Managing Diversity Through Inclusion
I have gained significant knowledge about managing diversity in an organization after reading Engelmeier's book. In essence, organizations with diverse leadership do record better performance, in light of both earnings margins and equity returns, unlike non-diverse peers. While this discovery is based on research on publicly traded entities, Shirley Engelmeier holds that the same principles apply to private entities. Engelmeier is the author of a book entitled, "Inclusion: The New Competitive Business Advantage." Often, intentionally attracting a diverse workforce is imperative for business ventures planning to expand and sustain growth. In her book, she focuses on how diversity has evolved and how employers can retool their recruiting strategy.
Engelmeier defines inclusion as a call to action across the workforce, meaning actively engaging each worker's approaches, ideas, perspectives, knowledge, and styles to maximize business success. In her book, she presents tools, insights, and tactics that create a strong case for an inclusive organizational culture. The book asks firms to shift from focusing on counting and compliance to recognize that the simple solution to today's business challenges rests in attracting, nurturing and leveraging the input of human capital. In the modern volatile international economy, the transformation and culture change required warrants a fundamental change in thinking. This change must acknowledge how to involve and maximize on the diverse inputs of the workforce to drive profit and performance....
This involves shifting from looking at the trends affecting business today to creating a road map on how inclusion strategies can produce business success. The author also presents timely examples of inclusion champions at leading global organizations that have adopted inclusion as proliferating business imperative.
In my opinion, inclusion matters because some realities of the global business world have rendered inclusion a vital element in light of competitive advantage. We all know that companies must be adequately equipped to face the global community on their terms, implying expanding a company's knowledge base with human capital that understands the different behaviors, demographics, preferences, and cultures. Therefore, the same groups of people who form the consumer base must be represented in firms because shutting off from individuals who comprise the new global consumer landscape only gives competitors an edge.
Engelmeier gives another reason for inclusion as she argues that eventually; baby boomers will exit, leaving the Generation Y as the cohort who will inherit the chance to drive success for companies. She reveals that because their DNA is team-oriented and collaborative, the traditional management style will not generate peak efficiency. In essence, inclusive companies tend to cultivate cultures that result in greater retention, productivity, innovation, morale, and engagement. Across industries, innovation is not a choice; instead, it is a business imperative. In her book, Engelmeier cites a research by sociologist Martin Ruef, who…
