Chapter 8

Cultural Control, Diversity, and Change

Cultural Control, Diversity and Change

• Cultural Control

• Organizational Culture and Diversity

• Traditional Perspective

• Interpretive Perspective

• Critical Perspective

• Ethics of Diversity

Cultural Control

• Limits of Managerial Action

• Ideology

• Organizational Assimilation and Socialization

Limits of Managerial Action

• The culture of an organization arises from and can be changed by many complex economic, technological, and social forces including the diversity of the workforce

• Today, such forces are reshaping organizational cultures

• Although managers and all organization members should plan for these changes, the changes will occur whether or not management wants them

Limits of Managerial ActionWhat can managers do to exert their influence?• Systems of concertive control: management produces a

value-based corporate vision that guides member behavior and decision-making (e.g., Saturn Corporation’s founding)

• The value and factual premises linked to this vision statement are accepted by employees in exchange for incentives such as continued employment, wages, and salary

• Workers then exhibit their identification with this vision when, in making a decision, they perceive the organization’s values and interests as relevant in evaluating alternative choices (Tompkins & Cheney,1983).

Limits of Managerial ActionWhat can managers do to exert their influence?• Codification of values and beliefs, promotion of

interaction and close ties among employees, taking care of newcomers through socialization activities, and carefully monitoring the extent to which corporate values, norms and practices are received and put into use by employees (Van Maanen & Kuda, 1989)

Ideology

• Ideology: the body of ideas that reflect the social needs or world-view of an individual, group, or culture.

• Two approaches to understanding ideology: interest theory and strain theory.

• Interest theory: ideologies emerge “against the background of a continuous struggle between various groups who vie for power in society; the most powerful group is the one which is able to institutionalize its own particular world-view or ideology.” (Mumby, 1989)

Ideology

• Strain theory: people accept a particular ideology because it provides them with the means of dealing with the strains associated with a social role.

• A subordinate may accept a manager’s interpretation of a work rule because it both meets the manager’s expectation of what “good performance is” (enhancing the manager’s evaluation of the subordinate) and it prevents a troublesome conflict from surfacing between them.

Ideology

• When managers attempt to persuade workers to adopt certain values, norms and ideas about what is good, important, and praiseworthy; they are engaging in a form of ideological control (Alvesson, 1993)

• Even if managers dominate ideology formation, counter-meanings can surface to challenge their dominance.

• One group cannot impose an ideology on another without expecting some sort of challenge. Alternative, resistant interpretations are always possible (Mumby, 1989)

Organizational Socialization and Assimilation

Jablin’s (2001) Four-Stage Model• Anticipatory Socialization• Organizational Anticipatory Socialization• Organizational Entry and Assimilation• Organizational Exit

Anticipatory Socialization• Children learn about how they should act in

organizations based on conversations they have with family members (listening to dinner table talk when their parents talk about their jobs).

• Information about what to expect in organizations is gleaned from lessons at school that describe work in different types of jobs and companies.

• Peers and friends, as well as the media may influence our thinking.

• Part-time employment provides insights into what to expect when working in an organization.

Organizational Anticipatory Socialization

• Workers receive information based on formal or informal recruitment strategies used by organizations (advertisements, articles in trade publications, and initial contacts with organizational representatives).

• During a selection interview applicants are exposed to information about the organization (May be distorted by exposure to exclusively positive information).

• The employee may also be exposed to messages that start to give insight into the culture of the organization and “the way things are done around here.”

Organizational Entry and Assimilation

• Orientation sessions (may include description of culture)

• Job-oriented training

• Formal/Informal socialization from experienced co-workers and managers

• Actively seek out information

• Assimilation: seeking information to carve out space for individual control and personal empowerment (changing the organization)

Organizational Exit

• Although an employee may leave an organization for reasons other than being controlled or manipulated by its culture (e.g., retirement, a more lucrative offer, etc.), exit may characterize an employee’s dissatisfaction with having his or her needs met.

Organizational Culture and Diversity

• Workplace diversity exists when an organization employs members of different demographic characteristics (gender, race and ethnicity, age, and physical ability)

• Expanded interpretation: diversity involves not only variation in demographics, but also variation in modes of thinking, feeling, and acting

• Contemporary organizations operate in an increasingly complex global environment. Success in this environment requires creative thinkers who approach issues or problems from multiple perspectives .

Organizational Culture and Diversity

• How does workplace diversity influence and change organizational culture?

• The most undeniable source of change at the moment is the increasing diversity of people who make up the workplace.

• The emergence of alternative, resistant ideologies is more likely to occur when an organization employs members who have different perspectives or worldviews.

Organizational Culture and Diversity

• Workforce 2000: predicted radical changes in the composition of the twenty-first century American workplace due primarily to the entry of vast numbers of women and minorities into the labor market.

• The predictions made in this report started to occur in the 1990s and continue today.

• Organizational discussions have shifted from “changing corporate culture” through cultural engineering to diversity management, and learning how to value diversity.

Traditional Perspective

• Management should control a diverse corporate culture in ways that promote efficiency and productivity, harnessing diversity to benefit the organization

• Diverse worldviews may increase the pool of creative ideas in an organization, so diversity may improve the quality of group decision-making

• Concerned with pursuing diversity in ways consistent with federal mandates and the guidelines set forth by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Traditional Perspective

• Affirmative Action and Its Misconceptions• Managing the Diverse Organization

Affirmative Action

• Coined by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 when he issued Executive Order 11246 prohibiting federal agencies from contracting with firms that were not committed to affirmative action.

• Companies must engage in “vigorous efforts to bring people of color into jobs from which they had previously been excluded” (ACLU, 1995).

Affirmative Action Misconceptions

• First, affirmative action is often linked to quota systems.

• In fact, quotas are illegal.

• Second, affirmative action promotes preferential treatment.

• Conversely, affirmative action is “an equalizer that accommodates people whose gender and color have long been viewed as proxies for incompetence” (ACLU, 2000).

Affirmative Action Misconceptions

• Third, affirmative action programs force employers to hire and admit unqualified people just because they are non-white or female.

• In fact, affirmative action has never been about hiring people solely because of their color or sex without concern for their abilities.

• Fourth, reverse discrimination penalizes white males.

• Restructuring a discriminatory status quo to create a nondiscriminatory environment isn’t reverse discrimination. It may feel that way because something is being lost: white favoritism (ACLU, 1995).

Supreme Court Cases

• Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA)

The LSA program was found to be improper because the admissions department automatically awarded 20 points (out of a possible 100) to every underrepresented minority applicant solely because of race

Supreme Court Cases

• Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

University of Michigan Law School

The Law School’s program was supported because of its“holistic and individualized assessment where admissions officers and law school deans, count race as one of many relevant factors as they select a law school class” (Guinier, 2003)

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

The Supreme Court also supported the argument that diversity may be considered a “compelling government interest” and that “educational institutions have the authority to decide that diversity is essential to their missions”

Managing and Valuing Diversity

• In order to successfully manage diversity, groups must be willing to share power.

• Minority group members should be encouraged to innovate their work roles by engaging in behaviors that are more consistent with their cultural heritage.

• Institute programs that value diversity emphasizing that people who are different should be able to maintain their cultural and ethnic identities in a pluralistic society.

Valuing Diversity

• Valuing Diversity means integrating the perspectives and behaviors of racial and ethnic minorities into the workplace so no single ideology silences the voices of those who can make important and meaningful contributions.

• Valuing diversity means that minority group members are a part of the organization’s leadership team.

Managing the Diverse Organization

• Exhibit a global perspective

– Learning about people representing diverse groups including their perspectives, tastes, trends, technologies, and approaches to business and communication.

• Transition and adaptation

– Develop specific knowledge of various diverse groups and learn how to adapt your thinking and behavior to respond and work effectively with these new workers.

• Lived cultural experience

– Ultimately, managers must be comfortable living among workers representing diverse groups. Taking an assignment in an organization’s overseas affiliate to learn more about the culture of a particular group.

Interpretive Perspective

• How Diversity Effects Organizational Culture• Age

Diversity and Org Culture• Diversity in an organization produces differences in

the worldviews that are represented, creating a more complex and diverse social construction of reality.

