Analysis of The loudest Duck by Laura A Liswood - Book Report/Review Example

Book analysis of The loudest duck: Moving beyond diversity while embracing differences to achieve success at work by Laura A. Liswood. Brief summary of the book In the book The Loudest Duck by Laura Liswood, the author highlights how to gain competitive advantage through effectively managing diversity. This skillful piece of work is a considered as a business fable that provides an alternate view of the multicultural workplace diversity by making use of practical stories as well as cultural anecdotes. The book goes beyond analysis and offers a new language of metaphor that actually captures the unearned privilege, unexamined dynamics of dominance, and unconscious bias that usually undermines a person’s attempts to create a truly inclusive and diverse workplaces. In that perspective, the book provides an insight the aforementioned differences that have been shrunk by globalization need to embraced and harnessed to the benefit of all people so as create a workplace that no one is disadvantaged or disadvantaged due to their diversity. Discussion The book The Loudest Duck by Liswood offers comprehensive debates into the numerous aspects diversity in the ever expanding global workplace by means of using cultural anectodes, practical stories and personal experiences. The author highlights the need to ensure a level and fair playing field for everyone who is working their way up the ladder in this new corporate world order. Major points delineated in the book and the concepts the author discusses Laura A. Liswood offers comprehensive debates that surround the dominant few such as women, short people, black people, the minorities among many others usually face an uphill task when it comes to reaching for top most levels in leadership. By having an understanding of other people’s viewpoints, you can actually how to better work with them. The author brings into sharp focus a remarkable story about diversity that shows us that it takes more than just accepting others; it requires understanding others’ viewpoints and cultures in order to communicate and work together effectively. As human beings, we have different social, cultural and national backgrounds as well as varying ages, sexual orientations, gender, religious beliefs among other things. A global organization mainly consists of employees from different parts of the world with these particular differences. Diversity can therefore be seen as a source of innovation as well as creativity which in turn provides a chance for further competitive advantage as well as developments (Morell, p. 65-68). The author commences in the first chapter by comparing corporate diversity with Noah’s Ark where a company makes an attempt to hire people from different ages, culture, national origin, religion, marital status, gender, socioeconomic or class, sexual orientation, hobbies, family, language, physical appearance, and place within the organization as well as to come with a heterogeneous team in order to become a diverse organization. However she says, “The list isn’t exhaustive” (Liswood, 12). The author points out that by hiring two each kind, the organization cannot attain diversity. She writes, “Far too many managers and leaders figured that if you crammed a pair of each minority into a company or into a boardroom, you had accomplished the task of creating a diverse work environment” (Liswood, 6). On the contary, governments have laid more emphasis on any forms of discrimination in the different human resource practices and policies within organizations. They have emphasised on affirmative action on the equality in terms of outcomes and on the inclusion of the different forms of diversity as well as business outcomes. Any organization that seeks to make use of the full potential of all its employees will thoughtfully and intentionally align workplace diversity with the strategic goals of the organization. The initiatives for diversity do not always fulfil the required expectations. The traditional schools of thought behind most interventions concerning diversity are assimilation which focuses on the fact that all individuals are the same and differentiation, which celebrates and embraces all kinds of differences. To achieve the highest levels of diversities, the management as well as the leadership is required to have a much clearer understanding of how diversity is defined and what exactly what the company does with a diverse workforce experience (Batstone, 36-37). Diversity is used as a contrast to equality or an addition. It brings out the fact that individuals are recognized, besides group differences, directing positive value on the existing diversity in the community, and treating people as individuals (Glazzard et al., 2010). Therefore, diversity depicts an array of characteristics and conditions. It involves identifying and valuing the benefits of all individuals enabling them to fulfill their potential irrespective of their backgrounds. This is because diversity incorporates both the non-visible and the visible differences. Diversity encompasses the idea of respecting other individual’s differences basing on race, culture, national origin, region, ethnicity, socio-economic differences, family structure, and health values (Shakespear and Watson, 9-11). This implies that putting inclusion into practice is necessarily not about just inclusively working with all the people. It therefore involves inclusively working with everyone developing respectful relationship in the long run in addition to working as a team as the changes directed towards inclusion start to be implemented. As diversity increases within in our country, employees and employers are obliged to understand the culture of each other. Cultural diversity comes with linguistic diversity and other social norms. Language is the key medium of communication between people. It is also a vital element when interacting with other people. Due to the fundamental importance of language, language education in a linguistically diverse organization is very crucial, since it acts a major source