kinds and on different levels can have a major impact on organizations including high turnover rate, absenteeism, and even lawsuits. In the Forbes article Why Diversity Can Be Bad For Business (And Inclusion Is The Answer), Sebastian Bailey makes the case that diversity is not enough; organizations must be dedicated to inclusion as well (Bailey, 2014). If organizations are not dedicated to both diversity and inclusion they risk serious consequences.
Resources
Bailey, Sebastian.(20 May 2014) "Why Diversity Can Be Bad For Business (And Inclusion Is The Answer)." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, . Web. 06 July 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianbailey/2014/05/20/why-we-should-prioritize-the-i-in-d-and-i/> .
Brookins, M. (2014). Define Diversity in the Workplace. Chron. Retrieved from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/define-diversity-workplace-4926.html
Comstock, Beth.(11 May 2012) "Want a Team to Be Creative? Make It Diverse." Harvard Business Review. Web. 06 July 2014. http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/want-a-team-to-be-creative-mak
Goessl, Leigh.(2008, September 17) "Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace." Inside Business 360, Web. 06 July 2014. http://www.insidebusiness360.com/index.php/challenges-of-diversity-in-the-workplace-23210/
Markowitz, E. (2011, January 28). How to Foster Innovation Through Diverse Workgroups. In Inc.. Retrieved July 6, 2014, from http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/how-to-foster-innovation-through-diverse-workgroups.html
Page, Scott. (2007, March 19) "The Difference." Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review, Web. 06 July 2014. http://blogs.hbr.org/2007/03/the-difference-by-scott-page/#comments
Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R. I. (2006). Hard facts, dangerous half-truths, and total nonsense: profiting from evidence-based management. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.
Simons, S. M. & Rowland, K. N. (2011). Diversity and its Impact on Organizational Performance: The Influence of Diversity Constructions on Expectations and Outcomes. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242011000300013
Xavier, J. (2014, March 31). Diversity Defines Our Global Economy. Do You Speak the Language?. In Entrepreneur. Retrieved July 6, 2014, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232652
Diversity within companies teach people how to be open with people from different backgrounds. This also allows people to express their ideas from their culture. Diversity is a good way to problem solve, and creating new ideas within companies. Great work with pointing out that diversity is more than race, but stretches from education to religious background.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, we do think that people that look like us have the same background. Not true. I like how you pointed out that diversity spans from gender, socio-economic and even geographic location. I have been to many diversity trainings in my day and it's always been interesting to me that their main focus was always about race. I agree that management needs to be aware that true diversity inspires innovation.
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