• Prejudices may lead some experienced employees to devalue the contributions of new group members and do everything they can to make adjustment difficult for them. This creates a culture dominated by struggle for diverse workers.

• Increased conflict related to broadening the worldviews present within an organization as more diverse members join the ranks.

Diversity and Org Culture• Creativity is often inspired by the blending or

juxtaposition of differences to produce a new way of seeing a problem

• When an organization employs people from diverse groups a statement is being made about how that organization respects, celebrates, and values differences among people. This impacts how employees from diverse groups feel about working for a company.

• Employees from dominant groups may feel positive about working for an organization that supports and respects people from many different groups.

Age and CultureAge• Age differences among employees will add to cultural

diversity because of unique values and worldviews embedded in varied age groups.

• The workplace of the next decade or so will be inhabited by four basic age groups: Traditionals, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials

• The values and needs of these four groups are not especially compatible, and organizations will need to creatively reconstruct the workplace and work processes to maximize the effectiveness of each group and achieve levels of mutual tolerance.

Traditionals

• Born between 1925 and 1945 and influenced by the history of catastrophic events such as the Great Depression and World War II. They tend to regard Baby Boomers as disrespectful, too blunt, yet also too "warm and fuzzy." They regard Generation X as impatient and unethical and Millennials as too distracted by technology.

• Former President George Bush, and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy

Baby Boomers

• Born between 1946 and 1964, they comprise the enormous post-World War II generation that created, or, grew up under the influence of the 1960s counterculture. They tend to see Traditionals as too cautious, too conservative, and inflexible. They regard Generation X as selfish and manipulative, and Millennials as lacking focus.

• Bill and Hillary Clinton and Rush Limbaugh

Generation X

• Born between 1965 and 1976, are in numbers a much smaller generation than the generation of Boomers that preceded them.

• Brings a new set of concerns to the workplace, especially an emphasis on quality of work life, including the work environment and the nature of the work itself.

• More likely to view work as a means to support their current lifestyle interests (skiing, kayaking, travel) versus viewing work as a means to support retirement activities.

Generation X

• Sees Traditionals as rigid, old, and over-the-hill, regard Boomers as disgustingly “New Age” workaholics, and Millennials as too optimistic and insufficiently rule-governed.

• Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and actress Drew Barrymore are members of this generation.

Millennials• Born between 1977 and 1998. They celebrate

diversity in all forms and they are both optimistic and realistic in their worldview.

• Pride themselves on being self-inventive and individualistic. Rather than following or rejecting rules, they seek to rewrite the rules that will govern their lives.

• Have grown up in an environment where change is rapid and they believe organizing will be much more spontaneous in the future. As a result, they do not so much reject institutions as see them as increasingly irrelevant (federal government and Katrina disaster)

Millennials• Technology is not something to be used (as it

is for Generation X); it is what life is all about. They assume a technology-dominated world.

• They do not merely multi-task, they multi-task fast.

• Because their parents nurtured them, they expect nurturing organizations.

• Race car driver Danica Patrick and England's Prince William

Critical Perspective• Powerful groups (e.g., European American men) will

sustain power no matter how much diversity is present in an organization. Those groups with historical access to power have more resources and experience at manipulating power relations and holding on to control.

• If diversity is genuinely celebrated in an organization, groups historically excluded from participation and power relations become equal participants who are empowered. A person’s skills, abilities, and contributions determine their success rather than their demographic classification.

