Now come on. Do you really believe that many (most?) large organizations are as "diverse" as they appear in their advertising and public relations venues? I am talking about that photograph of "casually" posed black and white females and males, all wearing elegant suits with their arms folded, and looking as if they are at the pinnacle of their corporations.
It’s quite unfortunate that the rally cry for diversity has companies scrambling to make sure that they appear diverse to the outsider, states William Powell, writing for The Leadership Advisor, an online publication representing an international leadership organization.
In fact, a significant percentage of companies have developed informal “quotas” to make sure they are a diverse organization, causing some business leaders to claim diversity in the workplace has become a fraud. "The common thought is that it mitigates discrimination accusations and makes them appear forward thinking to stakeholders and investors. Pretty much keeping up appearance for the current “trend”," Powell says.
Of course this isn’t true for all companies, but it’s more common than what it should be. The mantra “diversity strengthens an organization” is absolutely true, but with one caveat. You have to embrace what diversity brings. The mere existence of various cultures, ethnicities, gender and religious beliefs within the same relational space does not connote strength of anything. It’s just a description of a group of people.
Far too often, even in the face of this pseudo or fraudulent diversity, there is an expectation that those diverse groups of people must somehow lose whatever makes them diverse for the sake of conforming to specific standards so that there is less conflict.
I remember this so well from my old college sorority days. "Lose that sweater. It's the wrong color! We wear camel blazers. Cut your hair. We all wear Sassoons at Delta Delta Delta! (Now, that last remark dates me!)
Unfortunately, leadership of a number of organizations see diversity within the organization as an increased chance of conflict, "so their conflict strategy is to encourage (dare I say, enforce) this generic sense of homogeneity" (Powell's words).
Of course, this counters the power of diversity altogether and is ignorant leadership. For most people, it is common to feel threatened by an unfamiliar viewpoint. Take a look at the childish drama seen in Washington D.C. Is this how you want your organization to behave?
So where can an organization initiate change?
Start by genuinely making it a point to include the opinions and insight of those from varied cultures and ethnic groups.
"Switch off your judgment for a moment (or permanently) and instead of seeing their perspective through your filters, ask questions to understand why that seems like a viable solution for that individual. You may actually learn something. You are giving people a voice and may be able to incorporate a hybrid of what differing opinions bring to the table."
If you value what a person’s culture/ethnicity (something extremely personal) brings to the table for solution management, how engaged do you think that person will be? How likely are they to be looking for work elsewhere? Things don’t have to be perfect, just moving forward in a way that can allow them to be proud to be a part of making the solution a reality.
We now certainly know from diversity research, that embracing the true value of diversity, allows for the discovery of innovation and creativity within an organization. "Typically, turnover may decrease as engagement increases. How much stronger would your bottom be if just 8% of your workforce would increase their discretionary effort by 5%?" Powell states.
Why is Powell's message surprising?
Folks who live and work at the apex of multinationals and other large organizations, for the most part, are quite elitist. (Think Brown University, Harvard, Smith). Diversity is “in” but not so in that such an apex employee would actually send his or her child to a public school (where most of these “diverse” employees send their children).
We have seen elitist politicians kill health care, public education, social security, Medicare and Medicaid etc. in the name of greed. We have seen them short the market until retirement plans for the “diverse” are DOA.
Until rich and elite white people get serious about diversity, nothing much is ever going to change. For an organization to “look” diverse, probably fools the stockholders for a while. (But no problem, the elites are killing stockholders off, too.)
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