Diversity Management-A New

Organizational Paradigm

Dr. Piyali Ghosh

School of Management Studies
Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad
 If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of
precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios
2
remaining the same, it would look like this:
 61 Asians  6 people would possess 59% of
 12 Europeans the entire world's wealth

 14 from the Western  All 6 would be from USA

Hemisphere, both north  80 would live in substandard
and south housing
 13 Africans  14 would be unable to read
 50 would be females  33 would die of famine
 50 would be males  1 would be near death
 74 would be non-white  1 would be near birth
 26 would be white  7 would have a college
 67 would be non- education
Christians  8 would own a computer
 33 would be Christians

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

3 Understanding Diversity

Diversity Managing Diversity

Valuing Diversity Creating and
The quality of being Recognizing and sustaining an
different and respecting environment where
unique at the value of human everyone can
individual/group differences achieve his/her full
level potential

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

4 Why is Diversity Important?

 Emergence of service sector

 Increase in interactions between people
 More diverse customer base
 Globalization of business
 Doing business with people from around world
 Changing labour market
 Mergers and acquisitions

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Dimensions of Diversity
5
 Primary dimensions
 Inborn difference
 Have an impact throughout one’s life
 Aspects of ourselves that we cannot change
 Things people know about us before we even open our mouths
 Physically visible (except sexual orientation)
 More sensitivity if stereotyped

 Secondary dimensions
 Acquired
 Elements we have some power to change
 People are less sensitive about secondary dimensions
 We also have the choice of whether to disclose this information or
not
 Can be concealed

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Secondary Dimensions of Diversity
6
Work
Background

Geographic
Income Sexual Location
Orientation

Race Ethnicity
Parental
Status Gender Age
Marital
Physical Status
Education Disability

Religious Beliefs
Primary Dimensions of Diversity (Loden and Rosener, 1991)
SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018
7 Elements of Diversity
 Age  Income
 Gender  Education
 Ethnicity  Marital Status

 Race  Religious Beliefs

 Physical Ability  Geographic Location

 Parental Status
 Sexual Orientation
 Personality Type
 Physical Characteristics

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Advantages of Group Diversity
8

Permits Increased Creativity

•Wider range of perspectives
•More and better ideas
•Less “group think””

Reduces Stress
•Better problem definitions
•More alternatives
•Better solutions

Enhanced Concentration to Understand Others

Ideas
Meanings
Argument

Groups Can Become

•More effective
•More productive
•Better solutions
SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018
 Disadvantages of Group Diversity
9
Causes Lack of Cohesion
•Mistrust
•Lower interpersonal attractiveness
•Stereotyping
•More within-culture conversations

Lack of Cohesion Causes Inability to

Validate ideas and people
 Gain consensus on decisions
 Take concerted action

Decreased Creativity Leads to

•More counterproductive behaviour
•Less agreement on content

Groups Can Become

•Less effective
•Less productive

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

10 Indian Workforce: Diversity on the Rise

 More women are working than ever before

 Young workforce
 Minorities in employment
 Number of people with disabilities
 Working mothers and single parents

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

11 The Age Factor
 India’s share in world population in 2010 the second largest
after China (UN World Population Prospects)
 Population forecast to grow at 1.0% per year (faster than
China at 0.4%)
 Challenge of a younger workforce in India
 Largest number of people in the working age group of 15-59 years
 Half of India’s population is already below 25 years of age
 Working-age population to rise from 749 million to 962 million from
2010 to 2030
 Demographic Dividend
 Considered as an asset by theorists and economists
 Growing mismatch between skills employers need and talent available

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

12
Gen X vs. Gen Y

Gen X Gen Y

Outlook Pessimism Optimism

Career Development Time consuming long Quick process

term process

Psychological contract High • Low

Work Engagement Factors
• More focused on
finding meaningful
work
• Make meaningful
contributions
Tangibles like Beyond tangibles
rewards and benefits

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

13 Religions

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

14 Gender

 India ranks 108th out of 145 countries in the World Economic

Forum's Global Gender Gap Index 2015
 Rise in participation from 35% to 37% between 1990 and 2005
 Reversed In the last decade, declining to just 27% by 2014
 Stereotypes still remain
 Glass ceiling
 An invisible barrier making it difficult for women and minorities to move
beyond a certain level in the corporate hierarchy

