Managing Diversity

4

• How can employees respect differences?• How can an organization attract and retain

a diverse workforce?

• How is diversity successfully managed? • How are affirmative action programs

linked to employee diversity programs?

Diversity and HR Challenges…

What is Diversity?

Diversity = human characteristics that make people different from one another

• Characteristics have no or little control over• Characteristics can adopt, drop, or modify

What is Diversity? (Cont.)

Affirmative Action vs. Managing Diversity:• Affirmative Action = providing opportunities for

women and minorities• Managing Diversity = set of activities involved in

integrating nontraditional employees (women and minorities) into the workforce and using diversity to the organization’s competitive advantage

Why is Diversity Important?

• Changing Demographics• Research (Rosabeth Kanter) has shown that

diversity in the workforce can bring about:• Greater Creativity• Better Problem solving• Greater system flexibility• Better Information

• Marketing Concerns

Why is Diversity Important? (Cont.)

“By 2050, the U.S. population is expected to increase by 50% and minority groups will make up nearly half of the population…. The population of older Americans is expected to more than double. One-quarter of all Americans will be of Hispanic origin…. More women and people with disabilities will be on the job.”

U.S. Department of Labor, Futurework: Trends and Challenges

for Work in the 21st Century. Washington, D.D. (Labor Day 1999).

Key Challenges to Managing Employee Diversity

• Individual vs. Group Fairness• Universal Concept of Management vs. Cultural Relativity

Concept of Management

• Resistance to Change• Group Cohesiveness & Interpersonal Conflict• Segmented Communications Networks• Resentment• Backlash• Retention

• Glass Ceiling: intangible barrier in an organization that prevents female and minority employees from rising to positions above a certain level

• Competition for Opportunities

Key Challenges to Managing Employee Diversity

Groups identified to be most likely left out of corporate mainstream:

• African-Americans• Asian-Americans• People with Disabilities• Foreign Born• Homosexuals• Latinos (Hispanic-Americans)• Older Workers• Religious Minorities• Women

Improving the Management of Diversity

• Top Management Commitment to Valuing Diversity

• Diversity Training Programs• programs that train and

educate employees on specific cultural and sex differences and how to respond to these in the workplace

Improving the Management of Diversity (Cont.)

• Support Groups• groups established to provided

nurturing climate for those that might feel isolated or alienated

• Accommodation of Family Needs

• Senior Mentoring Programs• support program in which senior

managers identify promising women and minorities and play an important role in nurturing their careers

Improving the Management of Diversity(Cont.)

• Apprenticeships• programs in which promising

prospective employees are groomed before they are actually hired

• Communication Standards• Diversity Audits:

• review of the effectiveness of an organization’s diversity management program (potential drawbacks)

• Management Responsibility & Accountably

Some Warnings

• Avoid Appearance of “White Male Bashing”• Avoid the Promotion of Stereotypes

• Cultural determinism• idea that one can successfully infer an individual’s

motivations, interests, values and behavioral traits based on that individual’s memberships

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this. There would be:

• 61 Asians• 12 Europeans• 14 from the Western

Hemisphere, both north and south

• 13 Africans• 50 would be female• 50 would be male• 74 would be nonwhite• 26 would be white• 67 would be non-Christian• 33 would be Christian• 89 would be heterosexual

• 11 would be homosexual • 6 people would possess 59% of

the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States

• 80 would live in substandard housing

• 14 would be unable to read• 33 would die of famine• 1 would be near death;• 1 would be near birth• 7 would have a college

education• 8 would own a computer

• Diversity management is about full utilization of people with different backgrounds and experiences.

• Effective diversity management strategy has a positive effect on cost reduction, creativity, problem solving, and organizational flexibility.

In Summary…