Scribd
Upload
72 views2 pages

Managing Diversity in Organizations

The document discusses the challenge of managing diversity in organizations. It notes that workforces are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, and other attributes. While diversity can enhance creativity and problem solving, it also risks reducing communication and increasing conflict if not properly managed. The key is to minimize diversity's potential as a performance barrier while maximizing its ability to improve performance. However, past diversity efforts often fail because organizations misdiagnose the problem and apply wrong solutions without understanding how long it takes to effectively leverage diversity.

Uploaded by

gauhar77
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
72 views2 pages

Managing Diversity in Organizations

The document discusses the challenge of managing diversity in organizations. It notes that workforces are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, and other attributes. While diversity can enhance creativity and problem solving, it also risks reducing communication and increasing conflict if not properly managed. The key is to minimize diversity's potential as a performance barrier while maximizing its ability to improve performance. However, past diversity efforts often fail because organizations misdiagnose the problem and apply wrong solutions without understanding how long it takes to effectively leverage diversity.

Uploaded by

gauhar77
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Creating the Multicultural Organization: The Challenge of Managing Diversity

• In the U.S. a very tight labor market has intensified the focus on human capital in
recent years.
o To add to this challenge is the increasing diversity of people with the skills
to do the work those jobs require.
o Example – gender diversity:
o 1950’s – 3 of every 4 college degree’s were given to men.
o Today – roughly 54% of college graduates are women.
o 1971 – less than 4% of MBA’s went to women,
o 1990’s – around 30%
o Not limited to gender – work groups are increasingly diverse in terms of
race and national origin.
o More organizations are reorganizing work so that it is performed by teams
composed of people from different organization levels and work
specializations.
o Diversity: “the variation of social and cultural identities among people existing
together in a defined employment or market setting”.
o Social and cultural refer to personal affiliations with groups that research
has shown to have significant influence on people’s major life experiences
(gender, race, national origin, religion, are etc.)
o Employment and market systems (churches, schools, factory work teams,
sports teams etc.)
o MANAGING DIVERSITY MEANS UNDERSTANDING ITS EFFECTS
AND IMPLEMENTING BEHAVIORS, WORK PRACTICES AND
POLICIES THAT RESPOND TO THEM IN AN EFFECTIVE WAY.
o Problems and Opportunities of Diversity
o Challenge of managing diversity is to create conditions that minimize its
potential to be a performance barrier while maximizing its potential to
enhance organizational performance.
o Problems:
o Can reduce effective communication
o Increase conflict among workers.
o Lower levels of social attraction in groups thus leading to lower
levels of commitment.
o Increased potential for harassment and discrimination claims.
o Opportunities:
o Improve problem solving
• Diverse groups have a broader base of experience from
which to approach a problem.
• Diversity enhances critical analysis.
o Increase creativity and innovation
• Studies show that the most innovative schools were the
most tolerant of diversity.

o Increase organization flexibility


• Changes in the way that employees typically organize and
respond to information.
• Diversifying the workforce increases the presence of
people who speak more than one language – hence more
flexibility of thought.
o Improve the quality of personnel through better recruitment and
retention.
o Improve marketing strategies.
• Globalization
• Why have past efforts failed?
o Many organizations are disappointed in their efforts to meet
challenge. Why?
• Misdiagnosis of the problem.
o Most employers have an organizational culture that
is somewhere between toxic and deadly when it
comes to handling diversity.
o Organizations have a tendency to hire people who
are perceived as fitting the existing culture of their
firm.
• Wrong solutions
• Failure to understand the shape of the learning curve for
leveraging diversity work.

You might also like