Download Managing global and workforce diversity

Chapter Two
Managing Global
and Workforce
Diversity
Chapter Objectives
• Describe the nature of diversity in
organizations.
• Discuss the emergence on international
management.
• Identify and explain key dimensions of
diversity.
• Describe the fundamental issues in
managing the multicultural organization.
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The Nature of Diversity in Organizations
• In general, diversity is thought of as
relating to gender, racial, and ethnic
differences in the workforce.
• Actually these terms refer to a mixture
of items, objects, or people
characterized by differences and
similarities.
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The Nature of Diversity in Organizations
(continued)
• Reasons for increasing diversity in the
workforce:
– As the job market changes in response to
economic conditions, it becomes increasingly
important to find the best workers and then utilize
them to best serve the organization.
– More companies are focusing their marketing
efforts on the increasing buying power in the
minority markets. A diverse, or segmented
marketing effort requires a marketing team that
represents the markets being targeted.
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The Nature of Diversity in Organizations
(continued)
• Reasons for increasing diversity in the
workforce (continued):
– More companies are seeking to expand their
markets around the world, requiring more diverse
thinking to effectively reach global markets.
– Companies seeking to achieve a global presence
via expansion inevitably go through a period of
consolidation to reduce duplication of efforts
around the world and to capitalize on the
synergies of cross-border operations.
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What is Workforce Diversity?
• Refers to the similarities and differences
among employees in an organization in
such characteristics as age, gender,
ethnic heritage, physical abilities and
disabilities, race, and sexual orientation
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What is Workforce Diversity? (continued)
• Employees’ conceptions of work,
expectations and rewards from the
organization, and practices in relating to
others are all influenced by diversity.
• Managers of diverse work groups need to
understand how the social environment
affects employees’ beliefs about work, and
they must have the communication skills to
develop confidence and self-esteem in
members of diverse work groups.
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What is Workforce Diversity?
(continued)
• Stereotypes
– Rigid judgments about others that ignore the
specific person and the current situation
– Acceptance of stereotypes can lead to the
dangerous process of prejudice towards others.
• Prejudices
– Judgments about others that reinforce beliefs
about superiority and inferiority
– They can lead to the exaggerated assessment of
the worth of one group and a diminished
assessment of the worth of other groups.
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Who Will Be the Workforce of the Future?
• Workforce of the Future
– All workforce segments will increase as a
percentage of the total from now until 2010 (and
beyond) except the white male segment.
– Other dramatic changes are taking place:
• From 2000 to 2010, the number of females in the
workforce is predicted to increase by 15.1%.
• In the same period, the 16 to 24 age group will grow
more rapidly than the entire population.
• The number of workers in the 55 and older group is also
expected to increase sharply.
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Figure 2.1: Workforce Composition: 1990-2010
Reference: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, November 2001.
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Figure 2.2: Workforce Composition: 1990-2010
Reference: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, November 2001.
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Global Workforce Diversity
• Global Phenomenon
– Workforce diversity is increasing more
dramatically in Europe (than the U.S.), where
employees have been crossing borders for many
years.
• The Value of Diversity
– Workplace diversity has become an increasingly
important issue in the last few years as
employees, managers, and the government fully
recognize that the composition of the workforce
affects organizational productivity.
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Global Workforce Diversity
(continued)
• Benefits of Valuing Diversity
– Valuing diversity means giving up the assumption
that everyone who is not a member of the
dominant group must assimilate.
– It is not just the right thing to do for workers; it is
the right thing to do for the organization, financially
and economically.
• Overall, the organization wins when it truly values
diversity because it encourages a greater sense of
teamwork and a deeper commitment to the organization
and its goals.
• Valued workers in diverse organizations experience less
interpersonal conflict because employees understand
one another.
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Global Workforce Diversity
(continued)
• Assimilation
– The process through which members of a minority
group are forced to learn the ways of the dominant
group.
– Tends to perpetuate false stereotypes and
prejudices
• Failure to Heed Cultural Diversity Can Be
Very Costly to the Organization
– Can result in tension among workers, lower
productivity, rising costs due to increased
absenteeism, higher employee turnover, and lower
worker morale.
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Table 2.1: Attributes Reinforced by the Culture
in Typical Organizations
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The Emergence of International Management
• The Growth of International Business
– A primary source of diversity in
organizations is the increasing
globalization of organizations and
management.