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

15 Women at Work in Terms of Religion

Hindus, 27
Buddhists, 33

Muslims, 15

Christians, 31 Sikhs, 15

Jains, 12

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

16 Disability
 Only 10 Nifty companies sensitive to disability
 Employing 90% of the 8,551 disabled employees working in
the 50 companies in the index
 8 of them are public sector undertakings
 State Bank of India employs 2,692 disabled people
 TCS and Wipro are the biggest private sector recruiters of
such talent
 TCS has been intentionally hiring more such people since
2012
 Examples from hospitality and retail
 Lemon Tree Hotels
 Employs 400 disabled employees, constituting 13% of its workforce
 Plans to increase the headcount to 2,000 over the next 3 years

 Cafe Coffee Day

 PSUs fall short of the mandated reservation of 3% for PWD

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

17 Cultural Diversity

 Affects values, view of the world

 Growing international business
 Employees maintain ties to national and cultural heritage

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

18 Cultural Diversity (Hofstede)
 Managers and employees vary on 5 dimensions of
national culture:
 Individualism vs. Collectivism
 Extent to which people place primary value on themselves/
emphasize the good of the group or society
 Power distance
 Extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions
and organizations is distributed unequally
 Uncertainty Avoidance
 Extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and
ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them
 Masculinity/ Feminity
 Extent to which the dominant values emphasize aggressiveness
over concern for people, relationships, etc.
 Short vs. Long Term Orientation
 Focus on the past or present/ future
SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018
19 Challenges of Diversity

 Availability challenge
 In past employers could control diversity
 More people than jobs
 Qualified employees have become scarce
 Employers must become more flexible
 Realize that “Different does not mean deficient”
 Fairness challenge
 In past, typically viewed as equal treatment
 Equal Employment Opportunity
 Now employers must embrace new diversity
 Essentially focus on “differences”

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

20 Diversity Management vs. Equal
Employment Opportunity

 Equal employment opportunity

 Treating people fairly and equitably
 Taking actions that do not discriminate against people in
protected classes on the basis of some illegal criterion

 Diversity management
 Places more emphasis on recognizing and appreciating
differences among people at work
 Attempts to provide accommodations for those differences
to the extent that is feasible and possible

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Challenges of Diversity
Mind-Sets about Diversity
Problem or opportunity?
Challenge met or barely addressed?
Level of majority-culture buy-in
(resistance or support)
Education Programs
Educate management on
valuing differences
Promoting knowledge and
acceptance
Taking advantage of the
opportunities that diversify
provides
SMS, MNNIT Allahabad
Organization Culture
Valuing differences
Prevailing value system
Cultural inclusion
CHALLENGES
OF
DIVERSITY
Heterogeneity in
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality
Effect on cohesiveness,
communication, conflict, morale
Effects of group identity on
interaction (e.g., stereotyping)
Prejudice (racism, ethnocentrism)
HR Management Systems
(Bias Free?)
Recruitment
Training and development
Performance appraisal
Compensation and benefits
Promotion
Higher Career Involvement
of Women
Dual-career couples
Sexual harassment
Work-family conflict
Source: Taylor and Blake, 1991
1/15/2018
21
22
PREJUDICE Generalized attitude towards
members of a group

Generalized belief about

STEREOTYPE members of a group

Behaviours directed towards

DISCRIMINATION people on the basis of their
group membership

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

23 Managing Diversity for Competitive
Advantage
 Not inevitably good or bad for an organization
 HR managers generally see positive benefits
 Cost Saving
 Resource Acquisition
 Marketing
 Creativity and Innovation
 Problem Solving
 Organizational Flexibility

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

24 Strategies for Managing Diversity
 Top management commitment
 Build a corporate culture that values diversity
 Articulate a clear diversity mission
 Audit and assess needs
 Set clear objectives
 Hold managers accountable
 Effective communication
 Coordination of activities
 Changing structures, policies, and systems to support diversity
 Recruitment
 Career advancement

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

25 Contd.
 Spread a wide net in recruitment to find the most diverse possible
pool of qualified candidates
 Identify promising women and minorities
 Provide them with mentors and other kinds of support
 Provide diversity awareness training
 Enable minority organization members to
 Reduce their social isolation
 Be more effective in their jobs
 Have a greater impact on the organization
 Achieve greater opportunities for career advancement

