Costs and Benefits of a Diverse Workforce to Organisations and Its Members

Costs and benefits of a diverse workforce to organisations and its members

In the 21st century's age of globalisation and with its new innovative ways of thinking, it seems only logical to assume that a diverse workforce would be sought after by many organisations. Such diversity can add a range of abilities and specialisations to an organisation: a competitive advantage, greater performance, multiple perspectives and a more open-minded approach to people who are usually governed by stereotypes. As with any other concept, however, this diversity could also negatively affect an organisation by creating conflicts in personality or culture, miscommunication, misunderstanding and the alienation of minorities. Whilst diversity in an organisation is developed and, most certainly, affected by personality, perception and stereotyping, one could question whether the benefits of a diverse workforce outweigh the drawbacks and, if so, how this harmonises the entity as a whole.

A point in which diversity is strongly identifiable is in an individual’s personality. Personality is defined as “the psychological qualities that influence an individual’s characteristic behaviour patterns, in a stable and distinctive manner” (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013, p. 186). It is stressed that although each individual has their own distinctive personality, psychologists have developed theories that allow us to categorise someone’s personality based on specific traits. Paul T. Costa and Robert McCrae developed one of these theories, called ‘the big five’. In this theory, trait clusters are used to identify the degree to which an individual presents five main personality dimensions, for each of which, certain trait clusters exhibit varying amounts of usefulness for certain jobs. For example, on the positive end of the continuum for openness lies the ‘Explorer’ category, which contains traits that would benefit an entrepreneur, whereas on the opposite end, the ‘Preserver’ traits would aid financial managers (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013). One can deduce from this, the significance of having a diverse workforce in terms of an employee’s personality; such diversity allows for a workforce in which each employee can specialise in an area and reach their full potential in terms of performance, which, in turn, strongly benefits the organisation as a whole. 

This argument is reinforced in Belbin’s study of diversity in teams, in which he identified nine complementary team roles that were a necessity for the members of a group to possess in order for the team to achieve success. According to Belbin, “team members with complementary roles are ‘richer’ and more successful” (Have, Have, Stevens, Elst, & Pol-Coyne, 2003, p. 18). A further requisite was a balance in these team roles, in that there was an equal spread of each within the group. On the other hand, if there were many members who possessed the same role, this could hold the team back. (Have et al., 2003). Thus, diversity gives teams an essential competitive advantage which allows for a team’s success in achieving its goals and which, in turn, positively affects the performance of the organisation when taken as a whole. 

However, there are also drawbacks in the existence of a diverse range of personalities in an organisation. Personality clashes could arise, and instead of fostering production and performance, they could engender a negative working environment that would potentially decrease the motivation and ability of others. It is considerably easier to work with someone who has a similar way of thinking to your own, as opposed to someone who has completely different values and opinions. Disagreement can hinder decisions from being made and production from going on, which may then result in potential financial loss to the organisation.

Regarding perception, which is described as “the dynamic psychological process responsible for attending to, organising, and interpreting sensory data” (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013, p. 258), it is highlighted that every person has an alternate way of perceiving data, which is influenced by a number of factors, such as past experiences, the needs and interests of the person at the moment, as well as the environment they grew up in, to name a few. The authors emphasise that the unique way in which an individual perceives data is a dynamic process, and relies heavily on selective attention. This, in turn, is constrained by boundaries on the stimuli we are or are not able to detect, and forms what Buchanan and Huczynski call the ‘perceptual threshold’. Habituation causes us to disregard certain things that could potentially be of great importance. We are taught to perceive things in a certain way, which restrains us from thinking ‘outside the box’. The benefit of having a diverse workforce is that it allows people with different perceptions to add their own insight to a topic, resulting in the creations of multiple perspectives. These could facilitate the tackling of an issue which a company might face, or possibly aid in the generation of ideas in a new marketing campaign, for example. Nonetheless, a variety in the range of perceptions in an organisation could also potentially lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding.