These days, everyone can attest to the importance of being innovative.

In a knowledge economy where small

insights can quickly shift the competitive landscape and capabilities can rapidly be bought, borrowed or built,
we believe that those leaders who oversee a dynamic, fast-moving, innovation portfolio will have the best
chance of breaking away from the pack and generating growth. But many organizations are finding it
difficult to engage their people – from their employees to their customers to their suppliers – in the innovation
process .Top business leaders believe that innovation – more open, collaborative, multidisciplinary and global
than ever before – is the key to business survival in the 21st century.

Benefits of Workforce Diversity

An organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits.
When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity
plans, multiple benefits are reported such as:

Increased adaptability – Organizations employing a diverse workforce can supply a greater variety of solutions to
problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees from diverse backgrounds bring individual
talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demand

Broader service range - A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g. languages, cultural understanding)
allows a company to provide service to customers on a global basis.

Variety of viewpoints - A diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying points of view provides
a larger pool of ideas and experiences. The organization can draw from that pool to meet business strategy needs and
the needs of customers more effectively.

More effective execution – Companies that encourage diversity in the workplace inspire all of their employees to
perform to their highest ability. Company-wide strategies can then are executed; resulting in higher productivity,
profit, and return on investment.

Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace

Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity in the workplace is not without its challenges. Some of those
challenges are:

Communication - Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be overcome for diversity programs to succeed.
Ineffective communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack of teamwork, and low morale.

Resistance to change - There are always employees who will refuse to accept the fact that the social and cultural
makeup of their workplace is changing. The “we’ve always done it this way” mentality silences new ideas and
inhibits progress. Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies - This can be the overriding challenge to all
diversity advocates. Armed with the results of employee assessments and research data, they must build and
implement a customized strategy to maximize the effects of diversity in the workplace for their particular
organization.

Successful Management of Diversity in the Workplace - Diversity training alone is not sufficient for your
organization’s diversity management plan. A strategy must be created and implemented to create a culture of
diversity that permeates every department and function of the organization.

Diversity also increases errors and misunderstandings - Group members may assume they interpret things
similarly when in fact they do not, or they may disagree because of their different frames of references.

Mistrust and tension - People prefer to associate with others who are like themselves. This tendency often leads to
mistrust and misunderstanding of those who are different because of lack of contact and low familiarity. It also
causes stress and tension, and reaching agreement on problems can be difficult.

Stereotyping - We learn to see the world in a certain way based on our backgrounds and experiences. Our interests,
values and cultures act as filters and distort, block and select what we see and hear. We see and hear what we expect
to see and hear. Group members often inappropriately stereotype their “different” colleagues rather than accurately
perceiving and evaluating those individual’s contributions, capabilities aspirations and motivations. Such stereotypes
in turn affect how people employee stereotyped as unmotivated or emotional will be given less -stress – provoking
jobs than their co-workers. Those job assignments will create frustrated employees, perhaps resulting in low
commitment, higher turnover, and underused skills. It is seen that at Infosys the work force diversity is well
maintained and a lot of mix of culture is also seen here. It is due to the various factors that have led to the
unprecedented growth and success of Infosys.

Corporate diversity is often a hindered by homosocial reproduction. In addition to overcoming institutionalized

homosocial reproduction , Corporate leaders can propel innovation by developing significant goals , encouraging
experimentation and excusing small failures, broadly sharing company information, welcoming productive friction ,
and displaying leadership courage. The innovation that results is a matter of corporate viability. In an increasingly
non-linear world , only non-linear ideas are likely to create new wealth. The innovation should not only be radical
but also extensive in that it views every component of the business concept as a potential candidate for rule-
breaking innovation. When innovation is the goal, organizations need variation in what people do, think about, and
produce. The single most important strategy for enhancing creativity in teams is deliberately building in cross-
fertilization by selecting members with a broad range of skills and background. The Hindu Business Line, statistics
confirm that India lags in addressing the subject of diversity in the workplace, especially regarding the integration
of women: “Representation of women as in the political sphere ,remains a hurdle on the boards of Indian
companies. Of the total individuals, only 605 are women (less than 5%), occupying a total of 757 directorships”.
Company leaders wrongly believe that a uniform workforce promotes harmony and unity in the workplace and
leads to efficiency. Homosocial reproduction limits the range of a company’s innovation capabilities and may
ultimately derail the future success of the organization. Five important strategies can help ignite and focus corporate
innovation:
Develop Significant goals – People are inspired by leaders , who take initiative and risk personal ease and safety for
the sake of a cause. Whether the objective is growth in revenue , earnings, or efficiency, non-linear innovation
begins with unreasonable goals. Company-wide and individual performance requirements must be clear, aggressive,
and unconstrained.

Encourage experimentation and small failures - Organizations need to create an environment where taking risks
on breakthrough innovations is recognized as valuable to the company. Failure is the rule rather than the exception,
and every failure contains information. Perseverance must be accompanied by the embrace of failure. Failure is what
moves you forward

Broadly share company information – All great groups share information effectively. The leaders of companies
that consistently innovate ensure that information and ideas are never hoarded, but instead shared widely.

Welcome productive friction – When people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skills sets engage with
each other on real problems, the exchange usually generates friction - that is, misunderstandings and arguments –
before resolution and learning occur… Productive friction requires difficult negotiations among people with very
different skills, experiences, and mindsets.

Display Leadership Courage – Leaders of innovative organization must have a steel backbone. Courage is
essential because creative leaders are often considered pariahs for bucking the status quo, since they routinely move
alone, outside of the established business order, and towards uncertainty.

CONCLUSION

Only innovative ideas are likely to create new wealth for Indian corporations, and the fountain of those innovative
ideas is a workforce that is widely diverse. Overcoming homosocial reproduction in the corporate environment and
intentionally developing a team of workers who possess the capabilities and will to find and employ innovative ideas
is a key role of corporate leaders. As “Jerry Hirishberg said, “The goal remains the same: to select and accommodate
a broad and diverse cast of players for roles in dramas not yet conceived.”
 STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

DIVERSITY IN WORKFORCE AS A TOOL FOR

INNOVATION

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

Prof. Shalini Khandelwal KOMAL DUBEY

08BS0001460

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