The Business Book

(Joyce) #1

115


See also: The value of teams 70–71 ■ Beware the yes-men 74–75 ■ Thinking
outside the box 88–89 ■ Organizational culture 104–09

A


s with most clichés,
it is also a truism that
managers often tend
to recruit in their own image—
males, for example, have a tendency
to employ males. If left unchallenged,
such behavior can lead to companies
staffed with homogenous clones—
people from the same backgrounds
and with the same view of how
the business should be run.
In contrast, when organizations
actively pursue diversity—by
employing people from different
cultures and socio-economic
backgrounds, and of different
genders and ages—the more
dynamic and stimulating they
are as places to work.

The case for diversity
Greater diversity means greater
scope for creativity—the more
varied are the sources of an
organization’s views, the more
likely that out-of-the-box thinking
and problem solving will occur.
Studies have shown that diversity
can also combat groupthink, a
malaise in group dynamics that

can stifle innovation and growth.
In diverse teams, opinions are less
likely to go unchallenged.
Diversity is not confined to
employee demographics. It might
simply involve creating cross-
functional teams that incorporate
the views of people from across
a company—the marketing team,
for example, might benefit from the
insight of operations or finance. But
whatever the context, monochrome
recruitment can lead to stasis—
diversity fights against it. ■

LIGHTING THE FIRE


T H E A R T O F T H I N K I N G


INDEPENDENTLY,


T O G E T H E R


THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY


IN CONTEXT


FOCUS
Work-force diversity


KEY DATES
2005 Car maker Daimler
targets 20 percent of
management roles be filled by
women by 2020. It sets similar
targets for other diversity
measures, such as age mix,
socio-demographic mix, and
nationality mix.


2009 A survey analyzing
the value of female
representation on corporate
boards ranks companies
with more females higher
than male-dominated rivals.


2012 A Harvard Business
Review article by business
consultants Jack Zenger and
Joseph Folkman finds that
women are rated higher in 12
of the 16 competencies that
define outstanding leadership.


2013 New Italian law requires
a third of a company’s board
members be women by 2015.


Diversity management
isn’t merely nice to have,
it’s a business must.
Daimler company statement
(2005)
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