Building Inclusive Organizations - Recap

• Paradigms in Diversity and • Who am I – exploring the identity

Inclusion  Ely and Thomas  of the self
Access and Legitimacy,
Discrimination and Fairness and • Tying the identity of self to the
Learning & Integration organization

• Social Identity Theory • Implicit Association Test  Basis

Individual’s knowledge of self for stereotypes and biases
vis-à-vis a group  Some
commonality
• Prejudice vis-à-vis discrimination
 Subtle difference
• Social Identity cannot be mutually
exclusive

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 Building Inclusive Organizations - Recap

• Communication Styles  • Inclusive Leadership  Some

Evaluative, Interpretive, traits
Supportive, Probing and
Understanding • Attitudes and Behaviors of the
inclusive leader
• E>I>S>P>U
• The case study on two women
• DM System consists of Diversity and three men on a raft
Paradigm, Policies, Programs,
Practices and Climate

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 Building Inclusive Organizations

• Session 8 learnings objectives:

 Group Identity  basis

 Difference Anxiety (reference – Being Different Book)

 Mutual Respect (reference – Being Different Book)

 Linking with the paradigms on Inclusion and diversity

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Two contrasting movie clips

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 To invest or not to invest?

• Will you invest as an • As a host nation how

MNC? will you attract
investment
• What things need to be
provided in your • As a host nation are you
perception? willing to receive this
aid?

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Two contrasting movie clips

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 Issue of Bias

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 Origins

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 Group Identity

• Distinct features such as colour of

eyes, colour of skin, hair, the
Nation attire, physical features

State • These act as non-verbal cues

District • Homophily naturally veered

towards similar features

• Invariably this causes differences

Village
also

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 But..

• Aren’t everything same?

• Should difference be asserted?

• Under whose terms?

• Does difference inherently lead to

dichotomies of superiority and
inferiority?

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 Difference Anxiety

• The fear to openly examine the • Source of DA

differences amongst different – Feeling of Superiority 
individuals, groups, religions  economic or cultural or racial
leads to difference anxiety or a combination of these as
a result you choose to ignore
• Difference anxiety is related to the other
notions of superiority and
inferiority – Feeling of inferiority one
would choose to
• Often it is found that group copy/emulate the dominant
feeling inferior would want to group to blend in rather than
emulate the superior group to face the uncomfortable
show sameness questions

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 Difference Anxiety

• DA from above • DA from below

– Destruction of the other  – Imitating the Dress Codes
violence and suppression e.g.
Inquisition by the – Imitate the language and
conquistadors accents
– Isolation  refuse to engage
or fail to credit the ‘other’
civilization e.g. Intellectual – Tentativeness in Sporting of a
traditions of India often not tuft (Shikha)/bindi or other
given due credit religious/cultural insignia
– Inculturation/acculturation
Adopt only those things – Companies provide training
which are useful and on how to use cutlery
secularize them, reject other
aspects  e.g. Yoga

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 Difference Anxiety

• Some examples
– Nimrata becomes Nikki or Swaminathan becomes S Nathan or Nathan
 call center industry  when you have to go onsite diction training
carried out (Nimrata Randhawa  Nikki Haley/Piyush Jindal  Bobby
Jindal)

– Cosmetics/beauty industry is premised on exploiting this difference

anxiety  a specific color/tone is more acceptable

– Look at matrimonial requests  which often boast of ‘convent

education’  English Education seen as some achievement

– Dressing in specific ways termed as ‘formal’ and some others as casual

especially in organizations

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 Tolerance Vs Mutual Respect

• Tolerance • Mutual Respect

– Pejorative term – Understanding the other
group/individual on their
– Something wrong with the terms
other person/group but you
still decide to overlook for the – Comfortable in their
sake of peace practices/costumes without
any feeling of inferiority or
– Tolerance advocated in most superiority of own practices
settings
– Advocating pluralism of
– Relatively thoughts and practices rather
uniform/homogenous set of than uniform set of practices
practices

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 Paradigms on Inclusion

• Fairness/Justice • Integration and learning

– Mere representation of – Very less organizations
individuals  like showing on
record individuals are hired

• Access and Legitimacy

– Engaging with the groups
from the view point of
possible markets

– McD or KFC modifying their

menu

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