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Postscript
Diversity is important because, thank the good Lord, people are all
different. At the very basic level, each individual has different
genetics and different scripting from differing life experiences. In
managing this diversity to achieve cohesive organizational purpose,
we need to respect differences, yet make those differences work
together through a deeply shared set of organizational values.
This all harks back to the eternal equation:
Freedom + Order = Justice (Purpose)
Leadership means the determination and
application of the right number of degrees of freedom and the
correct amount of order. Freedom cannot mean permissiveness; order
cannot come down to autocratic dictatorship. Managing the diversity
within humanity requires sufficient freedom for active, innovative
behavior while simultaneously providing the proper amount of
direction and control that ensures cohesive, cooperative, purposeful
action.
Quite simply, that is the real challenge of the diversity issue.
The Workforce of 2001
The USA, a true melting pot over the centuries, is at the high end
of the diversity continuum. In my judgement the USA made diversity a
competitive weapon by wisely managing the issue up to World War I.
Apprenticeship training, using the stream of immigration as a
renewal factor, built-in work ethics, management styles, geo-eco-nomic
growth, generally smooth integration of newcomers, and a host of
other factors worked to soften many negatives that could easily have
arisen from the influx of such significant diversity of cultures in
addition to the usual differences among people.
Many of those factors are just no longer in place. And on top of
this, the diversity issue is being exacerbated by an exploding
change in the workforce composition. Consider the following picture
of the U.S. workforce in the year 2001 as outlined in recent
research for GE's Management Development Institute:
• The white male workforce will be decreasingly
significantly:
— 9 percent of the job increase over the next 10 years will be
filled by white males
— the rest will be filled by women, blacks, hispanics,
Asian-Americans and immigrants
• Nonwhites will represent 16 percent of the workforce by 2001, up
from 13 percent in 1985—this represents 25 million additional
working minority individuals:
— the black labor force is expected to grow nearly twice as fast as
the white workforce
— the number of hispanic workers could increase at more than four
times the pace of whites
• Feminization of our workforce is also expected
to continue:
— between now and 2001, women will represent three-fifths of new job
entrants compared to 40 percent in 1980)
— forces underlying women's entry into the labor force (pursuit of
higher
— educational opportunities, low fertility, careers and late
marriages) will continue with no significant modification
— today, 56 percent of workforce are partners of dual working
couples—by the year 2001, the figure will be about 65 to 70 percent
• As the baby boom generation ages, middle-aged
workers will significantly increase, thus graying the workforce; an
increase in workers aged 35-54 from 38 percent of the total
workforce in 1985 to 51 percent in 2001 (almost 28 million
additional middle-aged workers)
• Fewer younger workers will be available because of lower
birthrates in the past 20 years
• The need to find new sources of workers will result in a dramatic
surge of the disabled into the workforce
• Another scenario may involve either an outright increase in
immigration or the importation of so-called guest workers, or both
to fill the expected void
The conclusion is self-evident: diversity of our
people is growing and at the same instance changing dramatically.
The lesson is similarly clear—we need to do a better job by orders
of magnitude in managing the growing challenge of these
demographics.
To be Continued
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