15

Diversity Awareness

15.1 Introduction

Remember your transition from school to college? From the cosy comforts of your school where all your classmates were from your neighbourhood and from similar backgrounds or languages, you moved to a college where your fellow students hailed from different parts of India, speaking different languages and from different cultures and having different tastes. Some of you probably grabbed this opportunity to interact and make friends with people whose backgrounds were vastly different from your own. This probably gave you insights into how others in the world live and helped you to get to know firsthand the cultural diversity that exists among us. It is also possible that, some of you got intimidated by the breadth of this diversity and preferred to form groups of your own people, perhaps from your own school or city, and hung around together.

The transition from college to your job is somewhat similar to the above transition, except that as an employee of a modern, globalized organization, you are exposed to a much broader range of cultural, language and social backgrounds. You also have to work with people from the other gender as well as with differently-abled colleagues. While in college, you had the choice of limiting your contacts to just your hometown group (or a group of your choice); but in a job, you have no such liberties in choosing your co-workers and stakeholders. Your success depends on your ability to blend seamlessly and successfully with this diverse set of people.

In the coming years, global relationships will become the rule rather than the exception and there will be a huge demand for people who can work in an international setting. This is why we believe that diversity awareness is a ‘must-have’ soft skill today. A carefully cultivated attitude and awareness about the diversity around us can open up new possibilities for your career growth. And even as you start your career, you should think of yourself as an ‘international’ professional and start polishing your diversity-awareness skills.

International situations—whether a visit by an international team to your facility, a visit by you to your clients and business partners abroad or a conference call with your teammates across the globe—can be very challenging. Cross-cultural partnerships require you to unlearn and throw out a lot of your prejudices and stereotyping and instead display sensitivity, knowledge and poise. You should shrug away the temptation to look for and stay within your comfort zone of people who are similar to you.

We dedicate this entire chapter on the ‘whys and hows’ of diversity awareness. In Section 15.2, we will discuss the aspects of diversity that you can come across at your workplace. In Section 15.3, we will see why diversity awareness is so important in today’s context. In Section 15.4, we will discuss some methods of improving your diversity awareness and explain how you can apply these methods at your workplace. Section 15.5 presents a summary.

15.2 What is Diversity Awareness?

Diversity means differences. At a typical workplace in today’s context, diversity is a given and cannot be avoided. Diversity arises in the following ways:

Linguistic diversity: You will be working with people who speak different languages. Even though English may be the only common language, some of your team members might not understand English well or might have an accent that you find difficult to comprehend. Therefore, you may have to slow down your communication, paraphrase, listen actively and even nudge yourself to learn a bit of their language.

Cultural diversity: Different cultures have different conventions with respect to what is socially acceptable or taboo. This may also extend to gestures, sports, acceptable small-talk topics and conventions. It might be essential for you to understand the differences in different cultures when you work with people.

Geographic diversity: When people come from different geographies, their food habits, clothing and habits could be different. While you would not have to change your habits fully to match theirs, you certainly would have to be sensitive to the differences.

Gender diversity: In the workplace, it is very common for men and women to work together. The formalism and the rules of interaction could be very different from what you have been used to at college, especially with the international laws on sexual harassment and the emphasis placed on being impeccably correct at all times.

Individual diversity: Today, the work place is becoming more and more inclusive of people with special needs. People with special needs like autism and dyslexia are becoming more common now in organizations, as employers are beginning to realize the huge potential that these people bring to the table. This could be very different from the homogeneous workplaces of the past, with a chasm for differently-abled persons to cross.

Add diversity due to political affiliations, economic and market practices and social stratification to the above list, and you will get an even longer list to contend with.

15.3 Why is Diversity Awareness Important and Useful?

Why should you, a fresh college graduate, be interested in or care about diversity awareness? Well, you simply have no choice! Most organizations today are global because:

• They recruit from across the globe, and thus more often than not, your colleagues will be from diverse backgrounds.
• Their suppliers are from all over the world, and hence, to do your work better and faster, you will have to work with outsiders from different backgrounds and cultures.
• Their markets are global. Therefore, you will have to deal with customers who can be anywhere from New Delhi to New York or Oslo to Christchurch. Your customers are from diverse backgrounds and cultures and your success and your organization’s success will depend on keeping all these customers happy.

Diversity awareness makes you an effective team member of geographically distributed (and often international) project teams. When you travel, within India as well as abroad, diversity awareness and sensitivity become huge assets not only to get your work done but also for meeting your personal needs. Visits by foreign partners and customers can be more effectively handled if you can be sensitive to your surroundings.

Above all, diversity awareness can make you a better human being, co existing with others in a peaceful, interdependent manner.

15.4 How Do You Improve Diversity Awareness?

Diversity awareness comes naturally to some people. These are the people who will learn a foreign language, try out a new Korean restaurant around the corner and be in touch with international goings-on, especially in the world of business and technology. And then there are others who will be intimidated by alien settings and are most comfortable in familiar surroundings, eating comfort foods and being surrounded by friends and family. Whichever category you belong to, you must develop diversity awareness if you want to grow in your career. So how do you develop diversity awareness and become a world citizen? Here are some tips:

Tune your attitude: A good part of diversity awareness is attitude. You should have a basic aptitude and enthusiasm for appreciation of diversity and for cross-cultural and international experience. You should marvel at how diverse the world is and be curious about what is going on elsewhere in the world. You should ‘want to try out’ that new international restaurant that just sprang up around your neighbourhood. Most importantly, you must overcome that comfort-zone factor of staying with and moving around known environs and familiar people. Upon joining your job, if they send you to an unfamiliar country in South America for four months, you should not think of it as a trip to the penalty box but instead be excited about it and even start learning a bit of Spanish.

