Diversity (business)

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The "business case for diversity", theorizes that in a global marketplace, a company that
employs a diverse workforce (both men and women, people of many generations, people
from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds etc.) is better able to understand the
demographics of the marketplace it serves and is thus better equipped to thrive in that
marketplace than a company that has a more limited range of employee demographics.

An additional corollary suggests that a company that supports the diversity of its
workforce can also improve employee satisfaction, productivity and retention. This
portion of the business case, often referred to as inclusion, relates to how an organization
utilizes its various relevant diversities. If a workforce is diverse, but the employer takes
little or no advantage of that breadth of that experience, then it cannot monetize whatever
benefits background diversity might offer.

In most cases, US employers are prohibited by federal and state laws from giving race or
ethnicity any consideration in hiring or assigning employees.[citation needed] However, the US
Supreme Court has upheld the use of limited preferences based on race, ethnicity, and
sex, when there is a “manifest imbalance” in a “traditionally segregated job category.”[1][2]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Workplace diversity
• 2 Benefits of diversity in the workplace
• 3 Challenges of diversity in the workplace
• 4 Creating the Multicultural Organization
• 5 Managing diversity tools
• 6 Implementation
• 7 Legal frameworks
 • 8 See also

• 9 References

[edit] Workplace diversity

Cultural diversity includes the range of ways in which people experience a unique group
identity, which includes gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnic and age. An
organization’s culture tends to determine the extent to which it is culturally diverse.

While diversity in the workplace brings about many benefits to an organization[citation needed],
it can also lead to many challenges. It is the responsibility of managers within
organizations to use diversity as an influential resource in order to enhance organizational
effectiveness. In the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, C.L. Walck defines
managing diversity in the workplace as "Negotiating interaction across culturally diverse
groups, and contriving to get along in an environment characterized by cultural
diversity"[3].

In a journal entitled The multicultural organization, by Taylor Cox, Jr., Cox talks about
three organization types which focus on the development on cultural diversity. The three
organization types are: the monolithic organization, the plural organization, and the
multicultural organization. In the monolithic organization, the amount of structural
integration (the presence of persons from different cultural groups in a single
organization) is very minimal. "In the United States, this organization usually represents
white male majorities in the overall employee population with few women and minority
men in management jobs"[4]. "The plural organization has a more heterogeneous
membership than the monolithic organization and takes steps to be more inclusive of
persons from cultural backgrounds that differ from the dominant group"[4]. The
multicultural organization not only contains many different cultural groups, but it values
this diversity.

[edit] Benefits of diversity in the workplace

Diversity is beneficial to both the organization and the members.[citation needed] Diversity
brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making and improved
problem solving, greater creativity and innovation, which leads to enhanced product
development, and more successful marketing to different types of customers[4]. Simply
recognizing diversity in a corporation helps link the variety of talents within the
organization [5]. The act of recognizing diversity also allows for those employees with
these talents to feel needed and have a sense of belonging, which in turn increases their
commitment to the company and allows each of them to contribute in a unique way[6].
Diversity also provides organizations with the ability to compete in global markets[7].
Diverse organizations will be successful as long as there is a sufficient amount of
communication within them. Because people from different cultures perceive messages
in different ways, communication is vital to the performance of an organization.
Miscommunication within a diverse workplace will lead to a great deal of challenges.
Diversity is not only about preventing unfair discrimination and improving equality but
also valuing differences and inclusion, spanning such areas as ethnicity, age, race,
culture, sexual orientation, physical disability and religious belief.

Scott Page’s (2007) [8] mathematical modeling research of team work supports this view.
He demonstrated that heterogeneous teams consistently out-performed homogeneous
teams on a variety of tasks. Page points out that diversity in teamwork is not so simple in
the messy real world. Too often the cultural differences create problems. The goal is to
manage diversity to take full advantage of it.

[edit] Challenges of diversity in the workplace

There are challenges to managing a diverse work population. Managing diversity is more
than simply acknowledging differences in people. [9]

Many organizational theorists have suggested reasons that work-teams highly diverse in
work-relevant characteristics can be difficult to motivate and manage. There are many
challenges which face culturally diverse workplaces, and a major challenge is
miscommunication within an organization. In an article entitled Developing Receiver-
Centered Communication in Diverse Organizations, written by Judi Brownell, she
explains that meanings of messages can never be completely shared because no two
individuals experience events in exactly the same way. Even when native and non-native
speakers are exposed to the same messages, they may interpret the information
differently[10]. It is necessary for employees who are less familiar with the primary
language spoken within the organization to receive special attention in meeting their
communication requirements[11]. "In high context cultures, communicators share an
experiential base that can be used to assign meanings to messages. Low context cultures,
on the other hand, provide little information on which to base common understandings
and so communicators must be explicit"[12]. Because of this fact, it is better to view all
diverse organizational environments as low-context cultures.

