Managers must value diversity in the workforce to access a broader range of viewpoints, reflect an increasingly diverse customer base, and obtain the best talent. Diversity brings both opportunities and challenges to managing organizations, including building an inclusive culture, developing bias-free HR systems, and addressing prejudice and stereotyping. Leveraging diversity through multicultural teams and employee networks can enhance creativity and problem-solving, while also requiring efforts to reduce potential for miscommunication.

1. Meeting the Challenge of Diversity
Chapter13

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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

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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

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

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6
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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10
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

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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
 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 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

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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