Assignment

Assignment

Your Name (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Workplace Diversity

Assignment 1

Introduction:

The concept of workplace diversity has become really popular in the organizational structures, due to globalization in the world. More and more organizations have started to acknowledge the importance of diversity in workplaces. But often the concept of diversity is misunderstood and is confused with meeting the required quotas for employees on the basis of race and gender. It is not just limited to the cultural, racial and gender diversity but also to the acceptability of the disabled population and of the people belonging to the different nationalities and religions in every possible role. Diversity is all about acceptability, respect and teamwork neglecting the differences regarding gender, language, political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability or difference in communication styles. Workplace diversity can help develop a multi-talented workforce with diversified skills that can perform organizational tasks with high-level efficiency optimization and creativity. This paper will further explore the benefits of diversity in developing the multi-task force.

Discussion:

Diversity gives access to the organizations to the greater range of talent, that doesn't belong to any particular frame of mind or culture, but the mind that has a wider view of the world and ethnicity, without any restrictive factors and limiting boundaries. This provides greater insights to the company about their customer approaches and practices to improve their craft, which can target the wider range of audience. The customer base is never restricted by the limiting factors of demographics ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"xE5eZFuR","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups | Academy of Management Review,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups | Academy of Management Review,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/HG4BDQFW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/HG4BDQFW"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"webpage","title":"Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups | Academy of Management Review","URL":"https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amr.1996.9605060217","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",3,29]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups | Academy of Management Review,” n.d.). Thus for targeting the wider range of audience that belongs to various nationalities, languages, and mindsets, employees belonging to the different cultural backgrounds play an important role in policy formation that targets the diverse customer base. Lack of diversity results in closed limited opinions and policies that fail to tackle the diverse needs of the clients and customers CITATION Mar10 \l 1033 (Marc Bendick, (2010)).

In the past women used to face gender discrimination due to lack of acceptance of female gender in the roles that were considered as specific for the men ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"gO71omZP","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1655,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/TXH6E3K3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/TXH6E3K3"],"itemData":{"id":1655,"type":"article-journal","title":"Gender Discrimination at Work: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, and Gender Composition of Workplace","container-title":"Gender & Society","page":"764-786","volume":"25","issue":"6","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"Research on gender inequality has posited the importance of gender discrimination for women’s experiences at work. Previous studies have suggested that gender stereotyping and organizational factors may contribute to discrimination. Yet it is not well understood how these elements connect to foster gender discrimination in everyday workplaces. This work contributes to our understanding of these relationships by analyzing 219 discrimination narratives constructed from sex discrimination cases brought before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. By looking across a variety of actual work settings, the analysis sheds light on the cultural underpinnings and structural contexts in which discriminatory actions occur. The analyses reveal how gender stereotyping combines in predictable ways with sex composition of workplaces and organizational policies, often through interactional dynamics of discretionary policy usage, to result in discrimination. The findings suggest the importance of cultural, structural, and interactional influences on gender discrimination.","DOI":"10.1177/0891243211424741","ISSN":"0891-2432","shortTitle":"Gender Discrimination at Work","journalAbbreviation":"Gender & Society","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Bobbitt-Zeher","given":"Donna"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011",12,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011). Research proves that in order to tackle the problem, females prefer to choose the gender diverse workplaces that give them an equal chance to benefits the organization ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"cg1rDxSp","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Moss, 2004)","plainCitation":"(Moss, 2004)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1653,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/SREP5BJJ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/SREP5BJJ"],"itemData":{"id":1653,"type":"article-journal","title":"Women Choosing Diverse Workplaces: A Rational Preference with Disturbing Implications for Both Occupational Segregation and Economic Analysis of Law","container-title":"Harvard Women's Law Journal","page":"1","volume":"27","shortTitle":"Women Choosing Diverse Workplaces","journalAbbreviation":"Harv. Women's L.J.","author":[{"family":"Moss","given":"Scott A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Moss, 2004). Despite all acceptability that has become part of the modern organizational structure, women are unable to break glass ceilings completely. Workplace diversity ensures that women get an equal chance to important positions. As at certain positions, male personality attributes turn out to be beneficial for the company but at the same time, certain positions can gain benefit from the female employees. For targeting any type of customers, both genders are equally important ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"usc91kJx","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez-Burks, 2008)","plainCitation":"(Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez-Burks, 2008)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1664,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/YVBNG4EX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/YVBNG4EX"],"itemData":{"id":1664,"type":"article-journal","title":"Unlocking the Benefits of Diversity: All-Inclusive Multiculturalism and Positive Organizational Change","container-title":"The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science","page":"116-133","volume":"44","issue":"1","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"As the demographic composition of organizations in the United States rapidly shifts, such that minority groups are becoming the numerical and economic majority, organizations are grappling with ways to manage diversity in the workplace. The two forms of diversity initiatives most frequently implemented in organizations—colorblindness and multiculturalism—have clear benefits; however, each also contributes to feelings of exclusion by different organizational members. In this article, the authors describe problematic issues raised by these two approaches to diversity and offer an alternative perspective—all-inclusive multiculturalism, or the AIM model. The authors posit that AIM serves as a catalyst for positive and effective organizational change through the development of social capital and positive relationships at work and enables organizational members to grow to their fullest potential.","DOI":"10.1177/0021886308314460","ISSN":"0021-8863","shortTitle":"Unlocking the Benefits of Diversity","journalAbbreviation":"The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Stevens","given":"Flannery G."},{"family":"Plaut","given":"Victoria C."},{"family":"Sanchez-Burks","given":"Jeffrey"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2008",3,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez-Burks, 2008).

Different people belonging to different backgrounds have different sets of talent, skills, and experience that can affect the organization's performance positively. These cross over skills are beneficial in assisting the other employees regarding various natures of the work. In any organization especially the international organizations, customers and clients belong to various lingual backgrounds ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"vYZr9qTD","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Green, L\\uc0\\u243{}pez, Wysocki, & Kepner, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Green, López, Wysocki, & Kepner, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1660,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/9FD5N2QV"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/9FD5N2QV"],"itemData":{"id":1660,"type":"book","title":"Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools1","source":"CiteSeer","abstract":"The world’s increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a","shortTitle":"Diversity in the Workplace","author":[{"family":"Green","given":"Kelli A."},{"family":"López","given":"Mayra"},{"family":"Wysocki","given":"Allen"},{"family":"Kepner","given":"Karl"}]}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Green, López, Wysocki, & Kepner, n.d.). Having a diverse range of employees with different lingual backgrounds can help in dealings and business expansions. Diversity enables companies to interact with others at a global level which further increases their client base. Often various companies associate the different nationalities in their marketing campaigns that further increases their popularity which results in building its image as a progressive company. This further helps in reducing the employee retention rate. It has been observed the workplace grounds that have people from diverse backgrounds perform better in the office ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"DPw1l3Pe","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Roberge & van Dick, 2010)","plainCitation":"(Roberge & van Dick, 2010)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1658,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/APT9DKDI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/APT9DKDI"],"itemData":{"id":1658,"type":"article-journal","title":"Recognizing the benefits of diversity: When and how does diversity increase group performance?","container-title":"Human Resource Management Review","page":"295-308","volume":"20","issue":"4","source":"ScienceDirect","abstract":"Diversity does not only bring positive consequences. It has often been recognized that heterogeneity in teams can reduce intra-group cohesiveness, and that it can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings which, in turn, can lower employee satisfaction, citizenship behaviors and increase turnover. On the other hand, there is also evidence for performance-increasing effects of diversity because it can improve creativity and innovation through the team members' greater variety of perspectives. Little is known, however, about the conditions and the psychological mechanisms required for increasing group performance under diverse settings. Answers to research questions such as how and when diversity influences performance at work are still limited. The purpose of the paper is to provide theoretical answers to these questions by proposing a model of managing diversity which draws on social psychology theories. The model brings a new perspective by identifying the process of learning from one another's identity within a group. This process underlies two different levels of mechanisms (individual and group level). The model proposes that when these social psychological mechanisms are activated, diversity will lead to an increase in group performance. The model also suggests that collective identity is salient and when psychological safety climate are the psychological conditions that activate these mechanisms.","DOI":"10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.09.002","ISSN":"1053-4822","shortTitle":"Recognizing the benefits of diversity","journalAbbreviation":"Human Resource Management Review","author":[{"family":"Roberge","given":"Marie-Élène"},{"family":"Dick","given":"Rolf","non-dropping-particle":"van"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010",12,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Roberge & van Dick, 2010). Not just this, the office's with diverse employees are happier and more engaged in producing positive outcomes, as they feel accepted, celebrated and psychologically empowered ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"S3o87T76","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Chrobot-Mason & Aramovich, 2013)","plainCitation":"(Chrobot-Mason & Aramovich, 2013)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1663,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/C8RU7XU6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/C8RU7XU6"],"itemData":{"id":1663,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Psychological Benefits of Creating an Affirming Climate for Workplace Diversity","container-title":"Group & Organization Management","page":"659-689","volume":"38","issue":"6","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"Workforce diversity has been described as a double-edged sword; it has the potential for positive and negative outcomes. To better understand why and how diversity leads to positive outcomes, we examined the relationship between employee perceptions of diversity climate perceptions and intent to turnover. We explored the role of four psychological outcome variables (organizational commitment, climate for innovation, psychological empowerment, and identity freedom) as possible mediators of this relationship. Racial and gender subgroup differences were also examined. Survey data were collected from 1,731 public employees. Findings suggest that when employees perceive equal access to opportunities and fair treatment, intent to turn over decreases. Furthermore, these relationships are significantly mediated by psychological outcomes. Implications for diversity management and training are discussed.","DOI":"10.1177/1059601113509835","ISSN":"1059-6011","journalAbbreviation":"Group & Organization Management","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Chrobot-Mason","given":"Donna"},{"family":"Aramovich","given":"Nicholas P."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013",12,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Chrobot-Mason & Aramovich, 2013).

