Is diversity at workplace: asset or liability?

I feel Its always an asset,  a place where people can have a healthy competition and show their talent and work on their weakness. there is something called CROSS-CULTURE management which really helps in maintaining the Harmony in an organization and which in turn creates a productive human resource and SATISFIED EMPLOYEES.

Let us put the subject in this angel :-

A Company is an artificial body which has its own phylosofy, work-ethics, culture and brand image. When this Co is a MNC or going global, diverse people accross the globe and boundaries join the work-force to carry on its objevtives and mission of the in different profit / work centres of the globe. As an "Equal Opportunity" organisation, workforce of diverse culture, religion. ethnicity create the workplace a 'diverse' place.

Now, what remains to say ? One is to accept the "diversity at workplace" and turn it into asset and nothing else. And HR has a prime responsibility to keep all harmony and intregation amongst the diverse workforces to keep the the Organisation viabrant. 

Tail ender : Ratan Tata, the CEO of Tata Group companies, an Indian MNC, is likely to nominate a foreigner as the future CEO.

BEYOND SHADOW OF ANY DOUBT, DIVERSITY IS AN ASSET.

In fact it is more than an asset, it is a requirement. It is because of the rich diversity we all carry within ourselves that we all dont think alike. Not thinking alike is the root cause and the basic form of thinking out of the box. It is what generates new ideas.

How many eons did man watch fruits fall from trees before Newton figured out gravity watching apple fall on his head? It is the diversity that gives us intuition to figure out difficult problems. How did email come in to existance? or network(by CERN) for that matter? It took arabs (and romans?) to get the numerals but it took an indian to figure out zero. it took the dutch to figure out the sun centric model where as it took an italian to figure out the planets and moon. The list of examples is endless.

The difference in our culture, the religion, the gender, the age are all factors and have always been factors in the way mankind has progressed. If not for the diversity, life would be dull, non-creative indeed!

I wish we learnt to ENJOY our differences more than fight about it!!!!!

it is an asset. different people think differently and may solve many problems.

But yes there may be some difficulty in managing diversity. One has to handle it carefully.

It is an Asset for any orgenisation to make a rplacment bench of skilled Human resorce to accept the chalenge of modern skilled socity of uropians .

Asset in all respect. Accept the diversity for change, for growth, for peace and harmony, for better opportunities and to make the world a global village in true sense.

i support diversity because now a days work culture in organisations has been changing and every company wants to be globalised.to become competetive it is very vital to have diversity in workforce

It is completely asset.It provide new vision as well as new thoughts to a employee which helps to the organization to perform well in the competetion era 

It is always an asset. Look while we are driving a vehicle we are likely to encounter new problems every time. Same is true with diversity. It is an asset because it gives you an opportunity to think in different terms and show your skills accordingly. So you have to be open minded. Only an open minded person can easily perform better in diversity.

Whether diversity is an asset or liability is a function of the context in which one is examining the issue. 

1. Diversity is not a "nice to have" ... it make profound business sense. The business logic for diversity lies in the fact that diverse work teams and organisations create both more and innovative options to work with 

2. There is data to believe that diversity is essential part of evolution right from the creation of the universe to its reflection in organisational growth. Discontinuos ideas come from discontinuos thinking and it is essential to have differences to challenge existing paradigms.

This however does not take away from the fact that it is essential to identify the key drivers to leverage diversity. It is critical to ensure that diversity management stay away from being a number game.

That being the case diversity was and will always be the source of competitive advantage for organisations which explains my perspective on this discussion.

Based on academic research, the last word on diversity being an asset/liability is yet to be said. But there is substantial evidence to support diversity being  more an asset than a liability. Clearly, diversity opens up a larger reservoir of talent to HR managers and helps organizations operate better in the global environment.

Hi Diya,

Very interesting topic to debate about.I support the idea.

Diversity is always an asset where one gets to know different aspects of diversity in values,thoughts,opinions, approach, mindset, mix culture, contributions where in only difference build things than Damage.

Its important that it has to be visualised positively, given enough scope for experiment, learn the right ingredients, implement the benefits effectively to feel the advantage of diversity as an asset.

Best regards

Prabhakaran Nambiar

Divesity brings in best of abilities.Each gender,region, class has its own potential.A leader has to understand the capabilites and deploy to get best results.

No doubt it's an asset.

Anycase, it's seems to be more a widely shared belief than an "easy to be demonstrated topic". For professional resons I recently reviewed a lot of international literature (from 94, when Inclusive Diversity concept was defined, till today) and I found very little evidence for case histories. A lot of programs, projects, indicators about diversity balance attained. Very few evidences about "doing so we obtained these results A, B, C".

Any case I continue to trust (:-)

I am fully convince with the idea. Diversity will surely give you broaden experience in terms of knowledge, work culture, strength of survival etc that is very necessary in competitive market.

Yes, its an asset. it is a good sign for employees who want to learn, learn, learn, learn .........

It s an Assets simply it helps you to learn a lot and increase your work knowledge apart of your KRA.

Anil

It is Asset.

It is Asset.

Diversity means expansion which is way of life. Absence of diversity means contraction which symbolizes death.

I had worked  more than 14 years in Middle East and North America with people from differnt culture and diversity. Based on my experience, for an organization as well as to an individual, diversity is an asset.

@This is basedd on:

For organization, it has advantage of different working culture, various ideas to implement and benefit from it.

For an individual, he is exposed to international banking, policies and procedure and he gain knowledge from such exposure

This is, for sure, a very big asset.  Diversity breeds efficiency, creativity and many  more strengths.  Thisn is cetainly the gift of the present times! 

Diversity of workforce stimulates creativity, boarder perspectives for problem solving and flexibility in organization. Individual needs should be balanced with group fairness, open communication among group members, group cohesiveness and balancing competition for opportunities.

Absolutely Diya,

It's just like HYBRID work culture. It would be asset.

Diversity at work place is asset for the organization as well as to the employees.

Diversity is an asset both for the company as well as the employee. It is an asset to the company as different ideas, experience, work environment helps multinational to organize the work culture. It is an asset to the employee as his intraction with culturally diversified people will help them understand the competition and improve the job knowledge. Though diversity has some problems if it is not managed properly by HR, as this would tend to move towards Nepotism,

whether it is an asset or liability depends on the mindset of the management. In most of the organizations, we find people who say what i say is correct mentality more in number-type one, they are not perceptive to any new ideas coming from their subordinates-type two, some encourage and promote the new ideas if it is accepted by the higher management then they claim the idea as their own-type three, there very few top managers who encourage new ideas and give credit to the concerned employee-type four.  An organization which has more of type four managers it is an asset, to some extent type three is also okay but the flow of new ideas will stop over the time.  It is a liability with the type one and type two top management .

It is an asset in the broader view, considering different ingited minds for versatile thought flow and team lead developments.but, care is to be taken regarding policies,ehtics and HUMAN VALUES.

Asset if all factors including are met in accordance to personal & professional satisfaction of every individual are kept in consideration at local level, the leadership has to be servant oriented. If not then it will turn out to be a liability for the said location of company as the company will incur loss in the same area.

Any 'Equal Opportunity' Employer will & should have diversity at work-place, especially with the global nature of the current corporate operations as well as the diverse societies emerging all around the world.

Unless you are building an army, diversity always deliver divergent and varied opinions.

very simple point.

it is always an asset but the people's attitude and outlook will decide the edge of group.

rgds