Understanding the Diverse
Workforce:
It’s a Matter of Respect!
Developed and Facilitated by:
Jan Dwyer Bang, MBA, CSP
After attending this session, you will be able to:
• Recognize the benefits of honoring and respecting
multiple perspectives
• Identify why inclusion is critical to your agency’s
success
• Discover and model the words, attitudes, and
behaviors that support inclusion and respect
Definitions
A diverse workforce:
 An atmosphere where a variety of people and
ideas is welcomed and valued.
 An environment that naturally enables people
to contribute to their fullest potential and support
of their agency’s goals
Definitions
Respect: The state of being honored or
esteemed, to show consideration for, treat
courteously or kindly
Workplace diversity: The variety of
differences between people in an
organization. It is the collective strength of
experiences, skills, talents, perspectives, and
cultures that each employee brings to the
workplace.
Diversity
The Four Layers of Diversity
1. Organizational Dimensions
2. External Dimensions
3. Internal Dimensions
4. Personality
Definitions
Inclusion: Respecting and valuing the
unique dimension that each individual adds
to an organization. It includes engaging
similarities and differences to create a
culture of belonging where people are valued
and respected.
Definitions
Culture: A set of accepted behaviors,
patterns, values, assumptions, and
shared common experiences.
Cross-Cultural Iceberg: A Metaphor for Understanding
Equal Employment
Opportunity
The effort to provide an equal work
experience, free from discrimination, for
all people.
Statement - DOP
DOP champions the commitment of the
State to employ a workforce that reflects
Washington’s diversity in culture, race,
ethnicity and gender and to provide a
work environment free from
discrimination. DOP is dedicated to
achieve equal employment opportunity for
people of color, persons over 40 years of
age, persons with disabilities, women,
and disabled and Vietnam –era veterans.
Affirmative Action
Refers to the tools and
programs designed to ensure
equal opportunity and to
increase active good faith
efforts to attract, develop, and
retain a diverse workforce
What Affirmative Action is NOT:
•Affirmative action is not about quotas. Rather, goals serve as
flexible targets and are a ways of measuring good faith efforts to
make all aspects of the entire affirmative action program work.
•Affirmative action is not "reverse discrimination". Affirmative action
does mean taking affirmative steps to attract minorities and women
for available employment opportunities and to ensure that
candidates are evaluated fairly using non-biased job-related
selection criteria.
•Affirmative action does not reward race or sex in place of merit. It is
intended to ensure that employers hire the most qualified people,
including members of groups that previously have been subject to
unlawful discrimination.
Stereotype
Oversimplifications of people groups
Is a form of prejudice that can form
damaging images of a people because of a
particular characteristic without any
knowledge of the person
WA State Employee Diversity Data
Diversity Profile (As of 9/30/2010)
Categories
Female
Persons with Disabilities
Vietnam Era Veterans
Disabled Veterans
Persons of Color
Persons Age 40 and Older
Black
Hispanic
Native American
Asian
Caucasian
Statewide
%
51
3
5
1
18
71
5
5
2
6
82
Competition
Each group will answer the following questions. The group
that gets the most answers correct – wins!
1. The actual term “affirmative action” was used by
President Kennedy. TRUE OR FALSE
2. Affirmative action includes the policies and
procedures to guarantee employment to
everyone. TRUE OR FALSE
Competition
3.
What are the two goals of a diverse workforce?
4.
What do you do if you believe you have been
discriminated against?
5.
Identify some examples of inclusion in the workplace.
6.
What are some barriers to inclusiveness?
Competition
7. What are the four layers of diversity?
8. What is the definition of a stereotype?
9. What does the exposed tip of the cross cultural ice
berg represent? What does the submerged part of
the iceberg represent? Share why culture is often
compared to an ice berg.
Competition
10. The millennials (Employees born between 1980
and 2000, or 1981 and 1999) have the following
work characteristics: (Select all that apply)
a) They are used to working in teams and want to
make friends with people at work.
b) They work well with diverse coworkers.
c) They are not open to feedback
d) Are the most connected generation in history
Competition
EXTRA CREDIT:
What is the name of Jan’s business and what is it
based on?
Benefits of Diversity
A diverse workforce…
1. Enhances the quality of problem solving and
innovation.
2. Increases productivity.
3. More actively engages customers in a global
workplace.
4. Attracts and retains the best employees.
5. Decreases costs.
Barriers to Inclusiveness
1. Assumptions
2. Perceptions
3. Stereotypes
4. Lack of Knowledge of other cultures
5. Ineffective communication
Assumptions
• Catch yourself every time you say, “I
assumed…” or “I thought…”
• Practice validating your assumptions
before things go wrong
• Notice your tendency to assume
negatively based upon faulty data, a
negative bias or stereotype, or the fact that
you don’t know the person very well
Perceptions
•Our perceptions represent how we interpret or
view what goes on around us.
•When new information does not coincide with
pre-conceived ideas or past experience it
receives little consideration, is distorted, or
ignored.
