• Home |
• Resources |
• Onsite Seminars |
• Other |

Diversity Means Business

Article made available through Human Synergistics® www.humansyn.com

Many companies persist in acknowledging diversity only as it pertains to affirmative action programs or selection and hiring practices. However, organizations are increasingly using diversity initiatives to develop an environment of cooperation and communication that encourages members to value and express differing ideas and viewpoints. From this perspective, valuing diversity is not merely recognizing the legitimacy of differences, but relying on these differences for competitive advantage.

Why Diversity Matters

Today's organizations have discovered that diversity is not only good for people it's also good for business. Companies that successfully adopt diversity as a strategic initiative are likely to experience the following benefits:

• Improved morale
• Improved quality and acceptance of decisions
• Increased efficiency and productivity
• Improved product and service quality
• Effective teamwork

These outcomes alone should convince any organization that teaching members to value differences is well worth the time and money. Yet, with such a strong business case for diversity, why aren't more organizations reaping its rewards?

The Culture Connection

Ultimately, creating an environment that supports diversity requires an organization's leadership to view human resource differences not as idiosyncrasies to be managed, but as assets to be nurtured and developed. For this form of diversity to "work," it must become an organizational value that members are encouraged to demonstrate through their collective behavior. In short, the degree to which an organization can embrace and support diversity is largely a function of its culture the behavioral norms or "styles" that identify the shared beliefs, values, and expectations that guide how members interact with one another and approach their work.

The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) provides a valid and reliable measure of an organization's culture in terms of 12 styles. These 12 styles are organized into three "types" of culture: Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and Aggressive/Defensive. Each of these cultures is associated with specific organizational outcomes related to teamwork and coordination, quality of service, and employee satisfaction and motivation. Following are the characteristics of these cultures.

Constructive Culture
(Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and Affiliative)

Organizations with Constructive cultures encourage members to work to their full potential, resulting in high levels of motivation, satisfaction, teamwork, service quality, and sales growth. Members must balance expectations for taking initiative and thinking independently with those for consensus and power sharing. Members believe in leveraging individual differences to enhance performance and sustain innovation.

These types of cultural norms are consistent with (and supportive of) the objectives behind diversity, empowerment, transformational leadership, continuous improvement, reengineering, and learning organizations.

Passive/Defensive Cultures
(Approval, Conventional, Dependent, and Avoidance)

Members of organizations with Passive/Defensive cultures feel pressured to think and behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way they personally believe they should behave in order to be effective. Members are expected to do whatever it takes to please others (particularly superiors) and avoid interpersonal conflicts.

Personal beliefs, ideas, and judgment take a back seat to rules, procedure, and orders _all of which are to be followed without question. As a result, organizations with Passive/Defensive cultures experience a significant amount of unresolved conflict and turnover and their members report relatively low levels of motivation and satisfaction. Members within a Passive/Defensive culture would resist diversity by minimizing constructive differing and the expression of ideas and opinions.

Aggressive/Defensive Cultures
(Oppositional, Power, Competitive, and Perfectionistic)

Organizations with Aggressive/Defensive cultures encourage members to appear competent, controlled, and superior even if, in fact, they lack the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, or experience. Those who seek assistance, admit shortcomings, or concede their position are viewed as incompetent or weak.

The constant pressure to maintain the facade of perfection and expertise comes at the expense of members' health, motivation, teamwork, and the way in which customers are treated.

Members within an Aggressive/Defensive culture would resist diversity by opposing new ideas and/or attempting to outperform peers who present different opinions.

From Here to Diversity

Assessing and understanding your organization's culture has important implications for the successful development and implementation of diversity initiatives.

For example, knowing where organization members are now in terms of their values and behaviors provides you with a starting point for designing initiatives targeted to meet their specific needs. By breaking down the barriers that promote resistance to diversity (and encourage Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive Cultures), you can establish a firm foundation upon which to build a Constructive Culture that embraces and values individual differences, and uses them to strategic competitive advantage.

Before jumping headfirst into diversity programs, spend some time defining what "valuing diversity" means to your organization and determining whether your culture promotes or discourages these values.