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Diversity Initiatives

Career Accommodating
Recruitment
Advancement Special Needs

Examine employee Child care

demographics Eliminate glass
ceiling
Maternity or
paternity leave
Examine
composition of
customer base
Home-based
employment
Accomplish
Examine mentoring
composition of the relationships
labor pool in the Flexible work
area schedules

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

26
27 Diversity Training

 Providing managers with training

 How to recruit/hire diverse employees
 How to orient/integrate new employees
 Providing all employees with training
 Realizing the differences that exist
 Learning how differences affect working environment
 How to maximize productivity without ignoring employee
differences

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Individual Strategies for Dealing with
Diversity

 Understanding
 Be clear on the nature and meaning of
diversity
 Empathy
 Try to understand the perspectives of
others
 Tolerance
 Be willing to tolerate cultural differences.
 Communication
 It can only work if it is two-way

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

29 Skills for Valuing Diversity

Self - Awareness of
awareness stereotyping

Openness Adaptability

Inclusion Respect

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

30 Handling the Demographic Dividend
 The multi-generational workplace
 Ranging between early 20s to late 70s, or beyond
 Millennials, Generation X, Baby boomers and Traditionalists
 Can bring out the best and worst in companies and employees
 Depends on the intent and culture of the organization
 Wisdom and experience of older workforce passed on to younger
workforce
 Fresh ideas and technical skills of young employees practically
used in delivering solutions drafted through the wisdom and
knowledge of older employees
 Inclusion to create a win-win situation for the organization

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

31 Contd.

 Skill Gap
 Need of training the young work force
 Suggestions to handle the age gap
 Cross-Functional Teams
 Reverse-Mentoring
 Inter-generational Informal Teams
 Manager Sensitization

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

32 ‘Back-to-Work‘ at SAP

 Launched by enterprise software maker SAP

 To provide women professionals opportunity to re-enter the
workforce after a career break
 Offers project-based assignments and practical assistance to
potential candidates
 "SAP recognizes that many of the women who may have
stepped back from the paid workforce to focus on personal
commitments are highly-qualified and experienced," SAP
India

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

33 Handling the Disability Issue

 Collaborations among companies

 Partnering with the right entities/NGOs
 Become the top recruiter for the disabled

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

 Multicultural Organizations

 Monolithic organization
 Low degree of structural integration
 Employs few women, minorities, or other groups that differ from
the majority
 Highly homogeneous employee population
 Pluralistic organization
 Relatively diverse employee population
 Makes an effort to involve employees from different gender,
racial, or cultural backgrounds
 Multicultural organization
 Values cultural diversity
 Seeks to utilize and encourage diversity

11-34 MNNIT Allahabad

SMS, 1/15/2018
35 Contd.

 Characteristics of a Multicultural Organization

 Pluralism
 Members of minority and majority cultures influence key
values and policies
 Structural integration
 Minority-culture members well represented at all levels
and in all responsibilities
 Informal network integration
 Mentoring and support groups assist career development
of minority-culture members
 Absence of prejudice and discrimination
 Training and task force activities support goal of
eliminating culture-group biases
 Minimum inter-group conflict
 Members of minority and majority cultures avoid
destructive conflicts

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

36 Laws Prohibiting Discrimination at
Work in India

Persons with Disabilities

(Equal Opportunities, Industrial Employment
Equal Remuneration
Protection of Rights (Standing Orders) Act,
Act, 1976
and Full Participation), 1946
1995

Sexual Harassment of
Women at Workplace
Industrial Disputes Act, Maternity Benefit Act,
(Prevention, Prohibition
1947 1961
and Redressal) Act,
2013

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

37

Thank You!

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018

38 References

 Taylor H. Cox and Stacy Blake, “Managing Cultural Diversity:

Implications for Organizational Competitiveness”, Academy of
Management Executive 5, no 3 (1991), 45-56
 http://www.hindustantimes.com/static/indian-women-leaving-
workforce/index.html
 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/50019057.cms?utm_sour
ce=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
 http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/generations-demographic-trends-
population-and-workforce
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140619172209-115368974-workforce-
demographics-in-india

SMS, MNNIT Allahabad 1/15/2018