Managing Diverse Employees

1. Managing Diverse Employees In a Multicultural Environment

2. Learning Objectives After studying the material, you should be able to: • Appreciate the increasing diversity of the workforce and of the organizational environment. • Grasp the central role that managers play in the effective management of diversity. • Understand why the effective management of diversity is valuable.

3. The Increasing Diversity of the Workforce and the Environment Diversity • Surface-level Diversity: Differences among people in age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic background, and capabilities/disabilities • Deep-level Diversity: Differences in personality, values, and work preferences. For a short (2 min.) optional video on this distinction, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QsF8_IwmXs

4. Diversity Concerns • The ethical desire for equal opportunity • Effectively managing diversity can improve a firm’s effectiveness. • Continuing bias & discrimination toward individuals based on immutable characteristics hurts individuals. • Conflicting views of surface-level and deep-level diversity (e.g., the right to express ‘diversity of thought’ at work) attracted media attention at Google in 2017. For editorials & optional videos about that business conflict see: • https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-diversity/google-fires-employee-behind-anti-diversity-memo-idUSKBN1AO088 • https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/3-reasons-the-google-anti-diversity-memo-is-wrong-about-women-in-leadership-according-to-data.html • https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-08/google-can-t-seem-to-tolerate-diversity

5. Perception Perception • The process through which people select, organize, and interpret what they see, hear, touch, smell, and taste to give meaning and order to the world around them.

6. Diversity Concerns & Perception Factors that Influence Managerial Perception • Schema (sometimes called Schemata): • An abstract knowledge structure that is stored in memory and makes possible the interpretation and organization of information about a person, event, or situation • Stereotype • Simplistic and often inaccurate beliefs about the typical characteristics of particular groups of people; a type of schema. • People have tendency to use information in a biased way to reinforce stereotypes.

7. Diversity Concerns & Biases • Similar-to-me effect – perceive others who are similar to ourselves more positively than we perceive people who are different • Social status effect – perceive individuals with high social status more positively than those with low social status • Salience effect – focus attention on individuals who are conspicuously different • For an optional website and “overview video” about unconscious bias (such as the similar-to-me effect) at the University of California – San Francisco, visit: https://diversity.ucsf.edu/resources/unconscious-bias • For a short, optional, article about how these affect business, see: http://www.businessinsider.com/unconscious-biases-in-hiring-decisions-2015-7

8. Diversity Concerns & Discrimination Overt Discrimination • Knowingly and willingly denying different, yet equally-qualified individuals access to opportunities and outcomes in an organization; type of biased decision. • Unethical and illegal; firm may be sued. • Violation of the principles of distributive and procedural justice • For an optional article and 7 min. video about the subject of overt discrimination in employment against older workers, see: https://www.aarp.org/work/on-the-job/info-2017/age-discrimination-facts.html • For an optional 9 min. video about the subject of overt discrimination against older female workers, see: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/age-discrimination-in-the-workplace-starts-as-early-as-35

9. Sources of Diversity in the Workplace • Race/Ethnicity • Age • Sex • Capabilities/Disabilities • Religion • Lifestyle Issues

10. Workforce Diversity: Age & Race • Race/Ethnicity • Half of all babies born in U.S. are non-white. • Aging U.S. Population • Older workers bring experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality • Are older workers more likely to quit or less likely to quit compared to younger workers? Why? • Fewer avoidable absences; more unavoidable. • Age & productivity are uncorrelated across jobs. • Age & job satisfaction? (see text)

11. Age & Tenure People with job tenure (seniority at a job) are: • More productive • Absent less frequently • Have lower turnover. • Are more satisfied.

12. Workforce Diversity: Gender • Women in the Workplace • U.S. workforce is 47% percent female • Women’s median earnings are about two-thirds of the median earnings of men, partly due to different jobs held. • Women hold 16% of corporate officer positions • Few differences between men and women that affect job performance.

