Editorial

By
HR Forum Team

Christian, Jew, Muslim, Shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of
being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged - Rumi
Ever thought how life will be if everyone you met, everyone you associated with, everyone you worked with
was just like you? The picture does sound quite rosy for starters; getting along with people, making
decisions, getting the work done. All of it will be a cake walk; but, as and when time progresses, the going
will get tougher. The truth is that you need variety, you need change. And, thankfully everyone is different.
Every individual comes with their own different talents, different strengths, different ideas, different
perspectives and even different weaknesses. Associating with all these differences is what makes life
whole.
In this time and age, we spend more than half our adult lives at our place of work. Here we meet people of all
kinds. People who are of a race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure,
organizational function, education and background which is different from ours. All this and more
encompasses the concept of diversity. To put it simply Workplace diversity refers to the variety of
differences between people in an organization.
Welcome to the special edition of the HR Mesh. Diversity, is a word thrown around way too often. People
talk about maintaining an all-inclusive workforce, however, when we do look closely, we see organizations
doing little to adhere to this promise. As future managers, we wanted to know what all can be done to keep
the diversity in an organization alive and kicking, which is why we chose this as the theme for this edition.
In keeping with the idea of diversity, this magazine has articles from students of business schools all over
the country. Insights from IIM, MDI, IMT, XIMB and Great Lakes have managed to clear the air around the
challenge of diversity a fair bit. To add to that we have also incorporated an article by our esteemed alumnus
HR Forum team hopes that you enjoy reading the HR Mesh as much as we loved making it. Please feel free to
write to us at [email protected]. We will be delighted to hear from you.
Happy Reading!

Contents

HR mesh

Workplace Diversity-An All Inclusive Workforce

By Manisha Sharma, MDI Gurgaon- First Prize Best Article

Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

By Allwin Amalraj A. & Deepika Tanwar, XIMB Bhubaneswar- Second Prize Best Article

Managing Diversity in Workplace

By Mahesh Rao P B and Fahman Abdul Latheef, IMT Ghaziabad

Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce

By Jagmohan Garg, IMT Ghaziabad

Welcome Aboard Everyone!

Reyomi Annie Roy, XIMB Bhubaneswar

Workforce Diversity in Twenty First Century

Oindrila Ghosh, IMT Nagpur

Managing an all Inclusive Workforce

Rupal Khandelwal, IIM Kozikode

Unity in Diversity
Himanshu Aggrawal, Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai

Fun Section: HumouR starts with HR

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WORKPLACE DIVERSITY - An All

Inclusive Workforce
It was in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed
that prohibited organizations from discriminating
against employees on the basis of religion, gender,
origin, race, etc. Many organizations were slow to
change owing to decade long policies of
discrimination against certain classes of workers.
Slowly they realized that diversity was much more
complex than they thought it to be. It became a
business necessity and a precursor to diversity in
the market place.
So what exactly is diversity? Does it just talk about
having employees from different races, religions,
genders, ethnicity, geographical locations, work
experience, cultures, cognitive styles, personalities,
educational backgrounds and so on? No, in fact the
concept of diversity also encompasses diversity of
thought, experience and perspective. Different
perspectives lead to sparking of innovation and
creativity, something which diversity works well at
providing. Diversity is about those innate human
qualities possessed by other individuals that are
different from our own. These are the factors
responsible for altering performance and
motivation which ultimately affect the morale, out
of the box thinking and teamwork, thereby creating
an atmosphere of mutual understanding and
respect within the organization. Diversity
contributes towards the richness of an organization
and enhances the quality of work life for the
employees. It is about how the wide assortment of
employees perceive each other and it is these
perceptions that lead to healthy and qualitative
interactions within the organization which give
shape to ideas.
One of the core competencies of some of the
organizations today include their success at being
able to embrace diversity and realize its benefits.
Organizations that place diversity and inclusion
initiatives in their priority list end up performing

By: Manisha Sharma

PGP HRM 2014-16
MDI, Gurgaon

better than the others. People from diverse

backgrounds, lifestyles and cultures challenge each
other. If an organization possesses diversity of
experience and thought it leads to the creation of
wide range of possible solutions for a business
problem, something which is necessary to survive in
an ever changing business environment. An
inclusive workplace also has a positive impact on
employee retention as it makes the employee feel
that his presence and suggestions are valued in the
organization. If employees feel comfortable being
their real selves, they end up being more engaged at
the workplace thus driving productivity. It also
enhances the synergy between the various teams
which is one of the most important factors for an
organization's success. Ultimately, it leads to more
effective execution of the business strategies which
drives profit and better return on investment.
Resistance to change is one of the biggest challenges
of implementing diversity and inclusion in the
workplace today. Some employees find it difficult to
accept the changing social and cultural dynamics of
the workplace. This inhibits progress and the free
flow of ideas in the company. Diversity is a double
edged sword. On one hand it garners creativity and
better ideas while on the other hand it leads to
interpersonal conflict. The only way to overcome
these challenges is to spread information about the
benefits of diversity for the employees as well as for
the business as a whole. After all it is important to
have the right capabilities to drive growth in the
varied market segments in which the business
exists.
Successful implementation of diversity and
inclusion initiatives should follow a four pronged
approach. Firstly, organizations should set specific
targets as to what is the level of diversity that they
want to reach.
4

Secondly, right from inception to completion,

diversity initiatives should be measurable on the
basis of solid and consistent data. Thirdly,
diversity initiatives need to have top
management support and commitment. They
also need to be objective and consistent with the
mission of the company. Lastly, specific deadlines
need to be set with respect to each of the
initiatives and also the availability of manpower
as well as resources needs to be checked during
the planning phase. Moreover, fostering an
attitude of openness and encouraging diversity in
the leadership positions would help in expanding
the horizon of diversity in the organization.
Although organizations of the 21st century have
embraced diversity as a much needed tool to stay
ahead of competition, many of the Fortune 500
companies do not provide its employees with
enough training and awareness on diversity and
very few can actually boast of statistics to back
the same. For example out of a total strength of
70% female employees at Wal Mart, only 30%
hold top management positions. Some
organizations still continue to blatantly
discriminate on the basis of race wherein they
show obvious preference for attractive white
employees. These company's websites talk
about importance of diversity for their
organizations, however one realizes the
superficiality of these statements when they are
made against impending lawsuits.
However, diversity has evolved far beyond the
traditional considerations of race, gender and
ethnicity. Many companies are increasing the
quality of their workforce by hiring veterans. They
bring with them years of experience, a unique
perspective and a proven track record. Their risk
taking ability and the ability to execute at a high
level is what companies go after.
Building an inclusive workplace is essentially a
four step process namely support, recognition,
understanding and acceptance. Despite being
closely related to diversity, inclusion is however a
separate concept. It is about creating an
environment where everyone feels confident and
comfortable about themselves. It is about valuing
each individual's talent and skills, creating an
environment where everybody treats each other
fairly and with dignity as well as respect, where
the workforce stays happy and motivated while

valuing each other's contributions thus boosting

productivity and customer service. Having an
inclusive workplace enables the employees to
achieve their personal as well as professional
goals and helps the organization in embracing the
diversity and richness of backgrounds and
perspectives. An employee spends more of his
waking hours in the office than at home. Enabling
good relationships at the workplace can be an
excellent tool to promote a welcoming workplace
culture. It is also a great tool to attract good talent
in the organization.
Young professionals today come from diverse
campus environments and thus look for a
collaborative workforce exhibiting diversity at all
levels. The competition for talent is getting
tougher these days with companies battling their
way out of it. In such a scenario, diversity is the
key to success. For example, Price Water House
Coopers (PwC) is the first company to have the
hugely successful Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender (GLBT) Advisory Board which advises
the firm on implementing GLBT initiatives across
the PwC offices in the world. Microsoft is an
organization which strongly believes in diversity.
It has launched a pilot program called
Specialisterne to hire people suffering from
autism. Closer to home, following suit are the E
commerce companies in India who are actively
hiring physically disabled candidates into the
workforce. Flipkart and Snapdeal are one of the
first few companies to explore the alternate
channels for talent acquisition. Snapdeal has
launched Advitya, its diversity at workplace
campaign to incorporate physically disabled
people in its workforce.
In a fiercely competitive world, having a diverse
workforce has become a necessity. It provides
organizations with a competitive advantage
which helps them to stay ahead. Benefits of
diversity definitely exceed the challenges. A
committed, motivated, innovative and a loyal
workforce helps in driving productivity and thus
profits for the organization. With organizations
increasing their volumes and workforce at a
staggering rate, diversity does have a profound
effect. It goes much beyond just complying with
legal mandates. Although many of the top firms
across the world have set an example by
increasing their acceptance of diversity, the
concept is still at a stage where it has yet to fully
5

