Executive Summary

Diversity varies from categories like age, gender, religion and so many more. The matter is crucial for companies because diversity brings several benefits to an organization. Diversity helps the company improve within globalization and innovation along with aiding employees. This trending topic is important because it has the potential to help a business tremendously but there are also a few people that see diversity in the workplace causing a disturbance. In addition, diversity also brings more mutual respect between employees, aids in conflict resolution and increases job promotion. Nevertheless, the positive side to diversity brings the opportunity to engage in diverse markets.

 

Introduction:

Project management is defined as, “the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.” Diversity in relation to project management could help aid in their practices and promote respect among employees. Along with providing value to the business and company. A project alone requires a project management team with a unique combination of stakeholders. Having a diverse project management team includes several individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and personalities. When incorporating diversity into a workplace, individuals see more of an increase in productivity, creativity, profits and the company as a whole sees improvement in their reputation overall. It is statistically proven that, “48 percent of companies in the US with more diversity at senior management level improved their market share” (Clarke, 2019). Respect in the workplace is crucial, and diversity helps colleagues appreciate and respect each other’s work and realize the talents that each person brings to the workplace. Maureen Wild is an expert on diversity and had once stated, “When employees respect each other and get along in the workplace, it’s amazing how productivity increases, morale increases and employees are more courteous to customers.”

Project Management:

Most companies are composed of projects, which are temporary products or services that have a set beginning and ending. Project management is a combination of administrative and leadership tasks, including functions like planning, documenting and controlling different duties along with visioning, motivating and promoting different projects. A diversified group of people are able to assess all of those functions in a variety of different ways to solve problems and come up with better solutions. Employing a variety of people will help reach the diverse markets because they will have a better understanding of all the different customers. This will also reduce employee turnover, because employees will feel more valued at their job knowing they each bring their own uniqueness to the company. Every project will need to comprise of a project team in order to accomplish all of the tasks involved. While acquiring the project team some members and subject matter experts are added after certain steps. These individuals are clear examples of diversity because they all think and act differently. The employees that are subject matter experts will have a different understanding and viewpoint on the project itself. Project managers also expect team members to develop a plan for their own personal improvement. By creating diversified teams, employees will improve their work performance by learning from others through new ideas. Improving communication methods in a will allow people to share information more freely. Allowing to  make it easier to problem solve since there are more people included.

 

Diversified Individuals in the Workplace:

Some of the characteristics that each individual should have as their own personal values should include a high need for achievement, understanding and accepting responsibility, putting project needs first and personal commitment to the project. All of these values can be greatly impacted and improved upon when surrounded by a group of diverse coworkers. When combining an individual’s personal values and diversity they will be able to create exceptional team behaviors to strive in the business. A few of the teamwork methods that would result out of the combination includes the right skill mix, the ability to help each other, focus on improvement and most importantly continue striving for innovation. Individuals that are put into teams will want to share and use lessons they previously learned in order to be able to teach fellow employees.

Authority and responsibility are critical for projects to be completed. Leaders in project management tend to feel constant pressure to innovate their products. Working in a diverse setting will aid in the success of motivating and empowering employees to create new and improved services. Companies operate and succeed better because of the various experiences and knowledge that each employee has. Part of the reason could be because communication, leadership and conflict resolution are all soft skills that make up a project. Usually, there is one person assigned accountability and with strong communication skills they persuade their coworkers. Correlating this with cultural diversity will increase creativity and productivity in teams. Every project consists of common end goals, production and quality. Having a group of employees that mutually respect one another will help improve and increase the speed towards the end goal. There is also less conflict in a diversified workforce, again because everyone mutually respects each other and values what each person brings to the table. In addition, companies that use diversity intelligence have more understanding and acceptance towards each other. Employees like to feel comfortable at work and having the safe space will promote and improve their work effort. From a Human Resource perspective, this also lowers the risk of complaints from employees.

