5 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement

in a Diverse Workplace

Image from: RR Donnelley, Workplace Diversity/Inclusion (2014)

As organizations continue to add diversity to their lists of qualities, the need for job seekers to be
aware of what this truly means, and how differences in defining diversity can affect everyone in an
organization is of growing importance. To start, we have provided a list of five tips or tools all individuals,
regardless of status in an organization, can use to be successfully engaged in a work force focused on
promoting diversity.

Understanding Justice Behaviors

Organizational justice is a type of work place fairness that is composed of organizational procedures,
outcomes and interpersonal interactions. Distributive justice is defined as the perceived fairness of the
allocation of outcomes or rewards to organizational members. Typically, within the workplace there are
three different norms of fairness related to distributive justice that often vary by culture: the merit or equity
norm, the need norm and the equality norm. American culture and other western cultures tend to focus
on the merit or equity norm, based on the view that those who work the hardest should get the greatest
reward. Those who strongly endorse this norm fail to see the appropriateness and benefits of programs
such as Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is a program that acknowledges that particular demographic
groups may be underrepresented in the work environment and provides specific mechanisms for reducing
this underrepresentation. This program is a solution combing ideas from both the need norm and the
equality norm. Some employers recognize how the past distribution of wealth and power in the United
States has put some groups at a disadvantage and argue that this inequality has created a society where
these groups now have the highest need for the rewards and outcomes that successful organizations have
to offer (Stewart & Shapiro, 2000). Recognizing and understanding the different beliefs in distributive justice
procedures is an essential part of being a successful member of a diverse workplace. (Landy & Conte,
2010)

The Importance of Interactional Justice

Interactional justice concerns the sensitivity with which employees are treated and is linked to the extent
that an employee feels respected by the employer. According to Johnson, Lanaj and Barnes study on
justice behaviors in the work place, In contrast to procedural justice, there is little to no cost for
organizations to encourage interpersonally fair behaviors, which benefit not only actors but also recipients
(Judge et al., 2006; Loi et al., 2009), thus producing a winwin scenario for both parties. Demanding a
respectful and inclusive environment within a workplace is essential in creating positive interpersonal
relationships between all organizational members. By recognizing the successes of all employees and coworkers, regardless of race, gender, etc., interpersonal fairness can be achieved and performance-related
stressors, such as stereotype threat, can be eliminated. Stereotype threat is the finding that the threat of
being evaluated, judged by, or threated in terms of a negative stereotype can cause individuals to perform
worse in the stereotype-relevant domain. It is important that all individuals in a work place be aware of
certain stereotypes related to the domain of their work and avoid defining the subjects of those stereotypes
by the ideas they imply. According to McKay and Avery in their 2005 study of diversity in the workplace,
Negative workplace conditions often negatively influence minorities organizational attitudes, eventually
causing them to leave the organization. Upholding interactional justice procedures is an extremely
important component in improving employee engagement in a diverse workplace.

Honesty in P-O fit

Person-organization fit is the extent to which the values of an employee are consistent with the values held
by most others in the organization. Advertising diversity as an important value is a tactic some organizations
use to promote the image of a well-rounded and appealing business. Unfortunately, employees often find
that the true values of all members of the organization do not match this image. It is important for newhires to research the organization from different sources in order to avoid misconceptions and a resulting
negative experience with an organization. In addition, it is in the best interest of the organizations to be
honest in the advertising of their values and climate because firms that utilize diversity recruitment
techniques yet fail to address relevant racial issues will perpetuate a mismatch between prehire and
posthire P-O fit impressions. (McKay & Avery, 2005)

Bringing Awareness to the Benefits of Diversity

Research consistently shows economic, organizational and individual benefits of diversity in the workplace.
It has been extensively supported that being around people who are different from us makes us more
creative, more diligent and harder working (Sim, 2014). According to Forbes magazine (2011), Having a
diverse and inclusive workforce [is] critical to driving the creation and execution of new procedures, services
and business processes. By routinely promoting the mindset within an organization that diversity is the key
to success, individuals will begin to develop an appreciation for inclusion and feel less driven by the Us vs.
Them mentality. In a study involving the differentiation of testosterone levels in work groups, Ronay et al.
(2012) found that despite widespread intuition that teams of high performers will outperform their
competition, our data contribute to a growing body of literature suggesting that this is not always the case,
reiterating the benefits that can be achieved through appreciating variations in individual characteristics of
all employees.

Awareness of Implicit Beliefs in Selection Practices

The unstructured interviews is not only the most popular selection procedure used by employers, it is also
the most feared by job candidates. Additionally, research shows that we have reason to be scared. In a
study conducted by Industrial and Organizational psychologist Scott Highhouse (2008), findings showed that
Managers placed more emphasis on competencies assessed by unstructured interviews then on
competencies measured by tests, regardless of what those competencies were. Highhouse referred to
this tendency as the myth of expertise, or the belief that we are the best judge of others potential
success, regardless of objective measures. This reliance on intuition allows for perceptions to be
corrupted by implicit biases, resulting in an inaccurate judgment of job candidates. Being aware of not only
our tendency to rely on intuition, but also the impact stereotypes have on those intuitions is a step toward
fairness in section processes.

As the U.S. continues to acknowledge the importance of diversity in the workplace by enforcing
regulations such as Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity, it is our responsibility as
members of the work force to subsidize these efforts by continuing to encourage diversity. A substantial
piece of promoting change is recognizing resistance and, as a community, developing ways to overcome
that resistance. When facing adversity in your diverse workplace, remember these tools as guidance in
stimulating the spread and acceptance of diversity.
-Alayna Stein

References
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Global diversity and inclusion: Fostering innovation through a diverse workforce. (2011, July). Forbes.
Highhouse, S. (2008). Stubborn reliance on intuition and subjectivity in employee selection. Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, 333-342.
Johnson, R. E., Lanaj, K., & Barnes, C. M. (2014). The good and bad of being fair: Effects of procedural and
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Landy, F. J., & Conte, J. M. (2010). Work in the 21st century (3rd ed.). Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
McKay, P. F., & Avery, D. R. (2005). Warning! Diversity recruitment could backfire. Journal of Management
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Ronay, R., Anicich, E. M., Galinsky, A. D., & Greenaway, K. (2012). The path to glory is paved with hierarchy:
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Stewart, M. M., & Shapiro, D. L. (2000). Selection based on merit versus demography: Implications across
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