Happy Sunday everybody!
I just stumbled upon a very interesting article in yesterday's Presse. It talks about companies, that consider older employees as outdated, young employees as inexperienced and do not take migrants seriously. As a result, the teams in those companies will have troubles finding solutions that will lead to success in the long run.
According to a Diversity Report just published by the Hernstein-Institut and the OGM (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Marketing), managers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland consider the following diversity topics as most relevant:
- Age (64%)
- Gender (58 %)
- Ethnicity (40%)
In Austria alone, however, ethnicity is only considered most relevant by 30% of managers. Why do you think is that?
Which other diversity topics are relevant? And why are age, gender and ethnicity those considered most relevant?
The article furthermore points out, that the awareness of diversity increases with company size but only 19% of managers follow diversity management strategies (Germany: 29%, Switzerland: 18%).
When it comes to qualities and competencies that managers should have in order to be successful in diversity management, the ability to accept other opinions and points of view is considered most important. Additionally, communication skills, the ability to cope with conflits, the ability of self-reflection and knowledge in the field of diversity are considered crucial.
Let me know, do you think that many managers have these skills? What can be done, if they do not have the mentioned skills?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI think that many managers do have those skills, but do not use it due to prejudices like: the people I know do it better than others, people from foreign countries do not have the same mentality to deliver on time etc.
So I think there should be internal programs to raise awareness of such topics, as they are very important and a diversified team can often contribute much more than 'normal' teams.
Cheers,
Julia St.