of communication between people. The ability to use language assists one to utilise it as a tool to solve problems. Language is useful for the utilisation of knowledge and comprehension (Moll and González, 440-442). Workplace diversity is a very wonderful thing even though it challenges various business leaders, team members and managers today. We can certainly deduce that different cultures usually teaches us different values. These values often translate to various ways of conducting business, which may benefit one culture at work and disadvantage the other resulting to prejudice (Liswood, 65). Prejudice as barrier to inclusive practice occurs as result of lack of understanding and knowledge on diversity. This is manifested when assumptions are made about people just because they belong to a particular group. On the other hand, discrimination occurs as result of one not receiving equality of opportunities. Individuals or groups can be discriminated based on their race, culture, social background, and special education needs. One can either experience direct or indirect discrimination (Engleberg & Wynn, 53-56). Most of the prejudiced persons usually do not act on their attitude therefore ending up judging someone basing on their social standing or outward appearance. Prejudice comes into play as a result of conformity to societal norms (Engleberg & Wynn, 76). In the second chapter, Liswood talks about power relationship between a mouse which is portrayed as an example of non-dominant group (female of Asian origin) and the elephant as a dominant group (a white male in an American organization). The survival of the mouse relies on having knowledge about the elephant, yet the elephant does not require to need to know anything in relation to the mouse. She writes, “In American society, white men are elephants, while women and minorities are the mice” (Liswood, 27). Looking at the above prejudice examples, it can easily be concluded that most of us are prejudiced against people if we assume that they have particular characteristics. These assumptions as a result develop when we fear them or we do not have direct contact with them due to they being different from us and a minority (Kukathas, 134-5). Since prejudices are so extensive, in order to fight them, it is important to understand their nature. By spreading the message of love, brotherhood, educating people, developing an understanding in people, creating awareness, and promotion of the inter-group dialog, small steps geared towards a more tolerant and egalitarian society can be put into place. As a consequence, out of necessity, the non-dominant groups develop certain skills such as attentiveness, vigilance and adaptability (Kukathas and McDonalds, 112). So as to be a good leader, Leswood asserts that one needs to develop and adopt the skills of both the mouse and the elephant. This involves the confidence and risk taking of the elephant and emotional intelligence and intuitive ability of the mouse are very important in today’s scenario. Northouse (56) asserts that the development of cross-cultural leadership aimed at understanding the behaviour of the leaders working in the currently globalized market and understanding how they relate and manage the diverse employee population. Most of the global organizations today need the kind of leaders who can quickly adjust to new environments and at the same time work with their partners as well as employees from different cultures effectively. A leader or manager has to understand the cross-cultural beliefs and expectations of their employees so as to ensure effective leadership and management. When mentioning the global context, it refers to the interdependence between different countries, organizations and industries as seen in the increased cross-border flow of knowledge, capital, services and goods. A leader who considers himself or herself to be global has to possess a number of characteristics (Turner et al., 304-8). They have to have a clear understanding of the worldwide business environment in the global perspective and learn more about these perspectives, trends, tastes, approaches and technologies that are involved with the conduction of business in other foreign countries. One has to know how to work with individuals from different cultures simultaneously and use the cross-cultural leadership skills every day. Finally, one has to know how to make interactions with other foreign colleagues and treat them equally. Adopting a more eclectic view of leadership values and idiosyncrasies can have a number of challenges as well as opportunities to any given organization. Leaders and managers both: offer effective leadership by ensuring that all the implemented policies are appropriate and working; have good social skills because they are tasked with leading and directing the people; the ability to manage an organization or a group of people which involves directing efforts to a particular group of people; think about the units they are heading to ensure they grasp its relationships to larger realities reach and are able to influence constituents that are beyond their jurisdictions and boundaries; lastly, they put a heavy emphasis on the intangibles of values, vision, and motivation and comprehend intuitively the unconscious and non-rational elements in leader-constituent interaction (Turner et al., 309-310). In order to create an environment that is inclusive, it requires aunthetic leadership. The authentic perspective leadership ensures self awareness where the leader is able to reflect on his or her core values, emotions, goals, motives, having and identity. The leader is able to have a strong anchor in the decisions and actions they make. By having relational transparency the organization fosters unity and a sense of discipline as the individuals can share their core feelings, motives and inclinations with the others. The balanced processing of an individual shows that he or she has the stability to objectively analyze information and exploring other people’s opinions before embarking on making a decision. This makes it easier to ensure division of work, in