Positive Spillover Effects of Having a Diverse Workforce
Diversity is seriously underrated
Numerous articles have been written evangelizing the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Even though I silently agreed with most of the illustrated points, I still felt that perhaps it was not as important as it was portrayed to be. It seemed forced, a deliberate attempt by enterprises to showcase themselves as harbingers of change and to capitalize on the positive publicity, no matter how little they truly believed in the concept. But I guess I was wrong. Diversity in the workplace has positive spillover effects. Not just in theory but in practical life as well.
Rich addition to culture inventory
The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) is the most widely used and thoroughly researched tool for measuring organizational culture in the world. Developed by Robert A. Cooke and J. Clayton Lafferty, the OCI provides an assessment of an organization’s operating culture in terms of the behaviors that members believe are required to “fit in and meet expectations” within their organization. Diversity in the workplace provides a positive stimulus to this culture inventory by enriching OCI’s four constructive behavioral norms that facilitate high-quality problem-solving and decision-making, teamwork, productivity, and long-term effectiveness.
People make up the majority of the culture inventory at a workplace and the biggest fallout of not having a diverse workforce could be the manifestation of a static, redundant, and lackluster organizational culture. Such a culture fails to excite and inspire its cultural inhabitants and essentially hinders their personal and professional growth.
Diversity brings in that much-needed liveliness and vigor in the organizational culture and provides it a medium to continually evolve and mature over time. The last organization I worked at boasted of a truly diverse workforce both in terms of gender and race, and I could sense a unique and dynamic culture getting shaped by it. More importantly, I could see that the employees reveled in that culture and it provided them a sense of purpose and a drive to keep performing better.
Mitigating the vagaries of like-mindedness
Like-mindedness is a liability that breeds insularity, propagates bigotry, and develops biases. It is a trap designed to compel everyone to think and act in the same direction and injudiciously agree with each other’s thought processes. In fact, like-mindedness stifles debate and discussion and suppresses radical thinking.
One may argue that people belonging to the same gender and race need not necessarily be alike by mind-set. That’s definitely true, however, this amount of variation is not enough. If a non-diverse workforce constitutes x number of perspectives, a diverse workforce always does one better. And that extra perspective is what provides companies the competitive edge or the breakthrough idea that they are looking for. What we are eyeing here are incremental benefits.
It goes without saying that companies cannot rely on a limited number of perspectives and that they need to embrace new ways of thinking. A diverse workforce allows employees to expand their minds, adopt different schools of thought, and cultivate innovative view-points devoid of unconscious biases. A diverse workforce gives rise to a healthier workforce — intellectually and emotionally.
From an employee standpoint, it feels refreshing to see the people around you embodying diverse personalities that stem from equally diverse past experiences. It feels intellectually stimulating to listen to ingenious ideas and get challenged on your own preconceived notions. A diverse workforce champions healthy discourse and conflicting rhetoric, crucial towards a company’s overall growth.
Emergence of powerful leadership styles
Leadership styles often get hackneyed and outdated owing to the recurrence of the same ideologies, delegation of similar duties, and preponderance of identical leadership qualities. These similarities stem from an environment that promotes similar people to leadership positions.
However, if a workforce is diverse, we witness the brewing of contrasting leadership styles that recognize and place emphasis on different qualities and aspects. Each race has its own hierarchical social-status structure and its own system that dictates how a society should function. Each government takes a different form, be it democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy, authoritarianism, or totalitarianism. Each country’s political system is either capitalist, socialist, or communist.
In essence, individuals belonging to different nations and races subconsciously inherit the defining characteristics of their immediate environment, and their thinking and working style is largely influenced by the leaders of their own communities. So, when we bring together these individuals to form a diverse workforce, we see the emergence of distinct and powerful leadership styles, and also innovative ways in which power gaps between leaders and subordinates are viewed and addressed.
Further, a diverse workforce can also play a critical role in challenging existing leadership styles and flexes and providing ideas on how to improve and revamp them. Basically, even if a new leadership style doesn’t materialize, diversity can substantially enhance an existing one.
Driving emotional intelligence
The concept of emotional intelligence (EQ) was introduced by psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman in 1995. He stipulates that EQ is at the cornerstone of self and social awareness. People who exhibit high EQ demonstrate empathy, show authenticity, exercise positive control over their thoughts and emotions, and benefit from constructive criticism.
In a nutshell, appreciation of one’s strengths and acknowledgment of one’s weaknesses is an indicator of a high EQ. According to Daniel Goleman, vibrant teams, where strengths are accentuated and weaknesses compensated for, can stem from a manager’s pursuit of diversity and inclusion. Thus, diversity and EQ have a mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationship with both reinforcing each other.
Diversity enhances relationship management skills, raises multicultural competence, improves adaptability, and triggers a range of responses to unpredictable and novel situations. As a result, employees become adept at regulating their emotions and navigating the differences among people, essentially achieving mindfulness. The outcome is a harmonious and productive workplace where every employee has mastered EQ in addition to IQ.
Dismantling stereotypes
Stereotypes are dangerous. In fact, the generalization of any kind is unwarranted, more so in a professional set-up. Stereotyping essentially means making assumptions about a person based on his or her cultural roots, religious affiliations, or even past professional sojourns. This happens because we are exposed to a limited sample size and don’t bother digging deeper into the source of the stereotyping.
When a workforce is diverse, the exposure to different cultures increases, and the tolerance level shoots up. One becomes more aware of negative stereotyping situations and people start realizing their mistakes in passing superficial judgments. Greater cultural awareness allows employees to make better decisions by avoiding stereotyping in major initiatives such as the launch of country-specific marketing campaigns. Enhanced understanding of different cultures also contributes to the shaping of a more cosmopolitan and global mindset.
Inspiring creativity
This one is the most obvious and direct impact of a diverse workforce and is actually an indirect result of all the other positives. Creativity is one of the few areas where AI cannot beat humans (at least in the near future). I personally find creativity as one of the most challenging and difficult traits to acquire. It’s not something you can learn from a course off the internet or ask someone to teach you. A creative mind does not think structurally and parochially but rather it tries to connect different abstract concepts and probe the unknowns.
In short, to imbibe creativity, an individual needs to diversify his thinking. According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of business psychology at Columbia University, the psychological competencies associated with the creative process are divergent thinking, openness to experience, and mind wandering. Surrounded by people from different parts of the world, an individual automatically develops the ability to think originally. Henceforth, in teams tasked with brainstorming and generating innovative and out-of-the-box ideas, introducing diversity enriches the process.
Closing Thoughts
There is no denying that diversity and inclusion in the workplace has its own fair share of benefits and I would like to point out that in the present scenario, the practice is needed more than ever. Why? The Covid-19 outbreak has revitalized xenophobic tendencies across the globe, making it all the more imperative for companies to assert their global outlook and not fall victim to this unintended attitudinal shift in people due to the pandemic.
