Diversity is one of today’s favorite corporate buzz words. Companies are striving for diversity in their workforces, and they expect their future employees to have experience of working in diverse environments.
But what does the word actually mean at companies like Shell, and if a student claimed he was a ‘diverse person’ on his CV, would it really help get him hired?
Work hard and prepare yourself for a career in the professional fast lane! This is what universities, our parents and corporate recruiters are telling us all the time. But is that all it takes to get to the top of the corporate tree today?
Prior to studying at TU Delft, I worked professionally for Shell, among other companies, and during that period I discovered that diversity has now become an important factor in achieving professional success.
So, what exactly is diversity? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: (1) ‘A range of many people or things that are very different from each other’; and (2): ‘The quality or fact of including a range of many people or things’.
On the basis of these definitions, many Western companies are striving to create diverse company cultures. They are doing this in the interests of achieving balance and the diverse project inputs they need to succeed. Increasing globalization and advancing technologies allow for greater ease of communication and access to other markets. Companies are becoming increasingly international, their workforces ethnically
and culturally diverse and integrated.
For many international corporations, like Shell, Airbus, GE and Phillips, ‘diversity’ is the new buzz word. And these companies are searching far and wide for this quality of diversity in us students – their future employees. Diversity has many facets. Having a great education is apparently no longer enough. Students must now also have the experience of working with many different nationalities on our CVs.
Ingredients
Shell annually recruits large numbers of TU Delft engineers, and, because of the company’s fine reputation, it’s a global favorite place to work for many students. It seems as if all corners of the globe are part of Shell’s corporate DNA, and it’s for this reason that having the right mix of diverse employees is so critical for a company competing in a fierce global marketplace.
To gain a deeper insight into corporate diversity, I interviewed a graduate and employee of Shell, named Jenny [who requested her last name not be used]. What was her opinion of diversity and the importance of diversity within her everyday working life at Shell?
“Diversity is differences!” said Jenny, who is of Asian origin but was raised in many parts of the world and speaks with a distinct English accent. “Or more precisely, differences in ways of thinking and solving the problems at hand.”
To make the right team optimization, and get the best results, all the ingredients must be right. For this reason, Shell offers ‘On-Boarding’ courses to its employees and other team-building activities, which help employees of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds get accustomed to working together.
Jenny doesn’t feel her Shell co-workers have a strong notion of diversity, however, because on the everyday working level within the company, diversity is still mainly a concept. “At Shell, it’s important to have knowledge about diversity in the sense that previous teams had communication problems,” she says, “by which they all felt the same way about certain issues, but had difficulty expressing it in the same way. For example, previous team meetings used to last for fours hours, but after a working together for a while, the meetings only took 30 minutes.”
Brutal
Diversity requires extra time and energy. People must also be able to explore the different ways other people think and have the ability to listen to what other people are saying, rather than merely imposing their own ideas and opinions on them.
These skills and abilities are crucial to the success of company projects. For long-term projects, you have time to learn about your team members in depth; but for projects of short duration, it’s crucial to know about other nationalities in advance. Jenny says it is “often the loudest or culturally dominant player in the team who takes over. And this isn’t productive. A dialogue becomes a monologue, without respect and patience.”
Being of Asian origin, how does Jenny feel about working with the Dutch at Shell. “Compared to the British, who are careful when expressing themselves, I find the Dutch very direct. A Dutchman will just say: ‘That’s nonsense!’ The Dutch can be quite brutal. Indians are also very direct people, but there’s a difference. There’s no word for ‘please’ in their language. An Indian simply says, for example, ‘Two coffees give!’ For Indians, however, it’s all about the tone of voice used.”
Learning about diversity and promoting your experiences of working in diverse environments will increase your chances getting hired by international companies, universities or programs. There are a number of actions TU Delft students can take now to learn about diversity. One suggestion is to read the book, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind’, by Geert Hofstede, who studied the IBM Corporation globally, in order to measure and develop recommendations for handling different cultures in a business context.
Another recommendation is to join one of the many international business games that are regularly posted on announcement boards of the various TU faculties. Diversity is about differences and change. So change a little, and change for the better.