Similarly, develop a proper attitude towards people with special needs as well as an appreciation of the etiquette covering gender diversity. At the same time, you should also get rid of your preconceived notions and biases about other cultures and be more open. Remember that food, clothing, business etiquette, road rules and even body language can be different among different cultures.

Use all available resources: Diversity awareness is mainly knowledge about other cultures, especially the culture of countries that you need to visit or stay in and with which you conduct business. This means a basic familiarity with the recent history, politics, economics and other relevant details about the culture of these countries. There are several websites, video footages, blogs, user groups and social-networking sites where you can pick up relevant information about other countries and regions. You can get a response from someone who just went through a similar experience or may get a lot of associated information that may prove to be very useful. Of course, other media like TV, newspapers and magazines can also provide you avenues, although not as interactive as the internet. All these can add to your appreciation of diversity and, in turn, tune your attitude.

Attend workshops and seminars: Before sending their employees away to a foreign country, large organizations normally conduct workshops/seminars on that foreign country to orient them to the new culture. If, for example, the USA is your destination, they may actually bring along some ‘USA experts’ to teach you the basics of American culture and business practices. They will pass on reading material on various aspects of life in the USA. Such workshops will typically include real-life examples, case studies, role-playing exercises and extensive question-and-answer sessions. Often, senior employees who have lived and worked in that country will be asked to share their experiences. Also, they would conduct a ‘mock drill’ before an important foreign client visits India, with some of you playing the role of the visiting delegation. Sessions will not only include the relevant technical and business items but will also cover cultural aspects. Such drills can make you see things through others’ eyes and help you spot sticky issues and potential solutions.

Similarly, workshops are organized to develop a sense of gender equality among professionals and sensitize them to their differently abled colleagues and their needs.

Understand accepted norms and behaviours in a given cultural setting: Be aware of the cultural practices in other countries, especially when greeting and indulging in small talk with your counterparts. While a lot of this has been standardized (mostly according to Western standards), it is always worthwhile to do a reality check and fine-tune your behaviour to suit the needs of a situation.

Perform immersion and self-discovery: No diversity education is more powerful than actually living in an alien culture for a period of time. Struggling with a new language, new surroundings and new ways of doing things, with almost no friends and support system around, can be like struggling at the deep end of a swimming pool. But at the end is a rich and valuable experience and a substantially enlightened ‘You’. Even a few hours spent in New York City or London can offer you many lessons on various aspects of another culture, so you can imagine what living in South Africa or China for a year can do for you.

As mentioned earlier, an essential part of this immersion process is a willingness to break away from your comfort zone and seek diversity. Picking up a few stock phrases in another language can be very useful. Most people appreciate your taking the trouble to speak their language.

Maintain your identity: Although it is important to be sensitive and adapt to the many forms of diversity, you should also always maintain your own identity. If, for example, you are a vegetarian or have to wear some religious symbols, there is no reason for you to give these up just because you want to blend in with the crowd. Maintaining your identity and values, while being sensitive to and empathetic, is a fine balancing act and is an essential part of diversity awareness. It is your duty to sensitize your colleagues (potentially from different cultures) to your special needs, without infringing on their rights. Similarly, if people from other cultures/countries visit you in India, respect their identity and practices and help them with any requests they may have.

Now that we have described some of things that you can do to improve diversity awareness, here are certain things that you should avoid:

Avoid building stereotypes: You should deal with other cultures with a positive attitude and open mind. Erase any biases or stereotypes you may have had previously, especially biases that you happened to pick up from random sources. Learn to recognize individual situations. And do not quickly rush to conclusions about a whole population based on isolated, personal experiences.

Passing around offensive ‘jokes’: Extending the previous point further, there is absolutely no place for offensive humour at the workplace. Things that target specific ethnic groups or are deemed derogatory or sexist are not only indecent and discourteous but also illegal in many countries and can lead to serious consequences.

Be sensitive but not condescending towards people with special needs: In an increasingly inclusive world, we are taking baby steps to make the workplace more friendly and enabling for people with special needs. Realize that these people often need no ‘special’ treatment, but just fair treatment. In fact, the phrases ‘disabled’ or ‘handicapped’ are taboo nowadays. Unless it is required for the job, there should be no discussion or questions about a person’s special needs in a job interview or after he or she takes up a job. As a professional, it is your duty to be sensitive to the needs of the differently abled and shed any reservations or contempt you may have for them. This applies not only to physical difficulties that may be obvious, but also to mental challenges, such as autism and dyslexia.

15.5 In Summary

Diversity awareness is a crucial skill to have in today’s globalized world. And its importance is only going to grow more in the future. As a fresh recruit, you may not be entrusted with international assignments or projects that force you to work with people with widely diverse cultures. However, it is a good a time to start preparing yourself for a successful career in an environment filled with diversity.

Let us summarize what we have discussed in this chapter.

• Accept diversity awareness as an essential soft skill. It has become a major factor today in determining your career growth as well as the success of your organization.
• Have an open mind and be receptive to other cultures so as to develop sensitivity to diversity.
• Get rid of old stereotypes about other cultures.
• When on foreign assignments, do not give up your identity. Communicate with your foreign colleagues and take care of your religious and cultural needs.
• Nurture an aptitude for international and multicultural experiences. Be enthusiastic about meeting new people, especially from other cultures.
• Utilize the myriad sources of information about other cultures, such as the internet, printed media, visual media like television and movies and first-person accounts.
• Attend cross-cultural workshops.
• If you so choose, develop a ‘neutral profile’.
• Develop sensitivity and awareness for gender diversity and the special needs of differentially-abled people.