Diversity is a crucial factor to the success of any organization, as it leads to numerous advantages to a workplace, such as increased development, improved decision-making skills, and better customer interaction. In all organizations, diversity is an intrinsic aspect to preserve the dynamics in a workspace, as it provides the blueprint to construct a skyscraper of success with versatility and longevity.
What Exactly Is Diversity?
However, in order to properly conceptualize the idea of diversity, one has to understand its broad definition and the specific facets that it comprises. From a general perspective, the Oxford Learners Dictionary defines diversity as “a range of many people or things that are very different from each other”. However, in an article created by Meridith Morales, a Linkedin Senior Program Manager of Inclusion Recruiting, Innovation & Solutions, for DeVry University, diversity revolves around 3 major concepts: “Belonging, Celebrating Difference, and Improving Representation”.
Belonging
According to Morales, belonging plays a salient part in a workspace as it provides the organization with a foundation for a successful and collaborative work environment and atmosphere. Morales states that “companies should really strive to create an environment where people feel like they belong. That’s the core of what this work is all about. If you have a culture in which people feel like they don’t belong, connect or succeed as their authentic selves, then your company will have an employee population that’s not giving you the best of them. They won’t produce their best work and you’ll have a retention issue, so it’s really important to focus on making sure people feel like they belong.”
Celebrating Differences
Furthermore, Morales also believes that celebrating and understanding one’s differences can enrich a work setting, as it engenders an ambience of positivity, which organizations can utilize to facilitate their success.
Improved Representation
Moreover, Morales highlights the overlooked importance of representation in an organization, as she states that it is essential to “be very clear about the kind of people your company desires to attract and frame the conversation around improving representation among underrepresented groups.” These 3 aspects of diversity go hand in hand to further improve an organization’s workspace for numerous reasons.
Reason #1: Increased Organizational Development
According to an article made by Western Governors University, in a study conducted by the Oxford Academic Economic Journal, it was found that in US cities, an increase in organizational diversity led to increased innovation amongst employees, as a more versatile and multi-faceted environment is created where more varieties of ideas are accepted. From a cultural perspective, diversity can lead to better brainstorming, due to people sharing different types of ideas based on their background, thus enhancing team success.
Reason #2: Better Decision-Making Skills
Through the usage of different perspectives gained through the conception of diversity, individuals can make decisions and solve problems quicker. This, in turn, will lead teams to increase their amount and variety of potential solutions, thus developing their thinking in collaborative settings.
Reason #3: Better Customer Interactions
Since businesses have customers that have different backgrounds and dispositions, it becomes vital to implement a diverse work setting. This facilitates the process of acknowledging and understanding customers by making it easier to market in a more individualized manner, which consequently increases organizational reputation and longevity. Overall, workspace diversity may not be the seeds that shoot out the trunk, roots, and leaves of a firm, but they are very much the soil and water that nurtures the small sphere in the ground until it grows into a powerful tree.
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