"The MGMT Solution," Vocabulary from Chapter 12

Diversity means variety. Therefore, diversity exists in organizations when there is a variety of demographic, cultural, and personal differences among the people who work there and the customers who do business there.

Though diverse groups initially have more difficulty working together than homogeneous groups, diverse groups eventually establish a rapport and do a better job of identifying problems and generating alternative solutions, the two most important steps in problem solving.

Surface-level diversity consists of differences that are immediately observable, typically unchangeable, and easy to measure. In other words, independent observers can usually agree on dimensions of surface-level diversity, such as another person’s age, sex, race/ethnicity, or physical capabilities.

Deep-level diversity consists of differences that are communicated through verbal and nonverbal behaviors and are learned only through extended interaction with others. Examples of deep-level diversity include personality differences, attitudes, beliefs, and values.

To start, managers need to recognize that age discrimination is much more pervasive than they probably think.

So, what can companies do to make sure that women have the same opportunities for development and advancement as men? One strategy is mentoring, or pairing promising female executives with senior executives from whom they can seek advice and support.

Another strategy is to make sure that male-dominated social activities don’t unintentionally exclude women. Nearly half (47 percent) of women in the work force believe that “exclusion from informal networks” makes it more difficult to advance their careers.

Next, if the numbers indicate racial or ethnic disparities, consider employing a private firm to test your hiring system by having applicants of different races with identical qualifications apply for jobs in your company. Although disparities aren’t proof of discrimination, it’s much better to investigate hiring and promotion disparities yourself than to have the EEOC or a plaintiff’s lawyer do it for you.

Studies show that as long as companies make reasonable accommodations for disabilities (e.g., changing procedures or equipment), people with disabilities perform their jobs just as well as people without disabilities.

Beyond educational efforts to address incorrect stereotypes and expectations, a good place to start is to commit to reasonable workplace accommodations such as changing work schedules, reassigning jobs, acquiring or modifying equipment, or providing assistance when needed.

A disposition is the tendency to respond to situations and events in a predetermined manner.

The Big Five Personality Dimensions are extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Extraversion is the degree to which someone is active, assertive, gregarious, sociable, talkative, and energized by others.

By contrast, emotionally unstable people find it difficult to handle the most basic demands of their jobs under only moderately stressful situations and become distraught, tearful, self-doubting, and anxious.

Agreeableness is the degree to which someone is cooperative, polite, flexible, forgiving, good-natured, tolerant, and trusting.

Conscientiousness is the degree to which someone is organized, hardworking, responsible, persevering, thorough, and achievement-oriented.

Conscientious employees are also more likely to engage in positive behaviors, such as helping new employees, coworkers, and supervisors and are less likely to engage in negative behaviors, such as verbally or physically abusing coworkers or stealing.

Openness to experience is the degree to which someone is curious, broadminded, and open to new ideas, things, and experiences; is spontaneous; and has a high tolerance for ambiguity.

The discrimination and fairness paradigm, which is the most common method of approaching diversity, focuses on equal opportunity, fair treatment, recruitment of minorities, and strict compliance with the equal employment opportunity laws.

The access and legitimacy paradigm focuses on the acceptance and celebration of differences to ensure that the diversity within the company matches the diversity found among primary stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, and local communities.

Whereas the discrimination and fairness paradigm focuses on assimilation (having a demographically representative work force) and the access and legitimacy paradigm focuses on differentiation (having demographic differences inside the company match those of key customers and stakeholders), the learning and effectiveness paradigm focuses on integrating deep-level diversity differences, such as personality, attitudes, beliefs, and values, into the actual work of the organization.

The learning and effectiveness paradigm is consistent with achieving organizational plurality. Organizational plurality is a work environment where (1) all members are empowered to contribute in a way that maximizes the benefits to the organization, customers, and themselves and (2) the individuality of each member is respected by not segmenting or polarizing people on the basis of their membership in a particular group.

Third, because the focus is on individual differences, the learning and effectiveness paradigm is less likely to encounter the conflict, backlash, and divisiveness sometimes associated with diversity programs that focus only on group differences.

“We are concerned here with these more destructive forms of conflict which may be present with diverse work forces due to language barriers, cultural clash, or resentment by majority-group members of what they may perceive as preferential and unwarranted treatment of minority-group members.”

“There’s a large amount of backlash related to diversity training. It stirs up a lot of hostility, anguish, and resentment but doesn’t give people tools to deal with [the backlash]. You have people come in and talk about their specific ax to grind.”

Begin by carefully and faithfully following and enforcing federal and state laws regarding equal opportunity employment.

Remember, the shift in focus from surface- to deep-level diversity helps people know and understand each other better, reduces prejudice and conflict, and leads to stronger social integration with people wanting to work together and get the job done.

Tailor opportunities to individuals, not groups. Special programs for training, development, mentoring, or promotions should be based on individual strengths and weaknesses, not on group status.

Companies have a legal and moral obligation to make sure that their hiring and promotion procedures and standards are fair to all.

At the same time, in today’s competitive markets, companies should not lower standards to promote diversity.

As a diversity executive, I not only have to have solid business capabilities, I need to be very knowledgeable of the different businesses in my organization to align diversity initiatives to support the needs of the businesses.

Maintaining high standards when making employment decisions and involving the top management and the board in diversity initiatives is critical to the success of workplace diversity practices.

Solicit negative as well as positive feedback.

The general purpose of diversity programs is to try to create a positive work environment where no one is advantaged or disadvantaged, where “we” is everyone, where everyone can do his or her best work, where differences are respected and not ignored, and where everyone feels comfortable.

Awareness training is designed to raise employees’ awareness of diversity issues

As a starting point in awareness training, some companies have begun using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which measures the extent to which people associate positive or negative thoughts (i.e., underlying assumptions or stereotypes) with blacks or whites, men or women, homosexuals or heterosexuals, young or old, or other groups.

Diversity audits are formal assessments that measure employee and management attitudes, investigate the extent to which people are advantaged or disadvantaged with respect to hiring and promotions, and review companies’ diversity-related policies and procedures.

In diversity pairing, people of different cultural backgrounds, sexes, or races/ethnicities are paired for mentoring. The hope is that stereotypical beliefs and attitudes will change as people get to know each other as individuals.

Finally, because top managers are still overwhelmingly white and male, a number of companies believe that it is worthwhile to have top executives experience what it is like to be in the minority. This can be done by having top managers go to places or events where nearly everyone else is of a different sex or racial/ethnic background.

“To really engage people, you have to create a series of epiphanies and take leaders through those epiphanies.”