Diversity in the Workplace
Frequently Asked Questions about Diversity
How do you define Diversity?
The textbook definition of Diversity is the variation of
social and cultural identities among people existing together
in a defined employment or market setting.
At Saint Mary’s Health Care and Battle Creek
Health System we define Diversity as the ways we all are alike
and respect for the ways we all are different.
Why should companies concern themselves with Diversity?
The reality in the United States is that the workforce is
becoming more diverse every year. Within the next 20 years,
persons of English-speaking, Western European descent will
be the minority. Businesses must learn to embrace and manage
diversity if they want to continue to be successful. A diverse
work force will increase organizational effectiveness. It
will lift morale, bring greater access to new segments of
the marketplace, and enhance productivity. In short, business
needs diversity to succeed.
What is the difference between Affirmative Action and
Managing Diversity?
Affirmative Action was written over 30 years ago with these
premises in mind:
1. Adult, white males make up the U.S. Business mainstream.
2. The U.S. economic edifice is a solid, unchanging institution
with more than enough space for everyone.
3. Women, blacks, immigrants, and other minorities should
be allowed in as a matter of public policy and common decency.
4. Widespread racial, ethnic, and sexual prejudice keeps them
out.
5. Legal and social coercion is necessary to bring about change.
Today these premises need revising.
To begin with, more than half the U.S. workforce now consists
of minorities, immigrants, and women, so white native-born
males, though still dominant, are a statistical minority.
Second, while the edifice is still large enough for all, it
no longer seems stable, massive and invulnerable. Third, women
and minorities no longer need a boarding pass; they need an
upgrade. The problem is not getting them in at the entry level;
the problem is making better use of their potential at every
level. Fourth, although prejudice is hardly dead, it has suffered
some wounds that may eventually prove fatal. In the meantime,
American businesses are now filled with progressive people,
many of them women and minorities. Fifth, coercion is rarely
needed at the recruitment stage. There are few places where
you could dip a recruitment net and come up with nothing but
white males.
Affirmative action played an essential and effective role
in bringing U.S. business to its current state. In many companies
and communities it continues to be effective. But affirmative
action is an artificial, transitional intervention intended
to give managers a chance to correct an injustice.
Managing diversity means enabling every member of the work
force to perform to his or her highest potential.
For more information on Managing Diversity, read “From
Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity,” by R. Roosevelt
Thomas Jr. The article is contained in the book, Harvard Business
Review on Managing Diversity. There are also a number of other
excellent essays in the book.
Although you indicate that Diversity is defined as more
than race and gender, why is there so much continued focus
and discussion around race?
Hardly a day passes when some aspect of the race debate is
not in the headlines. Whatever our business or profession
and wherever we operate geographically, race is an issue.
No diversity encounter is ever race-neutral, just as no encounter
between a man and a woman is ever completely gender-neutral.
Even when there is no friction, there is often a certain amount
of latent tension between people of different races, at least
in their initial contact.
People of different races have more similarities than differences.
We all want security, peace, and good health for ourselves
and our families. Furthermore, we share many of the same moral
codes and core values, even if sometimes we express them differently.
Whatever your race or ethnicity, the way you handle interactions
with people of other races will have an impact on your career,
your health and well-being, and the ease with which you negotiate
your day-to-day transactions in the world at large. A majority
of people tend to be most comfortable with others of their
own race and cultural background. However, we can’t
always choose with whom we interact, once we step out into
the world.
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