fully garner support. The need for diversity is not

going to slow down. In fact it is going to
significantly increase over the coming years. For
organizations to be successful, this would require
immediate action as well as willingness to spend
resources and time on managing diversity.
REFERENCES
1)http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-theissues/2015/04/03/microsoft-announces-pilotprogram-to-hire-people-with-autism/
2 ) h t t p : / / w w w. p w c . c o m / u s / e n / a b o u t us/diversity/pwc-glbt-inclusion.jhtml

Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

Biryani is one of the favourite dishes ordered by

guests at Indian restaurants. It gives pleasure to
all the senses of a connoisseur of good food. Its
worth relates to the value it brings to the table
literally. There are a number of profitable
businesses run on this Biryani. After all, the
customer wants good food (outcome). Preparing
this magical dish is both an art and science. It
becomes magical because of right proportions of
ingredients and a right cooking methodology.
Analogous to this, any organization out there tries
to make sense by delivering business value. And
one of the main drivers to do this are the people
who work in that organization. The people are the
ingredients to prepare that magical biryani.
Business will be able to deliver business value
only when these ingredients are in right
proportions and follow right processes. The
proportion of the various ingredients may be to
some extent called diversity.
Diversity:
In business parlance diversity narrows down
workforce diversity. Workforce diversity is a
myriad of perspectives generated by human
minds to drive the value chain up till the
customers and to the community at large. It is a
diversity of thoughts and action. Diversity means
An amalgamation of various attributes of a
workforce because of variety of thoughts,
perspectives and ideas which are generated in an
organization. Diversity efforts focus not only the
superficial demographics but some hidden
characteristics like values, beliefs and attitudes as
well.
To emphasize, business is not interested in a
diverse workforce but in diverse perspectives
generated by workforce. So, it is a hard ball game
now to organize. Remember, diversity measures
in an organization are not to accept and embrace
the minorities but to deliver higher business
value and attain more profits. Otherwise do you
think businesses will care about diversity?

By Allwin Amalraj A. &

Deepika Tanwar,
XIMB Bhubaneswar

Will Diversity alone help the business?

Diversity is a metric which lies on everybody's
goal sheet in fortune 500 companies and they are
trying to improve it. But just by recruiting people
from different cultures, ethnicity etc. will not
necessarily improve business performance. They
need a business environment which empowers
them to exhibit diversity of thought and action.
Is it only the Organization which excludes people?
Individuals want to maintain a positive social
identity and at the same time retain their
uniqueness. They many a times attribute oneself
to the exclusion concept and do feel separate
from the whole.
The one in exclusion suffers from:
Low self-esteem
Serious doubt of self-concept
Frustration
And serious non-performance in work
Understanding Inclusion, Exclusion and Biases
through the concept of one and Whole:
Organization is an organized group of people who
work towards a common business objective/s.
This organization is a whole. A new recruit or an
employee who is transferred from a different
region who belongs to the minority group is a one.
This whole and one are like a puzzle piece; unless
they fit together they can't solve the puzzle.
Inclusion is a psychological experience of the one
of feeling integrated with and accepted by the
whole.
According to Social Identity theory we all want to
associate ourselves to a social group and we find
our identity through it. We in general can't accept
anything that is foreign to that group. When the
one approaches the whole it is rejected by the
whole as their social identities are different. This
is the antithesis of Inclusion, Exclusion.
According to optimal distinctiveness theory,,
individuals seek to be accepted by valued groups
to optimize their need for belongingness and
individuation.

Important problem with the whole is unconscious

bias, this leads to prejudice and stereotyping
which may further lead to discrimination. For
example the whites in America consider blacks to
be intellectually weak. In many companies the
board members believe that women can't
perform well at top management positions due to
personal responsibilities as a mother.
The Role of Diversity Manager:
The responsibility of a diversity manager is to
make the whole and the one integrate well and
deliver business results. It is for him/her to
convert Exclusion to Inclusion.
Exclusion may result from
Basic ideologies and morals
Access to communication
Un-welcoming behavior by colleagues
Physical contact
Non-acceptance of representation
Diversity manager generally does:
Creates awareness of diversity and inclusion
Puts systems in place
Creates an enabling work culture for all
employees
Empower the minorities to come forward with
their perspectives
Special assistance and support for the minorities
to make them feel included in the organization
To make people overcome unconscious bias by
various training programs
What are companies doing about it?
We're still not where we want to be when it
comes to diversity. And it is hard to address these
kinds of challenges if you're not prepared to
discuss them openly, and with the facts. GOOGLE Spokesperson
Diversity core run to ensure the participation
and involvement of everyone, welcoming their
contribution in every aspect possible. At times
there has been situations where in a woman was
all alone in a conference, surrounded by hundreds
of men and this might have led to their
discontinuation in future but Diversity Core
avoided this situation. Through Diversity core
visibility of women was raised and the
experiences were shared with all the employees
to motivate them in contributing towards
inclusion. So that is how Google institutionalized

Diversity that is built into its culture.

In FYE14, we spent approximately $12.9 billion
with women- and minority-owned businesses. It
includes $10.3 billion in direct spending and $2.6
billion in second-tier spending
-WALMART spokesperson
The world's largest private employer Walmart
takes it as a responsibility to help women to
harness their actual potential without being
shadowed by any kind of discrimination or lack of
opportunities. It gives away special diversity and
inclusion awards and conducts diversity goal
programs to augment diversity. Wal-Mart's
commitment is to foster a trust-based culture
where people feel related to each other and
accountability improves which will eventually
lead to overall growth of the company.
To inspire and nurture the human spirit, one
person, one cup and one neighborhood at a
time.
-Mission statement of STARBUCKS
To support diversity and inclusion, Starbucks has
included them into leadership competencies so
that there is a trickle-down effect and adopting
diversity becomes a more natural phenomenon.
It believes in creating a culture where employeremployee relationship means mutual respect and
the employees are called as partners because of
their significant involvement in the Business. The
company has strategic relationships with
National Association for the Advancement of
Coloured People, National Council of La Raza and
few others to create value in the community they
serve.
Sun Life Financial is in the organization's U.S. list
of "Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality" for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
employees.
-Wes Thompson, President, Sun Life Financial
U.S.A
A bold move by Sun Life Financial has not only
uplifted the moral of its employees but has given
it worldwide recognition. Employees have
become the brand ambassadors of their
organizations; in the LGBT community if not
everywhere.

It will help the company to build a strong

corporate image.
Our diverse and inclusive workforce is critical to
our success. It puts us in a strong position to
understand our customers and meet their
everyday needs.
Even after putting so many efforts, why
companies are not up to the mark:
Though companies are making progress in
hiring more diverse employees, they are failing to
improve diversity among their top brass.
Although the ratio of misbalance of diversity has
improved; the difference is still huge
Many complaints against discrimination still go
unheard.
The awareness for available opportunities is
miniscule in much geography.

Problem solving
Decision making
Risk-taking etc.
For instance in India there goes a thought that
women are not fit to work as an Industrial
relations manager due to harsh working
environment, but ironically we can see that
women these days become the most successful IR
managers. It is the nature of women which has
made some factories left with no IR issues.
Culture of worshiping women in India has made
all ruthless men in factories not to swear a word in
front of a woman.
Gender Distribution of Directors in NIFTY
Companies

Why Companies do what they do?

