Diversity

a variety of demographic, cultural, and personal differences among an organization's employees and customers

Affirmative Action

- purposeful steps taken by an organization to create employment oppurtunities for minorities and women

- basically a punitive approach

- originated with Executive Order 11246

Diversity Management

- organizational changes that allow ALL people to reach and perform at their maximum potential

- diversity to achieve  competitive advantage

Surface level Diversity

- Differences such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, and physical disabilities that are observable, typically unchangeable, and easy to measure

- Differences that are immediately observable, typically unchangeable, and easily measured

- independent observers can usually agree on dimensions of surface level diversity

Deep level Diversity

- differences such as personality and attitudes that are communicated through verbal and non-verbal behaviors and are learned only through extended interaction with others

Social Integration

- the degree to which group members are psychologically attracted to working with each other to accomplish a common objective

- " working togethor to get the job done"

Age discrimination

- treating people differently because of their age

- hiring/firing, promotions, compensation decisions

Sex Discrimination

- Treating people differently because of their sex

-associated with with the glass ceiling

Glass Ceiling

- the invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from advancing to the top positions in organizations

Racial and ethnic discrimination

- treating people differently because of their race or ethnicity

- most frequently charged type of discrimination

Disability

- a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities

Disability Discrimination

- treating people differently because of their disabilities

Disposition

- the tendency to respond to situations and events in a predetermined manner

Personality

- the relatively stable set of behaviors, attitudes, and emotions displayed over time that makes people different from each other

The Big Five Personality Dimensions

1. Extraversion

2.   Emotional stability

3.   Agreeableness

4.   Conscientiousness

5.   Openness to Experience

Extraversion

- the degree to which someone is active, assertive, gregarious, sociable, talkaive, and energized by others

Introverts are less active, prefer to be alone, and are shy, quite, or reserved

For the best results in the workplace introverts and extroverts should be correctly matched to their jobs

Emotional Stability

- the degree to which someone is not angry, depressed, anxious, emotional, insecure, and exciteable
     - emotionally stable people respond well to stress and can maintain a calm, problem-solving attitude in even the toughest situations

Emotionally unstable people find it difficult to handle the most basic demands of their jobs under only moderately stressful situations and become distraught, tearful, self-doubting, and anxious

Agreeableness

- the degree to which people are cooperative, polite, flexible, forgiving, good-natured, tolerant, and trusting

- agreeable people are easy to work with while disgreeable people are not

Conscientiousness

- the degree to which someone is organized, hardworking, responsible, perservering, thorough, and achievement oriented

Conscientious employees are more likely to engage in positive behaviors, such as helping new employees, co-workers, and supervisors, and are less likely to engage in negative behaviors, such as verbally or physically abusing co-workers and stealing

Openness to Experience

- the degree to which someone is curious, broadminded, and open to new ideas, things, and experiences; is spontaneous; and has a high tolerance for ambiguity

People in marketing, advertising, research, and other creative fields need to be curious, open to new ideas, and spontaneous

Accountants do not need to be as open to new experiences due to their type of job

Types of Paradigms used to to Manage diversity

1. Discrimination and fairness Paradigm

2. Access and legitimacy Paradigm

3. Learning and effectiveness paradigm

Discrimination and Fairness Paradigm

- focuses on equal opportunity, fair treatment, recruitment of minorities, and strict compliance with  the equal opportunity laws

- most commonly used

Primary benefit - it generally brings about fairer treatment of employees and increases demographic diversity

Primary Limitation - focus of diversity remains on the surface level dimension

Access and Legitimacy paradigm

- focuses on the acceptance and celebration of differences to ensure that the diversity within the company matches the diversity found among primary stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and local communities

- related to the business growth advantage of diversity

- basic goal is to create a demographically diverse workforce in order to attract a broader customer base

Primary Advantage - establishes a clear business reason for diversity

Primary Disadvantage - focuses only on surface level diversity, and may lead some employees to feel frustrated and exploited

Learning and effectiveness paradigm

- focuses on integrating deep-level diversity differences, such as personality, attitudes, beliefs, and values, into the actual work of the organization

-consistent with achieving Organizational plurality

4 benefits

1. it values common ground

2. it makes a distinction between individual and group differences

3. less likely to lead to conflict, backlash, and divisiveness sometimes associated with diversity programs that focusses only on group differences

4. focuses on bringing different talents and perspectives togethor to make the best decisions to produce innovative, competitive products and services

Organizational Plurality

- a work environment where

1. all members are empowered to contribute in a way that maximizes the benefits to the organization, customers, and themselves

AND

2. the individuality of each member is respected by not segmenting or polarizing people on the basis of their membership in a particular group

Awareness Training

- training that is designed to raise employee's awareness of diversityissues and to challenge the underlying assumptions or stereotypes they may have about others

STarting point in awareness training is the IAT