Critical Perspective• Gender

– Sexual Harassment– Glass Ceiling– Feminine Styles of Leadership and Communication– Women, Feminist Philosophy, and Cultural Change– Sexual Orientation

• Race and Ethnicity– Controversies and Possible Solutions

• Class• Physical Abilities

Gender

• In 2005 women comprised 46% of the U.S. workforce

• By 2012 women are projected to comprise 47% of the U.S. workforce

U.S. Department of Labor (2006)

Sexual Harassment• Sexual harassment is pervasive in the U.S. workplace,

and women usually are the victims

• Seventy to ninety percent of working women report having experienced sexual harassment according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

• American Association of University Women reported that in 2005 nearly two-thirds of all college students experience sexual harassment at some point during college

• In fiscal year 2005 the U.S. EEOC reported 12,859 charges of sexual harassment that resulted in $47.9 million in settlements for the charging parties

Sexual Harassment• Quid pro quo: This for that harassment occurs

when employment conditions such as raises, promotions, or job security are contingent upon sexual favors

• Hostile Environment: may include behavior such as sexual propositions, sexual jokes, lewd comments, displays of pornographic materials, fondling, and even nonsexual actions directed at a person because of that person’s sex, but it must be unwelcome and constitute an environment that a reasonable person would regard as offensive

Sexual HarassmentResponding to Sexual Harassment• Tell your harasser to stop the offensive behavior and

make clear that you do not want sexual attention from him or her. If the person persists, you should write a letter telling the harasser to stop and you should make a copy of that letter for your records.

• When you are harassed you should write down exactly what happened whether it is inappropriate language or touch. The time, date, and place of the occurrence should be recorded as well as the names of any witnesses. These notes should be kept at home.

Sexual Harassment• Seek out support from friends, family, and co-workers.

• If you are a member of a union, you should talk to your union representatives about your options.

• Talk to your employer because all organizations should have written policies against sexual harassment. If the manager you speak to is uncooperative, talk to staff in personnel or in your equal employment opportunity office.

• Keep an accurate record of your work performance including performance evaluations and any informal statements (e.g., e-mails, memos) that speak to the quantity and/or quality of your work.

Sexual Harassment• Recognize that you have the right to file a

charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency created for your protection. The EEOC may be contacted toll free at 1-800-669-EEOC.

• Find out more about your legal rights by talking with a lawyer who specializes in sex discrimination.

Glass Ceiling• In 2005, women held half of all entry-level

management and professional positions (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005).

• In 2005 only eight women were CEOs in the Fortune 500; an additional nine were CEOs in Fortune 501-1000 companies.

• Women account for only 14.7 percent of all Fortune 500 board seats, and only 7.9 percent of positions with the title of Chairman, Vice Chairman, CEO, President, Chief Operating Officer, Senior Executive Vice-President, and Executive Vice-President

(Catalyst, 2006).

Glass Ceiling• Is the Glass Ceiling a result of discrimination or

because large numbers of women are still in the process of gaining the experiences that ultimately will bring promotions to senior management?

• Marion Sandler, president of Golden West Financial Corp., “It’s the power structure that doesn’t allow women entry.”

• Carleton Fiorina, a vice president with AT & T, “I’ve never felt that my sex has been a disadvantage to me.... No one can expect to be handed power.”

Feminine Styles of Leadership

• Men are more aggressive than women. It shows up in 2-year-olds ... persists into adulthood.... And there is little doubt that it is rooted in biology” (McLoughlin, 1988).

• Sally Helgesen (1990) not only contends that women differ from men in their ways of leadership, but also calls this difference the female advantage.

• Many feminists have relied on this presumption to advocate nonhierarchical, democratic, collective life in organizations (Ferguson, 1984)

Feminine Styles of Leadership

• Most studies report either no differences between men and women in leadership positions or that gender has a trivial, almost nonexistent influence on that behavior.

• Explanation: Male behaviors represent the norm to which organizational members must adapt. Women copy the behaviors of men in order to gain acceptance and succeed in their careers.

• If this is indeed the case, organizations are losing out on the benefits of gender diversity in the workplace.

Women, Feminist Philosophy, and Cultural Change

• Male values: self-assertion, separation, independence, control, competition, focused perception, rationality, analysis, clarity, discrimination and activity

• Female values: interdependence, cooperation, receptivity, merging, acceptance, awareness of patterns, wholes and contexts, emotional tone, personal perception, being, intuition, and synthesizing”. The underlying themes linked to these values are openness to the environment, interconnection, and mutual development. [Marshall, 1993]

Women, Feminist Philosophy, and Cultural Change

Four feminist themes relevant to organizational communication:

• Cooperation • Caring and concern for relationships and

community• Viewing humans as significant holistic beings• Recognizing the value of pursuing

possibilities and creative alternatives [Buzzanell, 1993]

Sexual Orientation

• Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals

• Difficulties faced by people of diverse sexual orientation are wide ranging: exclusion from groups, derogatory jokes, discrimination, hateful language, and violence

• Sexual orientation discrimination is not covered by the federal laws that generally prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age and disability for private employers (Workplace Fairness, 2006).

