DIVERSITY IN WORKPLACE

Research has consistently shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders (Ibarra and Hansen 2011: 71).

The word “diversity” which simple means the degree of variation or differences in people or a group of people.  Acknowledging and accepting the differences with respect in terms of gender, religion, age, thought, ideologies, disciplines, race, abilities etc., in a workplace is meant to have a diverse team. For instance just imagine having the same meal everyday! One may become easily bored of the same food and moreover a person also may become deficient of specific nutrients too. So having a variety of food provide diverse nutrition, similarly working with diverse individuals has lot of advantages.

Diversity can bring in new ways of approach to the line of business. Nowadays the upcoming business group has recognized the importance of having a diverse team because it’s essential that a growing company needs to interact with different people, culture and background. Having diverse team can lessen the misunderstanding that develops and also helps built a pleasing and healthy relationship with the customers and clients. Company’s which do not encourage a diverse team will find it difficult later on to cope up with this changing world in the next 5 to 10 years.

“In the absence of effective management of diversity, culturally diverse workgroups will have more communication problems, longer decision times, and lower member moral than culturally homogeneous workgroups.” (Cox, Taylor)

Yes of course, managing a diverse team is definitely a difficult task in hand. Just like how every organization needs a head, the diverse team needs a lead-off person and this role is played by the manager who maintains the level of acceptance between the distinct individuals and develops interpersonal communication skills among them. Managing is the crucial part which when properly done can produce the best results in the business world. It is a big challenge to the manager, but when effectively managed it can improve the strengths of an employee and balance their weakness so that greater and desirable outcomes can be produced. Skilful management include pooling of unique talent, skills and experiences of the diverse team and creating a cohesive team by making up the differences in their work in the most desirable way to help the company.

For example, Tesco being second largest retailers in the world recruits a age-diverse team to work for them. They say “It is attitude, not age, that makes for great service for our customers,” Margarette Spencer an employee at Tesco of age 76 says, “I enjoy working and I meet new people each day. My job keeps my mind active and stops me from growing old. Tesco didn’t care how old I was. I wanted to work and they gave me the opportunity.” Researchers have found out that not only the customers enjoy dealing with staffs of different age group, but the employees as well like working with a team of all age(Agepositive, 2005).

“To the extent that organizations can capitalize on the potential benefits of cultural diversity in workgroups, they will gain a competitive advantage in (a) creativity, (b) problem solving, and (c) flexible adaptation to change.” (Cox, Taylor)

Diversity plays a vital part in today’s global market. The team performance has lead to better quality solutions along with creative strategies to tackle all the problems faced by the upcoming markets. A team consisting of diverse individual will have innovative ideas and an entirely different way of approach to a problem and choose their own way to arrive at a possible solution. Apart from all this, a diverse team adapt really well to the changing world leading to hike in creativity and increase in productivity in the worldwide market.

The main advantage of having a diverse team is that it helps an organization to achieve success and profit through competitive analysis as they provide services to their customers on a global basis. A diverse team will have better and bigger contact network across the world rather than a group with consistent members. They also help maintain good relationship with other countries which create better market insight. The individual communication skills are enhanced and a team of distinct individual can produce a total effect that is greater than the individual contributions thus reducing the conflicts and risk involved. A diverse team in a workplace also increases marketing opportunity, shareholder value, recruitment and performance of an organization, experience and the business style of a company (saharconsulting, 2010).

Diversity is especially crucial in today’s global marketplace, as companies interact with different cultures and clients.  The payoffs touch every area of the business by potentially resulting in increased creativity, increased productivity, new attitudes, new language skills, global understanding, new processes, and new solutions to difficult problems. Greater agility, better market insight, stronger customer and community loyalty, innovation, and improved employee recruitment and retention.

Reference:

1. Saharconsulting.(2010) 6 Advantages Of Workplace Diversity; [online] available from <http://saharconsulting.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/6-advantages-of-workplace-diversity/>; [Accessed: 4 July 2014]

2. Qcc.(2014) Definition For Diversity; [online] available from <http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/diversity/definition.html>; [Accessed: 4 July 2014]

3. Directutor.(2010) Benefits Of Managing A Diverse Team; [online] available from <.http://www.directutor.com/content/benefits-managing-diverse-team>; [Accessed: 4 July 2014]

4. Smallbusiness.(2014) Advantages And Disadvantages Of Diversity In Workplace; [online] available from <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-diversity-workplace-3041.html>; [Accessed: 4 July 2014]

5. Ibarra, H. and Hansen, T.(2006) ’Are You A Collaborative Leader?’Harvard Business Review; [online] available from <http://img.gotomeeting.com/g2mimages/ad/pdf/areYouACollaborativeLeader.pdf>; [Accessed: 4 July 2014]

Why should anyone be lead by you ?

