Article Review
Article Review
The article, diversity in IMF management ranks seen falling short of targets written by Sandrine Rastello faults the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for failing to make its management ranks balanced in nationality and gender. According to the article, IMF has not achieved its self-imposed diversity targets. A report released by the organization shows that despite the increase in share of women and staff from East Asia and Africa in management jobs, the figures are still below the set targets. However, the target set for staff from the Middle East reached the fund’s target, while that of emerging European economies dropped.
According to Diversity and Inclusion report released by the IMF, the fund has strives to become a more diverse and inclusive organization in recent years, with further progress made in the past year (IMF, 2013). Despite these achievements, the organization needs to make more effort to attain the set diversity benchmarks. The job cuts in 2008 and weak job market following the global financial crisis compromised the ability of the institution to meet these targets.
The writer of this article uses figures from the institution’s report to support his argument. The writer reports on the efforts made by the IMF managing Director Christine Lagarde towards making diversity a priority, but faults the managing director for not doing much. The writer of this article gives statistical evidence from the institution’s annual report to support his claims. The author reports that, “by the end of 2012, women at the fund held 22 percent of management jobs, compared with 37 percent at the World Bank and 34 percent at Inter-American Development Bank” (IMF, 2013). The report also shows that the institution targets to have 25 percent to 30 percent of women in managerial roles by the end of 2012. To show that the institution has not met its target, the author compares the target for each region against the achievement rate. For example, the target for emerging Europe is 4 percent while it has only achieved diversity ratio of 2.1 percent (Rastello, 2013). Additionally, the article shows that East Asia is 1.9 percent below the target, the same to Africa, which is 1.2 percent below the target. The figures show that Middle East has surpassed the target by 0.4 percent (Rastello, 2013).
The information used to verify the author’s argument is reliable because it comes from the Institution’s Diversity and Inclusion report as well as senior management. The figures come from the institution’s Diversity and Inclusion report, which is a credibility source of information for this article.
The evidence presented by the author is consistent with the argument and persuasive. The statistical evidence presented by the author clearly shows that IMF has not met its diversity targets. The author starts by comparing diversity in the management between IMF and other similar international institutions to show that the institution still lags behind in management diversity. The author further compares the progress of the institutions against its diversity benchmarks to drive the point home. The author concludes by mentioning the external factor, such as global financial crisis as a factor hindering diversity in management.
This article is essential to management students as it points out that organizations should ensure diversity in their organizations. Multinational organizations must embrace diversity as it enhances innovation, attracts talents, and cultural intelligence. Diversity on management will help businesses achieve their organizational goals more efficiently.
References:
IMF (Jan 31, 2013). 2013 diversity and inclusion annual report. IMF. Retrieved from www.imf.org/external/np/div/2013/index.pdf
Rastello, S. (Sep. 17, 2013). Diversity in IMF management ranks seen falling short of targets. Businessweek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-09-17/diversity-in-imf-management-ranks-seen-falling-short-of-targets
