ESSAY
ORGANIZATIONAL DIVERSITY
Diversity is an extensive terminology used to understand that each individual is unique and different in sundry ways including personal behavior, reaction to certain aspects, religion, and cultural norms. Human beings may have comparable biological edifices, body parts but our genes are wired differently fueled by varied family, cultural and religious backgrounds which results in human beings been diverse. To build an innocuous and comprehensively all-inclusive working atmosphere there is an underlying need to address communication at work. Communication is purely the process of conveying information from one party to the other through a given medium which in the workplace may be through the use of memos, calls, face to face meetings, use of social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp. By its definition communication by sound as a simple act which is its opposite; the process of transferring information from one party to the other is technical considering the diverse nature of human such into race, ethnicity, gender, social status, age, physical capabilities, religious group, political alignment, and family background. With such consideration on diversity, depending on the type of information that was intended to be passed, the sender of the message needs to be thoughtful to send meaningful information to the envisioned recipients without being biased to any group on diversity and while at the same time not distorting the original meaning of the message (Roberson, 2019).
Workplace assorted with different diversification is moving human resource world to another level. Organizations plan great selection and integration events as never before, and invest money into guaranteeing that their organizations are geared up for future success. Focusing solely on financial improvement and integration is not only the firms’ sharp operation, but also the functional human stimulation. Besides, a few diversity in the professional atmosphere, make reference to a relationship involving people of rapidly changing sexuality, ethnicity, color, age, nationality, sexual orientation, guidance, and various qualities (Hatipoglu and Inelmen, 2018). Reasonable diversity at work setting gives rise to a number of benefits – so from an internally and externally standpoint. In just about any circumstance, this really doesn’t suggest performing various range of tasks and activities is not without their truly unique difficulty plan.
Leading businesses are taking steps to improve diversity, equality and inclusion in the midst of significant social and political developments over the past decades. Often, initiatives intended to improve diversity and workforce inclusion fail. And this leads to a logical question: What really works? Research reveals that different gatherings are more powerful at critical thinking than homogeneous gatherings, and approaches that advance decent variety and consideration will upgrade our capacity to draw from the broadest conceivable pool of ability, settle our hardest difficulties, boost representative commitment and development, and show others how it’s done by setting an elevated expectation for giving access to chance to all fragments of our general public (Briscoe and Raghuram, 2015).
Having diverse management teams increases the profitability of an organization. When an organization has diversity in management teams, means its different people with new ideas, dreams and targets hence the teams are able to explore and innovate new ideas to spearhead the organization forward. Diversity in approaches also helps the organization in problem solving as the teams can come up with different ideas to tackle the problem, hence making problem solving an easy task. Innovations increases the profitability of an organization because consumers are always on the lookout on what is new in the market, hence diversity in ideas, management and approach is healthy for any organization. While it is proving to be quite difficult for most organization to implement inclusion and diversity, few noteworthy organizations are making some positive strides. Although the transformation for inclusion and diversity had already made good progress for the last few decades, serious disappointments have still been continued to suffer. Much is being published about both the issues of diversity and inclusion within the different companies. But then that fact doesn’t imply that there is still no possibility to have. The organization’s future rests on the shoulders of ordinary workers, with a new perspective, innovative business founding fathers and venture capitalists. Rather, what is becoming abundantly clear is that participation from the above isn’t really conditional. Be that as it may, to get to the promising finish to the present course of action, the business needs to grapple with how it got to where it is today, the insufficiency of coincidental activities like actualizing an independent oblivious predisposition preparing, or even what it takes to get where to go from there.
Yes, diversity is an area of lots of rhetoric and discussion. This is integrates various aspects making individuals unique from each. The terminology of diversity has changed over time; this is as a result of the new norms that come up in the society based on changes in behavior and interactions.
Diversity is termed as a truth generated by parties or groups from a broad range of demographic in addition to philosophical variance. It’s essential to show assistance and protection so as to create a successful alongside a cooperative caring community that obtains intellectual capabilities for creativity and innovation from the concurrence of its people. The terminology does not only mean acknowledging or putting up with contrast but also entails a set of conscious activities involving;, understanding and appreciating interdependence of different cultural and historical practices, having a clear understanding that diversity involves ways of being and knowing; being aware that discrimination based on personal and cultural differences would create privileges for some and suffering. Diversity is an example of a ‘fashion’ in management approaches. This is because it suggests that having a balance between rhetoric and action is very vital and everyone should work towards creating that balance.
Associations today, work for the most part in a worldwide or worldwide condition. They have to address the issues of different societies and impart successfully to all degrees of representatives to incorporate their endeavors towards accomplishment of the points of the organization and furthermore satisfy the desires for the workers. This requires the responsibility and endeavors of all individuals from association, through an all-around planned and organized methodology. This procedure can be hazardous and fanciful if not done viably, as a result of the assorted variety of the work power and social contrasts which make a correspondence insufficient (Ng and Sears, 2020). Associations manage the circumstance in an unexpected way, yet a definitive goal is one of incorporating the endeavors of socially dissimilar individuals towards the hierarchical objective. While the global working surrounding continues to diversify, the managers as well as the team associates should strive to come up with ordinary ways to handle the issues contrary to the past. In that way, they will be in a position to run their activities smoothly. Failure to surpass such challenges may force the workers into a counterproductive or otherwise a humiliating environment.
Expanding assorted variety and consideration in the work environment is an intense test, and numerous associations have not gained enough ground around there. One key factor that senior heads may have disregarded identifies with completely captivating cutting edge pioneers in endeavors. This gathering affects the day by day experience of line workers, and no change exertion will prevail without their upfront investment. Organizations that consolidate bleeding edge pioneers in their D&I estimates will gain quicker ground toward their objective of making a work environment that is inviting, really evenhanded, and ready to employ the best individuals and get the best work out of them (Brown, 2017). Conclusively, with so many challenges that organizations are going through, they should make an effort to incorporate diversity in various ways as possible.
Every organization and workplace contains individuals working there, they must communicate to each other through all kinds of communication such as the downward and the upward structure where the managers instruct the low-level employees while the employees give feedback to their bosses and also communication between the employees of the same level through personal interaction and coaching. This makes communication a core factor in appreciating human diversity by using cross-cultural communication skills. Communication can be through different categories such as spoken, written, visualization, and non-verbal communication which includes the body language, gestures, tonal variation, dress code, and posture. A diverse workforce is more productive as it comprises of individuals from all works of lives and backgrounds, which provides a breeding room for innovation and creativity within the organization. Diversity in the workplace varies according to the size of the organization for instance if a group of three to five close friends open up a business, less diversification will be exposed which makes it also hard for the friends to venture into a new product in the market since they all have the same experiences and level of exposure unlike in at an international organization comprising of over hundred employees working under the same roof.
With a huge number of persons operating in one place, without proper guidelines through communication on diversity appreciations, diversity will be used as a tool for discrimination. However, if diversity is well understood and appreciated, the organization will benefit since it has experienced and well-networked employees exposed to different conditions through their backgrounds making it easier for the company to collect comprehensive and accurate information from its employees before venturing into a new market. Noting on the importance of diversification on workplace it is of great significance that it is embraced using communication not just for acknowledging and tolerating difference but also to improve individual understanding of diversity thereby creating a special need to appreciate it through mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from theirs, creating alliances across alterations and developing an utmost understanding that diversity is not just about being but also ways and knowing. Communication is the center of all human interaction that can create awareness on diversity through advocating for; development of listening skills, self-encouragement, uniform training, promotion to all employees, holistic vision and need to address the existing language barriers (Wang and Fang, 2020).
