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Class 4 - Personality + Values - Diversity in Organizations
Class 4 - Personality + Values - Diversity in Organizations
Diversity in Organizations
❖ But people are not just members of population groups. They are also
individuals who are unique and distinctive even when compared to other
people within their population groups.
❖ Individual diversity is about the combination of all the different variables
which make you you. No other person on Earth – past, present, or future –
has the exact same combination of variables.
❖ This combination is responsible for your “deep”, idiosyncratic qualities: your
personality; your values; your interests; your experiences; your emotional
repertoire; your imagination.
❖ These qualities represent what people can offer an organization in terms of
improving its performance and effectiveness. (“What can you bring to the
table that someone else can’t?”)
Diversity in Modern Organizations
❖ Demographic and individual diversity work hand-in-hand.
❖ By promoting a greater commitment to demographic diversity in hiring,
selection and recruitment processes, organizations will widen their talent
pool and increase the degree of individual diversity available to them.
❖ This has a two-pronged effect:
❖ Greater fairness and equity in the workplace, and better representation
of marginalized or underrepresented population groups in organization.
❖ A diversification of the range of individual approaches to
problem-solving; creativity; solutions analysis; innovation; strategic
thinking; and other qualities that organizations value when trying to
recruit the best talent.
❖ The ethical case for diversity and the business case also go hand-in-hand.
Benefits of Workplace Diversity
1. Diversity leads to more creativity within teams
2. Diverse teams are better at solving problems
3. Teams that are diverse make better business decisions
4. Diverse companies report productivity levels that are at least 33% higher than non-diverse companies
5. Diverse companies are at least 35% more profitable than non-diverse companies
6. Diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets
7. Companies with diverse management teams have 45% revenue increases directly related to innovation
8. Workplace diversity leads to 68.3% improved employee retention
9. Diversity and inclusion leads to engaged employees
10. A diverse workforce improves company culture
11. 76% of job seekers are looking at diversity when making a final decision about accepting a job offer
12. Diverse companies attract 73.2% more top talent than non-diverse companies
13. Being publicly committed to ensuring diversity leads to a positive reputation of the employer brand
Challenges in Workplace Diversity
❖ Meritocracy is still important. The best individual candidate for the job
should be hired regardless of their demographic qualities.
❖ But biases in attitudes and discrimination in policies and practice can
sometimes prevent demographic minorities from being given the chance
to prove they are the best candidate.
❖ There are sometimes innocent, non-discriminatory explanations for
demographic underrepresentation (e.g. women in information technology;
men in nursing and care professions).
❖ Diversity training programmes have not been proven to be especially
effective (because most people aren’t actually e.g. racist or sexist).
❖ Generational changes can take time, and people’s attitudes are often a
product of the generation they are from.
Equitable Distribution of Contributions and Benefits
❖ Fairness matters a lot to people in groups. It’s built into the prosocial aspects of
human nature.
❖ Unfairness can be incredibly toxic in groups; reducing performance and causing
individuals and groups to exert less discretionary and cooperative effort.
❖ When employees believe that organizational resources are allocated fairly,
processes for decision making are fair, and the organization treats them fairly:
❖ They are more motivated
❖ They are more likely to cooperate and support group decisions, and develop effective
working relationships with others
❖ They are more likely to be creative and happy at work
❖ They are more likely to internalize the organization's values and promote its shared
identity
❖ Trust in the organization will be higher, and uncertainty is lower