addition to creating a sense of command and direction in the organization. The internalized moral perspective is exhibited when they able to utilize their values and internal moral standards to guide their behavior rather than allowing the outside pressure to control them. This as result can steer the organization forward in all the management principles (Murray, 89-90). Managers and leaders play an important role in guiding diversity as well as inclusion in their given organizations. This can be seen through provision of financial incentives and nonfinancial incentives which comprise of: self fulfillment, recognition and respect whereby the employee feels appreciated by the management; flexibility in the working hours so that one can attend to favorite wish while at work; a positive and a fun working environment (Asghar & Akram, 115); good health by having subsidized balanced diets; recognition, reward and reinforcement of the right behavior; work-life balance; team building events; career development programs; provision of a positive working environment; and finally, training both on- and off-the-job (Armstrong, 47-49). Northouse (32) asserts that multinational corporations and global organization often operate in an environment that is characterised by cross-cultural differences. This kind of diversity normally represents the organization’s fundamental attitude in that the organization understands how to tap to the significant contributions shown through the diverse leadership styles and that the organization also values and respects the individuality of all its employees. According to Jeffreys (22), the concept of diversity management is usually based on the notion that diversity will open up an alternative way of thinking, perception as well as acting thereby enriching the lives of the employees and promoting the success of the organization. In the global marketplace, we need to have an understanding and also be conscious of our differences in order to work together effectively. Liswood argues that it is not enough to create Noahs Ark by bringing in two of each kind (Liswood, 8). Majority of the people have a tendency to bring their personal narratives and unconscious beliefs regarding who we are and who others are for us to work with them, and with diversity in place, we can no longer ignore them. A recent study revealed that at least a third of the most successful European companies continue to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors as a result of diversity management. These organizations make use of equal opportunities policies as well as anti-discrimination policies to ensure diversity is maintained. This is turning developed a motivated and an engaged heterogeneous workforce that develop innovative and creative business solutions in the global arena. Among the most visible benefits of developing work force diversity include improved team effectiveness and corporation, an improved productivity, improving the employer image, makes the organization more open to change, improves commitment and morale among the employees, eases the entry of the organizations into new markets and finally enhances the effectiveness of a complex organization. • Diverse experience: Cross-cultural human relations involve the employment of individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds. Bringing together the different skills and knowledge of the various employees will be beneficial to the organization in that it strengthens the productivity of all the teams within the organization and enhances the individual’s responsiveness to the ever changing conditions in the company. All the employees in a diverse set posses their unique strengths gotten from their culture and individuality. If properly managed, a diverse workplace will be able to leverage the strengths of the organization while complementing the weaknesses of the individual employees. • Growth and Learning: diverse business idiosyncrasies, cross-cultural human relations and moral values improve learning and growth within the organization. Exposure to new cultures, perspectives and ideas enables the individuals to intellectually reach out so as to receive a much clear view of what is surrounding them as well as of their specific place. When the employees spend time with their culturally diverse co-workers, they are able to break down the hindrances of xenophobia as well as ethnocentrism; hereby they become motivated to be more diverse and well-rounded. • Creativity and innovation- with a diverse working staff, an organization is able to promote innovation and creativity among its employees. The different employees have different experiences and backgrounds that give them different understandings of situations. This is very useful especially in problem solving in that the employees are well able to contribute in their own ideas of how a problem can be solves thereby improving the decision making process of the organization. • Morale and commitment- having a diverse workforce always improves the morale as well as the commitment of the existing staff. It works as a way to motivate the employees in that they are assured of equality within the organization. In that way, the employees are able to be fully committed to their work therefore increasing the efficiency of the organization and in turn improving its productivity. • Teamwork- in the current setting, it is important that all employees in an organization have teamwork. It is becoming increasingly impossible for an organization to operate without effective teamwork. Having a diverse workforce leads to the sharing of good and important ideas, creating a bond among the employees thereby enhancing the motivation as well as morale of the individuals. Liswood argues that leaders need to understand the attitude of the workforce (Liswood (34). A similar view is shared in the work of Griffin. Griffin (104-114) notes that in order to develop a mutual cross-cultural understanding, the leaders and management of a given organization should have effective interactions with their diverse colleagues so as to learn more about their cultural differences