Management of Diversity in Organization
Management of Diversity in Organization
Abstract
Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.
Diversity Management vs. Organizational Performance
Diversity of skills among individual members will increase the combined skills of the team. It is assumed that a team of people collectively having a diversity of skills will perform better than a team of people all having similar skills, Brakefield (1999).
In an empirical study of military tank crews, Tziner and Eden (1985) observed that crews consisting of all high-ability individuals performed more than additively better than expected, and that those consisting of all low-ability individuals performed even worse than expected.
The possible benefits which could be brought to organizational performance through diversity management can be related to six catalogues including cost, resource acquisition, marketing, creativity, problems solving and system flexibility. Here are some discussions for every catalogue.
1. Cost: As organizations become more diverse, the cost of a poor job in integrating workers will increase especially for those labor intensive jobs. Those who handle this well will thus create cost advantages over those who don't.
2. Resource Acquisition: Companies develop reputations on favorability as prospective employers for women and ethnic minorities. Those with the best reputations for managing diversity will win the competition for the best personnel. As the labor
Abstract
Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.
Diversity Management vs. Organizational Performance
Diversity of skills among individual members will increase the combined skills of the team. It is assumed that a team of people collectively having a diversity of skills will perform better than a team of people all having similar skills, Brakefield (1999).
In an empirical study of military tank crews, Tziner and Eden (1985) observed that crews consisting of all high-ability individuals performed more than additively better than expected, and that those consisting of all low-ability individuals performed even worse than expected.
The possible benefits which could be brought to organizational performance through diversity management can be related to six catalogues including cost, resource acquisition, marketing, creativity, problems solving and system flexibility. Here are some discussions for every catalogue.
1. Cost: As organizations become more diverse, the cost of a poor job in integrating workers will increase especially for those labor intensive jobs. Those who handle this well will thus create cost advantages over those who don't.
2. Resource Acquisition: Companies develop reputations on favorability as prospective employers for women and ethnic minorities. Those with the best reputations for managing diversity will win the competition for the best personnel. As the labor