American Management

Diversity can be something very simple or complex, it depends on how we look at it. Simply it is how people differ in organizations but diversity can be on many levels, it can be based on race, gender individual views and opinions. Every definition is unique and has its own advantages and disadvantages. In a health care management organization it would be important to have a diverse and multi-cultural workforce. Mainly because healthcare is for everyone, we can not discriminate on the basis of culture and having a workforce that belongs to just one culture is a way of discrimination.

A diverse workforce can provide us with different perspectives on a problem. A diverse workforce can better understand the needs of different customers and patients. They will be able to understand the views and traditions people have about healthcare in different cultures. This would help in satisfying the patients more easily and providing them with the care that they need. A good diverse workforce results in higher productivity and lower costs.

If the workforce is unable to work together, than it has the opposite affect.

In today’s world, diversity is important and creates a good image on the target market as they see that you are not an organization who will discriminate against them. With a diverse workforce you have more options for employee hiring’s and you can choose the best. There is better team work and the group can make better decisions than anybody else. For a diverse group to be able to achieve all these positive points they need to go through the stages of team building: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning, if the team has been assembled for a specific project or a short time period.

The disadvantages of having a diverse and multicultural workforce are; when diverse employees are given jobs, it is usually considered tokenism. The organization may want diversity while the employees may be biased and carry out discriminatory practices which may hurt the employees feelings and result in lower productivity and higher absenteeism. Some jokes or remarks can not be made now because it is culturally sensitive. This creates an uptight environment in the work place. (R. Roosevelt Thomas)

Multicultural teams have gained importance as the world becomes a smaller place. They are important as they keep costs down and provide greater mobility to the organization. As a health care management organization being multicultural helps us reach out to as many people as possible. It helps in providing our guidance and resources in areas where it is needed the most. The organization will also be able to operate full time because of the time difference. There will always be somebody on the job. On the other hand, the long distances can cause a problem.

There will be communication errors as no media is 100 per cent accurate. There will also be language barriers when the employees are located in different areas. In the end, we need to see that we are a health care management organization and at the end of the day all that matters is that people are healthy even if we have to go through some problems within our teams.

Bibliography

1. R. Roosevelt Thomas, 2008, Have You Met the Challenge of a Diverse Organization? American Management Association, http://www. amanet. org/editorials/editorial. cfm? Ed=263&pending=true