DIVERSITY

In official work environments people come from different family set ups and backgrounds. In order to accommodate diversity in the work place, a (new) cultural dynamic comes into play.

Everyone is encouraged to participate by the same rule book in spite of their background or family upbringing. The ideal rule book, of course, accommodates as much diversity as is practically possible, but the responsibility of maximizing the value offered by diversity still rest with the employee.

Ingredients of diversity include age, responsibility, race, creed and personality. However, the challenge we have is to find value in all of them. When asked if there were any benefits in diversity one employer said, “I first thought that if I could just get people who thought alike, they would work together very well. To my utter dismay, I found that those with the same background, credo and upbringing, were more likely to focus on their right of belonging than on productivity, I got better performance from a more diverse team”.

In high diversity teams, everyone tends to focus on the deliverables they have been assigned. It is a great paradox that organizations with poor diversity struggle with performance and become lax in terms of goal setting and goal achievement.

In the book The Performance factor, Macmillan recognizes the power of teamwork in a crisis, but also suggests that trust in the team to carry out diverse functions competently is key to the success of any team performance.