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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on October 21, 2002. Businesses need to cultivate diversityBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to The Post and Courier Business Major Taking care of business in a rapidly changing nation of more than 281.4 million people increasingly requires understanding the demographic shifts that are making our work force more diverse. Statistics from a variety of recent reports including Catalyst, the Center for Women's Business Research (founded as the National Foundation for Women Business Owners), the 2000 U.S. Census, the 2000 United Nations Report, The Hudson Institute Workforce 2020 projection, and the 2001 Randstad North American Employee Review, document American diversity. Americans now speak more than 300 different languages, live in a country with a falling native birthrate and an aging population, and are experiencing a tidal wave of new immigration. And these changes are just the beginning. How companies deal with this diverse population legally is governed by the many regulations and court decisions rising from the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. These two pieces of legislation were enacted to deal with inequities in our workplace. In practical terms, the laws require focusing on the rights of all employees. But in today's diverse world, organizational success is determined by how well one manages people. Dealing with diversity is not the same as affirmative action, and not just a human resource management issue to be contained within a single office, department or division. It is an integral part of a company's operation. The management, client and customer relations in a diverse society require the firm to recognize when change is needed and what kind, and the wisdom to act on this knowledge. In the management of internal affairs and employees, successful leadership requires the understanding that attempts to treat diverse groups in our work force as if they are all the same may be counterproductive. The word diversity has Latin roots. It means "to turn in opposite directions." If an organization made up of diverse groups embraces the idea of a unified organizational culture, but then treats each person the same rather than recognizing individual differences, construction of a 21st century culture with all its exciting possibilities is lost. Recognition of differences and the true contributions that each employee can bring to the table in pursuit of the organization's goals, by contrast, brings people into the process and aids in the formulation of the organizational culture. In most organizations there are at least two, and often more, groups of people. Most commonly, the majority and dominant group is composed of those who hold power. They have decision-making positions, allocate the resources and control the flow of information and rewards. The organizational minorities are diverse and varied but their primary characteristic is that they operate on the margins. Whether defined in terms of age, gender, abilities, ethnicity, race or sexual orientation, or any of the secondary interactive components such as the level of education, work background, income, marital status, parental status, military experience, religious beliefs or geographic locations, they have fewer granted rights and lower status. The numbers of people operating on the margins are expected to increase dramatically. Presently, there are more than 54 million people with disabilities and half of them are not employed. By 2008, women and people of color will represent 70 percent of the yearly new entrants in the workplace. More dramatic changes lie ahead. Consider some projections for the year 2020. By then 68 percent of our work force will be white non-Hispanic (a decrease of almost 10 percent since 1995), 14 percent Hispanic, 11 percent African-American and 6 percent Asian. There will be as many women in the work force as men. People over 65 will compose 20 percent of the population. Population migration will be highly visible and every year will increase dramatically. In the United States today - as in Europe and advanced economies of Asia - in manual labor, professional and high technology fields, replacement immigration is rising rapidly enough to offset native population declines and the effects of the aging workforces. What does this mean if you are the chief executive officer, small-business owner, or manager today? To begin with, and most importantly, you will be more successful by projecting and enforcing a culture of recognition and appreciation of individual differences. To do this, it is important to value differences for what they are. How can you assess the diversity acceptance in your organization? Is your organization one of those companies on the bottom rung of the ladder who denies that diversity exists or, if it does, that seldom acknowledges that it is important or affects operations? Is the business at the next rung, the minimal stage, happy to sell to anyone, inserting "compliance with EEOC and Affirmative Action" in the position advertisements, but when filling positions anxious to hire only "people like us"? Has your company moved beyond the lip service second tier to cultivating an inclusive and supportive climate that values individual identity and rights and recognizes that there are differences in talents and what each person brings to the table? Or, best of all, has it advanced to the top rung, exhibiting the supportive organizational climate that seeks out the best from everyone? There is a simple indicator. Can employees talk to managers and leaders candidly about problems and expect positive changes? Or does the company's leadership consist of "straightening out" or targeting employees who raise the questions or don't seem to "fit in" with the present ongoing organizational culture? Is your business in danger of losing talent because people do not feel valued, included or heard? For Questions/Comments about this site, contact dot.moore@comcast.net. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |