Merit alone should count, and not the gender

Offlate we are seeing a fanatical quest for Diversity in large Corporate Organisations.

No doubt diversity is important to promote an inclusive culture but not at the cost of merit. One should be conscious of the need to promote diversity but final decision should be based on merit and not influenced by the need to just promote diversity. Its about promoting a healthy corporate culture with diversity of thought, skills, experience and skill sets and not just gender.

Unfortunately in the name of Diversity, many a organizations are falling prey to the fallacy that promoting diversity leads to organizational success. They are promoting “Diversity for the sake of Diversity”. Heather Jackson, founder of An Inspirational Journey and the Women’s Business Forum, called on businesses not to get complacent about diversity, despite the encouraging statistics around women on boards. “The women on boards figures are reasons to celebrate, but it’s the talent pipeline that’s the future,” she said. Many an employee, have been deprived of a rightful position because of the organizations fanatical quest for inclusiveness & promoting diversity.

Meritocracy and diversity should work hand in hand. Diversity for its own sake is pointless and potentially harmful to the contextual culture (organizational, educational, etc.) If people believe that diverse candidates are included solely for diversity's sake, resentment, tension, and animosity can build.

Im sure even the members of the opposite sex wouldn’t want to progress in an organization solely because of gender. Mahnaz Shaikh, Diversity Leader, P&G, mooted a culture of meritocracy. “Gender diversity is a very important initiative for us, but it doesn't come at the cost of value and meritocracy,” she said.

"Diverse" candidates should always meet the minimum qualifications, at the very least. if diversity is considered alongside merit, that's when human potential is ignited. A homogenous meritocracy won't be as creative, innovative, and engaging as a diverse meritocracy.

There’s plenty of good research on the subject of team performance that shows that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams on many different kinds of tasks. The problem is that this research doesn’t argue for demographic diversity, but rather for a diversity of perspectives. So, again, racial or gender diversity is not an end in itself.

The implementation of diversity should not be seen as a threat to meritocracy , otherwise, are we, turning the clock back to the days of Quota / Reservation systems ……