How to manage a diverse workforce?

The value in understanding the Whole Person Concept as a manager is the clarity it provides around motivation. There are two primary sources of motivation... "needs" and "values". People are either doing what will meet their needs, what makes them happy or satisfied, or they are doing what they believe they should do.

Dear Folks!!!

Firstly it is not a duck soup to handle a diverse workforce as   employees in an org. come from different strata  of the social circle with different( backgrounds , education, cultures, caste, creed etcetera .)

So there is no magical mantra/perfect solution to the above question.

Still ,to a great extent a diverse workforce can be managed by following (two steps)!!!---

 1)    By following Unbiased approach as much as one can.

2)    By tuning his/her frequency with the employees ( by this I mean that a HR Manager should try to come to the level of the employee keeping in mind the education level, beliefs ,thinking etcetera. of the same while interacting with him/her. This helps in better co-ordination .

 These (two steps)!!! holds water at all the level of management pyramid.

Regards

au revoir

 Harminder Singh Gumbhir

(Tehzeeb Square Boy)

Lucknow

Managing a truly diverse workforce is an exercise in cross cultural management. I think the three major things that one needs to understand in managing a diverse workforce are:

a) Values: these differ from country to country and also from region to region.For example, people from one place could be very conservative, from another region could be very open.

b) Communication: this not only includes language but the interpretation of what is said, even interpretation of body language which could differ for people from diverse cultures.

c) Needs: for different types of people could be different. For example, a lady may have different priorities while doing a job whereas a guy could have different priorities.

Culture, a society's programming of the mind has both a pervasive and changing influence on each National market environment.Global marketeers have realised and recognised the influence of culture on all aspects of life including work habits and consumption of products.Human behaviour is a function of both of a person's own unique personality and a person's ineraction with collective forces of the particular society and culture in which he or she  has lived.Nations can be classified in to high- and low- context culture:communication and negotiation styles can differ from country to country.Maslow's hierarchy,Hofstede's typology, and self reference can provide clues about certain cultural differences and similarities.

Global marketeers have realised this, in India you can find the Korean Cheabols adapting the same in diverse business interests.

I think the first thing is to acknowledge the diversity , and its necessity. In some companies , you will find certain departments are staffed with people from one community / caste / state / language /... This should be avoided like the plague. Yes , merit should be an important criterion , but sometimes , in the interest of diversity , its good to have some personnel of lesser merit , but with other qualities. After all , can you imagine a team full of impatient people , or even patient people ? Diversity is a great starting point for ideas and innovation to flourish.

At the same time , too much glorification of diversity may prove counter-productive. In all this diversity , there have to be a few common threads , which serve to bring everyone together. The Sikh langar serves to bring diverse people together based on the common thread of service to society.

Common values , which eventually become a company culture , serve the same purpose.

"In Search of Excellence" talks of how the best companies make togetherness a fetish , and encourage people to come together by means of hoopla including picnics , competitions for the workforce and their families. There is a complete chapter on "Productivity through People" , most of which can be applied without too much of an investment.

Am sorry if I sound unpolitical. However, am talking from what I've seen. The first step towards managing a diverse workforce is ACCEPT THE DIVERSITY.

Most of us, thought think highly of ourselves, are not so open in accepting a colleague who is different from us. And we are so good at finding differences be it gender or racial or regional or religion or caste. So, the first thing to do is .. accept the diversity ourselves.. and then be an example as a manager to others.

Once we accept diversity, things become a lot simpler... and working on team members to accept the diversity also becomes a lot easier.

I agree with all the comments mentioned above .. however, for me, they need to follow accepting diversity.

Its seems to be very simple and ordinary yet theres' hidden a magical solution for handling vast range of workforce of any company. As like in a close knit family every individual has its own role and duties to play and live upto their standards. Here what we have to look in first is Duties & Responsibilities which should be fulfilled by both the company and the employee in return both will gain courage to live upto the best they can and desirable dreams can be fulfilled. For the company it will survive for longrun with a good brand name while the employees will be benefited by gaining their personal and professional satisfaction. Now how to manage is where many company lack resulting into failure of their goals and get vanished from the market. Upto certain extent what i have a feeling is that if both the employee & company perform their Duties and Responsibility this question will no longer be of any importance...

The idea is very simple.

The unity in diversity is the only KPI or Key Performance Indicator.The meeting ground should be well defined and well timed.This is essential to achieve a common goal.The synergy so created should also take care of their day to day family requirement.The space in this perspective is to allow a diverse workforce tend to their family obligations so that  they can utilize their refresh energy for the common goal of any organization.

Dear all,

I beleive and have been part of managing the diverse workforce. Its very important that every person from differant culture and background think differently, understanding their needs, the way the approach, every aspects of the work to be well understood by the leaders,respect and reciprocate in a appropriate Manners.

Take the case of indians working in Nokia in Finaland, mallus working in Gulf countries, North Indians working in South or south Indians working in IT companies in North - all need the same approach. the early and the better understanding, the better chance to do well.

Its proven methodology to me.

Best regards

Prabhakar