Chapter 12

Surface Level Disability: Age

- Age discrimination is treating people differently (for example, in hiring and firing, promotion, and compensation decisions) because of their age. - The victims of age discrimination are almost always older workers, and the discrimination is based on the assumption that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." - It's commonly believed that older workers are less motivated, less productive, more prone to illness and accidents, not interested in learning new things, cost more, and make greater—more expensive—use of health care benefits - The older people are and the longer they stay with a company, the more the company pays for salaries, pension plans, and vacation time. But older workers cost companies less, too, because they show better judgment, care more about the quality of their work, and are less likely to quit, show up late, or be absent, the cost of which can be substantial. - As for the widespread belief that job performance declines with age, the scientific evidence clearly refutes this stereotype. Performance does not decline with age, regardless of the type of job - Prevention: 1) companies need to train managers and recruiters to make hiring and promotion decisions on the basis of qualifications, not age. 2) monitor the extent to which older workers receive training 3) companies need to ensure that younger and older workers interact with each other

What accounts for the disparities between those with and without disabilities?

- Contrary to popular opinion, it has nothing to do with how well people with disabilities can do their jobs. Studies show that as long as companies make reasonable accommodations for disabilities (for example, changing procedures or equipment), people with disabilities perform their jobs just as well as people without disabilities. Furthermore, they have better safety records and are not any more likely to be absent or quit their jobs.

Surface Level Disability: Mental or Physical Disabilities

- Disability discrimination occurs when people are treated differently because of their disabilities. Prevention: 1) Beyond educational efforts to address incorrect stereotypes and expectations, a good place to start is to commit to reasonable workplace accommodations such as changing work schedules, reassigning jobs, acquiring or modifying equipment, or providing assistance when needed. 2) include wheelchair ramps, wider office aisles, elevators with audio controls for the blind, and facilitators to provide physical assistance when an employee asks for it. 3) allow employees to work from home should it become difficult to make it into the office. 4) provide assistive technology. 5) recruit qualified workers with disabilities.

Companies also use diversity audits, diversity pairing, and minority experiences for top executives to better manage diversity.

- Diversity audits are formal assessments that measure employee and management attitudes, investigate the extent to which people are advantaged or disadvantaged with respect to hiring and promotions, and review companies' diversity-related policies and procedures. - Diversity pairing is a special kind of mentoring. In diversity pairing, people of different cultural backgrounds, sexes, or races/ethnicities are paired for mentoring. The hope is that stereotypical beliefs and attitudes will change as people get to know each other as individuals. - Minority Experience: Because top managers are still overwhelmingly white and male, a number of companies believe that it is worthwhile to have top executives experience what it is like to be in the minority.

Diversity

- Diversity means variety. - Therefore, diversity exists in organizations when there is a variety of demographic, cultural, and personal differences among the people who work there and the customers who do business there.

To what extent is disability discrimination a factor in the workplace?

- High.. same example wherein distributed resume copies

Deep Level Diversity

- Most people start by using surface-level diversity to categorize or stereotype other people. But those initial categorizations typically give way to deeper impressions formed from knowledge of others' behaviors and psychological characteristics such as personality and attitudes. - When you think of others this way, you are focusing on deep-level diversity. Deep-level diversity consists of differences that are communicated through verbal and nonverbal behaviors and are learned only through extended interaction with others.

Surface Level Disability: Race/Ethnicity

- Racial and ethnic discrimination occurs when people are treated differently because of their race or ethnicity. - Prevention: 1) Compare the hiring rates of whites with the hiring rates for racial and ethnic applicants. Do the same thing for promotions within the company. See if nonwhite workers quit the company at higher rates than white workers. Also, survey employees to compare white and nonwhite employees' satisfaction with jobs, bosses, and the company as well as their perceptions concerning equal treatment. 2) if the numbers indicate racial or ethnic disparities, consider employing a private firm to test your hiring system by having applicants of different races with identical qualifications apply for jobs in your company, or by data mining your application criteria. 3) to eliminate unclear selection and promotion criteria. Vague criteria allow decision makers to focus on nonjob-related characteristics that may unintentionally lead to employment discrimination. Instead, selection and promotion criteria should spell out the specific knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and experience needed to perform a job well. 4) to train managers and others who make hiring and promotion decisions.

Surface Level Disability: Sex

- Sex discrimination occurs when people are treated differently because of their sex. Sex discrimination and racial/ethnic discrimination (discussed Race/Ethnicity) are often associated with the so-called glass ceiling. - Prevention: 1) is mentoring, or pairing promising female executives with senior executives from whom they can seek advice and support. 2) to make sure that male-dominated social activities don't unintentionally exclude women. 3) Another is to designate a go-to person other than their supervisors that women can talk to if they believe that they are being held back or discriminated against because of their sex. That person, of course, must have the knowledge and authority to conduct a fair, confidential internal investigation.

