Diversity management's impact on redefining traditional leadership theory

Diversity Management
Introduction
Diversity management is defined as the actions that an organization takes with an aim of promoting greater inclusion of employees from different backgrounds. This is done by creating specific policies and programs. Diversity management, in essence, is the strategy of making use of best practices that have proven results in order to find and create a diverse and inclusive pool of employees within the organization (Knights & Omanovi?, 2016). Some of the successful strategies will link diversity progress directly to the business results. Basically, diversity management is the practice of addressing and supporting the multiple lifestyles and personal characteristics within the workforce. Diversity not only covers racial aspects, but rather it encompasses other differences like sexual orientation, gender, religion, parental status, marital status, educational background, physical disability, age, and pregnancy. There should be a policy within the organization that there will be no discrimination against or harassment of a person who is employed by the organization on the basis of these dimensions. The hiring process should also not use any of the mentioned basis to discriminate or eliminate certain candidates. Managing diversity does not mean merely following legal and policy requirements (Holck, Muhr, & Villesèche, 2016). It entails actively promoting a cohesive and comfortable working environment for all the employees.
It has been posited that social diversity contributes richness to the organization community and it enhances the quality of workplace life for all employees (Holck et al., 2016). It is vital for an organization to take pride in the various employee achievements and celebrate employee differences. Workplace diversity has the potential to offer tremendous benefits in regards to improved morale, greater teamwork, outside-the-box thinking, and an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.
How Diversity Is Challenging Traditional Leadership Theory
Traditional leadership theories have been challenged by diversity. This is mainly because traditional leadership was mainly focused on the leader and there was little focus on the employees. Theories like the great man theory had a preconceived image of a leader. In most instances, the leader was the meanest, leanest, strongest, brightest, most educated, and in most instances the whitest (Knights & Omanovi?, 2016). This image of a leader is being challenged by diversity in that a leader is no longer about the image, but rather about how one interacts with the employees. Diversity has brought about many changes within the workforce and basing leadership on the above principles would mean that an organization was discriminatory. Leadership is about leading and a person’s looks have nothing to do with how good a leader they are. Leadership is now inclusive and there are women leaders who have taken up roles that were previously seen as the preserve of men. Diversity has opened avenues for people who would never have risen to leadership positions if the status quo had been maintained. Diversity has led to the development of new and fresh theories that encompass the needs and performance of employees. Leadership has been redefined in ways that people would not have imagined. Nowadays people talk about transformation leaders who empower and engage people to do their best for the collective vision of the organization.
Leadership is now not about barking rules and orders to employees. A leader must be able to demonstrate to the employees and work with them to achieve a common goal. Interactivity has been pushed to the forefront and employees are now encouraged and geared to express themselves unlike in the past where the leader said and employees did. In the past, the role of the employees was to just do as the leader says. This was because it was assumed the leader always knew what needs to be done and how it should be done. With this notion, there was little interaction between leaders and employees. Leadership had been the preserve of the white man. This has completely changed and it not uncommon to find diverse leaders within an organization. This promoted inclusivity within the organization and there are diverse views that are brought to the table. With different perspective been brought at the same table, it is quite welcoming to see how interactive management meetings are and there are no limitations being placed on particular individuals. Leaders have to lead by example and this has forced many leaders to be adaptable and to be welcoming of the different perspectives of employees.
Inclusivity is being pushed within leadership positions. It no longer acceptable to have an organized leadership that constitutes of one particular race, color, or gender. This opens up the boardroom to other views and allows leaders to be interactive with the employees. Having a diverse leadership will also attract a diver workforce that is beneficial to the organization. Discrimination has been reduced and it is not as prevalent as it was in the past. Leaders are now required to be mindful of how they treat their employees and how they talk with the employees. In the past, a leader was feared, however, with diversity leaders are seen as friends and colleagues. The main difference being that one reports to a particular person. This has humanized leadership and employees are now able to approach their bosses and leaders to discuss personal and work-related issues.
Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace
Innovation and creativity are one of the advantages of workplace diversity. Having a homogenous workforce has been shown that it results in business ideas that are monotonous. Therefore, if an organization would like to innovative and competitive it needs to have a diverse talent pool. This way the organization will have out-of-the-box ideas. Creative concepts are born out of working with people from different backgrounds. It is also interesting to bounce off ideas between diverse people. With a diverse workforce, an organization will have a diverse set of solutions to certain problems and the best solution can be selected from these numerous suggestions. Productivity is another benefit of diversity. There is a direct correlation between productivity and diversity. Research carried out of companies earning $500 million indicates that 85 percent of the companies agree that a diverse and inclusive workforce does encourage different ideas to drive innovation, which in turn leads to higher productivity (Holck et al., 2016). By pooling different talents together all working towards a common goal there is bound to be increased productivity within the organization. Companies also benefit by learning from each employee by learning from their experiences. A different perspective is presented when employees get to learn from their colleagues’ experiences. This results in fresh ideas being presented to a project and encouraging people to get out of their comfort zones.
