Even misunderstandings cost money. The Canadian province of British Columbia lost a 3 billion dollar high-tech project that would have created over 3,000 jobs because the prospective Asian investors chose California, citing newspaper accounts of racism in British Columbia as the reason for their choice.
The positive rewards of diversity are not limited to those areas attempting to attract foreign investment or to those companies who engage in global pursuits. Even organizations that remain domestic in nature benefit from diversity.
The benefit of employing a diverse workforce in the tourist/hospitality industry is obvious. For example, foreign tourists often require guides who speak their language; senior citizens may enjoy having other senior citizens for tour guides, and so forth. Healthcare organizations also benefit from diversity. Understanding patients who speak another language is a necessity. Other vital health-care concerns may involve cultural practices. Having someone on staff who understands these practices may be vital in caring for a patient. For example, in the southern United States it is not uncommon to find pregnant rural women eating laundry starch for its' supposed "good effects". In reality, this practice may cause anemia and endanger both the unborn child, as well as, the mother. Without the presence of a culturally aware staff person, this practice may not even be suspected by people who are not familiar with local culture.
Diversity also brings other rewards. It expands an organization's horizons and allows the organization-increased opportunities. Some of these opportunities may be quite unexpected. The case of the Chinese lady who worked as a chemist at Torinno Food Company provides a good example of this type of situation. She was a member of a product development group who was trying to solve a flavoring problem associated with the development of a new soup. Following a number of scientific attempts to solve this dilemma, the lady broke all the rules of her white, male-dominated group by simply going to the kitchen and utilizing her knowledge of Chinese cooking to solve the problem.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Diversity is a Positive Challenge 2
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