Diversity

MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

 Unit Objectives

• At the end, the learner should be able to:

• Define diversity
• Discuss different types of Diversity
• Discuss different theories of Diversity
• Explore the development of salient theories of workplace diversity.
 Definition of Diversity

• Diversity is defined as:

• The distribution of differences among the members of a unit
with respect to a common attribute (Harrison & Klein, 2007).
• A group characteristic that reflects the degree to which there
are objective and/or subjective differences among group
members (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007)
• Simply, any difference between the members of the team.
 Types of Diversity
Surface-Level Diversity- Deep-Level Diversity- attributes
characteristics that are that are not immediately
noticeable when you look at observable.
someone “on the surface”.  
   
Examples: sex, race, age, Examples: attitude, values,
weight personality
 Types of Diversity
Harrison and Klein (2007) proposed that there are three distinct types of
diversity:
Diversity as Separation Diversity as Variety Diversity as Disparity
It refers to differences on It refers to differences in It refers to differences in
a particular attribute such knowledge, life status or power. It could
as attributes, beliefs and experiences and reflect the concentration
values. information among team of resources including
  members. status, pay and the
Examples: Examples: Differing prestige of assignments
Cultural Values, job Professional Background, among team members.
attitudes, political beliefs functional areas and
expertise.
 Faultlines

• More recently, researchers had begun to examine multiple forms

of diversity that can create divisions within a team, known as
faultlines.
• Faultlines – hypothetical dividing lines which divide a group into
subgroups based on the alignment of team members’ attributes.
Example: A team could have an equal number of male and
female employees. Faultline on gender might exist.
 Theories on Diversity

• Relational Demography Theory (cited by Pfeffer, 1983)

• This represents the earliest works in the team diversity
literature which examined the basic characteristics of teams.
This theory suggests that people compare their own
demographic characteristics with those of their own
teammates to determine whether they are similar or
different.
 Theories on Diversity
• Social Categorization Theory
• It is resting on two ideas: self categorization and social identity,
• Self-Categorization Theory – maintains that people categorize
themselves and others into in-group (those who are similar to them)
and out-group (those who are different from them) membership based
on surface-level characteristics. It is also called as the “pessimistic view”
of diversity.
• Social Identity Theory – shows that people derive part of their self-
esteem from their identity groups. Therefore, people tag positive
characteristics in their in-group, and negative characteristics to their
out-group.
 Theories on Diversity

• Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis
• It predicts that diverse teams will be less productive than
homogenous teams because homogenous teams share
similar attributes and are more attracted to working with one
another.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• It has been called as the “optimistic” view of diversity. It
proposes may ways in which diversity can create value for
teams and how that value could overshadow any negative
effects of team diversity, providing a competitive advantage:
• Creativity argument – diversity of opinions in a decision-making
process should de-emphasize conforming to norms of the past and
should spur creativity.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• Problem-solving Argument – diverse teams should produce
better decisions via a wider range of perspectives considered
and a more thorough analysis of issues.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• Cost argument – as organizations become more diverse,
those are able to integrate diversity more smoothly will
realize cost advantages.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• Resource-acquisition argument – proposes that companies
with a good reputation for being inclusive and integrating
diversity well will win with the competition for best talent.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• Marketing Argument – diverse companies with a wealth of
cultural information among employees will be able to better
market their products in foreign markets as well to domestic
subgroups of the population.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• System flexibility argument – companies adopting a
multicultural approach to managing diversity will be less rigid
and more fluid, which will allow them to better respond to
environmental changes.
 Theories on Diversity