An organization with a diverse workforce is most likely to attract diversified clients. With a diverse workforce, it becomes easy for the organization to attract customers from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Development of products receives a diverse input and most of the products will be geared towards a worldwide consumer base. This was an organization has the potential to market its products to reach a wider base. Interacting with consumers is easy as there are employees who can speak different languages and they can offer customer service to customers in their own language. With a diverse workforce, an organization is able to market its products for different markets without crossing any cultural lines (Olsen & Martins, 2016). Understanding the different cultures that its customers have becomes easy and there is little chance that the organization will offend any particular culture in its advertising (Singal & Gerde, 2015). Cultural diversity has been shown to increase an organization's profits. There are numerous studies that have shown that a diverse workforce leads to greater profits for the organization. A survey carried out on companies in the US has shown that 48 percent of companies that have diverse senior management improved their market share from the previous year. Only 33 percent of companies that did not have diverse management managed to report similar growth (Olsen & Martins, 2016). This may be due to global business trends and the organization reaping the benefits of language diversity.
An organization that supports and promotes diversity will attract and retain the best talent. There is a wider range of candidates that are attracted to the organization or make applications for vacancies within the organization. This allows the organization to have a huge talent pool to select from and it can hire the best talent in the market. Prospective employees would be comfortable to work with an organization that has a culture of inclusivity and does not encourage discrimination. The organization is also viewed as being progressive and appealing to people of all walks of life (Singal & Gerde, 2015). With an increase in the number of people applying for different vacancies, there is an increased chance that the organization will find an exceptional candidate for the position. Employee retention is increased as the employees will not be willing to leave because they have an environment that is accepting of all backgrounds and promotes equality (Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015). This might be the reason that most job seekers would love to accept job offers from organizations that have a diverse workforce. Employee retention is increased as there is no discrimination of any kind. Therefore, current employees are less likely to want to leave the organization. With increased retention, the organization will save on the costs associated with hiring and training new talent.
Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
Communication is the number one challenge of diversity. There are cultural, perceptual, and language barriers that have to be overcome when working with a diverse workforce. With different cultures being present within the organization one has to be mindful of how they express or explain something. This is because they can easily offend a colleague without them being aware. This challenge can result in employees not knowing how best to express an idea in the presence of diverse colleagues. There are also non-verbal cues that one has to be aware of. Different cultures have different meanings for non-verbal language and this can be hard for a person to interpret or understand (Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015). Not all employees will be comfortable speaking up or raising an argument. This will mean that the idea an employee has that might be beneficial to the organization is not heard since they are not empowered to speak up or raise their voice. Employees from polite or deferential cultures are less likely to raise their voice in order to air their opinion and this might be misconstrued to mean that they are agreeable with what is being presented or suggested. Some cultures do not encourage juniors to speak up or share ideas. This will mean that some employees who are in junior roles will be uncomfortable to raise an issue or suggest an idea since they have been raised up to not speak or go against their seniors.
Ethnic and cultural differences still come to play within organizations. It is a sad situation especially when an organization is embracing diversity but some employees still hold on to prejudices. There are still issues of ethnic differences within the organization. Some employees will hold prejudice against certain ethnics and this can stifle diversity. Discrimination can crop up and groups can form that discriminate against certain employees based on their ethnicity (Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015). Cultural biases have also been reported and it is surprising that employees will not seem like they are doing anything wrong. There are some employees who will hold on their belief and they will not listen to a person who comes from a particular culture or religion. This makes it hard for teamwork to progress as these employees will want to run and push for their ideas without considering those of the other employees. There are instances where an organization can set aside space to be used as a prayer room for a particular religion and it can be misused by other employees who do not understand the significance of the room. This can be discouraging to the employees as they will not be comfortable working within the organization. Hatred is likely to crop up and employees will not be willing to respect or listen to each other.
Gender equality is a challenge for most organizations. It has been proven by numerous researchers that men are preferred over the women counterparts in the hiring process. This can be challenging for an organization that is determined to have a diverse workforce because it has to critically search for women in the hiring process. The policies of the organization might be encouraging diversity, but the hiring managers might still have some bias. Managerial positions mostly constitute of men and this trend is hard to overcome since there is a chance that the organization had been promoting men managers for longer periods and there is a shortage of female managers to be promoted to senior management roles.
