Managing Diversity

In this chapter we are going to analyze how the diversity management is applied on the corporate culture of the organizations. Our reference article to this reflection is: The business case for commitment to diversity by Stanley F. Salter, Robert A. Wiegand and Thomas J. Zwirlein and published by Kelley School of Business from the Indiana University.

Nowadays the cultural diversity is regarded as one of the most important human capital resources within an organization because this is seen as a competitive advantage that competitors find it very difficult to imitate and impossible to substitute.

Even though the cultural diversity must be supported by a high management commitment in order to become this "asset" a sustainable competitive advantage and obtain from it a superior organization's performance. The cultural diversity can just work inside an organization when it is considered as an active element of the corporate culture and not merely as a human resource program, the cultural diversity inictative should represent the values, beliefs and behavioral norms that the corporate culture states. Also the cultural diversity should be oriented to the company's business strategy in order to build a linkage between the company's diversity initiative and its organizational success.

It has proved that a company with a multicultural work team takes more effective decisions in the resolution of complex problems due to the different perspectives and backgrounds of the group members. People from different cultures get access to more diverse information and take into consideration broader and more complex issues than a homogeneous work team  could do it.

The dynamic of a multicultural work team allows more critic and reflexive ways of thinking and working.

Despite the cultural diversity potential, this one brings some cost for the company's internal activities such as a lack of communication within the employees, decrease group cohesiveness and cooperation, etc ;so in order to avoid or mitigate these bad results every area of the organization should get involved in the consolidation of the cultural diversity, the CEO commitment, the corporate communications and the supplier diversity are just some actions that support the inictative to become the cultural diversity in a business strategic aim.

The proposed questions for this topic are:

1. Is diversity management at IBM a source of competitive advantage? why?

Yes, I consider  that IBM works with the assurance that its diversity management is a valuable know-how to use as a competitive advantage, because the way how the CEO and the top executives lead the implementation of the diversity management through the formation of diverse cultural focus groups, allows the company evaluate the business with a broader perspective, and take more consistent decision regarding the facts and the needs presented in the market. The information and analysis that these focus groups develop are useful "assets" that competitors cannot copy.

2. Do you think the IBM case reflects a strong organizational commitment to diversity? why?

 Yes, definitively IBM shows a high commitment with the diversity initiative, because all the working areas were involved in the development of this idea and not the human resources area, this is an issue that concerns everybody in the company. Also the originator of this initiative wanted to get involved different hierarchical level workers because the interaction and joint work of these different types of persons could give the company broader perspectives of the actual market conditions and it could help to develop more effective strategies to the actual market needs.

3. What are the limitations or challenges that a corporate diversity program faces? Please provide recommendations to address them.

All companies that undertake a cultural diversity program could notice some disadvantages or costs that cultural diversity entails. Problems such as lack of communication within the workforce, higher employee turnovers, decrease group cohesiveness and group cooperation. Al these situations cause conflicts among the group members. The leaders of this initiative should work to foster an open minded orientation and a flexible way to work and communicate among the employees. The leaders should highlight the benefits of this program and the linkage between the cultural diversity and the company's strategic business plan in order to demonstrate its importance for the better company's performance.

I invite you to see this interesting video How does diversity  impact the business today? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui4kjsWH-78

 Image taken from: http://www.avancehouston.org/CULTURAL%20DIVERSITY%20Main.htm

For further information you can check:

- Diversity as Strategy by  David A. Thomas published by Harvard Business Review.