Leveraging Difference for Organizational Excellence: Managing Diversity Differently

12 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Martin N. Davidson

Martin N. Davidson

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

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Abstract

Leaders who leverage difference are able to take a fresh stance! This note explores the proposition that the "diversity is good for business" premise is a function of individuals' and organizations' inability to fully capitalize on the impact diversity can have on broad organizational functioning. In an attempt to bridge this gap, the note proposes a new diversity model that focuses on what needs to be in place in order to leverage difference, not merely tolerate, appreciate, or celebrate it.

Excerpt

UVA-OB-0767

LEVERAGING DIFFERENCE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL Excellence: managing diversity differently

For the past two decades, managing diversity initiatives in organizations have served to alter the way we think about human talent in organizations. Business necessity, enlightenment about differences, and moral fortitude have combined to push many organizations toward hiring a diverse set of employees and toward seeking ways to include those employees in the culture, structure, and fabric of the organization. This shift has had many profound and positive effects on how business is conducted—including enlarging the pool of available, talented labor, introducing new perspectives on doing business, and serving the social good, as people who historically have been unfairly excluded from participating in higher management are able to compete on more equitable terms.

However, nagging problems persist. Differences in treatment between so-called “diverse” managers (e.g., in the United States, ethnic minority group members, white women, individuals from different cultures, gays and lesbians and other members of traditionally underrepresented groups) and “dominant group” managers (e.g., white, Anglo or Anglo-American, male, heterosexual, and U.S. born) continue to shape work experience in most U.S. organizations. This differential treatment manifests in firms in other countries as well, although the characteristics of “diverse” and “dominant” group members may be different. The stories emerging from recent discrimination lawsuits against Boeing, Ford Motor Company, and Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., illustrate the worst outcomes of this differential treatment for diverse organization members. In addition, resentment simmers among dominant managers, as they view the influx of diverse managers as a threat to their own job security as well as to the organizational status quo. And while many organizations are reaping modest gains from their newfound diversity, it remains extremely difficult to demonstrate empirically the financial gain that results from increasing the diversity of the workforce. More often than not, diversity costs money and yields relatively little financial reward.

In this note, I explore the proposition that the apparent vulnerability of the premise that “diversity is good for business” is a function of individuals' and organizations' inability to fully capitalize on the impact diversity can have on broad organizational functioning. In an attempt to bridge this gap, I propose a new diversity model that focuses on what needs to be in place in order to leverage difference, not merely tolerate, appreciate, or celebrate it.

Leveraging Difference

. . .

Keywords: Management Communications, conflict management of diversity, management of human resources, management of leadership, discrimination, management skills, minorities in business, women in business, work-force management

Suggested Citation

Davidson, Martin N., Leveraging Difference for Organizational Excellence: Managing Diversity Differently. Darden Case No. UVA-OB-0767, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=911099 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.911099

Martin N. Davidson (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
434-924-4483 (Phone)
434-243-5020 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/Davidson.htm

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