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Diversity – What does it mean?
With the introduction of new legislation, a shortage of skilled labour and the influx of migrant workers diversity is emerging as one of the most serious issues in the workplace today, yet most employers are not prepared to deal with it nor are their managers. Many managers grew up having little contact with other cultures. They are actually "culturally deprived”, and their academic training did not cover the kinds of situations that arise in today's multicultural settings.
Most traditional models of human behavior and management methods - as well as many of the recommendations - are based on implicit assumptions of a homogeneous white male workforce. The most widely taught theories of motivation mirror the white male's own experience and attitudes. Some of those methods can be startlingly counterproductive when applied to other nationalities.
Some organisations are taking aggressive steps to meet the demographic challenges of the future, appointing specialists to manage multicultural planning and workforce diversity. Businesses will not be able to survive if we do not have a large diverse workforce, because those are the demographics of today’s marketplace. The company that gets out in front of managing diversity will have a competitive edge.
Examples:
After learning on a management development course that a friendly pat on the arm would make his workers feel good and motivated, a manager took every chance to pat his subordinates. However his Asian employees, who were uncomfortable being touched, avoided him like the plague. Several asked for transfers. (If he had treated female employees this way, he could have had other problems on his hands.)
A manager concerned about ethics declined a gift offered him by a new employee, a migrant worker who wanted to show gratitude for her job. He explained the company's policy about gifts. She was so insulted she quit.
In a similar situation, a new employee's wife (an Eastern European) stopped by her husband’s office with a bottle of champagne, fully expecting everyone present to stop and celebrate the new job. When people said "hello" and returned to work, she was mortified. Her husband quit within a few days.
What Every Manager Needs to Know
If managers are to be trained to value diversity - to go beyond offering equal employment opportunity and manage in a way designed to employ the benefits that differences bring - what do they actually need to learn, and what barriers must they overcome?
EEO and human resources development professionals agree on four major problem areas that need attention:
- Stereotypes and their associated assumptions;
- Actual cultural differences;
- The exclusivity of the "white male club" and its associated access to important information and relationships;
- Unwritten rules and double standards for success, which are often unknown to women and minorities.
Stereotypes and assumptions. Stereotypes hurt individuals when invalid conclusions are reached about them, and when those conclusions remain untested and unchanged. Even when an individual seems to fit a stereotype, it's important to analyse all the assumptions that are being made. For example, take an Asian engineer who is quiet, modest and hard-working. Because he avoids eye contact and doesn't speak out in brainstorming sessions, his boss concludes that he's a good technician but lacks ma
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