There are two types of companies. The First type
is some of the market leaders like Apple, CocaCola etc. These companies know what they are
talking about: these companies employ,
promote, empower, etc. people with respect to
the business value they are capable of delivering
and not blindly based on Diversity targets. The
second type of companies tries to emulate their
market leaders blindly without understanding
their requirements. Diversity numbers alone
without any inclusive workforce will not help.
Women on top
Companies with the highest percentages of
women board directors outperformed those with
the least by 53 percent on Return on Equity, 42
percent on Return on sales and 66 percent on
Return on invested capital
-Catalyst report
Men and women are wired distinctly and
differently to maintain the balance of life. Men
have some basic attributes like power,
independence, rational and risk taking while
women are caring, conservative, dependent, and
careful and risk averse. This wiring is not new but
the effect of conditioning on mankind for
generations together. These two different wirings
gives completely different perspectives to areas
like

-Sonia Sharma, International Journal of Applied

Research and Studies
Analyzing the core problem while dealing with
Diversity:
90% of the budget for diversity and inclusion is
being spent on Awareness programs and training
programs on Gender sensitivity, unconscious
bias, etc. Diversity manager believes in the AIDA
concept of marketing to drive inclusion. But
Attention - Interest Desire should be followed
by Action. But most of the times it doesn't follow.
It is nothing but a failed effort to modify behavior.
For example, there is enough awareness about
the health risks of smoking a cigarette but why do
you think people don't quit smoking. Awareness
is not the answer, where 90% of the budget is
being spent. One needs to understand that

Behavior of people is not always rational

Any behavior change can be made only at

the point of the behavior
Illustration: Microsoft has launched their CODESS
program to bring together the female coders from
across the globe, in some way they say that it a
Diversity and Inclusion initiative. The core
problem here is Women not taking up coding
profession in technology companies. If a
behavior change it to be initiated then it should
be done when a female candidate chooses her
engineering degree which is the point of action
not some random program considering it will
have a trickle-down effect to attract more women
to take up this profession.
Advantages of Diverse Workforce:
It drives creativity, innovation and other Critical

success factors.
It improves the business outcomes
The financial performance improves
People feel motivated
It leads to healthy competition
The company's brand image revamps
Negative aspects of a diverse workforce:
If few employees in the organization do not
support diversity whereas few others do, it will
create internal friction among the employees.
Un-calculated and unconscious decisions to
create distinct categories, just to ensure diversity
will not turn out to be an optimum solution.
There is a possibility that just for the sake of

meeting the obligation, candidates from diverse

backgrounds are absorbed by an organization and
assigned an un-challenging role that is far below
their capabilities.
Conclusion:
Diversity as diversity of gender, race, ethnicity,
age, experience, education, etc. is a gross
misperception and a misconception. The real
meaning of diversity is nothing but a diversity of
thought and action; whosoever may deliver it. At
the end of the day, all that matters is Business
value delivered.
Diversity of thought will help organizations to
compete successfully in a global business
environment. Let us understand and nurture the
true essence of an inclusive workforce.
Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.
-Stephen R. Covey
References:
1.http://corporate.walmart.com/globalresponsibility/diversity-inclusion/our-suppliers
2.http://www.globalgrassroots.org/illiteracy.ht
ml
3.https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-candrive-innovation
4.http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/genderand-corporate-social-responsibility-its-mattersustainability
5.http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organizati
on/why_diversity_matters
6.http://diversity.unc.edu/research-andpublications/diversity-plan-reports/
7. http://online.sagepub.com/
8.Diversity and Inclusion at the workplace: A
Review of Research and Perspectives, Nisha Nair
and Niharika Vohra, Working paper no. 2015-0334, IIM Ahmedabad
9.http://www.cognizant.com/InsightsWhitepap
ers/Building-and-Benefiting-from-a-Diverseand-Inclusive-Workforce.pdf
10.http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/20
11/06/13/diversity-management-is-the-key-togrowth-make-it-authentic/
11.http://www.catalyst.org/media/companiesmore-women-board-directors-experiencehigher-financial-performance-according-latest
12.Videos, YouTube on Workplace diversity by
Alexa Glick, Global staffing program manager,
Microsoft and Liz Macay, Head Talent acquisition,
Phillips

10

Managing Diversity in Workplace

Introduction:
I think... if it is true that there are as many minds
as there are heads, then there are as many
kinds of love as there are hearts.
-Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
This quote made from a book in 1877 may seem
insignificant in the context of a topic as
contemporary as workforce diversity. 21st
century has been characterized by eroding
national boundaries, and dwindling cultural and
gender barriers that weaken global workforce. In
spite of the current scenarios organizations are
facing challenges in managing workforce
diversity. Even in countries with a diverse
workforce, employees from demographically
dominant groups have more influence than the
others.
Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult
to manage a diverse workforce. This can be
attributed to lack of in-depth understanding of
what is diversity. The essence of diversity can be
interpreted from the quote of Leo Tolstoy. Each
individual has his/her own characteristics, way of
thinking, expressing, and interacting.
Managers play a significant role in managing
workforce diversity in organizations. As a future
manager, in order to handle diverse workforce in
the future, it is quintessential that we understand
the concepts, benefits, challenges, and
approaches in managing a diverse workforce.
Diversity of workforce:
A workforce comprises of individual with varied
abilities, potential, and skills, based on age,
gender, race, ethnic group, sexuality, religious
beliefs etc. Effective management of diverse
workforce implies a style of inclusive
management system which manages the
differences found in a multicultural workforce in a
manner which will ultimately results in the
highest level of productivity for both employees
and organization.
Managing diversity in an organization involves

By
Mahesh Rao P B and Fahman
Abdul Latheef
IMT Ghaziabad

promoting equality and preventing

discrimination. Equality refers to equal access,
equal chance, and equal share. Equal access
implies that each employee has same chance to
enter the organization, equal chance implies that
same chance to gain from opportunities that arise
in the workplace, and equal share implies
representation of all groups at each level of the
organization. An important aspect of managing
diverse workforce involves preventing
discrimination of employees on the basis of age,
sex, race, ethnic group, sexuality, religious beliefs.
Benefits of diversity:
Strength lies in differences not similarities
Stephen Covey, prominent educator
A diverse workforce will be always equipped with
broad range of thoughts, potentials and skills. An
organization can leverage these broad range of
thoughts, potentials, and skills to foster creativity
and innovation by using the wide range of ideas,
and provide customized services to broad range
of customers. A focus on capabilities rather than
preferences will provide organizations with the
ability to recruit the best talents from the
workforce.
A team with diverse members should promote
teamwork, resolve conflicts, develop mutual
respect, and promote equality and tolerance to
leverage complementary skills of individuals
which ultimately results in higher productivity for
employees and organizations. Effective
maintenance of diverse workforce helps to
drastically improve employee motivation,
retention, and commitment.
Following are some benefits highlighted by some
studies on diversity of workforce.

11

Challenges in Managing Diversity:

Differences in age, gender, race, ethnicity,
nationality, and needs of employees within the
organization results in numerous challenges in
managing diversity in an organization. There is no
pre-defined framework for managing the
workforce in an organization, as same actions
could result in different consequences.
Actions to promote workforce diversity will
primarily face resistance from the majority group
in the organization and in a few cases labor
unions, as there could be a shift in power which
could ultimately result in transformation of the
organization. Prejudice, stereotyping, glass
ceiling, deep seeded bias and lack of
accountability hinders the promotion of diversity
in workplace. Success of a diversity program calls
for overcoming barriers related to culture,
perception, and language.
Diversity programs in an organization are
scrutinized and skeptics come up with arguments
related to over protection of women, and
minority groups. The equality versus equity
argument raises serious questions against
affirmative action. The debate revolves around
whether to provide equal access, chances and
share or to be fair and impartial.
Approaches to address the diversity issue:
Issues related to diversity can be addressed from
a Human Capital perspective and a Social Justice
perspective.
Human capital perspective emphasizes that the
combination of knowledge, skills, qualifications,
and experiences that an individual possesses
could be a strong determinant of professional
success. Whereas the Social Justice approach
emphasized on a more principled approach to
diversity that suggests that an organization
should have an ethical or moral interest in social
equality.
Managers face the dilemma regarding which
approach can be adopted to manage diversity.
Managers can adopt a human capital perspective
to facilitate the achievement of organizational
goal. But this may raise questions regarding social
commitment and moral interest of the
organization, as certain gender, race, ethnic
group, religion etc. have been discriminated for
centuries, and deprived of basic amenities and
facilities that could help them develop
knowledge, skills, qualifications, and experiences

required for professional success.

