Diversity
There are several elements to the business case for diversity. Bendick, Egan and Lanier (2010) outline the typical business case for diversity, which consists of three elements. First is that it broadens the pool of employees, second is that it gives the company greater ability to serve the entire community and third is that it will result in a more productive workforce. The authors do not draw conclusions from their study, however. They use anecdotal examples and then express their conclusions. While they claim to use empirical data, what little data they present only comes from a single organization. There is no quantitative element to their research that would actually prove something. Further, in presenting a "typical business case" they are engaging a straw man argument, defining their own terms of engagement. For whatever they are worth, the conclusion that Bendick, Egan and Lanier do not appear to draw a coherent conclusion. They support "inclusion" rather than "diversity" and present tables outlining some of the differences between these two concepts. However, they cannot bring themselves to actually state in a clear manner what their conclusions are. They do stand against buyer-seller matching, which they feel encourages discrimination rather than encouraging it.
Tesco's approach to diverse groups is to ensure that the company hires from different groups, not a tough challenge for a company that has tens of thousands of workers. Internally, the company has established four working groups. These are Out at Tesco, Women in Business, Tesco Asian Network and ABC Network., which is for African, black and Caribbean workers. The role that these networks play within the organization is to provide social networking opportunities within these groups, and to give these different groups an organized voice within the company. Tesco has also implemented partnerships with external groups to engage on different...
This internal-external approach allows for Tesco to examine the issue of diversity with ideas from the broader external perspective, but also to work within its own company to improve conditions and raise awareness for those who are in minority groups.
To compare Tesco with the Bendick argument, we can see that Tesco make the Bendick straw man irrelevant. Tesco does cite that it believes it can improve customer service by improving its diversity, but its strategy is far more thought-out and comprehensive than what Bendick was arguing. For example, Tesco is aware that diversity comes with challenges that are difficult to overcome (Stahl, et al. 2009), and it has taken steps to increase the level of employee engagement. It seeks to increase engagement and to provide context to its diversity efforts. Indeed, the claims that diversity results in better service may be little more than an attempt to provide context for increasing diversity.
Tesco's approach is overall a little bit soft. While it has its internal groups to encourage inclusiveness, something that Bendick argued was more important than diversity, Tesco is resting too much on the inherent benefits of diversity and inclusiveness. A lot of research has debunked the ideas about inherent benefits using actual studies and quantitative techniques. Horwitz and Horwitz (2007) noted that biodemographic diversity was not correlated with team performance, but task-related diversity was. For the organization, this reflects more that diversity in ways of thinking and in skill sets is more important. Interestingly, this is always the supposition that underlies the basic "diversity is good" argument.
What such findings show goes beyond Bendick's argument. Demographic diversity has essentially been used as a proxy for diversity of ideas, skills and ways of thinking. Companies like Tesco have adopted diversity and…
