How to Use Diversity as a Competitive Weapon

How to Use Diversity as a Competitive Weapon
Insert Name:
Institution affiliation
Date Due:
The Allstate Insurance Company, the “good hands people” which is the third largest personnel lines insurer in the United States, has developed a competitive strategic weapon of integrating cultural diversity. Allstate puts into consideration the racial and ethnic diversity of its clients under such they are culturally sensitive to its work force. Yang and Konrad (2011) say that to achieve this diversity awareness, Allstate manages embraced diversity through three main perspectives: it hires people from different racial background, train them on diversity awareness and are keen to encourage the minority and it also offers diversity training to its employees. Through this practice, Allstate satisfies and retains their customer base.
The constantly changing nature of workplaces from monochromic make-up offices to one coloured with people from all over the world; cultural awareness, therefore, becomes vital so as to develop the potential of the staffs. Yang and Konrad (2011) in their study observes that ‘cross-cultural differences do not lead to problems; it is normally more subtle manifestations which do lead to a lack of clear communication’ and hence poor performance. Cultural differences manifest in areas such as communication, attitude towards conflicts or in decision-making style and so for the team to realize this manifestation to enable cultural awareness becomes handy.
In my opinion, promotion of cultural diversity as a strategic weapon allows free inter-cultural relation among the employees and the customers as noted in the study (Yang and Konrad, 2011). This also explains the excellent performance of Allstate in becoming the top insurer of lives, automobiles and of homes. A multicultural team is rich in multiple talents and different abilities which consequently lead to profit maximization, and it also allows skills build-up. Notably, however, building real cross-cultural synergy is only reali...