The critical factors to evaluate best diversity
practices in organization include strategic
planning, linkage of diversity program to
organization goals, management and leadership
commitment, sustained investment, employee
involvement and diversity indicators. Diversity
within an organization can be measured by
workforce satisfaction, employee attrition rate,
external recognition and awards for diversity
efforts and work environment satisfaction.
Managing diversity through affirmative actions
and promoting equality:
The concept of affirmative action has been
designed to tackle the challenges presented by
discrimination in workplace. Hard and soft
affirmative actions can be adopted by
organizations as a solution to the issue of
discrimination and equality.
In hard affirmative actions, quotas and reforms
which bypasses the standard appointment or
promotion procedures are used to ensure that
gender, race, ethnicity, or religion which has faced
discriminated for decades are provided with an
opportunity. An individual is guaranteed with a
job or position because of his/her membership in
a group and regardless of his/her 'merit' in hard
affirmative action.
In soft affirmative action, involves countenance
reforms like 'special' training schemes or
outreach programs which target recipients
lacking skills or initiatives. Workshops can be
provided to women employees in order to
identify barriers to professional success like
maintaining work life balance, male culture, lack
of flexible hours etc.
Organizations can promote equality by
appointment of dull time equality manager, and
using systematic and periodic equality audits.
Organizations need to spread awareness
regarding equality, and if feasible, observe and
respect religious customs. The manager of an
organization should be sensitive to the diverse
needs of the workforce and tend to observe and
respect the customs and practices of the host
country.
A manager should research the profiles of the
workforce and issue diversity related issues
within the team and organization.

12

Cost of not managing diversity:

Ineffective management of diversity could result
in cost to the employers and employees alike.
Employees could face problems related to low
morale and motivation which could result in
reduced productivity and career progress.
Employers could face problems related to
reduced qualified applicants, reduced labor pool,
reduced creativity and productivity, and
increased cost of training. This could eventually
result in loss of goodwill and reputation of the
organization.
Organizations could face penalties for noncompliance with anti-discriminatory laws. In UK
between 2002 and 2003, average penalty
awarded for disability discrimination was 10157,
sex discrimination was 8787, and race
discrimination was 27041 as per Disability
Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act, and
Race Relations Act respectively.
There have been numerous examples of
inefficient management of workplace diversity
resulting in lawsuits and loss of reputation. One of
the most prominent lawsuit in recent years was
the Dukes vs Walmart stores Inc., in which 54 year
old Walmart employee Betty Dukes claimed sex
discrimination and sought to represent 1.6
million current and previous women employees
of Walmart. The plaintiff claimed that despite
positive performance review, Betty Dukes was
denied training required to advance in Walmart.
An attempt was made to launch a class action
lawsuit on behalf of 1.6 million women
employees who were discriminated with lower
pay and slower career progress compared to their
male colleagues. In June 2012, around 2000
women employees filed anti discriminatory
charges in US Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission against Walmart. This has a serious
blow to the reputation of an organization like
Walmart, which is the Forbes number one ranked
company.

How organizations are faring in managing

diversity:
Recent reports indicate that top organizations in
the world are making conscious efforts to manage
diversity within organizations, but the diversity
statistics of these organizations indicate that they
have a long way to go.
Software giants Microsoft have released data
related to diversity. The reports reveal that only
24% of the overall workforce is female. Whites
dominate with 61% of the overall workforce,
followed by Asians at 29%. There are only 3% of
African-Americans and 5% Hispanics in Microsoft
workforce. In management level indicate huge
disparity as there are only 12% female and 1%
African-Americans and 3% Hispanics.
The report released by Google indicate huge
gender gap and shortage of Hispanics and African
Americans. The reports also indicate an
improvement in workforce diversity after initial
reports indicated a huge disparities in race and
gender within an organization.

13

Conclusion:
In the present scenario managers face the
dilemma of equality versus equity and soft versus
hard affirmative actions. Ideally managers need
to focus on equity and adopt soft affirmative
actions to manage diversity and improve the
productivity of the workforce and the
organization.
It is time that organizations facilitate a workplace
environment that fosters intolerance towards
discrimination, and the art of thinking
independently together. Diversity is the one true
thing that mankind has in common, and it is time
that we as humans celebrate the same.

14

Managing A Multi-Generational
Workforce

Introduction:
Generally at a workplace, two to three
generations work together. Workforce now-a-day
is an amalgam of employees who are veterans,
middle age employees and recently graduated
young chaps. Now each of these groups has its
own behavioral characteristics and has a vast
difference from others in its approach to a
particular situation.

By
Jagmohan Garg
IMT Ghaziabad

Generation Y workforce:
] People born between 1978-1989
]
Most fickle minded generation with high

demand of freedom
] Has creative quotient
]
Works on its own terms with a pragmatic

approach and technically very sound

Problems in diverse workforce:

Multi-generation workforce:
Workforce across the globe is divided on the basis
of age group. These are explained as follows:
Traditional workforce (the silent spectators):
] People with age more than 65 years
] 95% of this workforce is about to retire
Academic qualifications of the overall group:
]People who went to high school: 60%
]People who have a diploma: 38%
]People who have a graduation degree: 26%
] Least tech-friendly workforce
]Adhere to the principles of sincerity,
punctuality, perseverance and normally have a
conservative mind set
]Like good guys who are least likely to cause
any disruption in an organization
Baby Boomers workforce:
]People born between 1946-1964
]77% are employed of which 49% are men Over
achieving and very focused
]First ones to lay excessive focus on creating a
work life balance
]Internet and newspaper are the most important
media for this workforce
Generation X workforce:
] People born between 1965-1967
] Highly educated generation
]
More concerned about financial and

emotional security
] Culturally more diverse
] Most media savvy generation
] Money is a very strong motivator to them
]
Requires more coaching and value for their

One of the most profound problems in a multigenerational workforce is interpersonal

communication. Generation Y and Z
communicate through text messages, tweets,
Facebook chats and WhatsApp messages.
However, the baby boomers or the Generation X
prefer communication through emails and phone
calls. They maintain formality when
communicating with the higher management
that they attribute to showing respect. When the
juniors do not similarly reciprocate the response,
they take it as a mark of disrespect. Another
major cause of conflict is the attitudinal
differences among the people of different ages.
The older generations believe younger
generation is lazy, over confident, tech-savvy,
over excited and in some cases, unprofessional as
well. At the same time, the perception of the
younger generation about the older generation is
that veterans are more stereotypical, rigid,
stubborn and non-flexible.
In most of the cases, baby boomers and
Generation X prefer to use try and tested
methods in solving problems and are quite
reluctant in using new methods and processes.
On the other end, the younger generation is much
more open to taking risks and implementing new
ideas. There is a vast difference in the attitude
and the thinking process of different generations.
All these and much more contribute to a work
atmosphere that may not be conducive to
producing the most effective and efficient results
in an organization. Hence, effective management
of the different generational folks in an
organization is of the utmost importance.

work

15

Recommendations and Limitations:

Following are some of the recommendations that
can be taken under consideration to improve
performance in a team with members from
diverse age groups
Education and Training: Pilot project 1ALIGN
(the Alabama Intergenerational Network for
Service Learning) was conducted by The
University of South Alabama Programs in
Gerontology and the Corporation for National
Service in October 1999 in Alabama, United
States. The basic purpose of the pilot project was
to identify the needs of workers at both ends of
career life cycle and find whether educational
institutions could be helpful in bridging the
multigenerational differences at a workplace.
Concluding from the results of the project,
training programs can be conducted in India as
well at both graduation and post-graduation
level. Subjects like Social Gerontology should be
involved in the regular course curriculum and
projects involving students in the business field
and old workers and employees from companies
should be taken up. This would train students at
very basic level, and the professional mentors
could help in working out the differences during
the training programs. Pre and post project
surveys of the students and workers should be
conducted, and results of the change in attitudes
should be analyzed.

personal lives as well. They wish to work from

home and have extra independence in their
professional life. They believe in lesser face time
and extra productivity.
Sabbaticals: These are very effective for the
boomers who feel small breaks can re-energize
their will to work hard for the corporation. They
have been associated with the company for long
periods and deserve such family oriented
sabbaticals so as to keep their mind open to new
ideas. Congestion of thoughts and mundane
routine hampers the creative quotient of the
mind. They can focus on outside interests so as to
refresh their thought process.
Mentorship programs: Building relationships
between the older and the newer generations in a
workplace is very important. Older generations
who have the necessary experience and wisdom
can act as mentors to the younger generations to
give direction and increase efficiency. A good
mixture of youth and experience is something
that every organization should strive towards.

References:
Hanks R S and Icenogle M, Preparing for an AgeDiverse Workforce: Intergenerational ServiceLearning in Social Gerontology and Business
Curricula in Educational Gerontology, Vol. 27
Issue 1, Jan 2001, p49-70, 22p.2 Charts.

Telecommuting: Younger generation wishes to

have an appropriate work-life balance. Personal
life always has priority of the highest order. For
them, telecommuting is a very viable option.
Work from home should not be considered as
escapism or laziness. Many people have better
productivity working from home. These
telecommuters maintain a decent balance
between work and personal life. They find time
for family, friends and life in general. But, there is
a limitation to this technique as well. If offices are
avoided on a regular basis, then the working
environment will be degraded. So scheduled
office visits, client and team meetings must be a
part of the curriculum. If not catered to then it will
lead to negative corporate development.
Flexible schedules: It is an essential tool to retain
the experienced work-force. The younger
generation being more pro-active and energetic is
always willing to go the extra mile and adhere to
the schedules. The people who have spent a
major chunk of their lives working do wish to have
a relaxed working environment to focus on their

16

By
Reyomi Annie Roy
XIMB, Bhubaneshwar

Welcome Aboard Everyone!!

Strength lies in differences...not in similarity Stephen R. Covey

A common definition of workplace diversity
refers to the degree to which an organization is
heterogeneous with respect to personal and
functional attributes.
Organizations are fast waking up to the
realization that accomplishments have no gender,
race, color, religion, caste or creed which is
probably why workplace diversity and
inclusive workforce are fast becoming
buzzwords in the HR arena. As Malcolm Forbes
aptly sums it up: Diversity is the art of thinking
independently together the recipe for success
of every organization. However, it is important to
not only just build a diverse workforce but also to
ensure it is an all inclusive one too because there
is a fine hair-width difference between the two.
Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix
work. We need to create inclusion with simple
mindfulness that others might have a different
reality from your own. Lo and Behold! Here enters
the HR manager who is expected to not only just
build a diverse and inclusive workforce that is a
beautiful mosaic of various backgrounds but also
to crack the magic formula which will keep all of
them happy and in turn help reap the best
rewards for the organization.

workforce helps the organization to draw from a

diverse pool of skill set and experiences
(languages and cultural experiences) which in
turn helps them to widen their customer base and
serve them more satisfactorily. Put even more
simply: When you bring together people from
varying backgrounds, cultures, and belief
systems, you bring with them a range of work
styles, thought processes, and perspectives.
Drawing on the strength of all of these, you can
spark creativity, drive innovation improve
efficiency, and get closer to your customers.
However, a survey revealed that despite 77
percent of executives stating their strong support
for diversity initiatives, only 40 percent of
employees believe that their organizations are
truly diverse and inclusive. This is where the HR
managers need to step in and close this gap
through inclusion management practices which
can be along the following lines:
Identify new pastures

Organizations need to think outside the box to

recruit new employees. Recruitment drives need
to go beyond the traditional sources of university
programs and industry organizations. This has
become the need of the hour in the light of talent
scarcity when more trained workers are leaving
the workforce than entering it.

Unlocking the perks of diversity:

Making Diversity Synonymous with your
brand's identity
Merely stating that your organisation supports
diversity wouldn't suffice. Actions speak much
louder than words and hence you need to show
everyone that your organization embraces
differences by hiring a vibrant staff of different
races, genders, nationalities, and backgrounds.
You need to blow your own trumpet as well and
publicize your efforts in building an inclusive
workforce by putting the spotlight on your efforts
that underscores your desire to provide the
flexibility and tools required to guarantee success
for all such as internships and scholarships to
people from underrepresented groups etc

To be one, to be united is a great thing...but to

respect the right to be different is maybe even
greater.
Diversity is more than just filling quotas and
complying with affirmative action initiatives. It is
all about building a dynamic team that
incorporates different backgrounds and cultures
that ideally represent your entire customer base.
The benefits of a diverse background are multifold. You never know where a good idea will come
from: someone with a less conventional
background might have a solution that someone
with an IIT/IIM degree might not have. A diverse

17

Diversity beyond HR
Irrespective of the diversity of your workforce you
will have a hard time retaining and benefitting
from it if the individual and collective differences
aren't addressed throughout the employment
lifecycle. An employee isn't likely to consider a
long career at a company if she doesn't see
anyone like them self in management positions
Hence, diversity and inclusion management
should extend far beyond the hiring processes to
the entire organization and be considered in
every phase of talent managementfrom
recruiting, and on-boarding to professional
development, leadership training, performance
m a n a g e m e n t , fe e d b a c k / m e a s u r e m e n t ,
workforce planning, and more
Birds of a feather flock together

We need to create avenues for like-minded

people to bond. While diversity may be all about
celebrating and leveraging difference, no one
wants to feel so unique that they're isolated from
their peers and adrift in the workplace. Thus, it's
your job to see that they don't. One way of doing
so is by organizing employee resource and affinity
groupsessentially communities within
corporations that allow people with similar
backgrounds and experiences to connect. Such
bonding sessions help employees to feel part of a
diverse and inclusive workforce. It also sends out
the assuring message that people like themselves
are not only finding success within the enterprise
but are willing to help them succeed as well.
However, the extensive research on
organizational diversity has produced
inconsistent results on effects of diversity, with
researchers finding a detrimental influence too
on organizational outcomesespecially through
increase in conflict, decrease in social integration,
and inhibition of decision-making and change
processes. As a result, diversity has been dubbed
a double-edged sword for organizations.

are always employees who will refuse to accept

the fact that the social and cultural makeup of
their workplace is changing.
Hitches in communication

Ineffective communication of key objectives

because of perceptual, cultural and language
barriers results in confusion, lack of teamwork,
and low morale.
Warding off change resistance through inclusion

initiatives, promoting diversity in leadership

positions, fostering an attitude of openness in
your organization etc. This can go a long way in
overcoming these challenges.
As the economy becomes increasingly global, our
workforce needs to become increasingly diverse
to reflect it. Organizational success will depend
on the ability to manage diversity in the
workplace effectively, which is the key to gaining
an edge in the highly competitive market
scenario. Organizations need to reach that stage
of development when differences and diversity
are not seen as sources of division and distrust,
but of strength and inspiration.
After all as James Surowiecki says in The Wisdom
of Crowds:
Diversity and independence are important
because the best collective decisions are the
product of disagreement and contest, not
consensus or compromise...
References:
http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recrui
t/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefitschallenges-solutions.asp
www.law.berkeley.edu
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applicatio
ns/human-capital-management/5bestpracticesdiverse-workforce-2162559.pdf

