6/11/2020 Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard To Achieve

Aug 22, 2018, 11:01am EDT

Why Workplace Diversity Is So

Important, And Why It's So Hard
To Achieve
RSM Discovery Contributor
Leadership Strategy

POST WRITTEN BY

Meir Shemla
Meir Shemla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Organisation and Personnel
Management at RSM More about Meir Shemla

Is there still anyone out there who doesn’t think that workplace diversity is a
good thing?

Diversity gives you access to a greater range of talent, not just the talent that
belongs to a particular world-view or ethnicity or some other restricting
definition. It helps provide insight into the needs and motivations of all of
your client or customer base, rather than just a small part of it. And,
potentially, as McKinsey & Co and a host of other highly credible
researchers have shown, it makes your organization more effective, more
successful, more profitable.

However, actually achieving it in practice has turned out to be far more

difficult than anticipated.

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6/11/2020 Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard To Achieve

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Our research at RSM suggests that, despite a genuine will on the part of
most major organizations to implement productive diversity strategies, few,
if any, have to date come up with something that really works.

So what is going wrong and how can it be put right?

Firstly, it seems that too many organizations make the fundamental error of
failing to align their diversity practices with their organizational goals. And
in such situations, no matter how much good will there is towards the
concept of diversity, the harsh realities of running the business on a day-to-
day basis, of keeping customers satisfied, of selling and delivering the
product or service will keep undermining it. And secondly, there is often a
mismatch between how organizations design diversity policies and how they
implement them. Or to put it another way, what looks good on paper too
often falls apart in practice.
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However, while our investigations produced these rather dispiriting
findings, they also helped us to identify four clear
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6/11/2020 Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard To Achieve

workplace diversity a reality:

Clearly identify what you are trying to achieve. – And simply

saying ‘workplace diversity’ isn’t good enough because the devil is, of
course, in the detail. Too many diversity initiatives simply miss their
intended target. For example, many organizations aim to realize the
performance potential of diverse teams, by then implement diversity
policies primarily designed to impact the representation of certain
social groups in leadership positions. Only by understanding what the
ultimate goal is can you have a chance of reaching it.

Don’t ‘copy and paste.’ – Every organization is unique, so every

diversity initiative needs to be too. Simply borrowing one from
somewhere else is unlikely to work. Which is perhaps why, for
example, efforts to duplicate Norway’s approach to boardroom
diversity in other places have largely proven unsuccessful, mainly
because those other places don’t have the Norwegian history nor the
Norwegian social infrastructure and gender norms behind them.
Every program needs to take into account the specific culture and
context of its host organization if it is going to do the required job.

Good design is important but good implementation is vital.

– There is a long-standing maxim in the military that no plan
survives contact with the enemy. And in the corporate few diversity
initiatives survive contact with operational management. Simply
handing over even the best designed program to individuals who may
not have the tools, the capability or perhaps the motivation to
implement it is likely to be a recipe for disaster.

Win ‘hearts and minds.’ – Successful initiatives answer the basic

question, “Why should I do this?” If individuals within the
organization cannot see the benefits of a program (or even worse if 1 of 4 f
they identify disadvantages) then it will ultimately fail.
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6/11/2020 Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important, And Why It's So Hard To Achieve

Of course it’s a cliché to say that nothing worth achieving comes easily. But
it’s also true. And the benefits of true workplace diversity are so obviously
attractive that the challenges inherent in it simply have to be addressed. And
we hope that the four steps outlined above will, at least in part, help to do
that.

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