Organizational Behavior: Chapter 2 "Diversity in Organizations"

Gender Identity

Companies are increasingly putting in place policies to govern how their organization treats employees who change genders (often called transgender employees).

Race and Ethnicity

Race is a controversial issue. In many cases, even bringing up the topic of race and ethnicity is enough to create an uncomfortable silence. Indeed, evidence suggests that some people find interacting with other racial groups uncomfortable unless there are clear behavioral scripts to guide their behavior.

Age

Relationship between age and job performance likely to be an issue of increasing importance. 1) Belief that job performance declines with age. 2) Workforce is aging 3) U.S. legislation outlaws mandatory retirement.

How does age affect productivity?

Research find that age and job task performance are unrelated and that older workers are more likely to engage in citizenship behavior.

Summarize a few points about race statistics in the workplace.

1) In employment settings, individuals tend to favor those of the same race, although not found consistently. 2) Substantial racial differences exist in attitudes toward affirmative action, with African Americans approving of such programs to a greater degree than Whites. 3) African Americans generally fare worse than Whites in employment decisions. They receive lower ratings in employment interviews, receive lower job performance ratings, are paid less, and are promoted less frequently. Yet, no significant differences in absence rates, accident rates, etc. African Americans and Hispanics have higher turnover rates than Caucasians.

Intellectual Abilities

Abilities needed to perform mental activities— thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.

LO: Define intellectual ability and demonstrate its relevance to OB.

Abilities needed to perform mental activities— thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Interestingly, while intelligence is a big help in performing a job well, it doesn't make people happier or more satisfied with their jobs. The correlation between intelligence and job satisfaction is about zero. Research suggests that although intelligent people perform better and tend to have more interesting jobs, they are also more critical when evaluating their job conditions.

Ability

Ability is an individual's current capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. Overall abilities are essentially made up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical.

LO: Identify the key biographical characteristics and how they are relevant to OB.

Biographical characteristics such as age, gender, race, disability, and length of service are some of the most obvious ways employees differ.

LO: Recognize discrimination and recognize how they function in organizational settings.

Discriminatory policies/practices: Actions taken by representatives that deny equal opportunity to perform or unequal rewards for performance. Sexual Harassment: Unwanted sexual advances and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that create a hostile or offensive work environment. Intimidation: Overt threats or bullying direct at members of specific groups of employees. Mockery and Insults: Jokes or negative stereotypes; sometimes the result of jokes taken too far. Exclusion: Exclusion of certain people from opportunities, social events, discussions or informal mentoring; can occur unintentionally. Incivility: Disrespectful treatment, including behaving in an aggressive manner, interrupting the person, or ignoring his or her questions.

Diversity management

Diversity management makes everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others.

Sexual Orientation

Federal law does not prohibit discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation, though many states and municipalities do. In general, observers note that even in the absence of federal legislation requiring nondiscrimination, many organizations have implemented policies and procedures protecting employees on the basis of sexual orientation.

Gender

Few issues initiate more debates, misconceptions, and unsupported opinions than whether women perform as well on jobs as men do.

What are the effects of discrimination against individuals on the basis of age?

Organizational climate favoring age discrimination was associated with lower levels of commitment to the company. This lower commitment was, in turn, related to lower levels of organizational performance.

Tenure

If we define seniority as time on a particular job, the most recent evidence demonstrates a positive relationship between seniority and job productivity. So tenure, expressed as work experience, appears to be a good predictor of employee productivity. Evidence indicates tenure and job satisfaction are positively related. In fact, when age and tenure are treated separately, tenure appears a more consistent and stable predictor of job satisfaction than age.

What effect does age actually have on turnover, absenteeism, productivity, and satisfaction?

In general, older employees have lower rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees. However, they have equal rates of unavoidable absence, such as sickness absences.

One of the most controversial aspects of the ADA is the provision that requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for people with psychiatric disabilities. Why?

Most people have very strong biases against those with mental illnesses, who are therefore reluctant to disclose this information to employers. Many who do, report negative consequences.

Religions

Not only do religious and nonreligious people question each other's belief systems; often people of different religious faiths conflict. Perhaps the greatest religious diversity issue in the United States today revolves around Islam. Faith can be an employment issue when religious beliefs prohibit or encourage certain behaviors. Perhaps as a result of different perceptions of religion's role in the workplace, religious discrimination claims have been a growing source of discrimination claims in the United States.

What is the relationship between age and job satisfaction?

Satisfaction tends to continually increase among professionals as they age, whereas it falls among nonprofessionals during middle age and then rises again in the later years.

LO: Describe the two major forms of workforce diversity.

Surface-level diversity: are those differences that are easily noticeable such as age, gender, ethnicity/race, culture, language, disability etc. Not easy to change. Example: Racial differences cannot be scaled down to zero. Deep-level diversity: not easily noticeable and measurable since they are communicated through verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Examples: personal differences in attitudes, values, beliefs and personality.

Other Biographical Characteristics

Tenure, religions, sexual orientation, gender identity

General Mental Ability (GMA)

Term used to describe the level at which an individual learns, understands instructions, and solves problems.

Ethnicity

The additional set of cultural characteristics that often overlaps with race.

Race

The biological heritage people use to identify themselves.

Physical Abilities

The capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.

Are there any important differences between men and women?

There are no consistent male-female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability. Minor differences: women usually more agreeable and willing to conform to authority, while men are usually more aggressive and more likely to expect success.

Discrimination

To discriminate is to note a difference between things, which in itself isn't necessarily bad; however, allowing our behavior to be influenced by stereotypes about groups of people is bad. Example: Racism. Unfair discrimination assumes everyone in a group is the same. This discrimination is often very harmful to organizations and employees.

Disability

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, the representation of individuals with disabilities in the U.S. workforce rapidly increased. Making inferences about the relationship between disability and employment outcomes is difficult because the term disability is so broad.

What are the differences in absences and turnover rates between men and women?

Women more likely to be absent and have higher turnover rates. The most logical explanation is that the research was conducted in North America, and North American culture has historically placed home and family responsibilities on women. The role of women has definitely changed over the past generation. Men are increasingly sharing responsibility for child care, and an increasing number report feeling a conflict between their home responsibilities and their work lives.

How do sex roles affect our perceptions?

Women who succeed in traditionally male domains are perceived as less likable, more hostile, and less desirable as supervisors.

How does preference of work-schedule differ between men and women?

Working mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible work schedules, and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities. Women also prefer jobs that encourage work-life balance, which has the effect of limiting their options for career advancement.