CHAPTER 02

DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS
In this chapter, we look at how organizations work to maximize the potential
contributions of a diverse workforce. We also show how demographic characteristics and
individual differences in the form of ability affect employee performance and satisfaction.
 Work-force Diversity
• Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest
possible pool of skills, abilities, and ideas. Managers also need to recognize that
differences among people can lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding,
and conflict.
• Individual characteristics like age, gender, abilities can influence employee
performance.
• In the past, the predominantly white, male managerial workforce gave way to a
gender-balanced, multiethnic workforce.
• Compared to 1976, women today are much more likely to be employed full-time,
have more education, and earn wages comparable to those of men.
• This permanent shift toward a diverse workforce means organizations need to
make diversity management a central component of their policies and practices.
 For Instance
▪ A survey by the Society for Human Resources Management shows some major
employer concerns and opportunities resulting from the demographic makeup of
the U.S. workforce.
▪ The aging of the workforce was consistently the most significant concern of HR
managers.
▪ The loss of skills resulting from the retirement of many baby boomers, increased
medical costs due to an aging workforce, and many employees’ needs to care for
elderly relatives topped the list of issues.
▪ Other issues include developing multilingual training materials and
providing work–life benefits for dual-career couples
 Levels of Diversity

1. Surface level diversity

2. Deep-level diversity

• Demographics mostly reflect surface level diversity

(diversity in age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability status
• Personality, thoughts, feelings and values, that represent deep-
level diversity
a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a
particular type of person or thing."the stereotype of the woman as
the carer"
For Instance
• Luis and Carol are co-workers who seem to have little in common at first glance.
Luis is a young, recently hired male college graduate with a business degree,
raised in a Spanish-speaking nation
• Carol is an older, long-tenured woman raised in rural Kansas, who achieved her
current level in the organization by starting as a high school graduate and
working her way through the hierarchy.
• At first, these co-workers may experience some differences in communication
based on their surface-level differences in education, ethnicity, regional
background, and gender. However, as they get to know one another, they may
find they are both deeply committed to their families, share a common way of
thinking about important work problems, like to work collaboratively, and are
interested in international assignments in the future.
 For Instance
• On the other hand, Steve and Dave are two unmarried white male college
graduates from Oregon who recently started working together.
• they seem well matched. But Steve is highly introverted, prefers to avoid risks,
solicits the opinions of others before making decisions, and likes the office quiet,
• while Dave is extroverted, risk-seeking, and assertive and likes a busy, active, and
energetic work environment.
• Their surface-level similarity will not necessarily lead to positive interactions
because they have such fundamental, deep-level differences.
• It will be a challenge for them to collaborate regularly at work, and they’ll have
to make some compromises to get things done together.
 Discrimination

• Recognize stereotypes and understand how they function in organizational settings.

• Although diversity does present many opportunities for organizations, effective
diversity management also means working to eliminate unfair discrimination .
• To discriminate is to note a difference between things, which in itself isn’t necessarily
bad. Noticing one employee is more qualified is necessary for making hiring
decisions; noticing another is taking on leadership responsibilities exceptionally well
is necessary for making promotion decisions.
This unfair discrimination is often very harmful to organizations and
employees
 Biographical Characteristics
How the Biographical characteristics relate to OB
Biographical characteristics such as age, gender,
race, disability, and length of service are some of the
most obvious ways employees differ.
Variations in these surface-level characteristics may
be the basis for discrimination against classes of
employees, so it is worth knowing how closely
related they actually are to important work
outcomes.
▪ Age
▪ Gender
▪ Race and Ethnicity
▪ Disability
▪ Tenure
▪ Religion
▪ Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Age
• The relationship between age and job performance. job performance declines with increasing
age. Many employers recognize that older workers represent a huge potential pool of high-
quality applicants.
• Turnover relationship As workers get older, they have fewer alternative job opportunities as
their skills have become more specialized to certain types of work.
• Absenteeism. (absence is avoidable or unavoidable) In general, older employees have lower
rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees
• Productivity (relationship between age and job satisfaction, where
the evidence is mixed)
Many believe productivity declines with age. It is often assumed that skills like speed, agility,
strength, and coordination decay over time and that prolonged job boredom and lack of
intellectual stimulation contribute to reduced productivity. Other reviews of the research find
that age and job task performance are unrelated and that older workers are more likely to
engage in citizenship behavior.
What is the perception about older
workers?