Challenges of diversity in workplace:

Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity
in the workplace is not a cakewalk. Some of the
challenges in implementing it are as follows:
Defiance in the face of change
The we've always done it this way mentality
silences new ideas and inhibits progress. There

18

Workforce Diversity in Twenty First Century

In this twenty first century, where human capital

is an important asset of every organization
maintaining workforce diversity has become a
major challenge for organizations. A record
number of organizations and companies are
rebuilding their organization structure to include
workforce diversity. They are rebuilding their
diversity programs or starting new programs.
Workplace Diversity can be defined as the
difference among people in the organization.
Workplace Diversity is the different social
identities that can affect workplace interaction.
Diversity is not only about gender diversity. It is a
much broader term. It is about ethnicity, religion,
caste, race, background, social class, sexual
orientation, age and educational history. It is
extended to diversity of thought. The difference
affects us and has consequences both positive
and negative. These differences can influence
beliefs and behaviors.
Problems of diversity in Workplace:
The presence of diversity can sometimes create
obstacles in high performance. Diversity can
cause communication problems and increase
conflict among employees. Sometimes a
homogeneous group gives better results than a
heterogeneous group. Diversity should be
managed well or else it may cause havoc in the
organization.
Importance of Diversity in Workplace :
Managing diversity in an organization can
improve the performance of organizations on a
variety of criteria. The different criteria are:
Improving the quality of personnel and better
utilization of talent: In today's competitive
market organizations having diverse workforce
will enjoy the competitive advantage. Attracting
talents and retaining them becomes important.
Women and minority groups most often leave
organizations where there is discrimination in
gender and race. They often leave organizations

By
Oindrila Ghosh
IMT Nagpur

out of frustration over finding discrimination

during promotions. Women are likely to placed in
un-challenging jobs and their promotions can be
limit-ed due to sexual bias. Organizations with a
diverse workforce have less bias and make
optimal utilization of best talent in the
organization. It also increases the organizational
culture and values. Talented people are attracted
to organizations which value their talent and
productivity of employees would be increased
due to high employee involvement and
commitment. It also helps in cost savings due to
high turnover and absenteeism.
Improving market understanding and market
strategies: The world is changing rapidly. In the
twentieth century, the consumer markets are
becoming increasingly diverse. Thus
organizations can use their diverse talent to
improve marketplace understanding. When an
organization manages diversity well its value is
increased, the public relation value increases.
Employees from different cultural backgrounds
can help in better understanding of the cultural
effects on consumer buying decision and can help
b u i l d m a r ke t i n g s t r a t e g i e s o n t h o s e
understandings.
Increasing creativity and innovation: For a
company or a brand to maintain its reputation
and brand equity constant innovation is needed
to cope up with the changing needs of the
consumers. Creativity and innovation can
improve an organization's activities. Innovations
on the lines of product and services, process and
production, quality improvement, advertising are
especially vital. A diverse workforce can stimulate
creativity and innovation. It improves the
performance of employees.
Problem solving: Diversity in workplace can
improve the problem solving and decision making
process. A heterogeneous group produces more
valuable solutions as the problem is seen through
various perspectives Presence of minority vies
improve the quality of decision making process.
19

Barriers to Workplace Diversity:

The major barriers to Diversity are prejudices,
unconscious bias and stereotypes. Prejudices are
negative attitude that involves a prejudgment
about a particular person or a group of person.
Stereotypes are when we make an opinion about
a person based on their group identities, the
tendencies of that particular group rather than an
individual. The individual may or may not have
those tendencies. Unconscious bias is a major
barrier to workforce diversity. Unconscious bias is
not discussed much because it is intangible and
depends from person to person. Some even argue
about the existence of unconscious bias.
Unconscious bias can be defined as making
assumptions, judgments based on past
experiences, personal backgrounds or cultural
environments. Unconscious bias affects the hiring
process immensely.
Women cannot be a good salesperson.
Technical and production job are not for
women.
This job requires lots of travelling. Let's not
consider a women for this job.
This job is in remote location. We want a male
candidate for this job.
Some organizations differentiate jobs according
to gender. Organizations prefer men for a sales
job. Some job advertisements for male
dominated occupation contain 'masculine' words
in them which become less appealing to women.
Sometimes these advertisements discourage
women from applying for the post.
How can there be diversity if organizations keep
on recruiting from the same campuses every year
just because these are among the list of top
colleges in the country. What if a young talent
never had the opportunity to study in these
colleges? What about the college dropouts? What
about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg?
Biases also come regarding race and caste during
recruitment.
Implementation of workforce diversity :
Analyzing potential for change: Before
implementing any change in an organization it is
important to do organizational diagnosis. Both
internal and external environment is needed to
be analyzed. A formal measurement of current
state of the organization is needed. It is very
important to measure the right things and
anticipate the need for change. Many HR
managers are using analytics. HR can take help of

analytics to identify where diversity is needed in

the organization.
Teaching the leaders: Without their support of
the CEO and top management diversity cannot be
implemented. Strong leadership is an essential
component of the change process for managing
diversity. There should be diversity in leadership
roles also. Senior and top level management
should be directly involved in planning and
conducting diversity activities. Diversity should
be included in the board of directors. Recently
Genpact conducted two pilots with its business
leaders to make them aware of the different
unconscious bias.
Change in Recruitment process: Workforce
Diversity cannot be achieved if the recruitment
process is not proper, if the hiring process
contains unconscious bias. The HR executives and
managers should be made aware of the
unconscious biases. Training and pilot studies
should be done to minimize these biases. The job
advertisements and job descriptions should be
revised and it should be made neutral to any
discrimination.
Performance management, reward system and
talent retention: The performance management
system should be free of any biases like
stereotype bias. The focus should be whether the
candidate has competence in the area that is
required for any candidate in the particular job.
Google has bias-busting checklist which helps
managers to identify their biases and that of
others. For maintaining a diverse high quality
workforce a good reward system is important.
Every human being wants their hard work to be
recognized. Thus reward system should also be
transparent and free of biases to increase job
satisfaction for the employees. It also increases
productivity.
Change in the HR policies: HR strategies and
initiatives should be aligned with the vision of
creating a diverse workforce. Law has been
revised to include diversity in board of members
and the whole organization. Recently Mondelez
has adopted a 'holistic' parent policy. This policy
helps new fathers and mothers to maintain a
work-life balance. Companies like Tata Group,
American Express and Vodafone have also
adopted similar policies to retain young talent
and maintaining diversity.
20
19

Use of technology: Initiatives taken by the

organization should be data driven. Analytics can
be used to identify potential talent. Many Indian
IT companies are using analytics for more datadriven decision making process.
Organizational change and individual change: The
organizational goal and objectives should be
aligned towards the achievement of workforce
diversity. Organizations need to be an open
system where people should have the freedom of
communication and expressing their views.
Employees should have shared vision. Change
should be both organizational and individual.
People need to accept diversity wholly and it
should start from their personal lives. For this
proper training and mentoring the employees is
needed. PepsiCo India conducts workshops to
educate employee about gender-balance in the
organization. It also organizes 'nukkadnatak' to
increase awareness.
Evaluating and monitoring change: Diversity
programs cannot be successful without periodical
assessment and evaluation of the status of the
process. Continuous monitoring is needed.
Thus in this twenty-first century to cope up with
the rapid changing environment and customer
needs and preference's workforce diversity is
very essential. Sometimes diversity in the
workplace can reduce performance thus a well
strategic plan is needed to create diversity. All the
employees should be trained and involved in the
diversity programs. Diversity needs to be
managed carefully.

