Gender, Diversity

and Inclusion
(HS1314)
Prof. Seemita Mohanty
Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences
NIT Rourkela
Social return on investment (Cooper, 2020)
 Social return on investment isn’t so much about external
social investments but internal ones.
 Investing in the people – by improving the quality of their
work environment, optimising their ability to innovate and
perform, and reducing sick leave and turnover rates.
 Improves the bottom line.
 A work environment that nurtures and values individual
strengths, perspectives, and skills, creates a place of
energy, innovation and loyalty.
 Benefits the reputation of the organisation.
 A 2018 report by McKinsey Global Institute titled “Delivering
through Diversity” assessed how the social issues of diversity and
inclusion plays out in business today.
 No longer a matter of social justice or legal compliance.
 Gender diversity and inclusion represents a distinct advantage for
modern day organizations.
 The study done over 1000 companies in 12 countries found a clear
correlation between ‘diversity in the leadership of large
companies and financial outperformance.’
 McKinsey also found the following:
 Diversity and business performance are positively correlated.
 Leadership matters.
 Gender is only the tip of the iceberg (inclusion is also
important.)
 Failure to change will cost dearly.
The bottom line: Gender diversity and inclusion are tied directly
to the company's performance and growth.
Not just a matter of social justice anymore. It's a matter of good
business.
 Increased profitability & productivity
 Attract and retain talent
 Greater creativity, innovation and openness
 Better organisational reputation
 Turnover will decrease – for all categories of
employees
 Understand consumers better
Making Differences Matter (Thomas & Ely, 2016)

 General assumption is that workplace diversity is

about increasing racial, national, gender, or class
representation.
 Simply about recruiting more people from
traditionally under-represented identity groups.
 Thinking of diversity simply in terms of identity
group representation inhibits organisational
effectiveness.
 In the name of equality and fairness,
organizations encourage and expect people from
these identity groups to simply blend in.
 They also set them apart in jobs that relate
specifically to their backgrounds.
 Work is assigned to areas that require them to
interface with clients or customers of the same
identity groups.
 For example, African Americans often find
themselves marketing products to inner-city
communities.
 Hispanics frequently market to Hispanics or work
for Latin American subsidiaries.
 Companies operate on the assumption that the
key addition identity groups can offer is the
knowledge of their own people.
 This assumption is obstructive and detrimental to
diversity efforts.
 Diversity goes beyond simply increasing the
number of different identity groups on the
payroll.
 It’s about ‘varied perspectives and approaches to
work.’
 Different identity groups simply do not bring
‘insider information.’
 They bring ‘different, important, and competitively
relevant knowledge and perspectives about how to
actually do the work.’
 Companies thus need to think of diversity more
holistically.
 Two perspectives have generally guided most
diversity initiatives – ‘the discrimination-and-
fairness paradigm and the access-and-legitimacy
paradigm’
 Thomas & Ely identify a new approach - the
learning-and-effectiveness paradigm.
 Incorporates aspects of the first two paradigms
but goes beyond by concretely connecting
‘diversity’ to ‘approaches to work.’
Discrimination-and-fairness paradigm:
 Focuses on equal opportunity, fair treatment, recruitment, and
compliance.
 Goes beyond simple concern with numbers.
 Companies often institute mentoring and career development
programmes specifically for women and people of colour.
 Train other employees to respect cultural differences.
 Diversity is measured by how well the company achieves its
recruitment and retention goals.
 But not on how employees can utilise their varied perspectives to do
their work effectively.
 Problem: ‘The staff gets diversified but the work does not.’
Access-and-legitimacy paradigm:
 Based on acceptance and celebration of differences.
 Organizations push forth with a more diverse clientele ‘by matching
the demographics of the organization to those of consumer or
constituent groups.’
 Such companies almost always operate in a business environment in
which there is increased diversity among customers, clients & others.
 Its market-based motivation and the competitive advantage are
qualities that the company understands and supports.
 Problem: Staff is pushed into ‘differentiated pigeonholes’ without
understanding what their actual capabilities are, and how they could
be integrated into the company’s mainstream work.
The learning-and-effectiveness paradigm:
 The leadership must truly value varieties of opinion and insights.
 Recognises the learning opportunities and the challenges that the
expression of different perspectives present for an organization.
 Organisational culture creates an expectation of high standards of
performance from everyone.
 Stimulates personal development.
 Encourages openness and make workers feel valued.
 Has a well-articulated and widely understood mission.
 Has a relatively egalitarian & non-bureaucratic structure.
Assimilation Paradigm
 Premise: we are all the same
 Strategy: hire diverse
employees; encourage uniform
behaviour.
 Advantage: promotes fair hiring.
 Disadvantages: subverting
differences to encourage
harmony, companies miss out on
new ideas.
 Feeling detached from their
work, employees underperform.
Differentiation Paradigm
 Premise: we celebrate
differences
 Strategy: match diverse
employees to niche markets
 Advantage: expands markets
 Disadvantages: pigeonholed,
staff can't influence
mainstream work.
 Employees feel exploited and
excluded from other
opportunities.
The Integration Paradigm (connecting diversity to work
perspectives)
 Goes beyond assimilation and differentiation.
 Promotes equal opportunity and values cultural differences and
freedom of expression.
 Ensures employees’ diverse perspectives positively impact company’s
work.
 Encourages open discussion of cultural backgrounds.
 Eliminates all forms of dominance (hierarchy, function, race, gender
etc.) that inhibit full contribution.
 Secures organizational trust.
Case Study: Sodexo (Cooper, 2020)
 Founded in Marseille, France in 1966, Sodexo is the global
leader in services that improves quality of life, an
essential factor in individual and organizational
performance.
 Operating in 72 countries, Sodexo serves 100 million
consumers each day through its unique combination of
services.
 From food services, facilities and equipment management
and programs fostering employee engagement to
concierge services, and in-home assistance, the company
offers a unique array of solutions that simplify and
optimise the way work gets done.
 Diversity and inclusion are parts of the brand promise at Sodexo.
 Their leadership in GDI provides the employees with the best possible
work-life experience regardless of age, gender, nationality, culture,
race, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics.
 Sodexo’s global commitment to diversity and inclusion covers five key
dimensions: gender, cultures and origin, disability, LGBTQ, and
generations.
 Within each of these areas they continue to implement programs and
initiatives that foster an inclusive culture.
 They drive change in local communities while impacting the lives of
individuals around the world.
The Results

