Importance of Understanding Diversity in a Business Setting
In the contemporary era of globalization, multinational corporations have a diverse workforce with people from different nationalities, qualifications, religions, gender, age, ethnicities, sexual orientation, and languages. Since two different minds can have two creative thoughts, the productivity of the entire group is enhanced when professionals and managers hire employees with cultural, ethnic, gender, age, sexual orientation, and other differences.
By having diversity in a professional workplace, creativity and flexibility are utilized to the fullest, and the best talent is given the chance to perform with excellence (University of California, Berkeley, n. d. ). For instance, different countries have different levels of education systems that produce human resources with contrasting mental, emotional, and spiritual understanding. In a country like India, religion, spirituality and group efforts are encouraged since childhood, while in another country like USA, materialism, self-reliance, and independence are learnt from the family. When professionals and managers recruit and sustain human resources for the overall benefit of the business organization, they need to identify the individual strengths that can be nurtured and focused for achieving commercial growth of the company. Every inherent quality in an individual is a strength that needs to be identified and aptly utilized for attaining the goals and targets of the business organization.
For example, a worker may be good at developing software applications; a second human resource may be an ace in hardware maintenance; another worker may be expert in technical writing; a fourth person may be good at accounts and finance, and so on. It is important for the managers to identify the individual strengths of the human resources and combine these strengths to accomplish the business goals and achieve maximum profit for the organization. Similarly, men and women have unique strengths, and it is for the professionals and managers in the business organization to appropriately place men and women with specific talents so that the group reaps the combined strengths of men as well as women. Moreover, different ethnicities may present various creative solutions for solving a business problem, and it is important for the supervisors and managers to utilize the individual strengths of their human resources for attaining the business targets. It was reported that the University of California, Berkeley, has effective management of a diverse workforce, where the women comprise 60% of the workforce, and people of color comprise 43% of the workforce (University of California, Berkeley, n. d. ). Successful planning and implementation of the policy of having a diverse workforce was reported in the multinational corporation, The Coca-Cola Company, whose 92,400 associates are treated fairly and without discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender population (The Coca-Cola Company, n. d. ). The professionals and managers at The Coca-Cola Company have been able to understand the cultural, ethnic, and gender differences in their workforce; besides, they have skillfully utilized the individual strengths of the human resources for attaining the business goals of the corporation.
Management of diversity in a business setting is a challenging task for professionals and managers. Successful managers have proved that business growth is possible if the best talent is recognized and aptly utilized without allowing any place for discrimination against human resources on the basis of nationality, gender, language, color, age, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. A business organization attains continuous economic growth due to the creative solutions provided by a diverse workforce. Diversity in a business setting provides competitive advantage through adoption of innovation and cost-effective marketing strategies. However, it is for the scholarly professionals and experienced managers to appropriately hire, organize, and utilize the individual talent for achieving the overall business goals of the organization.
References
- The Coca-Cola Company. (n. d. ). Diversity. Retrieved May 2, 2010, from http://www. thecocacolacompany. com/citizenship/diversity. html University of California, Berkeley. (n. d. ). Guide to managing human resources. Retrieved May 2, 2010, from http://hrweb. berkeley. edu/guide/diversity. htm
