CH 6:DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

Course Lecturer:
Prof Dr. Mohamed wahba
  What is diversity?
 Equality vs Diversity
 Types of diversity
 Benefits of diversity in the workplace
 Challenges of diversity in the workplace
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Examples of diversity in organizations
 How to promote diversity in the workplace?
 Developing hiring policies & procedures that
increase diversity
 Companies around the world embracing diversity
  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.
 Organizational diversity in the workplace refers to the
WHAT IS DIVERSITY? total makeup of the employee workforce and the amount of
diversity included.
 Diversity is often misconceived as solely multicultural
matters, But in 2019, workplace diversity doesn't just extend
to hiring diverse individuals, but also making sure that the
participation of these employees is equal.
 In recent years, the topic of diversity and inclusion in the
workplace has extended to ensuring that companies
increasing the participation, performance and compensation
of minorities, not just symbolic hiring in order to 'tick a box'.
WHAT IS DIVERSITY?
 EQUALITY VS DIVERSITY

 Equality aims to ensure that all individuals have equal

opportunities to succeed, and it prevents individuals from
being discriminated against or treated differently due to
certain personality or physical characteristics.

 Diversity, on the other hand, is about appreciating

differences between individuals, and in context with the
workplace ensuring that each of these varying attributes
and characteristics are valued.
TYPES OF DIVERSITY

Internal Diversity External Diversity Organizational

Worldview Diversity
(Deep-level diversity) Diversity
(Surface-level diversity)

• Personal interests • Job function • Political beliefs

• Race
• Education • Place of work • Moral compass
• Ethnicity
• Appearance • Management • Outlook on life
• Age
• Citizenship status • Epistemology
• National origin
• Religious beliefs • Employment status
• Sexual orientation
• Location • Pay type
• Cultural identity
• Familial status • Seniority
• Assigned sex
• Relationship status • Union affiliation
• Gender identity
• Socioeconomic
• Physical ability
status
• Mental ability
• Life experiences
BENEFITS OF DIVERSITY IN THE
WORKPLACE

 Diversity can provided many benefits to organizations. A

primary benefit is that a wide array of employee
backgrounds means the organization as a whole has more
experience and expertise coverage in critical areas that
affect the company.
 Similarly, discussions typically produce a broader range of
ideas when employees have diverse backgrounds.
 Additionally, companies that serve a diverse population or a
global audience can more adequately serve that diverse
market with employees that can speak the language and
relate from a cultural standpoint.
 FILMS THAT PROVE WHY DIVERSITY AT WORK IS GOOD
 Wall Street (1988)
 This Oscar winning film about a malicious investment banker at Wall Street is perhaps best known
for Michael Douglas´s quote “greed is good”. But since the financial crisis in 2008 the film is also
mentioned for another reason, which may be less obvious: the total lack of female lead characters in
the story. Just like other films on the same subject, Wall Street shows that the banking industry is
largely a men’s game.
 According to some studies this was one of the causes for the financial meltdown. It’s argued that
women are less likely to take the enormous risks that were responsible for the biggest
crisis in the century. Whether that’s a fact or just oversimplification is still being debated. But
there is a lot of evidence that supports the idea that a better balance in gender is good for business.
A study by research center Gallup, for example, shows that retail companies which hire more
women have 14% higher average comparable revenue than less diverse business units.

 Joy (2015)
 Joy is based on the true story of Joy Mangano, a divorced mother with two children, who became a
self-made millionaire. As a single mother with little income, she knew the difficulties of running a
household. It was this experience that made her come up with the idea for the Miracle Mop,
which was more practical than all the other mops on the market. The film shows the importance of
hiring people with a different background, whether it’s social, ethnic or cultural. With her specific
experience, Joy came up with solutions that other people in the same business wouldn’t think of.
 Different perspectives are vital to any company. They enable them to offer solutions to clients all
over the world, with different cultures and different needs. That’s why, according a study by
McKinsey, companies with a high ethnic and cultural diversity are 35% percent more likely to have
financial returns.
 The Intern (2015)
 The number of misconceptions about older employees is endless: that they are less agile, less
productive and have more problems learning new tasks, to name a few examples. These
preconceived ideas are the main reason why people over 50 are less likely to get hired.
 After seeing the 70 something year old Robert De Niro in The Intern, managers hopefully
will have a different idea about older employees. Because the film might be fiction, many of
topics it touches upon are based on facts. Research by the University of Mannheim shows
that mature members of staff rarely make any severe errors due to their experience, their
ability to work in teams and better coping strategies when things go wrong.

 The Accountant (2016)

 Let’s say there are two candidates for an accountant position. One of them is very sociable,
talkative and funny. The other is timid, never looks you in the eyes and doesn’t understand
irony. Which one of them should you choose? Well, if you’ve seen The Accountant, you might
think twice before you hire the second candidate. The main character of the film, played by
Ben Affleck, is an unsociable autistic forensic accountant, who cooks the books for criminal
clients. But don’t be fooled: in reality it’s the other way around.
 A recent study by the Rotterdam School of Management showed that people who have
a form of autism are the most trustable accountants: because they are less emphatic and
sociable, they are also less likely to be corrupt. Nevertheless, people whose personality is
different from the majority, are less likely to get hired. But why is that? Madan Pillutla,
Professor of Organizational Behaviour at London School of Business, asked himself
the same question. He found out that we are all inclined to hire people that are more like
ourselves. So the solution is simple: it’s fine to hire the best people, as longs as those people
are not like you.
CHALLENGES OF DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
1. Communication barriers

2. Employee requirements

3. Gender equality issues

4. Generational differences
Workplace
Diversity 5. Conflicting beliefs

6. Disability discrimination

7. Isolated individuals

8.Time consuming implementation process

9. Resistance to change
CHALLENGES OF DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
 Language and communication barriers are among the
greatest challenges to effectiveness in a diverse
organization. With global diversity, employees may speak
many different primary languages, making accurate
communication difficult.
 Culturally, different perspectives on communication and
different viewpoints on discussions can get in the way of
efficient decisions and resolution of conflicts.
 Conflicts are not only more common in a diverse
workplace, but they are often more difficult to resolve
because employees have a more difficult time seeing each
other's perspective.
EXAMPLES OF DIVERSITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

• Fair Representation in Advertising

• Recruiting at Minority Events
• Develop a Job Rotation Schedule
• Celebrate Cultural Holidays
• Teach Employees Another Language
• Workplace Discrimination Laws
HOW TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE?

1. Identify the problems

2. D&I strategy for success
3. Involve the whole team
4. Initiate mentoring schemes
5. Offer training programmes
6. Hire bilingual or multilingual employees
7. Implement initiatives for gender equality
8. Accommodate disabilities
9. Hold people accountable
10. Factor in costs and time restraints
DEVELOPING HIRING POLICIES & PROCEDURES THAT INCREASE
DIVERSITY

1. Make a wide recruitment strategy company policy.

2. Arrange to attend a variety of job fairs and recruitment events
3. Create recruitment teams that are diverse themselves;
4. Evaluate the current composition of your work force and identify segments of society at large
that are underrepresented.
5. Develop job qualifications professionally and objectively. List only professional attributes and
experiences.
6. Develop interview questions and applicant tests that respect differences and provide a fair
opportunity for people with a variety of backgrounds to present their case for employment.
 COMPANIES AROUND THE WORLD EMBRACING DIVERSITY
1. Sodexo
 Industry: Quality of Life Services
 # of Employees Worldwide: 460,000+
 Diversity & Inclusion: Although gender, generations and sexual orientation are all part of the diversity hiring strategy at Sodexo, they state that “gender balance is our
business”, and their mission is to make it everyone else’s business too. 55% of all staff members in Sodexo are women – that’s up from just 17% in 2009. 58% of the members on
the board of directors are female and the company runs 14 Gender Balance Networks worldwide. What they have found is that when there is an optimal gender balance within
an organisation, employee engagement increases by 4 percentage points, gross profit increases by 23% and brand image strengthens by 5 percentage points.

2. Johnson & Johnson

 Industry: Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical and Consumer Packaged Goods
 # of Employees Worldwide: 132,000+
 Diversity & Inclusion: J&J have pumped a lot of resources into ensuring that all employees help to create an inclusive environment. The organisation’s Global Diversity and
Inclusion vision is “to maximise the global power of diversity and inclusion, to drive superior business results and sustainable competitive advantage.” How they’re making this
happen is through employee resource groups, mentoring programmes and ‘Diversity University’, which is a dynamic website that helps employees to understand the benefits of
working collaboratively. The Chief Diversity officer also reports directly to the CEO and Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, meaning that the whole operation is being overseen by
top-level management.Various rewards and recognitions the company has received include being recognised by U.S.Veterans Magazine as the “Best of the Best” for strides made
in diversity efforts, and being one of only two companies that have been on the Working Mother 100 Best list for the past 28 years.