 

Diversity in Project Management:

All projects have essential requirements including project specifications, understanding work that is involved, budget and schedule determinations. Realizing what deliverables are needed to complete the project are a critical part to any project. All of these require teamwork that could be completed easily with diversified groups. Teamwork assess an organization’s ability to perform projects. One way to test out a projects success and failure is by seeing the new information that was taught. For example, in a diverse setting learning new and refined skills could be taught from employee to an employee. Projects tend to fail due to insufficient resources, unclear expectations, inadequate project planning and disagreements between stakeholders on their expectations. Although, with diversity included into this project there could be less of a chance of failure because there will be more people working on gaining more resources, figuring out expectations that are required, and more ideas discussed on how to plan more accordingly. In addition, the use of diversity will help aid knowledge in areas like knowing when to use certain techniques in project management, and how much detail should be used and how to tailor these techniques to the needs of the specific project at hand. Especially, when working on large projects since those require more detailed planning and control. Again, due to more respect in diversified groups there may be less disagreements and more compromises that are made.

In addition, a business reputation could be greatly impacted by diversity. “Business reputations flourish when companies demonstrate their commitment to diversity through aggressive outreach and recruiting efforts” (Mayhew, 2019). Organizations strive to better their ethics and employment which could be better justified by a larger variety of employees. Having a larger variety of employees does better the ethics of the business. Relating to that, job promotion also is increased because people want to work in an office that is accepting to all and they value the importance that each individual brings. In addition, it will also increase an individual’s desire to remain with the organization. Not to mention, when working at a company that is based internationally having cultural diversity will help tremendously and will aid in cultural insights. It is almost unsustainable to be effective in a diverse marketplace without having diverse employees. It could range from knowing diverse languages to just understanding more of the culture in that specific marketplace. Allowing employees to gain exposure to different cultures and backgrounds acquired from their coworkers. It will also allow to get more in touch with foreign markets and countries. Working internationally not only helps project managers but individuals as a whole by improving and allowing more opportunity for promotion along with development.

The Human Resource department has a critical role of hiring the most qualified candidates for the role. This topic is of interest to me because the field of  Human Resource’s is a career that interests me. In my future this will be a  key component of my job. Especially, when it comes to the process of hiring new employees. It is statistically proven in organizations that have a diversified work team tend to have better end results on team projects. In addition, everyone brings their own unique ideas and beliefs.

 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, there are a plethora of positives and negatives to having diversity in a company and how the company will be affected altogether.  Although, the positives almost nearly always outweigh the negatives. Diversity brings profit, improvement and development not only to individuals but to companies and organizations as a whole. Having diversified individuals will make the steps of planning and executing specific goals and criteria easier. The impact of diversity in a workplace will always aid a business due to the fact that trends and technology are always innovating. Therefore, individuals with diversified backgrounds can make significant contributions to an organization’s relevancy in the business world. Diversity is everywhere around us including race, religion, gender and so many other factors. It is a key tool that will help bring success into an organization by motivating and empowering individuals at work. All the key factors included in project management could be better improved with the incorporation of diversity.

Biography

Michelle Burman is currently studying Business Administration with a concentration in Management. She recently  joined and became the secretary of the SHRM Chapter on campus for the following semester. She does a lot of volunteer work and community service. She recently accepted an internship for the summer as an HR Intern at the Movado Group. She is very excited to see where it takes her and what will she be able to learn from it. Her current goals are to be able to gain more experience in the field of HR and hopefully land a full time HR position after graduation.

 

Works Cited:

Collins, J. (2014, June 5). The Benefits of Having a Diverse Project Management Team.

Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://www.ims-web.com/blog/the-benefits-of-having-a-diverse-project-management-team

 

Mayhew, R. (2019, February 12). Why Is Diversity in the Workplace Important to Employees?

Retrieved April 14, 2019, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversity-workplace-important-employees-10812.html

 

Obikunle, O. (2002). Dealing with cultural diversity in project management: a dilemma in

communication. Paper presented at Project Management Institute Annual Seminars &

Symposium, San Antonio, TX. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

 

8 Amazing Benefits of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. (2019, January 22). Retrieved April

14, 2019, from https://inside.6q.io/benefits-of-cultural-diversity-in-the-workplace/