a number of positive qualities older workers

bring to their jobs, such as experience,
judgment, a strong work ethic, and
commitment to quality.
But older workers are also perceived as lacking
flexibility and resisting new technology. And
when organizations are actively seeking
individuals who are adaptable and open to
change, the negatives associated with age
clearly hinder the initial hiring of older workers
Gender
• There are no consistent male–female differences in problem-solving ability,
analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability. 16
Psychological studies have found women are more agreeable and willing to conform
to authority, whereas men are more aggressive and more likely to have expectations
of success, but those differences are minor.
One issue that does seem to differ between men and women.
• Working mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible work schedules,
and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities. Women
also prefer jobs that encourage work–life balance, which has the effect of limiting
their options for career advancement.
What about absence and turnover rates?
• When a child is ill or someone needs to stay home to wait for a plumber, the woman
has traditionally taken time from work.
 Race and ethnicity
Race and ethnicity have been studied as they relate to employment outcomes such as
hiring decisions, performance evaluations, pay, and workplace discrimination. in
employment settings, individuals tend to slightly favor colleagues of their own race.
• Substantial racial differences exist in attitudes toward affirmative action
• Does racial and ethnic discrimination lead to negative workplace outcomes?
most research shows that members of racial and ethnic minorities report higher
levels of discrimination in the workplace. 37 Some research suggests that having a
positive climate for diversity overall can lead to increased sales
 Disability
These negative effects are much stronger for individuals with mental disabilities, and there is
some evidence to suggest mental disabilities may impair performance more than physical
disabilities

Tenure
• we define seniority as time on a particular job, the most recent evidence demonstrates a
positive relationship between seniority and job productivity. So tenure, expressed as work
experience, appears to be a good predictor of employee productivity. The longer a person is
in a job, the less likely he or she is to quit. Evidence indicates tenure and job satisfaction are
positively related

Religion
• Not only do religious and nonreligious people question each other’s belief systems; often
people of different religious faiths conflict. Research has shown that job applicants in
Muslim-identified religious attire had shorter, more interpersonally negative interviews than
applicants who did not wear Muslim-identified attire.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Sexual orientation is about who you're attracted to and who you feel drawn to
romantically, emotionally. It's different than gender identity. Gender identity isn't
about who you're attracted to, but about who you ARE — male, female,
genderqueer, etc
International Business Machines (IBM), is a global technology company that
provides hardware, software, cloud-based services.
• Brad Salavich, a diversity manager for IBM, says, “We believe that having strong
transgender and gender identification policies is a natural extension of IBM’s
corporate culture.”
 Ability (Intellectual and physical)
Define intellectual ability and demonstrate its relevance to OB.
Ability
An individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.
Intellectual abilities The capacity to do mental activities—thinking, reasoning,
and problem solving.
Physical abilities The capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity
(efficiency, skill), strength, and similar characteristics.
 Intellectual Abilities
Intellectual abilities are abilities needed to perform mental activities—
thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.
The inductive approach begins with a set of empirical
observations, seeking patterns in those observations,
and then theorizing about those patterns. The deductive
approach begins with a theory, developing hypotheses
from that theory, and then collecting and analyzing data
to test those hypotheses.
The main difference between inductive and deductive
reasoning is that inductive reasoning aims at developing
a theory while deductive reasoning aims at testing an
existing theory. In other words, inductive reasoning
moves from specific observations to broad
generalizations.
 Implementing Diversity Management
Strategies
Diversity management
The process and programs by which managers make everyone more aware of and
sensitive to the needs and differences of others. Diversity management makes everyone
more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others.
• Diversity management must be an ongoing commitment that crosses all levels of the
organization. Group management, recruiting, hiring, retention, and development
practices can all be designed to leverage diversity for the organization’s competitive
advantage
• Regardless of the composition of the group, differences can be leveraged to achieve
superior performance. The most important way is to emphasize the higher-level
similarities among members.
• groups of diverse individuals will be much more effective if leaders can show how
members have a common interest in the group’s success. Evidence also shows
transformational leaders (who emphasize higher-order goals and values in their
leadership style) are more effective in managing diverse teams.