Managing Diversity:
Releasing Every
Employee's
Potential
Chapter Two
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
© 2013
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
LO.1 Define diversity and review the four layers of
diversity.
LO.2 Explain the difference between affirmative
action and managing diversity.
LO.3 Explain why Alice Eagly and Linda Carli
believe that a woman’s career is best viewed
as traveling through a labyrinth.
LO.4 Review the demographic trends pertaining to
racial groups, educational mismatches,
and an aging workforce.
2-2
Learning Objectives (cont.)
LO.5 Highlight the managerial implications of
increasing diversity in the workforce.
LO.6 Describe the positive and negative effects of
diversity by using social categorization
theory and information/decision-making theory.
LO.7 Identify the barriers and challenges to
managing diversity.
LO.8 Discuss the organizational practices used to
effectively manage diversity as identified by
R Roosevelt Thomas Jr.
2-3
Defining Diversity
Diversity
 represents the multitude of individual
differences and similarities that exist among
people
 pertains to the host of individual differences
that make all of us unique and different from
others
2-4
Layers of Diversity
2-5
Affirmative Action and
Managing Diversity
Affirmative action
 an artificial intervention aimed at giving
management a chance to correct an
imbalance, an injustice, a mistake, or outright
discrimination that occurred in the past.
2-6
Affirmative Action and
Managing Diversity
Discrimination
 occurs when employment decisions about an
individual are due to reasons not associated
with performance or are not related to the job.
2-7
Managing Diversity
Managing diversity
 entails enabling people to perform up to their
maximum potential
 focuses on changing an organization’s culture
and infrastructure such that people provide the
highest productivity possible
2-8
Building the Business Case
for Managing Diversity
Organizations cannot use diversity as a strategic
advantage if employees fail to contribute their full
talents, abilities, motivation, and commitment.
It is essential for an organization to create an
environment or culture that allows all employees
to reach their full potential.
Managing diversity is a critical component of
creating such an environment.
2-9
Increasing Diversity in the
Workforce
Workforce demographics
 statistical profiles of the characteristics and
composition of the adult working population,
 enable managers to anticipate and adjust for
surpluses or shortages of appropriately skilled
individuals.
2-10
Demographic-Based Characteristics
of the Workforce
1. Women navigate a labyrinth after breaking
the glass ceiling
2. Racial groups are encountering a glass
ceiling and perceived discrimination
3. Mismatch between workers’ educational
attainment and occupational requirements
4. Generational differences in an aging
workforce
2-11
Glass Ceiling
Glass ceiling
 represents an
absolute barrier or
solid roadblock that
prevents women
from advancing to
higher-level positions
2-12
Key Trends
1. Men start their careers at higher levels than
women
2. Men report higher starting salaries
3. Men move up the career ladder faster and
further than women
4. Men have higher career satisfaction over
time than women
2-13
Causes of Differences
Women face discrimination.
Women spend more time handling domestic
and child care issues than men.
Women encounter more obstacles to their
leadership and authority than men
2-14
Causes of Differences
Women accumulate less continuous work
experience than men because they
periodically exit the workforce for family or
motherhood.
Women have less social capital and lower
breadth of personal networks than men.
2-15
Racial Groups Are Encountering a Glass
Ceiling and Perceived Discrimination
Minorities in general are advancing less in the
managerial and professional ranks than whites
The number of race-based charges of
discrimination that were deemed to show
reasonable cause by the EEOC increased from
294 in 1995 to 1,061 in 2008
Minorities tend to earn less personal income than
whites
2-16
Percentage Change in US
Population by Race
Figure 2-2
2-17
Generational Differences in an
Aging Workforce
By 2011, half of the US workforce will be
over 50 years of age, and 80% will be over
50 by 2018.
The number of people living into their 80s is
increasing rapidly, and this group
disproportionately suffers from chronic
illness.
2-18
Generational Differences
2-19
Managing Gender-Based Diversity
1. Focus on being exceptionally competent
and seek mentors or sponsors
2. Network to build social capital
3. Seek work–life balance by delegating
housework or hiring domestic help
2-20
Managing Gender-Based Diversity
4. Improve your negotiating skills.
5. Take credit for your accomplishments
6. Work toward creating a partnership with
your spouse that leads to a mutually
supportive relationship
2-21
Managing Racially Based Diversity
Negative stereotypes not only block
qualified people from obtaining promotions,
but they can undermine a person’s
confidence in their ability to lead.
