4 Understanding Diversity

Promoting an organizational culture that prioritizes learning, creativity, and innovation is critical to reaping the full benefits of a diverse workforce. Diversity refers to differences, and it is an inevitable and strengthening feature of all things. Within the workplace, diversity refers to individual and group differences and compositional differences among people within a work unit, which may change based on context.^[1] Some differences in characteristics may be visible, while others may be less visible. Individual differences and their intersections contribute to an organization’s strength, mainly when staff with various characteristics equally and actively engage with the organization’s mission.

Diversity is a strengthening feature of a workforce and the scientific enterprise. Diverse perspectives, experiences, and knowledge fill unforeseen gaps and enable innovation through the intersection of ideas.^[2][3][4][5] Creating an organizational culture that allows diversity in all its forms to thrive is imperative to furthering NSF’s mission.

Leveraging DEIA

In a homogeneous organization lacking diversity, cultural and contextual factors do not have much impact on outcomes because staff are similar in their mindsets, abilities, experiences, and ideas. Homogeneous organizations become stagnant and lack opportunities for innovation and performance improvements. This can ultimately slow their ability to adapt to the changing needs of their environments and society.^[6]

Because diversity is everywhere, a workforce in the modern era of a global workplace will inevitably comprise people from different communities, life experiences, and backgrounds. To leverage staff abilities to enhance organizational outcomes, organizations must actively cultivate a purpose- and value-driven culture that emphasizes an organization’s identity, a supportive work environment, staff empowerment, continuous learning, mutual respect, and collaboration. This value-driven culture will improve positive outcomes such as performance, innovation, and adaptability.

In addition to diversity, it is imperative to address inclusion, equity, and accessibility. Equity involves eradicating systemic disparities among groups. Inclusion goes beyond diversity by emphasizing not only the mix of compositional differences but also the unique contributions of each staff member to the ideas, processes, and culture of an organization. Accessible organizations are those within which the culture “levels the playing field” by ensuring access and removing structural barriers, including those impacting people with disabilities, neurological and learning differences, and varying cultural capital.^[7] Whereas inclusion focuses on the contributions of all, equity and accessibility concern the organization’s structure and the extent to which all staff needs are met. Together, the components of DEIA are necessary to foster success and positive experiences for all.

For an organization to realize the benefits of DEIA on performance, a comprehensive and systemic approach is necessary to highlight the impact of different internal and external organizational performance factors on DEIA. Diversity serves as a tool to improve public service, reflecting the nation’s diversity. Recognizing and valuing DEIA contributes to organizational success and ensures that public services align with the diverse needs of the nation. As an organization responsible for producing a public good, DEIA is crucial to NSF’s culture.