Coming to grips with workplace diversity

That no two individuals are similar, is stating the evident. At a workplace, the dissimilarities may be there by way of religious denomination, personality type, culture, race, social standing, educational exposure and even outlook. To be able to manage such workplace diversity is an essential prerequisite of any leader, irrespective at the level he or she is operating. It is an established fact that mixt and diverse groups are more adept at examining any matter judiciously and offering better resolutions to difficult issues. Therefore, in the true sense, workplace diversity is a significant tool for the management of any successful venture.

The aim of workplace diversity should be to bring together various social and ethnic differences on a common plane to create an all-embracing discerning group. In a larger context, this would imply a presence of individuals irrespective of their upbringings, personal history and social class. It should never be forgotten that it is the headship that goes to make an organisation. Therefore, healthy and unblemished leadership skills give a boost to positive interfaces and collaborations across varied cultural assemblages. Besides facilitating arrival at better judgments and resolution of crisis situations, workplace diversity also helps in generating superior ingenuity and inventiveness. The net outcome is that organisational productivity in all spheres of activity stands enhanced.

An organisation that is disposed to adopting a culturally inclusive workplace atmosphere is often faced with the issue of how to integrate people from diverse cultural consortia. The entire exercise can be rather complex because different groups and their dogmata generally end up serving the authoritarian pecking order of establishments. Under such circumstances, it is essential that besides appropriate superintendence, moral and conceptual advising is resorted to. Any communication will always have the peril of misunderstanding attached to it unless there are bars of fairness and impartiality instituted that set specified criterions. In the light of the foregoing, an organisation has no option but to devise policies that place in order the views of their side-lined staff to ensure that nobody feels or appears to be a square peg in a round hole. A company that subscribes to the tenet of harmony despite assortment will invariably have a bright future. The importance of systematising and upholding workplace diversity thus needs no emphasis.

It also needs to be acknowledged that differences will persist come what may and any conclusion that they have been eliminated will be rather presumptuous. It will always be apt to acclaim and rejoice in such differences; any move to buoy up display of such diversity will pay rich dividends. The value of any employee stems more from his ethnicity rather than any other factor and hence it is of no use compartmentalising them.  

An impartial action and an unvarying action are two different things; and only one can be used to address the issue of workplace diversity. If you think that by dealing with everybody equivalently, there will be no problems, you are sadly mistaken. Instead, you should treat every single person objectively by paying due regards to the differences that go in to make whosoever he or she actually is. Any insensitivity towards an individual or his beliefs, howsoever trivial it may be, is bound to give birth to some sort of an umbrage and generate sentiments of being isolated.  

Like charity, management of workplace diversity also starts from you. You should pay special attention to oversee your own outlook and conduct. It is your self-awareness that will go a long way in cultivating and promoting a safe and sound; alive and well; and unbiased workplace environment, particularly when diversity in various forms abounds. If you find that somebody is advertently or inadvertently not coming up to the rules of the game, it is necessary that he or she be appraised appropriately and at the earliest. The bottom line of functioning is that there has to be no disregard to ideas and no discrimination in the allocation of tasks that may stem up based on prevalent diversities.

If any diversity linked issue comes to your knowledge, there is no harm in talking it straightforwardly with the employees. But that would need to be done in a non-argumentative, non-aggressive and non-provocative manner. Motivating employees to work with others hailing from different backgrounds or denominations and encouraging them to understand divergent viewpoints will go a long way in promoting an atmosphere of amity.

There are just three primary colours, but when combined, the number of shades that can be created are unimaginable. That goes to prove that strength lies in differences and not in similarities. Workplace diversity is thus an asset and has to be dealt with accordingly.