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Diversity in Workplace

Prof. Santanu Mukherjee


What is Diversity?
• Diversity 
 Many companies pride themselves on having
a diverse workforce;
 Diversity is made up of individuals with a
wide range of characteristics and
experiences;
 Some of the key characteristics of workforce
diversity include race, ethnicity, gender, age,
religion, ability, and sexual orientation.
Workplace Diversity in Google

• Google Grants $775,000 To


Code2040 - A Nonprofit
promoting diversity in Tech
Sector
• CODE2040 will launch two
programs to help bridge Silicon
Valley's racial divide.
Importance of Diversity Management
• We aren’t all the same;
• Managers sometime forget that they need to capitalize and recognize on
these differences to get the most out of their employees;
• Effective diversity management helps
 Access to the widest possible pool of skills;
 Abilities, and;
 Ideas.

• Managers also need to recognize that difference among people can lead to
 Miscommunications;
 Misunderstanding, and;
 Conflicts.
Demographic Characteristics
• Surface-level Diversity
 Not thoughts and feelings;
 Can lead employees to perceive one another through stereotypes and assumptions;
 Such as gender, race, ethnicity, age or disability;
 However, evidence has shown that as people get to know each other, they become less concerned about
demographic differences.

• Deep-level Diversity
 Differences values, personality, and work preferences that become progressively more important for
determining similarity as people get to know one another better.

• Surface level similarity doesn’t lead to positive interactions because of deep-level


differences;
 It will be a challenge to collaborate regularly at work;
 Compromises have to be made to get things done.
Demographic Characteristics
• Discrimination
 Unlawful workplace discrimination occurs when an employer takes adverse action against a
person who is an employee or prospective employee because of the following attributes of
the person
 Race;
 Color;
 Sex.
 Effective diversity management means working to eliminate unfair discrimination;
Forms of Discrimination
• Discriminatory Policies & Practices
 Actions taken by representatives of the organization that deny equal opportunity to perform
or Unequal rewards for performance;
 Example: Older workers may be targeted for layoffs because they highly paid and have
lucrative benefits.

• Sexual Harassment
 Unwanted sexual advances and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that
create a hostile or offensive work environment.
 Example: In a company a married boss ask a young woman team member to travel with him
and then made sexual advances toward her at the hotel.

• Intimidation
 Overt threats or bullying directed at members of specific groups or employees
 Example: A few years back workers from Bihar and UP were threatened in Mumbai.
Forms of Discrimination
• Mockery and Insults
 Jokes and negative stereotypes; sometimes the result of jokes taken too far
 Example: jokes on accents, mannerisms etc.

• Exclusion
 Exclusion of certain people from job opportunities, social events, discussions, or informal
mentoring; can occur unintentionally.
 Women in engineering jobs claim that they are given light workloads that don’t lead to
promotion.

• Incivility
 Disrespectful treatment, including behaving in an aggressive manner, interrupting the person,
or ignoring his or her opinions
 Example: Female lawyers note that male attorneys frequently cut them off or do not
adequately address their comments.
Biographic Characteristics
• Age, Gender, Race, and Length of service are some of the most
obvious ways employees differ
Biographic Characteristics
• Age - What is the perception of older workers?
Positive Qualities Negative Qualities

Experience Lack of Flexibility

Judgment Resist change

Strong work ethic Lack of adaptability

Commitment to Quality
Biographic Characteristics
• Age – How does it impact organization turnover?
Older people are less likely to quit the job;
 Fewer job alternatives;
 Long tenure in an organization provide them higher wages;
 Longer paid vacations;
 Attractive pension benefits.
• Older people have lower rates of avoidable absenteeism but higher
rates of unavoidable absenteeism;
• Studies prove that age may be a reason for lower productivity;
• Most studies indicate a positive association between age and job
satisfaction, at least up to age of 60.
Biographic Characteristics
• Gender – Whether women perform as well on jobs a men do?
No significant difference in job productivity;
Unfortunately, gender still affects our perceptions;
 E.g. Women who succeed in traditionally men domains are perceived as less likable,
more hostile, and less desirable as supervisors.
• Working mothers more likely to prefer
Part-time work;
Flexible work schedules;
Telecommuting in order to accommodate family responsibilities.
• Women have higher rates of absenteeism than men do
Women in the work Force
Biographic Characteristics
• Disability
 Representation of people with disabilities did not improve significantly over
the period;
 Blindness; Hearing impairment; Locomotor disability; Mental retardation.
 Individuals with disabilities tend to encounter lower performance
expectations and less likely to be hired;
 On the other hand, evidences show that workers with disabilities receive
higher performance evaluation;
 Lower ratings for perceived employability.
Ability
• We weren’t all created equal in our abilities;
 Example – Regardless of how motivated you are, it’s unlikely that you can
perform as some other do.
• However, everybody has strengths and weaknesses that make him or
her relatively superior/inferior to others in performing certain tasks;
• Why we concern
• By knowing how people are different in abilities so that we may use the
knowledge to enhance performance.
Ability
• What is ability?
 An individual’s capacity
to perform the various
tasks in a job;
 Made up of two factors;
 Intellectual;
 Physical;
Intellectual Ability
• Intellectual Ability
 Needed to perform mental abilities;
 Thinking;
 Reasoning, and;
 Problem solving.
 More societies place higher values on intelligence;
 Intelligent and smart people generally can earn more money;
 IQ (Intelligent Quotient) tests are designed to ascertain a person’s general
intellectual abilities.
Dimensions of Intellectual Ability
Physical Ability
• Physical ability have been and will remain valuable;

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