 Initially not too many managers (worldwide)

appreciated the diversity efforts.
 Sodexo looked at how business units with
different proportions of women and men in
management performed on a range of key
financial and non-financial metrics including
client retention, employee engagement, and
workplace safety.
 In 2014 an internal study was launched to explore and
understand the correlation between gender-balanced
management and performance.
 Part two was released in 2018.
 Over five years of data covering 50,000 managers in
70 entities worldwide is now available.
 Data suggests that gender-balanced teams outperform
those that are not gender-balanced and the optimal
mix of gender is 40 to 60% women.
Some of the study’s other results from having implemented
gender-balanced teams:
 Employee engagement increased by 14 percentage points.
 Employee retention increased by 8 percentage points.
 Client retention increased by 9 percentage points.
 Safety increased by 12 percentage points.
 Operating margins increased by 8 percentage points.
 Sodexo use these results to build a business case
for getting more women in management.
 The company set a goal that 40 percent of senior
leader should be women by 2025.
 To help make this goal, 10 percent of annual
bonuses for senior leaders is now contingent on
making progress against it.
 Sodexo’s diversity effects are paying off.
 Women currently comprise half of the board, 32% of the
company’s senior leaders, and nearly 50 percent of its total
workforce.
 It is among the most gender diverse companies in its industry
group and home country.
 From 2011 to 2019 - a 66 percent increase in women
executives and 60 percent increase in racially diverse
executives.
 It is also among the most successful companies financially
within McKinsey’s data set.
 Sodexo corporation is an example of an organization that
has exponentially increased its return on investment
through GDI initiatives.
 As reported, for every $1 it has invested in mentoring, it
has seen a return of $19.
 Considering the facts, the value proposition of gender
diverse work environments can no longer be ignored.
Gender and Communication

The Two-Culture Approach: (an approach that is widely

accepted at the societal level)
Based on sociolinguists Daniel Maltz and Ruth Broker’s
(1982) paper “A cultural approach to male-female
miscommunication.”
Communication problems between women and men are
similar to problems that arise when persons from different
language groups attempt to communicate.
The two groups have different rules for conversation -
masculine and feminine style - which leads to
communication problems or miscommunications.

