Most workplaces are becoming more diverse in terms of their employee populations, as regards gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and physical ability, among other factors.
Such diversity can present challenges to managers and employees alike. Here, we will look at some reasons why you need to pay increasing attention to the diversity in your workplace, the problems that can arise if diversity management is poorly done and, most important, how you can bring about a diverse work culture.
Advantages of a Diverse Organization
What are some of the compelling reasons for ensuring that yours is a diverse organization?
Here are four:
1. Greater ability to meet customer needs. Companies benefit from diversity in employees because their customers and clients are also diverse. Having a workforce that mirrors the customer base allows an organization to better understand its customers. Heterogeneous employees bring varied perspectives, assumptions, cultural paradigms and problem-solving styles to a job. They can anticipate the needs and values of a multifaceted customer base.
2. A more contented, more effective workforce . Organizations that successfully manage diversity have lower costs owing to absenteeism and turnover. If an organization functions under a dominant white, male heterosexual culture, other employees will experience the stress, job frustration, lower morale and lower productivity that come from being excluded. Insensitivity, harassment and discrimination against employees because they are “different” results in indirect costs to productivity as well as the possibility of real costs from litigation. Employees who feel that they cannot behave authentically in an organization are likely to leave the organization in search of one that values their identity, perspectives and talents.
3. A public relations advantage. While the good press alone is difficult to measure in terms of concrete benefits, organizations that value diversity are better able to attract and retain good employees. Being known as an inclusive organization can only benefit a company. Seeking minority applicants helps expand employers' choices, especially in light of the declining pools of qualified candidates for many jobs.
4. Better teamwork. The increased emphasis on teamwork in many organizations makes the ability of employees to interact with diverse people a crucial workplace skill. Diversity on a team means that there is a variety of perspectives on an issue and that groupthink is likely to occur, resulting in better decisions.
Pitfalls and Problems in Dealing with Diversity If executed poorly, the movement from a homogeneous to a diversified workforce can create problems, like:
1.Token diversity. When the effort to build a diverse workforce reflects a higher percentage of minority group members within the population than is found in the workplace, that situation is considered tokenism. Often, too, token employees are placed in highly visible positions to publicly demonstrate the organization’s commitment to diversity, thereby putting undue pressure on these individuals to perform and often alienating their colleagues who believe they have been passed over unfairly.
2. Institutional racism or sexism. The effort to diversify the organization will need to acknowledge the existence of previously unrecognized signs of discrimination. For one, medical benefits to spouses will have to be extended to same-sex domestic partners. Likewise, holding major organizational events during a religion’s sacred holidays will come to be seen as telling some employees that they are less valued than other employees.
3. Prejudice and harassment. The effort to change corporate culture may bring out cultural biases. Ethnic jokes, racial slurs, sexist remarks and generally insensitive statements may not only continue, but grow in frequency, disrupting the sense of teamwork within your organization. In its most serious form, such behavior can result in legal charges of discrimination.
4. Reality testing. A behavior or remark that was once commonplace and acceptable on the job may now be grounds for a reprimand or lawsuit. Without advance preparation for the shift in attitude about diversity within the organization, employees and managers alike are left confused. The movement from homogeneous to multifaceted perspectives demands an ongoing communication and behavioral changing program to prepare everyone for the new way of thinking and behaving.
Recommendations for Managing Diversity
There are specific steps you need to take to replace ethnocentricity with multiculturalism. You will obtain senior management support when you point out that it is counterproductive to business goals to perpetuate a workplace culture that reflects only a traditional perspective. The current dominant workplace culture, which is probably based on white male norms, will need to adjust to, accept and make room for other perspectives.
This will mean examining the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that your organization privileges one group of employees while disadvantaging another group. You can actively recruit a diverse group of new employees, provide equal career opportunities and seek to form cross-functional teams of individuals—not only from different disciplines—but also of different genders and races and cultures. Most importantly, you must bring to the attention of your managers the ways in which they inadvertently aren't practicing diverse management.
For a company to effectively promote diversity, all your managers should be held accountable for meeting diversity goals. How should you start? Offer training that creates awareness of diversity and improves intercultural communication skills. A change in culture from merely tolerating diversity to truly valuing and using diversity occurs only if your management team is made aware of the problem. You can work with training experts to develop a program that builds managerial competency in diversity management, incorporating into your program goal-setting, teambuilding and performance appraisal activities.
For more on this subject, check out and register for AMA’s seminars:
In addition to Building a House for Diversity by R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., and Marjorie I. Woodruff, also consider the book by Thomas entitled Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Workforce by Managing Diversity.
AMA On-site: Every one of AMA’s 170+ public seminars can be delivered on-site. This flexible, money-saving option allows you to train ten or more people, when and where you choose, at a low cost per participant.
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