Response to #1
“What is organizational culture and why should we care?” by Michael Watkins provided many viewpoints on the topic but did not bring anything into sharp focus for me. After reading the various definitions, I began to wonder if organizational culture was actually just another “tool” created by management to be used to influence employee behavior, motivate them to work, and improve their performance. Perhaps all the talk about belonging and core values is really a form of manipulation? In other words, perhaps organizational culture is nothing more than an algorithm that creates greater profit. Companies are always upgrading their technology, maximizing the efficiency of their supply chains, trying new marketing strategies, etc, constantly looking for a competitive edge and higher profits. Is organizational culture just another one of those things that companies are working on and finetuning to maximize their profits at a particular point in time? I am interested in knowing if anyone has studied this.
The statistics in “Why Diversity Matters” by Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince are widely referenced. On the surface, it all makes sense. A more diverse workforce will help your company understand the needs of more customers and see more opportunities in more markets. Therefore, you will make more profit. But I’m wondering if there is another factor that could also be contributing to the financial results that is buried in the data. I say this because this statement from the article seems to work against the idea of diversity: “While certain industries perform better on gender diversity and other industries on ethnic and racial diversity, no industry or company is in the top quartile on both dimensions.” In other words, companies don’t do as well if they have both gender and ethnic and racial diversity. I am curious to know more about this. Furthermore, the McKinsey study looked at the composition of top management and boards in 2014 and financial data for the years 2010 to 2013. This seems like a short time frame for the analysis. I am curious to know if diversity matters over the long term. Do companies with diversity from the start have a better chance of surviving and thriving over the long term? Does diversity make a difference all along the lifecycle of company?
Response to #2
In the article “Why Diversity Matters,” the authors state that diversity “leads to a virtuous cycle of increasing returns.” This immediately makes me think of my experiences in my high school’s vocal jazz ensemble. I was fortunate to go to a high school with a vocal music program that became a powerhouse because of the wide range of racial and ethnic diversity in our district. When I was in high school, I did not realize that so much of our success depended on our music director’s talent for selecting just the right composition of performers. Every song had complex arrangements and harmonies requiring a range of male and female voices. We also needed vocalists who could scat, beatbox and do vocal percussion, carry a walking bassline, and perform songs from different genres ranging from chamber jazz to gospel to pop. Factoring into all of that was each individual singer’s racial, ethnic, and cultural background that shaped our sound. Year after year, our jazz vocal groups would travel to competitions throughout California, and we would regularly win the top awards. We were often invited to perform at festivals like the Monterey Jazz Festival. We were named the best high school vocal jazz program in the nation by Downbeat magazine. Now that I think back to our competitions against other schools, I can clearly see that our diversity was the element that made us better performers.
“Culture” is notoriously difficult to define, and I think that’s part of why the explanations in the Watkins article seem kind of squishy–they’re trying to put words to something that’s more of a “know it when you see it” kind of thing.
We will be reading texts that come at this from a more scholarly angle, trying to characterize and quantify the components and impact of organizational culture more fully. Part of the reason we start with these lay definitions is so that we can see how much more satisfying it is to get into the particulars, rather than rest with generalizations.
Hi Dylan! I really like the comparison of the Why Diversity Matters report with your experience in high school jazz band. Being a cellist myself, I completely agree with the abundance of talent that comes along with musicians of different ethnic backgrounds. At the same time, I think that the success of ethnic and racial diversity in both the financial and musical field has to reflect the demographic reality of specific countries. For instance, having participated in several orchestras over the years in Hong Kong, the members within the orchestra are almost completely of Han Chinese background, with a few members of Korean or Japanese origin. However, when the goal (in this case, specifically the musical performance), the ethnicity of the performers has no impact on the quality of the music itself, rather the importance is focused on the time and effort spent on practice. But I am simply talking based on my classical background, perhaps it is very different in the world of jazz? I am quite curious and I look forward to reading more of your responses!