But not all researches support this claim that diversity and performances are linked. Some think that different types of diversities impact the performances differently in an organization. Different organizations train their employees through providing them expert trainings regarding diversity, so that employees from diverse backgrounds can come together and work together for progress of the organization. Such organizations encourage their employees to value different types of physical, cultural, religious and interpersonal differences to that it increases understanding with other that eventually translates into enhanced decision making, creativity and problem solving. Another focus of these trainings is to change the attitude of employees and eliminate the behaviors of discrimination and exclusion, which often results in increased communication between the employees from diverse backgrounds but these techniques and workshops not always give the desired positive results, and their influence and outcome vary from organization to organization.

There are three important aspects of diversity that are considered by the organizations that makes them consider the implantation of diversity. The companies that are not flexible in terms of their employee hiring, they can easily face the shortage of talent in the organization, which can affect the performance of an organization. Thus now a days organizations are becoming more open to the hiring of employees with diverse skill and diverse backgrounds. Customer understanding the second most important point. In order to understand the requirements of the customers and communicate with them, it is essential for organizations to hire people from diverse backgrounds so that the concerns of the customers can be addressed. Third important factor is again ambiguous, that is team performance. The belief that diversity will increase the performance and the outcomes, is the main factor due to which employers promote diversity. First two points are valid and logical, but the verification of third point cannot be validated in all organizations.

