Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Managing Diverse Employees in a

Multicultural Environment
What is Diversity?
Diversity - deals with the differences among people due to age, gender, race,
ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, education,
experience, physical appearance, capabilities/disabilities, and any other
characteristic that distinguishes between people.
 Age - the median age of people is 35 years. Managers need to be careful

that they do not discriminate against workers based on their age .
 Religion - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based
on religion, race, country of origin, and gender.
 Race and Ethnicity - Racial discrimination in the workplace can be

defined as any exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color,
descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose of impairing
an employee’s ability to exercise their rights to equal standing in the
workplace.
 Gender - Workplace gender equality is achieved when people are able to

access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities
regardless of gender.
 Capabilities/Disabilities - A person's ability is the resources to perform

well at something. A person's disability is the limits or challenges he or
she faces.
 Socioeconomic Background - is an economic and sociological combined

total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or
family's economic and social position in relation to others.
 Overt Discrimination - Knowingly denying diverse people access to
opportunities within the organization; it can be both unethical and illegal.
 Biases - a tendency to use information to create inaccurate perceptions

about other people.
A. Similar-to-me effect- a tendency to perceive people who are similar to

us in positive ways.
B. Social status effect- the tendency to perceive people with higher social
status in a positive way
C. Salience effect- The tendency to focus on people who are different

from ourselves.
 Stereotype - Simplistic beliefs about groups of people, typically based on

age,gender, or race.
Sexual Harassment
 Types of Sexual Harassment
- Quid Pro Quo
- Hostile Work Environment
• Quid pro quo – Asking for or forcing an employee to perform sexual

favors in exchange for receiving some reward or avoiding negative
consequences.
Eliminating Sexual Harassment
 Develop and clearly communicate a policy
 Use a fair complaint procedure
 Take corrective action as soon as possible
 Provide sexual harassment education and training

 Every charge should be taken seriously
 Those who go along with it can be victims
 Employees sometimes wait before filing a complaints
 Alternate ways to report incidents should be provided
 Employees who report sexual harassment must have their rights

protected
Managing Diversity Effectively Makes Good Business Sense
Having a diverse workforce provides an added element of increased

adaptability
What a Diversity of Employees Provides:
 A variety of points of view and approaches to problems and

opportunities can improve managerial decision making.
 Diverse employees can provide a wider range of creative ideas.
 Diverse employees are more attuned to the needs of diverse customers.
 Diversity can increase the retention of valued organizational members.
 Diversity is expected/required by other firms.
Steps in Managing Diversity:
1. Get commitment from top managers

2. Try to increase the accuracy of perception
3. increase diversity awareness
4. Increase diversity skills
5. Encourage flexibility of approaches to doing things
6. Be objective in how people are evaluated
7. Look at the number minorities in different jobs

8. Empower employees to challenge
9. Reward employees who manage diversity effectively
10. Provide training in a variety of awareness skills
11. Encourage monitoring of diverse employees
Perception
 Perception – The process through which people select, organize, and

interpret what they see, hear, touch, smell, and taste to give meaning
and order to the world around them.
 Schema – An abstract knowledge structure stored in memory that allows

people to organize and interpret information about a person, event, or
situation
 Gender Schema – Preconceived beliefs or ideas about the nature of men

and women, their traits, attitudes, behaviors, and preferences5-4
Diversity Awareness Programs
 Provide members with accurate information about diversity
 Uncover personal biases and stereotypes
 Assess personal beliefs, attitudes, and values and learning about other
points of view
 Develop an atmosphere in which people feel free to share their differing

perspectives
 Improve understanding of others who are different5-10
How to Manage Diversity
1. Mentoring – A process by which an experienced member of an organization

provides advice and guidance to an less experienced member and helps them
learn how to advance in the organization and in their career.
2. Provide diversity training - Sometimes employees behave insensitively
towards their colleagues not because they want to be mean or discriminatory,
but simply because they do not know any better. Providing diversity training to
your employees, especially those in leadership positions, helps people
understand and respect the differences in religion, race, ethnicity, cultural
values, gender and thinking styles.
- diversity training helps employees become self-aware which plays a critical

role in helping them understand their own prejudices, stereotypes and cultural
biases. It’s only by appreciating where you currently stand that can you
improve.
3. Facilitate effective communication - One of the biggest challenges of

