Approaches to Overcome

Workforce Diversity Issues

Week 8
Introduction
In academic research, we find positive outcomes of diversity like
innovation, creativity, quick problem resolutions and others. Other
researchers find that diversity brings about negative outcomes like
conflicts, miscommunication, slow resolutions to problems and bad
teamwork.

Managers have faced with diversity issues in many different ways from
different perceptions. Diversity can be turned into a competitive
advantage, but one needs to know how to make this happen.

Outlined below are four-T model consisting of four elements that

managers need to take into account when dealing with diversity. But
before such, lets look into the individual strategies we can use in
dealing with diversity issues
Individual Strategies for Dealing with Diversity

Understanding: one must be clear

on the nature and meaning of
diversity.

Empathy: in an organization, one

should try to understand the
perspectives of others.

Tolerance: in an organization, one

should
be willing to tolerate cultural
differences.

Communication: it can only work if

it is two-way. 8- 3
 Training

Training is important for employees who are not familiar

with diversity. Managers should be very careful choosing a
training program because the training needs to fit their
employees.

Managers, for example, need to take into consideration

the amount of flexibility, the extent of openness towards
diversity issues, and the diversity experience of
employees.
Sensitivity Training

Sensitivity training should be implemented as an ongoing program,

which will help individuals understand others who appear very
different from themselves.

This training should teach employees that all human beings have their
most important concerns in common, such as the need for
companionship, the desire to accomplish their work with accuracy and
pride, and the feeling of being valued and appreciated.

Topics that should be covered in training include personal biases,

barriers to understanding one another and cultural habits and
attitudes.
 Transparency
Transparency is related to the way communication takes place
in an organisation.

Managers need to make sure that communication and

information distribution is transparent when dealing with
diversity issues. Management should make employees
understand the benefits of diversity,

e.g. diversity delivers a competitive advantage to the

organization. Employees should also be able to freely express
their thoughts about diversity so that conflicts or protests can
be dealt with immediately.
 Time
Diverse employees cannot immediately work perfectly
together after diversity training.

In time, heterogeneous groups are much more adept solving

problems than homogeneous groups.

However, it still takes time and patience. Employees need to

get used to diversity and they need exposure in order to
understand each other better.

The latter requires a certain degree of patience from managers

who would like to see competitive advantages as soon as
possible.
Inclusion
Often, those who feel different from others in the workplace will shy
away from interactions with other workers. They isolate themselves to
the point where their job satisfaction is impacted.

Engage these workers by practicing inclusion to help increase their

happiness on the job. Discover the particular talents and strong points of
these employees so you can highlight them.

For example, if an employee is capable of producing detailed designs by

hand, have him present these in a team meetings so other employees can
appreciate his work. Give this employee a role as chief designer on the
next project so that he can use his developed drawing skills while he
works closely with others. This is an example of inclusion that can help
build confidence in employees who generally withdraw from team
activities.
 Togetherness
Togetherness implies the feeling that all employees are
working in the same organization and they share the higher
goal of improving effectiveness.

This higher goal is given priority to other goals that might

lead to negative outcomes, like the threat that can be
perceived from minority groups.

Therefore, togetherness helps employees cooperate more

effectively, thereby diminishing negative effects.
Buddy Program
An effective method of overcoming diversity concerns is a buddy
program. Pair individuals in the workplace who differ in some significant
way, such as an experienced worker with a novice or an employee from
the local region with one who hails from a great distance away.

The purpose of these two-person teams is to allow employees to get to

know each other in both personal and professional terms. By working
together on projects, the individuals learn how to best relate to
accomplish the necessary tasks.

Rotate parings on a frequent basis to give all employees the chance to

work closely with each staff member. Take time yourself, as a small-
business manager, to interact individually with each employee on your
staff as well.
 These four Ts should solve the problems many
managers face with diversityhow to achieve
positive effects and diminish the negative effects
of working with diverse employees. These elements
are useful guidelines for dealing with
organizational diversity.