Talk is the game or goal (a style for maintaining close equal

relationships)

Competition or asserting oneself is the game or goal (players

learn a communication style of dominance)
Feminine Style
 The first and primary characteristic describing feminine style is
‘rapport talk.’
 Focuses on ‘building relationship, connecting collaboratively with the
other person and showing empathy.’
 ‘For feminine people, talk is the essence of relationships.
 Seen as a primary means of negotiating and maintaining relationships.
 ‘To build rapport, speakers use verbal and non verbal cues that convey
support to the other person.’
 Speakers offer ‘affirmations or questions that convey interest and
seek cooperation rather than competition.’
 Second characteristic is the use of ‘indirect communication.’
 Indirectness softens the claims or requests being made and is
perceived as more polite.
 Robin Lackoff (1975) argued that women strategically learn to use
indirectness to better accomplish their goals.
 Relatively powerless speakers in a patriarchal culture, similar to how
a child makes a request to a parent or slave of an owner.
 Third – Story-telling is simultaneous. Seen more as collaboration and
enthusiasm, not as interruption, making things less linear.
Masculine Style

 The first and primary characteristic used to describe

masculine style is ‘report talk’.
 Focuses on ‘instrumentality or task orientation, asserting
oneself, and competitiveness.’
 Those who use the masculine style are said to use talk as
a ‘tool to accomplish a goal.’
 The goal can be to ‘complete a task, solve a problem,
exert control, assert oneself or gain independence and
status.’
 Masculine style avoids personal disclosure and
vulnerability which is typically seen as the opposite of
feminine style.
 The focus on using talk to accomplish tasks also infers
‘masculine speakers will talk less than feminine speakers.’
 ‘Talk is a means to an end not an end in itself,’ as when
using talk to do relational work.
 Second - masculine talk is direct and assertive.
 Fits well with a speaker who is expected to be task oriented rather
than relational oriented.
 Communication is used to establish and maintain control and status.
 Third - masculine storytelling is about status.
 Men tend to tell stories in ways that help enhance their status and
masculinity.
 Stories are told in monologues, not interactively, and are
chronological
 Profanity is used heavily.
Two-Culture Gender Miscommunication

The Problems:
 Reduces the study of gender in communication to masculine and
feminine speakers following narrowly defined styles that are
described as the opposite of the other.
 Communication problems are defined as conversational style
differences and the solution is simply for partners to try to understand
that.
 Offers no critical cultural analysis about how the differences were
created; whether one group benefits more from the other.
 Or how these ‘socialised differences’ contribute to a context where
some members of a culture are praised for being aggressive and
others for being submissive.
 Doesn't mention anything about race, ethnicity, social class, national origin,
region of the country, and language.
 Helps maintain a white heterosexual normative style of speaking.
 “To treat asymmetries of interaction as style differences ignores social
realities. Speakers do not speak in a vacuum.”
 Conversation occurs in a political, cultural and social context.
 Meta analyses shows that there is gender differences of very small degrees.
 Although researchers find no support for the two-culture approach, cultural
expectations continue to influence how speakers are judged.
 Perceived differences in gender communication style far exceed any
actual ones.
Gendered Language

