Managing Diversity

How to handling differences of background, culture, religion, nationality, sexual tendencies, etc. in an organization?

And was very illustrated the activity that my classmates did about a gay man that was going to a cocktail in the company he worked at, so the case went around if he should bring his partner and reveal his likes, or go alone to prevent problems with his conservative boss. After talking and giving our opinion, the point of consensus was that he should go with his couple. Is that opinion related to what we, young people are perceiving life in a more opened way?

The term "managing diversity" introducted by Kandola and Fullerton in the USA in 1987, has several aspects that shouldn't be forgotten in an organization.
Those are:

• Cost of implementing new strategies to integrate its personnel.
• Resource-Acquisition, when people identify that company because its non discrimination policies, and best reputation of managing diversity.
• Marketing argument, to it will be easier to sell themselves to other countries and regions because of their people sensivity.
• Creativity cause will be more perspectives, less attached to old norms and listen others experiences and ideas.
• Problem-Solving, people with different background may think dissimilar what would help in more solutions for something.
• System flexibility, less standardised and more comprehensive.

In summary, a well managed diversity will contribute a lot to an organization, existing more comprehension, acceptances, acculturation, in order to develop cross cultural capabilities, improve results and efficiency, avoiding conflict, more innovation and extra perceptions that will build a more precise view of what costumer need.

In Colombia, and I like to talk always about our country cause I think is necessary to analyze how this is been managed here, cultural organization is more focus for the market and costumer's benefit than for the same employees. Or in other cases as Compañía Nacional de Chocolates, to differentiate from other companies for their inside treatment, there salutation is a very important culture practice and helps for a more comfortable work environment aswell. But I think many times our regionalism do not let us to be more opened to others. For example, in the company where I did my internship, there was a guy from Czech Republic in the international area, and he wasn't understood all the time. He was quiet, calm and didn't talked to much, birthdays weren't a special date for him so he didn't celebrated it with others as we do so his mates talked that he was very apart and serious, and that he didn't like to go out for lunch with all of them, he just liked to be by himself. So that's when is important to read more about the other's culture to know if is not his culture but his personality. At the same time we can't stereotype Czechs just because we knew one.

Value Chain Activity

According to the activity of Managing diversity, here are our two activities proposed for Socio economic status and nationalism

Bibliography

• Organizations and cultures. III Managing diversity presentation. Maria Alejandra González Pérez.
• Hacia la construcción de un modelo de cultura organizacional orientada al mercado. Dagoberto Páramo Morales. Junio 2001. editorial.unab.edu.co/revistas/rcmarketing/pdfs/r22_art5_c.pdf. Accessed on February, 2009.
  

EXPLORING DIVERSITY ON CAMPUS

In order to understand better the concept of diversity, an activity was assigned so we could take some pictures around the university and analyze what do we think about diversity on campus.


This interesting activity and our experience through all these 5 years and a half, let us answer the following questions proposed by our teacher:

1. Describe your university’s faculty and administration in terms of its aspects of diversity and/or demographics.

Our university situated in Medellin, Colombia is suffering a kind of increasing 'movement' of foreign people, this is because of the improvement of security reasons, which have made the University to take this subject in consideration the last few years, which is related to culture, environment and social differences. When you're going to analyze how many abroad teachers does our University has, there are just a few. In the International business department, the chief of this area is, Sascha Fürst, comes from Germany giving some new international to this faculty, at the same, a new Austrian teacher has taken charge of one class in the emphasis of International Relations. This shows a certain kind of interest from the university to hire abroad teachers, in order to expand the student´s knowledge beyond national thoughts and believes that we hope will continue growing. But if you compare this with international universities we will realize that what is happening here is a very low percentage of abroad teachers. In other words, unless we don't have a specific investigation in this subject, the percentage of teachers in our university from local cities of the country is bigger than the percentage of international teachers. Teachers from the Caribbean coast, Cali, Bogotá among others are some examples of this. These mean differences of customs, attitudes toward life, values, social and even physical variations. But at the end, those teachers have their own way to teach their classes and share knowledge independently, without taken in consideration the country, their values and customs.

2. Describe your university’s student body in terms of its aspects of diversity and/or demographics.

Something a little bit different is happening with the student body due to the agreements that EAFIT has with many universities around the world. The agreements give the opportunity to foreign people to come here to Medellin and study one semester or one year of their careers and knowing the Colombian culture and people, as an exchange opportunity. The university is committed to being "OPEN TO THE WORLD", so there are huge efforts been made not only to send Colombian students to other countries but also bringing students of diverse countries around the world. Today, EAFIT University has students from different nationalities among them French, Sweden, United States, Denmark, Japan, England, Australia, Korea, Germany and The Netherlands. This occurs especially in the International Business Department, in which the students have more subjects in common with programs of all the world, also the language helps a lot for them because they choose seeing subjects in English and is a career in which students and teachers have a big facility and knowledge about the other cultures because of the field of studies. In terms of regional diversity, the student body its very diverse, EAFIT have a high percentage of people of all the regions of Colombia, Caribbean coast, Bogotá, Coffee Region, Santander, among others, that gives the University a very important and rich cultural environment where students learn to understand other people and be more open minded. This high diversity of nationalities allows students to think out of the box, to go belong the traditional, to go far away from what they are used to and these reflects on people more prepared to the world and more creative to solutions.

