MCD2040 Managing People and Organisations Week 7: Workforce Diversity and Managing for Inclusion Reading: 54-55, 194-195, 487-494 Theme: Managing 2 What do the icons mean? When you see the below icons, do the following: Pages 6 - 10 Pages in the textbook where you can read more about the specific learning objective. Complete the question. Watch the video. Complete the quiz. Web link on slide. Make sure to click it for more information. Remember: • The weekly quizzes are worth 1% (10% in total for the course) • You cannot do the quizzes if you have NOT watched the videos • Week 8 lecture will be discussed in Week 9 tutorials 3 This week we will learn: • About Workforce Diversity o What is it o Explore why it is important o Key terms related to it • Why humans place themselves in ‘groups’ • How do managers and organisations practice effective diversity and inclusion • The challenges associated with workforce diversity and inclusion 4 Learning Objective 1 Exploring Workforce Diversity • What is it • Explore why it is important • Key terms related to it 54-55 Defining Workforce Diversity The term diversity describes differences in race, gender, age, ethnicity, physical ability, culture and sexual orientation, among other individual differences. Inclusivity: the degree to which the organisation is open to anyone who can do the job, regardless of their diversity attributes. Workforce diversity: is the ways in which people in an organisation are different from and similar to one another. This includes: gender, age, disability, language, race, ethnicity, religion and cultural background, as well as different experiences and perspectives, working styles, relationship status, family and personal responsibilities ‘For us it (diversity) goes way, way beyond that. Diversity is about ensuring every single person comes to work every day and feels free to bring themselves to work… diversity of thought, diversity of background, diversity of experiences, diversity of education, not just the traditional aspects of diversity’ Debbie Storey, Chief Diversity Officer, AT&T 6 Equity is the same as Equality isn’t it? Traditionally, Workforce Diversity was more associated with Equal Opportunity – this was driven by abiding by laws related to anti-discrimination. Today, it is NOT about being equal, but including everyone and removing barriers so everyone has the ability to reach for the same opportunities. Inclusion – by removing barriers Equal Equity 7 Why do it? Makes ‘good business sense’ Fostering a positive workplace environment makes good business sense. A positive workplace is characterised by respect that supports employee engagement. It also creates a high performance culture that encourages innovation and creativity (ACT, 2010:9). Promoting equity and inclusion makes good business sense because: • It reflects the potential market an organisation operates within • Provides a competitive advantage • Helps attract best talent • Reduces discrimination costs related to breaking laws • Flow of people around the globe greater than ever • Multicultural teams are now the norm 8 Why do it? The Legal & Ethical Reasons • It is the right thing to do (aligns with Social Responsibility) and organisations have a moral obligation to develop and maintain a safe and welcoming work environment • In Australia, there are many laws which ensure discrimination does not occur. These include: o o o o o Age Discrimination Act 2004 Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 Disability Discrimination Act 1992 Racial Discrimination Act 1975 Sex Discrimination Act 1984 However, each country has different laws and companies, both local and foreign must obey the domestic laws first. This is difficult for MNCs when the local laws go against their values or their home country’s values/laws. 9 Learning Objective 1 Test your knowledge Video 1 on Moodle Complete the quiz 10 Learning Objective 2 Why humans place themselves in ‘groups’ What is discrimination 194-195 Why do humans always have to be in groups? According to Social Identity Theory: • A person has multiple “selves” that correspond Rationality to widening circles of group membership • Social identity – a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership • Personal identity – unique traits that make you,Bounded you; i.e. Personality & appearance Rationality Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world. We divide the world into us vs. them (in groups vs out groups) For example: Intuition Australians vs New Zealanders (Aussies vs. Kiwis) in sport like cricket and rugby Melbourne vs. Sydney (ongoing competition of which city is better) Tajfel, H.; Billig, M. G.; Bundy, R. P. & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology. 1 (2): 149–178. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420010202. 12 WHAT IS DISCRIMINATION? When someone is being discriminated against, it means they’re being treated badly or unfairly based on a personal characteristic. These characteristics may include: For example: George applies for a • their gender position with a construction • if they have any kind of disability company but doesn’t get the job. When he calls the company’s • their ethnicity human resources manager to ask • their age why he wasn’t chosen, she tells George: “We’ve employed people • their religion from your country before. You lot • physical features don’t share our work ethic.” • their sexual preferences. Sources: https://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/discrimination and https://au.reachout.com/articles/what-is-discrimination 13 WHY DOES DISCRIMINATION HAPPEN? In the process of forming our social identities, we compare in-group vs outgroup Members of the in-group will tend to: • Favour in-group (prefer people from their group and want to work with them) • Maximise the differences between the two eg comparing and distinguishing themselves as different such as Liverpool FC Fans vs. Manchester United • Minimise perception of differences between in-group members – In-group believe that everyone in their group is the same with similar values. 