2-22
Managing Racially Based Diversity
Given the projected increase in the number
of Hispanics entering the workforce over the
next 25 years, managers should consider
progressive methods to recruit, retain, and
integrate this segment of the population into
their organizations.
2-23
Ways Organizations Can Motivate and
Retain an Aging Workforce
1. Provide challenging work assignments that
make a difference to the firm.
2. Give the employee considerable autonomy
and latitude in completing a task.
3. Provide equal access to training and
learning opportunities when it comes to
new technology.
2-24
Ways Organizations Can Motivate and
Retain an Aging Workforce
4. Provide frequent recognition for skills,
experience, and wisdom gained over the years.
5. Provide mentoring opportunities whereby older
workers can pass on accumulated knowledge to
younger employees.
6. Ensure that older workers receive sensitive, highquality supervision.
7. Design a work environment that is both
stimulating and fun.
2-25
The Positive and Negative Effects
of Diverse Work Environments
Social categorization theory
 holds that similarities and differences are used
as a basis for categorizing self and others into
groups, with ensuing categorizations
distinguishing between one’s own in-group and
one or more out-groups.
 People tend to like and trust in-group members
more than out-group members and generally
favor in-groups over out-groups
2-26
The Positive and Negative Effects
of Diverse Work Environments
Information/
decision-making
theory
 proposes that diverse
groups should
outperform
homogenous groups.
2-27
Positive Effects of Diverse
Work Groups
Diverse groups are expected to do a better
job in earlier phases of problem solving
The existence of diverse perspectives can
help groups to brainstorm or uncover more
novel alternatives during problem-solving
activities.
2-28
Positive Effects of Diverse
Work Groups
Diversity can enhance the number of
contacts a group or work unit has at its
disposal.
2-29
Reconciling the Effects of Diverse Work
Environments
Demographic fault line
 “hypothetical dividing lines that may split a
group into subgroups based on one or more
attributes.”
Fault lines form when work-group members
possess varying demographic characteristics and
negative interpersonal processes occur when
people align themselves based on salient fault
lines or demographic characteristics.
2-30
A Process Model of Diversity
2-31
Barriers and Challenges to
Managing Diversity
1.
2.
3.
4.
Inaccurate stereotypes and prejudice
Ethnocentrism
Poor career planning
A negative diversity climate
2-32
Question?
Jacques, a French national, is the CEO of French Global
Empire with significant operations in Japan and the United
States. Jacques recently announced that all employees of
the company, no matter which part of the world they may be
in, must learn French and communicate in French only.
Which challenge to diversity does this represent?
A.Cultural flexibility
B.Polychronic time
C.Cultural relativism
D.Ethnocentrism
2-33
Diversity Climate
Diversity climate
 Employees’ aggregate
perceptions about an
organization’s
policies, practices,
and procedures
pertaining to diversity
2-34
Barriers and Challenges to
Managing Diversity
1. An unsupportive and hostile working
environment for diverse employees
2. Lack of political savvy on the part of
diverse employees
3. Difficulty in balancing career and family
issues
2-35
Barriers and Challenges to
Managing Diversity
4. Fears of reverse discrimination
5. Diversity is not seen as an organizational
priority
6. The need to revamp the organization’s
performance appraisal and reward system
7. Resistance to change
2-36
Organizational Practices Used to
Effectively Manage Diversity
Option 1: Include/Exclude
Option 2: Deny
Option 3: Assimilate
Option 4: Suppress
2-37
Question?
A group of minority employees complained
about alleged discriminatory practices to their
manager. She told them to quit whining and
get back to work. This is the use of
_________ to manage diversity.
A.Denial
B.Suppression
C.Isolation
D.Building relationships
2-38
Organizational Practices Used to
Effectively Manage Diversity (cont.)
Option 5: Isolate
Option 6: Tolerate
Option 7: Build Relationships
Option 8: Foster Mutual Adaptation
2-39
Video Case: Andre Thornton
What attributes or experiences help Andre
Thornton in being successful at GPI?
In what ways can Thornton serve as an example
for all minority individuals?
Does GPI’s size help or hinder them in serving the
needs of their clients?
Can you draw correlations between sports and
business? What are they?
2-40