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DIVERSITY, australian population, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, GLASS CEILING -…
DIVERSITY
SOCIAL DILEMMAS OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
Individual participation
The success of organisational diversity initiatives is 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
Managerial participation
A consequence 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
Can result in ‘power battles
Organisational participation
Dependent upon how well the social dilemmas relating to individual and managerial participation are addressed
Incorrect perceptions in relation to the relationship between homogenous workers and employee turnover
Belief that diversity initiatives benefit society not
organisations implementing them
Focus on short-term costs and not long-term
benefits
Creates barriers for selecting highly talented
candidates due to inaccurate views
SOLUTIONS FOR SOCIAL DILEMMAS
The management problem - overcoming individual &
managerial participation
Aligning individual interest with organisational
diversity initiatives
Assisting individuals in realising that their self interest can be facilitated by embracing organisational diversity
Developing measurable objectives for diversity
Developing superordinate goals which can only be
achieved through cooperation
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
The public policy problem – overcoming organisational
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
Educational curricula at primary/secondary leve
Term used to describe differences among individuals
Age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical characteristics (height, weight etc.), mental and physical ability, personality, sexual orientation etc
Workplace diversity therefore refers to differences
among people at work
One of 4 core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) – Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation
Anti-discrimination, equal opportunity, and affirmative
action legislation in Australia
Changing composition of the labour market
Not about merely meeting ‘legal’ or ‘moral’ obligations
australian population
28% born overseas, third highest in the world
Overseas-born residents contribute to more than
50 per cent of population growth
Overseas-born population from Asia and Africa have proportionally larger young (0-14 years) and working age (15-64 years) populations compared to those from Europe
Indigenous Australians comprise of approximately
2.4% of the population
Over the next 50 years, approximately ¼
Australians will be 65 years or older
Embracing the LGBT community
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
Social identity theory stipulates that individuals
validate their social identity by favouring their ‘ingroup’ at the expense of ‘out-groups’
A shared social identity increases perceived differences between individuals belonging to different social categories (i.e. between in- and out-groups)
GLASS CEILING
OVERCOMING THE GLASS CEILING
Changing societal norms around the role of women
and eradicating gender bias
Eliminating the stigmatisation of men who choose to
stay home for family reasons
Introduction of paid-parental leave schemes
Introducing gender quotas for company boards
A more representative blend of women and men in
senior roles
A phenomenon that limits the advancement of women
and other minority groups to senior managerial
only 25% of key management positions on
company boards are held by women in Australia
However, in the public service 40% of all senior
executive positions filled by women
Eastern European and Scandinavian nations lead
the way in abolishing the glass ceiling