How to Bring in Diversity in Your Organisation Tomorrow's business leaders will have to cope with increasing diversity in age, cultural and ethnic background, etc.
By Shantanu Das
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"Before god, we are all equally wise and equally foolish" - Albert Einstein
A balanced organizational culture provides ideal conditions for a broad range of diversity to flourish. In a balanced organization, real differences between men and women are not swept under the carpet. Such an organization creates a far more diverse space.
The rising intricacy and shared dependency of businesses will entail new requirements on the definition of able leadership. Tomorrow's business leaders will have to cope with increasing diversity in age, cultural and ethnic background, etc. The leader will have to bond with different groups and connect these groups to each other.
Here are the 5 reasons which attribute the most to the rationale for diversity agenda:
Gender Diversity: There is already enough evidence in the world to show the positive impact of women leadership. Women have successfully built and run countries and cities, economies and institutions. Gender balance in workplace should not be viewed as a western fad or a good to do deliverable or merely achieving a global mandate! In a true sense, gender diversity and balance aids the business and has a real positive impact on the business performance. There is no denial of the fact that diversity also enhances creativity, new attitudes, new ways of working and innovative solutions to the same problem.
Cultural Transformation: Stereotypes are hard to break and like it or not, we are all prone to engaging in stereotyping at one point or another. An organization needs to continue to encourage its employees to go beyond stereotypes and recognize the contributions that each individual can make to the workplace and to the relationships at home, thus enhance diversity of "all kinds of people" who fit in the value system of a company.
It helps Business! Hiring with an intent to have a diverse workforce is an essential part of the growth of the business. The business that we do caters to people of diverse religions, castes and creed. Hence as a company, the more we have diversity within, the better we can access and relate to a diverse set of people across various cultures and societies outside.
Diversity across boundaries: In large multinational set ups with businesses across geographies, it is absolutely critical to have people of different nationalities on board – not only for the ease to do business, but also to have a better grip on the local laws, customs and rules applicable to a country.
Critical to a healthy and congenial work environment: From practicing diversity to also ensuring fairness, transparency and consistency across all sects of employees, makes the entire work environment becomes congenial and healthy for all employees to deliver their best!
Diversity is indeed a sustainable competitive advantage to any organization!
