When leaders use the word “Harmony”, a lot perceive it to mean “Homogeneous”; but nothing is further from the truth! Cambridge English Dictionary defines “Harmony” as: a pleasant musical sound made by different notes being played or sung at the same time. The differences in these notes is why we have music! If all the musical notes were in agreement and sounded the same, we would be making a single boring sound; which does not constitute harmony! The same goes for a group of human beings making up a team or an organization. Imagine having a team where all members are similar in ethnicity and culture, gender, religion, language, education, thoughts, skills, and belief systems. This homogeneous setup may be ideal for leaders who want to exercise a completely authoritarian leadership style; a commanding style of leadership that works best in military, politics, and sports teams.
In Kuwait, almost 82% of the national workforce joins the public sector for its high reward/ low contribution attraction! The private sector hence, has been designing and redesigning its talent management programs to attract and retain more nationals and balance the distribution of the workforce. This effort, though important, has been so focused on increasing numbers of nationals, that we haven’t been really paying attention to the worldwide trends and studies on diversity and its impact on the bottom line. Thousands of studies exist today to support the case for gender, ethnic, and generation diversity and the impact it has on companies’ productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, and many more KPIs that really matter to companies’ survival today. One of the studies on women for example shows that women are 34% stronger in work ethics and customer interaction; and 25% better at coaching and mentoring. Another famous Mckinsey study indicates that organizations that embrace gender diversity on their executive teams were 21% more likely to experience above average profitability and 27% more likely to outperform their peers. Closing gender gaps would add 25% ($28 trillion) to the value of the global economy by 2025. Another study highlights how racial diversity can bring various perspectives on a matter to cover more perspectives. Different perspectives on customer needs, product improvements, and company wellbeing fuel a better business without a doubt! Even stock picking has done 58% better with a diversified team than a homogeneous one; causing less bubbles and better market stability! The studies go on and on scientifically proving the positive effects diversity has on a company’s short and long term performance!
With the case for diversity being obviously clear, why then are some asking for 100% Nationalization in both public and private sectors despite the realistic need for expats? Well one of the obvious universal reasons is the fight for resources during a difficult economy. But even at the peak of the Kuwaiti market and the best possible chance for nationalization, many big organizations were known for recruiting and retaining nationals with similar ethnicity, gender, background, and even a specific sect to match their own! We haven’t been seeing many leading women executives or board members! And unless an organization makes tremendous efforts to engage its members, the usual 40+ year generation gap between top executives and new recruits leads to a whole set of organizational issues. Now when things are this comfortable, human beings lose interest in change and growth, and then resist every opportunity for change out of sheer fear. We also don’t develop the right skills for reaching agreement over any topic and instead learn to “fight” and be aggressive to prove a point! And when we resist change and refuse to grow, we underperform and develop a reputation for being a lazy workforce!
The problem, then, is that we’re not diversified enough, and we don’t have the vision nor the regulations to support diversity in the workplace! There is a great need for competition in an all inclusive culture; and a need to develop communication, discussion, negotiation, and persuasion skills. We need more women in leadership positions; more millennia in the workforce; real career opportunities for high performers; and laws against conscious biases towards gender, religion, ethnicity, age, disabilities, and color! We need to learn to coexist with others that are completely different than us because only then will we be able to live in harmony!