State and explain at least five strategies that can be used to effectively manage workforce diversity?
A diverse workforce can be well managed if there are well planned strategies in place in and organization. If workforce diversity is managed in an effective way, there is a potential for an organization of reaping organizational benefits. Effectively managed organizations with diverse workforce have effective competitive edge as a diverse group of employees is perceived to be more creative and efficient in problem solving as compared to a homogeneous group. A benefit of a diverse workforce is the ability to tap into the many talents which employees from different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and disabilities bring to the workplace.
Judith Lindenberger and Marian Stoltz-Loike say:
"Diversity is about our relatedness, our connectedness, our interactions, where the lines cross. Diversity is many things - a bridge between organizational life and the reality of people’s lives, building corporate capability, the framework for interrelationships between people, a learning exchange, and a strategic lens on the world."
“Today’s organisations are characterised by workforce diversity – a workforce that is more heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and other characteristics that reflects differences.” Stephen P. Robinson and Marry Coulter (2005). There are many different innovative strategies that organizations have adopted to manage diversity.
Drafting organisational policies. An organisation must have policies which has a holistic approach to diversity. Workforce diversity can provide tremendous benefits if the organisation has a workforce diversity policy which is fully implemented. This will help to improve morale, outside-the-box thinking, greater teamwork, and an atmosphere of mutual understanding and Judith Lindenberger says:
“The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives, and views to their work. The challenge that diversity poses, therefore, is enabling your managers to capitalize on the mixture of genders, cultural backgrounds, ages, and lifestyles to respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively.”
Workforce diversity can be built considering many factors such as, as a social responsibility, as a legal requirement, as a marketing strategy as business communication strategy and as a capacity building strategy.
- Walk the talk. If the organisation’s policies advocates for a diverse workforce, all employees must make diversity evident at all organisational levels. Implementation process is vital as this will show the true picture of the organisation. When implementing, an organisation should at all levels remove artificial barriers to the success of the policies. Diversity must also be retained at all levels. Training programmes are needed – the training programmes must emphasise diverse ideas.
- Team When the organisation encourages workforce to work in teams this will create a favourable environment for people from different nations, cultures, gender, age groups etc to work together. Organisational goals will be effectively achieved. Judith Lindenberger says “Mentor with others at your company who you do not know well. Find someone from a different background, a different race, or a different gender. Find someone who thinks differently than you do.” Casio (1995) suggests that an organisation must link diversity to every business process and strategy such as succession planning, reengineering, employee development, performance management, and review, and reward systems. “Talent is colour blind. Talent is gender blind. Talent has nothing to do with dialects, whether they are Hispanic, Irish or Polish, or Chinese.” Stonner, J.A.F and Freeman, E.R. (5th Ed) (1990:16)
- Open lines of An organisation must keep lines of communication open. http://www.moneyinstructor.com/art/managework.asp. People from different cultures, nations, religions have different values and norms. If employees in an organisation are encouraged to communicate with each other, so that everyone in the organisation knows each other’s values and norms. This will create a favourable working environment. If you focus on building a well-integrated multi-cultural team, you will find other ideas to make the team work well together.
- As a manager one should frequently evaluate if workforce is working together in harmony to achieve the organisational goals. Organisational assessments must be conducted in order to be in the know of the work environment. This will help the manager to keep doing what is good for diversity and correct what is not working.
If you and your team work together, and learn from one another, you will discover the real synergy of bringing your collective knowledge and skill together to achieve a goal, and your company environment will be better for the effort. Welcome to the global economy!
In conclusion I can say that workforce diversity in all organisations is now the order of the day world over because of globalisation. Organisations around the world have realised that diversity within an organisation is not a negative aspect, rather can facilitate organisational stalk for glory.It reflects the good management. “… for as the international economy increases competitive pleasures, organisations must draw on their most talented employees – without regard to racial, cultural or sexual differences.” Stonner, J.A.F and Freeman, E.R. (5th Ed) (1990:16)
