What is Diversity?

1. What is Diversity? DENR Managers’ Forum

2. Agenda • What is Diversity? • Why Value Diversity? • Isn’t Diversity Against American Values • Doesn’t Diversity Replace the Mainstream Culture? • The Business Case for Diversity • What Next?

3. Question What are the main differences between the public sector and the private sector?

4. Common Responsibilities • Control costs • Market services in an effective way • Report business performance to a group of stakeholders • Effectively manage the workforce • Respond to changes in the business environment • Manage organizational effectiveness

5. What is Diversity? • Diversity represents all the ways we are different • Laws provide the first basis for diversity: equal employment opportunity • Laws based on historical discrimination against certain groups in our society: race, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, etc. • Diversity includes all of the above concepts: organizations cannot do one at the expense of another

6. Why Value Diversity? • Future workforce will have huge demographic variations • Companies report competitive advantage as the key driver of diversity efforts • Diverse markets require diverse operatives; organizations must know the markets they seek to serve

7. Isn’t Diversity Against American Values? • US is the most diverse collection of cultures in the history of the world • Joel Barker: the wealth and power of a civilization is directly dependent on its ability to mine the diversity of its people • While the “melting pot” was the standard, not all groups can assimilate • American innovation has been fueled by diversity

8. Doesn’t Diversity Replace the Mainstream Culture? Diversity does not pit one culture against another for dominance; it only allows for cultural differences to be employed to solve business challenges. Diversity acknowledges and uses these inherent differences to drive innovation as a way of creating better organizational performance and competitive advantage.

9. The Business Case for DiversityImproved Organizational Performance • Companies rated on Fortune’s “50 Best Companies for Minorities” outperformed the S&P 500 over three- and five-year periods • Academy of Management Journal: Organizations with diverse management teams correlate with superior corporate performance

10. The Business Case for DiversityReduced Turnover, Improved Retention • Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study: diversity initiatives positively affect the bottom line • Ability to recruit • Ability to retain • Improved client relations • Improved productivity • Improved corporate culture

11. The Business Case for DiversityIncreased Innovation • Diversity provides a richer variety of approaches to work and problem solving • Diversity strengthens an organization's resilience in changing environmental conditions • Diversity allows challenges to long-accepted views • Diversity creates dynamic work environments through variety of perspectives

12. The Business Case for DiversityIncreased Effectiveness in Minority Markets • Helps organizations understand how to effectively interact with all of its client base • Informs organizational practices that create community support in all populations • Helps manage perceptions of historically underserved markets

13. The Business Case for DiversityPositive Impact on Group Performance SHRM and Fortune survey concluded that diversity: • Improves corporate culture – 83% • Improves employee morale – 70% • Increases creativity – 59% • Decreases interpersonal conflict – 58% • Enables movement into emerging markets – 57% • Improves productivity – 52%

14. The Business Case for DiversityPositive Impact - Historical Studies • Exceptional performance within groups of medical colleagues representing a wide variety of “values, experiences and disciplines.” (1956) • Mixed gender groups consistently outperformed single-gender groups. Different viewpoints caused inventive solutions to emerge. (1961) • Routine problem solving better handled by homogeneous groups, less-defined problems better suited to heterogeneous groups. (1984) • Diverse ethnic groups produced more effective solutions than homogeneous groups. (1992)

15. The Business Case for DiversitySome Thoughts • Your organizational culture must be open to diversity; otherwise this effort will fail • Managers and supervisors need training and education on valuing and managing diversity • Improving managing diversity is not easy; no worthwhile organizational change effort is easy • Leadership must commit to a long-term vision of diversity

16. Quotes • "You can and should shape your own future; because if you don't someone else surely will." • "No one will thank you for taking care of the present if you have neglected the future." -Joel Barker

17. Quotes "Innovation provides the seeds for economic growth, and for that innovation to happen depends as much on collective difference as on aggregate ability. If people think alike then no matter how smart they are they most likely will get stuck at the same locally optimal solutions. Finding new and better solutions, innovating, requires thinking differently. That’s why diversity powers innovation.“ -Scott E. Page, Professor, University of Michigan

18. Quotes "There is no better fertile ground for innovation than a diversity of experience. And that diversity of experience arises from a difference of cultures, ethnicities, and life backgrounds. A successful scientific endeavor is one that attracts a diversity of experience, draws upon the breadth and depth of that experience, and cultivates those differences, acknowledging the creativity they spark." Dr. Joseph M.DeSimone

19. The Business Case for DiversityBottom Line • Diversity can create stronger, more resilient organizations • Innovation is a by-product of diversity • Innovation in government is key to vitality in the 21st century

20. What Next? • Executive support for diversity initiatives • Tactics to smooth the transition to a more diverse work culture • Provide education programs from top to bottom • Create and maintain a consistent pro-diversity message • Form a diversity council that looks at large-scale organizational issues