Highlights from “A Business Case for Diversity” from Dr. Jeffrey Gandz, University of Western Ontario (Fall 2001)

CONTENTS Overview Workplace Diversity Today Benefits from Diversity Achieving Diversity

Overview The business case for Diversity will be different for each organisation. Diversity can help organisations: identify and capitalise on opportunities to improve products and services; Attract, Retain, Motivate, and Utilise Human Resources effectively; Improve the Quality of Decision- Making; Reap benefits of being perceived as a socially conscious and progressive organisation.

Workplace Diversity Today Let’s take a look at Diversity 2 decades ago versus Diversity Today. Before, organisations aimed to reach Diversity through Employment Equity Legislation. United-States  Affirmative Action Canada  Employment Equity Today the new concept of Diversity focuses not just on “tolerating” those who are different but celebrating those differences.

Workplace Diversity Today The new concept of Diversity rejects the concept of quotas, mandated targets, and legislation of the past while it does not diminish their historical contribution. Diversity in the future will be driven by Competition, Demography, Immigration, Improvements in Technology (Communication) and Globalisation.

Benefits from Diversity A) Anticipating and Responding to Customer Needs: Increasingly diverse workforces are required to understand and respond to the needs and aspirations of increasingly diverse customers. In Canada only, visible minorities possess $76 billion worth of purchasing power. In 2001, visible minorities will have reached: 48 % of the consumer market in Toronto, 39 % in Vancouver, and 20 % in Montreal

Benefits from Diversity The “responsiveness” to customer needs occurs at 3 levels: 1. The Strategic level 2. The Design level 3. The Service/ Point-of-Contact level It is also important to note that organisations may serve not only local markets but also customers who are located in the “home country” or abroad. Thus a Web or E-Commerce presence may be equally important and effective.

Benefits from Diversity B) Supplier Relationships Also know as “Supply-Chain Management”. This is one key area where organisations can gain a Competitive Advantage. While customers are often the primary focus of “diversity competitiveness”, it is no less important for a firm to maintain excellent relationships with suppliers. e.g.: Ben & Jerry’s using a Mexican Supplier for its supply of Coffee Beans.

Benefits from Diversity C) Focus on Employees In an era of critical skills shortages (i.e.: Brain Drain) organisations are finding that they must attract, motivate, and utilise their human assets effectively if they are to be competitive. David Williams (president of Loblaw’s supermarkets) states: “My competitors can duplicate our technology, systems and equipment. What they cannot duplicate are our people.”

Benefits from Diversity D) Globalisation Management and Leadership teams which lack diversity, cannot possibly comprehend and respond to the issues that organisations must deal with in a multi-cultural world. As business is done more and more through partnerships, joint-ventures, and strategic alliances, so an ability to relate to other cultures becomes a key organisational requirement.

Benefits from Diversity D) Globalisation You cannot run a global company on a set of solely U.S.-based values. People need to be sensitive to different Cultural Values and Business Practices. Having a more Diverse Workforce makes a business more $$profitable$$ due to the many advantages.

Achieving Diversity There are 2 aspects to achieving diversity: 1. The first is getting there: moving from a non- diverse workforce to a diverse one. 2. The second is managing diversity, ensuring that the benefits are realised while the costs are minimised. Achieving diversity does nothing for an organisation unless that diversity is managed effectively. It is not a natural thing for people of different cultural backgrounds, religious and moral upbringings, cognitive styles, or even genders, to communicate effectively, appreciate what shapes each others’ viewpoints, debate with each other without giving offense, or otherwise getting along together.

Achieving Diversity Equality in the context of managing diversity means treating each person’s needs with an equal amount of respect and attention. The “teamwork” research done over the years indicates that diverse teams are capable of developing higher quality “solutions” to tasks or problems. Why do you think this is the case?

Achieving Diversity Each company can develop their own approach which suits their business needs and realities. But there are recurring themes to achieving diversity: 1. Leading from the Top 2. The Importance of Words 3. The Importance of Public Commitment 4. Walking the Walk