Diversity in Organization

Two levels of diversity

 Surface-Level Diversity
Represents the characteristics that are easily observed such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, and
disability status. They don't necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel but may activate certain
stereotypes.

 Deep-Level Diversity
Represents the aspects that are more difficult to see at first glance such as values, personality, and work
preferences that become progressively more important for determining similarity as people get to
know one another better.

What are the two major forms of workforce diversity?

The two major forms of workforce diversity are ethnicity and individual differences. These
demographic characteristics define the factors comprising diversity in the U.S. workforce. Ethnicity
refers to the racial and ethnic backgrounds of individuals. The individual differences are the biological
differences such as age, gender, race, disability, and length of service. These differences have been
studied to determine their association with job performance, job satisfaction, turnover, and other
concerns of organizational management.

Discrimination
Nothing of a difference between things (making judgments about individuals based on stereotypes
regarding their demographic group.
"is to note a difference between things"
Discrimination can lead to serious negative consequences for employers, including reduced
productivity and citizenship behavior, negative conflicts, and increased turnover.

Types of Discrimination in Workplace:

 Discriminatory policies or practices (actions taken by representative of the organization that
deny equal opportunity to perform or unequal rewards for performance)
 Sexual harassment (unwanted sexual advanced and other verbal or phsyical conduct of a
sexual nature that create a hostile or offensive work environment)
 Intimidation (over threats or bullying direct at members of specific groups of employees joker
or negative stereotypes)
 Mockery and insults (jokes or negative stereotypes)
 Exclusion (exclusion of certain people from job opportunities, social events, discussions, or
informal mentoring)
 Incivility (disrespectful treatments)

Biological Characteristics
personal characteristics-such as age, gender, race, and length of tenure-that are objective and easily
obtained from personal records. These characteristics are representative of surface-level diversity

Biographical characteristics examples:

 Age
 Sex
 Race and ethnicity
 Disability
 Tenure
 Religion
 Sexual orientation and Gender identity
Age: People belief that job performance declines with increasing age.
 Workforce is ageing
 Older workers hold positive qualities such as experience, judgment , strong work ethic and
commitment to quality.
 Older workers lacking flexibility and resisting new technology.
 The older you get the less likely you are to quit your job.
 Older employees have lower rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees.
 Older workers more satisfied with their work, and report better relationships with their co-
workers.
 Older workers more likely to engage in citizenship behavior.
 Productivity often declines with age.

Sex: Psychological studies have found women are more agreeable and willing to conform to authority,
whereas men are more aggressive and more likely to have expectations of success, but those differences
are minor.
 *) Woman have higher rate to turn over, absenteeism than men do.
 *) Parents were rated lower in job commitment , achievement, striving, and dependability than
individual without children.
 *) Women, especially those with pre-school age children, do prefer flexible work schedules and
will seek an employer who offers options in their schedules.

Race and ethnicity: Biological heritage people use to identify themselves is Race. Ethnicity is the
additional set of cultural characteristics that often overlaps with race.
 *Employees ten to favor colleagues for their own race in performance evaluations, promotion
decisions, pay raises.
 *Members of racial and ethnic minorities report higher levels of discrimination in the
workplace.
 *Having a positive climate for diversity overall can lead to increased sales.

Disability: a person as disabled who has any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits
one or more major life activities.
 some jobs obviously cannot be accommodated to some disabilities.
 Disabilities workers receive higher performance evaluations.
 less likely to be hired.
 Individual with such common mental health issues as depression and anxiety are significantly
more likely to be absent from work.
 Strong biases exist against those with mental impairment.

Tenure : Refers to the length of time people have been on the job and is tied to seniority or Expressed
as work experience, appears to be a good predictor of employee productivity.
 Seniority is a time on a particular job.
 There is positive relationship between seniority and job productivity.
 Negative relationship between seniority and absenteeism.
 The longer a person is in a job, the less likely he or she is to quit.
 Tenure at an employee's previous job is a powerful predictor of that employee's future
turnover.
 Tenure and job satisfaction are positively related.

Religion : is till an issue in the workplace it is workforce.

Sexual orientation and Gender identity:
Many organizations have implemented policies and procedures protecting employees on the basis of
sexual orientation.
 Many lesbian, gay and bisexual employees keep their gender identity from their co-workers for
fear of being discriminated against.
 Companies are increasingly putting in place policies to govern how their organization treats
employees who change genders (often called transgender employees)
 Dealing with transgender employees requires some special considerations, such as for
bathrooms, employee names, and so on.

These characteristics are important to OB since corporations are always searching for variables that
can impact employee productivity, turnover, deviance, citizenship and satisfaction. Data that is easily
defined and available in an employee personnel file can contribute to success in an organization.

Ability
is an individual's capacity to perform job tasks. There are two types of ability-

1. Intellectual abilities
are abilities needed to perform mental activities or the capacity to do mental activities - thinking,
reasoning, and problem solving.
- Most societies place a high value on intelligence, and for good reason
These skills provide solutions and actions that are positive in a culture or society's development.
-meaning people do have specific abilities that predict important work-related outcomes when
considered individually.

General Mental Ability (GMA)

-is an overall factor of intelligence as suggested by the positive correlations among specific intellectual
ability dimensions.
-Research suggests that although intelligent people perform better and tend to have more interesting
jobs, they are also more critical when evaluating their job conditions. Thus, smart people have it better,
but they also expect more

Seven dimensions of intellectual abilities are number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual
speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and memory.

1. Number aptitude: ability to do speed and accurate arithmetic(accountant)

2. Verbal comprehension: ability to understand what is read or heard and the relationship of
words to each other (plant manager)
3. Perceptual speed: ability to identify visual similarities and differences quickly and accurately
(fire investigator)
4. Inductive reasoning: ability to identify a logical sequence in a problem and then solve the
problem (market research)
5. Deductive reasoning: ability to use logical and assess the implications of an argument
(supervisor)
6. Spatial visualization: ability to imagine how object would look if its position in space were
changed (interior decorator)
7. Memory: ability to retain a recall past experience (salesperson)

2. Physical Ability
the capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.

 Importance of ability at work increases difficulty in formulating workplace policies that

recognize disabilities.
 Recognizing that individuals have different abilities that can be taken into account when making
hiring decisions.
 It is also possible to make accommodations for disabilities.

Strength Factors
1. Dynamic strength Ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously over time
2. Trunk strength Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk (particularly
abdominal) muscles
3. Static strength Ability to exert force against external objects
4. Explosive strength Ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a series of explosive
acts
Flexibility Factors
5. Extent flexibility Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible
6. Dynamic flexibility Ability to make rapid, repeated flexing movements
Other Factors
7. Body coordination Ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different parts of
the body
8. Balance Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off balance
9. Stamina Ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged effort over
time

What is intellectual ability and how is it relevant to OB?

Intellectual abilities are the abilities needed to perform mental abilities—thinking, reasoning, and
problem solving. Understanding the concept is essential to managers as they plan, organize, direct, and
control a firm's operations. Since different jobs require different application of abilities, the challenge of
job design, recruiting and selecting workers, and evaluating performance based in applying the needed
intellectual abilities to ensure fairness and appropriateness of management activities.

How can you contrast intellectual and physical ability?

The two types of abilities are intellectual abilities and physical abilities. Intellectual abilities lead to the
mental abilities needed to perform jobs in the changing operational environments of today's business.
Physical abilities have been a factor of job design and performance since Fredrick Taylor's Scientific
Management. Studies have suggested nine different physical abilities performed in work. They are
mutually exclusive. Therefore, they are important considerations in the management functions.

Diversity management
is the process and programs by which managers make everyone more aware of and sensitive to the
needs and differences of others.
 Managers must work to develop strategies to develop ways to utilize differences to achieve
work outcomes.
 Managers start by attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining employees who can operate
and excel in a workplace with diverse individuals, viewpoints, and ideas.
 Diversity can aid in group effectiveness and it can diminish it.
 Organizations must provide the tools to leverage the differences to obtain superior
performance.

Effective programs have three components:

 First, they teach managers about the First, they teach managers about the laws they need to
follow and equal employment opportunity requirements.
 Second, they help managers and employees to see that a diverse workforce is better able to
serve diverse markets.
 Third, they take into account personal differences and approach the differences as strengths
that can be utilized to enhance performance.