Understanding individual diversity is a difficult and challenging task. It has led to many researches, studies, arguments, and dialogues between philosophers and intellectuals. Unfortunately, an induced definition or understanding of individual diversity has not been presented and is still warranted.
The demographic variations in the workforce, alterations in organizational structures, and competitive business landscape have all contributed to the element of diversity (both inherent and acquired) in the workforce and has made it customary in contemporary organizations.
This paper is aimed to discuss the magnitude of individual diversity and how it has a direct impact on the organizational behavior by providing different examples. Moreover, after presenting a thorough understanding of diversity various organizational practices have been discussed, which could help to enhance business operations and organizational behavior.
Individual diversity can be explained as the distinctiveness or the presence of characteristics that are different from each other. In any organizational setup, diversity is witnessed at every level from task groups / junior employees to board of directors. It is argued that individual diversity in any organizational setup affects the outcomes of organizations; it reduces employee turnover and increases the performance.
Outlining the approach through which the distinctive orientation of individuals both in minority and majority affects groups’ working and operational outcome of companies. This activates the relational identity distinctiveness and can result in eithers benefits or disadvantages based on the management of issues (Kinicki, 2008).
At times individuals encounter issues and challenges in group settings. Communication is an important aspect of managing diversity, which generates negative outcomes in case of poor communication within organizations. Individuals belonging to different cultures often encounter issues of language barriers and lack of interaction with their team members.
Some of the issues related to communication diversity include differences in individual perspectives, cultural backgrounds and understanding, knowledge, and designation levels. All these issues are countered in a diversified organization (Tosi & Pilati, 2011).
To deal with the issue of diversity, effective management is very essential. Some individuals add to inherent diversity, while others have acquired diversity. Factors such as age, ethnicity, race, sex and capabilities fall under inherent diversity, while on the other hand, location, income, education, seniority and marital statuses fall under acquired diversity.
In order to diminish the issues of communication managers and leaders should hold different interactive sessions for the workforce so that they get to know each other and communicate with each other. The leaders should directly communicate and sort out issues of members, which will increase productivity and boost employees’ morale (Kinicki, 2008).
It depends on managers and executives how they handle diversity and how they formulate effective strategies, which can yield positivity out of the diversity.
In almost every organization, executives and team members have diverse background either inherent or acquired. However, individual identities, which are commonly observed, are mainly from differences in race and gender, while differences in physical capabilities and designations contribute to another form of diversity, which is witnessed at large in present organizations.
The differences in background and gender help in generation of knowledge, ideas, and better solutions to problems, however, differences in seniority in the workforce often have negative consequences on team members. In this regard, senior employees should work with the team, and they should encourage other members and treat them equally to overcome differences (Weiss, 2001).
Organizations at present are becoming more diverse. This is because of the growing competition and globalization. Many MNCs, which operate across borders, hire individuals, who are culturally diverse, which generates both inherent and acquired diversity. Moreover, organizations are increasingly adopting diversity because of its enormous benefits, which overcome problems.
Individual diversity offers many opportunities and is very beneficial for both employees and organizations. Its benefits include increased productivity, better understanding and approach towards problems, better decision making, interactions, effective marketing and many more.
It allows companies to compete in the international market (Kinicki, 2008). Keeping these in view companies like Microsoft and many others are employee highly diverse workforce (Tosi & Pilati, 2011).
In order to avoid the shortfalls of individual diversity, managers and executives should understand and handle diversity on a broader context. They can make teams by putting together diverse individuals so that they interact more and share ideas.
The teams should be small so that they can do the subtasks more efficiently. Ignoring the stereotype, individuals should be allowed to adopt roles and they should be observed and monitored by managers (Weiss, 2001).
Another practice is the diversity training of employees through which the organization can manage diversity. Such trainings are conducted to increase awareness among the workforce regarding differences in cultural backgrounds, skills and knowledge. Moreover, such trainings also decrease chances of violating each other rights on the basis of race, gender or different backgrounds or levels (Kinicki, 2008).
Thus, individual diversity has more benefits and advantages which can overcome its disadvantages, and definitely provides a productive, potential, and competitive edge to the organization. The need is to understand diversity thoroughly and to efficiently manage it through effective approaches and strategies so that better outcomes such as increased productivity and healthy working environment are guaranteed.
Reference List
Kinicki, A. (2008). Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions.
Tosi, H. L., & Pilati, M. (2011). Managing Organizational Behavior: Individuals, Teams, Organization and Management. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Weiss, J. W. (2001). Organizational behavior and change: managing diversity, cross-cultural dynamics, and ethics. Boston: South-Western College Pub.