 Understanding gender in communication requires an

understanding of language’s power to subordinate and
liberate.
 In interpersonal communication language can be used to
injure.
 In organizational communication language can be used to
exert power.
 In public communication, language is required to name a
problem, before one can solve it.
 In many ways ‘struggles over gender are struggles over
language.’
One Example:
 Prior to the 1970s ‘sexual harassment’ as a term did not
exist even though the activity did.
 When women experienced hostile, abusive and violent
workplaces it was explained as having a ‘bad boss’ or as
proof that women did not belong there.
 ‘The Women’s Centre at Cornell university held the first
speak-out in 1975 where women around the country came
together to name these experiences ‘sexual harassment’
and articulate the harm as discrimination.’
 Language is more than simply transmitting information.
 It's a mirror that reflects reality.
 Words do things.
 Saying something is as much an action as moving
something.
 Every time we communicate we engage in ‘symbolic
action - action that constructs social reality.’
 How to do things with words (J. L. Austin, 1962). He
argued that in day-to-day life we distinguish between
doing and talking, but that there is in fact no difference.
 Speaking is also an action.
 Australian scholar Dale Spender (1985) described language as “our
means of ordering, classifying and manipulating the world. It is
through language that we become members of a human community,
the world becomes comprehensible and meaningful.”
 How language names a person as a sex and gender determines how
they are perceived as a sex and a gender.
 For example, because the English language tends to recognise only
two sexes - female and male - it does not recognise the existence of
intersex people.
 Language has the power to oppress, deny and subordinate.
 It can also liberate, emancipate and empower.
The Power of Language

 Words do not exist in isolation but combine to form ‘terministic

screens’ that direct people's attention away from some things and
towards others (Burke, 1966).
 The point is not just that a word constructs the way we see the world.
 ‘Terministic screens’ suggest that words interact with one another to
form a screen through which we view the world.
 For example, reproductive freedom and abortion rights in the USA.
 Two main sides have long dominated the controversy – pro-life and
pro-choice.
 People who are pro-life tend to refer to reality as a ‘baby,’ whereas
those who are pro-choice tend to refer to the reality as a ‘foetus.’
 “Ek Congress ke neta ne mujhe gandi naali ka
keeda kaha, toh doosre ne mujhe Ganguteli bola,
ek neta ne mujhe paagal kutta kaha, toh doosra
neta saamne aaya aur mujhe Bhasmasur ki upadhi
de di. Congress ke ek aur neta hai, desh ke videsh
mantri reh chuke hain, unhone mujhe bandar
kaha, inke aur ek mantri ne mujhe virus kaha,
toh doosre ne Dawood Ibrahim ka darja de diya.”
 Cognitive scientist, Lera Boroditsky – “The beauty of
linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how
ingenious and how flexible the human mind is. Human
minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but
7,000.”
 Language plays a big role in how we perceive the world.
 Words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.
 We can understand stereotypes, how other languages
inform our own, and how language is used as a lens onto
our behaviour.
Muted Group Theory (Ardener & Ardener)
 Some people are unable to express themselves even when
they have the physical ability to speak.
 Highlights how dominant and non dominant groups within
a given culture have different cultural boundaries in their
perceptions as well as related language.
 Provide ways to understand that simply adding women and
other oppressed groups’ voices will not create equality.
 Dominant group mute through control of language.
 Those who resist must adapt or change the language.
 Everyone has a voice but not all voices are heard.
Language can be used to suppress and
subordinate
 He /man language: sex-exclusive language such as the generic he or
man used to refer to any person or to all people.
 Research conclusively demonstrates that sex-exclusive language does
influence the perception of those who read and hear it.
 Semantic derogation: occurs when two terms ought to represent
parallel concepts but one term is derogatory while the other is not.
 For example: consider the degree college students earn - the
bachelor’s degree - the parallel term for bachelor is spinster -
spinsters are thought of as old women who never married.
 Other examples include mistress / master; lady /Lord, tramp (abuse
word for women) /tramp (homeless man); governess / governor
Marked and unmarked terms
 When one sex or race tends to dominate a category,
people may mark the category only when a non-dominant
person feels it.
 This creates the impression that a person is violating the
norm.
 For example: nurse/ male nurse; doctor / lady doctor;
police officer /female police officer; IAS officer / lady IAS
officer
 In all of these examples the race and sex of the person is
incidental or irrelevant to the job being performed.
 Not common as it once was but still widely used.
 Language as violence: Using words that demean a
category of people: nigger, chhaka etc.
 Language as resistance: Talking back, resignification (slut
walks, pride parade)

