Best Practices for Managing Organizational Diversity Article Reflection Paper Example

Best Practices for Managing Organizational Diversity authored by Patricia A. Kreitz is an interesting article that defines diversity in the workplace and identifies the most effective strategies of strategy management. Most of the organizations in this era face a challenge of managing the diversity of both employees as well as customers. The market is globalized, and competition is not only local but also international. Organizations should avoid mono-managing as it hinders human diversity. Employers should adopt diverse strategies instead of focusing only on recruitment and training diversity.

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The author has answered several questions related to the development and management of organizational diversity. Diversity includes characteristics of both individuals and groups. These differences include religion, nationality, culture, or marital status. In an organization also there is diversity in departments, positions and unions (Kreitz 2007). Managers and organization leaders tend to focus on only to aspects of diversity which are race and gender. For diversity management to be the effective manager should take care of other aspects of diversity such as personal traits as well as organizational roles. Implementing diversity however may not be as easy as some may perceive for two primary reasons. First, human beings do not accept change easily and secondly; they prefer to work in homogenous groups.

For the managers to effectively manage diversities, they must have skills such as change management, psychology as well as change management. Best practices of managing diversity as per U.S Government Accountability Office include the commitment of the top management whereby the plans of dealing with organization diversity are communicated from the top management (Kreitz 2007). The practices also include aligning the strategy for managing diversity with the plan of the organization as well as linking the diversity with organizational productivity. Also, by linking the performance of diversity initiatives to the compensation the leaders are motivated to come up with effective strategies of handling the issue. The principles also include measurement, succession planning, employee involvement as well as diversity training. In diversity training both the leaders and the employees are educated on how they should handle diversity and its overall benefit to the organization.

Diversity management is beneficial for profit-oriented businesses as well as nonprofit organizations. Diversity is also crucial in academic setups such as libraries whereby the diverse populations are recruited in library public service (Kreitz 2007). The library can also help in promoting diversity by having intercultural collections and publishing them. By so doing students from different cultural backgrounds will get a chance of accessing the materials and appreciate the culture of each other. The libraries are the most effective academic department for promoting diversity through diverse programs.

Diversity management requires a lot of time so the leaders should ensure that they establish strategic plans that are in line with the achievable goals. Prior assessment helps in ensuring that the managers are aware of the significant areas to be considered (Kreitz 2007). Managers should also ensure that the measurement practices adopted are from evidence-based research findings. For diversity to yield best results, the managers should ensure that they research keenly to establish realistic practices.

Conclusion

Diversity management requires a lot of time and resources hence the need to establish whether the practices translates to profit increase and goal attainment. For diversity management to be effective managers should devote a lot of resources and time. No organization can survive without managing diversity because in this era the customers are from different cultural backgrounds and competition is global.

References

Kreitz, P. (2007). Best Practices for Managing Organizational Diversity. Retrieved from http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/getdoc/slac-pub-12874.pdf