• Value in Diversity Hypothesis

• Information-processing perspective – argues that any time
there is a task uncertainty, there is a greater amount of
information which must be processes to accomplish a task
and obtain good performance.
 Diversity Terminologies
• Biases – tendencies, inclinations or feelings, particularly ones that are
preconceived and lack reasoning; they are often implicitly or subconsciously
driven.
• Stereotypes – generalizations or beliefs about a particular group or its members
which are unjustified because they reflect over-generalizations and factual errors
as well as misattributions to other groups.
• Prejudices – unfair, negative attitude toward a social group or a person who is a
member of that group.
• Discrimination – is to treat someone in a way less desirable from the way one
would normally treat others because of their group membership.
Development of Diversity Theories
 Social Categorization Theory
• Henri Tajfel – a Jew who survived
the Nazi Holocaust. Due to his
tragic moments of his family not
spared by the Holocaust, he spent
his time studying Psychology. He
became a Social Psychology
professor and dedicated all his
efforts to studying why various
groups grow to dislike and even
hate each other. He, along with his
student, John Turner, developed
the theory of social categorization.
 Social Categorization Theory

• Social categorization – refers to grouping people into categories

based on demographic characteristics including age, sex, and
race among others. People desire to perceive members of their
own category as superior and engage in stereotyping, distancing,
and disparaging treatment of people in the out-group. Because
of this, categorization can lead to bias, prejudice and
discrimination.
 Social Categorization Theory
• Muzafer Sherif – his works on realistic
group conflict theory explains that there
are scarce resources such as power,
prestige, land, money and other
resources which create intergroup
conflict.
• He conducted the famous Robber’s Cave
Experiment
• Introduced the idea of superordinate
goals or goals that the two different
groups have in common to reduce
hostility and promote cooperation.
 Social Identity Theory

• It describes the cognitive origins of group identification.

• According to Hogg and Terry, the major motivations for
social identity processes are to reduce uncertainty and
self-enhancement of one’s own self-concept.
 Similarity Attraction and Relational
Demography
• Similarity Attraction theory – predicts that at the individual level,
people are more attracted to others who are similar to
themselves.
• Theory of Relational Demography – proposes that the more
similar an individual employee’s demographic characteristics are
to the work groups, the more positive his or her attitudes and
behaviors toward that group will be.
 Modern Racism and Sexism Theories

• It argues that people have deep-seated prejudice but nevertheless

behave in socially desirable ways because they are aware that old
fashioned prejudice is socially unacceptable. Therefore, they exhibit
biased behavior in subtle ways that are not blatant.
• Aversive Racism Theory – people have deep-seated prejudice but feel
it is wrong to have and express such feelings with other groups.
• Symbolic Racism Theory – prejudice against minority groups such as
African-Americans is driven by anti-Black emotions and political
views.
 Social Dominance Theory

• Developed by Sidanius and Pratto (1999) to understand how social

hierarchies are formed.
• The theory suggests that societies generate and sustain a trimorphic
system and that these systems are typically observed universally
across the world.
 Social Dominance Theory
• AGE SYSTEM – explains status
that older people have more social
power as compared to children.

Age
Gender
System
• GENDER SYSTEM – represents
status such that men typically
System
have an unequal amount of
political and collective power
Arbitray
compared to women.
System
• ARBITRARY SYSTEM of social
values based on things like race,
class and religion is typically
present and represents levels of
social status.
Societies
 Social Dominance Theory

• Social Dominance – the degree to which individuals

desire and support a group-based hierarchy and the
domination of inferior groups by superior groups.
 Critical Race Theory

• In the global concept, this theory maintains that

dominant groups within the society can racialize people
of other groups in different ways at different times.
• It further describes that progressive change around race
will only occur when the interests of the powerful
majority happen to converge with those of the racially
oppressed.
 Status Construction Theory
• It was developed by Cecilia Ridgeway in 1991. The theory asks the question “How
do characteristics of individuals such as sex or race acquire status value in
society?”
• It argues that the terms in which people interact across social groups can cause
shared status beliefs to form and spread throughout the population.
• It relies heavily on the foundation of expectation-states theory which maintains
that status hierarchy is formed among members of a group or organization and
that the status of each other person’s contributions to their shared goals.
• It also proposes that inequalities develop in the distribution of resources among
the population.