Organisational

Behaviour
Diversity in organisations

Chapter 3
 Learning outcomes
After studying this chapter, students
should be able to:

• Identify the key biographical

characteristics and describe how they
are relevant to OB
• Define intellectual ability and
demonstrate its relevance to OB
• Contrast intellectual and physical ability

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 Key topics

1. Biographical characteristics
2. Other biographical
characteristics
3. Ability (Intellectual and
physical ability)

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 Biographical characteristics
Biographical characteristics:
Personal characteristics, such as
age, gender, race and length of
service, that are objective and
easily obtained from personnel
records. These characteristics are
representative of surface-level
diversity.

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 Biographical characteristics

• Biographical characteristics are easily identifiable

and readily available to an organisation
• Variations in these surface-level characteristics
may be the basis for discrimination against
classes of employees
• These characteristics are not always as closely
related to important work outcomes as people
believe
• Often far more variation occurs within groups
sharing biographical characteristics than between
them

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 Biographical characteristics:
Age
• Relationship between age and job performance is
important:
• There is a widespread belief that job performance
declines with increasing age
• The workforce is aging
• There is a worldwide skills shortage forcing companies
to reemploy older people
• Employees’ perceptions of older employees are mixed:
• Positive qualities, such as experience, judgement,
strong work ethic, commitment to quality
• Negative qualities, such as lacking flexibility and
resisting new technology
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 Biographical characteristics:
Gender
• There are few, if any, important differences between men
and women that affect job performance
• There are no consistent male/female differences in
problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive drive,
motivation, sociability or learning ability
• Gender roles still affect perceptions – women who succeed
in traditionally male domains are often perceived as less
likable, more hostile and less desirable as supervisors
• Research suggests that women believe gender-based
discrimination is more prevalent than do male employees;
these beliefs are especially pronounced among women
working with a large proportion of men

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 Biographical characteristics:
Gender
• Working mothers often prefer flexible work schedules,
part-time work and telecommuting to accommodate family
responsibilities
• Women also prefer jobs that encourage work-life balance,
which limits their options for career advancement
• Studies have shown that women have higher rates of
absenteeism and are more likely to turn over than men,
this can logically be ascribed to cultural norms placing home
and family responsibilities on women
• The role of women is changing, with men increasingly
sharing responsibility for child care and home responsibilities

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 Biographical characteristics:
Race and ethnicity
Race: The biological heritage people use to
identify themselves.
Ethnicity: The additional set of cultural
characteristics that often overlaps with race.
• Research shows that, in employment settings, people tend to slightly
favour colleagues of their own race in performance evaluations,
promotion decisions and pay raises
• Substantial racial differences also exist in attitudes toward affirmative
action
• Evidence suggests that “despite group differences in mean test
performance, there is little convincing evidence that well constructed
test sets are more predictive of educational, training or occupational
performance for members of one group versus another.” (p 77)

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 Biographical characteristics:
Disability
Disability: Generally, a person is disabled if he or
she has any physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life activities.

• Disabilities share almost no common features, so no

generalisation is possible about how each condition relates
to employment
• Some jobs cannot be accommodated to some
disabilities; however, computer technologies and other
adaptive devices increasingly allow disabled persons to be
employed more often

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 Biographical characteristics:
Disability
• Negative biases and
perceptions of low
employability of disabled
persons remain, especially with
regard to mental disabilities
• Evidence suggests that
disabled persons receive
higher performance
evaluations, although they
tend to encounter lower
performance expectations
and are less likely to be hired

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 Biographical characteristics:
Tenure, religion, gender orientation and
gender identity
Tenure
• Tenure, expressed as length of time you have held a job, appears
to be a good predictor of employee productivity and negatively
related to absenteeism
• Tenure at a previous job is a powerful predictor of future turnover
• Evidence also suggests that tenure and job satisfaction are
positively related
Religion
• Peoples’ belief systems (or lack thereof) are often in conflict
• The Constitution gives equal status to all religions
• It is a challenge for employers to treat employees equally while
maintaining sustainable business practices

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 Biographical characteristics:
Tenure, religion, gender orientation and
gender identity
Gender orientation and gender identity
• South African law does not allow discrimination against employees
based on gender orientation. Many organisations have implemented
policies and procedures to protect employees against discrimination
based on gender orientation
• Many lesbian, gay and bi-gender employees hide their identity from
co-workers for fear of discrimination
• Companies are increasingly also accommodating and protecting
transgender employees through policies, procedures and other special
considerations

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 Ability:
Intellectual abilities

Ability: An individual’s capacity to perform the

various tasks in a job.

Intellectual ability: The capacity to do mental

activities – thinking, reasoning and problem solving.

General mental ability: An overall factor of

intelligence, as suggested by the positive correlations
among specific intellectual ability dimensions.

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 Ability:
Intellectual abilities
Dimensions of intellectual ability

Table 3.4 (p 80)

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 Ability:
Physical abilities
Physical ability: The capacity to do tasks that demand
stamina, dexterity, strength and other similar characteristics.
Nine basic physical abilities

Table 3.5 (p 81)

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 ANY QUESTIONS?

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