BPA PROGRAM

BPA303: ORGANIZATION THEORIES AND

BEHAVIOR
LECTURE 2
DATE: 21-01-2022
Organizational Diversity

◦ Organizational diversity in the workplace refers to the total makeup of the

employee workforce and the amount of diversity included.

◦ Diversity refers to differences in various defining personal traits such as age,

gender, race, marital status, ethnic origin, religion, education and many other
secondary qualities.
Different kinds of diversity in
organizational settings

◦ Surface level diversity:

◦ Deep level diversity:
 Different kinds of diversity in
organizational settings
Surface level diversity: age, gender, ethnicity/race, culture, language, disability etc.
Surface level diversity is easy to be measured and managers/recruiters can fall into
the wrong practice of discrimination based on these factors.
For example, thinking that performance degrades with age, they might prefer
younger workforce

Deep level diversity: are not easily noticeable and measurable since they are
communicated through verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Examples are personal
differences in attitudes, values, beliefs and personality
Demographic characteristics

◦ Diversity refers to the ways in which people are similar or different from each other.
◦ It may be defined by any characteristic that varies within a particular work unit such as

Gender,
Race,
Age,
Education,
Tenure, or functional background.

◦ such as being an engineer versus being an accountant

Two major forms of workplace
diversity
◦ Demographic characteristics
◦ Biographical characteristics
Discrimination in workplace
Discriminatory policies or practices ( unequal reward)
Sexual harassment
Intimidation ( threat or bulling at any member or group)
Mockery and insult ( jokes or negative stereotype joke taken to far )
Exclusion ( social events, discussion, informal mentoring, part)
Incivility ( disrespectful treatment, aggressive manner ignoring his or her
opinion.)
Biographical characteristics

◦ Personal characteristics – such as age, gender, race and length of tenure – that
are objective and easily obtained from personnel records.

◦ In other ways biographical characteristics are personalities or characters that

influence a person. These characters normally affect a person in one way or the
other within an organization or within the society.
The Biographical Characteristics
are:
Age:
Sex
Race and ethnicity
Disability ( physical and mental)
Other Different characteristics

 Tenure
Religion
◦ Sexual orientation and gender identity
◦ Cultural identity
Sexual orientation and gender
identity
◦ Gender identity is defined by the Human Rights Campaign as the “innermost
concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals
perceive themselves and what they call themselves.” It can mirror what a
person was assigned at birth, or be entirely different.

◦ Sexual orientation, “inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or

sexual attraction to other people.” Basically, it’s who you are interested in
dating and being intimate with
Cultural identity
◦ Cultural identity define themselves in terms of race and ethnicity.

◦ Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group.

◦ It is part of a person's self-conception and self-perception and is related to

nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of
social group that has its own distinct culture.
Ability
Intellectual ability ( capacity to do mental activities, thinking, problem solving,
iq test)
physical ability (stamina, strength, dexterity or agility )
Implementing diversity management
strategies
◦ Attracting
◦ Selecting
◦ Developing
◦ And retaining
End of the Lecture