Diversity training and practices

- Skills- based diversity training: teaches employees the practical skills they need for managing a diverse workforce, skills such as flexibility and adaptability, negotiation, problem solving, and conflict resolution. - Awareness training: is designed to raise employees' awareness of diversity issues and to challenge underlying assumptions or stereotypes we may have about others.

What accounts for the disparities between the percentages of minority groups in the general population and their smaller representation in management positions?

- Some studies have found that the disparities are due to preexisting differences in training, education, and skills. When African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and whites have similar skills, training, and education, they are much more likely to have similar jobs and salaries. - Other studies, however, provide increasingly strong direct evidence of racial or ethnic discrimination in the workplace.

Is sex discrimination the sole reason for the slow rate at which women have been rewarded and promoted to middle and upper levels of management and corporate boards?

- Some studies indicate that it's not.* In some instances, the slow progress appears to be due to career and job choices. Whereas men's career and job choices are often driven by the search for higher pay and advancement, women are more likely to choose jobs or careers that also give them a greater sense of accomplishment, more control over their work schedules, and easier movement in and out of the workplace. - Beyond these reasons, however, it's likely that sex discrimination does play a role in women's slow progress into the higher levels of management.

Disability:

- a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

Organizational Plurality

- a work environment where (1) all members are empowered to contribute in a way that maximizes the benefits to the organization, customers, and themselves, and (2) the individuality of each member is respected by not segmenting or polarizing people on the basis of their membership in a particular group.

Surface Level Diversity

- consists of differences that are immediately observable, typically unchangeable, and easy to measure.* In other words, independent observers can usually agree on dimensions of surface-level diversity, such as another person's age, sex, race/ethnicity, or physical capabilities.

Diversity actually makes good business sense in several ways: CADHA

- cost savings: reducing turnover, decreasing absenteeism, and avoiding expensive lawsuits. Because of lost productivity and the cost of recruiting and selecting new workers, companies lose substantial amounts of money when employees quit their jobs. When companies lose, the average individual settlement amounts to more than $600,000.* And settlement costs can be substantially higher in class-action lawsuits, in which individuals join together to sue a company as a group. - attracting and retaining talent: Female employees at Google were once twice as likely as male employees to quit the company. Company data revealed that many of the women who left were young mothers. Google head of human resources Laszlo Bock responded by substantially increasing parental leave at the company. - driving business growth: tapping into "diverse customers and markets" was the number-one reason managers gave for implementing diversity programs. More people, more service. Diverse people, diverse views and more divers market availability. - higher quality problem solving: though diverse groups initially have more difficulty working together than homogeneous groups, diverse groups eventually establish a rapport and do a better job of identifying problems and generating alternative solutions, the two most important steps in problem solving

Emotional Stability

- degree to which someone is not angry, depressed, anxious, emotional, insecure, or excitable. - People who are emotionally stable respond well to stress. In other words, they can maintain a calm, problem-solving attitude in even the toughest situations (for example, conflict, hostility, dangerous conditions, or extreme time pressures). - By contrast, emotionally unstable people find it difficult to handle the most basic demands of their jobs under only moderately stressful situations and become distraught, tearful, self-doubting, and anxious.

The learning and effectiveness paradigm CG DIG LLCB DTP

- focuses on integrating deep-level diversity differences, such as personality, attitudes, beliefs, and values, into the actual work of the organization. - One sign that a company hasn't yet created a learning and effectiveness paradigm is that people withhold their opinions for fear of being seen as different. - The learning and effectiveness paradigm is consistent with achieving organizational plurality. - 4 benefits: 1) it values common ground: Like the fairness paradigm, it promotes equal opportunity for all individuals. And like the access paradigm, it acknowledges cultural differences among people and recognizes the value in those differences. Yet this new model for managing diversity lets the organization internalize differences among employees so that it learns and grows because of them. Indeed, with the model fully in place, members of the organization can say, 'We are all on the same team, with our differences—not despite them.' 2) makes a distinction between individual and group differences: managers can achieve a greater understanding of diversity and their employees by treating them as individuals and by realizing that not all African Americans, Hispanics, women, or white males want the same things at work. 3) less likely to encounter the conflict, backlash, and divisiveness sometimes associated with diversity programs that focus only on group differences. 4) focuses on bringing different talents and perspectives (that is deep-level diversity) together to make the best organizational decisions and to produce innovative, competitive products and services.

Shift from surface level to deeper level diversity helps in 2 ways:

- getting to know and understand each other reduces prejudice and conflict. - it can lead to stronger social integration.

