Definition of Diversity
Definition: Diversity is the variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or market setting.
What are the three dimensions of diversity (as it applies to the workforce)?
1. Social and cultural identity
2. Employment and market systems
3. Geographic scope of employment market settings
What is the double-edged sword of increasing diversity?
Increasing diversity presents a double-edged sword; hence the challenge of managing diversity is to create conditions that minimize its potential to be a performance barrier while maximizing its potential to enhance organizational performance.
List three ways that diversity can act as a potential performance barrier.
1. Reduce the effectiveness of communication and increase conflict among workers.
2. Experience lower levels of social attraction and display lower levels of commitment to the group.
3. Diversity-related effects such as identity harassment and discrimination behaviours can increase organizations' costs.
List five ways that diversity adds value to a company.
1. Improves problem solving.
2. Increases creativity and innovation.
3. Increasing organizational flexibility.
4. Improvement in quality of personnel through better recruitment and retention.
5. Improved marketing strategies.
Bonus: Increased profitability.
How does diversity improve problem solving?
- Diverse groups have a broader and richer base of experience from which to approach a problem.
- Groups subjected to minority views were better at critically analyzing decision issues and alternatives than those that were not.
Which group would have better problem solving skills: the diverse group with training, the diverse group without training, or the homogenous group? Which would have the worst?
Best: diverse group with training.
Worst: diverse group without training.
How does diversity increase creativity and innovation?
Research comparing ethnically diverse teams to all-Anglo teams doing a marketing task shows that the diverse teams outperformed the homogeneous ones by about 10 percent.
How does increasing organizational flexibility improve the workplace? Give some examples of organizational flexibility.
Increased fluidity should allow the organization to respond to environmental changes faster and at lower cost. Examples: women have more tolerance for ambiguity than men, bilingual individuals have a higher cognitive complexity and indirectly increases flexibility of thought.
How does diversity improve the quality of personnel?
Organizations that are effective at attracting, retaining, and using people from only one or two social-cultural groups will be at a disadvantage compared to those that are equally effective with people from a variety of backgrounds. *Fruit salad analogy.
How does diversity improve marketing strategies?
Consumer markets, like the workplace, are becoming increasingly diverse. Because research on consumer behaviour has consistently shown that sociocultural identities affect buying behaviour, marketing success will depend, to some degree, on the ability of companies to understand and respond effectively to the cultural nuances of the diverse marketplace.
Why have diversity efforts failed in the past?
1. Misdiagnosis of the problem.
2. Providing the wrong solution (that is, failure to use a systemic approach).
3. Failure to understand the shape of the learning curve for leveraging diversity work.
How and why are diversity problems so often misdiagnosed?
The problem posed by diversity is not simply that there are not enough people of certain social-cultural identity groups in the organization.The more significant problem is that most employers have an organizational culture that is somewhere between toxic and deadly when it comes to handling diversity.
What diversity solutions to companies try and provide? Why is this wrong?
Normally the solution is to simply 'hire more women and minority men.' Unfortunately, the approach of new inputs has usually not been accompanied by corresponding changes in the other elements of the system. The result is a predictable suboptimization or even outright failure of the change effort. Extend this logic to other system elements, such as employee development, performance appraisal, compensation, mentoring, and so on, and you can begin to see the startling implications.
Why is the misunderstanding of the learning curve an issue? What is the real learning curve to diversity change like?
Leaders often act as though the learning curve is steep, with the achievement of a high level of competence occurring after only a few months or a year of concerted effort. On the contrary, I have found that the learning curve on diversity work is much flatter, requiring years of conscientious effort to achieve a high level of proficiency. They become impatient about seeing results, tend to shift their focus to other things, and prematurely withdraw attention to the process being used to create change.
What do most companies think is the main virtue of diversity?
Companies are operating on the assumption that the main virtue identity groups have to offer is knowledge of their own people. This assumption is limited.
How do members of minorities improve the workplace?
Members of these groups can help companies grow and improve by challenging basic assumptions about an organization's functions, strategies, operations, practices, and procedures.
What are the three diversity paradigms?
Describe the 'Discrimination-and-Fairness' paradigm. What limitations are associated with this paradigm?
- Dominant paradigm.
- Progress in diversity is measured by how well the company achieves its recruitment and retention goals rather than by the degree to which conditions in the company allow employees to draw on their personal assets and perspectives to do their work more effectively.
- Its color-blind, gender-blind ideal is to some degree built on the implicit assumption that "we are all the same" or "we aspire to being all the same." Under this paradigm, it is not desirable for diversification of the workforce to influence the organization's work or culture.
- By limiting the ability of employees to acknowledge openly their work-related but culturally based differences, the paradigm actually undermines the organization's capacity to learn about and improve its own strategies, processes, and practices. And it also keeps people from identifying strongly and personally with their work-a critical source of motivation and self-regulation in any business environment.
Describe the 'Access-and-Legitimacy' paradigm. What limitations are associated with this paradigm?
- "Our company needs a demographically more diverse workforce to help us gain access to these differentiated segments. We need employees with multilingual skills in order to understand and serve our customers better and to gain legitimacy with them. Diversity isn't just fair; it makes business sense."
- Access-and-legitimacy leaders are too quick to push staff with niche capabilities into differentiated pigeonholes without trying to understand what those capabilities really are and how they could be integrated into the company's mainstream work.
- The access-and-legitimacy paradigm can leave some employees feeling exploited.
Describe the 'Learning-and-Effectiveness' paradigm. How is it different from the first two paradigms?
Like the fairness paradigm, it promotes equal opportunity for all individuals. And like the access paradigm, it acknowledges cultural differences among people and recognizes the value in those differences. Yet this new model for managing diversity lets the organization internalize differences among employees so that it learns and grows because of them. Indeed, with the model fully in place, members of the organization can say, We are all on the same team, with our differences-not despite them.
What are the 8 preconditions for the learning-and-effectiveness paradigm?
1. Must truly value variety of opinion and insight.
2. Leadership that is committed to persevering during the long process of learning and relearning that the new paradigm requires.
3. Create an expectation of high standards of performance from everyone.
4. The organizational culture must stimulate personal development.
5. Encourage openness (debate and constructive conflict).
6. Make workers feel valued (more committed).
7. A well-articulated and widely understood mission. A clear mission provides a focal point that keeps the discussion centered on accomplishment of goals.
8. Must have a relatively egalitarian, no bureaucratic structure.
Why should a company monitor the legislation in each province?
Specific entitlements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Therefore, a company with employees in different provinces/territories must monitor the legislation in each of those jurisdictions.
What does the legal framework include?
1. Constitutional Law (Charter of Rights and Freedoms)
2. Acts of Parliament
3. Common law, and
4. Contract law.
Employment/Labour Standards Legislation
i. Covers every single employee and employer in Canada.
ii. Establishes minimum employee entitlements and the maximum of hours of work permitted per day or week.
iii. Enforcement is complaint-based.
iv. Every jurisdiction includes the principle equal pay for equal work. It specifies that an employer cannot pay male and female employees differently if they are performing the same amount of substantially similar work.
What are the minimum employee entitlements?
Minimum employee entitlements include: wages, paid holidays, parental leave, bereavement, compassionate care leave, termination notice, and overtime pay.
What two pieces of legislation protect human rights?
1. Charter of Rights and Freedoms
2. Human rights legislation - which is present in every jurisdiction.
What is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a federal law enacted in 1982 that guarantees fundamental freedoms to all Canadians. The Charter takes precedence over all other laws, which means that all legislation must meet Charter standards.
What freedoms does the Charter provide?
1. Freedom of conscience and religion.
2. Freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.
3. Freedom of peaceful assembly
4. Freedom of association
What does 'Section 15: Equality Rights' guarantee the right to?
Equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination, and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability.
What does human rights legislation supersede?
The human rights legislation supersedes the terms of any employment contract or collective agreement.
Definition of discrimination.
Discrimination: as used in the context of human rights in employment, a distinction, exclusion, or preference based on one of the prohibited grounds, that has the effect of nullifying or impairing the right of a person to full and equal recognition and exercise of his or her human rights and freedoms.
What is the different between subtle direct and indirect discrimination? What are they both?
They are both intentional forms of discrimination. Subtle direct = difficult to prove. Indirect = done through another party.
Please describe 'Unintentional/Constructive/Systemic Discrimination' and provide an example.
- Is discrimination that is embedded in policies and practices that appear neutral on the surface and are implemented impartially but have an adverse impact on specific groups of people for reasons that are not job related or required for the safe and efficient operation of the business. Difficult to detect/combat.
- Example: minimum heights and weight requirements, which screen out disproportionate numbers of women and people from Asia, who tend to be shorter in stature.
What is reasonable accommodation?
Reasonable Accommodation: the adjustment of employment policies and practices that an employer may be expected to make so that no individual is denied benefits, disadvantaged in employment, or prevented from carrying out the essential components of a job because of grounds prohibited in human rights legislation.
What is undue hardship?
Undue Hardship: the point to which employers are expected to accommodate under human rights legislative requirements. The financial cost of the accommodation (even with outside sources of funding) or health and safety risks to the individual concerned or other employees would make accommodation impossible.
What is a BFOR? Provide an example. When is the onus placed on the employer?
Bona Fide Occupational Requirement: A justifiable reason for discrimination based on business necessity (that is, required for the safe and efficient operation of the organization) or a requirement that can be clearly defended as intrinsically required by the tasks an employee is expected to perform. Example: a person who is blind cannot be employed as a truck driver or bus driver.
In situations where the occupational requirement is less obvious, the onus of proof is then placed on the employer.
Unwelcome behaviour that demeans, humiliates, or embarrasses a person and that a reasonable person should have known would be unwelcome.
When is comes to harassment, what is the employer's responsibility?
The Supreme Court has made it clear that protecting employees from harassment is part of an employer's responsibility to provide a safe and healthy working environment. If harassment is occurring and employers are aware or ought to have been aware, they can be charged as well as the alleged harasser.
What is the different between sexual coercion and sexual annoyance?
Sexual Coercion - harassment of a sexual nature that results in some direct consequences to the worker's employment status or some gain in or loss of tangible job benefits.
Sexual Annoyance: sexually related conduct that is hostile, intimidating, or offensive to the employee but has no direct link to tangible job benefits or loss thereof.
What is 'occupational segregation'?
Occupational Segregation: the existence of certain occupations that have traditionally been dominated by one particular sex.
What is a 'glass ceiling'?
Glass Ceiling: An invisible barrier caused by attitudinal or organizational bias, which limits the advancement opportunities of qualified designated group members.
What are the four designated groups?
3. People with Disabilities
4. Visible Minorities
Why was employment equity legislation introduced?
A number of jurisdictions passed employment equity legislation aimed at identifying and eliminating systemic barriers to employment opportunities after realizing the simple prohibition of discrimination would not correct these patterns.
What is an employment equity program?
A detailed plan designed to identify and correct existing discrimination, redress past discrimination, and achieve a balanced representation of designated group members in the organization.
What are the 6 steps of an employment equity program?
Step 1. Senior Management Commitment and Support
Step 2. Data Collection and Analysis
Step 3. Employment Systems Review
A thorough examination of corporate policies and procedures, collective agreements, and informal practices to determine their impact on designated group members that that existing intentional or systemic barriers can be eliminated.
Step 4. Plan Development
Step 5. Implementation
Step 6. Monitor, Evaluate, Revise
What are 'positive measures'?
Positive Measures: initiatives designed to accelerate the entry, development, and promotion of designated group members, aimed at overcoming the residual effects of past discrimination.
What are 'accommodation measures'?
Accommodation Measures: strategies to assist designated group members.
What are 'supportive measures'?
Supportive Measures: strategies that enable all employees to achieve better balance between work and other responsibilities.
What is 'reverse discrimination'?
Reverse Discrimination: giving preference to designated group members to the extent that non-members believe they are being discriminated against.
How can you create an inclusive environment? (Hint: 7)
1. Need top management commitment.
2. Integration of diversity initiatives and talent management.
3. Diversity training programs.
4. Support groups.
5. Critical relationship networks
6. Open dialogue.
7. Management responsibility and accountability.
What features are included in the plight of the four designated groups?
i. Lower pay
ii. Occupational segregation
iii. Glass ceiling
vi. Under utilization
v. Higher rates of unemployment
vii. Low status jobs with little career growth potential.
Building a case for diversity. Why should we implement diversity initiatives?
1. A phenomenal surge in the growth of emerging markets,
2. Extensive use of cross-functional, heterogeneous teams,
3. An increased reliance on non-traditional workforce talent
How does diversity implement cost savings?
1. Lower turnover costs - The lack of opportunity for career growth is the primary reason that professional and managerial women leave their jobs.
2. Lower absenteeism rates - In many cases, family responsibilities, including child and elder care, are key factors underlying such high absenteeism. Companies are beginning to respond to work/family balance issues by offering changes in benefits, day care facilities, and flexible hours.
3. Prevents discrimination lawsuits.
How does diversity help your company win the competition for talent?
1. Companies cited as the best places to work for women and minorities reported an increased inflow of applications from women and minorities, which is evidence of their ability to attract talent.
2. Talented people will be attracted to corporations that value their capabilities and will be more willing to invest themselves in productive activity if they believe they are treated fairly and that career opportunities are available.
How does diversity drive business growth?
i. Improves marketplace understanding.
ii. Creates a good image of the company that is important to conscious buyers.
iii. Increased creativity and innovation.
iv. Better problem solving.
v. Enhancing leadership effectiveness.
vi. Helps build effective global relationships.
What are the four steps to creating a business case for diversity?
i. Determine business objectives/needs.
ii. Identify actions required for each objective/need.
iii. Cost/benefit analysis.
iv. Develop tracking mechanisms to assess progress and financial impact.
Why does a systemic approach to diversity have a potential for success?
This systemic approach has the potential for success because it addresses diversity's complexity by operating on three different levels of organizational change: structural, cultural, and behavioural.
What are structural interventions? Provide examples.
Structural interventions 'focus on the formal systems that guide and control the work of the organization.' Examples: recruitment/retention practices, mentoring programs, flexible work schedules.
What are cultural interventions? Provide examples.
Cultural change 'concerns the basic assumptions, values, beliefs, and ideologies that defines an organization's view of itself. Examples: leadership commitment, diversity training, effective communication.
What are behavioural interventions? Provide examples.
Behavioural changes 'seeks changes in behaviours, attitudes, and perceptions within and between individuals, and within and between work groups, which support or hinder the goals of diversity.' Examples: employee resource groups, mentoring programs.
What does leadership commitment entail?
- Foundation of diversity management; without management support the program will likely be ineffective.
- Diversity management programs need supportive communication and behaviour as well as financial support.
- Personal involvement of the CEO enhances program legitimacy.
- Creation of a diverse board of directors.
- Creation of a diversity council.
- Creation of an executive-level diversity position.
Why is recruitment an important area for diversity change?
i. "the most direct way to transform a corporation's culture and its responsiveness to the marketplace."
ii. Women and racial minorities typically have less access to "informal sources of job information."
Three strategies for recruiting a more diverse workforce:
i. The use of recruiting advertising photos or text that highlights the diversity of the organization's workforce.
ii. The inclusion of statements that communicate the organization's equal employment opportunity (EEO) or diversity management policies in recruiting materials.
iii. The use of female and racial minority recruiters.
