Managing Diversity

1. 8-1
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. 8-2
Learning Objectives
 L01: Learn how diversity is critical organizational
and managerial issue.
 L02: Distinguish between affirmative action and
managing diversity.
 L03: Diversity can give organizations a competitive
edge.
 L04: Identify challenges associated with managing a
diverse workforce.

3. 8-3
Learning Objectives
 L05: Define monolithic, pluralistic, and multicultural
organizations.
 L06: Discuss how managers and their organizations
can cultivate diversity.
 L07: Summarize skills and knowledge managers
need to manage globally.
 L08: Identify ways in which cultural differences
across countries influence management.

4. 8-4
Managing Diversity
 Individuals with different backgrounds, beliefs,
capabilities, and cultures.
 Understand and value employee differences to
build a more effective and profitable
organization.
 Valuing the connections that arise and develop
between diverse employees.

5. 8-5
What is diversity?
 Gender
 Age
 Religious affiliation
 Disability status
 Military experience
 Sexual orientation
 Educational level

6. 8-6
Gender Issues
 Pay disparities still exist between men and
women
 “Glass ceiling” barrier is a reality for many
women
 Sexual harassment in the workplace has
increased

7. 8-7
Glass Ceiling
 Invisible barrier that makes it difficult for women and
minorities to rise above a certain level in the
organization
 Currently 12 women are chief executives of Fortune
500 companies (2%)

8. 8-8
Sexual Harassment
 Conduct of a sexual nature that has negative
consequences for employment
 Categories
 Quid pro quo
 submission to or rejection of sexual conduct is used as a
basis for employment decision.
 Hostile environment
 unwelcome sexual conduct “has the purpose or effect of
unreasonably interfering with job performance or creating an
intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.”

9. 8-9
Components of a Sexual Harassment Policy
1. Develop a comprehensive organization-wide
policy
2. Communicate it to all current and new
employees.
3. Conduct training sessions with supervisors to
explain Title VII requirements
 role in providing an environment free of sexual
harassment
 proper investigative procedures when charges
occur.

10. 8-10
Components of a Sexual Harassment Policy
3. Establish formal complaint procedure without fear
of retaliation.
4. Act immediately when employees complain of
sexual harassment.
5. When an investigation supports employee
charges, discipline the offender at once.
6. Follow up on all cases to ensure a satisfactory
resolution of the problem.

11. 8-11
Minorities and Immigrants
 Black, Asian, and Hispanic workers hold more
than one of every four U.S. jobs
 Asian and Hispanic workforces are fastest-
growing segment, followed by African American
workforce
 Three in ten college enrollees are people of
color.
 Foreign-born workers make up more than 15% of
the U.S. civilian labor force.
 About 50% are Hispanic, and 22% are Asian.

12. 8-12
What’s going on with minorities?
 White males no longer dominate urban
workforce
 Managing diversity is more than
eliminating discrimination
 Disparities remain in employment and
earnings
 Unemployment rates are higher for Hispanics
and African Americans
 Median earnings for white workers is higher
than those for Hispanics and African
Americans

13. 8-13
Mentally and Physically Disabled People
 Largest unemployed minority population
segment in the U.S.
 New assistive technologies make it easier for
companies to comply with ADA and for people
with disabilities to be productive.
 People with disabilities are an unexplored but
fruitful labor force.

14. 8-14
Tomorrow’s workers
 Women, Asian Americans, African Americans,
and Hispanic workers growing faster than white
male workers
 Lower birth rates in U.S. will lead to smaller labor
force leading to outsourcing to firms in
developing nations
 Median age of America’s workforce is increasing
 70% of workers between the ages of 45 and 74
intend to work in retirement

15. 8-15
Managing Diversity vs. Affirmative Action
 Managing Diversity
 Goes beyond legislated mandates
 Embraces proactive business philosophy that
sees differences as positive
 Affirmative Action
 Special efforts to recruit and hire qualified
members of groups that have been
discriminated against in the past

16. 8-16
Diversity as a competitive advantage
 Ability to attract and retain motivated employees
 Better perspective on a differentiated market
 Ability to leverage creativity and innovation in
problem solving
 Enhancement of organizational flexibility

17. 8-17
The challenges of managing a diverse
workforce
 Seeing the world from another’s perspective
 Diversity can create a lack of cohesiveness
 Communication problems
 People prefer to associate with others who are
like themselves
 We learn to interpret the world in a certain way
based on our backgrounds and experiences

18. 8-18
Multicultural Organization Types
 Monolithic Organization
 one with low degree of structural integration
 employs few women, minorities, or other groups that differ from
the majority
 highly homogeneous employee population
 Pluralistic Organization
 relatively diverse employee population
 involves employees from different gender, racial or cultural
backgrounds
 Multicultural Organization
 values cultural diversity
 seeks to utilize and encourage it

19. 8-19
Five Components of
Cultivating a Diverse Workforce
1. Secure top management’s leadership and
commitment
2. Assess organization’s progress toward goals
3. Attract employees
4. Train employees in diversity
5. Retain employees

20. 8-20
Retain talented employees
 Support groups
 Provide support for those excluded from the
majority’s informal groups
 Mentoring
 higher-level employees help ensure that high-
potential people are introduced to top
management and socialized into norms and
values of the organization.

21. 8-21
Successful Global Managers have…
 Sensitivity to cultural
differences
 Business knowledge
 Courage to take a
stand
 Ability to bring out the
best in people
 Integrity
 Insightfulness
 Commitment to
success
 Risk taking
 Use of feedback
 Cultural
adventurousness
 Desire for opportunities
to learn
 Openness to criticism
 Desire for feedback
 Flexibility

22. 8-22
Successful global assignments
 Structure assignments clearly
 Create clear job objectives
 Develop performance measurements
 Use effective, validated selection and screening
criteria
 Prepare expatriates and families for assignments

23. 8-23
Successful Global Assignments (cont’d)
 Establish ongoing communication with
expatriates
 Anticipate repatriation to facilitate reentry when
they come back home
 Consider developing a mentor program that will
help monitor and intervene in case of trouble

24. 8-24
Cultural Differences
 Power distance
 extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in
organizations is distributed unequally
 Individualism/collectivism
 extent to which people act on their own or as a part of a
group
 Uncertainty avoidance
 extent to which people in a society feel threatened by
uncertain and ambiguous situations
 Masculinity/Femininity
 extent to which a society values quantity of life over quality
of life