Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity

1. THE CHANGING WORKPLACE

   • Diversity in the United States
     • Aging workforce
       • Baby boomers continue to affect the workplace
     • Growth in Hispanic and Asian workers
       • The greatest increase in employment will occur with Asians and Hispanics
     • Minority purchasing power
       • Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans together represent $1.5 trillion in annual purchasing power.
     • Growth in foreign-born population
       • the foreign-born population of the United States nearly doubled, and immigrants now number more than 37.5 million
   • Diversity on a Global Scale
     • for organizations operating globally, social and cultural differences may create more diffculties and conflicts than any other sources

2. MANAGING DIVERSITY

   • Diversity
     • all the ways in which people differ
   • Creating a climate in which the potential advantages of diversity for organizational or group performance are maximized while the potential disadvantages are minimized.
   • Dividends of Workplace Diversity
     • Better use of employee talent
       • Companies with the best talent are the ones with the best competitive advantage.
     • Increased understanding of the marketplace.
       • A diverse workforce is better able to anticipate and respond to changing consumer needs.
     • Enhanced breadth of understanding in leadership positions
       • Homogeneous top management teams tend to be myopic in their perspectives
     • Increased quality of team problem solving.
       • Teams with diverse backgrounds bring different perspectives to a discussion that result in more creative ideas and solutions.
     • Reduced costs associated with high turnover, absenteeism, and lawsuits
       • Companies that foster a diverse workforce reduce turnover, absenteeism, and the risk of lawsuits

3. FACTORS SHAPING PERSONAL BIAS

   • Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotypes
     • Prejudice
       • The tendency to view people who are different as being deficient.
     • Discrimination
       • When someone acts out their prejudicial attitudes toward people who are the targets of their prejudice.
     • Stereotype
       • A rigid, exaggerated, irrational belief associated with a particular group of people.
         • Stereotype threat
           • A psychological experience of a person who, usually engaged in a task, is aware of a stereotype about his or her identify group suggesting that he or she will not perform well on that task.
   • Ethnocentrism
     • The belief that one’s own group or subculture is inherently superior to other groups or cultures.
       • Monoculture
         • A culture that accepts only one way of doing things and one set of values and beliefs.
       • Ethnorelativism
         • The belief that groups and subcultures are inherently equal.
       • Pluralism
         • An environment in which the organization accommodates several subcultures

4. FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN’S CAREERS

   • Glass Ceiling
     • Invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top management positions.
   • The Female Advantage
     • Some people think women might actually be better managers, partly because of a more collaborative, less hierarchical, relationship-oriented approach that is in tune with today’s global and multicultural environment.

5. NEW DIVERSITY INITIATIVES

   • Multicultural Teams
     • Teams made up of members from diverse national, raci l al, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
   • Employee Network Groups
     • Groups based on social identity, such as gender or race, and organized by employees to focus on concerns of employees from that group.

6. DIVERSITY INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMS

   • Providing Diversity Skills Training
     • Special training designed to educate employees about the importance of diversity,
   • Increasing Awareness of Sexual Harassment
     • Generalized
       • based solely on gender and reflect on the entire group.
     • Inappropriate/offensive
       • avoiding the harasser may limit his or her freedom and ability to function in the workplace.
     • Solicitation with promise of reward
       • This action treads a fne line as an attempt to “purchase” sex, with the potential for criminal prosecution.
     • Coercion with threat of punishment
       • The harasser coerces a coworker into sexual activity by using the threat of power
     • Sexual crimes and misdemeanors
       • The highest level of sexual harassment
   • Establishing Mentor Relationships
     • A higher-ranking, senior organizational member who is committed to providing upward mobility and support to a protégé’s professional career
       • Many people have special needs of which top managers may be unaware.
         • a new approach to recruitment means making better use of formal recruiting strategies, offering internship programs to give people opportunities, and developing creative ways to draw on previously unused labor markets.

7. CULTURAL COMPETENCE

   • The ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures
     • Step 1: Uncover diversity problems in the organization.
     • Step 2: Strengthen top management commitment.
     • Step 3: Choose solutions to ft a balanced strategy.
     • Step 4: Demand results and revisit the goals
     • Step 5: Maintain momentum to change the culture