Tools Required for Managing Diversity
An effective manager is aware that there are certain skills that are vital in creating a successful diverse workforce. Diversity is not about differences amongst groups, but differences among individuals. Each employee is unique and they do not represent or speak for any particular group. Therefore, no one should be allowed to use a particular employee as a representative of their group. Understanding the uniqueness that each employee brings to the organization ensures that leaders see past the differences and only focus on how the employee can beneficial to the organization. Managers should also be able to recognize their own cultural biases and prejudices. This ensures that a manager is able to determine how they can overcome these biases and prejudices. The most unfortunate thing about diversity is that there is no single recipe for success. The ability of the manager to understand what is best for the organization based on the dynamics of the workplace will bring about success. In order to create a diverse workforce, a manager should focus on personal awareness. This entails the manager and the employees being aware of their personal biases. In order to discover personal biases, it is vital that the organization has ongoing training regarding diversity. Ongoing training is vital as having a single day workshop or training is not enough to change people's behaviors. Fairness should not be confused with equality.
Managing diversity is more than equal employment opportunity. Initially, change will be slow, however, with continued efforts change will eventually lead to success. Change should be encouraged in all forums and employees should be encouraged to be more welcoming and interactive with other employees. While there is a possibility of social bonds been formed based on employees’ backgrounds, there is a need to have employees also forming social groups with employees from different cultures. During meetings, there should be an opportunity being given to all the meeting attendees to speak up and share their ideas. This way there will be inclusivity and people will start to respect the ideas being presented by others. Communication should be encouraged and employees can have projects that are linked to an employee from different backgrounds (Singal & Gerde, 2015). This way there will be a cohesive working environment. Policies should be implemented that encourage diversity and promote mentoring programs that offer employees access to information and opportunities. Planning and executing a diversity program is not easy. Therefore, there should be a clear path that is laid out. The plan should cover how the current employees will be introduced to diversity and how the organization is planning on making changes to its hiring process.
Analysis for Future Application
Diversity is going to be the top trend for future hiring processes. It will impact hiring processes because most employees are interested in working with an organization that has a diverse workplace. Diversity attracts top talent and if an organization want to compete in the future it should embrace diversity policies. As has been shown in the paper, diversity is beneficial to an organization and the top organization has embraced diversity in the workplace. Therefore, this will now become the base for gauging organizations. The future promises more inclusivity and increased training on diversity for employees. This is aimed at pushing the organization to be more inclusive and to embrace diversity not only in the junior levels but also at the top management levels. While there is a limited number of women and cultural top-level managers, there have been great inroads been made and organizations are more welcoming of these changes. The future will see more changes taking place at the top levels and there will be a culture of diversity within most organizations. An organization that will not support diversity will be seen as weak not only by the employees but also by customers and clients (Singal & Gerde, 2015). This will mean that it will struggle to attract customers and employees. The talent pool consists of people who have diverse backgrounds and if an organization is not willing to hire them then it will end up losing the required talent to push it to the next level. In order for an organization to compete globally, it needs to embrace diversity. This will allow the organization to interact with consumers from different backgrounds and cultures and have employees who are aware of these cultures. Ideas for reaching these consumers will be easily shared amongst the employees and there will be ease of implementation.
Conclusion
Diversity management should be embraced if an organization intends to compete in the global world of business. Businesses are no longer focused on local but global markets and this will require for the organization to have employees from different countries and backgrounds working together. Therefore, there is a need to effectively manage diversity within an organization. Training should not be a one-off thing, but a continuous thing to ensure that employees are aware and they understand the importance of diversity to the organization. Employees should be encouraged to embrace other cultures in order for them to understand how they can interact with people from different backgrounds. Management should also have policies in place that encourage and promote diversity within the organization. The challenges posed by diversity can be easily overcome if an organization is willing to embrace diversity. Management should not encourage behaviors that undermine diversity within the organization. All employees should be treated equally to ensure that there is no favoritism based on gender, age, culture, or religious beliefs.


References
Ashikali, T., & Groeneveld, S. (2015). Diversity management for all? An empirical analysis of diversity management outcomes across groups. Personnel Review, 44(5), 757-780.
Holck, L., Muhr, S. L., & Villesèche, F. (2016). Identity, diversity and diversity management: On theoretical connections, assumptions and implications for practice. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(1), 48-64.
Knights, D., & Omanovi?, V. (2016). (Mis) managing diversity: exploring the dangers of diversity management orthodoxy. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(1), 5-16.
Olsen, J. E., & Martins, L. L. (2016). Racioethnicity, community makeup, and potential employees’ reactions to organizational diversity management approaches. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(5), 657.
Singal, M., & Gerde, V. W. (2015). Is diversity management related to financial performance in family firms? Family Business Review, 28(3), 243-259.