3. 8-3
Learning Objectives
L01: Describe how changes in the U.S.
workforce make diversity a critical
organizational and managerial issue.
L02: Distinguish between affirmative action
and managing diversity.
L03: Explain how diversity, if well managed,
can give organizations a competitive edge.
L04: Identify challenges associated with
managing a diverse workforce.
4. 8-4
Learning Objectives
L05: Define monolithic, pluralistic, and
multicultural organizations.
L06: List steps managers and their
organizations can take to cultivate diversity.
L07: Summarize the skills and knowledge
managers need to manage globally.
L08: Identify ways in which cultural
differences across countries influence
management.
5. 8-5
Managing Diversity
Involves recruiting, training, promoting,
and utilizing to full advantage individuals
with different backgrounds, beliefs,
capabilities, and cultures.
Understanding and deeply valuing
employee differences to build a more
effective and profitable organization.
Valuing the connections that arise and
develop between diverse employees.
9. 8-9
Gender Demographics
Women make up about 465 of the workforce
Women in the workforce climbed from 1970s
and 1990s and is now holding steady as rate
of men declines
About 60% of all marriages are dual-earner
marriages
One of every four married women in two-income
households earns more than her
husband does
10. 8-10
Gender Issues
Women still carry the bulk of family
responsibility
Some companies expect employees to put in
long hours and sacrifice personal lives
Organizations are becoming more flexible in
balancing organizational and employee needs
Pay disparities still exist between men and
women
“Glass ceiling” barrier is a reality for many
women
Sexual harassment in the workplace has
increased
11. 8-11
Glass Ceiling
Invisible barrier that makes it difficult for
women and minorities to rise above a certain
level in the organization
Currently 12 women are chief executives of
Fortune 500 companies
Some companies are offering activities to
help female employees break through the
glass ceiling
12. 8-12
Sexual Harassment
Conduct of a sexual nature that has negative
consequences for employment
Two categories
Quid pro quo: submission to or rejection of sexual
conduct is used as a basis for employment
decision.
Hostile environment: when unwelcome sexual
conduct “has the purpose or effect of
unreasonably interfering with job performance or
creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive
working environment.”
13. 8-13
Components of a Sexual Harassment
Policy
1. Develop a comprehensive organization-wide
policy on sexual harassment and
present it to all current and new employees.
2. Hold training sessions with supervisors to
explain Title VII requirements, their role in
providing an environment free of sexual
harassment, and proper investigative
procedures when charges occur.
14. 8-14
Components of a Sexual Harassment
Policy
3. Establish a formal complaint procedure in
which employees can discuss problems
without fear of retaliation.
4. Act immediately when employees complain
of sexual harassment.
5. When an investigation supports employee
charges, discipline the offender at once.
6. Follow up on all cases to ensure a
satisfactory resolution of the problem.
15. 8-15
Minorities and Immigrants
Black, Asian, and Hispanic workers hold more than one
of every four U.S. jobs
Asian and Hispanic workforces are growing the fastest
in the U.S., followed by African American workforce
Three in ten college enrollees are people of color.
Foreign-born workers make up more than 15% of the
U.S. civilian labor force. About half of these workers are
Hispanic, and 22% are Asian.
The younger Americans are, the more likely they are to
be persons of color.
One in 66 people in the U.S. identifies himself or herself
as multiracial, and the number could soar to 1 in 5 by
2050.
16. 8-16
What’s going on with minorities?
White males are no longer dominating the
workforce in urban areas
Managing diversity is becoming more than
eliminating discrimination
Capitalizing on the wide variety of skills
available in the labor market
There are still disparities in employment and
earnings
Unemployment rates are higher for Hispanics
and African Americans
Median earnings for white workers is higher
than those for Hispanics and African Americans
17. 8-17
Overcoming disparities
Organizations have policies and programs to
increase minority representation, including
compensation systems that reward managers
for increasing the diversity of their operations.
Companies are focusing on developing, hiring
and retaining minority executives based on their
ability to manage an ever-more-diverse
workforce and to serve an increasing number of
clients and customers with varied backgrounds
18. 8-18
Mentally and Physically Disabled
People
Largest unemployed minority population
in the U.S. is people with disabilities.
New assistive technologies are making it
easier for companies to comply with
ADA and for people with disabilities to
be productive on the job.