13. Gender Diversity Concerns Professor Alice Eagley (Northwestern Univ.) discusses the idea of sex discrimination in the workplace generally and the “Glass Ceiling” specifically in this optional 8 min. video: https://bigthink.com/videos/the-glass-ceiling-is-misleading Glass ceiling –A metaphor alluding to invisible barriers that allegedly prevent or reduce the number of minorities and women from being promoted to top corporate positions. A TEDx talk by Susan Colantuono(14 minutes) is available here: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_colantuono_the_career_advice_you_probably_didn_t_get This optional video offers encouragement to take the content in “Business Strategy” (MGT 449), Finance (MGT 355), and Human Resource Management) courses (e.g., MGT 385; MGT 486 seriously.

14. Workforce Diversity: Disabilities • Disability Issues – Research (see your text): • Disabled people are less likely to be hired • Disabled workers given lower performance goals • Disabled workers get higher performance appraisals. • Disability Issues– Suggestions: • Provide reasonable accommodations. • Promote non-discrimination. For an optional 10 min. (2017) video about hiring workers with disabilities see: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/job-opportunity-still-lagging-people-disabilities

15. Workforce Diversity: Religion Religion (among those responding) % of U.S. Population • Christian 80.2% Largest Denominations Are: • Catholic 26.3% • Southern Baptist & Other Baptist 16.6% • Methodist 5.3% • Lutheran 4.0% • Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assembly of God 3.7% • Presbyterian 2.2% • Unspecified/Non-denominational/Other 22.1% • None/Agnostic/Atheist 15.9% • Jewish 1.3% • Muslim 0.7% • Buddhist 0.6% • Other 1.3% Source: American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008

16. Workforce Diversity: Religion Accommodation for Religious Beliefs • Issues: • Religious Clothing or Jewelry • Time Off for Religious Reasons • Sharing one’s Beliefs • Company-Endorsed Religion

17. Workforce Diversity: Religion • Suggestions for Managers: • Educate workers to respect each other’s religious beliefs • Evaluate dress code (e.g., beards not allowed if unsafe) • Providing flexible time off so people can celebrate their religion’s holy days • Schedule critical meetings to not conflict with holy days • Consider workers’ accommodation requests • Permit workers to leave flyers in a literature rack. • Do not force employees to attend religious meetings. • A private-sector company may endorse a specific religion but may not condition personnel decisions on that religion.

18. Workforce Diversity: Lifestyle • Dangerous Hobbies • Health-related Issues • Smokers, • Drinkers of Alcohol, • Obese • Relationships • Nepotism • Those having sex outside of Marriage • Gays and Ex-Gays • Socioeconomic Background • Single mothers & child care • Elder care for working parents

19. Major EEO Laws (Yes, there might be one or two items on the exam from this chart)

20. How Mintzberg’sRoles Relate to Diversity

21. The Ethical Imperative to Manage Diversity Effectively Distributive Justice • A moral principle calling for the distribution of outcomes based on contributions that individuals have made. • Rewards not based on personal characteristics that are not job-relevant.

22. The Ethical Imperative to Manage Diversity Effectively Procedural Justice • A moral principle calling for the use of fair procedures to determine how to distribute outcomes to organizational members.

23. Managing Diversity Effectively Makes Good Business Sense What does ‘a Diversity of Employees’ Provide? • A variety of points of view and approaches to problems and opportunities can sometimes improve decision making. • Diverse employees may provide a wider range of creative ideas. • Diverse employees are more attuned to the needs of diverse customers. • Diversity can increase the retention of valued organizational members.

24. How to Manage Diversity Steps in Managing Diversity Effectively • Secure top management commitment • Strive to increase the accuracy of perceptions • Increase diversity awareness • Increase diversity skills • Encourage flexibility • Pay attention to how firm members are evaluated • Consider the percentage of groups in the firm For an optional 8 min. video with five recommendations about workplace diversity training, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCg6T99Rr_k

25. How to Manage Diversity Steps in Managing Diversity Effectively • Reward supervisors for effectively managing diversity • Provide training. • Encourage mentoring of diverse employees

26. How to Manage Diversity Mentoring: An experienced member of an organization (the mentor) provides job and career guidance to a new employee (the protégé). For optional articles and videos about mentoring see: • https://chronus.com/blog/top-10-mentoring-program-best-practices • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7_uAcl9D9o

27. Summary • There are many different types of diversity • Diversity in the U.S. is increasing • Diversity raises numerous legal and managerial issues • Diversity can be managed so that all workers are valued.