Cultural bias is an additional factor which challenges culturally diverse work

environments. Cultural bias includes both prejudice and discrimination. "Prejudice refers
to negative attitudes toward an organization member based on his/her culture group
identity, and discrimination refers to observable adverse behavior for the same reason"[4].

Another challenge faced by culturally diverse organizational environments is

assimilation. According to the journal Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of
the Field, Marlene G. Fine explains that "Assimilation into the dominant organizational
culture is a strategy that has had serious negative consequences for individuals in
organizations and the organizations themselves. Those who assimilate are denied the
ability to express their genuine selves in the workplace; they are forced to repress
significant parts of their lives within a social context that frames a large part of their daily
encounters with other people." She goes on to mention that "People who spend
significant amounts of energy coping with an alien environment have less energy left to
do their jobs. Assimilation does not just create a situation in which people who are
different are likely to fail, it also decreases the productivity of organizations"[7].

[edit] Creating the Multicultural Organization

Main articles: Racial quota and Equality of outcome

"The key to managing a diverse workforce is increasing individual awareness of and

sensitivity to differences of race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability,
and age"[7]. There are several ways to go about creating the multicultural organization that
performs extremely well.

In her article, Judi Brownell identifies three skills which help to develop effective
communication in diverse organizational environments. These skills include self-
monitoring, empathy, and strategic decision-making. Self-monitoring refers to a
communicator's awareness of how his or her behavior affects another person, and his or
her willingness to modify this behavior based on knowledge of its impact. Empathy
enables the receiver to go beyond the literal meaning of a message and consider the
communicator's feelings, values, assumptions, and needs. Strategic decision-making
implies that the communication sources and channels used to reach organization
members, as well as the substance of the messages conveyed, are mindfully selected[13].

[edit] Managing diversity tools

Managing diversity goes far beyond the limits of equal employment opportunity and
affirmative action. High performing diversity managers recognize that specialized skills
are necessary for creating a productive, diverse workforce. They seek out continuous
learning opportunities and some go as far as acquiring certification. Managers must be
willing to work towards changing the organization in order to create a culture of diversity
and inclusion. Assessment skills and diversity education are key elements of culture
change. However, the leadership’s support of the change cannot be understated.

[edit] Implementation
Diversity issues change over time, depending on local historical and dynamic conditions.
Overt "diversity programs" are usually limited to large employers, government agencies
and businesses facing rapid demographic changes in their local labor pool and help
people work and understand each other.[citation needed] The implementation of diversity is
often limited to the Human resources department[citation needed] when there is also a good
economic case for UK companies to use it as a tool to reach new market shares.

[edit] Legal frameworks

US anti-discrimination laws prohibit employers giving any consideration to customers’
preferences for being served by employees of a given gender, ethnic group, or color. In
general, the laws also prevent consideration based on religion, although the law allows
major exceptions of this provision for religious organizations. Many countries are also
introducing anti-discrimination laws (for example the DDA in the UK) forcing
companies to be more aware of diversity. The law student organization Building a Better
Legal Profession generated significant controversy in October 2007 for reporting data
suggesting that most private law firms themselves lacked demographic diversity.[14]

[edit] See also

• Affirmative Action
• Diversity (politics)
• Reverse discrimination
• White privilege

[edit] References
1. ^ United Steelworkers v. Weber, 443 U.S. 193 (1979),
http://supreme.justia.com/us/443/193/case.html</a>
2. ^ Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 480 U.S. 616 (1987), http://supreme.justia.com/us/480/616/
3. ^ Walck, C.L. (1995). Editor's introduction: Diverse approaches to managing diversity. Journal of
Applied Behavioral Science, 31, 119-123).
4. ^ a b c d Cox, Jr., Taylor (1991). The Multicultural Organization. Academy of Management
Executive, 5(2), 34-47.
5. ^ De Pree, Max. Leadership is an Art. New York: New York, New York Doubleday Business,
1989. print
6. ^ De Pree, Max. Leadership is an Art. New York: New York, New York Doubleday Business,
1989. print.
7. ^ a b c Fine, Marlene G. (1980). Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field.
Journal of Business Communication, 33(4), 485-502.
8. ^ Page, Scott (2007). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 13: 978-0-691-12838-2. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8353.html.
9. ^ Vaughn, Billy (2006). High Impact Diversity Consulting. San Francisco, CA.: Diversity Training University
International Publications Division. ISBN In progress. http://www.dtui.com/consultbkadvall.html.
10. ^ Brownell, Judi (2003). Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse
Organizations. Listening Professional, 2(1), 5-25
11. ^ Brownell, Judi (2003). Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse
Organizations. Listening Professional, 2(1), 5-25
12. ^ Brownell, Judi (2003). Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse
Organizations. Listening Professional, 2(1), 5-25
13. ^ Brownell, Judi (2003). Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse
Organizations. Listening Professional, 2(1), 5-25
14. ^ Adam Liptak, In Students’ Eyes, Look-Alike Lawyers Don’t Make the Grade, New York Times,
October 29, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/us/29bar.html?em&ex=1193889600&en=