Chapter 4- Diversity at work

- More than half US workforce now consists of racial, ethnic minotiries and women
- Women 46.2% of labor force
- White accounts for 60% of labor force in 2015, drop below 50% 2040
- Asian, American indian, pacific islander, increase to 8.5%
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WORKFORCE DIVERSITY
 Managing diversity
o Establishing a heterogeneous workforce (incl. white men) to perform to its potential in an
equitable work environment where no member or group has an advantage or
disadvantage
o Maximize productivity, creativity, commitment
o Meet needs of diverse groups
o Sometimes aff action is preferential treatment, but rlly it’s the first step that gives
managers the opp to correct imbalances and injustices
o Five reasons why diversity is so dominant
 Shift from manufacturing to service econ
 Globalization
 Business strats that require more teamwork
 Mergers and alliances that pin different cultures to work together
 Changing labor market
 The Service Economy
o 90% of US employees work in service-based industry (2011)
o manufacturing maintains output but as productivity grows, need for labor decreases
o most growth in new jobs come from service-industry (banking, financial services, health
services, tourism, retail)
o anticipating and monitoring customer needs and expectations is CENTRAL
 customer literacy
o Minorities have a combined buying power of more than $3 trillion
 Eggs companies to have workforce mirror customers
o BoA Baltimore showed how customer loyalty was high when tellers were locals
 Can communicate better with customers who are similar to them
 Globalization
o Organizations compete around the world for customers & offer choices unavailable to
them domestically
o Customers have more power and firms have to get closer to customers
 i.e. Japanese carmakers showing American workers in ads
o cultural learning helps measure business factors
o CEO of Novo Nordisk requires amnagers to buy and sell 3 practices to managers to
 1. Use tech to move info around
 2. Learn from colleagues around the world and share info
 3. Measure soft skills and hold ppl accountable for them
 Business strategies that require teamwork
o Goals are now defined more broadly (world-class quality, reliability, customer service)
o No one team can do it alone
o Only through work teams can newly adopted strategies regarding better quality,
innovation, cost control, or speed be executed
o Virtual teams meet thru electronic communication
o Team membership is fluid and ever-evolving—creates a rich training agenda
o Diversity is inevitable byproduct of teamwork
  Mergers and Strategic Alliances
o Managers know how important it is to knit together partners’ teams and resources
o Resources = people, and integrating culture is the top challenge in mergers and
acquisitions
o When foreign businesses attempt long-distance marriage, national and corporate cultures
are biggest barriers
 50% of US managers either resign or are fired within 18 months of a foreign
takeover
 culture shock
 don’t know values, where people are coming from
o urgent need to capitalize on diversity to offer products and services in far-flung markets
 Changing labor market
o More women, more immigrants, more people of color, more older workers
o More than 500 million ppl will legally work outside home countries in the next 20 years
 Conflict, natural disasters, climate change, economic opportunism
o Attaining advantages of diversity requires teaching all employees to understand and value
diff races, ethnicities, cultures, languages, religions, sexual orientations, etc.

