Chapter 13 Meeting the Challenge of Diversity

Meeting the Challenge of Diversity

Chapte

r 13

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

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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 Education

Age 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

EthnicityGenderAge

Primary

Dimensions

Secondary

Dimensions

EducationMarital

Status

Parental

Status

Work

Background

Income

Geographic

Location

Military

Experience

Religious

Beliefs

Primary

DimensionsInborn

difference -

Have an

impact

throughout

one’s life

Secondary

DimensionsAcquired 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 Culture

Valuing differences

Prevailing value system

Cultural inclusion HR Management Systems

(Bias Free?)

Recruitment

Training and development

Performance appraisal

Compensation and benefits

Promotion

Higher Career Involvement

of Women

Dual-career couples

Sexism and sexual harassment

Work-family conflict

Heterogeneity in

Race/Ethnicity/NationalityEffect 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 Diversity

Problem 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 InitiativesRecruitment

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 differences

Parochial view of the world

In extreme cases, may claim other

cultures are subhuman

Defense

Perceives threat against one’s

comfortable worldviewUses negative stereotyping

Assumes 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

Integration

Multicultural 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

Leadership & Management

Chapter 13 Meeting the Challenge of Diversity