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Chapter 12
Objectives
• Explain why diversity is a business issue
• Explain what happens to tokens in
organizations.
• Explain the effects of increasing
heterogeneity
• Describe dimensions of cultural differences
• Understand how to manage diversity in
organizations
Diversity
• Relevant to organizations
– Increased immigration
– Cultural policies of equality (Human Rights)
– Globalization
• Stereotyping
– Attributing characteristics or acting toward an
individual based on their belonging to a group
and our assumptions about that group.
What Happens to Tokens?
Perceptual Tendency
Receive more
attention
Contrast with
majority
Assimilation via
stereotyping
Result
Performance
pressure
Exaggerated,
polarized differences
Role encapsulation
Tokens
• Men = highest commitment levels in male
homogeneous groups. Male tokens have low
levels of satisfaction and commitment. Males
had lower commitment in mixed gender
groups.
• Women = lower commitment in female
homogeneous groups. Female tokens had
higher commitment. Females had higher
commitment in mixed gender groups.
Tokens
• Whites = highest commitment levels in white
homogeneous groups. White tokens have
low levels of satisfaction and commitment.
Whites had lower commitment in mixed race
groups
• Non-whites = lower commitment in non-white
homogeneous groups. Non-white tokens had
higher commitment. Non-whites had higher
commitment in mixed race groups.
Power and conflict explanations
• Social identity theory: the self-concept is
socially constructed and situation
specific.
– One’s specific identities become salient in
some situations.
– Identities become salient in contrast to
others
Power and conflict explanations
• Realistic conflict theory: traditional in-groups
create policies that are favourable to the ingroup and often unfavourable to the outgroup.
– As heterogeneity rises:
• low-status positions and potential difficulty in increasing
status becomes more apparent. (?)
• The potential loss of status becomes more apparent. (?)
• Consequence is an increased potential for
negative affect and conflict
• Identity Incongruence
– Identify with the high status group rather than
one’s own group
• Act like the high status group
• Have attitudes similar to the high status towards
one’s own in-group. (?)
Hofstede’s Value Dimensions
of National Culture
...Hofstede’s Value Dimensions
of National Culture
Integration of diverse populations
• Contact
• Attitude training
• Behavior change – cognitive dissonance
effects
– Harassment and equity policies
– Mentoring programs