3. What are the similarities and differences between the two groups?

When you apply as an EAFIT student to an abroad university you're competting with a lot people who also wants to study there, but for a foreign student applying to our university may be easier cause there's not a bunch of people trying hard to come here (as we said before this indicator is increasing but slowly)
An other difference is the language barrier for a foreign employee or student, not all the people hired in EAFIT speaks 2 languages, making it more difficult to have a multicultural work team. For students it’s also difficult to study in Colombia because there are several classes that are in Spanish and many teachers don’t speak other language as well. The legal procedures for foreign to study in Colombia makes it impossible for some to come to EAFIT, issue that makes EAFIT not so open to the world, due to the Colombian policies.

A main similarity between both groups is how in the professional or student atmosphere it’s an intention to be nice and helpful to foreign, attitude that makes it easy for them to stay for longer periods, even for life time in Medellin and EAFIT. Some times EAFIT tends to hire foreign people because they think all foreign people are good professionals, and the truth is that as students sometimes we find it’s the opposite. Foreign students tend to have a nice time in EAFIT, the experience are making other want to come and maybe in some years we can say we are really open to the world and the world is open toward us.

4. How does the degree of diversity in the faculty affect your learning experience?

Well, that affect our learning experiences in many ways, and of us as being International managers enriches our point of view of the different kinds of culture and nationalities that will be very useful in a future negotiation, journey, or just for general culture that make us world citizens.
In the other hand, talking about social diversity if university could receive more students of lower economic status, will enrich our lives in so many ways beginning from the issue that we all are different, not the same money, not the same house, transportation, or even family. I personally think this will be so helpful for EAFIT students, we, the one that are judge from other local unviersities that think we all are rich and only go to show us to others. A very popular perception of EAFIT students that should be cutted. So, this fact of sharing with other people will affect in a positive way to be more persons than profesionals.

5. How does the degree of diversity in the student body affect the classroom experience, and extracurricular activities? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

We believe that diversity in EAFIT affects us in a positive way, since people from different cultures could give us a broader vision of the world by showing us characteristics of their cultures, customs, and behaviors. This could be taken as an advantage, because we as International Managers should be open to know and learn about people who come from different sides of our country of from abroad. At the same time having foreigners will enrich teacher's view so they can realize if what they are saying stills the same or if is changing.

We actually don't think that we could find disadvantages on this issue. The only fact we could think of, is that sometimes diversity could cause isolation from certain groups because of the impact of entering a new culture, but this eventually could change in the course of the semester.

6. What could be done in terms of diversity to enrich your college experience?

To enrich our college experience it would be interesting:

• To have more diverse people in the campus, because we can learn in such environment about others behaviors, beliefs and values which help us to be better prepared to become active participants in our society once we leave the college.
• Also we think that EAFIT should have more classes that give the students (not only International Business students) the opportunity to learn more about other cultures, because it’s important to be “Open minded” and accept all the differences between the people and cultures.
• Sending the teachers to countries that have a very different culture, that they study, live and have a common life there, it would be very interesting to learn about a country when the teacher really knows it and not only because he read about it.
• Giving more scholarships to the people that want to study in EAFIT, even when we talk about medellín, we don't have to go that far, to other countries to think in scolarships to increase the diversity. Widening the range of people that could have that access based in some restrictions but that could let in more students.
  

Exploring Diversity

Accepting differences between persons in cultural, social, physical and environmental ways, among others, will help us to build a more accurate perception of someone by the
time we learn more about others without judging just because sometime we heard something about nationals from one country, ethnic group, etc. that contributes to stereotype others, which is not good at all, is relative.
That's why is important to learn about diversity, just in a way that makes all of us different, not alike identities, shown even on animals and plants, look just the classification of those systems by kingdom and by what they eat (carnivorous, herbivorous...) We can find differences as things exist in this world. But for the same reason, and because each day is easier to share with people of other regions, and countries is important to open our mind and accept others, starting by motivational interest informing about other cultures, minorities, rights, and what still consider discrimination, and then read about how they behave, and at the end give the importance of know them by the experience knowing the differences but appreciating and integrating with them.

When people do not achieve getting to that ideal point, is when racism occur. According to the definition of racism that the UNESCO gives, racism is recognized when some ethnic group is considered as inferior comparing other, and is entitled to be eliminated for that reason. Something that has no scientific foundation and is contrary to the moral and ethical principles of humanity. Exist racism in different types, such as cultural racism, personal racism and institutional racism all based in attacks, exclusion, and inequitable outcomes to minorities.
And at the same time exists some theories that helps to understand diversity from different views, one of them is evaluate some insight into its cultural underpinning, where do those groups belong, how they behave and act according to that; but is very important not to forget that culture is not a stable factor and that people should avoid all cultural judgments that I began talking about, e. g. stereotyping cause we are all surrounded by different influences (individual, family, community, culture, and global influences) that makes each one unique and not a predicable mass full of equal characteristics, as dimensions do.


