Transcript What is Diversity?

What is Diversity?
DENR
Managers’ Forum
Agenda
• What is Diversity?
• Why Value Diversity?
• Isn’t Diversity Against American
Values
• Doesn’t Diversity Replace the
Mainstream Culture?
• The Business Case for Diversity
• What Next?
Question
What are the main
differences between the
public sector and the
private sector?
Common Responsibilities
• Control costs
• Market services in an effective way
• Report business performance to a group
of stakeholders
• Effectively manage the workforce
• Respond to changes in the business
environment
• Manage organizational effectiveness
What is Diversity?
• Diversity represents all the ways we are different
• Laws provide the first basis for diversity: equal
employment opportunity
• Laws based on historical discrimination against
certain groups in our society: race, sex, color,
religion, national origin, disability, etc.
• Diversity includes all of the above concepts:
organizations cannot do one at the expense of
another
Why Value Diversity?
• Future workforce will have huge
demographic variations
• Companies report competitive advantage
as the key driver of diversity efforts
• Diverse markets require diverse
operatives; organizations must know the
markets they seek to serve
Isn’t Diversity Against American
Values?
• US is the most diverse collection of cultures in
the history of the world
• Joel Barker: the wealth and power of a
civilization is directly dependent on its ability to
mine the diversity of its people
• While the “melting
pot” was the
standard, not all
groups can
assimilate
• American innovation
has been fueled by
diversity
Doesn’t Diversity Replace the Mainstream
Culture?
Diversity does not pit one culture against
another for dominance; it only allows for
cultural differences to be employed to
solve business challenges.
Diversity acknowledges and uses these
inherent differences to drive innovation as
a way of creating better organizational
performance and competitive advantage.
The Business Case for Diversity
Improved Organizational Performance
• Companies rated on Fortune’s “50 Best
Companies for Minorities” outperformed
the S&P 500 over three- and five-year
periods
• Academy of Management Journal:
Organizations with diverse management
teams correlate with superior corporate
performance
The Business Case for Diversity
Reduced Turnover, Improved Retention
• Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) study: diversity initiatives
positively affect the bottom line
– Ability to recruit
– Ability to retain
– Improved client relations
– Improved productivity
– Improved corporate culture
The Business Case for Diversity
Increased Innovation
• Diversity provides a richer variety of
approaches to work and problem solving
• Diversity strengthens an organization's
resilience in changing environmental
conditions
• Diversity allows challenges to longaccepted views
• Diversity creates dynamic work
environments through variety of
perspectives
The Business Case for Diversity
Increased Effectiveness in Minority Markets
• Helps organizations understand how to
effectively interact with all of its client base
• Informs organizational practices that
create community support in all
populations
• Helps manage perceptions of
historically underserved markets
The Business Case for Diversity
Positive Impact on Group Performance
SHRM and Fortune survey concluded
that diversity:
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Improves corporate culture – 83%
Improves employee morale – 70%
Increases creativity – 59%
Decreases interpersonal conflict – 58%
Enables movement into emerging
markets – 57%
• Improves productivity – 52%
The Business Case for Diversity
Positive Impact - Historical Studies
• Exceptional performance within groups of
medical colleagues representing a wide variety
of “values, experiences and disciplines.” (1956)
• Mixed gender groups consistently outperformed
single-gender groups. Different viewpoints
caused inventive solutions to emerge. (1961)
• Routine problem solving better handled by
homogeneous groups, less-defined problems
better suited to heterogeneous groups. (1984)
• Diverse ethnic groups produced more effective
solutions than homogeneous groups. (1992)
The Business Case for Diversity
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Some Thoughts
Your organizational culture must be open
to diversity; otherwise this effort will fail
Managers and supervisors need training
and education on valuing and managing
diversity
Improving managing diversity is not easy;
no worthwhile organizational change effort
is easy
Leadership must commit to a long-term
vision of diversity
Quotes
• "You can and should shape your own
future; because if you don't someone
else surely will."
• "No one will thank you for taking care
of the present if you have neglected the
future."
-Joel Barker
Quotes
"Innovation provides the seeds for economic growth, and
for that innovation to happen depends as much on
collective difference as on aggregate ability. If people
think alike then no matter how smart they are they most
likely will get stuck at the same locally optimal solutions.
Finding new and better solutions, innovating, requires
thinking differently. That’s why diversity powers
innovation.“
-Scott E. Page, Professor,
University of Michigan
Quotes
"There is no better fertile ground for innovation
than a diversity of experience. And that diversity
of experience arises from a difference of
cultures, ethnicities, and life backgrounds. A
successful scientific endeavor is one that
attracts a diversity of experience, draws upon
the breadth and depth of that experience, and
cultivates those differences, acknowledging the
creativity they spark."
Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone
The Business Case for Diversity
Bottom Line
• Diversity can create stronger,
more resilient organizations
• Innovation is a by-product of
diversity
• Innovation in government is key
to vitality in the 21st century
What Next?
• Executive support for diversity initiatives
• Tactics to smooth the transition to a more
diverse work culture
• Provide education programs from top to
bottom
• Create and maintain a consistent prodiversity message
• Form a diversity council that looks at
large-scale organizational issues