14 • This causes biasness and stereotyping to occur 14 Activity 1 - groups How many social groups do you belong to? Make a list. Its quite surprising…. If Jane was going to do it: Australian, Generation Y, Brunette, Queenslander, Christian, Traveler, Baker, Researcher, Dog Lov, the list goes on! 15 Examples of social identity leading to discrimination in the workplace • A male senior manager promotes the male supervisor who is less qualified than the female supervisor as “she’s a woman”. • A Jewish client requests for a new project manager as they are not Jewish even though they are the most experienced and qualified person for the role • A HR Manager hires someone because they come from the same Village and parents are friends even though the person doesn’t have the right skills • A manager never disciplines a particular worker for regularly being very late to work as they are both Liverpool FC fans & he knows the lateness is due to being up late watching the game on TV • A 30 yr old manager never gives the worker who is 50 yr old the lead on any projects even though they are the most experienced. The manager thinks they are slow and do not understand technology due to “being old” 16 Learning Objective 3 How do managers and organisations practise effective diversity and inclusion? 487-490 Where to begin? From the start and keep being ongoing. • Have effective workforce diversity practices and inclusion among staff starts at the beginning when hiring staff. • Recruitment: To improve workforce diversity, managers need to widen their recruiting net. To increase diversity, managers should consider nontraditional recruitment sources, including women’s networks, training centres for people with disabilities, and ethnic newspapers. • Selection: Once a diverse set of applicants exists, managers must ensure that the selection process does not discriminate. • Orientation and training: Having a workforce made up of people with different cultural backgrounds and unique experiences can enrich an organisation, making it more innovative and competitive. 18 MANAGING DIVERSITY: VOLUNTARY CORPORATE PRACTICES There are many things organisations can do voluntarily. These mainly relate to modifying policies and structures as most assume a male as the breadwinner. • Recruitment (hiring people) o ensure a panel representing both genders is used with non judgmental questions e.g. don’t ask if the candidate has children or is married, don’t ask their religion or where they grew up. If possible, have people of different ethnic backgrounds on the panel. o Having special positions and initiatives to help increase representation of minorities in the workforce e.g. Coles has their Indigenous Program where they recruit only Indigenous Australians for certain roles providing extra training to help ensure their lack of education doesn’t stop them being promoted to be a manager. o Have targets of the number workers they want representing minority groups such as disabilities, women or ethnic groups then advertise in appropriate ways eg flexicareers website in Australia for skilled mothers wanting part time work. 19 MANAGING DIVERSITY: VOLUNTARY CORPORATE PRACTICES cont… Other initiatives: • To identify what the organisations true Diversity is (or lack of) conduct demographic, horizontal and vertical people audits o Examples of this include auditing top managers to determine the ratio of men vs. women in such positions; auditing the entire organisation by reviewing documents of people’s stated gender and ethnicity to determine if targets are being reached; looking at one level across the entire organisation e.g. all frontline workers to see if representations of gender and ethnic groups matches society. • Providing flexible working practices for all o E.g. Allowing parents to start earlier and finish earlier so they can pick up children from school; offering a working week in 4 days rather than 5 (working 10 hr days for 4 days rather than 8hrs) so staff can have 3 day weekends; offering paid study leave for staff who are studying while working. 20 MANAGING DIVERSITY: VOLUNTARY CORPORATE PRACTICES cont… Other initiatives: • Enforcing parental leave for all (both men and women). This means when a person has or adopts a baby they can have up to 12 months leave paid to look after their child. Traditionally this would only be offered to women. • Support mechanisms in place: extra training courses to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g. couldn’t afford to go to university) to have the same skills as their colleagues. This also applies to older workers who’s qualifications become out of date as a result of new technology; counselling services; religion support services such as prayer rooms or celebrations in the workplace of different cultural celebrations e.g. Eid or Diwali. 21 EXAMPLE: MONASH UNIVERSITY Monash University offers parental leave for all (see the options above) but also several support mechanisms such as job sharing (2 people doing the one job) when a parent returns to work and a room and time during the day to breastfeed. The University also has onsite daycare facilities at some campuses. 22 Diversity Training Diversity training is one of the most common ways to manage inclusion, it normally starts in orientation when a person is first hired. They will need to complete a compulsory course. It should also be provided on an ongoing basis. Training may include: • Awareness of diversity issues in the workplace • Tools to manage situations with recognition and respect e.g. teaching workers about different cultures in the workplace and how to be respectful or understand the differences in behaviour • Space to think and reflect on diversity at work • Target particular group (e.g. upper management or future leaders) For training to be effective it must: • Challenge underlying biases/problems, rather than ‘sugar coat’. This can be hard to do as some people may find it confronting or disrespectful or against their own personal values. • Be relevant to ‘everyone’ meaning it doesn’t single out a particular group and can be understood by all. 23 Making Decisions: Intuition Test your knowledge Video 2 on Moodle Complete the quiz 24 Learning Objective 3 The challenges associated with workforce diversity and inclusion • Glass ceiling & bamboo ceiling • Sexual harassment • Work-life balance • Gender pay gap 490-494 Limits on workers: Glass & Bamboo Ceiling Glass ceiling: • Refers to an imaginary ceiling that represents that women and other minority groups are restricted in advancement. • For this reason, senior management of most organisations significantly underrepresents women and other ethnic groups which are not the dominant culture. 