By Dr. Ronald A. Nykiel, CHA, CHE
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
World Institute Associates
Conrad N. Hilton Distinguished
Chair, University of Houston, Houston, TX
1997
Our customers are now as varied as the flows of global traffic. Their needs, wants, and the languages in which they express themselves are also diverse. We must understand our customers if we are to provide them with a quality service experience. Enhancing the quality of our product and service offerings begins with the links to diversity. These links include: an employee mix as diverse as our customers; an appreciation of different cultural perspectives and beliefs; an ability to accommodate the varying needs and tastes of people from different origins; and the need to train management and staff to understand and relate to a broad customer base. All this simply means is embracing diversity.
There are numerous reasons to embrace diversity. Certainly it is the right thing to do and will strengthen a company’s collective experience (Walsh, 1995). This experience can be viewed from both the perspective of the internal customer perspective (employees), as well as by the external customer.
With respect to employees, diversity brings with it different perspectives. The greater the difference between people, the broader their perspective. Likewise, the greater the number of these differences, the stronger the team and the greater the resources for problem resolution (Chappell, 1993). Strong teams attract the best new employees while improving the desirability of their workplace. Therefore, in order to better understand and meet your customers needs, a diverse group of employees is an asset to develop. At the same time, your employees will help to enrich your understanding of the pulse of the marketplace.
Corporations that want to be players in the global marketplace will need to have diverse sources of talent and information to effectively and efficiently have the upper hand (Stephenson & Kiebs, 1993). This is especially applicable to those in the services industry. When it comes to communicating with the customer no one is more important than your “point of encounter” employees (Nykiel, 1992). The more your employees and customers can relate to each other at a “point-of-encounter”, the more likely you are able to meet your customer’s needs. Relating requires much more than a common language--it also requires a respect for different cultures and perspectives. The more you are in tune with your customer, the more likely you will be able to meet their needs while providing a quality service experience. Remember, regardless of what we think, quality is what the customer perceives (Nykiel, 1992).
Not only are there internal benefits to embracing diversity, there are numerous external rationale. In recent years there has been a record number of corporate mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures frequently involving new ownership or partners from different countries and cultures. At the same time, there have been record levels of personal travel between international destinations. In essence, both the corporate and individual customer base is increasingly multinational. Simply stated, political ideologies and traditional trade and travel barriers are no longer insurmountable hurdles for reaching today’s market. And as a result, a corporations’ perspective needs to be as varied as the products, services, and markets they serve (Nykiel, 1997). Embracing diversity will improve the quality and receptivity of your product/service offering and ultimately your bottomline. Likewise, it will enhance relationships with investors, shareholders, and the public.
There are other quantifiable benefits from achieving diversity, such as avoiding potentially costly lawsuits, reduced absenteeism and reduced turnover (Walsh, 1995). Addressing diversity as a recruitment objective makes good business sense. After all, it will improve the desirability of your workplace, and will help you continue to attract new employees while retaining your best existing employees.
Embracing diversity for some may involve choosing change over comfort. People are often reluctant to part from the “known” and go forward with the new or “untested” (Loden, 1986). It is management’s obligation to provide leadership that results in performance. The link to enhanced performance and quality through diversity in a global marketplace is undeniable. It has been stated that diversity is to the 1990’s what quality was to the 1970’s (Walsh, 1995). In reality, they are not separate issues but rather are inter-linked concepts.
Achieving quality through diversity requires business practices that produce measurable results. Such practices need to incorporate an on-going cultural knowledge acquisition process and skills training. Essential are: targeting all employees to participate in such training; allocating or re-allocating resources; providing information to assist in the process; and adopting a top-down/bottom-up leadership influence as a supportive measure. In addition, establishing incentives and accountability measurements to support these and other initiatives are necessary (American Express Financial Advisors, 1993). Diversity must be more than a statement of goodwill, it must be an incorporated business goal. As such, it should receive the same attention as other plan goals, including funding on a priority basis, measurable objectives, timetables, and expected results.
Communicating the diversity objective requires more than an annual memorandum. Just like any other plan objective, delivery and achievement should be rewarded and tied into the normal organizational incentives, promotion, and advancement programs. The overriding principle is inclusion, involvement, and the complete integration of diversity into the organization’s plan, its philosophy, and its people (American Express Financial Advisors, 1993).
Enhancing quality through diversity requires total organizational involvement.
Like any quality endeavor, the concept of continuous and on-going improvement
must be an ingrained practice for diversity to truly be part of your organizational
culture. Awareness, issues identification, and corrective measures
are all part of the active process of managing for diversity, just as they
are part of the continuous quality improvement process. Reallocation
of resources, both financial and human, tied to your diversity objective,
takes these nicely phrased plan words and puts them into action steps that
are supported like any other plan objective. And, like other plan
action steps, there should be clearly stated expected results and measurements
connected to diversity objectives.
Practicing diversity in the workplace means more than adherence
to the Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
We must recognize that in today’s marketplace and place of employment,
awareness of differences in people, their beliefs, habits, and behavior
is essential. Ethnocentrism has no place in today’s diverse multi-national
marketplace or in your workforce. Embracing diversity does not allow
for the presumption that one’s own cultural use and habits are superior.
There are numerous benefits to be derived from diversity. Marketplace reality suggests that a customer is more likely to buy from someone with whom he or she more readily identifies than from someone with whom he or she has no affiliation. Further, a company with sensitivity to diversity will reap additional benefits in the form of reduced cost. Employees that enjoy dealing with customers are more likely to enjoy their jobs and the net result will be reduced levels of turnover, recruiting and training. Further, people who enjoy their jobs are usually more productive. Research has also shown that greater levels of creativity and innovation come from more diverse groups of people (Woods, 1996).
Diversity, quality customer service, and employee satisfaction are truly inter-linked. As in any service encounter, achieving success is often related to the very first exposure a consumer has to your product/service offering. This is the moment in which expectations are established and consumers perceptions are formed. If the verdict is positive, the consumer becomes your customer. An organization that embraces and practices diversity will attract the global consumer. Those who lack the commitment, do not demonstrate the practices, or whose employees send the wrong signals to their customer will be those that are avoided (Nykiel, 1997).
In summary, embracing diversity:
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