According to study that examined diversity in terms of ethnicity and gender and its impact on the work performance, suggested that this general belief that Diversity in terms of culture, demographic, gender, technical skills, and cognition is when subjected to groups by eliminating their conflicts, increasing communication and information, results in performance, satisfaction and huge turnovers is not always true. In fact gender diversity promotes healthy work competition in work place results in increased group performance while racial and ethnic diversity inhibited them. Sometimes in organizations the negative effects of the diversity also come into play but these effects can be minimized through the coaching and trainings by the HR of the organizations. Diversity improves performance when employees work in group than in the individual settings ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"UOVVclfw","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kochan et al., 2003)","plainCitation":"(Kochan et al., 2003)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1897,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/XZDT2PBK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/XZDT2PBK"],"itemData":{"id":1897,"type":"article-journal","title":"The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research network","container-title":"Human Resource Management","page":"3-21","volume":"42","issue":"1","source":"Wiley Online Library","abstract":"This article summarizes the results and conclusions reached in studies of the relationships between race and gender diversity and business performance carried out in four large firms by a research consortium known as the Diversity Research Network. These researchers were asked by the BOLD Initiative to conduct this research to test arguments regarding the “business case” for diversity. Few positive or negative direct effects of diversity on performance were observed. Instead a number of different aspects of the organizational context and some group processes moderated diversity-performance relationships. This suggests a more nuanced view of the “business case” for diversity may be appropriate. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.","DOI":"10.1002/hrm.10061","ISSN":"1099-050X","shortTitle":"The effects of diversity on business performance","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Kochan","given":"Thomas"},{"family":"Bezrukova","given":"Katerina"},{"family":"Ely","given":"Robin"},{"family":"Jackson","given":"Susan"},{"family":"Joshi","given":"Aparna"},{"family":"Jehn","given":"Karen"},{"family":"Leonard","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Levine","given":"David"},{"family":"Thomas","given":"David"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2003"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kochan et al., 2003).

Conclusion:

Building a diverse environment in the organization is a challenging task. Often employers don’t implement the concept of diversity while implementing the diversity policies. For example goal of diversity is not to just apparently show the clients that company implements the diversity policies and has diverse representation, but the goal should be to give every one equal chance to grow so that they prove to be a beneficial asset to a company. As diversity increases the company’s potential to grow with multi-talented force, but it can only happen if diversity policies are applied right. Also the positive effects of the diversity in terms of increased performance and productivity don’t come into play in all organizations equally. Workshops to train the employees to value diversity are helpful in generating positive outcomes. Diversity can generate better outcomes when employees work in group then in individual settings.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Bobbitt-Zeher, D. (2011). Gender Discrimination at Work: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, and Gender Composition of Workplace. Gender & Society, 25(6), 764–786. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211424741

Chrobot-Mason, D., & Aramovich, N. P. (2013). The Psychological Benefits of Creating an Affirming Climate for Workplace Diversity. Group & Organization Management, 38(6), 659–689. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601113509835

Green, K. A., López, M., Wysocki, A., & Kepner, K. (n.d.). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools1.

Kochan, T., Bezrukova, K., Ely, R., Jackson, S., Joshi, A., Jehn, K., … Thomas, D. (2003). The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research network. Human Resource Management, 42(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10061

Moss, S. A. (2004). Women Choosing Diverse Workplaces: A Rational Preference with Disturbing Implications for Both Occupational Segregation and Economic Analysis of Law. Harvard Women’s Law Journal, 27, 1.

Roberge, M.-É., & van Dick, R. (2010). Recognizing the benefits of diversity: When and how does diversity increase group performance? Human Resource Management Review, 20(4), 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.09.002

Searching for Common Threads: Understanding the Multiple Effects of Diversity in Organizational Groups | Academy of Management Review. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2019, from https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amr.1996.9605060217

Stevens, F. G., Plaut, V. C., & Sanchez-Burks, J. (2008). Unlocking the Benefits of Diversity: All-Inclusive Multiculturalism and Positive Organizational Change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), 116–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886308314460

BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Marc Bendick, J. M. ((2010)). The business case for diversity and perverse.