then use them as a resource to the advantage of the organization. A leader must then shape the inter-cultural interactions so as to enhance the professional success of the employees and the general efficiency and success of the organization. All organizations have the responsibility to behave in an ethical way with the growing focus on the social, governance and environmental values. All global professionals are required to have a culture-general knowledge. Diversity is the description of the workforce. In today’s workplaces, there are people from different ethnic, social, and racial backgrounds at all levels. The Loudest Duck provides a way to move far beyond the traditional efforts of diversity by employing people from different social backgrounds, races, gender, sexual orientation, culture, and religion in order to come up with a diverse organization towards modern diversity practices that actually embrace these differences and benefit from them. However, as the society is about interaction of people, a subculture that involves members of the same ethnic class become more substantive, distinctive and independent, and members would become increasingly dependent on each other for social contact and validation of their beliefs and way of life so that they can watch each others back (Urbina, 76-78). Diversity in most countries has evolved in the recent years. At first, diversity was mainly based on the approach of assimilation that viewed every individual as part of the ‘melting pot’. One key factor required in diversity is compliance, which includes equal employment opportunities and affirmative action. Today, workplace diversities involve leveraging and embracing differences for the organizational benefits (Batstone 138). Liswood uses argues that diverse organizations or business entities require more sophisticated leadership, conscious awareness of diversity issues, and new behavioral patterns, as well as effective tools for reaping the benefits of true diversity (68). Diversity is the description of the workforce. In that respect, creating cultural synergy requires appropriate measures be taken to ensure effective planning. The first step to creating a cultural synergy is describing the situation. The manager has to assess the situation from both cultural perspectives. After describing the situation, one then has to integrate the cultures, this can be done by determining the underling cultural assumptions that explain a given behaviour or perspective. After determination one has to assess the cultural overlaps. The management then has to create a culturally synergistic alternative for both parties and the new alternatives should be based on the various cultures represented. The next step is to select the best alternative that fits the assumptions and finally implement the culturally synergistic solution or solutions and then observe the kind of impact it would have on the respective cultures. The management can then revise and refine the solution based on the feedback received. A view shared by Marger (18) points out that when the majority is in power, they should rule honorably and not be corrupt to the minority. They should take care of the interests of everybody. Fair governance can be accomplished by the presence of international law that is supposedly independent of corruptions of national interests. Things seem to be important to the author, and would fit under organizational behavior, but are not included in other readings Workplace diversity is a very wonderful thing even though it challenges various business leaders today. Similar to team members and managers, they may find it hard to navigate through a truly diverse workplace that is made up individuals of different creeds, races, genders, races, social backgrounds, styles, religions, and sexual orientations. However, having a proper understanding of social and cultural differences is the core to high performing and merit based work environment. Liswood stages her story in manner that she offers advice to the leaders on how they can transform diversity from rhetoric into an engine for growth and innovation. Delivering of customer service start by understanding what the customer wants. This is a very challenging notion because they are usually not sure what they want or why they want it. With people working in different cultural environments, they are bound to be faced by culture shocks, climate adaptability, and language barrier. The many people will contribute to a diverse array of perspectives and ideas to problems and discussions. Creation of diverse environments is all change. The author offers meaningful insights for the reasons why change occurs and the manner in which it may be attained beginning with the leaders. Liswood uses the change metaphor (54). Diversity is a popular word, yet numerous organizations usually regard it as window dressing. Liswood provides an explanation as to why the business leaders need to embrace and learn diversity and the benefits that it brings. Due to the to growing cultural diversity, the senior business managers have seen the need to devise a global business strategy that will ensure management of interaction with customers, distributors, suppliers, and government agents from the many cultural environments. Approaches discussed in class that the author dismisses as being irrelevant, unimportant, or misguided The author dismisses the idea that companies need to recruit staff from several socio-economic backgrounds, cultures, gender, sexual orientation, race, and abilities so as to form a heterogeneous organization. She argues that the issue of numbers is actually insufficient, what matters it changing the people unconscious attitudes. In the very first page of her introduction, Liswood argues that diversity is not the problem, she says, “The more diverse the workplace, the more likely it is that we wont have a fair and level playing field” (63). The other approach that the author dismisses is that globalized businesses are becoming increasingly aware that diversity actually belongs to the boardroom, and not the public relation department. The author is