C48IB Intercultural Issues in

Business and Management

Week 7

Diversity and Dignity in the

Workplace
Diversity and Dignity in the
Workplace

How might
What is
What is Dignity? these be related
Diversity?
to culture?
 What is Diversity?

Diversity is the representation of people with distinctly different group

affiliations (Cox, 1994)

Primary dimensions of diversity/bio-demographic diversity:

= the most distinctive + influential
• race, ethnicity, age, gender, physical ability

Secondary/ task-relevant dimensions of diversity:

• religion, education, class, language, family status, as well as
communication style, experience etc.
(Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007)
 Intersectionality

• When dimensions of diversity overlap, →

intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989)
• ‘the critical insight that race, class, gender,
ethnicity, nation, ability, and age operate not as
unitary, mutually exclusive entities, but rather as
reciprocally constructing phenomena’ (Hill-
Collins, 2015: 1)
• Eg, an employee could be female, dyslexic and
belong to an ethnic minority
 What is Dignity?
What does dignity mean to you? How important is
dignity to you?
Dignity in the workplace

Workplace dignity: ‘the self-recognized and other-recognized

worth acquired from engaging in work activity’ (Lucas, 2017: 1)

- allows individuals to fulfil their potential by being valued,

respected, and given autonomy and personal space to
express their identity

Denying individuals dignity at work → alienation and poor

wellbeing, → lower productivity, higher absence rates
 How is dignity viewed in your
Culture & culture?

Dignity How is self-worth granted?

What may take it away?
 Cross-cultural variation in conceptions of
dignity (Lucas, Kang and Li, 2013)

Asian cultures - dignity is: Western cultures - dignity is:

determined by an evaluation made automatically granted

by others, and can be given or
denied

hierarchical accorded to all

linked to family honour individual

influenced by political and religious N/A

aspects
The Business
Case for
Diversity &
Dignity

Why would ensuring

diversity and dignity
for employees in a
workplace be a
benefit to an
organisation?
 Diversity & Dignity in a
globalised contemporary
workplace

Why should • If recruitment or promotion practices not

inclusive, the organisation will not benefit from
a workplace full range of available talent
• Unhappy employees less healthy + productive
be inclusive?:

Potential •
•
Lower absenteeism/ presenteeism rates
Less conflict, more creativity
benefits of • Higher productivity
inclusivity: • Greater employee loyalty
What is the business case for diversity ?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/busine
ss-case-for-diversity-in-the-workplace/

According to Eswaran, 2019:

 1. Disruption
and innovation

Research shows that there is a

direct correlation between high-
skilled immigration
and an increase in the level of i
nnovation
and
economic performance in cities
and regions.
e.g. Singapore, Malaysia
“The multilingual workforce
has given us Malaysians an
edge in the workplace.”
2. Diversity and business
performance
 By the year 2025, 75% of the global workforce will
3. The millennial be made up of millennials: view the ideal workplace
quotient in as a supportive environment that gives space to
business varying perspectives on a given issue.

diversity
4. Women in the workplace

It has been estimated that closing the gender gap

would add $28 trillion to the value of the global
economy by 2025 – a 26% increase. Put simply,
companies and societies are more likely to grow
and prosper when women gain greater financial
independence.
Case Study

Sam, a construction supervisor for an international engineering firm based

in Manchester, UK, had been chosen to supervise construction on a new
hotel project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. On the project, Sam supervised
nearly 100 labourers. Following a leadership style he used at home, he
reprimanded any worker not doing their job properly, and did it publicly to
serve as an object lesson to other workers. He reprimanded both
Europeans and Saudis alike, so he was convinced he was being fair.
However the problems seemed to be growing worse.

What was Sam doing wrong?

(Adapted from Ferraro, G. and Briody, E. 2017, p. 181, 279-80)
Dimensions of diversity

• Race
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Age
• Social class
• Gender
• Disability
• Neurodiversity
 Dimensions of Diversity in the
Workplace: Religion

• Religious identity: expressing adherence to a particular set of

beliefs and values
• Integral aspect of a person’s social identity
• Some religions require display of religious symbols, e.g Sikh
turban or Muslim hijab
• Workplace discrimination based on religion
• In the US, one study found that ‘Christian’ job applicants more
likely to be successful than either ‘Muslim’ or ‘atheist’ applicants (
Van Camp, Sloan & Elbassiouny, 2016).
• Racialisation of religious groups, is particularly dangerous 
ignores range of cultural and individual differences within a
heterogeneous group.
 Dimensions of Diversity: Gender

• Gendered expectations of roles vary widely

across cultures.
• These variations included:
– Attitudes to Male/Female jobs
– Divisions in household labour
– Access to workplaces
– How male and female behaviour is likely
to be interpreted (Cameron, 2007)
Scenario

Vanessa (London, Architect) –

“Everyone else stays until at least 7pm and then they go out
for drinks. Brian, who is younger than me, told me that he
found out about a new project coming up at a drinks do the
other week. He got to work on that which was really exciting.
So I feel like I’m missing out a lot by not going to those
drinks after work. This job is so much of who you know, not
what you know.”

Working at this organisation who might be disadvantaged?

Dimensions of Diversity: Disability

• Individual/Medical Model of Disability:

casts person as victim of a personal
tragedy, aim is treatment or cure (Oliver,
1996)
• Social & Social Relational Models of
Disability: aim to highlight + reduce
disabling effects of society’s treatment of
people with physical/ psychological
impairments (Sang, Richards & Marks,
2016)
 Chen is an admin assistant who
suffers from RSI (Repetitive Strain
Injury), making typing painful.
What
‘reasonable Amina is dyslexic and has reading
difficulties; she worries that there
adjustments’ will be errors in her written work.
could
employers George suffers from depression
and anxiety, and functions better
make for some days than others.
these
people?
 Conclusions

Understanding cultural Ethnicity, gender, religion,

variations in approaches to
diversity & dignity are of
great importance to a
globalised workplace,
Ensuring dignity within the
disability, age and social
workplace ultimately leads
class can all intersect to
to happier and more
affect employees’
productive staff.
workplace experiences,