As the saying goes it doesn’t matter what we say about diversity what matters is what we do, actions are better than words. Simple actions such as listening well before reacting to a given message can change everything. The art of taking time before actual leaping pays off. Human beings are products of emotion and are bound to judge the speaker or sender forgetting about the message sent, this verdict on judging speakers based on their backgrounds usually creates a bogus feeling which results in misinterpretation of the message. How many times have we failed to understand a given message because we did not ‘like’ the speaker? The art of listening comprehensively improves the understanding of the message while taking time to think it through provides the recipient the opportunity to respond to the message effectively without attaching unnecessary issues. To communicate authentically listen more, take time, observe other partners’ reactions to the same message, ask a relatively close question, and take notes when necessary. Inspiring self-encouragement is another key way to surge the appreciation of diversity at the workplace. This is simply through allowing an openness in communication by allowing everyone in the organization to have a say and hold a conversation expressing their thoughts and ideas. Every organization has a majority and a minority group in which the minority group feels discriminated against to a given point, consequently, such minority groups may lose interest and with fear of repercussions or of being judged they may not fully express their needs and concerns. A feedback box works best in such situations where one is allowed to express their ideas and thoughts while maintaining their anonymity (Ravazzani, 2016).
In large organizations comprising of international or employees from a nation-wide scope, the language barrier is a major setback to communication since it leads to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of informational. Communication is much harder when the parties involved speak different languages when using verbal communication and almost impossible if one uses unfamiliar signs during a non-verbal communication. The setting of holistic visions by the organization is the best approach to diversification of employees. It entails the process of reviewing the organizational structure to ensure no bias. Facing the organization with ample vision and goals with equal standards for every employee in mind, campaigning for working conditions to be tuned to fit all employees needs equality and equitably where necessary. Using a holistic vision to find underrepresented or misrepresented persons within the organization is effective. This calls for uniform training of employees which will in turn provide an equitable room for uniform selection of employees to promotion. Also, in addition to ensuring that equity is ensured in all the organization departments, no department should be left out. All departmental employees should be refined on diversity appreciation.
Numerous attempts have been put in place to ensure that diversity is embraced, for instance in some governmental organization for countries such as Kenya, it is a requirement that not more than two-thirds of all the function attendees, employees and individual are of the same gender and must also include persons with disabilities, religion, and ethnicity as representatives of their respective groups. Having the right attitude is the best way to maneuver through diversity in the workplace. A positive attitude is communicable. Staying positive, thinking positively about a coworker, manager, and client will all improve the way one communicates with another person by embracing communication with an open mind and a willingness to listen genuinely to their ideas without judging them basing on their diverseness (Skouloudis and Dimopoulos, 2019). Love is brewed within an organization when one is praised for great work done and when performed poorly one is trained positively through quality improvements over time other than using a condescending tone. It is true that what matters most about diversity is not what we say on it but actually what we do about it through the development of listening skills, self-encouragement, uniform training, and promotion to all employees, the setting of holistic vision, and addressing language barriers.
List of references
Briscoe, D.R. and Raghuram, S., 2015. A global perspective on diversity and inclusion in work organisations.
Brown, J. (2017). Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change by Jennifer Brown. Publish Your Purpose Press.
Hatipoglu, B., & Inelmen, K. (2018). Demographic diversity in the workplace and its impact on employee voice: The role of trust in the employer. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(5), 970-994.
Ng, E.S. and Sears, G.J., 2020. Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(3), pp.437-450.
Ravazzani, S. (2016). Understanding approaches to managing diversity in the workplace. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Roberson, Q. M. (2019). Diversity in the workplace: A review, synthesis, and future research agenda. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 69-88.
Skouloudis, A. and Dimopoulos, A., 2019. Diversity in the workplace: An overview of disability employment disclosures among UK firms. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(1), pp.170-185.
Wang, M., & Fang, Y. (2020). Age diversity in the workplace: Facilitating opportunities with organizational practices. Public Policy & Aging Report, 30(3), 119-123.