21
19

Managing an all Inclusive Workforce

By
Rupal Khandelwal,
IIM Kozikode

The variety of experiences and perspectives

which arise from differences in race, culture,
religion, mental or physical abilities, heritage,
age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity
and other characteristics defines diversity.
Workplace diversity enables people behave
differently due to differences in upbringing and
ethnicity. This different behavior is what sets
apart an individual and thus, the entire
organization as a whole. The workforce is distinct,
original and hence complete.

solutions. The synergy of a group that has a mix of

both leaders and followers is usually higher than
that of a group comprising of entirely similar
assertive people. A synergistic work environment
is better nurtured if employees develop mutual
trust and respect for one another. A diverse group
brings with itself multiple strengths and talents.
As employees interact, get more engaged and
involved, these distinct and superior qualities get
recognized. This fosters mutual respect and
understanding for each other.

The demographic diversities explained in the

definition above are analogous to the tip of the
iceberg. An overview from outside familiarizes us
only with the upper one-tenth portion of the
deep, rigid and strong structure. The remaining
portion will be understood only if and as we try to
study the structure elaborately and in depth. The
phenomenon of knowing only the tip of this
iceberg is, hence, referred to as surface-level
diversity- where people perceive one another
through assumptions and stereotypes. As people
interact more in a workplace, get to know each
other in better ways, demographic differences
subside and differences in principles, values,
personality becomes more important. This is
known as deep-level diversity. This is the stage
when employees learn from each other's
differences constructively and positively.
(Robbins: Organizational Behavior)
Workplace diversity, to me, is more about deep
level diversity than just surface levels.
Organizations seek for, in simpler terms, diversity
of thoughts. Thoughts provoke changes and
changes are resources within any organization.
(Hendricks, How to manage conflict)
Inclusion of perspectives that differ from ours,
incorporation of skills specific to groups outside
ours, acknowledgment and embrace of values
and principles not belonging to us are all
requisites for inventiveness, imagination,
innovations and hence, competitiveness.

With increased diversity, acceptability must

increase and it happens only if there is respect
and credulity. Trust and respect make working
easier in a team. Decision-making processes
become more constructive and streamlined.
However, it should not be confused with blind
agreement on issues/suggestions by team
members. Individuality and indigeneity are not
lost even if employees identify similarities
amongst them amidst all differences. A diverse
group will only help to improvise a plan and not
merely agree to what has been presented.
Such working culture facilitates an idyllic
environment with outflow of positivity and
optimism. Similar achievable organizational goals
are recognized in spite of all personal, cultural,
social, or demographical differences. The entire
workforce aligns and is motivated to achieve
common targets for the organization.
In case of a similar group of people with common
beliefs, education, inspiration, experience,
attitude, behavior, personality, moving forward
continuously on a success ladder towards
attaining the end state vision of the company may
not reap same results as a diverse workforce can
yield. With diversity comes uniqueness, new
ideologies, new methodologies, new
experiments, new developments, new thoughts,
new perspectives and innovations. A diverse and
inclusive workforce is, thus, critical to drive the
creation and execution of new products, services
and business processes. These, combined, are
proportional to the growth of any company. To
elaborate on this, let us take an example of the
leading giant in the market- Apple.

Diversities at the workplace can facilitate work

performances. A group of people with various
educations and experiences can together come
up with better, faster, effective and efficient

22

In 2014, Forbes released Apple's employee

diversity report. That's when CEO Tom Cook
expressed his dissatisfaction and unhappiness
with the kind of non-diverse workforce he had
and pledged to work towards improving the
numbers.
Conscious measures were taken while recruiting
and today, nearly 50% of people that Apple hired
in the United States are women, black, Hispanic
or Native American. The aim now is to recruit
people from the under represented sections of
the industry because the company truly believes
that Inclusion inspires innovation. It looks
forward to working with employees who come
with different experiences, backgrounds and
perspectives to ignite the spark of innovation
Apple would always like to keep burning.
It must be understood that facilitating diversity
does not mean inclusion of minorities in the
workforce. Nor is the goal of diversity to
assimilate women in the team. Diversity in plain
words is to tap different sources of knowledge
and utilize their potentials for the development
and benefit of an organization. For example, in a
cosmetic manufacturing firm, women can
contribute to better business opportunities
because of their knowledge in the domain. They
relate to the preferences and inhibitions that
woman all across the globe can have, and suggest
innovations and ideas that will help the business
flourish. A woman in a bike manufacturing firm
will not have much value-adding contributions
unless she is a bike lover as well. A biker on the
other hand, or a person who has been brought up
in a similar way can actually improvise, enhance
the existing features and modify them to what
would be liked by consumers and hence boost
market sales.
It is noticeable that big organizations are now
rigorously releasing reports of their workplace
diversity. There's a reason that in top companies,
CEOs are prioritizing and spearheading diversity
dialogue and that in not-so-great workplaces,
CEOs aren't saying a word. Hence, indicating that
a diverse workplace is crucial for high
performance. Forbes Insights conducted a
comprehensive survey of more than 300 senior
executives of companies with revenues of at least
$500 million and went up to more than $20
billion.

Thus, it can be safely inferred that executives

today are indulging on a large scale to develop
strategies for diversity inclusion in the workforce.
However, a bigger challenge than implementing
strategies to include a diverse workforce is to
manage the inclusive diverse workforce.
Managing diversity is defined as "planning and
implementing organizational systems and
practices to manage people so that the potential
advantages of diversity are maximized while its
potential disadvantages are minimized,"
according to Taylor Cox in "Cultural Diversity in
Organizations". As important it is to have an
inclusive diverse workforce, more important is to
translate this into business opportunities and
higher productivity with better efficiency. To be
able to accept new ideas, embrace new changes is
not always easy. Progress is always followed by
resentment, resistance and inhibitions. To
accommodate changes, and extract the best and
maximum out of a diverse workforce, there needs
to be a specific strategy in place to manage the
diversity. This would not be an easy task because
disrupting a particular way of working raises
many speculations. Such changes have to be dealt
with utmost sensitivity and needs correction of
people's attitude and not just correction in
behavior.
Diversity management is crucial mostly till the
time employees reach the deep level diversity
phase. Necessary steps should be taken to avoid
any discrimination that might happen and must
be prevented. Inclusiveness at every occasion
should be promoted. All cultural, regional or
social diversities should be respected and
appreciated. If diversities are not handled well, it
may lead to unnecessary conflicts and tensions
among teams in the organization. Disagreements
between employees due to cultural differences
should be resolved swiftly and promptly. If not, it
might also lead to productivity losses, unhealthy
working environment, disputes and employee
dissatisfaction. As a consequence, retaining the
most potential employees may also become a
challenge. To achieve this, organizations must
have a concrete plan. It is essential that all
employees in an organization are treated
properly. There are fair and equal opportunities
given to all the employees. Equal opportunities
here, however, imply a different meaning than it
usually stands for. Language is usually the top
most concern in managing a diverse workforce. I
relate this to my personal experience of working

233
23

in a very reputed firm. However, the initial days I

found it very difficult to adjust and attune myself
to the local language because that is what
everybody spoke. I remember how I used to miss
out information only because of my inability to
connect to them linguistically. So, equal
opportunity in such a case means when
information can be passed to every employee,
w i t h o u t d i sto r t i o n o r t ra n sfo r m at i o n ,
irrespective of any demographical barriers.
This can be further advocated by conducting
training programs that can reduce such
communication and psychological barriers. There
should be strict policies in place that prohibit
preferential treatment or discrimination. If
discriminations can be completely dissolved, it
will ultimately lead to cohesiveness amongst
different members of the group.
Overall, I do not think there is or can be a guided
mechanism to help control or prevent or avoid the
issue at hand, because diversity management
plans should be in response to the contextual
situation. There are several dimensions of
diversity hence, going by records might not
always yield a beneficial solution. However, the
results of successfully managing a diverse
workforce would be same, no matter how it is
achieved.
Thus, it is essential to select and build a dynamic
diverse workforce, make them an integral part of
the organization and utilize every employee's
creativity, knowledge, approaches and styles to
maximize business successes. This can be well
achieved if the employees are satisfied and feel
happy about being a part of the team and the
organization.
References:
Organizational behavior- Robbins
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversityworkplace-important-employees-10812.html
http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recrui
t/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefitschallenges-solutions.asp
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JOTS/Winter
-Spring-2001/williams.html
http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/hrguide
article/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-theworkplace/
http://www.apple.com/diversity/
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversityworkplace-important-employees-10812.html
24
23

