Check Out the Top Ten Facts about diversity management that could benefit your organization or business

If you own or work for a business, you might not be taking advantage of all the opportunities managing diversity has to offer. Many of us are still confused over diversity best practices and how diversity benefits an organization.

Yet, research is showing that organizations close to diversity, that really know how to maximize diversity, are moving ahead.

(A group of researchers from MIT Sloan School of Management in a five-year study, for instance, found that... "To be successful in working with and gaining value from diversity requires a sustained, systemic approach and long-term commitment...Organizations that invest their resources in taking advantage of the opportunities that diversity offers should outperform those that fail to make such investments. See http://bit.ly/p8dzBK )

So, here are ten questions and answers that I believe can benefit -- and of course, I want to hear more ideas from you. So please add your comments at the end.

1. What are the advantages of a more diverse workplace?

Co-workers with different histories and life experiences may think of new, different products or services. They may have other social or information networks to enable them to promote products or services. They may also identify potential customers that we have so far missed, overlooked, or dismissed.

2. What is the matter with doing more of what has worked in the past?

Nothing — if it keeps working. Yet the population base, from which our customers come, is rapidly changing due to disease, war, travel, changing birth rates, and the rapid spread of information. If we don't adjust to what our potential customers will look like, we'll get smaller.

3. Will increasing the diversity of my company's workforce guarantee success?

No single-thing approach to management can guarantee success. Beware of fads.

4. Do I really have to change my workforce? Can't my good salespeople sell to anyone?

Selling anything to anyone is one way to define a good salesperson. Another is to say that a good salesperson can sell any one thing over any other thing. Yet even good salespeople can't make a sale if they don't know how to deliver the message in a language or in a way the customer understands. Even worse is a product name that translates poorly in the language of the customer. Barriers can also exist in terms of price. For example, India is encouraging businesses to come up with a computer device costing less than ten U.S.dollars. Cultural difference can be complex, and some of them really matter.

5. How can I get my current employees to accept new and different employees?

In general, two characteristics of success come to mind. First of all, management, from the very top down, needs to understand that success in this arena is absolutely expected and that resistance is not acceptable. Secondly, it needs to be clear that the success of new employees is not part of a zero-sum game. No one has to lose in order for the new employees to win.

6. Will an emphasis on diversity fundamentally change my business?

That depends on the nature of the business. The more you work with people instead of things, the more your business will change as the population it serves, and your employees, change with it.

7. What if my business mostly sells to other businesses? Do I still need to worry about diversity?

Who owns the other businesses? As you well know if you've ever looked at manufacturing’s "Made in" labels or tried to call customer service, many companies now outsource work to foreign companies. If your company markets to businesses, your customer base, and potential competitors are growing.

8. I make a lot of sales on-line? Does the diversity of my workforce matter when my customers are mostly ordering my products on a computer?

Of course it does. Language, whether written or oral, often contains idioms, inferences, or idiosyncrasies that a person unfamiliar with American English will not understand. If your Internet site contains videos of people talking, the nonverbal communication may also be unclear or misunderstood by persons with other backgrounds.

9. How do you "train" for diversity? Isn't this mostly a matter of tolerance?

Tolerance is part of it, and our first lessons about tolerance come during our childhood. But tolerance, and receptiveness, and active listening, and company priorities, and evaluation procedures, and many of the day-to-day details of how business is done” in your company may be able to be improved if given proper review and assessment. Learning new things is a lifelong requirement, even if we don't like it. In this case, we stand to learn some new worthwhile things.

10. Can we do our own diversity training in-house? Isn't this a good way to identify and get rid of bad supervisors? Also, What is wrong with continuing to hire people who “fit in?”

If you want the idea of Diversity Training to create hatred and resentment in your company, that would be the ideal way to do it. Instead, training should be available at all levels of the organization, with obvious top-level endorsement. It should be done by outside “experts.”

To this final question, the answer is nothing, if your business skills are good enough to hire such persons, avoid losing discrimination lawsuits, and continue to grow or maintain the business as customers change.

Tags

multicultural, psychology, business, marketing, economics, counseling, civil rights, diversity, administration, personnel, inclusion, human relations, diversity ebooks, cultural diversity

Techies call older engineer names (like "Fuddie-duddie") and run him off the job -- Who Will Pay? Why Was This Behavior Allowed?

