Leadership involves the act of managing people by inspiring them to achieve specific objectives. In the global cooperate industry, employees are free to work anywhere in the world despite their cultural and ethnic differences. As a result, diversity in the workplace is a matter of significance. Presently, people live in a world where employees are important in the workplace due to the level of their contribution and not their ethnic or value differences. At least, this is a prevailing theory. However, the fact on the ground may not communicate the same. Managing diversity in a workplace is not a walk in the park. Many employees still complain of injustices as a result of value differences ( Prause & Mujtaba, 2015). This is a definite clue that a good number of leaders still lack the necessary skills to manage a diverse workforce. Diversity leadership addresses the strategies leaders at all ranks in an organization use to shape the impact of diversity on their power. The forces of diversity come about when employees categorize themselves into groups that are defined by their identities in a manner that affects how they work, communicate, and relate at the workplace. Diversity leadership skills are thus, necessary to break these forces and bring cohesion among diverse workforce to achieve a specific goal.
Leaders can use different practical methods to manage a diverse workforce. First, instilling a sense of identity that relates to an organization mission is a practical method towards managing diversity at the workplace. This is a strategy that involves creating a mission that implicates diverse culture in an organization. The strategy can help a diversity leader to come up with groups that identify themselves with relevant social categories that surpass the boundaries of irrelevant and culture-oriented groups ( Calk & Patrick, 2017). Leaders can come up with different tools to achieve this idea. For instance, they can emphasize and also reward teamwork at a different level. The diversity leaders can further facilitate and encourage understanding between different groups by aiding people to see the importance of one another in the organization. Lastly, they can use a diversity lens to sponsor and support inclusive events that focus workers on collective identity.
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Managing workgroup processes is the second practical method a diversity leader can use to manage people of different values at the workplace. The designing of workgroup processes in an organization aims at managing human interactions. As a result, organizing a workgroup process that depicts a specific social identity, for instance, age, occupation or demographics creates hindrance to workers and thus, prevents them from achieving their full potential. First, such leaders must manage conflict. This includes managing diversity conflicts proactively and instituting fair disciplinary actions ( Prause & Mujtaba, 2015). Secondly, they need to evaluate group processes and also facilitate brainstorming. Further, they should learn from diversity which includes creating an opportunity for interaction among workers, generate leaning discussions and also delegating responsibilities to different groups of people.
Another practical method is facilitating effective communication in the workplace. Strong and effective communication is critical in facilitating diversity and managing people of different values in the workplace ( Calk & Patrick, 2017). This includes facilitating free communication between workgroup, opening channels for feedbacks, sharing information with workers when necessary, turning the information in meaning strategies that are important to an organization. The last practical method is motivating workers as per the organization and group missions. This includes empowering of subordinates and avoiding micromanagement. Others include mentoring workers, demonstrating competency in the workplace and modeling strong individual engagement ( Prause & Mujtaba, 2015).
In an art shell, diversity leadership is critical in the present world where outsourcing and globalization is a priority. As a result, diversity leaders need to learn, understand, and put into practice different methods and skills necessary for managing individuals with different values in a workplace for a positive organization performance.
References
Calk, R., & Patrick, A. (2017). Millennials through the looking glass: Workplace motivating factors. The Journal of Business Inquiry , 16 (2), 131-139.
Prause, D., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2015). Conflict management practices for diverse workplaces. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly , 6 (3), 13.
