Organization of any workplace is a complicated process with numerous ambiguities and challenges. One of common issues in the workplace is diversity, which is commonly associated with both benefits and drawbacks. It becomes even more difficult to cope with it in case of seeking ways to introduce innovations and make diversity and innovations work together to benefit a company and help it to provide additional competitive advantages. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the connection between innovation and diversity in order to make their co-existence productive.
To begin with, it is essential to understand what is diversity and how it is managed. The author of the article teaches that, in general terms, the concept stands for differences in ethnicities, genders, ages, languages, lifestyles, and other critical characteristics of employees. Such a combination is commonly associated with increased risks faced by a diverse organization, such as higher turnover rates, poor social integration, higher prevalence of interpersonal conflicts, lower levels of attachment and commitment to work, and communication problems. Because of them, it is paramount to create suitable conditions in the workplace, which would eliminate the risks mentioned above and foster the unity of and mutual understanding between members of diverse teams.
Keeping in mind all of the identified issues and risks, the major challenge is to properly integrate people with varying background in one working environment and make them an effective team. The author of the article believes that to achieve it, the main objective is to develop efficient human resource management practices. It is assumed that managers should make the main focus on personal styles, work preferences, perception of risks, and commitment to work.
Finding the right balance between all of these characteristics is one of the ways to create a diverse and, at the same time, effective team. On the other hand, it is an optimal way of organizing work routines due to fostering integration of people with differing backgrounds but similar values. All in all, the combination of these techniques leads to turning into a high-commitment organization, which benefits both management and people. As a result, teams become not only effective but also more creative.
Still, it is of significant importance to understand the connection between diversity, creativity, innovations, and competitive advantage. According to the author of the article, it is creativity that is the foundation of innovations. However, regardless of the simplicity of this statement, it is often complicated to define creativity because it can be viewed from different perspectives – person, product, processes, and environment.
It is the creativity of processes that leads to innovations, and processes turn into more creative by the involvement of people with diverse backgrounds in one environment. As a result, processes become more innovative, which leads to becoming more competitive – gaining additional advantages.
That being said, the author of the article teaches three important lessons. First and foremost, regardless of potential risks and drawbacks, diversity is a positive phenomenon. However, to maximize its benefits, it is critical to develop and deploy relevant human resource management techniques, such as creating effective diverse teams and organizing work routines. It is the second thing learned from the article. Finally, in case of succeeding in appropriate management, diversity becomes the source of additional competitive advantages because it boosts creativity, which is the main source of innovations.