DIVERSITY AT WORK
 Discrimination correlates with “burning out”
o Reduced willingness to take initiative, likelihood of changing jobs
o Minorities and women quit companies more often than white males do
 Suggestions about handling diversity
o Inquire, show empathy, educate, state needs and/or expectations, don’t polarize people or
groups
o Culture is foundation of group differences
 Culture
o Characteristic behavior of people in a country or region
o Helps people make sense of their part in the world, gives them identity
o Fam patterns, customs, social classes, religion, etc.
o Understand everything that makes a person’s culture what it is
o “value diversity,” meaning more than just being comfortable and accepting
 means learning to value and respect different styles of behavior
 no room for inflexibility and intolerance
 African americans
o 12.4% of US workforce by 2022
 now own 1.9 million businesses and employ > 921,000 ppl
 generate 137.5 billion in revenue
 buying power reached $1 trillion in 2013, $1.2 trillion by 2015
 seven black CEOs in 2014
o despite trends, legal system makes this all happen
 Nov 2000 Coca Cola $192.5 million settlement to discrimination lawsuit about
pay, promotions, performance evals
o Settlements lead to improvement
 20% of coca cola US workforce is black, 41% is female, 6 blacks in the board of
directors
 coc cola DiversityInc’s Top 50 companies for 11th straight year
o practices to consider
 hire only those search firms with solid track for diverse candidates
 make links with colleges and universities with lots of minorities
  start formal mentoring and succession programs
 include progress on diversity issues in management performance reviews
 set specific goals in critical areas, such as % of minorities and women hired,
promoted, and in the workforce
 provide employees with confidential outlets to settle greivances
 Hispanics
o 19.1% of civilian labor force by 2022
o encompasses a large, diverse group of ppl
 i.e. third generation white Cuban American is Hispanic
 its bc they speak Spanish
o Meixcans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans = three largest groups of Hispanics
 CA, TX, NY, FL 73% of the firms owned by Hispanics
o Btwn 1990 and 2012, # of Hispanic entrepreneurs in US tripled to 2million
o Hispanics getting wealthier, reaching mean income of $39,005
o Buying power difficult to measure but expected to soar to $1.5 trillion in 2015
 Asian Americans
o 5.3% of the workforce in 2012, 6.3% by 2022
o buying power $1 trillion by 2017
o Asian americans are better educated than the average American
 50% ages 25 and over have bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 28% of
total population
 many hold top jobs, at places like applied materials, union bank, Sempra energy
 i.e. at Applied Materials, Asians are 26.7% of workforce
 diversity at grassroots level, funding charter school in san jose to get
latino students into college
 Women in the workforce
o Women raised expectations and levels of aspiration higher because of the women’s
movement
o 47% of the workforce, 51% of managerial and professional positions
o share of ppl who say they can’t “have it all” dropped to 66% in 2013
o 5 forces
 changes in family
 legalized abortion/contraception/divorce/declining birthrate
 75% of all working women will be pregnant
 71% of mothers with children under 18 will work for pay outside the
home
 big employers like BoA, Accenture, BCG increase maternity-leave pay
 proportion of single-parent family groups with children under 18
increased
 changes in education
 women earn 57% of all undergraduate degrees, 60% of all masters
degrees, 50% of all doctorates, 55% of MBAs
 changes in self perception
 women executives pay high personal price to be high status by never
marrying or breaking marriages
 female managers less likely to be married than male managers, 59%
 men have more children than women counterparts
 major goal: raise awareness so women can be given a fair chance to think
about interests+potential, investigate other possibilities, make an
 intelligent choice, and considered for openings or promotions on equal
basis with men
 changes in technology
 tech reduced physical effort and time to accomplish tasks
 makes virtual work arrangements possible
 changes in economy
 shift away from goods production toward service industries
o 29% of business owners, 1.2 trillion in revenue
o 40% in management, professional, and related occupations
o 80% of couples are dual earners
 if all working women were to quit their jobs, businesses would disintegrate
 working mothers are not less committed to their work
 Age-based diversity
o 4 diff generations
 silent generation (born 1930-1945)
 born in the middle of Great Depression
 too young to fight in WW2, went to best colleges, courted by
corporations, paid more than any other group in history
 employers gave increasing job responsibility, pay and benefits
 baby-boom generation (born 1946-1964)
 78 million people and 54% of the workforce
 early and late boomers
 believe in rights to privacy, due process and freedom of speech, as well
as firing just cause
 huge base of knowledge and talent, bring years of management and
leadership expertise
 Generation X (born 1965-1980)
 50 million americans, or 1/3 of workforce
 cross btwn hierarchy embracing Boomers and team-driven millenials
 independent, cynical, do not expect long-term employment security
 tend to be more practical, focused, and future oriented
 computer literate generation
 five characteristics defining rewarding work environments: control over
own schedules, improve marketable skills, expose to decision makers,
put name on tangible results, clear areas of responsibility
 Generation Y (born 1981-1995)
 78 million, 40% of US workforce by 2020
 tech exposed to them earlier
 grew up texting and IMing
 multitasking is easy
 accepting of differences among everyone
 mantra: challenge convention, find new and better ways of doing things
 good: multitasking, filtering out distractions, juggling numerous projects
 bad: short attention spans, constant need for stimulation/entertainment,
blurring of lines between work and leasure
 intergenerational conflict
o incidences low, but when it does occur it stems from work ethic, organizational
hierarchy, and managing change
o separating workers from different generations doesn’t work
 o recognize all generations must be treated with respect
o people are uncomf with change, everyone wants to learn, everyone likes feedback

MANAGING DIVERSITY
 Racial and Ethnic Minorities
o Not enough to start a mentoring program or put a woman on the board of directors
o Gotta undertake programs, not just inside company
o Some companies start early in high school and colleges to recruit sizable minority
populations
o Focus on bringing in the best talent
o Establish mentoring programs among employees of same and diff races
o Hold managers accountable
o Develop career plans for employees as a part of performance reviews
o Promote racial and ethnic minorities to decisionmaking positions
o Diversify board of directors
 Female workers
o Alt career paths
o Extended leave
o Flexible scheduling
o Flextime (flexible work arrangements)
o Job sharing
o Teleworking
 Gen X and Y
o Explain to them how work contributes to the bottom line
o Always provide full disclosure
o Create customized career paths
o Allow them to have input in decisions
o Provide public praise
o Treat as sophisticated consumers
o Encourage mentorship
o Provide access to innovative tech
o Consider new benefit/compensation strategies
o Offer community involvement
o Emphasize “you can do it your way”
 Older workers
o Consider the following to maximize use
o Age/experience profile—look at age distribution across jobs to identify where older
workers can use their experience and talents
o Job-performance requirements—define more closely the abilities and skills needed for
posts
 Physical abilities decline with age but mental abilities stay relatively stable
o Performance management
 Age biases may be refelected in managers’ attitude (age grading)
 Subsconscious expcetations about what people can and cannot do at
particular times
o Workforce interest surveys
 Management understands abilities of its older workers so now they need to
determine what they want
 Encourage older workers to continue with the org, and encourage turnover of
workers it doesn’t want
 o Training and counseling
 Training programs to avoid mid-career plateaus (having acceptable performance
but not high level w/ little or no effort to improve performance)
 Reduce obsolences (knowledge or skills being out of date
o Structure of jobs
 Explore proposed changes to work conditions jointly with workforce
 Multiple generations likely to be affected by changes anyway
 Workers with disabilities
o Disability won’t matter if you can prove you can contribute to employer’s bottom line
o Show you are a problem solver
o Employers regard ppl with disabilities good workers: punctual, conscientious, and
competent if given reasonable accommodation
o 68.5% of those without a disability are in the labor force, but only 19.1% of those
disabled are
o biggest barrier: lack of knowledge
o typical expenditures are pretty pricy for accommodations but there are tax incentives
o consider placing desk on blocks, lowering shelves, installing phone amplifiers, flextime,
job sharing
 LGBTQ
o 6% of the population, buying power $830 billion
o loyal to specific brands
o more and more companies are advocates for gay rights