Chapter 13 Meeting the Challenge of Diversity

Richard L. Daft addresses themes and issues directly relevant to both the everyday demands and significant challenges facing businesses today. Comprehensive coverage helps develop managers able to look beyond traditional techniques and ideas to tap into a full breadth of management skills. With the best in proven management and new competencies that harness creativity, D.A.F.T. is Management!

1. Meeting the Challenge of Diversity Chapter 13

2. 2 Meeting the Challenge of Diversity 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

3. 3 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 Meeting the Challenge of Diversity Topics Chapter 13

4. 4 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

5. 5 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

6. 6 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

7. 7 Workforce Diversity Hiring people with different human qualities or who belong to various cultural groups

8. 8 Dimensions of Diversity Person Race Physical Ability Sexual Orientation Ethnicity Gender Age Primary Dimensions Secondary Dimensions Education Marital 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

9. 9 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?

10. 10 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

11. 11 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

12. 12 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

13. 13 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

14. 14 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/Nationality  Effect on cohesiveness, communication, conflict, morale  Effects of group identity on interaction (e.g., stereotyping) Prejudice (racism, ethnocentrism)  Promoting knowledge and acceptance Education Programs Educate 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

15. 15 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

16. 16 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

17. 17 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

18. 18 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

19. 19 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 worldview  Uses 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

20. 20 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

21. 21 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

22. 22 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

23. 23 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

24. 24 Diversity in a Turbulent World Diversity in the workplace reflects diversity in the larger environment

25. 25 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