1. Challenges and Benefits
Salma M. Jafar
Social Innovations
July 2011

2.  What is Diversity?
 Multiculturalism
 Examples of multiculturalism
 Barriers and Challenges

 Why Manage Diversity
 What are the benefits
 Business Case of Diversity at workplace
 How to Manage Diversity

4.  Age, race, class, color, religion, ethnicity
 Gender

 Physical and mental ability,
 Sexual orientation and spiritual practice
 social status and job title
 Disabilities and physical appearance,
 competency, training, experience,
 personal habits


5. It is about
 Acknowledging
 Understanding
 Accepting
 Valuing and
 Celebrating these differences

6.  Diversity is not just about differences among
groups, but rather about differences among
individuals.
 Each individual is unique and does not represent or
speak for a particular group. (BIASES)

7.  Simply means encouraging the existence of multiple cultures
 Emerged as a reaction to the long history of powerful groups in ethnically
diverse societies
 Extreme manifestations have been genocides and ethnic cleansing
( Germany, Bosnia Apartheied in SA)
 Forced Assimilation policies eg Turkey –Kurds
 More widespread forms have been formal (laws and polices) and informal
(everyday practice discrimination)
 Dominance is becoming weaker
 Formal discrimination and forced assimilation exist sheepishly in Africa and Asia
 Informal discrimination thrives everywhere

8.  Assumption: minorities lag behind because of themselves rather than
societal hurdles
 The blunt message is to adopt the dominant culture
 Backlash: Europe and America
 Affirmative action for 4 decades whereas slavery
four centuries
 Europe bans symbols for example french ban on Burqa
and Swiss Minarets
 Federalism to integrate ethnically diverse population: significant
cultural political and economic autonomy with minimum
federal jurisdiction
 Confederalism is rare ( Ethiopia)

10.  The focus initially was on forced assimilation
 Regional identities were not recognized ( One Unit system)
 Better sense prevailed but only after losing East Pakistan
 A federal structure was adopted that recognized regional
ethic diversity ( still ignores smaller ethnicities like Hazara or
seriaki)
 Religious Minorities: status is poor due to formal or non
formal discrimination
 Discriminatory laws

11.  Melting Pot
 Tossed Salad
 Tomato Soup
 Melting Pot: Encouraging new immigrants to assimilate
into the new society
 Salad Bowl or what is known in Canada cultural mosiac
retaining their own culture while integrating into the new
society
 Tomato Soup: the blending of new ingredients adds spice
without compromising the essential character of tomato.

13.  People coming from multiple backgrounds
 Culture influences psychological side of personality
 Groups fail to empathies with each other
 What Happens
 Mars productivity & effectiveness of work
environment,
 Disturbing the business consequently.

14.  Problem of general acceptability of other cultures
and religions
 Losses in personnel due to prejudices and
discrimination
 Complaints and also legal actions
 Eventually damaging morale and work
productivity

15. Perceptions How people perceive themselves but
how they perceive others.
Stereotyping Generalizations of the characteristics of a
group (often wrong- limited- misleading)
 Asians shrewd and reserved
 Americans arrogant and materialistic
 Central Americans disorganized and impractical
 These perceptions and stereotypes affect our interactions and
block cooperation


16. workplace is:
 Changing
 Evolving
 Diversifying

17.  Fostering of a wider talent pool
 Becoming an employer of choice
 Better morale
 Improved decision-making processes and capabilities

 Diversity is an invaluable competitive asset that Pakistan
cannot afford to ignore
 Managing and valuing diversity is a key component of
effective people management, which can improve workplace
productivity

18.  A company that employs a diverse workforce (men and women,
people of many generations, from ethnically and racially diverse
backgrounds etc.) is better able to:
 Understand the demographics of the marketplace it serves
 Thus better equipped to thrive in that marketplace
 than a company having limited range of employee demographics.
 A company that supports the diversity of its workforce can also
improve employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention.
 If workforce is diverse, but employer takes little or no advantage of
that breadth of experience, then
 it cannot Monetize benefits background diversity offers.

19.  Managing diversity is more than simply acknowledging
differences in people.

It involves recognizing

the value of differences,
 Combating discrimination
 Breaking down Stereotypes

20.  Prejudice
 Stereotyping
 Discrimination
 should never be used by management for hiring,
retention, and termination practices (could lead to costly
litigation).
 Manager should focus on Personal awareness.
 Both managers and associates need to be aware of

21.  Managers should expect change to be slow
 Promote a “safe” place for associates to
communicate
 Breeding regard and respect for religions, ethnicities
and races in training workshops
 Standard setting by the senior management

22.  Involve every employee possible in formulating and
executing diversity
 Foster openness in the organization to express ideas
and opinions
 Promote diversity in leadership positions
 Launch a customized employee satisfaction survey

23.  Assessment of workplace diversity to determine
 which challenges and obstacles are present and
 which policies need to be added or scrapped
 A comprehensive, measurable Policy and a Plan to
decide on a time line for effective change
 In implementation stage the commitment of the executive is
a must
 A diversity training maintain ongoing training -a one-day
session of training will not change people's behaviors /stereotypes
 Utilize training – to shape diversity policy

24. 
 A diverse workforce is a reflection of a changing world and
marketplace.

 Diverse work teams bring high value to organizations.

 Respecting individual differences benefit the workplace -

 by creating a competitive edge and increasing work
productivity.

 Diversity management creates a fair and safe environment
where everyone has access to opportunities and
challenges.

 Management tools should be used to educate everyone about

25.  What are the diversity issues
 How does diversity challenge you
 What are you willing to do to change

26. 
Thanks for your Time!