This document discusses managing diversity in the workplace. It covers dimensions of diversity including race, gender, age, and others. It explains why valuing diversity is important for organizations, such as accessing a broader range of viewpoints and reflecting diverse customer bases. However, many managers are ill-prepared to handle diversity issues. The document outlines challenges minority employees face, such as lack of choice assignments, and need for biculturalism. It also discusses initiatives organizations can take to promote inclusion, such as recruitment, career advancement programs, and diversity training.

1. Meeting the Challenge of Diversity - Presentation
Transcript
1. Meeting the Challenge of Diversity CHAPTER 13 0
2. Learning Objectives
o Explain the dimensions of employee diversity and why ethnorelativism is
the appropriate attitude for today’s organizations.
o Discuss the changing workplace and how to effectively manage a
culturally diverse workforce.
o Understand the challenges minority employees face daily.
o Explain affirmative action and why factors such as the glass ceiling have
kept it from being more successful.
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3. Learning Objectives (contd.)
o Describe how to change corporate culture, structure, and policies and how
to use diversity training to foster an inclusive work environment.
o Explain the importance of addressing sexual harassment in the workplace.
o Define the importance of multicultural teams and employee network
groups for today’s globally diverse organizations.
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4. Meeting the Challenge of Diversity
o Diversity in the population, the workforce, and the marketplace is a fact of
life no manager can afford to ignore
o Managing diversity today – recruiting, training, valuing, maximizing
potential of people
Smart managers value diversity & enforce the value in decisions 0 Religion
Ethnicity Disability Economic level Age Education Race Sexual orientation
Gender
5. Valuing Diversity
o Top managers value diversity
 To give organization access to broader range of opinions and
viewpoints
 To spur greater creativity and innovation
 To reflect an increasingly diverse customer base
 To obtain the best talent in a competitive environment
 To more effectively compete in the global marketplace
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2. 6. Valuing Diversity (contd.)
o Job seekers value diversity
o 91% 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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7. Corporate Diversity in the U.S.
o Many managers are ill-prepared to handle diversity issues
o Many Americans grew up in racially unmixed neighborhoods
o Had little exposure to people substantially different from themselves
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8. Workforce Diversity
o A workforce made up of people with different human qualities or who
belong to various cultural groups
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9. 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 0
10. Monoculture & Diversity
o A culture that accepts only one way to do things
o There is only one set of values and beliefs
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11. Attitudes Toward Diversity
o Ethnocentrism = belief that one’s own group or subculture is inherently
superior to other groups or cultures
o Enthnorelativism = belief that groups and subcultures are inherently equal
o Pluralism = an organization accommodates several subcultures
Goal for organizations seeking cultural diversity is pluralism 0
12. 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 0
13. Challenges Minorities Face

3. o Lack of choice assignments
o Disregard by a subordinate of a minority manager’s direction
o Ignoring of comments made by women and minorities at meetings
o A need to become “Bicultural”
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14. Biculturalism
o 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 0
15. Challenges For Management CHALLENGES OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY Source:
Taylor H. Cox and Stacy Blake,”Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications For
Organizational Competitiveness,” Academy of Management Executive 5, no 3
(1991), 45-56 Exhibit 13.3 0 Organization Culturalν Prevailing value system ν
Valuing differences νCulture inclusion Trainingν Recruitment νHR Management
Systems (Bias Free?) ν Compensation and benefits ν Performance appraisal νand
development ν Dual-career couples νPromotion Higher Career Involvement of
Women Work-family conflict Heterogeneity inνSexism and sexual harassment
Effect on cohesiveness, communication,νRace/Ethnicity/Nationality Effects of
group identity on interaction (e.g.,νconflict, morale Promoting knowledgeν
Prejudice (racism, ethnocentrism) νstereotyping) Educate management on
valuingνand acceptance Education Programs Taking advantage of the opportunities
that diversifyνdifferences Level ofν Problem or opportunity? νprovides Mind-Sets
about Diversity Challenge met orνmajority-culture buy-in (resistance or support)
barely addressed?
16. Affirmative Action Current Debate
o Affirmative action was developed in response to conditions 40 years ago.
o Today more then half the U.S. workforce consists of women and
minorities.
o It is not the same as diversity.
o Research shows that full integration of women and racial minorities into
organizations is still at least a decade away.
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17. Glass Ceiling
o An invisible barrier separates women and minorities from top
management positions
o Fortune 500 Women Corporate Officers
 2004 = 15.7%
 2000 = 12.5%

4.  1995 = 8.7%
 Only eight Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs in 2006
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18. Inclusive Practices in the Workplace
o Building a corporate culture that values diversity
o Changing structures, policies, and systems to support diversity
 Recruitment
 Career advancement
o Providing diversity awareness training
Current Responses to Diversity 0
19. Diversity Initiatives
o Recruitment
o Examine employee demographics
o Examine composition of the labor pool in the area
o Examine composition of the customer base
o Career Advancement
o Eliminate the glass ceiling
o Accomplish mentoring relationships
o Accommodating Special Needs
o Child care
o Non-English speaking training materials and information packets can be
provided
o Maternity or paternity leave
o Flexible work schedules
o Home-based employment
o Long-term-care insurance, special health or life benefits
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20. 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 No awareness of cultural diffνAwareness Denial Parochialνerences In extreme
cases, may claim other cultures areνview of the world ν Perceives threat against
one’s comfortable worldview νsubhuman Defense Assumes own culture superior
MinimizingνUses negative stereotyping Hides orν Focuses on similarities among all
peoples νDifferences Accepts behavioral differences andνtrivializes cultural
differences Recognizes validity of other ways ofνunderlying differences in values
Able toνthinking and perceiving the world Acceptance Adaptation Able to shift
from one culturalνempathize with those of other cultures Multicultural attitude-

5. enables oneνperspective to another Integration to integrate differences and adapt
both cognitively and behaviorally Exhibit 13.6 0
21. Organizational Relationships
o Emotional Intimacy
o 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 0
22. Global Diversity Programs
o Expatriates = employees who live and work in a country other than their
own
o Global Diversity Program
 Employee selection
 Employee training
 Understanding high vs. low-context communication context
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23. High and Low Context Cultures Chinese Korean Japanese Vietnamese Arab Greek
Spanish Italian English North American Scandinavian Swiss German High Context
Low Context 0
24. Leveraging Diversity
o Multicultural teams = made up from diverse national, racial, ethnic and
cultural backgrounds
o Employee network groups = based on social identity, and organized by
employees to focus on concerns of employees from that group
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25. Managing Multicultural Teams
o 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
o Disadvantage - increased potential for miscommunication and
misunderstanding
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