In today’s hyper-connected world, where geographical boundaries are blurred by technology, companies are free to conduct their business in multiple areas in the world. And this means coming in contact with people whose ideas and beliefs are vastly different from yours.
It is in this light that diversity is important. But it’s not just in the context of B-school intakes, but also for participants in any educational organisation. Such exposure will prepare students for responsibilities in a global context.
Given the inherent diversity in our country, college and university campuses have a healthy mix of people from various socio-economic backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and genders.
University campuses open doors to an entire world without having to travel anywhere. It’s integral for the social and cultural development of students that they reside in and belong to multi-cultural and diverse campuses, such as FLAME University. It
allows students to appreciate the perspective and values of other cultures. The ability to learn in a classroom with various students help them understand the many factors that affect decision-making, and that there is more than one way to approach a problem.
The MBA diversity
Diversity also helps students play on individual strengths. When a student from an engineering background explains the technological benefits of a particular product, a marketing student can better develop a marketing plan. A psychology student can help others understand consumer behaviour and find the right target audience for their products.
A student from economics background can help a finance student understand the larger impact of events on economy through macroeconomics, thus helping the latter make informed, financial decisions. This diversity found in an MBA classroom is of thoughts and ideas.
Gender diversity in classrooms can give insights on consumer behaviour towards particular products or services. Cultural and geographical background diversity helps get perspective on nuances of particular areas or cultures, that can help understand the need for certain products in those regions.
It’s rare that two people approach the same problem in the same way. People from various backgrounds, such as humanities or engineering, add to having more information and tools towards finding a solution to a problem. Working with people who are different allows us to understand that our own truth is not the absolute truth and that our perspective is not the only perspective.
Advantages of diversity
According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management and Fortune Magazine, 52 per cent of employers say that a good diversity initiative improves relationship with clients. As many as 79 per cent of the respondents admitted that it makes their corporate culture better; another 77 per cent said it helps in recruitment of new employees. More than half said it decreases interpersonal conflict among employees (58 per cent), increases creativity (59 per cent) and productivity (52 per cent).
MBA or B-school students join universities to absorb as much knowledge as possible, and to master skills that will help them get a job or help them become entrepreneurs.
In the workplace, diversity of skills and knowledge is what pushes any organisation further. Good leaders are those who understand their own strengths and weaknesses, along with their employees’. Understanding employees from various backgrounds and cultures, accepting their ideas with an open mind and not having an ethnocentric mindset, is what makes them great leaders.
To achieve this kind of nuanced, sensitive insight, it is important for students to interact with others from diverse backgrounds and understand their culture. When we say diverse, it includes age diversity, gender diversity, socio economic diversity, education backgrounds and cultural diversity.
A successful performance in today’s diverse workforce requires social as well as cultural sensitivity to the differences as well as an ability to relate to people from various social and cultural backgrounds. In such a socio-cultural setting, nothing can prepare students for success in careers better than a diverse B-school campus.