Meeting the Challenge of Diversity

Meeting the Challenge of Diversity

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Copyright © 2005 by South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning. All rights reserved.


Diversity in the population, the workforce, and the marketplace is a fact of life no manager can afford to ignore

Managing diversity today – recruiting, training, valuing, maximizing potential of people

Manager’s Challenge: Wal-Mart

Gender Disability Sexual orientation

Race Ethnicity EducationAge Religion Economic level

Smart managers value diversity & enforce the value in decisions

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Topic of Diversity Causes and Consequences Challenges Minorities face Ways Managers Deal with Workplace Diversity Organizational Responses to Value Diversity Other Diversity Issues in Today’s Workplace


Topics Chapter 13

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Valuing Diversity

Top managers value diversity ● Give organization access to broader range of

opinions and viewpoints● Reflect an increasingly diverse customer base● Obtain the best talent in a competitive

environment● Demonstrate the company’s commitment to doing

the right thing

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Valuing Diversity

Job seekers value diversity

90% of job seekers think diversity programs make a company a better place to work

Survey commissioned by The New York Times

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Corporate Diversity in U.S.

Many managers are ill-prepared to handle diversity issues

Many Americans grew up in racially unmixed neighborhoods

Had little exposure to people substantially different from themselves

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Workforce Diversity

Hiring people with different human qualities or who belong to various cultural groups

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Dimensions of Diversity

Person

Race

Physical Ability

Sexual Orientation

EthnicityGender Age

Primary Dimensions

Secondary Dimensions

EducationMarital Status

Parental Status

Work Background

Income

Geographic Location

Military Experience

Religious Beliefs

Primary Dimensions Inborn difference - Have an impact throughout one’s life

Secondary Dimensions Acquired or changed throughout one’s lifetime Have less impact – still impact self definition

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Monoculture & Diversity

A culture that accepts only one way to do things There is only one set of values and beliefs

Experiential Exercise: How Tolerant Are You?

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Attitudes Toward Diversity

Ethnocentrism = belief that one’s own group or subculture is inherently superior to other groups or cultures

Enthnorelativism = belief that groups and subcultures are inherently equal

Pluralism = an organization accommodates several subcultures

Goal for organizations seeking cultural diversity is pluralism

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The Changing Workplace

Dramatic Changes in

the Customer

Base

Changing Composition of

Workforce

There are more women, people

of color, and immigrants

seeking opportunities

Globalization Competition is intense

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The Workplace & Bias

Lack of choice assignments

Disregard by a subordinate of a minority manager’s direction

Ignoring of comments made by women & minorities at meetings

A need to become “Bicultural”

How It Shows Up

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Biculturalism

Socio-cultural skills and attitudes used by racial minorities as they move back and forth between the dominant culture and their own ethnic or racial culture

Means minorities use to deal with bias in the workplace

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Challenges For Management

CHALLENGES OF

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Organization CultureValuing differencesPrevailing value systemCultural inclusion HR Management Systems

(Bias Free?)RecruitmentTraining and developmentPerformance appraisalCompensation and benefitsPromotion

Higher Career Involvement of Women

Dual-career couplesSexism and sexual harassmentWork-family conflict

Heterogeneity in Race/Ethnicity/Nationalit

yEffect on cohesiveness, communication, conflict, moraleEffects of group identity on interaction (e.g., stereotyping)Prejudice (racism, ethnocentrism)

Promoting knowledge and acceptance

Education ProgramsEducate management on valuing differences

Taking advantage of the opportunities that diversify provides

Mind-Sets about DiversityProblem or opportunity?

Level of majority-culture buy-in (resistance or support)

Challenge met or barely addressed?

Source: Taylor H. Cox and Stacy Blake,”Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications For Organizational Competitiveness,” Academy of Management Executive 5, no 3 (1991), 45-56

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Affirmative Action Current Debate

Affirmative action was developed in response to conditions 40 years ago.

Today more then half the U.S. workforce consists of women and minorities.

It is not the same as diversity Research shows that full integration of women and

racial minorities into organizations is still at least a decade away

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Glass Ceiling

An invisible barrier separates women and minorities from top management positions

Fortune 500 Women Corporate Officers– 2004 = 15.7%– 2000 = 12.5%– 1995 = 8.7%– Only eight Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs

Ethical Dilemma: A Man’s World

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Inclusive Practices in the Workplace

Building a corporate culture that values diversity Changing structures, policies, and systems to support diversity

Recruitment Career advancement

Providing diversity awareness training

Current Responses to Diversity

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Diversity Initiatives Recruitment Examine employee demographics Examine composition of the labor pool in the area Examine composition of the customer base Career Advancement Eliminate the glass ceiling Accomplish mentoring relationships Accommodating Special Needs Child care Non-English speaking training materials and information packets can be

provided Maternity or paternity leave Flexible work schedules Home-based employment Long-term-care insurance, special health or life benefits

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Stages of Diversity Awareness

Source: Based on M. Bennett, “A developmental Approach to Training for Intercultural Sensitivity,” International journal of Intercultural relations 10 (1986), 176-196.

Highest Level of Awareness

Lowest Level of Awareness

Denial

No awareness of cultural differencesParochial view of the world

In extreme cases, may claim other cultures are subhuman

DefensePerceives threat against one’s

comfortable worldviewUses negative stereotypingAssumes own culture superior

Minimizing Differences

Focuses on similarities among all peoples

Hides or trivializes cultural differences

Accepts behavioral differences and underlying differences in values

Recognizes validity of other ways of thinking and perceiving the world

Acceptance

Adaptation

Able to empathize with those of other cultures

Able to shift from one cultural perspective to another

IntegrationMulticultural attitude-enables

one to integrate differences and adapt both cognitively and behaviorally

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Organizational Relationships

Emotional Intimacy Sexual Harassment - various forms defined

by one university:● Generalized● Inappropriate/offensive● Solicitation with promise of reward● Coercion with threat of punishment● Sexual crimes and misdemeanors

Two Issues of Concern of Close Relationships in the Workplace

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Global Diversity Programs

Expatriates = employees who live and work in a country other than their own

Global Diversity Program– Employee selection– Employee training– Understanding high vs. low-context communication context

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Leveraging Diversity

Multicultural teams = made up from diverse national, racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds

Employee network groups = based on social identity, and organized by employees to focus on concerns of employees from that group

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Managing Multicultural Teams

Advantages– Enhanced creativity, innovation, and value in

today’s global marketplace– Generate more and better alternatives to

problems– Produce more creative solutions than

homogeneous teams Disadvantage - increased potential for

miscommunication and misunderstanding

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Diversity in a Turbulent World

Diversity in the workplace reflects diversity in the larger

environment

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Diversity in a Turbulent World

Organizations that value diversity encourage and support network groups to enable minority organization members to● reduce their social isolation ● be more effective in their jobs ● have a greater impact on the organization● achieve greater opportunities for career

advancement

Smart managers value diversity & enforce the value in decisions

Documents

Meeting the Challenge of Diversity