TOPIC 4
(BUSINESS AND ITS
STAKEHOLDERS)
Part 3B
Managing a
Diverse Workforce
T4 P3B: Key Learning Objectives
Explaining in what ways the workforce of the United States is
diverse, and evaluating how it might change in the future
Explaining where women and persons of color work, how much
they are paid, and the roles they play as managers and
business owners
Identifying the role government plays in securing equal
employment opportunity for historically disadvantaged groups,
and debating whether or not affirmative action is an effective
strategy for promoting equal opportunity
Assessing the ways diversity confers a competitive advantage
Formulating how companies can best manage workforce
diversity, making the workplace welcoming, fair, and
accommodating to all employees
Discussing what corporate policies and practices are most
effective in helping today’s employees manage the complex,
multiple demands of work and family obligations
17-2
Introduction
Wegmans Food Market is a family business that has been in
operation since 1916. For 24 years, the grocery store chain
has been on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work
For. Wegmans is headquartered in Rochester, New York and
employs 53,000 employees in 106 grocery stores in seven
states. In 2020, Wegmans reported $10.8 billion in sales. The
company, one of the largest private companies in the United
States, is known for the generous benefits it provides for
employees. Among these are telecommuting, compressed
work weeks, subsidized fitness programs, sick days for parttimers and one-month of fully paid parental leave. In addition,
Wegman’s encourages a diverse workplace with explicit nondiscrimination policies that go beyond the legally mandated
protections to include sexual orientation. Wegmans workforce
is diverse with 52 percent employees are female, 11.7 percent
are Black, 6.2 percent are Latino and 5.1 percent are Asian.
The Changing Face of the
Workforce
Diversity refers to variation in the important human
characteristics that distinguish people from one another.
Primary dimensions: age, ethnicity, gender, mental or
physical abilities, race, sexual orientation
Secondary dimensions:
such characteristics as
communication style, family status and first language
Workforce diversity: Diversity among employees of a
business or organization
Represents both a challenge and an opportunity for
businesses
The Changing Face of the Workforce
Today, the U.S. workforce is as diverse as it ever has been,
and it is becoming even more so. Consider the following
major trends:
Immigration has profoundly reshaped the workplace
• In 2020, 27 million immigrants were working in USA, comprising
about 17 percent of its workforce.
Ethnic and racial diversity in increasing
• In 2021, Hispanics were about 18 percent of U.S. workers.
The workforce will continue to get older
Millennials and members of Gen Z are entering the
workforce
Workforce diversity creates many new employee issues and problems.
This chapter captures the changing face of today’s workforce and its
implication for managers.
Gender and Race in the Workplace
Women and Minorities at Work
The growing labor force of women
The proportion of women working outside home rose
dramatically between 1950 until the late 2000s and has
remained 46-47 percent since.
Men’s participation rates declined during 1950-2020, the
proportion fell from 70 percent to about 53 percent.
Figure 16.1
What happened to men? Illness, disabilities, imprisonment
Women and Minorities at Work
(Continued)
The increase in women’s labor force participation is
attributed by higher education levels, delayed childbearing
and decrease tendency for women to stay at home.
Labor force participation rates for minorities have been
traditionally high. However, the recent economic
recession have negatively impacted these communities.
In 1970, about 62 percent of African American
participated in the workforce but in 2020, the rate declined
to about 54 percent.
Asian: dropped from 63 to 57 percent (2017-2020)
Hispanic: dropped from 66 to 65.6 percent
The disproportionate rates of employment – discrimination
and bias remain obstacles to full participation of all
communities
Gender and Racial Pay Gap
One persistent feature of the working world is that
women and persons of color on average receive lower
pay than white men do.
This disparity, the pay gap, narrowed but has not
closed over the past quarter century.
Average Weekly Earnings
Group
62
Hispanic Women
69
Black Women
70
Hispanic Men
76
Black Men
82
White Women
Figure 16.2
Gender and Racial Pay Gap
(Continued)
Some experts believe the continuing gender disparity in pay gap is
evidence of sex/ gender discrimination by employers;
Others believe it is the women’s choice to pursue lower-paying jobs or
slower advancement because of family responsibilities.
This pay gap is caused by occupational segregation – the
inequitable concentration of a group such as minorities and
women in particular job categories.
Example: The large pay gap for Hispanic reflects their concentration in
several low-paid occupations such as construction.
Many women remain concentrated in a few sex-typed jobs – the “pinkcollar ghetto” – over 90 percent in preschool or kindergarten, childcare,
dental.
Eliminating pay gap requires business programs and government
policies to move out these segregated jobs into ones that have higher
pay and bigger chances of career development.
Gender and Racial Pay Gap
(Continued)
Occupational segregation is a global issue. World Bank
researchers found that occupational segregation by
gender varied across global regions. Their analysis
listed the following global regions in order from more
severe to less severe occupational segregation by
gender: Latin America/ Caribbean; Middle East and
North Africa, Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and
the Pacific; sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
One area in which racial and gender discrimination
persistent is high technology. A lack of diversity in high
technology industry may have serious implications that
go beyond the employment relationship.
Where Women and Persons of Color Manage
In mid-2010s, slightly more than 9 million U.S. women
were working as managers.
Women, are more likely to be managers in occupational
areas where they are more numerous at lower levels such
as in healthcare and education.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling
A few of exceptional women and persons of color (women of
color) have reached the pinnacles of power in corporate
America.
In 2021, Rosalind Brewer, who is African American, was
appointed as the new CEO of Walgreen’s Boots Alliance,
the holding company that owns both pharmacy chains and
related manufacturing and distribution companies. When
Brewer’s appointment was announced, Walgreens’ stock
value increased by 5 percent. In 2021, she was the only
Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
The invisible barrier that blocked women and minorities to
reach the highest positions in organization is known as the
glass ceiling. Industry observers concerned that the pipeline
that supports the promotion of women and minorities did not
exist. This glass ceiling is similar in Europe.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling (Continued)
Would adding women to the boards improve company
performance?
Gender-diverse board is more likely to avoid a rush to consensus
and will consider alternative courses of action.
Women bring different life experience to the table and are more likely
to raise multiple stakeholder concerns.
Women lead differently showing more empathy, collaboration and
conflict-resolution skills.
Structural obstacles remain to prevent women/minority for
higher appointments because:
Directors are often recruited from among other CEOs and C-suite
executives.
Female/minority managers are often found in staff positions such as
Public Relations and Marketing, rather than in Finance, Operations
and Law (better exposure leading to executive suite).
Word-of-mouth recruitment – the old boys’ network from which
women/ minorities are excluded.
Women and Minority Business Ownership
Some women and minorities have evaded the glass ceiling
and risen to the top by founding or taking over their own
businesses.
By 2017, 17 percent of companies with employees
(employer firms) were minority owned and 20 percent of
employer firms were owned by women.
Government’s Role in Securing Equal
Employment Opportunity (EEO)
Eliminating workplace discrimination and ensuring EEO has
been a major public policy goal in U.S. for four decades.
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
The Equal Employment Opportunity law affects
business:
Discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender,
national origin, physical or mental disability or age is
prohibited. This includes hiring, promotion, job classification
and assignment, compensation and other condition of work.
Government contractors must have written affirmative
action plans detailing how they are working positively to
overcome past and present effects of discrimination in their
workforce. Affirmative actions must be temporary and
flexible, designed to correct past discrimination and cannot
result in reverse discrimination against white or men.
Women and men must receive equal pay for performing
equal work and employers may not discriminate based on
pregnancy.
Affirmative Action
One way to promote equal opportunity and remedy past
discrimination is through affirmative action.
Affirmative action is controversial; some states have
passed the law banning/ limiting affirmative action
programs in public hiring and university admissions.
Backers of affirmative action argued these programs
provided an important tool to achieve equal opportunity.
Some large organizations backed affirmative action
programs because they are helpful in monitoring their
progress in providing EEO.
Critics – affirmative action is inconsistent with principles of
fairness and equality; one group can be unintentionally
discriminated against in order to help another group.
Sexual and Racial Harassment
Sexual harassment at work occurs when any employee,
woman or man, experiences repeated unwanted sexual
attention or when on-the-job conditions are hostile or
threatening in a sexual way.
It includes both physical conduct – suggestive touching –
as well as verbal harassment.
Sexual harassment is illegal and U.S. EEO Commission
is empowered to sue on behalf of victims.
Racial harassment is also illegal, under Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act. Under the EEO Commission guidelines,
ethnic slurs, derogatory comments or other verbal /
physical harassment based on race are against the law if
they create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working
environment or interfere with individual’s work
performance.
What Business Can Do: Diversity and
Inclusion Policies and Practices
Inclusion means policies and practices that tap into the
diverse perspectives, life experiences and approaches that
every individual brings to the workplace.
Articulate clear diversity goals, set quantitative objectives and
holds managers accountable
Spread a wide net in recruitment, to find the most diverse
possible pool of qualified candidates
Incorporate selection techniques that diminish the opportunity
for bias
Identify promising women and persons of color and provide
them with mentors and other kinds of support.
Set up diversity councils to monitor the company’s goals and
progress toward them.
PAUSE – Discuss in details each inclusion policies and practices
Balancing Work and Life
Dual-income families have become more common.
About 60 percent of married couples with children at
home – both parents are employed.
Families have adopted a wide range of strategies for
combining full-and part-time work with the care of
children, elderly relatives and other dependants.
Child Care and Elder Care
Companies must support workers with responsibilities for
children and elderly relatives.
Demand for childcare is enormous; a major source of
stress for working parents in concern about their children;
problems with childcare are a leading reason for
employees fail to show up for work.
Work flexibility
Companies have accommodated the changing roles of
women and men by offering more flexibility through options
such as flextime, part-time employment, job sharing and
working remotely.
The family-friendly workplace is used to describe
companies that fully support both men and women in their
efforts to balance work and family responsibilities.
Summary
Diversity, Primary and Secondary dimensions
Workplace trends
Gender and Race in the workplace
Women and minorities at work
Gender and Racial Pay Gap
Women / Minority Managers
Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Equal Employment Opportunity
Affirmative Action Programs
Sexual and Racial Harassment
Diversity and Inclusion Policies and Practices
Work-life-family balance