Principles Of Management Lecture 3
Workplace Diversity
Workplace DiversityClick here to Download
In what ways do people differ in organizations?
Diversity: the collective strength of experiences, skills, talents, perspectives, and cultures that each agent and employee brings to the firm.
Diversity:differences based on ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability, national origin and sexual orientation.
Workplace Diversity refers to the ways in which people in an organization are different from and similar to one another.
NB: Workplace diversity does not only focus on differences, but also on similarities of employees.
Also known as workforce diversity.
Levels of Diversity Surface-level diversity: These refer to the demographic characteristics that we often think of when referring to diversity (eg. Age, race, gender, ethnicity) … tip of the iceberg phenomenon.
These easily perceived differences trigger stereotypes that do not necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel.
As people get to know one another, the surface-level diversity reduces in importance.
Deep-level diversity: These refer to the differences in values, personality and work preferences. These eventually become more important.
These deep-level differences can affect the way people view organizational work rewards, communicate, react to leaders, negotiate, and generally behave at work.
Benefits of Workforce Diversity
The benefits of workplace diversity can be categorized under three broad areas:
- People management
- Organizational performance
- Strategic
People Management
•Better use of employee talent
•Ability to attract and retain employees of diverse backgrounds
Strategic
•Increased understanding of the marketplace, which improves ability
•Potential to improve sales growth and increase market share
•Potential source of competitive advantage because of improved innovation efforts
•Viewed as moral and ethical
Challenges in Managing Diversity
The challenges in managing diversity can be categorized into two:
Personal bias (bias, prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination)
Glass ceiling
Personal Bias
Bias: A tendency or preference toward a particular perspective or ideology.
Prejudice: A preconceived belief, opinion or judgment toward a person or a group of people.
Stereotyping: Judging a person based on a perception of a group to which that person belongs
Discrimination: When someone acts out their prejudicial attitudes toward people who are the targets of their prejudice.
Glass Ceiling
Refers to the invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top management positions.