Unity In Diversity

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, when

various terms and conditions for affirmative
action and equal employment opportunity were
laid down, diversity was merely a buzzword, a
buzzword which primarily meant differences in
sex, color and race. With the onset of time, the
scope of characteristics that are included in
diversity has increased tremendously. Some of
the new elements that have now become a part of
diversity are physical ability, ethnicity, age,
religious belief, educational background, work
experience, sexual orientation and many others.
In a one liner, it can mean 'any feature or
characteristic that distinguishes one employee
from the other'.
The principle of 'one-size-fits all' as a
management approach cannot achieve equality
of opportunity and fairness for everyone in the
organization. Every individual is unique, though
he has things in common with others yet he is
different to others in all sort of ways. This
uniqueness makes people have different needs,
beliefs and values. People management practices
that are effective, require that propositions for
people are inclusive to support business needs as
well fair but flexible.
Managers and Supervisors do not recognize the
different ways in which the working environment
is changing, diversifying and evolving.
Management of diversity is a significant challenge
for the organization and managers need to learn
the various skills that are needed for managing a
multi-cultural work environment. Managers and
supervisors must prepare themselves as well
their subordinates about the importance of giving
value to multi-cultural differences in both the
customers and peers, to make sure that dignity of
everyone is treated with respect.
Demographic changes such as inclusion of
women in the workplace, organizational
restructuring and equal opportunity legislators
have made organizations to review their existing
management practices and formulate new
policies and methodologies to manage people in
the most effective manner. This shift in the
change of policies will provide the organizations
to improve their work performance charts and

By
Himanshu Aggrawal
Great Lakes Institute of
Management Chennai

increase customer satisfaction levels.

With the increasing number of dual income
families and single working mothers, and the
changes in the family structure, the amount of
employee participation by women is attaining its
highest levels. Organizations must realize that
workplaces are also driven by women. In the
United States, the number of organizations
owned by women is close to 28.8 percent.
Diversity at the workplace contributes to the
bottom line of any given organization and in this
context many organizations also conduct formal
training sessions as a starting point to understand
diversity. Leadership modeling behavior also acts
as an effective technique for understanding
diversity.
Collaboration of the work force through mutual
respect for the colleagues, irrespective of the
parameters of diversity acts as another means for
achieving appreciation for diversity. This
collaboration of the workforce adds to increased
productivity levels, thereby adding value to the
parameters of organizational success.
Diversity at workplace increases the number of
marketing opportunities, improves recruitment
quality and creativity among employees, reduces
the number of lawsuits (if any) and fortify the
business image of the organization.
Reputation of businesses today is not only based
on their financial performance and the quality of
services and products that they provide but also
on the goals that the organization sets for itself.
Stakeholders and professionals prefer businesses
that value integrity and follow ethical business
practices as these qualities add a great deal of
talent to the organization. In this era of
competitiveness, inclusion of diversity plays a
critical role for any organization, standing to be an
industry leader.
Globalization is the objective of today's market
and diversity has the capacity to impact an
organization's global appeal. Diversity at
workplace expands the customer base of an
organization by bringing in new virtues of
workforce talent, framed due to the collaboration
25

of various backgrounds and perspectives.

With the help of demographic diversity inclusion,
organizations can make the customer feel more
comfortable with the company by mapping
customer service executives' specific to the
customer demographic. Therefore, diversity
helps in strengthening the relationship between
the company and its specific customer groups, by
easing out the communication bottlenecks.
Social integration at the workplace helps
employees in becoming well-rounded members
of the society as spending time with culturally
diverse peers gradually breaks down the intrinsic
and subconscious barriers of xenophobia and
ethnocentrism. Exposure to new perspectives,
ideas and cultures helps individuals add an
intellectual value to themselves and gain a better
understanding about communities and many
places in the world.
If we ponder some of the economic implications
of promoting diversity, then we recognize that
business that have managed diversity effectively
have had higher turnover rates.
More than 85% of the organizations, having $500
million in revenue have agreed that diversity
critically helps in encouraging innovation at the
workplace.
Since, diversity is more than just accepting and
acknowledging people for their differences, it
sometimes also becomes a challenging affair.
Broadly, management of diversity involves the
process of inclusion, recognition of value of the
differences and competition against
discrimination. These management parameters
sometimes become very difficult for a manager,
especially when the teams at the workplace are
reluctant to the process of organizational change.
Un-managed diversity has its' own implications
where the differences between the co-workers
can dampen the productivity and the
cohesiveness of small teams at the workplace.
Though these challenges with respect to diversity
can be dealt with over the long term, the initial
periods of orientations can be uncontrollable
especially when there is a clash between the
cultures.
The formation of small social groups and cliques

within the organization can hinder the

effectiveness of various initiatives taken by the
organization. Such initiatives include sharing of
skills, experiences and knowledge. This
bottleneck, though is a natural process but is
difficult to control and can prove to be a negative
entity towards the productivity and effectiveness
of teams at the workplace. Discrimination during
recruitment for hiring and stereotyping among
team members and during the process of
termination and retention are some of the
commonly observed negative behaviors due to
lack of managed diversity.
Training sessions organized by organizations for
educating its personnel for better understanding
of the importance of diversity, sometimes
backfire as employees, feel forced to accept
diversity, irrespective of their background and
experiences. Recruitment managers feel
concerned about the excessively emphasized
policies of diversity as it leads to the hiring of
organizational diversity at the expense of talent
acquisition. This enforcement on the recruitment
managers to hire diverse personnel, sometimes
questions' their authority while making decisions
and exercise independent judgments.
Employees, which do not form a part of a diverse
group, many a times feel undervalued and
unappreciated, due to the huge inclination of the
organization's goal towards diversity. Inclusion of
accommodations and policy relaxations for
diversity concerned matters creates a feeling of
biases among the employees and thereby affects
their faith towards the organizations. Some
examples of such relaxations include the
absences of employees for religious prosecutions,
relaxations of organizational dress code,
translation of materials into multiple languages
and many others.
Managers must realize that while practicing
techniques for management of diversity, he must
focus on the individuals and not the groups, as
that is the actual baseline for diversity. He should
base his decisions on the framework and
dynamics of the team as well as the organization.
It is imperative that managers are aware about
their personal biases and then focus towards the
comprehensive process of creating environments
that are conducive to everyone.
26

They need to understand the differences

between fairness and equality, and should be
flexible enough to create exceptions wherever
required.
Organizations must implement management
policies related to diversity in a slow and steady
manner, if required in an on-training format as
aggressive one day training sessions do not
suffice towards changing people's behavior.
Diversity at workplace reflects the changing
scenarios of the marketplace. Diversified teams
bring high value additions to the organization.
Dissolution of individual differences benefits the
workplace by increasing productivity levels and
providing a competitive edge for the same.
Management of Diversity at the workplace
benefits the associates, as it creates a fair and safe
environment, which provides everyone an access
to equal opportunities and challenges. Various
tools and procedures should be used to educate
and expose employees about diversity and its
benefits as well as the related issues.
Since, most of the organizations in today's
generation are now inclined towards diversity at
the workplace, organizations should focus more
on how to materialize this aspect of business into
success.
References:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.
html
h t t p s : / /c d n . a m e r i c a n p r o g r e s s . o r g / w p content/uploads/issues/2012/03/pdf/lgbt_biz_
discrimination_infographic.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/07/29/wor
kplace-diversity-innovation_n_913214.html

27

Fun Section
Humour begins and ends with HR

By
HR Forum Team

28

Fun Section
Humour begins and ends with HR

By
HR Forum Team

29