Making differences matter

1
Making differences matter

• Diversity should be understood as the varied
  perspectives and approaches to work that members
  of different identity groups bring.
• Stop assuming that diversity relates simply to
  how a person looks or where he or she comes from
• Help companies grow and improve by challenging
  basic assumptions about functions, strategies,
  operations, practices, and procedures.
• Employees bring more of their whole selves to the
  workplace and identify more fully with the work
  that they do.

2
Making differences matter

• Many organizations simply hire employees with
  diverse backgrounds then await the payoff. But
  they often dont enable employees differences to
  transform how the organization does work.

3

• Discrimination-and-fairness paradigm
• Assimilation
• Premise we are all the same
• Strategy hire diverse employees, encourage
  uniform behavior
• Advantage promotes fair hiring
• Disadvantages subverting differences to
  encourage harmony, companies miss out on new
  ideas. Feeling detached from their work,
  employees under perform.

4

• Access-and-legitimacy paradigm
• Differentiation
• Strategy match diverse employees to niche
  markets
• Advantage expands markets
• Disadvantages pigeonholed staff cant influence
  mainstream work. Employees feel exploited and
  excluded from other opportunities.
• Companies dont analyze differences to see how
  they actually affect how work is done (see p. 8)

5

• Emerging paradigm connecting diversity to work
  perspectives
• Integration
• Organization internalizes differences among
  employees so that it learns and grows because of
  them.
• Eight preconditions for making the paradigm shift
  (p. 10-11)
• Achieving integration
• Encourage open discussion of cultural backgrounds
• Eliminate all forms of dominance (hierarchy,
  function, race, gender, etc.) that inhibit full
  contribution.
• Secure organizational trust.

6
Making Differences MatterA New Paradigm in
Managing Diversity

• Eight pre-conditions for the learning and
  effectiveness paradigm
• Leadership open to new perspectives on work
• Leadership recognizes learning and challenges
• Culture supports high standards of performance
• Culture stimulates personal development
• Culture encourages openness
• Culture makes workers feel valued
• Well-articulated and understood mission
• Egalitarian and non-bureaucratic structure