Perceptions
“Virtually every problem in human
relations stems from a difference in
perception.”
– Robert L. Katz
FOULED UP FILES ARE THE
RESULT OF FOOLISH NEGLECT
AND FINISHED FILES ARE THE
RESULT OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY
COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS
Count the F’s in the sentence
What do People want from
their jobs?
•
From Supervisors
•
•
High wages
Job security
What do People want from
their jobs?
From Employees
1. Full appreciation of work done
2. Feeling of being in on things
“We see things not as
they are, but as we are.”
-Dr. Wayne Dyer
Stereotypes
Stereotype: A conventional,
oversimplified conception, opinion,
or image.
"Elderly Americans are the neglected
sector of the fashion industry,
stereotyped by blue hair and polyester
pantsuits" (American Demographics).
Stereotypes
• First used in the 18th century to describe a
printing process designed to duplicate
pages of type
• In the 19th century, psychiatrists used this
term to describe a repetitive behavior
• A lack of awareness and misinformation
are the foundation of making stereotypes
How to handle Stereotypes
• Look at yourself first – what stereotypes
do you hold?
• Examine the basis of widely held
stereotypes – you can take the power
away when you see that many times they
are based on wrongly held assumptions
• Work to accept differences – in yourself
and others
Enhancing your Cultural
Competency
•
•
•
•
•
Slow down
Get to know other cultures
Examine your own assumptions
Be an active listener
Getting beneath the surface takes time –
ask questions and seek to understand
without judgment
• Before interacting with a certain culture, do
the research
The Speaker-Listener Technique
•Rules (for both) - Speaker has the floor, share the
floor, no problem solving
•Rules for the Speaker – Speak for yourself, talk in
small chunks, stop and let the listener paraphrase
•Rules for the Listener – Paraphrase what you hear,
don’t rebut, focus on the speaker’s message
Adapted from “A Lasting Promise” by Scott Stanley, Daniel Trathen,
Savanna McCain, and Milt Bryan
Listen from the inside
out
•Paraphrase (To make sure you understood AND to
show the speaker you’ve heard)
•Acknowledgement (Feelings crave
acknowledgement)
Adapted from “Difficult Conversations” by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen
Active
Thoughtful
PPT 4-2
Questioning
PPT 4-2
Accepting
Active
Questioning
Accepting
Thoughtful
PPT 4-2
Active
Dominance
Influence
Questioning
Conscientiousness
PPT 4-2
Accepting
Thoughtful
Steadiness
Active
Dominance
Direct, results-oriented
Influence
Expressive, Relationship
Questioning
Supportive, Cooperative
Conscientiousness
PPT 4-2
Accepting
Analytical, Deliberative
Thoughtful
Steadiness
Conflict and Stress
PPT 6-2
Tends to:
ASSERT
D
i
C
S
Tends to:
SUPPRESS
PPT 6-16
6-2
Responses to Conflict
Focuses on:
D
i
LOGIC
FEELINGS
C
PPT 6-16
6-2
Focuses on:
S
DEMAND
Goal: Victory
Tends to:
ASSERT
Goal: Acknowledgement
Focuses on:
Focuses on:
LOGIC
FEELINGS
WITHDRAW
Tends to:
Goal: Justice
SUPPRESS
PPT 6-17
6-2
6-16
EXPRESS
COMPLY
Goal: Harmony
Is there a predominant style that describes
your team?
D culture – quick decisions, direct answers and a
competitive atmosphere. Interpersonal communication
may suffer in this environment and those less assertive
may feel overwhelmed
i culture – energetic atmosphere, a focus on
innovation, and lots of time spent in meetings or social
gatherings. Those less people-oriented may be
frustrated by the focus on group activities and poor
planning and lack of details may prevent an I culture
from implementing any ideas
OH-23
Is there a predominant style that describes
your team?
S culture – stability, predictability, and friendliness.
Values strong teamwork and a management work-life
balance. Stagnation may be a risk in this culture and
efforts to move the organization forward may met with
hesitation
C culture – quality, accuracy, and order. Cynical
toward new ideas and trust usually has to be earned.
The group may miss opportunities because it spends so
much time analyzing and may resist growth for fear of
lowering its standards
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Implications of Group Culture
What does your group value the most? What types of
behaviors does it reward? What does it encourage?
D culture - Results, independence, achievement,
decisiveness, and success
i culture - Enthusiasm, optimism, collaboration, passion, and
fun
S culture - Thoughtfulness, teamwork, humility, stability, and
harmony
C culture - Accuracy, dependability, precision, competency,
and quality
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Diversity Competencies
•
•
•
•
•
•
Respect
Empathy
Understanding
Interpersonal Skills
Knowledge
Feedback
After attending this session, you will be able to:
• Recognize the benefits of honoring and respecting
multiple perspectives
• Identify why inclusion is critical to your agency’s
success
• Discover and model the words, attitudes, and
behaviors that support inclusion and respect
Action
Planning
OH-23