Four significant retention strategies include:
1. Diversity training
2. Mentoring (Mentoring relationships have yielded higher job/career satisfaction, larger salaries, and faster promotion rates.)
4. Domestic partner benefits
Across sectors, women lose a staggering ___% of their earning power when they spend three or more years out of the workforce.
What is one potential downside of diversity training?
Diversity training can create additional stereotypes if the content is too simplistic, or it can alienate dominant groups if the process of training is believed to favour some groups at the expense of others.
Two strategies to incorporate diversity into the main work of the organization:
1. The creation and development of employee resource groups.
2. Having women and minorities in decision-making and policy-making roles.
Why is it important to link diversity initiatives to organizational outcomes?
Collecting and examining such data is important because it will help to:
1. Link diversity strategies to organizational goals,
2. Determine the efficacy of particular initiatives,
3. Articulate diversity deliverables,
4. Facilitate support - both moral and financial - for diversity management programs.
5. Diversity Return on Investment (DROI) will help an organization's diversity management program gain legitimacy.
Give two examples of meaningful data that an HR generalist might collect:
i. Number of diverse employees in formal mentoring programs who get promoted.
ii. Representative mix on the board of directors.
What is supplier diversity?
Supplier diversity is when an organization purchases goods and services from businesses that are owned by women, minority groups, people with disabilities etc.
What is the benefit to using diverse suppliers?
Such suppliers provide unique insights into emerging markets, build a loyal customer base, and, most importantly, create wealth in communities.
Overall, the systemic approach to diversity management looks at the following components:
1. Leadership commitment
3. Recruitment and retention
4. Diversity incorporated into main work of organization
5. Initiatives linked to outcomes
6. External relationships
What is social inequality?
Social inequality is the varying degree to which different people have access to and control over valued resources, such as money, wealth, status, and power.
What does it mean to be a stratified society?
The differing degrees of access to and control over valued resources serve to divide Canadian society into recognizable distinct and unequal groups, or strata. Canada is a stratified society.
What can, for example, income determine?
The amount of income a family earns determines many aspects of its existence, including the types of food it consumes, where (or if) to travel, where and for how long the children will attend an educational institution, as well as many of the family's values and beliefs.
What is wealth?
Wealth is the accumulation of assets, such as a house, car, savings, cottage, land etc. Those people with a higher income are more able to accumulate wealth.
A relatively _____ increase in income can have extraordinary effects on wealth accumulation.
These large increases in wealth, resulting from relatively small increases in income, emerge from the increasing amounts of disposable income available as income increases. A relatively small increase in income can have extraordinary effects on wealth accumulation.
What is an ascribed status? What are some examples?
Our ethnicity and race, sex, and social background have fundamental effects on our lives, often restricting (or increasing) our ability to achieve desired educational, occupational, and financial goals. We possess little or no control over these imposed factors; for this reason, these factors are called ascribed statuses. Also considered ascribed statuses: age, and physical or mental disability.
Canadians of ____________ ancestry have the highest average years of schooling. _______ tend to have the lowest.
Highest: Asian, black, Jewish, and British
Lowest: Indians, Inuit, and Italians
Why do working-class people have less post-secondary education?
Lower incomes mean working-class students have more difficulty financing the cost of post-secondary education. Education and studying are not a major part of working-class life and culture.
What is a 'double ghetto'?
"Double ghetto" - when a woman works for wage as well as undertakes the majoring of childrearing and housework.
How was single mothers displaced by married women in the workforce?
The number of working wives has essentially displaced single mothers from certain occupations. Married women have support at home, higher household incomes, and more time to pursue job requirements.
How are older workers typically stereotyped?
Older workers can be stereotyped as lazy, mentally slow, traditionally minded, and conservative.
Characteristics and features of the Upper Class:
- 4-5% of the population
- At least half gain their wealth from inheritance.
- Attend expensive private schools and universities, at home and abroad. These institutions serve to teach the values, beliefs, manners, and ways of looking at the world that are exclusive to this class.
- 'New money' represents 70-80% of the upper class.
Characteristics and features of the Middle Class:
- Shrinking demographic
- Own some property - usually a house, one or two cars, perhaps a cottage.
- Relatively high-paying, secure occupations, providing a degree of satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment. Many are in the public sector with generous benefit allowances.
Characteristics and features of the Working Class:
Those who own little or no wealth and are employed in low paying and generally insecure occupations.
Characteristics and features of the Subworking Class:
20% of the population, with the lowest or no incomes - the homeless, welfare recipients, the unemployed, single-parent families, the aged, and those in extremely low-paying occupations.
The social class structure of Canada has remained relatively _____ for several decades.
The social class structure of Canada has remained relatively stable for several decades. The number of people within each class has remained constant, although many of those within each class have changed.
What are subtle biases?
Subtle biases are automatically activated through associations or stereotypes that relate groups (e.g. men and women) with attributes or characteristics.
What are covert prejudices?
Covert prejudice refers to concealed negative opinions about members of other groups.
Understanding subtle biases and covert prejudice is managerially relevant for 5 reasons:
1. Prevalence of subtle biases and covert prejudice
3. Structural changes in the workplace
4. Demographic changes - The demographic make-up of Western nations and organizations is becoming more and more diverse, resulting in large numbers of employees who may be negatively affected by subtle biases and covert prejudice.
5. The globalization of the business world and the growing service sector
How are subtle biases/covert prejudice related to structural changes of the workplace?
1. The elimination of the hierarchies and formal reporting systems has pushed responsibilities (such as who to consult or inform) from structural elements to individuals, thereby opening the door for biases to affect decisions.
2. The use of teamwork provides more opportunities for subtle biases to play a role.
3. Performance evaluations increasingly focus on process and social and emotional intelligence whole evaluation is more subjective that that of outcomes and technical expertise.
Subtle biases influence our...
Subtle biases influence our interactions and interpretations often without our awareness.
Why do subtle biases exist?
We are quicker at making connections among ideas that are already related in our minds.
What is a stereotype?
Stereotypes are mental shortcuts or generalizations, and can be defined as a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people.
Subtle biases present 4 problems:
1. Their content is often incorrect and/or inaccurate.
2. Their application to individuals is logically flawed.
3. They create illusions of causality. (Ex: gay men in fashion industry).
4. Their activation is automatic and unnoticed.
Covert prejudice is characterized by four elements:
i. Generalized opinions about groups and their members (e.g. older workers) Example: "Discrimination against blacks is no longer a problem in the United States."
ii. Remnants of negative affect towards others.
iii. Explicit denial of prejudice (Strive to be egalitarian. They deny the existence of prejudice in society.)
iv. Situational contingent expression of prejudice. ( Occurs only in situations where the resulting discrimination can be explained by non-prejudicial motives.)
Covert prejudice refers to attitudes towards _____.
Covert prejudice refers to attitudes towards groups.
Covert prejudice poses two unique problems:
1. The 'we are not prejudiced' problem. (A prejudice-awareness training with covertly prejudiced individuals may feel like 'preaching to the choir' and likely does not have much of an effect.)
2. The 'it happens only under certain circumstances' problem. (Covert prejudice leads to discriminatory behaviour only in the presence of justifications that subtly prejudiced individuals perceive as legitimate and non-prejudicial.)
Four-step plan to gain better control of biases and prejudices:
1. Becoming mindful and aware of biases and prejudices. Example: Whom would I except to accept help from or offer help to in physically strenuous situations?
2. Understanding the costs and benefits of biases and prejudices.
3. Understanding the root of biases and prejudices. For example, it would be very hard to argue with a woman who is biased against men if she has previously been abused by a man. Related contributors: upbringing or religious background, lack of interactions with members of an out-group, or living in an environment that reinforces these biases.