In which way we can see how discrimination has been decreasing in Colombia?

I specially wanted to focus on the discrimination of gay people, a matter that about 10 years ago was almost considered as a crime the fact to have homosexual tendencies, were persecuted and killed. Murdered just because liked others from the same gender, circumstance that at the same time wasn't as sorprising (cause when people didn't have the same way of thinking the better way to shut someone up was killing, as conservatives an liberals) in a country as Colombia, the same one that in its Constitution of 1991, declared pluralism and protection in order to enjoy the same rights, freedoms and opportunities, without discrimination because of race, sex, nationality, religion, political tendencies, philosophy, language, or group.
This fact wasn't respected as all politicians thought, but now days as Marcela Sánchez, ONG Colombia Diversa's director this fact has turned to a more positive way, starting by the recognition of their rights as a couple, the only thing left to be accepted is the right of getting married and the adoption. There are more gay bars, and are not a mystery anymore, people are accepting them easier with this generation, and "will get better with the next ones", someone interviewed in El Tiempo news says.
Is evident the improvement about accepting gays, but still persons that are not agree with those kind of tendencies, but at least Colombians are more open to change their conservative minds and at the same time offer them more tranquility and respect them as a part of this country too, like normal people with other likes, as vegetarians don't like meat.

Bibliography

• All different, all equal. Diversity-Human Rights-Participation. 2006. http://alldifferent-allequal.info/files/diversity-732741.gif.jpg. Accessed on February, 2009.
• Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Poetry Ireland Competition. 2007. http://www.equalityni.org/sections/default.asp?cms=News_Campaigns+Archive_Intercultural%2FAR+Week+2007_Poetry+Competition+Background&cmsid=1_109_41_57&id=57&secid=1. Accessed on February, 2009
• Periódico El Tiempo. Gays y lesbianas de esta generación enfrentan su sexualidad de una manera más abierta y temprana. 2009. http://www.eltiempo.com/domingoadomingo_eltiempo/ARTICULO-PRINTER_FRIENDLY-PLANTILLA_PRINTER_FRIENDL-4831442.html. Accessed on february 2009.
  

National and organizational culture

The first group presentation of the course was about the differences between national culture and organizational culture, beginning from the definition of each one of them, and other similar.

First of all, was necessary to define the term culture. Monica Arango and Sara Saldarriaga brought one from Alfred Louis and Clyde Kluckholn that in summery talked about behaviors attached to values, symbols and traditional ideas of a group of persons. Once culture was defined, we went through some meanings around national and organizational culture, the reason was to reach the point that let us ask ourselves which is the difference between them and how culture affects an organization.
That's why is important to know that the organizational culture is a collection of norms, believes and practices of the people that integrates that company, composed by nationals culture and the corporation culture. Important issue to be taken into account by headquarters managers to avoid any discrimination situation, including some values of the national culture but establishing a particular culture that differentiates its organization from others in the industry.

According to this presentation, culture accomplish some functions within an organization:

1. Provides a sense of identity to members and increases their commitment to the organization.
2. Is a sense-making device for organization members.
3. Reinforces the values in the organization.
4. Serves as a control mechanism for shaping behavior.
   

But exists a discussion about if corporate culture is reaching towards its end, some arguments are that some enterprises as Apple Inc. has a stronger project culture than the organizational, because they work in team they know better their mates and understand closer their differences of values, etc. The same happens with the subculture's cultures, such as engineering culture, finance's, where procedures and the way to develop their work are include too.

Each group creates its own culture, imposed but nobody just them. That's the result of all those subcultures they talked about, they find the way to do their work in a more effective way. But at the same time I think, those differences bring not only problems in the right function of the company, but there are some advantages because of the diversity, such as:

• More different ideas
• Innovation, they come from different backgrounds that could boost the managing tendencies, technology, among others.
• Helps to the adaptability issue, and decrease the uncertainty avoidance index
• More differentiation
  

And there should be some programs as the article of The business case for commitment to diversity propose. Such as, training programs directed at communications, conflict resolution, and team building. Meanwhile they learn more about others without judging and stereotyping their nationalities.

Bibliography

• Diversity Roundtable of Central Indiana, http://www.drtci.org/. (February. 2009)
• Millman, Gregory J. . 2007. "Corporate Culture: more myth than reality? ." The Free Library 23:44-47. Millman, Gregory J. (2007, July 1).
  
• Nelson, Debra; Quick Campbell James.1994. Organizational Behavior. West. Page: 494.
• The business case for commitment to diversity. By: Slater, Stanley F.; Weigand, Robert A.; Zwirlein, Thomas J.. Business Horizons, May2008, Vol. 51 Issue 3, p201-209, 9p; DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2008.01.003; (AN 31754609)