 Words are never ‘only words’

Corporate Social Intelligence (Cooper 2020)

 Corporate values are often created as part of an image a

company wishes to convey either internally or externally.
 But many a times company executives give statements
like “values don't really mean anything.”
 Many behavioural codes of conduct come from emotional
intelligence teachings.
 In his 1995 book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
popularised the concept of emotional intelligence (EI).
 Asserted that EI surpasses IQ as a determinant of
workplace success.
 Diversity enriches an organization’s ability to respond to its customers
or other stakeholders with more creative and more innovative
products and solutions.
 But to fully embrace the diverse backgrounds, intellects and cultural
perspectives, employees and leaders must apply EI to building,
maintaining and leveraging relationships.
 EI encompasses interdependent competencies in both “self-awareness
(managing our own emotions appropriately and productively) and
responsiveness to others (accurate empathetic perceptions of others’
feelings).”
 Managing or assisting others in managing their emotional responses.
 As recognised by Goleman “organizations that embrace
diversity, weave the notion of inclusion into their
cultures and align diversity work with their strategies,
have an increased likelihood of performing to their
fullest potential.”
 “Diverse workforces can bring a wider variety of
intellectual power and life experience to create
innovative solutions and products.”
 Humans function on rational and emotional levels.
 But emotions determine whether people accept, reject,
approach, avoid, or engage with others.
 The more we understand and manage emotional responses,
the more we enjoy relationships and interactions.
 We also experience more social effectiveness and inner
peace.
 Whenever people interact, especially at the workplace,
differences in values, languages, behaviours, preferences and
norms occurs.
 Whether these differences seem familiar, unfamiliar,
intriguing or confusing, frustrating or fun, or desirable or not,
they are at the core of an individual's intellectual and
emotional responses.
 The EI needed to cope effectively in a diverse and inclusive world involves “insight
and action.”
 It requires an effort to improve both oneself and one’s interactions with others.
 Social intelligence stems from the concept of EI and its connection to diversity and
inclusion.
 Corporate culture must bind EI competencies to corporate values.
 By doing so the social intelligence of the organization is improved.
 Improvements can be seen in the form of a ‘more innovative and dynamic
workplace, greater retention of staff, improved motivation, loyalty, respect and
trust.’
 These intangible improvements are hard to quantify, but are key to creating a
sense of belonging.
 And when people feel they belong, they excel.
 “Corporate Social Intelligence (CSI) is when an organization
acknowledges, addresses and invests in the social dimensions of an
organization, such as gender diversity and inclusion, mental health
and intergenerational issues with the goal of increasing
productivity, health and wellness, and the bottom line.”
 This is achieved by giving individuals in an organization the
necessary tools and skills to develop themselves to create a healthy
and sustainable work environment for all.
 CSI skills include ‘self-awareness, self-governance, empathy,
impulse control, and assertiveness.’
 CSI system is based on respect for oneself and others, and
accountability for one’s behaviour.
 Developing the capacity to understand others and manage our
reactions towards them no matter how great the differences is a
critical competency in the workplace and essential to professional
success.
 Our colleagues nowadays speak multiple languages, cover several
generations, and include many ethnicities and races.
 They have different personalities, sexual orientations, and religions
and castes.
 Therefore, it is critical that we learn how to embrace and value
differences.
 How well that is done is largely based on our social intelligence
capabilities.
Other positive measures towards
achieving social intelligence
 Being assertive
 Men as advocates
 Leveraging the power of male leaders
 Accountability for behaviour
 Developing a resistance strategy
 Training in social intelligence skills
Some key terms
 Ethnocentrism
 Xenophobia
 Affirmative action
 Neurodiversity
 Ally /Allyship
 Acculturation
 Affinity groups / Affinity bias
 Emotional tax
 Unconscious bias
 Conformity bias
 Beauty bias
 Name bias
 Halo / horns effect
 Stereotype
 Stereotype threat
 Equal employment opportunity
 Microaggression
 Microaffirmation