4. Managing biases and prejudices by continuous testing.
What can organizations do to manage subtle biases and covert prejudice?
Prejudice awareness training alone is not sufficient.
Creating accountability for fair behaviour.
Building a culture for diversity.
How many aboriginals were there at the time of first contact?
500,000 to 2 million at time of first contact
Describe the 1876 - Indian Act
- It enshrined sexist definition:
- Any man belonging to a particular band, and any child of such
- Any woman marrying s/o not legally Indian loses Indian status, as well as her children
- White woman marrying Indian gains Indian status
What is Bill C-31 (1985)?
It enabled reinstatement of people who lost Indian status through marriage or through marriage of their mother.
What are the Metis? When did this culture develop?
Descended of French fur traders and Cree women.18th century - developed a European/native culture.
What is the 1763 Royal Proclamation? What is it importance to the Aboriginal people?
- Land not part of New France & not owned by HBC is "Indian" land.
- Indian land can only be taken through "public purchase"
- Treaties recognize them as sovereign nations
- Few treaties that have not included grievances on broken verbal or written promises.
What are 'reserves'?
- "Home and Native land"
- Not a minority subject to discrimination
- Reserves have unique legal status
- Most Natives live on reserves
- No municipal taxes
How do promotions for white people vs. minorities differ?
Promising white professionals tend to enter a fast track early in their careers, whereas high-potential minorities take off much later, typically after they have reached middle management.
Stage 1 of the Promotion Tournament
- Stage 1 was thus a time for minority executives to gain the three C's: confidence, competence, and credibility.
Stage 2 of the Promotion Tournament
- In Stage 2, minority executives continued to increase their functional knowledge, allowing them to deepen and broaden their foundation of the three C's. When leading others, the sheer technical or functional competence they had acquired in Stage 1 often enabled them to influence subordinates who might otherwise have been resistant Through that process, they were able to enhance their managerial skills and judgment.
- Stage 2 can be thought of as a catching-up (to white executives) and breaking-out period for minority executives.
- In stage 2, minority executives were far more likely to have powerful corporate-level executives as their mentors/sponsors (compared to white executives).
Stage 3 of the Promotion Tournament
- Minority executives in stage 3 continued developing their network of highly placed mentors and sponsors.
What are some of the challenges associated with mentoring?
- Protégés needed to feel connected to their mentor. Often it worked best if they could see themselves as that person in the future (or if a mentor recognized themselves in the protégé).
- Mentors need to play roles of both coach and counsellor.
- Organizations need to teach managers how to mentor effectively, especially for minorities. Awareness of differences across race when it comes to mentoring, workplace culture, and barriers.
What can executives, or mentors, do to foster the upward mobility of people of color? (Creating environment for success)
1. Ensure that the pool of people being considered for promotions and key assignments reflects the diversity in the organization.
2. Promote executive development workshops and seminars that address racial issues.
3. Support in-house minority associations, including networking groups.
4. Challenge implicit rules, such as those that assume that people who weren't fast movers early in their careers will never rise to executive suites.
Cross cultural communication continually involves these three things:
misunderstandings caused by
ii. misinterpretation, and
Perception is the process by which individuals select, organize, and evaluate stimuli from the external environment to provide meaningful experiences for themselves.
How would you describe 'perception.' (5)
1. Selective - we screen out the overload.
2. Learned - experience teaches us to perceive world in specific ways.
3. Culturally Determined
4. Consistent - once we see something in a particular way, we tend to continue to see it that way.
5. Inaccurate - we distort, block, and even create what we choose to hear and see.
Interpretation occurs when an individual assigns meaning to observations and their relationships; it is the process of making sense out of perceptions. Based on our experience, we make assumptions about what we perceive so we will not have to rediscover meanings each time we encounter similar situations. Example: how to open a door.
How is 'categories' related to misinterpretation? Why do we categorize?
Cross-cultural miscategorization occurs when you use home-categories to make sense of situations abroad. We group perceived images into familiar categories that help us to simplify our environment. Categorizing helps to distinguish what is most important in the environment and to behave accordingly.
A stereotype becomes helpful when it is:
1. Consciously held. People should be aware that they are describing a group norm.
2. Descriptive rather than evaluative. Describe what they are like, not make judgements on whether it is good or bad.
4. Modified. Based on continuing observation and experience with the actual people and situations.
Canadian psychologist Donald Taylor found that most people...
maintain their stereotypes even in the face of contradictory evidence.
Why do we rarely admit to stereotyping, even though each of us stereotypes every day?
- We have failed to accept stereotyping as a natural process and have consequently failed to learn to use it to our advantage.
- Most people view stereotypes as a negative simplification of reality and unethical.
What are the four common sources of misinterpretation?
1. Subconscious Cultural Blinders - Our home-culture reality never forces us to examine our assumptions or the extent to which they are culturally based, because we share them with most other citizens of our country.
2. Lack of Cultural Self Awareness - Asking foreigners to describe businesspeople from your country is a powerful way to see yourself as others see you. The more culturally self-aware we are, the more able we are to predict the effect our behaviour will have on others.
3. Projected Similarity - Projected similarity refers to the assumption that people are more similar to you than they actually are.
4. Parochialism - Underlying projected similarity is subconscious parochialism. You assume that the only way to be is your way. You therefore view other people in reference to you and to your way of viewing the world.
Describe 'cross-cultural misevaluation.'
- Evaluation involves judging whether someone or something is good or bad.
- We use our own culture as a standard of measurement, judging that which is like our own culture as normal and good and that which is different as abnormal and bad.
How do global managers effectively communicate to diverse teams?
- 'know that they don't know.'
- emphasize description rather than interpreting or evaluating it.
- delay judgement until they have taken sufficient time to observe the situation from the perspectives of all cultures involved.
- develop an explanation for a situation, then treat the explanation as a guess rather than as a certainty.
How would you describe or define an 'ethnic group'?
- Shares a common ancestry, history, norms, values, and traditions.
- Is considered a group by others who do not share the first elements.
9 key leadership behaviours that improve organizational performance:
i. Participative decision making
ii. Role model
iii. Inspiration (presenting compelling vision of the future)
iv. Expectations and rewards
v. People development
vi. Intellectual stimulation
vii. Efficient communication
viii. Individualistic decision making
ix. Control and corrective action
Which five behaviours do female leaders use more frequently than men?
people development, expectation and rewards, role model, inspiration, and participative decision making
Of the four most critical behaviours...
three are more often demonstrated by women. (intellectual stimulations, inspiration, participative decision making, and expectation and rewards.)
Three main initiatives to increase gender diversity:
1. Implementing gender diversity indicators. Examples of indicators: pay levels and gaps, attrition rates, the ratio of 'women promoted' to 'women eligible for promotion.'
2. Redefining human resource management processes and policies.
3. Helping women to master the dominant codes and nurture their ambition. Coaching, mentoring programs, women's networks.
What is including in 'sexual rights'?
- Right to sexual freedom - excludes all forms of sexual coercion, exploitation, and abuse.
- Sexual equity - equality of genders.
- Sexually associate freely.
- Make free and responsible reproductive choices.
LGBT Progress in Canada (Name those Bills)
Bill C-150 = did not attempt to decriminalize homosexuality in general, but instead established a distinction between public and private sexual acts.
Bill C-242, an act to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, which aimed to insert "sexual orientation" into the Canadian Human Rights Act > didn't pass (May 1980).
Bill C-33 (1996) was passed to add "sexual orientation" to the Canadian Human Rights Act. However, it took 8 more years (until Feb. 2004) for Bill C-250 to get first reading in the House of Commons and royal assent.
Same-Sex Marriage: Bill C-38. July 2005 Bill C-38 became law.
What are some critiques of they 'gay' culture?
1. Many parents, both heterosexual and gay, say the suggestive ads are inappropriate for children.
2. Critics have accused researchers of downplaying differences between children of gay and straight parents, especially if those differences might be interpreted unfavourably. Claiming that few responsible scholars today oppose same-sex parenting, they suggest that most scholars fear that highlighting the differences will be used by opponents of homosexual parenting and marriage to oppose gay adoption and gay marriage.
How does being raised by LGBT parents affect a child?
1. Children may tend to adopt more accepting and open attitudes toward various sexual identities and are more willing to question their own sexuality.
2. Children often expand emotional energy hiding or in other ways controlling information about their parents, mainly to avoid ridicule.
What is distinctive about the "modern" cultural conception of social organization of homosexuality has four salient features:
1. Awareness of group distinctiveness and a willingness to assert the legitimacy of that distinction.
2. De-assimilation from the mainstream culture and the development of separate institutions to serve the community.
3. Primacy of egalitarian same-sex relationships rather (as in Ancient Greece) or gender-role-bound ones that imitate male/female roles (as in many Third World cultures).
4. Exclusive same-sex relationships rather than bisexuality (as in most cultures where homosexual behaviour if tolerated or institutionalized).
Important factors that helped form gay communities:
i. Economic changes - transition to service occupations providing work for men and women looking for autonomy from their families.
ii. Geographical mobility provided by the "car culture."
iii. Welfare state - safety net that previously only families were able to provide.
iv. Political climate of the 1960s
v. The gay communities began to attract more like-minded individuals simply by existing.
The definition of sexual orientation must take into account 7 distinct variables:
1. Sexual attraction - not synonymous with sexual behaviour. You can be attracted to one gender and yet have sex with the other.
2. Sexual behaviour
3. Sexual fantasies
4. Emotional preference - some people prefer to have sex with one gender but are emotionally involved with the other.
5. Social preference - refers to the degree to which you like to socialize with members of your own sex and to what degree with the other sex.
6. Heterosexual/homosexual lifestyle - refers to the degree to which you like to socialize with members of your own sex and to what degree with the other sex.
7. Self-identification - is one's own view of one's orientation.
What is the 'opt-out revolution'?
'Opt-out revolution' - large numbers of highly qualified women dropping out of mainstream careers.
Nearly ___ in ten highly qualified women ( ___%) report that they have left work voluntarily at some point in their careers. Among women who have children, that statistic rises to ___%.
Nearly four in ten highly qualified women (37%) report that they have left work voluntarily at some point in their careers. Among women who have children, that statistic rises to 43%.
Is it push or pull?
Push factors seem to be more powerful in business profession compared to, say, medicine. When women feel hemmed in by rigid policies or a glass ceiling, for example, they are much more likely to respond to the pull of family.
How does male off-ramping differ from female off-ramping?
For highly qualified men, off-ramping seems to be about strategic repositioning in their careers-a far cry from the dominant concerns of their female peers.
Only ___% of off-ramped women who want to re-join the ranks of the employed manage to do so, according to our survey.
Only 74% of off-ramped women who want to re-join the ranks of the employed manage to do so, ac-cording to our survey. And among these, only 40% return to full-time, professional jobs. Many (24%) take part-time jobs and some (9%) become self-employed.
Our data show that women lose an average of 18% of their earning power when they take an off-ramp. In business sectors, penalties are particularly draconian: In these fields, women's earning power dips an average of 28% when they take time out. The longer you spend out, the more severe the penalty becomes. Across sectors, women lose a staggering 37% of their earning power when they spend three or more years out of the workforce.
Loss of earning power after an off-ramp = ___ %
In business fields? = ___ %
Women lose ___ of their earning power when they spend three or more years out of the workforce.
- Women lose an average of 18% of their earning power when they take an off-ramp.
- In business sectors women's earning power dips an average of 28% when they take time out.
- Women lose a staggering 37% of their earning power when they spend three or more years out of the workforce.
Steps a business can take to help women return to the workplace and/or flexibility:
1. Reduced-hour jobs.
2. Provide flexibility in the day. Some women don't require reduced work hours; they merely need flexibility in when, where and how they do their work.
3. Remove the stigma. Of flexible work arrangements in general, 21% report that "there is an unspoken rule at my workplace that people who use these options will not be promoted."
4. Stop burning bridges. Only 5% of highly qualified women looking for on-ramps are interested in re-joining the companies they left. Create alumni programs.
5. Nurture ambition.
How would you define transsexualism?
Transsexualism: the most pronounced form of gender dysphoria in which a person experiences such a deep conflict between their physical sex and their mental gender that they have no choice but to embark upon the process of transition (switching into living full time in the desired role) and gender reassignment (medical and surgical treatment to alter the body).
What are some of the unique issues that transsexual people face?
1. Unable to conceal.
2. Small numbers in the work place. This lack of ties through "common experience that often provides the necessary support to push for action" can leave people "alone and isolated in their struggle."
What is the 'transsexual paradox' that friends and family members might face?
For family, friends and colleagues, a person's change of sexual identity is a shock, but in addition to this a transsexual person presents a paradox. One the one hand the MtF trans person wants to be seen and accepted as "different from what they were before" yet at the same time they want to be accepted and treated the same as other women.
Dychtwald, K. Erickson, T. & Morison, B. (2004). It's Time to Retire Retirement, Harvard Business Review, March, 48-57.
As the population at large ages, and ever-more spending power is concentrated in the hands of older customers, companies will want to show a mature face to their clientele-and yet those faces will be in high demand.
What is more appropriate in handling a transsexual in the workplace, a 'dissolving differences' approach or a 'valuing differences' approach?
For a transsexual for whom the change is a central life event, a dissolving differences approach which ignores their transsexual situation is unlikely to be a satisfying approach. In contrast, a diversity approach which values differences and accepts the importance of acknowledging different identities in the workplace may serve them better.
When is it common for transsexual people to come out?
Transsexual people typically go through a great deal of emotional turmoil, ranging from despair, isolation, and frustration to elation once they have accepted their condition. Many of these feelings will have been suppressed for years, and according to the  Burns (1997), "psychiatrists suggest that the mid-life period, around 40, is a common stage for those transsexual people who have suppressed their feelings in earlier life to come out".
How can a company aid in a transsexual person's transition?
- Cadrain (2004) suggests setting up a "Transition Team" consisting of an HR person, a top manager, an employee assistance programme person, a union representative and the transitioning employee to anticipate, and decide on communications and other issues.
- Just as the transsexual person must go through this lengthy transition process it can be argued that colleagues also require a period of time to adapt to the new status of the individual.
Why is training important in a workplace with transsexuals?
Education and awareness rising to increase tolerance and acceptance are also stressed in the codes and guidelines on transsexuals in the workplace. Given that transsexual people present in small numbers, education is particularly important to reduce ignorance of the issues.
What are gender roles?
Gender roles are clusters of traits that a culture defines as masculine or feminine. Data show a high degree of conformity to traditional male and female roles in Canada.
What are the top two long term trends in the workforce?
1. A faster pace of technological innovation requires:
2. Increasing availability of of knowledge/ability to exploit it requires:
"Participative decision making"
____ of U.S. employers don't actively recruit older workers.
Two-thirds of U.S. employers don't actively recruit older workers.
Retirees are more likely to be...
Retirees are more likely to be working part-time or be self-employed.
How can we reconnect with our older workers before they retire (and go to another company)?
1. Create a culture that honours experience.
2. Offer flexible work.
3. Introduce flexible retirement.
How can you create a culture that honours experience?
Mature workers are more likely to be attracted to ads, emphasizing "experience;' "knowledge," and "expertise!'
Mature workers prefer a traditional interviewing method.
The challenge is to make them feel as though it's not a sign of weakness to ask.
What does it mean for a company to offer 'flexible work'?
- Many mature workers want to keep working but in a less time-consuming and pressured capacity so that they may pursue other interests.
- Examples: Job sharing, telecommuting, compressed workweeks, and part-time schedules.
- Companies that have successful flex programs not only make these programs easily accessible to older workers but also structure them so that people who participate don't feel that they're being sidelined or overlooked for promotions - and so that participation leads to a win-win for employer and employee.
What does it mean for a company to offer 'flexible retirement'?
- Retirement age was introduced as a result of The Great Depression.
- When the modern notion of retirement was first articulated at the end of the nineteenth century, the designated retirement age of 65 was longer than the life expectancy at the time.
- For employers, the programs provide an elastic pool of staff on demand and an on-call cadre of experienced people who can work part-time as the business needs them. Recruiting and replacement costs are close to zero because the business is already in contact with the worker, and training costs are minimal. They know the organization and the organization knows them; they fit in right away and are productive without ramp-up time.
- Typically, these programs allow an employee to take regular retirement and then, sometimes after a specified break in service (typically six months), return to the employer as an independent contractor, usually for a maximum of 1000 hours a year.
What is the 'net generation'?
This generation born between 1978 and 1994 is known as the Net Generation because of their perceptions of this generation as immersed in a digital environment.
What are the four main clusters of organizational mechanisms to respond to the Net Generation?
1. Project management - The project management responses focused on defining management rules, testing performance, and restricting ways of working.
2. Technology - referred to the use of technology to address tensions, often taking the form of prohibiting or restricting the use of particular technologies.
3. Human Resources - The human resources mechanism responses referred to the use of the HR function in addressing the tensions, either early (to improve screening and hiring for fit) or later in policies and training.
4. Policy - "...we have a policy so it starts with a policy around, 'you know, our business tools are meant for business reasons.'
Growing awareness causes managers to address the tensions in a more systematic way.
*See W8 Course Readings for pic
Two phenomena of how executives deal with net generationals:
We would like to discuss two phenomena we observe in our findings: (1) the priority executives give to top-down strategies as opposed to bottom-up ones and (2) the preference of executives to control either behaviour or technology determinants while ignoring values and norms, which we believe form the third apex of an integral triad.
Why is a top-down strategy bad when deal with the net generation?
In the long-term, top-down strategies have the potential to stimulate higher levels of resistance to attempts at control, especially in periods of change. In the near term, a top-down strategy can alienate the younger employees, decreasing the chances to build a shared and common vision, mission, and organizational culture and increasing turnover.
What is the 'technology-values-behaviour triad'?
- What is new is the extent, timing, speed, and the closeness of this recursive relationship between information technology and the net generation's values and behaviour. We believe that understanding and resolving the tensions arising from perceptions about the net generation can only be achieved if we use a lens that considers technology, values, and behaviour as a closely coupled triad of factors affecting the perceived organizational tensions.
- Decomposing this triad into separate components and trying to resolve issues by treating only one component at a time may not be effective due to the close relationship between these concepts.
- This triad should be treated from a holistic point of view
these three components move together and are closely coupled
- The new unit of analysis should be communities rather than individuals. Technology component provides platforms for communities to be established quickly;
Both the Gen Ys and the Boomers are looking for:
what we call a "remixed" set of rewards: Flexible work arrangements and the opportunity to give back to society trump the sheer size of the pay package.
Why do non-financial rewards make sense?
Non-financial rewards are less expensive to fund and luckily more desired.
What is a graduate deferral program?
The initiative gave new hires the option of postponing their arrival for a year and devoting the interim period to community service or the acquisition of new skills. For pursuits UBS considered worthy, it was offering to pay half the base salary associated with the accepted position, plus a stipend for health insurance - while holding the promised job open for the individual's return.
What are some of the common themes between Gen Y and Boomers workplace values and desires?
1. Odyssey - opportunities that allow time out to explore passions, hobbies, and good works.
2. Shared vision and values - heightened sense of obligation to make a positive contribution to society and to the health of the planet.
3. Achieving balance with flex and remote working.
4. Mentoring and generation-jumping - Gen Ys are usually the offspring of Boomers and a famously doted-upon set of children. Perhaps that's why these two generations seek each other out in the workplace.
5. Kippers and Velcro relationships - The parent-child bond that creates such close connections between Gen Ys and Boomers also involves demands on time and resources.
6. Rewards Mix - Both generations rate four other forms of pay as at least as important as money: a great team, challenging assignments, a range of new experiences, and explicit performance evaluation and recognition.
What are the new workplace imperatives?
3. Opportunities to give back. UBS's gap year program, described earlier, is a great example.
4. Progressive policies.
5. Intergenerational mentoring.
Describe the historical treatment/care of the disabled.
- Seen as weak and/or less worthy non-contributing members of society.
- The major provider of care, other than the family, was the church.
What is the Confederation and the British North America (BNA) Act? What did it establish
Now called 'the Constitution Act' (1867) established that healthcare and education, as well as what we now term 'social services,' are the responsibility of the provincial governments. Federal government retained the responsibility to provide health care to the Inuit population and to the veterans of the armed forces.
Describe the evolution of care for the disabled during the 19th century.
- asylums for blind were funded in a few cities.
- What started out as a movement for special education in many instances resulted in institutions that provided merely housing, often in less than adequate conditions.
- Voluntary services were formed such as Canadian Red Cross and Victorian Order of Nurses.
- Through these volunteer efforts, public awareness grew about the issues facing people with disabilities, as did public support of increased financial and moral support.
What events triggered the demand for services for the disabled?
Volunteer efforts, serious diseases and outbreaks, and civilian disasters (Halifax explosion).
How did the world wars contribute to the services available to the disabled in Canada?
- The notion of who 'deserved' help shifted. People with disabilities were no longer the unfortunate and the weak, but some of our 'brightest and strongest.'
- Care for people with disabilities shifted from being merely the provision of food and shelter to the provision of rehabilitative services. Helping veterans get back into the labour market by providing vocational training was a top priority.
- The services developed in the war years for veterans were extended to include all Canadians.
How did organized labour help the disabled services movement? What did they achieve?
The new social movement of organized labour pushed for protection of injured workers. This resulted in the Ontario Workmen's Compensation Act of 1914.
What is the Vocational Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons Act (1961)?
The major tenet of this Act is that the federal government makes cost-sharing arrangements with the provinces for the provision of services to people with disabilities enter or re-enter the workforce.
What is the Canada Pension Plan Act (1965)?
Stipulates that for those who have contributed to the plan and who are later deemed unlikely to be able to work because of a 'severe' disability, a pension will be paid.
What group has been the largest driving forces of disabled service reforms?
They successfully lobbied for services and for anti-discriminatory legislation. They are also largely responsible for the mainstream integration of special needs children into 'regular' schools.
Why was the development of psychoactive drugs (1970s) a step backward?
The development of psychoactive drugs in the 1970s led to the discharge of vast numbers of patients from psychiatric institutions and allowed for care on an outpatient basis. These drugs did much to decrease the number of individuals getting custodial rather than rehabilitative care.
What trend emerged in the 1980s?
- The 1980s trend toward self-help groups was critical in bringing about this change - No longer are people with disabilities unable to speak for themselves.
- Increased involvement was a result of better medical treatment, assistive devices brought about by:
advanced technology, and increased access to and involvement in education and the workforce.
What are the three different disability models?
1. Biomedical Model.
2. Economic Model.
3. Sociopolitical Model.
Describe the biomedical model.
- Emphasizes impairment.
- The individual is seen as a patient who is 'sick' or hurt or a victim of bad luck.
- The model lends itself to the social goals that focus on accommodation, that is, society is obligated to provide a basic level of medical care and health services.
Describe the economic model.
- Emphasizes the economics of disablement. How does one's impairment affect one's capabilities?
- The model is concerned with the effects of a disability on society as a whole. It is often framed as labour market issues. People with disabilities are seen as an economic cost.
- It leads to the development of social policy that strives to fully integrate people with disabilities into the economic market.
Describe the sociopolitical model.
- Most representative of current trends. Disability is viewed as a type of social injustice.
- In this model, society disables people. The model holds that disabilities need to be destigmatized.
- Reflective of the rise of self-help groups is the shift towards empowerment.
The three goals sought by disabled persons:
1. To be treated with respect.
2. To have the same opportunities as other Canadians to participate socially, economically, educationally, recreationally, and in all other ways in the social life of the country.
3. Services and assistance to ensure their needs are met.
What is the normalization theory?
- The theory led to the belief that all individuals are entitled to lives that are 'as normal as possible.'
- Some argue that the real impetus behind this normalization was the save the public money. Governments often moved people with disabilities out of institutions without providing them with adequate community programs and financial resources.
- What is normal anyways? Sociologists have written at great length about how a dominant group regards its experience as 'natural' or 'normal' and experiences that differ from these are considered less than normal. Therefore, when it comes to disability, it is society that socially constructs the difference.
________ people were disabled in Canada in 2006.
4.4 million people were disabled in Canada in 2006.
How does our aging population affect the disabled population?
As our population ages, more and more Canadians are going to face physical disability and this, in turn, will increase awareness of the needs of people with disabilities.
What is the AODA?
The Act announced the need to develop, implement, an enforce accessibility standards in all areas of social life, including accommodations, services, and employment, by the year 2025.
What are the tangible and intangible benefits of hiring disabled people?
Tangible benefits include a larger labour pool and tax benefits for hiring workers with disabilities; intangibles include a workforce reflecting community makeup and the knowledge that the opportunities expand individuals' potential, awareness and achievement.
What is the difference between the disabled and every other minority group?
The disabled population is the only minority group that anyone can join at any time. It's essential that employers see this issue as not just a disability issue, but as a human-capital issue that can literally impact anyone.
Who is more likely to receive workplace accommodation?
Employees who become disabled are most likely to receive workplace accommodations than those who apply with pre-existing disabilities. Possible explanation: The employer may more readily estimate that worker's direct benefit and value to the company and factor in the benefits associated with not having to replace that employee.
What are some of the causes of the low employment rate for those with a disability?
1. Costs associated with employing people with disabilities.
2. employer discrimination and reluctance to hire,
3. corporate cultures that aren't disability-friendly, and
4. the need for accommodations.
A Fresh Perspective
Employers' lack of knowledge, awareness and comfort level with workplace disability issues often makes them view workers with disabilities as having too many limitations to perform jobs.
To guide and plan recruitment, assessment and retention, Kaufman advises employers to view workers with disabilities as a varied group made up of five distinct "pillars":
college-educated people with disabilities,
aging baby boomers,
disabled veterans, and
people with cognitive or developmental disabilities.
Finding solutions to improving diversity with the disabled:
1. Partner with public and private disability agencies and community organizations.
2. Provide information and outreach.
3. Mandate increased awareness and education.
4. Re-examine how work, productivity and accommodation can go hand in hand.
5. Look at abilities first and tailor assistance and mentoring to match.
6. Consider "job-carving." Encourage employers to custom-tailor employment for different levels of abilities.
7. Establish pipelines to reach school-age recruits with disabilities.
Perceived issues and sources of tension regarding the net generation:
- Multi-tasking - no efficiency
- Lack of work ethics
- Lack of focus - potential for high turnover
- Information sharing across organizational boundaries (security risks, leakage of intellectual property, lack of separation from work/personal life)
A model for cultural change:
*SEE W9 Course Reading for Photo Diagram*
As the flow of the arrows suggests, the change effort cycles through all of the elements and is continually assessed and refined over time in a process of continuous loop learning.
What are the 5 components of the model for cultural change?
2. Research and measurement
4. Alignment of management systems
Leadership is behaviour that establishes a direction or goal for change (a vision), provides a sense of urgency and importance for the vision, facilitates the motivation of others, and cultivates necessary conditions for achievement of the vision.
What two types of research questions tend to be used for measurement? Which one is preferred?
(1) questions about the level of some environmental element or phenomenon such as the gender distribution of a work population and
(2) questions about relationships between phenomena (for example, whether an employee's age affects his or her job performance ratings).
Understanding relationships between phenomena is important to develop interventions.
What is the difference between research and measurement?
Although research and measurement overlap, I use them as separate terms in order to acknowledge the distinction between using data to define action agendas (research) and using data to assess the results of actions (measurement).
_________ is a central feature of any change effort.
Education is a central feature of any change effort. I use the term education in preference to training to signify my conviction that learning must be approached through a variety of methods. For example, I find that many organizations drastically underuse personal coaching as a means of educating people about diversity.
Early returns on diversity training effectiveness are _____________.
Early returns on diversity training effectiveness are not encouraging.
What is a 'management system'?
'Management systems' include any organizational policy, practice, rule, or procedure.
How would you align your management systems with diversity initiatives?
- Make diversity competency a criterion in the promotion decision process.
- Seek outside help for diversity training while eschewing help with work on aligning systems.
Describe the 'follow-up' component of the cultural change model.
This component involves implementing action, establishing accountability for results, and capturing and recycling the learning so that the action steps become more and more precise. This component overlaps with all the others but is linked especially to the research and measurement component.
What is the difference between transformational leadership vs. transactional leadership?
One of the most important differences is that the latter puts emphasis on overseeing and coordinating tasks within an existing vision and philosophy, whereas the former involves guiding the organization to a new vision. Also, transactional leaders preside over incremental change, whereas transformational leaders usher in revolutionary change.
4 categories of barriers that create challenges on multicultural teams:
1. Direct vs. indirect communication
2. Trouble with accents and fluency
3. Differing attitudes towards hierarchy and authority
4. Conflicting norms for decision making
Describe communication differences between Westerners and Non-Westerners.
Westerners - direct and explicit. Meaning is on surface.
Non-Westerners - meaning is embedded in the way the message is presented.
How can someone's trouble with an accent or fluency affect their image?
- It can influence perceptions of status or competence.
- Their difficulty communicating knowledge makes it hard for the team to recognize and utilize their expertise.
- If teammates become frustrated or impatient with a lack of fluency, interpersonal conflicts can arise. Non-native speakers may become less motivated to contribute, or anxious about their performance evaluations and future career prospects.
How might attitudes differ towards hierarchy and authority?
- Some team members from some cultures, in which people are treated differently according to their status in an organization, are uncomfortable on flat teams.
- If they defer to higher status team members, their behaviourr will be seen as appropriate when most of the team comes from a hierarchical culture; but they may damage their stature and credibility - and even face humiliation - if most of the team comes from an egalitarian culture.
How does decision making in the U.S. differ from other countries?
U.S. managers like to make decisions very quickly and with relatively little analysis by comparison with managers from other countries.
What are the four different strategies one could use when handling challenges that arise on multicultural teams?
2. Structural Intervention
3. Managerial Intervention
Describe the 'adaptation' strategy that one could use when handling a challenge that arises on a multicultural team.
- Adaptation works when team members are willing to acknowledge and name their cultural differences and to assume responsibility for figuring out how to live with them.
- Often the best possible approach to a problem, because it typically involves less managerial time than other strategies; and because team members participate in solving the problem themselves, they learn from the process.
Describe the 'structural intervention' strategy that one could use when handling a challenge that arises on a multicultural team. When is it effective?
- Changing the shape of the team. Designed to reduce interpersonal friction or to remove a source of conflict for one or more groups.
- This tactic can be extremely effective when obvious subgroups demarcate the team (for example, headquarter versus national subsidiaries) or if team members are proud, defensive, threatened, or clinging to negative stereotypes of one another.
Describe the 'managerial intervention' strategy that one could use when handling a challenge that arises on a multicultural team.
- Setting norms early or bringing in higher-level manager. Setting norms early in a team's life can really help the team start out with effective processes.
- Example: In setting the ground rules for the team, the manager addressed the challenge directly, telling the members that they had been chosen for their task expertise, not their fluency in English, and that the team was going to have to work around language problems. "I realize I have an accent. If you don't understand what I'm saying, just stop me and ask questions."
Describe the 'exit' strategy that one could use when handling a challenge that arises on a multicultural team. When is this strategy likely to be used?
- Removing a team member when other options have failed.
- Exit was likely when emotions were running high and too much face had been lost on both sides to salvage the situation.
In what four ways can data be used to build a case for diversity?
1. Using data to build commitment
2. Using data to enhance education
3. Using data to diagnose the climate for diversity
4. Using data to measure progress
How can someone use data to build up commitment to diversity?
- You can overcome resistance through education and communication.
- It develops a business case, it can get executives focused on a need for change, and you can use data to promote shared leadership with unions.
Where is resistance to diversity initiatives like to come from? Why?
Resistance is likely to come from majority culture group members. Sometimes viewed at taking control away from the more dominant partner in order to enfranchise members of the smaller partner.
What are the three steps to developing a business case for diversity (using data)?
1. Develop conceptual logic and arguments in favour of diversity.
2. Put together internal and external data in support of these arguments.
3. Create an intervention strategy.
Why is important to get union leaders on board with diversity initiatives?
Participation by union leaders in the change work on diversity can make an enormous difference in the success of the work.
Are diversity issues related to salaried or hourly workers?
Most of the diversity issues applied equally to salaried and hourly members of the organization.
How can data enhance the effectiveness of education?
- Use feedback from employees about specific issues of the diversity climate to create case scenarios for analysis in training courses.
- Use the results of work from one organization to demonstrate the value of the change process to other organizations.
- Knowing truth can lead people to question and to examine their own behaviour and assumptions.
Why is it necessary to diagnose a company's climate for diversity change?
- Measurement of the current state is necessary, both to guide action planning and to set a baseline for assessing progress.
- Measurement is only valuable if it focuses on true indicators of success.
Examples of components of diversity climate:
1. Individual-level measures: amount of identity-group prejudice, amount of stereotyping, diversity-relevant personality traits, level of intergroup conflict, quality of intergroup communication.
2. Organizational-level measures: identify profile of workforce, mode of acculturation, content of organization culture, power distribution among groups, people management policies and practices, openness of informal networks.
Examples of metrics for measuring progress:
Employee turnover, absenteeism, structured employee feedback, levels of change in diversity profiles, percent implementation of action plans, levels of identity-group-related complaints or litigation costs, successful accommodations for persons with disabilities.
Lessons Learned About Measuring Progress
1. Communicate: communication plans that keep people apprised of action steps and the results achieved. It helps them make connections between their feedback and the action steps.
2. Pay Attn. to the Unit of Analysis: it is appropriate to hold heads of departments responsible for employee turnover rates within that department, but it would certainly not be appropriate to measure nonsupervisory personnel on this item.
3. Set Appropriate Measure Intervals: change doesn't happen overnight. Excessive frequency of measurement can sour people and become a hindrance to change.
Some Caveats on Using Research
- Use of data can backfire if the credibility of the consultant of the internal sponsors of the change effort are damaged by missteps in the use of data.
- Don't oversell the data.
- Make sure the people presenting the data have a deep understanding of the data and how they were collected.
- Make sure the presentation of the data is user-friendly.
- Avoid overloading people with data.
- Help your audience by making clear what you think the data mean. Provide a starting point for making sense of the data.
- Ensure data accuracy.
Three main categories of work climate must be examined when aligning organizational systems with diversity initiative:
Time - has to do with the way time is scheduled for the performance of work. Includes length of workday, days of work per week, use of overtime, time-off policies, retirement policies, and level of work schedule flexibility.
Space - concern aspects of the physical work environment. Includes cleanliness of the workplace, extent to which physical barriers separate people at work, and presence of class distinctions in specifications of physical spaces at work.
People process - practices designed to manage the acquisition of human talent and their employment outcomes. Includes recruiting practices, promotion practices, compensation policies, performance appraisal practices, and career development and succession planning practices.
What is the general attitude toward time-off policies in regards to diversity?
The most fundamental implication of these trends is that if your organization had more liberal time-off policies, you will be better able to attract, retain, and motivate the diverse workforce.
What is meant by 'presence of class distinctions'?
- Clearly identifiable societal hierarchies of gender, socioeconomic class, work specialization, rate, and so on.
- In general, a work climate becomes more diversity friendly when it avoids or removes policies and practices that tend to reinforce the existence of such hierarchies.
- Examples: reserved parking for executives.
How can diversity be translated into recruitment practices?
o Reflecting Diversity Competency in Selection Tools
o Composition of Recruiting Teams
o New-Hire Orientation
How can diversity competency be incorporated into selection tools?
- Develop interview questions that ask for information about diversity competency.
- Ask candidates whether they have had any previous training or educational experiences on the subject of diversity.
- Include some diversity-related material in the selection activities that candidates are asked to complete.
In what two ways can diversity have an effect on performance appraisals?
1. There is the possibility that identity factors like national origin, race, or age are affecting ratings.
2. You can use diversity as a criterion in performance ratings
If there is no basis for difference in ratings, then attention must turn to the process of creating the ratings. At this juncture there are two main possibilities:
1. Factors in the work climate are making it more difficult for 'x' to achieve their full potential.
2. Raters are scoring 'x' lower for the same displayed performance level of others.
How can cultural differences play a part in rating fairness?
Cultural differences can play a part as well in rating fairness. Example: if self-evaluations are a component, persons with roots in Asian cultures that stress modesty may be doing themselves a disservice.
What should be measured in the assessment of diversity-positive behaviours?
Behaviours for the assessment of the 'values diversity' success factor *See chart on pg. 251 (119).*
In what three areas can diversity be incorporated into career development?
1. Job postings
2. Annual development planning
3. Succession planning
Explain why you would align 'job postings' with diversity initiatives.
- Informal, network-based selection puts members of cultural minority groups at a distinct disadvantage because they are simply less likely to have a friend in high places who will ask for them by name.
Well-executed job postings will help your diversity efforts in at least three ways:
1. It makes opportunities more visible so that qualified members of all identity groups can apply for them.
2. Posting jobs requires a competitive screening process that must be defended for fairness and therefore increases the chances of due diligence of consideration of all qualified applicants.
3. A properly executed job posting plan requires specific feedback to applicants on what someone else was selected in preference to them.
What is an annual development plan?
These plans specify the skills and competencies that need to be strengthened during the coming year, along with an action plan for acquiring them.
How can an annual development plan help diversity in the company?
- Help increase the pool of qualified members if underrepresented identity groups for expected future job vacancies.
- Look for evidence of diversity competency as a development need or part of the action-planning segment.
Sample items for development plans:
- Attend diversity training.
- Apply for an overseas assignment.
- Enrol in a college course or attend a conference on workplace diversity.
- Learn a new language.
What is succession planning?
Involves identifying individuals in an organization who are potential replacements for people occupying key jobs and ensuring that they get the development they need to fill these jobs.
How can succession planning help diversity in the company?
- Monitor the profile of succession planning pools for diversity on key dimensions like gender, race, national origin, and work specialization.
- Ensure that possible successors for key jobs are diversity-competent. Make sure that replacements are strong on managing diversity.