Assistive Tecnology

- gives workers with disabilities the tools they need to overcome their disabilities

The access and legitimacy paradigm:

- the acceptance and celebration of differences to ensure that the diversity within the company matches the diversity found among primary stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, and local communities. - This is similar to the business growth advantage of diversity discussed earlier in the chapter. - The basic idea behind this approach is to create a demographically diverse workforce that attracts a broader customer base. - The primary benefit of this approach is that it establishes a clear business reason for diversity. Like the discrimination and fairness paradigm, however, it focuses only on the surface-level diversity dimensions of sex, race, and ethnicity. - Furthermore, employees who are assigned responsibility for customers and stakeholders on the basis of their sex, race, or ethnicity may eventually feel frustrated and exploited.

Social Integration

- the degree to which group members are psychologically attracted to working with each other to accomplish a common objective, or, as one manager put it, "working together to get the job done."

Extraversion

- the degree to which someone is active, assertive, gregarious, sociable, talkative, and energized by others. - In contrast to extraverts, introverts tend to be focused, thoughtful, quiet, reserved, and energized by ideas. - For the best results in the workplace, introverts and extraverts should be correctly matched to their jobs.

Agreeableness

- the degree to which someone is cooperative, polite, flexible, forgiving, good-natured, tolerant, and trusting. - Basically, agreeable people are easy to work with and be around, whereas disagreeable people are distrusting and difficult to work with and be around. - A number of companies have made general attitude or agreeableness the most important factor in their hiring decisions.

Openness to experience

- the degree to which someone is curious, broadminded, and open to new ideas, things, and experiences; is spontaneous; and has a high tolerance for ambiguity.

Conscientiousness (most imp)

- the degree to which someone is organized, hardworking, responsible, persevering, thorough, and achievement oriented. - Conscientious employees are also more likely to engage in positive behaviors, such as helping new employees, coworkers, and supervisors, and are less likely to engage in negative behaviors, such as verbally or physically abusing coworkers or stealing.

Diversity Paradigms for managing diversity DF ALLE

- the discrimination and fairness paradigm - the access and legitimacy paradigm - the learning and effectiveness paradigm

Personality

- the relatively stable set of behaviors, attitudes, and emotions displayed over time that makes people different from each other. - The Big Five Personality Dimensions are extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Disposition

- the tendency to respond to situations and events in a predetermined manner.

The discrimination and fairness paradigm:

- which is the most common method of approaching diversity, focuses on equal opportunity, fair treatment, recruitment of minorities, and strict compliance with the equal employment opportunity laws. - Under this approach, success is usually measured by how well companies achieve recruitment, promotion, and retention goals for women, people of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, or other underrepresented groups. - The primary limitation is that the focus of diversity remains on the surface-level diversity dimensions of sex, race, and ethnicity.

Diversity vs Affirmative Action

1) affirmative action refers to purposeful steps taken by an organization to create employment opportunities for minorities and women.* By contrast, diversity has a broader focus that includes demographic, cultural, and personal differences. 2) affirmative action is a policy for actively creating diversity, but diversity can exist even if organizations don't take purposeful steps to create it. 3) affirmative action is required by law for private employers with fifty or more employees, whereas diversity is not. 4) affirmative action programs and diversity programs have different purposes. The purpose of affirmative action programs is to compensate for past discrimination, which was widespread when legislation was introduced in the 1960s; to prevent ongoing discrimination; and to provide equal opportunities to all, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Organizations that fail to uphold affirmative action laws may be required to: - hire, promote, or give back pay to those not hired or promoted; - reinstate those who were wrongly terminated; - pay attorneys' fees and court costs for those who bring charges against them; or - take other actions that make individuals whole by returning them to the condition or place they would have been had it not been for discrimination. 5) Consequently, affirmative action is basically a punitive approach. By contrast, the general purpose of diversity programs is to create a positive work environment where no one is advantaged or disadvantaged, where "we" is everyone, where everyone can do his or her best work, where differences are respected and not ignored, and where everyone feels comfortable.* So, unlike affirmative action, which punishes companies for not achieving specific sex and race ratios in their workforces, diversity programs seek to benefit both organizations and their employees by encouraging organizations to value all kinds of differences. - Despite the overall success of affirmative action in making workplaces much fairer than they used to be, many people argue that some affirmative action programs unconstitutionally offer preferential treatment to females and minorities at the expense of other employees, a view accepted by some courts.

Diversity Principles

Diversity paradigms are general approaches or strategies for managing diversity. Whatever diversity paradigm a manager chooses, diversity principles will help managers do a better job of managing company diversity programs. - carefully and faithfully following and enforcing federal and state laws regarding equal opportunity employment. - Treat group differences as important but not special. - find the common ground. - Tailor opportunities to individuals, not groups - Maintain high standards. - Solicit negative as well as positive feedback. - Set high but realistic goals.

Glass Ceiling

the invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from advancing to the top jobs in organizations.