26 Limits on workers: Glass & Bamboo Ceiling Today: - Glass ceiling term is used more so to refer to women - Bamboo ceiling is a term used to represent the career barriers faced by many Asians in predominantly ‘white’ cultures. This has led to under representation of Asians in senior leaderships positions in Western countries such as Australia, USA and the UK. Bamboo Ceiling 27 Limits on workers: Glass & Bamboo Ceiling What can managers do to address these? • As discussed earlier, have training specifically about these issues for senior managers so they are aware but know how to address these • Targets for women and minority ethnic groups for leadership positions • Provide training courses for the targeted groups to ensure their skills are at the same level as the main dominant group (e.g. in Australia this is generally white males) so they are not disdvantaged with applying for the promotion • Have special leadership development programs for the target groups including mentoring, training & attending develoment courses • Conduct audits to determine if the pay across all genders and ethnicities are fair, equal and are alligned with performance. This requires transparent policies to exist. 28 Managing sexual harassment • Sexual harassment is a serious issue in both public and private sector organisations. Although most complaints are filed by women, men also can be victims of sexual harassment. • Sexual harassment is covered by both federal and state legislation, but it is difficult to define it precisely. • Sexual harassment generally encompasses sexually suggestive remarks, unwanted touching and sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that affects an individual’s employment. • For many organisations, it is the offensive or hostile environment issue that is problematic. To avoid liability, organisations must establish a clear and strong policy against sexual harassment. Organisations must also have in place a procedure for employees to follow if they feel they have been sexually harassed. Finally, organisations must investigate complaints or allegations of sexual harassment. 29 Managing work-life balance • Smart managers recognise that employees do not leave their families and personal lives behind when they go to work. Organisations are becoming more attuned to the fact that employees have sick children, elderly parents who need special care, and other family issues that may require special arrangements. This is particularly occurring as a result of the more diverse workforce. • To accommodate their employees’ needs for work–life balance, many companies are offering them family-friendly benefits that include a wide range of work and family programs. • These might include such benefits as flexitime, onsite child care, part-time employment, job sharing, relocation programs, time off for school functions and parental leave. • Work–family life conflicts are as relevant to male workers with children and women without children as they are for female employees with children. Heavy workloads and increased travel demands have made it hard for many employees to satisfactorily juggle both work and personal responsibilities. 30 CHALLENGES IN DIVERSITY Global, local, organisational 31 – Legislation may differ across different national settings – Managers faced with difficult decisions when organisational beliefs clash with cultural norms or even national legislation – Also an issue for domestic organisations is being sensitive whilst maintaining fairness and equality for all. For example, a male worker may be disappointed that a position they are interested in is only open for female applicants. 31 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT Fear of reverse discrimination – Employees afraid that attempts to achieve greater diversity in their organisation will result in reverse discrimination – e.g. female being promoted over more qualified and experienced male Resistance to diversity program priorities – Employees see diversity programs as distracting from the organisation’s ‘real work’. – Might be resentful of diversity-promoting policies that are reinforced through special criteria in the organisation’s performance appraisals and reward systems. – Workers don’t voluntarily go to International Women’s day event as they have a major project due which is ‘more important’. Unsupportive social atmosphere – Diverse employees may be excluded from office camaraderie and social events. – e.g. female employees aren’t always invited to ‘boy clubs’ events. An example of this in Australia is a group of men from the office going out for beers then a football game. 32 Learning Objective 4 Test your knowledge Video 3 on Moodle: Forbes Video Complete the quiz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYOAPz4yJf8 33 This week we have….. • Learnt about what is workforce diversity including the associated terms and what managing for inclusion means. • Examined why discrimination happens in terms of social identify theory e.g. in vs out groups • Reviewed the legal requirements organisations have but also what they can do voluntarily with changing policies and practices • Discussed the challenges associated with workforce diversity and managing for inclusion and how these can be addressed. 34