managing a diverse workforce is ensuring there is clear and effective
communication throughout the organisation. To ensure everyone is on the
same page, make sure that all the employees understand all the procedures,
policies, safety rules and any other important information.
4. Encourage interaction - It’s only through interactions with one another can
diverse groups of people really understand, appreciate and respect the
differences that exist among them. Encourage your employees to collaborate
with colleagues who are “different” from them.
- One way of implementing this is by creating work groups that reflect the
diversity that exists in the workplace.
5. Create inclusive policies and practices - You’ll need to ensure your

organisation’s overall practices and policies are inclusive of everyone and do
not favour or discriminate a certain set of employees. Policymakers will,
therefore, need to consider the differential impact policies and practices will
have on the diverse group of workers before they’re enforced.
While it’s clear that diversity can be very beneficial to an organisation, it’s
essential that managers, as well as the employees in the organisation,
understand how to manage it for both their own benefit as well as that of the
organisation.
Here’re the top five benefits of having a diverse workforce:
1. Innovation. One of the biggest advantages of having a diverse workforce is

improved innovation in the workplace. Because the employees see things
differently and also think differently, interactions with each other will result in
the sharing of ideas, knowledge and experiences which makes brainstorming a
lot more fruitful.
2. Increased adaptability. Having a heterogeneous employee base helps

increase your organisation’s adaptability in the market as a diverse workforce
will be in a better position to understand what the consumer wants. This will
lead to better product decisions.
3. Easier recruitment and retention. High-quality employees are rare, which

means you need to do everything possible to acquire the few that are there. A
recent survey by Glassdoor found that diversity was an important factor for
people when evaluating job offers and companies, which makes diversity key
for quality recruitment. Diversity also helps your employees feel included and
appreciated in addition to helping them become more loyal and feel like they
belong. This helps with employee retention.
4. Increased productivity. Diversity in the workforce ensures there’s diversity

in the way of thinking. It also provides you with a broad mix of expertise and
experience in certain processes which encourages your employees to interact
and learn from each other. Additionally, diversity has been found to increase
morale within the workforce which not only leads to increased productivity but
greater employee satisfaction as well.
5. Broader market. Having a workforce with a variety of skills and experiences
(including cultural understanding and languages) allows your business to be
able to provide products to customers from all over the globe. And with the
ease with which businesses can make cross-border business transactions in this
day and age, this is a big competitive advantage.
To truly reap the benefits of a diverse workforce, we need to promote and

evaluate diversity at the team level. Multicultural teams offer a number of
advantages, including better adaptability and higher innovation potential, since
knowledge of different product markets increases the potential for a broader
service range and culturally more sensitive customer service.
Hence, for an organization to actually profit from the “diversity of thought” of

its diverse workforce the following factors have to come together:
• Commitment to the diversity development process by top management

and all employees
• Diversity promoting and supporting companywide structures and

processes
• Development and training of the workforce’s cross-cultural (leadership)

competencies and conflict management skills
Initiatives highly ranked by female employees:
 Showing a viable path forward:

- visible role models
 Providing tools that help successful balance career and family
responsibilities:
- flexible working time
- parental leave
- child care
- appropriate health care
Leadership commitment
 It is clear for most corporate leaders, that if they want to acquire and
retain talent, build employee engagement, boost innovation and
improve business performance, the diversity should be incorporated.
 The keys to success are treating the diversity program implementation

as one of business imperatives and involving employees both in the
choice of solutions and in accessing the progress of ongoing measures.
Leadership commitment actions:
 Compelling CEO vision on diversity
 - Diversity program including organisational change going beyond

recruitment process, focusing on diversity improvement in workforce
and leadership team. It should be tailored for specific organisational
culture and actively involving diverse workforce to analysis, preparation
and assessment of the progress.
 - Work with diverse mentees to understand their challenges and

demonstrate own commitment to change.
 - Setting strategic goals addressing organisation's diversity challenges.
 - Establishing and tracking metrics for recruitment, employee retention,

advancement, representation, pay, etc
Impact on innovation, market shares and profitability
 Multiple and varied voices have a wide range of experience, which can
help generate new ideas about organization's products and practices.
 According to Forbes Insights, diversity is a key driver of innovation. In

