This document discusses diversity and globalization and their impact on human relations. It defines diversity as acknowledging differences among people with respect to attributes like age, class, race, gender, etc. It describes different forms of diversity in the workplace like age, religion, race/ethnicity, and disability. It also discusses the benefits and challenges of diversity, including increased adaptability but also potential resistance to change. The document then discusses globalization and how multinational corporations operate in multiple countries. It notes that globalization affects human relations by introducing new challenges around understanding different cultures and finding effective ways to interact across differences.

1. Ms. Irene E. Balane
MAEd – Guidance and Counseling

2. DIVERSITY DEFINED
Diversity can
be defined as
acknowledging,
understanding,
accepting, and
valuing differences
among people with
respect to age,
class, race,
ethnicity, gender,
disabilities, etc.
(Esty et al. 1995).

3. Forms of Diversity in the Workplace
• Age
At any given time, there may be three or four generations at work. That is, people whose ages
could make them grandparents, parents and children if they were related, all bring different
experiences, worldviews and strengths to the modern workplace. Also, many people delay retirement
and stay in the workforce longer.
• Religious
People of all faiths -- and of no organized religious faith at all -- clock in workday mornings.
Religious diversity in the workplace can have a particular set of challenges. This may especially be so for
faith-based companies of a certain ideology or workers who wish to live consistently with their beliefs in
organizations that are expressly non-religious.
• Racial/Ethnic
People of color have always been a part of the U.S. workforce, even if they were not treated fairly
as such. Blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Latinos all played early roles in developing various
industries. Now, they are more widely hired in professional, service, corporate and public places of
employment.
• Disability
The U.S. government encourages the hiring of people with physical, mental or emotional
disabilities through federal laws and by making funding available to companies to employ these
workers. Even so-called invisible disabilities, such as depression, dyslexia and fibromyalgia, require
workplaces to provide reasonable accommodations. These accommodations help workers adequately
perform their duties without lowering performance expectations or standards.

4. Three Distinct Groupings in the Workforce:
1. Mature workers – they are these security oriented and has
a committed work ethics.
2. “Baby Boomers” – the largest group in the workforce are
regarded as career climbers – at the right place and at the
right time.
3. “Baby Busters” – are bringing a new perspective to the
workforce, less commitment, less rule bound being more
into their own gratification with intolerance of the baby
boomers and their attitude. As a result, they are viewed as
selfish and not willing to play by the rules.
Blending the three, will be required for human relations to be effective.
That is each of us will need to be trained to effectively deal with one
another and to respect one diversity of views that each offers.

5. WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
Workforce diversity is the differences that diverse groups
bring to the workplace, such as gender, nationality, age and
race. Diversity in the workplace will require each of us to
recognize the differences that diverse groups bring to the
workplace. This may mean significantly reducing bias and
prejudices against any one particular group. One challenge
therefore, is to accept diverse groups of people by addressing
different lifestyles, family needs, and work styles.

6. Benefits of Workplace Diversity
An organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and
realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity
issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported such as:
Increased adaptability
Organizations employing a diverse workforce can supply a greater variety of solutions
to problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees from diverse
backgrounds bring individual talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in
adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands.
Broader service range
• A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g. languages, cultural understanding) allows a
company to provide service to customers on a global basis.
Variety of viewpoints
• A diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying points of view provides a
larger pool of ideas and experiences. The organization can draw from that pool to meet
business strategy needs and the needs of customers more effectively.
More effective execution
• Companies that encourage diversity in the workplace inspire all of their employees to
perform to their highest ability. Company-wide strategies can then be executed; resulting in
higher productivity, profit, and return on investment.

7. Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity in the workplace is not without its
challenges. Some of those challenges are:
• Resistance to change - There are always employees who will refuse to accept the
fact that the social and cultural make up of their workplace is changing. The
“we’ve always done it this way” mentality silences new ideas and inhibits progress.
• Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies - This can be the overriding
challenge to all diversity advocates. Armed with the results of employee
assessments and research data, they must build and implement a customized
strategy to maximize the effects of diversity in the workplace for their particular
organization.
• Successful Management of Diversity in the Workplace - Diversity training alone is
not sufficient for your organization’s diversity management plan. A strategy must
be created and implemented to create a culture of diversity that permeates every
department and function of the organization.

8. Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
• Negative attitudes and behaviors can be barriers to organizational
diversity because they can harm working relationships and damage
morale and work productivity (Esty et al. 1995). Negative attitudes and
behaviors in the workplace include prejudice, stereotyping, and
discrimination, which should never be used by management for hiring,
retention, and termination practices (could lead to costly litigation).
• Prejudices and Discrimination - Managers may also be challenged with
losses in personnel and work productivity due to prejudice and
discrimination, as well as complaints and legal actions against the
organization (Devoe 1999).
• Communication - Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be
overcome for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective communication
of key objectives results in confusion, lack of teamwork, and low morale.

9. Required Tools for Managing
Diversity
Effective managers are aware that certain skills are necessary for
creating a successful, diverse workforce.
• First, managers must understand discrimination and its consequences.
• Second, managers must recognize their own cultural biases and
prejudices (Koonce 2001). Diversity is not about differences among
groups, but rather about differences among individuals. Each individual is
unique and does not represent or speak for a particular group.
• Finally, managers must be willing to change the organization if necessary
(Koonce 2001). Organizations need to learn how to manage diversity in
the workplace to be successful in the future (Flagg 2002).

10. Managing Conflict
According to Roosevelt (2001), managing diversity is a comprehensive
process for creating a work environment that includes everyone. When creating a
successful diverse workforce, an effective manager should focus on personal
awareness. Both managers and associates need to be aware of their personal
biases. Therefore, organizations need to develop, implement, and maintain
ongoing training because a one-day session of training will not change people’s
behaviors (Koonce 2001). Managers must also understand that fairness is not
necessarily equality. There are always exceptions to the rule.
Managing diversity is about more than equal employment opportunity and
affirmative action (Losyk 1996).
Managers should expect change to be slow, while at the same time
encouraging change (Koonce 2001).
Another vital requirement when dealing with diversity is promoting a safe
place for associates to communicate (Koonce 2001)..
Managers should implement policies such as mentoring programs to provide
associates access to information and opportunities. Also, associates should never
be denied necessary, constructive, critical feedback for learning about mistakes
and successes (Flagg 2002)

12. Why Human Relations?
Human relations is an
interdisciplinary field
because the study of human
behavior in organizational
settings draws on the fields
of communications,
management, psychology,
and sociology. It is an
important field of study
because all workers engage
in human relations activities.

13. Advantage to Having Good Human Relations;
From a personal perspective, there are many advantages to having good human
relations skills.
• First, of the top ten reasons people are fired, several reasons relate back to lack of
human relations skills—for example, the inability to work within a team,
personality issues, sexual harassment, and dishonesty. Other reasons, perhaps not
directly related to human relations, include absenteeism, poor performance,
stealing, political reasons, downsizing, and sabotage.
• Second, people who are competent team players and have a good work ethic tend
to get promoted faster. In fact, according to guru on personal development Brian
Tracy, 85 percent of your success in life is determined by social skills and the ability
to interact positively and effectively with others.
• Another reason to develop good relationships with others relates to your own
personal happiness. According to psychologist Sydney Jourard, most joy in life
comes from happy relationships with other people.

14. Human Relations
Consider John, a very talented project manager but lacking in human
relations skills. While he is easily able to plan and execute the finest details
for a project, no one likes to work with him. He doesn’t make efforts to get
to know his team members and he comes across as unfriendly and
unapproachable. How successful do you think John will be in his
workplace? While he has the skills necessary to do the job, he doesn’t have
the people skills that can help him excel at it. One could say he does not
have emotional intelligence skills—that is, the ability to understand others
—therefore, he may always find himself wondering why he isn’t more
successful at work.
• While project management skills are something we can learn, managers
find it difficult to hire people without the soft skills, or human relations
skills. We aren’t saying that skills are not important, but human relations
skills are equally as important as technical skills to determine career and
personal success.

15. Human Relations
Julie talks behind people’s backs and doesn’t follow through on her
promises. She exhibits body language that says “get away from me” and
rarely smiles or asks people about themselves. It is likely that Julie will
have very few, if any, friends. If Julie had positive human relations skills,
there is a much better chance she could improve her personal
relationships.
• Human relations skills such as communication and handling conflict can
help us create better relationships.
• Positive human relations skills reduce conflict in the workplace, thereby
making the workplace more productive.
• If people are not able to get along and resolve conflicts, the organization
as a whole will be less productive, which could affect profitability.

16. Human Relations
Kathy is doing a great job at work but suddenly starts to arrive late,
leave early, and take longer lunches. Upon further examination, we might
find that Kathy is having childcare issues because of her divorce. Because
of a total person approach perspective, her organization might be able to
rearrange her schedule or work with her to find a reasonable solution. This
relates to human relations because we are not just people going to work
every day; we are people who live our personal lives, and one affects the
other.
• Most organizations employ a total person approach. This approach
recognizes that an organization does not just employ someone with skills,
but rather, the whole person. This person comes with biases, personal
challenges, human relations skills, and technical skills but also comes with
experiences. By looking at a person from this perspective, an organization
can begin to understand that what happens to an employee outside of
work can affect his or her job performance.

17. Fourteen Principles of Management
1. Division of work. Work should be divided in the most efficient way. Fayol
believed work specialization, or the focus on specific tasks for teams or
individuals, to be crucial to success.
2. Authority. Authority is the right to give orders and accountability within
those orders. Fayol believed that along with giving orders and expecting
them to be met, that person in authority also assumes responsibility to
make sure tasks are met.
3. Discipline. Discipline is penalties applied to encourage common effort, as
a successful organization requires the common effort of all workers.
4. Unity of command. Workers should receive orders from only one
manager. In other words, reporting to two or more managers would
violate Fayol’s Fourteen Principles of Management.
5. Unity of direction. Everyone in the organization should move toward a
common goal and understand how the team will achieve that goal.

18. Fourteen Principles of Management
6. Subordination of individual interests to general interests. The interests of one
person shouldn’t have priority over the interests of the organization as a whole.
This focuses on teamwork and the importance of everyone acting toward the
same goal.
7. Remuneration. Many things should be considered when paying employees,
including cost of living, supply of qualified people, and business success.
8. Centralization. The degree of importance in the subordinates’ (employees’) role in
their organization and the amount of decision making that occurs at a central level
versus a decentralized level. For example, in many organizations decisions are
made centrally (i.e., in the “corporate office”), which does not allow as much
flexibility as decentralized decision making; this would mean each individual area
can make its own decisions.
9. Scalar chain. This refers to how authority is divided among managers. Specifically,
Fayol said lower-level managers should always keep upper-level managers
informed.
10. Order. All materials and people related to one kind of work should be organized
and neat. Things should be easy to find.

19. Fourteen Principles of Management
11. Equity. All employees should be treated equally.
12. Stability of tenure of personnel. Retention of employees should be a
high management priority. The cost of hiring a new worker is expensive,
so efforts should be maintained to keep current employees.
13. Initiative. Management should take steps to encourage workers to take
initiative. In addition, workers should be self-directed and not need a lot
of management control to accomplish tasks.
14. Esprit de corps. Managers should encourage harmony among
employees. This harmony creates good feelings among employees.

20. Globalization
The world was rapidly changing with other countries
making significant inroads into traditional market. It was only
late 1980s did US businesses begin to get the message and
late 1990 did Philippine businesses join the Wagon The
Philippines for one became more aggressive and began to
expand into what is commonly called the global village.
A global village recognizes that organizations are no
longer constrained by national borders. With this, people
must adapt to cultures, systems and techniques that are
different from their own.
Globalization has long been with US. Different countries were
able to trade in the US and western countries. But it was that
multinational corporations (MNCs) who initiated the rapid
growth in international trade.

21. Multinational corporations are those that maintain
significant operations in two or more countries
simultaneously but are based in one home country.
Globalization is extending the reach and goals on MNCs
to create and even more generic global organization – the
transnational corporation (TNC). This type of organization
doesn’t seek to repeat its domestic successors by managing
foreign operations from home. Decision making in TNC
takes place at the local level. Individuals in the host
countries called nationals typically are hired to run
operations in each country. And marketing and products for
each country are uniquely tailored to the country’s culture.

22. How Does Globalization Affect
Human Relations?
A boundary less world introduces new challenges for us.
These include our views of people from foreign lands, to an
understanding of their culture. Our specific challenge is
recognizing the differences that might exist and finding ways
to make our interactions more effective.
Parochialism means that use often see things solely
through our own eyes and within our perspectives. We
believe what we do is best. We simply do not recognize that
other people have different ways of doing things and live
differently than us. In essence, our parochialism leads to what
is technically called our ethnocentric view. That is, we view
our way as being better than these in other cultures. This
perception first requires us to understand the different
cultures and environment.

23. Understanding cultural environments then is
the success of interacting with others in the global
village. These become relevant if we find that our
jobs take us abroad. That is if you go to another
country, you must understand that country’s legal,
political, economic and cultural systems. Failure to
do so may result to cultural shock. Cultural shock is
cause by the confusion and the frustration that
occurs when we are first exposed to different
culture.