very thoughtful and practical since she assists the ambitious employees from the non-dominant groups to actually prove their worth. Liswood also argues that diversity is not all about accepting others, but also it involves ensuring a level and fair playing field for everyone, and build a firm or organization that gets actually the best from all its employees. A business model like that one akin to Noah’s ark will place more emphasis on integrating groups by benefiting from the “spots, the stripes, and the horns rather than waiting” (17) for organizational-wide conformity. The author’s recommendations and conclusions compared to research findings Although some people view "diversity" as a problem, it just one more thing that poor and harried managers and leaders need to put up with. Equality is derived from the notion that we need come up with a society that is fairer to everyone. In this case, everyone will have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Therefore, equality can be defined as provision of equal opportunities (Burns, Heywood and Wilde, 32). It is actually based on the common legal obligation of compliance to the legislation on anti-discrimination. Equality often offers protection the people in society from encountering discrimination on the basis of group membership such as race, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, belief, and finally age. On the other hand, diversity is used as a contrast to equality or an addition. It brings out the fact that individuals are usually recognized despite group differences, and directing positive value on the existing diversity in the community and treating people as individuals. Therefore, diversity portrays a wide range of characteristics and conditions. It also involves establishing as well as valuing the benefits of all individuals, thus enabling them to fulfill their potential irrespective of their backgrounds (Griffin, 88-90). Research has indicated that diversity encompasses the idea of respecting other individual’s differences basing on race, family structure, culture, national origin, region, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic differences, and health values (Griffin, 128). This leads to the creation of a level and fair playing field for the employer and employee. However, Liswood says, “The more diverse the workplace, the more likely it is we won’t have a fair and level playing field…. because of how we treat those who are different from ourselves ” (Liswood 34). Currently, doing business requires understanding and cultural intelligence. The book by Liswood points out that the old ways of approaching diversity will never work. Consequently, it shows the audience ways of understanding and navigating the cultural and gender differences that lead to conflict at the workplace. Liswood argues that today’s global managers and leaders need to be aware of the cultural influences on employee behavior so as to manage fairly and effectively. Team structure plays a very crucial role in diversity and cross-cultural capabilities. The teams need sufficient flexibility and autonomy for the exchange of ideas as these are forums for exchanging ideas. Individuals working culturally diverse teams gain that opportunity to learn from colleagues from different backgrounds (Northouse 75). Making of ethical choices needs having the ability to make distinctions between competing options (Guy, 19). Ethical decisions enable the business to attain its goals and objectives. This is attributed to the fact that an ethical decision is a decision that is morally and legally acceptable to the larger community. Diversity and inclusion in the business world has won nearly universal acceptance. However, the most well-intentioned companies and businesses often hit a wall when it comes to attaining diversity and inclusion in practice (Arnold, Beauchamp and Bowie, 45-46). This is attributed to the fact that a significant portion of the answer lies in the cognitive biases that usually deter us from accurately interpreting the behavior, motives, character, and worth of people who are different from us. Conclusion The book by Laura Liswood is worth reading especially, from my perspective. It has underlined that multinational managers still lack cross-cultural understanding as they take propel the businesses as well as their brand globally. This is as a result of the intricate tapestry of the corporate multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-stylistic threads that they exhibit currently. We also require being aware of the biasness that we all have and attempt to moderate our behaviours in order not to look prejudiced. This needs enhanced observation, emotional intelligence, and listening skills. Furthermore, diversity forces us to work even harder in order to understand that numerous approaches can bring better outcomes. The book is also a perfect companion for executives and managers that experience leadership challenges in a heterogeneous workforce and also want to ensure that their firm is a true meritocracy and a level playing field for everyone. Therefore, diversity is seen to be beneficial to both the organization and its members in that it brings significant benefits to the organization. The application of the key areas of cross-cultural human relations, business idiosyncrasies as well as moral values to the practice of diversity management has a number of advantages as well as disadvantages. In the US as well as the whole of Europe, most organizations have begun to recognize the numerous benefits that come with workplace diversity to both the economy and the society. Works Cited Arnold, D. G., Beauchamp, T. L., and Bowie, N. L. Ethical Theory and Business. New Jersey: Pearson. 2012. Asghar, A., & Akram, M. N. (2012). Impact of Financial Rewards on Employee Motivation and Satisfaction. Global Journal of Management of Business Research , 12 (17), 112-153. Armstrong, M. (2012). Handbook of Reward Management Practice: Improving Performance. Daryaganj, New Delhi: Kogan Page Publishers. Batstone, David. "Equality and Diversity." 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