HUMAN BEHAVIOR

IN ORGANIZATION
Workplace Diversity

Cagayan State University

College of Business Entrepreneurship & Accountancy
Melvin M. Mora
Chapter 2: Workplace Diversity

Objectives:
Define workplace diversity
Identify the different primary, secondary and
other dimensions of workplace diversity
Enumerate the benefits of workplace diversity
Identify the roadblock toward workplace diversity
Discuss how to effectively create and manage
workplace diversity
 What is Workplace Diversity?

• It is simply differences.
• A characteristic of a group of people inside
the organization where differences exist
on one or more relevant dimensions like
gender, age, religion, race, social class,
sexual orientation, personality, functional
experience or geographical background.
• It also refers to the otherness or those
human qualities that are unique from what
the individual owns and outside the groups,
to which he belongs, yet present in other
individual and groups.
• It is vital to understand how these
dimensions influence performance,
motivation, success, and interactions with
others in the workplace.
 DIMENSIONS OF WD
• Primary Dimensions
• Secondary Dimensions
Primary Dimensions
• Age
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Physical qualities
• Sexual/Affectional Orientation
 Age

• Workforce will consist of employees coming from

different generations
• Correlated with a number of positive workplace
behaviors
• Volunteering
• Higher compliance with safety rules
• Lower work injuries
• Lower rates of tardiness or absenteeism
 RACE
• Demographic characteristic that still exists
in organizations
• Discrimination against ethnic minorities
 ETHNICITY
• Social construct
• Religious belief of people
• Religious discriminition often occurs
because the religion necessitates
modifying th employee’s schedule
 GENDER
• Women and Men often face different
treatment at work
• Glass ceiling
 PHYSICAL QUALITIES
• Organization should consider reasonable
considerations when an employee brings
up a disability. (legal requirement)
• Modifying the employee’s schedule and
reassigning some nonessential job
functions.
• Offer flexible work hours
 SEXUAL/ AFFECTIONAL
ORIENTATION
• LGBT employees in the workplace face a
number of challenges and barriers to
employment
• Issue relating to sexual orientation is the
disclosure of sexual identity in the
workplace
• Employees may fear the reactions of their
managers and coworkers at work.
 BENEFITS OF
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
 What ???

• An Organization’s success and

competitiveness depends upon its ability
to embrace diversity and realize the
benefits. When organization actively
assess their handling of workplace
diversity issues, develop and implement
diversity plans, multiple benefits could be
attained.
Higher Creativity in Decision Making

• Varying perspectives provides a larger

pool of ideas and experiences
• The organization can draw from that pool
to meet business strategy needs and the
needs of the customers more effectively.
Better Understanding and Service of
Customers
• Diverse workforce may create products or
services that appeal to a broader customer
base
• Comprehend the needs of particular
groups of customers better, customers
may feel more comfortble when they are
dealing with a company that understands
their needs.
 More satisfied workforce
• Fair treatment, more satisfaction
• Otherwise, (discriminated)- they tend to be
less attached to the company, less
satisfied with their job and feel more stress
a work.
LOWER LITIGATION
EXPENSES
• When an employee or group of employees
feel that the company is disobeying laws,
they may file a complaint.
• It will be expensive, lawsuits are pricey
and include attorney fees as well as the
cost of the settlement or judgement.
INCREASED ADAPTABILITY
• Diverse workforce can convey greater
range of solutions to problems in service,
sourcing and allocation of resources.
• They carry individual talents and
experiences in suggesting ideas that are
flexible in adapting to changeable markets
and customer demands.
BROADER SERVICE RANGE
• Diverse collection of skills and
experiences permits a company to offer
service to customers on a global nasis.
HIGHER COMPANY
PERFORMANCE
• Companies that promote diversity in the
workplace encourage all their employees
to perform to their highest ability.
 ROADBLOCK TO
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
• Ignoring diversity costs time, money and
efficiency. Some of the consequences can
include unhealthy tensions; loss of
productivity because increased conflict,
lack of ability to attract and retatin talented
people of all kinds, complaints and legal
actions; inability to keep important
employees, resulting in lost investment in
recruitment and training.
• Successful diversity management can be
effective through inclusion.
• Inclusion can help create high-performing
organizations
• All individuals feel engaged and their
contributions toward meeting
organizational goals are respected and
valued.
Difference between Prejudice and
Discrimination
Prejudice
• Irrattional
• Inflexible opinion based on limited and
insufficient information and unfair negative
attitudes hold about other people who
belong to social or cultural groups different
from their own.
Discrimination
• Behavior that results to unequal treatment
of individuals based on group
membership.
• It may vary because of race, age, gender,
social clas, sexual orientation.
 What is Stereotyping?
• Generalized set of beliefs about the
characteristics of a group of individuals.
• People who engaged in stereotyping
believed that all or most members of the
group have certain trait characteristics or
traits.
• These are unrealistic, non-factual and
most of the times are negative.
Why is it difficult to stop
Stereotyping?
It is not easy to dismiss

• When discovered that a trait is incongruent

with the stereotype, people often ignore
discrepancy and regard the individual as
“exception to the rule”
Stereotypes guide what information people
look for, process and remember

• The trait stereotyped in a group served as

the guide on the processing of information
about a certain person based on his
membership to a group even not actually
seen but just “remembered”
Stereotypes seem to be an enduring
human quality
• It provides predictability if one knows the
character of the group where a person
belongs.
• So knowing the information enables
prediction of the individual’s behavior and
what response should be made.
Therefore.........
• Stereotypes have detrimental effects on
interpersonal relations because of
unpractical and false assumptions about
members of other groups. It can have
direct effects on a person’s career by
causing unfair treatment.
Differences in
Social Identity
 What is Social Identity?
• A person’s knowledge that he fits in to a
certain social groups, where fitting in to
those groups has emotional importance.
It is hard to handle when person’s
social identity is different from that
of the majority because of the
following reasons:
• A person’s social identity becomes
noticeable when he is in the minority on a
significant dimension. (A woman could be
very conscious when in all-male work
environment than when she is a mixed-
gender group.
2.
• Belonging to a social identity different from
the majority makes a person feel he has to
behave in ways that are unnatural for him
in certain situations. (Acting out a fake role
can lead to stress and dissatisfaction.)
3.
• People in the minority often feel that they
might lose their social identities. Social
identity is a source of pride and dignity for
people.
4.
• People tend to check on others based on
their social group membership. People
belonging to one’s “in-group” are better
than those belonging to the “out-group”
 Power Differentials
• Power is not always equally distributed
among individuals and groups.
• People can have ascribed power – this is
a status power that is given by cultural
norms and based on group membership.
 Sources of Power
• Legitimate
• Coercive
• Expert
• Reward
• Referent or connection
 Communication Problems
• It occurs when everyone speaks a
particular language fluently and people
who are less fluent may no longer
contribute to the conversation.
• Many misunderstanding happen due to
language differences.
Effectively Creating
&
Managing
Workplace Diversity
Build A Culture of Respecting
Diversity
• Diversity management is not the
responsibility of the HR.
• Starting from top management and
including the lowest levels in the
organization, each person understands the
importance of respecting others.
• Diversity is everyone’s responsibility
Make Managers Accountable for
Diversity
• How effective they are in diversity
management?
• Showing commitment to diversity
Diversity Training Programs
• Providing employees and managers wth
training programs relating to diversity.
Review Recruitment Practices
• Increase diversity by targeting a pool that
is more diverse.
Affirmative Action Programs
• Policies to designed, to recruit, promote,
train and retain employees belnging to a
protected class referred to as affirmative
action.