3. Mastercard
 Industry: Financial Services
 # of Employees Worldwide: 13,400+
 Diversity & Inclusion: Mastercard consistently makes it into the Top 10 of Diversity Inc’s 50 Best Companies for Diversity . They believe that “diversity is what drives better
insights, better decisions, and better products. It is the backbone of innovation”. A particularly unique project that Mastercard has executed over the past few years involves
getting older employees in the company more active when it comes to social media. To address generational barriers, “YoPros” offers a one-on-one ‘Social Media Reverse
Mentoring’ program to older employees who want to become familiarised with the platforms.
COMPANIES AROUND THE WORLD EMBRACING DIVERSITY
4. Accenture
 Industry: Professional Services/Consulting
 # of Employees Worldwide: 513,000+
 Diversity & Inclusion: Accenture believe that “no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity
and expression, religion or sexual orientation.” Diversity training within the company is broken into 3 different categories:
 1.) Diversity Awareness – to help people understand the benefits of working with a diverse organisation.
 2.) Diversity Management – to equip executives to manage diverse teams.
 3.) Professional Development – to enable women, LGBT and ethnically diverse employees to build skills for success.
 The organisation also hosts a company-wide celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities as well as endeavour to help their employees with various
supports, like assistive technology, flexible work arrangements and additional training.
5. Kaiser Permanente
 Industry: Healthcare
 # of Employees Worldwide: 217,828+
 Diversity & Inclusion: As the largest managed care organisation in the USA, the Kaiser Permanente labour force reflects no racial majority, with nearly 60% of the staff
comprising of people of colour. Additionally, three-quarters of all employees, nearly half of the executive team, and more than one-third of their physicians are women. Part
of the diversity agenda is to provide culturally-acceptable medical care and culturally-appropriate services to all of the 140 cultures currently represented in the population
of the US. The company also ranked in the Hall of Fame on DiversityInc.
6. EY
 Industry: Professional Services
 # of Employees Worldwide: 280,000+
 Diversity & Inclusion: At EY, they believe that “only the highest-performing teams, which maximise the power of different opinions, perspectives, and cultural references,
will succeed in the global marketplace.” The organisation was the first of the Big Four to assign full-time, partner-level leadership to diversity recruiting. Ever since, the
number of women in top executive management positions has increased by more than 20% and programmes such as EY Launch have begun, which is for ethnically diverse
college freshmen, sophomores and transfer students, and builds awareness of accounting as a major and professional services as a profession.
COMPANIES AROUND THE WORLD EMBRACING DIVERSITY
7. Coca-Cola
 Industry: Beverage
 # of Employees Worldwide: 86,200+
 Diversity & Inclusion: At Coca-Cola, diversity is seen “as more than just policies and practices. It is an integral part of who we are as a company, how we operate and
how we see our future.” Diversity education programmes include Diversity Training, a Diversity Speaker Series and a Diversity Library. In 2017, a new parental benefits
policy was implemented, whereby 6 weeks of paid leave is extended to all new mothers and fathers. The move was championed by ‘Coca-Cola Millennial Voices’, a group
of young employees tasked with making sure there is a healthy level of employee retention in millennial consumers and staff members.

8. Marriott International
 Industry: Hospitality/Tourism
 # of Employees Worldwide: 174,000+
 Diversity & Inclusion: Named as one of the ‘World’s Best Multinational Workplaces by Great Place to Work’, the world’s largest annual study of workplace excellence,
Marriott International extends their commitment to creating an inclusive guest experience to their workforce around the globe. Women-owned business enterprises
make up approximately 10% of Marriott’s supply chain and they vow to spend $1 billion with diverse-owned businesses by 2020. LGBT inclusion is also a top priority for
Marriott International. They received that ‘Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality’ accolade when they earned a perfect score on the HRC’s 2016 Corporate Equality
Index, a widely recognised benchmark for diversity and inclusion.

9. Novartis
 Industry: Pharmaceuticals
 # of Employees Worldwide: 125,000+
 Diversity & Inclusion: Novartis believe that diversity is integral to their success, because it helps them to understand the unique needs of their patients and find
innovative ways of addressing those needs. Within the organisation, the word ‘disability’ has been replaced with ‘diverseability’ because they don’t view people living with
disabilities as having a lack of ability, but rather having diverse skills and proficiencies. Human Resources professionals in the company are also educated on topics such as
unconscious bias, inclusive leadership, disabilities/accommodations and compensation/pay equity in order to improve their diversity hiring methods.
THANK YOU