“Think about all the great leaders. Think about Obama. Think about Clinton. Think about Nelson Mandela. Think about all the people that we know who are very successful in business, in politics and religion. What are they? They tell purposeful stories. They move people to action by aiming at the heart.” says Peter Guber.

In this particular blog, I would like to share about my vision of leadership and about the people who have inspired me in my life to be leader of my choice. This blog can be considered to be a personal assessment of my behavior as a leader, the things that I have learned and the qualities that I need to develop as I progress though my MBA course.

According to John Quincy Adams “ If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

I agree with the above statement and from what I have learned through my experiences, I believe a leader is someone with a ‘vision’, who can be admired and followed. A good leader has a ‘heart’ for the people and ‘motivates’ them in the correct direction. A person’s leadership style may vary but a great leader always ‘listens’ to the people.  My vision of Leadership is the person who takes up the responsibility, inspires and guides his team to accomplish the goals of an organization. We all may be good leaders by choice or by default but there are a few exceptional leaders who I admire in this world of business. Namely, Steve Paul Jobs the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. and the well famous William Henry Bill Gates, the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft. They are the two well-known and biggest business magnates who have set the fire of inspiration in the mind of young leaders. One cannot compare and decide who the best leader among them is since they have their own unique style of leadership.

Steve Jobs is an influential leader with a very bold vision. He is described to be a very determined and innovative person who developed and accomplished dreams that normal people once believed is not possible. Under the leadership of Steve Job, Apple Inc. succeeded in launching devices like iPod, iPhone, Mac Book PC, Mac Air etc. While planning for the development of such technology, he started off by listing the failure and faults that could happen once began. He believed “the way to get better is to fix my failings”. He is such a magnetic leader who is passionate about the product excellence. Through involvement and effective communication he improved the performance of his employees has he took effort to share all the ideas with his colleagues and customers (Forbes, 2014).

 

 

 

Whereas, I admire Bill Gates leadership style as well. He’s ranked to be the Top 10 of fortunes most admired leader in business. He had a vision and he inspired the people he worked with by sharing them. He is known to be an expert in developing software and blessed with an excellent capability to analyze, interpret and be competent as a leader. He is considered to be a strong willed, magnetic and honest person who aims at helping the world develops. Both Steve Jobs and Bill gates are said to have a transformational style of leadership in leading their followers (Examiner, 2011).

At this stage of my life, I have laid a base for my career by joining in for MBA at CULC. I have started to expand my knowledge and experience in field of business and management. In this short period of six months I get to learn a lot though group activities, debates and presentations on various topics. I had attended classed on ‘leading in a changing world’ module and my tutor had helped me learn about the various aspects of leadership.Apart from these, I get to work in a team and got a chance to evaluate myself as a team leader. Activities such as Lego and Water Bottle games etc. gave us an insight about the leadership quality and how to lead & coordinate a team with diverse individuals. Feed-backs were provided at the end about my performance and it made me ask a few questions about myself ‘Am I an effective leader?’, ‘What is my leadership style’, ‘Do I inspire?’

According to my personal view, I want to be an ethical leader following the transformational style of leadership. Listening and understanding my subordinates and leading their work and guiding them in the right direction. As an amateur, I need to build up the self-confidence to lead a team and enhance by communication skills so that I could share my knowledge and idea among my team and inspire them to work together and help complete the task on time. So to conclude, through the constant learning process at CULC I intend to clear out all my weakness and bring in positive attitude and become a successful leader with ethics.

Reference:

1. Examiner.(2011, November, 14) Bill Gates : A Transformational Leader; [online] available from http://www.examiner.com/article/bill-gates-transformational-leader; [ Accessed 29 June 2014]

 

2. Forbes.(2013, August, 22)The Big Lesson About Leadership From Steve Jobs; [online] available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2013/08/22/the-big-lesson-about-leadership-from-steve-jobs/; [Accessed 29 June 2014]