Social progressiveness has evolved into a critical characteristic of a thriving enterprise in today’s world. This is often enabled by a diverse workforce with members who feel included in their corporate setting, and has been proven to therefore illustrate improved job performance and commitment to the organization.
Defining Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in the workplace is complex, as organisations may tackle diversity in distinguished aspects, including that of attitudes and values or a range of ethnic identities. Furthermore, aspects including gender and age require consideration of local context. If the local culture possesses a characteristically male-dominated workforce, D&I initiatives towards gender equality can be met with more resistance than in cultures with weaker biases towards a particular gender. Therefore, corporate D&I teams are challenged with analysing the local social context and identifying the internal biases that exist within the population to curate employment initiatives that potentially challenge prejudicial views towards certain genders and age groups.
Notwithstanding the intricacy of creating diversity, the significant benefits of an inclusive workforce should motivate corporations to invest further thought into this movement. Research into Korean organizational trends by Cho & Mor Barak in 2008 highlights that employees with disparate age, gender and ethnic identities to their co-workers often receive lower performance evaluations. While hiring diverse ethnicities is one means of reducing homogeneity of identity, another mechanism can be to encourage understanding of each other’s cultures through sharing of personal stories, customs, and transparent conversations on stereotypes. This would facilitate the creation of a group identity that transcends geographical delineations and embraces diverse experiences. Moreover, with stronger senses of identity and a perceived level of inclusion, continued organizational commitment can be enhanced. Organizational commitment can entail increased workplace engagement and reduced intention to leave.
Social psychology researchers Downey et al. in 2014 explain the role of trust in workplace engagement, in that when employees can expect their teammates to bolster and refrain from negative judgment during times of struggle and vulnerability, the organization can benefit from increased collaboration and higher engagement. Human Resources teams can hold activities to promote supportive, healthy interpersonal relationships between co-workers, and capitalise upon their position as employee welfare officers to forge a supportive workplace atmosphere. Furthermore, in 2014, Brimhall et al. for the School of Social Work, University of Southern California conceptualised Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) as an additional means of increasing perception of inclusion, leading to higher job satisfaction and reduced intention to leave. A positive supervisor-supervisee can be instilled by involving supervisees as team members in decision-making processes and regarding their efforts as highly valuable, rather than subordinates. Brimhall et al. emphasize the role of mutual respect and genuine acceptance in the LMX relationship, as furtherance of trust-building in the organization.
While the benefits of Diversity & Inclusion practices are conspicuous, progress towards such workplace teams entails an arduous journey, the requires collaboration of all organizational stakeholders and often unravelling traditionally sensitive issues in order to overcome prejudicial barriers.
