Making Differences Matter

Common Paths to diversity management

leverage their diversity to assign them to customers/clients within their identity group

Encourage/expect diverse team members to blend in

Diversity should be....."varied perspectives and approaches to work that members of different identity groups bring"

Diversity Perspectives

Access-legitimacy

Learning-Effectiveness

Discrimination-fairness

Managerial process for equality, similar to affirmative action

Benefits: increase demographic diversity

Equal opp, fairness, compliance with EEOC

Limitations

Assumption that everyone is the same

Pressure on employees to make sure that important differences don't count

acceptance and celebration of diversity

diversity=good for business (changing clientele)

Strength: competitive advtange gets people on board

Limitations

emphasize differences without analyzing them

Push staff with niche capabilities into differentiated pigeonholes

integration

Ackolwedges and values differences

Incorporative perspectives into main work of org

Organization internatlizes differences and learns from them

Preconditions

culture must stimulate personal development

Culture must encourage opennes

Culture must create high expecation standards

Culture must make workers feel valued

Leadership must rec learning opp and challenges

Org must have a well-articulated and understoof mission

Org must have a relatively egalitarian, non-bureaucratic strucutre

Leadership must understand and value diversity