What if this happened to your dad or your mom? Would it make you angry?

What if these were your employees? Would you consider diversity training? --

A recent California Supreme Court decision involves an experienced engineer who went to work for a giant corporation (the kind of company that one would think comprehends and practices diversity).

This guy knew that going into a high-tech job would mean working in a youthful company, with fewer older workers. But he didn’t expect the bullying he received by younger workers, including his boss, who immediately started called him names like “fuddy-duddy” and “old man,” he alleged.
but
The engineer had worked successfully for years in major corporations, but was suddenly taunted with name-calling, with words like "slow," "fuzzy," "sluggish" and "lethargic."

Employees allegedly called him an "old guy" and stated that his ideas were "obsolete" and "too old to matter" and that his knowledge was “ancient.”

They allegedly joked that his office placard should be in the shape of an "LP" (i.e. a vinyl record) rather than the customary (then current music format) "CD." For several years this inappropriate behavior progressed, the engineer alleged, and after a time, when his job was taken away, he left this company, but then sued for age discrimination.

While the case had not been settled at the time I read about it, the court issued a unanimous decision that could make it more difficult for California employers to win summary judgment in certain discrimination cases involving potentially discriminatory comments.

In fact, California courts must now evaluate such “stray” remarks together with all other admissible evidence to determine whether there is sufficient evidence of discrimination for a case to proceed to a jury trial.

This decision reaffirms that employers must do more than simply maintain policies preventing discrimination and harassment. They must take steps, including training of supervisors and nonsupervisors alike, to ensure all employees are aware of such policies and the risk of liability posed by potentially discriminatory comments, in any context. In other words, they must learn to manage their company’s diversity.

This story leaves me wondering who raised these young employees to show such meanness and hostility toward an older, experienced co-worker? Did any professors ever discuss diversity at their schools? Or multiculturalism? Good manners? And what kind of managers and CEO led this company? Had they ever experienced any leadership education?

The failure to raise someone who tolerates people who are different, or who values the very skills and experiences others may have to offer, no matter how “different” they appear to be, has to land somewhere.

Someone failed these employees quite miserably, either their parents, teachers or employers. Perhaps all of the above tried and failed. I hope my new eBook, Cash In On Diversity, will help fill in gaps that are apparently missing for those who behave in this way and for others who tolerate or encourage this misbehavior, as well.

We are a diverse nation filled with people of many sizes, shapes, ages, religions and sexual preferences — people with missing limbs, stutters, mental challenges and so many other differences.

But too many of us still do not always recognize that all people are deserving of equal treatment. Or that even with “differences,” nearly all of us still have something to contribute, if allowed to participate. As the battles heat up at school and at work, and as the civil rights lawsuits keep piling up, isn’t it about time to change?

This eBook is an attempt to explain how our world is changing in the organizations where we work and spend much of our time each day — and will endeavor to describe where intolerance and hate come from, and why these attitudes and behaviors do not serve us well in the workplace. This book also shows many of the benefits we can achieve as individuals, and as organizations, when getting along with others, as we celebrate and appreciate our differences — as we embrace diversity.

People who care about getting along need to take a stand when intolerance is displayed. Leaders must help the people they manage with proper tools and guidance. This is the basic message presented, along with important explanations of themes, including cultural diversity, multiculturalism, cross-cultural communication and showing how all of us can become better human beings with this knowledge.

I hope that readers enjoy this information and put it to use, because we are living in a world that demands we change.
~ ~ ~
Ageism can be defined as "any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of age or any assignment of roles in society purely on the basis of age" (Traxler, 1980). As an "ism", ageism reflects a prejudice in society against older adults.

* * * * *

~ ~ ~
A wonderful comment follows this blog. I was not able to comment back, directly, but want to add this note --

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and excellent advice. I have a friend going through this now, and the supervisor's comments are a daily assault. Boy will she be surprised when she gets zapped with a lawsuit! Companies that don't learn how to treat older workers get sued -- and good employees simply leave. What a waste of resources, either way. Take care and thanks. Susan

November Publishing Date Set For New Cultural Diversity Book

Profit From Cultural Diversity: Getting Along With Others by Susan Klopfer is set for publication by CreateSpace in both e-book and print book formats to coincide with American Education Week in the third week of November.

Author Susan Klopfer, M.B.A.

Read More --