Global Diversity Development
Background
As companies globalize to take advantage of emerging markets and the newly freed movement of capital and labor, new issues emerge. One of the most prominent is the global workforce itself. In many companies, groups of technicians, scientists, financial analysts and other professionals are comprised of people whose national origins are different from the country in which they work, and in which the local workforce itself may be diverse. They are employed by companies because of their professional training and skills, but often cultural differences begin to arise which may threaten the very advantages of diversity.
While diversity is not new in the US, global diversity presents unique challenges and opportunities. In the US diversity is a legal issue focused to protect the rights or the workers of protected classes. Diversity is defined by gender, age, sexual orientation, race or ethnic background and so on. Global diversity means something different - larger and much more complex.
Stages of Global Diversity
While many companies follow the rules regarding US diversity training in programs such as Sexual Harassment Prevention, they may only be at stages 1 and 2 of global diversity development. This is often because they neglect to look at the broader issues present in a global economy.
The five stages of developing global diversity within an organization include:
Stage 1 - There is an awareness of cultural diversity - and often that awareness relates to the negative impact on productivity, but not the opportunities and possibilities of attending to the needs of the global market.
Stage 2 - The company includes diversity as a corporate value
Stage 3 - The company has policies and practices to help employees and managers achieve the intent of that diversity value. Often these policies and practices includes tracking employees by natural cultural groups in such areas as percent of employee population, percent by level, percent hired or recruited/interviewed, percent turnover by group, and so on. It also often includes training on cultural differences usually focused where issues are painfully obvious (increasing turnover of a particular population).
Stage 4 - Diversity is integrated into the business. Tactics are in place in marketing, customer and supply chain management, product development, etc. to insure products and work practices are focused on the needs of the global marketplace.
Stage 5 - The company has internalized diversity and sees it as a business imperative approaching diverse markets and serving diverse customer needs.
Global Workforce Training and Development
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