Sexual Orientation

• In different parts of the federal government and in various state governments employees are covered by provisions in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 that prohibits sexual orientation discrimination (Workplace Fairness, 2006).

• In 1998, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13087, reaffirming the Executive Branch’s longstanding internal policy that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation within the Executive Branch for civilian employees (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 1999).

Race and Ethnicity• Only 1.5 percent of women managers are African-

American, and 1.5 percent are members of other minorities (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006).

• Although affirmative action programs have helped millions of African-Americans to enter the mainstream economy, millions more have been left behind.

• 34 percent of all African-American children live in poverty (NCCP, 2006) and 28.5 percent of African American men have a chance of being incarcerated in their lifetime (Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2003).

Race and Ethnicity• African-American representation in the

workforce continues to increase. • Total workforce participation for African

Americans was 15.3 million in 2005 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006).

• The numbers of Asians and Hispanics in the workforce was 6.2 million and 18.6 million, respectively (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006).

Race and Ethnicity• As for those minorities who are not invisible,

there is a real possibility that they will confront insidious forms of racism, hostility, and even hatred as their numbers increase in the workplace.

• Solomon (1992) reports that racial and ethnic minorities face behaviors ranging from racial slurs (not only in conversations but also in hate mail, graffiti, and even hate faxes) to sabotage of computer files or work projects, and even outright physical assaults.

Solutions

Recognize Strategic Rationale to Support Racial and Ethnic Diversity

• Selig Center for Economic Growth, 2007 estimate: purchasing power will reach the following levels for the three major racial minority groups in the U.S. in 2007: African Americans $847 billion, Hispanic Americans $863 billion, and Asian Americans $420 billion

• Although workplace diversity may have been a moral issue 30 years ago, today, it is a strategic issue. Simply stated, diversity in the workplace will help American organizations compete successfully in a global economy.

Class• Problems related to class diversity are not due

inherently to the presence of different classes but on how people belonging to particular classes perceive they are treated.

• Very often problems occur when people performing mundane tasks for low pay perceive they are mistreated or disrespected by employers or employees who are paid much higher salaries.

• Every person deserves to be treated with respect no matter what job they work.

Class• Too many workers in the U.S. and in other

countries are not paid a living wage for full-time work.

• As Barbara Ehrenreich (2001) explains in her best-selling book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, millions of Americans work full-time, year-round for poverty level wages.

• These workers labor as wait staff, cleaning people, nursing home aides, and department store sales clerks.

Physical Abilities• There are at least 54 million Americans with disabilities

(The White House, 2006). • Until 1992, many were kept out of employment because

employers had done very little to accommodate the workplace to their needs (Solomon, 1992).

• The federal government then implemented the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), "the most sweeping civil rights legislation since 1964" (Solomon, 1992).

• The ADA requires employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for the workplace needs of the disabled and prohibits discrimination against the disabled in regard to all employment practices.

Physical Abilities• Making reasonable accommodations will require

close attention to job descriptions, supervisors' responsibilities, employee etiquette, and training programs not only for the people with disabilities, but also for those who need to know what kinds of accommodations to make and how to make them.

• Patricia Morrissey, vice president of Employment Advisory Services, has observed that effectiveness in complying with the ADA will center on the quality of interaction that occurs between disabled employees and those who are receiving them into the workplace (Solomon, 1992b).

Ethics of Diversity• Organizational commitment to diversity means more

than opening the doors for entry into an organization.

• From an ethical standpoint, organizations must also provide support for people who belong to diverse groups.

• Anticipating conflicts between different groups and preparing employees for them so they will learn how to work together rather than fight against one another.

• Promoting diverse members based on their contributions to the organization.