Diversity in Organizations CHAPTER 2 Diversity in Organizations

Describe the two major forms of workforce diversity. Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest possible pool of skills, abilities, and ideas. Managers also need to recognize that differences among people can lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict. individual characteristics like age, gender, race, ethnicity, and abilities can influence employee performance. We’ll also see how managers can develop awareness about these characteristics and manage a diverse workforce effectively.

Levels of Diversity Surface level diversity Surface level diversity, not thoughts and feelings, and can lead employees to perceive one another through stereotypes and assumptions. Deep-level diversity To understand this difference between surface- and deep-level diversity, consider a few examples.

Discrimination Recognize stereotypes and understand how they function in organizational settings. Although diversity does present many opportunities for organizations, effective diversity management also means working to eliminate unfair discrimination. To discriminate is to note a difference between things, which in itself isn’t necessarily bad.

Forms of Discrimination

Discrimination Noting of a difference between things; often we refer to unfair discrimination, which means making judgments about individuals based on stereotypes regarding their demographic group

Biographical characteristics Biographical characteristics such as age, gender, race, disability, and length of service are some of the most obvious ways employees differ. AGE The relationship between age and job performance is likely to be an issue of increasing importance during the next decade for at least three reasons.

Biographical characteristics First, belief is widespread that job performance declines with increasing age. Regardless of whether this is true, a lot of people believe it and act on it. Second, as noted in Chapter 1 , the workforce is aging. Many employers recognize that older workers represent a huge potential pool of high-quality applicants. Companies such as Borders and the Vanguard Group have sought to increase their attractiveness to older workers by providing targeted training that meets their needs, and by offering flexible work schedules and part-time work to draw in those who are semi-retired. The third reason is U.S. legislation that, for all intents and purposes