People with disabilities are an
unexplored but fruitful labor force.
19. 8-19
Tomorrow’s workers
The number of women, Asian Americans,
African Americans, and Hispanic workers are
growing faster than the number of white male
workers
Lower birth rates in the U.S. will result in a
smaller labor force leading to outsourcing to
firms in developing nations
Median age of America’s workforce is
increasing
70% of workers between the ages of 45 and 74
intend to work in retirement
21. 8-21
Walgreens Employs the
“Unemployable”
Read the story on page 180
What competitive advantage might
Walgreens gain with its proactive stance
toward hiring workers with disabilities?
What challenges might Walgreens face
in managing this workforce?
22. 8-22
Managing Diversity vs. Affirmative
Action
Managing Diversity: moving beyond
legislated mandates to embrace a
proactive business philosophy that sees
differences as positive
Affirmative Action: Special efforts to
recruit and hire qualified members of
groups that have been discriminated
against in the past
23. 8-23
Diversity as a competitive advantage
Ability to attract and retain motivated
employees
Better perspective on a differentiated
market
Ability to leverage creativity and
innovation in problem solving
Enhancement of organizational flexibility
25. 8-25
The challenges of managing a diverse
workforce
Seeing the world from another’s perspective can
be difficult
Diversity can create a lack of cohesiveness
Communication problems such as
misunderstandings, inaccuracies, inefficiencies,
and slowness
People prefer to associate with others who are
like themselves
We learn to interpret the world in a certain way
based on our backgrounds and experiences
27. 8-27
Multicultural Organizations
Monolithic Organization – one that has a low
degree of structural integration-employing few
women, minorities, or other groups that differ
from the majority-and thus has a highly
homogeneous employee population
Pluralistic Organization – An organization that
has a relatively diverse employee population
and makes an effort to involve employees from
different gender, racial or cultural backgrounds
28. 8-28
Multicultural Organizations (cont’d)
Multicultural Organization – one that
values cultural diversity and seeks to
utilize and encourage it.
29. 8-29
Five Components of Cultivating a
Diverse Workforce
1. Securing top management’s leadership
and commitment
2. Assessing the organization’s progress
toward goals
3. Attracting employees
4. Training employees in diversity
5. Retaining employees
30. 8-30
Attract Qualified Diverse Employees
Recruitment
Accommodating work and family needs
Alternative work arrangements
31. 8-31
Train employees to understand and
work with diversity
Awareness building: designed to
increase recognition of the meaning and
importance of valuing diversity
Skill building: aims to develop the skills
that employees and managers need to
deal effectively with one another and
with customers in a diverse environment
32. 8-32
Retain talented employees
Support groups – provide emotional and
career support for those excluded from
the majority’s informal groups
Mentoring – when higher-level
employees help ensure that high-potential
people are introduced to top
management and socialized into the
norms and values of the organization.
33. 8-33
Retain Talented Employees
Career development and promotions
Systems accommodation
Accountability
35. 8-35
Successful Global Managers
have…
Sensitivity to cultural
differences
Business knowledge
Courage to take a
stand
Ability to bring out
the best in people
Integrity
Insightfulness
Commitment to
success
Risk taking
Use of feedback
Cultural
adventurousness
Desire for
opportunities to learn
Openness to criticism
Desire for feedback
Flexibility
36. 8-36
Successful global assignments
Structure assignments clearly
Create clear job objectives
Develop performance measurements
based on objectives
Use effective, validated selection and
screening criteria
Prepare expatriates and families for
assignments
37. 8-37
Successful Global Assignments
(cont’d)
Create a vehicle for ongoing
communication with expatriates
Anticipate repatriation to facilitate
reentry when they come back home
Consider developing a mentor program
that will help monitor and intervene in
case of trouble
38. 8-38
Cultural Differences
Power distance – the extent to which a society
accepts the fact that power in organizations is
distributed unequally
Individualism/collectivism – the extent to which
people act on their own or as a part of a group
Uncertainty avoidance – the extent to which people
in a society feel threatened by uncertain and
ambiguous situations
Masculinity/Femininity – the extent to which a
society values quantity of life over quality of life
39. 8-39
Five core values
1. Compassion
2. Fairness
3. Honesty
4. Responsibility
5. Respect for other