fe74cBS Module 2 PDF

MODULE 2
MANAGING DIVERSITY
MEANING OF DIVERSITY:
Diversity means creating an inclusive environment that accepts each individual's

differences, embraces their strengths and provides acceptance and respect. It means
understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These
can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status,
age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the
exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about
understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating
the rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual.
ADVANTAGES OF INCREASING DIVERSITY IN WORK FORCE:
Businesses are recognizing the need and importance of investing in diversity and
inclusion as part of their overall talent management practices and to continually challenge their
organizations to make the connection between those principles and their corporate performance.
Diversity is especially crucial in today’s global marketplace, as companies interact with different
cultures and clients. The payoffs touch every area of the business by potentially resulting in
increased creativity, increased productivity, new attitudes, new language skills, global
understanding, new processes, and new solutions to difficult problems, greater agility, better
market insight, stronger customer and community loyalty, innovation, and improved employee
recruitment and retention. The businesses, that fail to see the importance of diversity and
inclusion, might find themselves unable to attract and retain the kinds of customers, employees,
and business partners that constitute our changing world in 5 to 10 years.
Among the advantages of diversity in the workplace are:

1. Increased productivity: Diversity and Inclusion brings in diverse different talents
together working towards a common goal using different sets of skills that ignites their
loyalty and increases their retention and productivity.
2. Increased creativity and problem solving: With so many different and diverse minds
coming together many more solutions will arise as every individual brings in their way
of thinking, operating and solving problems and decision making.
3. Diversity attracts and retains talent that adds a competitive edge to any
organization. Feeling included and appreciated increases loyalty and feeling of
belonging. Language skills pool is increased and propels organization forward either
to compete in the international global world or to increase its diverse customer base.
4. Diversity helps to build synergy in teams and enhances communication skills that
bring in new attitudes and processes that profit the whole team.
5. Applying the proper diversity & inclusion management strategies does not only save
money on litigation expenses generated by discrimination lawsuits but is the right
thing to do for the business.
6. It increases market share and create a satisfied diverse customer base by relating
to people from different backgrounds. It does propel the United States and its status to
claim its place and success in the global business world of the 21st century.
BARRIERS & CHALLENGES IN MANAGING DIVERSITY:
Diversity is a sensitive, potentially volatile, and sometimes uncomfortable issue. It is

therefore not surprising that organizations encounter significant barriers when trying to move
forward with managing diversity. The following is a list of the most common barriers to
implementing successful diversity programs:
1. Inaccurate stereotypes and prejudice. This barrier manifests itself in the belief that
differences are viewed as weaknesses. In turn, this promotes the view that diversity hiring
will mean sacrificing competence and quality.
2. Ethnocentrism. The ethnocentrism barrier represents the feeling that one’s cultural rules and
norms are superior or more appropriate than the rules and norms of another culture.
3. Poor career planning. This barrier is associated with the lack of opportunities for diverse
employees to get the type of work assignments that qualify them for senior management
positions.
4. A negative diversity climate. Climate is generally viewed as employee perceptions about an
organization’s formal and informal policies, practices, and procedures. Diversity climate is a
subcomponent of an organization’s overall climate and is defined as the employees’
aggregate “perceptions about the organization’s diversity-related formal structure
characteristics and informal values.” Diversity climate is positive when employees view the
organization as being fair to all types of employees;
5. An unsupportive and hostile working environment for diverse employees. Sexual, racial, and
age harassment are common examples of hostile work environments. Whether perpetrated
against women, men, older individuals, or LGBT people, hostile environments are
demeaning, unethical, and appropriately called “work environment pollution.” It also is
important to note that harassment can take place via e-mail, texting, and other forms of social
media. For example, a recent study of 220 employees revealed that the initial harassment
began by e-mail or phone. Managers are encouraged to treat electronic harassment the same
as any other type of harassment.
6. Lack of political savvy on the part of diverse employees. Diverse employees may not get
promoted because they do not know how to “play the game” of getting along and getting
ahead in an organization. Research reveals that women and people of color are excluded
from organizational networks.
7. Difficulty in balancing career and family issues. Women still assume the majority of the
responsibilities associated with raising children. This makes it harder for women to work
evenings and weekends or to frequently travel once they have children. Even without
children in the picture, household chores take more of a woman’s time than a man’s time.
8. Fears of reverse discrimination. Some employees believe that managing diversity is a smoke
screen for reverse discrimination. This belief leads to very strong resistance because people
feel that one person’s gain is another’s loss.
9. The need to revamp the organization’s performance appraisal and reward system.
Performance appraisals and reward systems must reinforce the need to effectively manage
diversity. This means that success will be based on a new set of criteria. For example,
General Electric evaluates the extent to which its managers are inclusive of employees with
different backgrounds. These evaluations are used in salary and promotion decisions.
10. Resistance to change. Effectively managing diversity entails significant organizational and
personal change. People resist change for many different reasons.
AFFIRMATION ACTION AND MANAGING DIVERSITY:

How to Manage Diversity in a Workplace
Diversity in the workplace means bringing together people of different ethnic

backgrounds, religions and age groups into a cohesive and productive unit. Advances in
communication technology, such as the Internet and cellular phones, have made the marketplace
a more global concept. In order to survive, a company needs to be able to manage and utilize its
diverse workplace effectively. Managing diversity in the workplace should be a part of the
culture of the entire organization.
Step 1
Confirm that all of your personnel policies from hiring to promotions and raises are based on
employee performance. Avoid allowing tenure, ethnic background or any other kind of category
into your human resources policies. Managing a diverse workplace begins with strong policies of
equality from the company. Once these policies are in place, the company can begin
implementing diversity measures throughout the entire organization.
Step 2
Rate the qualifications of the candidate based on the quality of his experience, not age or any
other category, when hiring. When you hire a diverse but qualified workforce, you are on the
right track towards being able to manage the diversity in your company.
Step 3
Encourage diversity when creating teams and special work groups within the company. If a
manager creates a work group that does not utilize the skills of the most qualified employees,
then insists that the group be changed to include all qualified staff members.
Step 4
Treat complaints of favoritism or discrimination seriously. Encourage employees to report all
instances of discriminatory behavior, and have a definitive process in place for investigating and
dealing with these issues.
Step 5
Hold quarterly trainings for the entire staff on the benefits of diversity in the workplace.
Encourage discussions at these meetings on how the company can better manage workplace
diversity.

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MODULE 2

Diversity means creating an inclusive environment that accepts each individual's

ADVANTAGES OF INCREASING DIVERSITY IN WORK FORCE:

Among the advantages of diversity in the workplace are:

BARRIERS & CHALLENGES IN MANAGING DIVERSITY:

Diversity is a sensitive, potentially volatile, and sometimes uncomfortable issue. It is

AFFIRMATION ACTION AND MANAGING DIVERSITY:

Diversity in the workplace means bringing together people of different ethnic

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