The Path to Leveraging Difference: Seeing, Understanding, and Valuing Difference

8 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Martin N. Davidson

Martin N. Davidson

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Abstract

The influx of diversity in the workplace has brought a challenging set of managerial problems. Managers who handle these situations must be skillful in dealing with feedback, conflict, and talent assessment, but they must also be skilled in dealing with difference. This technical note explores leveraging difference and the path one can take to develop skills essential to leveraging difference. This note works well with "Leaders Who Make a Difference: Critical Skills for Leading a Diverse Workforce" UVA-OB-0676.

Excerpt

UVA-OB-0789

The PATH TO LEVERAGING DIFFERENCE:

SEEING, UNDERSTANDING, AND VALUING difference

Leaders in today's globally diverse organizations struggle with the dilemma of how to manage the vastly diverse array of individuals who are part of their burgeoning workforces. 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.

But with this influx of diversity has also come a challenging set of managerial problems. Many managers have difficulty mastering the essential competencies needed to appraise performance and give effective feedback to employees. But what happens when a female manager has to give feedback to a male subordinate who is resentful that he has to take any kind of directive from a woman? Managing conflict is tough, but what happens when the conflict involves employees from two different countries who speak different languages? Is the conflict happening only because of a personality conflict, or might ethnocentrism and cultural intolerance also be a part of the mix? Hiring and promotion decisions are always somewhat subjective, but what happens when a highly qualified black person is promoted over an equally qualified white person? Managers who handle these situations well must be skillful in dealing with feedback, conflict, and talent assessment, respectively, but they must also be skillful in dealing with differences.

The purpose of this note is to create a framework for thinking about difference in organizations. The idea of leveraging difference can serve as a map for navigating through what can sometimes be confusing and distressing situations involving differences. In this note, we will explore what leveraging difference is and the path one can take in order to be able to leverage difference.

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

Suggested Citation

Davidson, Martin N., The Path to Leveraging Difference: Seeing, Understanding, and Valuing Difference. Darden Case No. UVA-OB-0789, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=911114 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.911114

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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