Are spices always bad? Definitely not, if mixed in the right quantity makes a delicious cuisine. It is the peculiarity of each individual spice that adds up to make cuisine delightful for the taste buds. Similar is the case with diversity at workplace where differences and similarities amongst the employees from different cultural backgrounds if used at the right place will make an organization victorious. As the businesses go global, people from different parts of the world with different values, culture, age, race, religions come together to serve the common purpose of economic growth. As stated in the article, differences in perceptions, opinions, and competencies can be an asset for the organization, but managing diversity can be a challenging. Due to similarity attraction phenomenon, there are communication gaps, interpersonal conflicts, and lack of cohesiveness among the team members slowing down the decision making process.
In today’s highly competitive scenario, it is vitally important for organizations to hire leaders who can effectively handle the diversity tension and benefit from the advantages of diversity. It is critical for the leaders to respect the diversity and to build cultural intelligence. Making continuous efforts in the direction of understanding the dynamics of diversity through historical, political and economic references and in learning different working style will enable a leader to effectively utilize diverse talents and competencies in the right place. Not only should the leader encourage training programs explaining diversity differences and inculcating respect for different cultures in team, but also work on minimizing differences among his team members.
A leader should develop a work environment where people are welcomed for giving valuable ideas and opinions while giving time and opportunity to understand each other’s cultural differences. This would help in developing a well-rounded team, whose benefits will outnumber the efforts made to put them together as a team. With diverse people brainstorming together for more creative and innovative ideas, organizations would benefit from better problem solving and organization flexibility. By avoiding ethnocentrism, a leader can use rich diversity of culture and thought around the world as one of the greatest resources to face the competition and bring positive change in corporations.
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Sarita Sharma
The benefits of diversity mentioned in this post are becoming more apparent every day. Nonetheless, those benefits can only result when there are people in the work environment to provide different (key word) valuable ideas opinions.
ReplyDeleteOne way to entice managers to develop diverse teams to achieve the benefits could be to use intrinsic motivators by including diversity goals in managers' SMART goals for annual review. If a manager is motivated by achievement, recognition or interesting work, for example, then he/she is likely to pursue his or her goals resulting in developing more diversity in his or her unit/team. Ultimately, achievement of the manager's personal ambitions could benefit the company by increasing diversity and reaping its' benefits.
Does anyone else have ideas about how to motivate managers to develop or maintain diversity within their unit/team?
-Jessica Brown