– In 2000, the volume of international trade
in current dollars was almost forty times
greater than the amount in 1960.
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Figure 2.3: Forces that Have Increased
International Business
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Cross-Cultural Differences and Similarities
• General Cultural Issues
– Behavior in organizational settings varies across
cultures.
– Culture itself is one major cause of the variation.
– Although behavior within organizational settings
(e.g., motivation and attitudes) remains quite
diverse across cultures, organizations and the way
they are structured appear to be increasingly
similar.
• Hence, managerial practices at a general level may be
more and more alike, but the people who work within
organizations still differ markedly.
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Cross-Cultural Differences and Similarities
(continued)
• General Cultural Issues (continued)
– The same manager behaves differently in
different cultural settings.
– Cultural diversity can be an important
source of synergy in enhancing
organizational efficiency.
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Specific Cultural Issues
• Geert Hofstede studied workers and managers in
sixty countries and found that attitudes and
behaviors differed significantly along with values
and beliefs in those countries.
• He found that workers varied on individual and
collectivism dimensions:
• Individuals is the extent to which people place primary value
on themselves.
• Collectivism is the extent to which people emphasize the good
of the group or society.
– Power Distance – the extent to which less powerful
individuals accept the unequal distribution of power.
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Specific Cultural Issues
(continued)
• Work of Geert Hofstede (continued)
– Uncertainty Avoidance – the extent to which
people prefer to be in unambiguous situations.
– Masculinity – the extent to which the dominant
values in a society emphasize aggressiveness
and the acquisition of money and material goods
over concern for people, relationships among
people, and the overall quality of life.
– Long-Term Orientation –people who focus on the
future; people with a short-term orientation focus
on the past or present.
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Table 2.2: Work-Related Differences in Ten
Countries
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Dimensions of Diversity
• Primary Dimensions of Diversity
– Factors that are either inborn or exert
extraordinary influence on early
socialization.
•
•
•
•
•
Age
Race and ethnicity
Gender
physical and mental abilities
Sexual orientation
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Dimensions of Diversity (continued)
• Secondary Dimensions of Diversity
– Factors that matter to us as individuals and that to
some extent define us to others but are less
permanent than primary dimensions and can be
adapted or changed.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Educational background
Geographical location
Income
Marital status
Parental status
Religious background
Work experience
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Managing the Multicultural Organization
• Managerial Behavior Across Cultures
– Some individual variations among people from
different cultures shape the behavior of both
managers and employees.
• In general, these differences relate to managers’ beliefs
about the role of authority and power in organizations.
• Multicultural Organization as Competitive
Advantage
– Since the workforce is becoming more diverse, the
companies that value and integrate diverse
employees the most effectively will reap the most
benefits.
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Figure 2.4:
Differences
Across Cultures
in Managers’
Beliefs About
Answering
Questions From
Subordinates
Source: Reprinted from International Studies
Management and Organization, vol. XIII, no
1-2, Spring-Summer 1983, by permission of
M.E. Sharpe, Inc., Armonk, NY 10504.
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Table 2.3: Six Ways Managing Diversity Can
Create Competitive Advantage
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Creating the Multicultural Organization
• Pluralism
– A pluralistic organization has mixed membership
and takes steps to fully involve all people who
differ from the dominant group.
• Full Structural Integration
– Occurs when an organization has minority group
members serving at all levels, performing all
functions, and participating in all work groups.
• Integration of Informal Networks
– Fostered through mentoring programs, special
social events, and support groups for minorities.
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Creating the Multicultural Organization
(continued)
• Absence of Prejudice and Discrimination
– Facilitated through equal opportunity seminars, inhouse focus groups, and bias reduction training.
• Equal Identification With Goals
– When members of different groups participate fully
in determining the organization’s direction and
how to meet its goals, they better understand the
organization and their place within it.
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Creating the Multicultural Organization
(continued)
• Low Levels of Intergroup Conflict
– Intergroup conflict can be minimized in several
ways.
• Some forms of conflict can be healthy if they stimulate
creativity in problem solving and decision making.
• Conflict based on cultural differences is usually
unhealthy and detrimental to the multicultural
organization.
– Survey feedback processes can be used to
expose beliefs and attitudes toward others and to
measure the success of the multicultural effort.
– Special training in conflict resolution can help
managers learn the skills of mediation and listing
that are critical for managing conflict.
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