Beyond political correctness.

• Author: Dessau, Nigel
• Position: Diversity in business management - Business & Finance

AS AN ENGLISHMAN, I was unfamiliar with diversity as a major business issue when I first moved to the U.S. in 1996. However, that soon changed. In fact, diversity was among the initial list of new business terms I learned when I began working for an American company. Diversity certainly existed at that time in the United Kingdom, but I am not sure we had the same amount of organization or structure around it.

Over the years, I have seen the importance of diversity for businesses and for people. As an employee and manager, it is vital to understand diversity and its role in managing a business. Ineffective stuck-in-the-middle managers may not see the importance of diversity, and thus might be unwilling to take steps to increase it.

Too much cynicism exists around diversity. Much of this stems from a stereotyping of diversity as a way to be politically correct. We should be clear at work that diversity is not about PC. It also is less about quotas or affirmative action, although some government laws and regulations do come into play. True diversity is more than just common decency to those around you, although that is an important part of it.

Diversity is about maintaining your employee base as diverse as your labor market and customer base. In a global marketplace, diversity makes a great deal of business sense. Your people--men and women of all generations from all types of ethnic and racial backgrounds--should reflect the markets in which you operate and in which you sell your products and services. If you run a diverse business, you are more likely to have the respect of your customers and business partners. Some of those organizations, including government entities, evaluate levels of diversity when choosing vendors and business partners.

In our At Work survey, nearly half of the people we spoke to did not understand or know how to value diversity at work, and one-third thought diversity helps them get promoted. The implication is that, while diversity is important, we all have a responsibility to articulate its value. In a diverse workplace, you are more likely to be around different types of people who can introduce new approaches. People from different cultures and backgrounds often bring unexpected and fresh perspectives to problem solving, design, and product development. Some people are more analytical while others are more creative. People from varying religious, political, and socioeconomic backgrounds possess different...