(Photo illustration: Martin Dam-Sorensen, MSc, Sweden)
Work hard and prepare yourself for a career in the professional fast lane! This is what universities, our parents and corporate recruiters are telling us all the time. But is that all it takes to get to the top of the corporate tree today?
Prior to studying at TU Delft, I worked professionally for Shell, among other companies, and during that period I discovered that diversity has now become an important factor in achieving professional success.
So, what exactly is diversity? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: (1) ‘A range of many people or things that are very different from each other’; and (2): ‘The quality or fact of including a range of many people or things’.
On the basis of these definitions, many Western companies are striving to create diverse company cultures. They are doing this in the interests of achieving balance and the diverse project inputs they need to succeed. Increasing globalization and advancing technologies allow for greater ease of communication and access to other markets. Companies are becoming increasingly international, their workforces ethnically
and culturally diverse and integrated.
For many international corporations, like Shell, Airbus, GE and Phillips, ‘diversity’ is the new buzz word. And these companies are searching far and wide for this quality of diversity in us students – their future employees. Diversity has many facets. Having a great education is apparently no longer enough. Students must now also have the experience of working with many different nationalities on our CVs.
Ingredients
Shell annually recruits large numbers of TU Delft engineers, and, because of the company’s fine reputation, it’s a global favorite place to work for many students. It seems as if all corners of the globe are part of Shell’s corporate DNA, and it’s for this reason that having the right mix of diverse employees is so critical for a company competing in a fierce global marketplace.
To gain a deeper insight into corporate diversity, I interviewed a graduate and employee of Shell, named Jenny [who requested her last name not be used]. What was her opinion of diversity and the importance of diversity within her everyday working life at Shell?
“Diversity is differences!” said Jenny, who is of Asian origin but was raised in many parts of the world and speaks with a distinct English accent. “Or more precisely, differences in ways of thinking and solving the problems at hand.”
To make the right team optimization, and get the best results, all the ingredients must be right. For this reason, Shell offers ‘On-Boarding’ courses to its employees and other team-building activities, which help employees of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds get accustomed to working together.
Jenny doesn’t feel her Shell co-workers have a strong notion of diversity, however, because on the everyday working level within the company, diversity is still mainly a concept. “At Shell, it’s important to have knowledge about diversity in the sense that previous teams had communication problems,” she says, “by which they all felt the same way about certain issues, but had difficulty expressing it in the same way. For example, previous team meetings used to last for fours hours, but after a working together for a while, the meetings only took 30 minutes.”
Brutal
Diversity requires extra time and energy. People must also be able to explore the different ways other people think and have the ability to listen to what other people are saying, rather than merely imposing their own ideas and opinions on them.
These skills and abilities are crucial to the success of company projects. For long-term projects, you have time to learn about your team members in depth; but for projects of short duration, it’s crucial to know about other nationalities in advance. Jenny says it is “often the loudest or culturally dominant player in the team who takes over. And this isn’t productive. A dialogue becomes a monologue, without respect and patience.”
Being of Asian origin, how does Jenny feel about working with the Dutch at Shell. “Compared to the British, who are careful when expressing themselves, I find the Dutch very direct. A Dutchman will just say: ‘That’s nonsense!’ The Dutch can be quite brutal. Indians are also very direct people, but there’s a difference. There’s no word for ‘please’ in their language. An Indian simply says, for example, ‘Two coffees give!’ For Indians, however, it’s all about the tone of voice used.”
Learning about diversity and promoting your experiences of working in diverse environments will increase your chances getting hired by international companies, universities or programs. There are a number of actions TU Delft students can take now to learn about diversity. One suggestion is to read the book, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind’, by Geert Hofstede, who studied the IBM Corporation globally, in order to measure and develop recommendations for handling different cultures in a business context.
Another recommendation is to join one of the many international business games that are regularly posted on announcement boards of the various TU faculties. Diversity is about differences and change. So change a little, and change for the better.
(Photo illustration: Martin Dam-Sorensen, MSc, Sweden)
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