David A. Thomas

Robin J. Ely

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 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">The Idea in Brief</h4>
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 You know that workforce diversity is smart business: It opens markets, lifts morale, and enhances productivity. So why do most diversity initiatives backfire—heightening tensions and hindering corporate performance?
 Many of us simply hire employees with diverse backgrounds—then await the payoff. We don’t enable employees’ differences to transform how our organization does work.
 When employees use their differences to shape new goals, processes, leadership approaches, and teams, they bring more of themselves to work. They feel more committed to their jobs—and their companies grow.
 How to activate this virtuous cycle? Transcend two existing diversity paradigms: assimilation (“we’re all the same”) or differentiation (“we celebrate differences”). Adopt a new paradigm—integration—that enables employees’ differences to matter.
 The Idea in Practice
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 <h2>The Integration Paradigm</h2>
 The integration paradigmtranscends assimilation and differentiation—promoting equal opportunity and valuing cultural differences. Result? Employees’ diverse perspectives positively impact companies’ work. Example:&nbsp; 
 A public-interest law firm’s all-white staff’s clients are exclusively white. It hires female attorneys of color, who encourage it to pursue litigation challenging English-only policies. Since such cases didn’t fall under traditional affirmative-action work, the firm had ignored them. By taking them, it begins serving more women—immigrants—and enhances the quality of its work. The attorneys of color feel valued, and the firm attracts competent, diverse staff. 
 Additional suggestions for achieving integration:
 1. Encourage open discussion of cultural backgrounds. A food company’s Chinese chemist draws on her cooking—not her scientific—experience to solve a soup-flavoring problem. But to fit in, she avoids sharing the real source of her inspiration with her colleagues—all white men. Open discussion of cultural differences would engage her more fully in work and workplace relationships.
 2. Eliminate all forms of dominance (by hierarchy, function, race, gender, etc.) that inhibit full contribution. When one firm opened its annual strategy conference to people from all hierarchy levels, everyone knew their contributions were valued.
 3. Secure organizational trust. In diverse workforces, people share more feelings and ideas. Tensions naturally arise. Demonstrate your commitment to diversity by acknowledging tensions—and resolving them swiftly.
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</article-ideainbrief>Why should companies concern themselves with diversity? Until recently, many managers answered this question with the assertion that discrimination is wrong, both legally and morally. But today managers are voicing a second notion as well. A more diverse workforce, they say, will increase organizational effectiveness. It will lift morale, bring greater access to new segments of the marketplace, and enhance productivity. In short, they claim, diversity will be good for business.

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Making Differences Matter:&nbsp;A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity

What will it take for organizations to reap the real and full benefits of a diverse workforce? A radically new understanding of the term, for starters.

Making Differences Matter: A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity

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