What is Diversity? DENR Managers’ Forum. Agenda What is Diversity? Why Value Diversity? Isn’t Diversity Against American Values Doesn’t Diversity Replace.

What is Diversity?What is Diversity?

DENR

Managers’ Forum

AgendaAgenda

• What is Diversity?• Why Value Diversity?• Isn’t Diversity Against American

Values• Doesn’t Diversity Replace the

Mainstream Culture?• The Business Case for Diversity• What Next?

QuestionQuestion

What are the main differences between the public sector and the private sector?

Common ResponsibilitiesCommon Responsibilities

• Control costs

• Market services in an effective way

• Report business performance to a group of stakeholders

• Effectively manage the workforce

• Respond to changes in the business environment

• Manage organizational effectiveness

What is Diversity?What is Diversity?

• Diversity represents all the ways we are different• Laws provide the first basis for diversity: equal

employment opportunity• Laws based on historical discrimination against

certain groups in our society: race, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, etc.

• Diversity includes all of the above concepts: organizations cannot do one at the expense of another

Why Value Diversity?Why Value Diversity?

• Future workforce will have huge demographic variations

• Companies report competitive advantage as the key driver of diversity efforts

• Diverse markets require diverse operatives; organizations must know the markets they seek to serve

Isn’t Diversity Against American Values?

Isn’t Diversity Against American Values?

• US is the most diverse collection of cultures in the history of the world

• Joel Barker: the wealth and power of a civilization is directly dependent on its ability to mine the diversity of its people

• While the “melting pot” was the standard, not all groups can assimilate

• American innovation has been fueled by diversity

Doesn’t Diversity Replace the Mainstream Culture?

Doesn’t Diversity Replace the Mainstream Culture?

Diversity does not pit one culture against another for dominance; it only allows for cultural differences to be employed to solve business challenges.

Diversity acknowledges and uses these inherent differences to drive innovation as a way of creating better organizational performance and competitive advantage.

The Business Case for Diversity

Improved Organizational PerformanceThe Business Case for Diversity

Improved Organizational Performance

• Companies rated on Fortune’s “50 Best Companies for Minorities” outperformed the S&P 500 over three- and five-year periods

• Academy of Management Journal: Organizations with diverse management teams correlate with superior corporate performance

The Business Case for Diversity

Reduced Turnover, Improved RetentionThe Business Case for Diversity

Reduced Turnover, Improved Retention

• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study: diversity initiatives positively affect the bottom line– Ability to recruit– Ability to retain– Improved client relations– Improved productivity– Improved corporate culture

The Business Case for Diversity

Increased InnovationThe Business Case for Diversity

Increased Innovation

• Diversity provides a richer variety of approaches to work and problem solving

• Diversity strengthens an organization's resilience in changing environmental conditions

• Diversity allows challenges to long-accepted views

• Diversity creates dynamic work environments through variety of perspectives

The Business Case for Diversity

Increased Effectiveness in Minority MarketsThe Business Case for Diversity

Increased Effectiveness in Minority Markets

• Helps organizations understand how to effectively interact with all of its client base

• Informs organizational practices that create community support in all populations

• Helps manage perceptions of

historically underserved markets

The Business Case for Diversity

Positive Impact on Group PerformanceThe Business Case for Diversity

Positive Impact on Group Performance

SHRM and Fortune survey concluded that diversity:

• Improves corporate culture – 83%• Improves employee morale – 70%• Increases creativity – 59%• Decreases interpersonal conflict – 58%• Enables movement into emerging

markets – 57%• Improves productivity – 52%

The Business Case for Diversity Positive Impact - Historical Studies

The Business Case for Diversity Positive Impact - Historical Studies

• Exceptional performance within groups of medical colleagues representing a wide variety of “values, experiences and disciplines.” (1956)

• Mixed gender groups consistently outperformed single-gender groups. Different viewpoints caused inventive solutions to emerge. (1961)

• Routine problem solving better handled by homogeneous groups, less-defined problems better suited to heterogeneous groups. (1984)

• Diverse ethnic groups produced more effective solutions than homogeneous groups. (1992)

The Business Case for Diversity Some Thoughts

The Business Case for Diversity Some Thoughts

• Your organizational culture must be open to diversity; otherwise this effort will fail

• Managers and supervisors need training and education on valuing and managing diversity

• Improving managing diversity is not easy; no worthwhile organizational change effort is easy

• Leadership must commit to a long-term vision of diversity

QuotesQuotes

• "You can and should shape your own

future; because if you don't someone

else surely will."

• "No one will thank you for taking care

of the present if you have neglected the

future."-Joel Barker

QuotesQuotes

"Innovation provides the seeds for economic growth, and

for that innovation to happen depends as much on

collective difference as on aggregate ability. If people

think alike then no matter how smart they are they most

likely will get stuck at the same locally optimal solutions.

Finding new and better solutions, innovating, requires

thinking differently. That’s why diversity powers

innovation.“ -Scott E. Page, Professor,

University of Michigan

QuotesQuotes

"There is no better fertile ground for innovation than a diversity of experience. And that diversity of experience arises from a difference of cultures, ethnicities, and life backgrounds. A successful scientific endeavor is one that attracts a diversity of experience, draws upon the breadth and depth of that experience, and cultivates those differences, acknowledging the creativity they spark."

Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone

The Business Case for Diversity Bottom Line

The Business Case for Diversity Bottom Line

• Diversity can create stronger, more resilient organizations

• Innovation is a by-product of diversity

• Innovation in government is key to vitality in the 21st century

What Next?What Next?

• Executive support for diversity initiatives• Tactics to smooth the transition to a more

diverse work culture• Provide education programs from top to

bottom• Create and maintain a consistent pro-

diversity message• Form a diversity council that looks at

large-scale organizational issues