The Elephant and the Mouse

Chapter 3Beyond the Business Case for Diversity: Rewards and Risks

Many articles, speeches, and conferences focus on the business case for diversity and why organizations should think about the positive rationale and benefit for embracing DEI (and now DEI plus J, which is social justice). Let's look again at why.

REWARDS

Morally, it is the right and ethical thing to do. Everyone is entitled to a fair workplace and an opportunity to succeed without prejudice or bias or preconceived notions of who they are. Diversity can improve the corporate culture by ensuring that people who are part of the team feel empowered, accepted, welcomed, and that their ideas matter. It is not morally acceptable to be found to be lacking in fairness.

Diversity is not limited to initiatives and notoriety in the United States. Many organizations around the world are global in nature, thus having built‐in diversity and, at minimum, culturally diverse groups. They have to understand and embrace these differences by nature of the places they work. Think of an American company with a large presence of Japanese colleagues and regional offices in Frankfurt and Lima. Imagine a Dutch company whose product is sold worldwide and manufactured in lower‐cost countries. If its board of directors and its senior leadership is all Dutch, it is highly likely they will make errors in their dealings with the other countries' ...