Challenges of Managing in a Modern World Diversity

Workforce diversity:

  • Differences among people such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical characteristics (height, weight etc.), mental and physical ability, personality, sexual orientation at work
  • In addition to the above differences, workforce diversity also encompasses differences among workers in: religious beliefs, educational attainment, experience, family status, parental status, pregnancy etc

Multicultural organisation: an organisation that actively promote and embrace pluralism and respect for diversity

Structural integration: minorities are well represented in all levels and functional areas

Informal network integration: mentoring and support groups exists to assist the career development of minorities

Pluralism: both minority and majority cultures are equally influential

Absence of prejudice and discrimination: training and development in place to eliminate culture-group biases

Minimal intergroup conflict: diversity does not result in intergroup conflict

Diversity management and POLC

Planning = recruitment goals, organisational goals and individual workloads

Organising = allocation of resources across genders, age groups, cultural groups

Leading = percentage of minority group representatives in leadership positions

Controlling = measuring of employee performance subject to opportunities and personal circumstances

Social identity theory

Ethical considerations of diversity

Workload

Flexibility

Job design

Mentoring and career assistance

Leave entitlements

Inclusive work environment

Equal opportunity

Performances measured in relation to opportunity and personal circumstances

Social dilemmas of workforce diversity

Divided the world into “them” (= out-group) and “us” (= in-group) based through a process of social categorization (i.e. we put people into social groups)

Individuals validate their social identity by favouring their ‘in-group’ at the expense of ‘out-groups’ to enhance their self-image

  • individuals perceive that it is ‘easier’ to communicate with other members of their in-group as they are more predictable, trustworthy, and more likely to reciprocate favours

The impact of a glass ceiling and globalisation on employment and working conditions of women and other minorities

Managerial participation

Organisational participation

Individual participation

The success of organisational diversity initiatives dependent upon the degree to which its employees embrace/resist them

Formation of subgroups along social categories may result in restricting the movement of information

Due to exclusion, employees may form further informal subgroups resulting in subgroup competition

Cq of the dilemma of individual participation

Managers likely to recruit individuals they perceive to be similar to them (i.e. their social category) + Individuals may also seek out managers that are similar to them

Those that do not ‘fit in’ often leave resulting in a homogenous workforce

Dependent upon how well the social dilemmas relating to individual and managerial participation are addressed

Perceptions in relation to the relationship between homogenous workers and employee turnover

Diversity initiatives benefit society not organisations implementing them, organisations bear the costs and accrue little benefit

Focus on short-term costs and not long-term benefits

Creates barriers for selecting highly talented candidates due to ill-informed and short sighted views

Solutions to organisational participation

Solutions to individual and managerial participation

Avoiding the creation of legislation that results in ‘protected classes’ of workers

Instead developing legislation that requires firms to develop and implement diversity initiatives that result in sustainable success

Not focusing on encouraging just diversity, but ‘effective’ diversity

Aligning individual interest with organisational diversity initiatives by restructuring incentives

Assisting individuals in realising that their self-interest can be facilitated by embracing organisational diversity initiatives

Developing measurable objectives for diversity

Developing superordinate goals which can only be achieved through cooperation amongst diverse members

Creating a work environment that encourages and facilitates communication between diverse employees

Keeping work team/group sizes small

Measuring managerial performance from a long-term perspective

Glass ceiling: a phenomenon that limits the advancement of women and other minority groups to senior managerial positions in organisations

How to overcome?

Changing societal norms around the role of women and eradicating gender bias

Eliminating the stigmatisation of men whose choose to stay at home for family reasons

Introduction of paid-parental leave schemes, especially for men that goes beyond "one week"

Introducing gender quotas for company boards

Realising that a more representative blend of women and men in senior roles just makes good business sense

Globalisation effects

  • requires a "gendered" consideration of access to employment, conditions of employment, wages and income, time spent in car activities vs time available for leisure