Q1 Why do organisations try and achieve diversity and/or equality?
A Because it's the law
B They don't
C Because it helps them to make use of all their resources and so makes business sense
D Because it helps them to meet the requirements of a diverse customer base and so makes business sense
E Because diverse teams and ways of working produce diverse perspectives and are creative and so give a competitive edge
F Because if they don't they might get caught out and have to pay £50,000 at an industrial tribunal
G Because there are too many do-gooders around these days and/or it's the politically correct thing to do
A1 In our experience organisations have a number of reasons for attempting to achieve equality and/or diversity:-
- For some organisations, the threat of incurring high legal costs and fines through being taken to tribunal (plus the ensuing bad publicity) is the main reason.
- In recent years, however, the case for diversity making business sense (see answers c, d and e) has been developed and is now being acknowledged by a wide variety of organisations in the private sector such as banks and supermarkets.
- In the public and voluntary sectors, managing diversity is being seen as a way of making organisations more effective and particularly of delivering effective services to an increasingly diverse population of service users.
If you have feedback on our suggested answers (or disagree with them!) please let us know.