the opinion of the majority of senior executives diversity is crucial to
encouraging different perspectives and ideas that foster innovation.
 The study on financial results prove that companies with high gender
diversity rates in their executive teams were 21% more likely to have
above average profitability than companies with lower diversity rate.
 A diverse and inclusive can also help to ensure that an organization is

respectful of their clients' cultures.
Connection to human rights
 Each organisation in each sector has an impact and responsibility on

human rights. Historically it has been held that norms of human rights
apply only to the activities of states and governments, and not to the
private sector. Human rights refer to economical, social and ecological
aspects of organisations' activities. The negative effects on different
aspect of human rights come from discrimination, sexual harassment,
rape, torture, poverty, violation of freedom of association and creating
trade unions, health and safety, freedom of expression, privacy, food
and water, education and living conditions.
Conclusion:
While workforce diversity might be somewhat challenging to manage,

encouraging and fostering it is the way forward for organisations in this
increasingly global business environment. Organisations which can achieve
diversity and manage it well will gain a competitive advantage in terms of
innovation and differentiation as well as be a preferred employer for top talent.
Reference
 https://study.com/academy/lesson/ability-and-disability-diversity-in-
the-workplace-definition-trends-examples.html
 https://studylib.net/doc/5556163/managing-diverse-employees-in-a-
multicultural-environment
 https://bluecollarpeople.com/managing-diversity-workplace-
successfully-go/
 https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/managing-diverse-
employees-in-a-multicultural-environment-business-essay.php
 https://quizlet.com/29232548/chapter-5-managing-diverse-employees-
in-a-multicultural-environment-flash-cards/

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Chapter 5

Managing Diverse Employees in a

 Age - the median age of people is 35 years. Managers need to be careful

 Race and Ethnicity - Racial discrimination in the workplace can be

 Gender - Workplace gender equality is achieved when people are able to

 Capabilities/Disabilities - A person's ability is the resources to perform

 Socioeconomic Background - is an economic and sociological combined

 Biases - a tendency to use information to create inaccurate perceptions

A. Similar-to-me effect- a tendency to perceive people who are similar to

C. Salience effect- The tendency to focus on people who are different

 Stereotype - Simplistic beliefs about groups of people, typically based on

 Types of Sexual Harassment

- Quid Pro Quo

- Hostile Work Environment

• Quid pro quo – Asking for or forcing an employee to perform sexual

Eliminating Sexual Harassment

 Develop and clearly communicate a policy

 Use a fair complaint procedure

 Take corrective action as soon as possible

 Provide sexual harassment education and training

 Those who go along with it can be victims

 Employees sometimes wait before filing a complaints

 Alternate ways to report incidents should be provided

 Employees who report sexual harassment must have their rights

Managing Diversity Effectively Makes Good Business Sense

Having a diverse workforce provides an added element of increased

What a Diversity of Employees Provides:

 A variety of points of view and approaches to problems and

 Diverse employees can provide a wider range of creative ideas.

 Diverse employees are more attuned to the needs of diverse customers.

 Diversity can increase the retention of valued organizational members.

 Diversity is expected/required by other firms.

Steps in Managing Diversity:

1. Get commitment from top managers

7. Look at the number minorities in different jobs

 Perception – The process through which people select, organize, and

 Schema – An abstract knowledge structure stored in memory that allows

 Gender Schema – Preconceived beliefs or ideas about the nature of men

Diversity Awareness Programs

 Provide members with accurate information about diversity

 Uncover personal biases and stereotypes

 Develop an atmosphere in which people feel free to share their differing

 Improve understanding of others who are different5-10

How to Manage Diversity

1. Mentoring – A process by which an experienced member of an organization

- diversity training helps employees become self-aware which plays a critical

3. Facilitate effective communication - One of the biggest challenges of

5. Create inclusive policies and practices - You’ll need to ensure your

Here’re the top five benefits of having a diverse workforce:

1. Innovation. One of the biggest advantages of having a diverse workforce is

2. Increased adaptability. Having a heterogeneous employee base helps

3. Easier recruitment and retention. High-quality employees are rare, which

4. Increased productivity. Diversity in the workforce ensures there’s diversity

To truly reap the benefits of a diverse workforce, we need to promote and

Hence, for an organization to actually profit from the “diversity of thought” of

• Commitment to the diversity development process by top management

• Diversity promoting and supporting companywide structures and

• Development and training of the workforce’s cross-cultural (leadership)

Initiatives highly ranked by female employees: