How to Manage Diverse Workforce?

Week 2

Levels Of Diversity

Everybody brings differences to an organization where they work. These

differences can create energy and excitement in the workplace, but they
can also cause conflict. So it is important that we have an understanding of
how diversity works in organizations.
When we look at the workplace we can recognize two levels of diversity.
1. Surface-level diversity represents the characteristics that are easily
observed such as race, gender, age etc.
2. Deep-level diversity represents the aspects that are more difficult to see
at first glance such as values, personality, and work preferences.
Effective workforce programs that encourage diversity contain three
components.
1. First, they teach managers about the laws they need to follow and equal
employment opportunity requirements.
2. Second, they help managers and employees to see that a diverse
workforce is better able to serve diverse markets.
3. Third, they take into account personal differences and approach the
differences as strengths that can be utilized to enhance performance.

Forms of discrimination
Organizations need to engage in Diversity Management to eliminate unfair
discrimination. By understanding what diversity is and helping employees with training
and development opportunities, the negative impact of discrimination can be minimized.
Type

Definition

Discriminatory policies
or practices

Actions that deny equal opportunity to perform or unequal

rewards for performance

Sexual harassment

Unwanted sexual advances and other verbal, physical conduct of

sexual nature that create a hostile or offensive work
environment

Intimidation

Threats or bullying

Mockery and insults

Jokes or negative stereotypes

Exclusion

Left out of opportunities, events, discussions, mentoring- check

intention

Incivility

Disrespectful treatment: aggressive behavior, interrupting, or

ignoring

How to Manage Diverse Workforce?

We can readily observe biographical characteristics, but that doesnt
mean we should explicitly use them in management decisions. Most
research shows fairly minimal effects of biographical characteristics
on job performance. We also need to be aware of implicit biases we
or other managers may have.
An effective selection process will improve the fit between
employees and job requirements. A job analysis will provide
information about jobs currently being done and the abilities
individuals need to perform the jobs adequately. Applicants can then
be tested, interviewed, and evaluated on the degree to which they
possess the necessary abilities.
Promotion and transfer decisions affecting individuals already in the
organizations employ should reflect candidates abilities. As with
new employees, care should be taken to assess critical abilities
incumbents will need in the job and match those with the
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organizations human resources.

How to Manage Diverse Workforce?

To accommodate employees with disabilities, managers can improve
the fit by fine-tuning the job to better match an incumbents abilities.
Often, modifications with no significant impact on the jobs basic
activities, such as changing equipment or reorganizing tasks within a
group, can better adapt work to the specific talents of a given
employee.
Diversity management must be an ongoing commitment that crosses
all levels of the organization. Group management, recruiting, hiring,
retention, and development practices can all be designed to leverage
diversity for the organizations competitive advantage.
Policies to improve the climate for diversity can be effective, so long
as they are designed to acknowledge all employees perspectives.
One-shot diversity training sessions are less likely to be effective than
comprehensive programs that address the climate for diversity at
multiple levels.
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INFLUENCES ON EMPLOYEE
BEHAVIOR
WEEK 3

Have You Ever Wondered:

Why a coworker behaves the way he or she does?
Why people so often live up (or down) to the
expectations that others have for them?
Why managers seem to develop relationships of
different quality with different subordinates?
Why some work teams develop more trust and
cohesiveness than others?
How motivation influences employee behavior?
Whether there are some general frameworks or
models that can help in understanding the various
influences on employee behavior?

MODEL OF EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR

The key factors affecting employee behavior and their
corresponding relationships
(1) external forcesthat is, those found in the external
environment (outside the organization), as well as in the
work environment (inside the organization), including
leadership, aspects of the organization itself, coworkers, and
the outcomes of performance (such as praise);
(2) internal forcesthat is, those within the employee,
including motivation, attitudes, and KSAs (knowledge, skills,
and abilities).
This model assumes that external and internal forces interact
or combine to produce a given behavior, and that employee
behavior has a direct relationship to the personal and
organizational outcomes that are obtained.

IMPACT OF EMPLOYEESPERCEPTION
ON INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING
AND OTHER BEHAVIORS

What is Perception?
A process by which individuals organize and
interpret their sensory impressions in order to
give meaning to their environment.
Peoples behavior is based on their perception
of what reality is, not on reality itself.
The world as it is perceived is the world that is
behaviorally important.

Attribution Theory: Judging Others

Our perception and judgment of others are significantly
influenced by our assumptions of the other peoples internal
states.

When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to

determine whether it is internally or externally
caused.
Internal causes are under that persons control.
External causes are not person forced to act in that way.

Causation judged through:

Distinctiveness

Shows different behaviors in different situations.

Consensus

Response is the same as others to same situation.

Consistency

Responds in the same way over time.

Errors and Biases in Attributions

Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate the influence of
external factors and overestimate the influence of
internal factors when making judgments about the
behavior of others
We blame people first, not the situation

Self-Serving Bias
The tendency for individuals to attribute their own
successes to internal factors while putting the blame
for failures on external factors
It is our success but their failure

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging

Others
Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see on the basis
of their interests, background, experience, and
attitudes.

Halo Effect

Drawing a general impression about an individual on

the basis of a single characteristic

Contrast Effects

Evaluation of a persons characteristics that are

affected by comparisons with other people recently
encountered who rank higher or lower on the same
characteristics

Another Shortcut: Stereotyping

Judging someone on the basis of ones
perception of the group to which that person
belongs a prevalent and often useful, if not
always accurate, generalization
Profiling
A form of stereotyping in which members of a
group are singled out for intense scrutiny based
on a single, often racial, trait.

Specific Shortcut Applications in

Organizations
Employment Interviews

Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of

interviewers judgments of applicants.
Formed in a single glance 1/10 of a second!

Performance Expectations

Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower

or higher performance of employees reflects
preconceived leader expectations about employee
capabilities.

Performance Evaluations

Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental)

perceptions of appraisers of another employees job
performance.
Critical impact on employees.

Perceptions and Individual Decision

Making
Problem
A perceived discrepancy between the current state of
affairs and a desired state

Decisions
Choices made from among alternatives developed
from data

Perception Linkage:
All elements of problem identification and the
decision making process are influenced by perception.
Problems must be recognized
Data must be selected and evaluated

Decision-Making Models in
Organizations
Rational Decision-Making

The perfect world model: assumes complete

information, all options known, and maximum payoff
Six-step decision-making process
Bounded Reality

The real world model: seeks satisfactory and

sufficient solutions from limited data and alternatives
Intuition

A non-conscious process created from distilled

experience that results in quick decisions
Relies on holistic associations
Affectively charged engaging the emotions

Common Biases and Errors in DecisionMaking

Overconfidence Bias
Believing too much in our own ability to make good
decisions especially when outside of own expertise

Anchoring Bias
Using early, first received information as the basis for
making subsequent judgments

Confirmation Bias
Selecting and using only facts that support our decision

Availability Bias

Emphasizing information that is most readily at hand

Recent
Vivid

More Common Decision-Making Errors

Escalation of Commitment
Increasing commitment to a decision in spite of evidence
that it is wrong especially if responsible for the decision!

Randomness Error
Creating meaning out of random events - superstitions

Hindsight Bias
After an outcome is already known, believing it could have
been accurately predicted beforehand

Individual Differences in DecisionMaking

Personality
Conscientiousness may effect escalation of
commitment
Achievement strivers are likely to increase commitment
Dutiful people are less likely to have this bias

Self-Esteem
High self-esteem people are susceptible to self-serving bias

Gender

Women analyze decisions more than men rumination

Women are twice as likely to develop depression
Differences develop early

Organizational Constraints
Performance Evaluation
Managerial evaluation criteria influence actions

Reward Systems
Managers will make the decision with the greatest
personal payoff for them

Formal Regulations
Limit the alternative choices of decision makers

System-imposed Time Constraints

Restrict ability to gather or evaluate information

Historical Precedents
Past decisions influence current decisions

INFLUENCES OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES

WEEK 4

What are the Major Job Attitudes?

Job Satisfaction
A positive feeling about the job resulting from an evaluation
of its characteristics

Job Involvement
Degree of psychological identification with the job where
perceived performance is important to self-worth

Psychological Empowerment
Belief in the degree of influence over the job, competence, job
meaningfulness, and autonomy

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

concept that describes a person's voluntary commitment within
an organization or company that is not part of his or her
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contractual tasks.

Another Major Job Attitude

Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, while wishing to
maintain membership in the organization.
Three dimensions:
Affective emotional attachment to organization
Continuance Commitment economic value of staying
Normative moral or ethical obligations
Has some relation to performance, especially for new employees.

Theoretical models propose that employees who are

committed will be less likely to engage in work
withdrawal even if they are dissatisfied, because they
have a sense of organizational loyalty.
On the other hand, employees who are not committed,
who feel less loyal to the organization, will tend to
show lower levels of attendance at work across the
board.
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And Yet More Major Job Attitudes

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
Degree to which employees believe the organization
values their contribution and cares about their wellbeing.
Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved
in decision making, and supervisors are seen as
supportive.
High POS is related to higher OCBs and performance.

Employee Engagement
The degree of involvement with, satisfaction with, and
enthusiasm for the job.
Engaged employees are passionate about their work and
company, feel a deep connection
More recent research: engagement is distinct from job
satisfaction and job involvement
an umbrella term for whatever one wants it to be.

Causes of Job Satisfaction

Pay influences job satisfaction only to a point.
After about $40,000 per year (in the U.S.), there is no
relationship between amount of pay and job
satisfaction.
Money may bring happiness, but not necessarily job
satisfaction.
Training, the social context, interdependence, and
feedback matter

Personality can influence job satisfaction.

Negative people are usually not satisfied with their
jobs.
Those with positive core self-evaluation are more
satisfied with their jobs.
Inner worth + Basic competence
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Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction

Active

When employees are

dissatisfied with their jobs,
Exit
Voice
they have four basic
Behavior
Active and
responses they can utilize.
directed toward
constructive
leaving the
attempts to
organization
improve
These options are divided
conditions
Constructive into active and passive
Destructive
choices. The active
Neglect
Loyalty
Allowing
Passively waiting
options are exit and voice.
conditions to
for conditions to
worsen
improve
If employees select to exit,
they choose to leave or
move in a direction of
Passive
leaving the organization.
The passive options are neglect and loyalty.
In voice, the employees
Employees may choose to neglect their
will work toward active
work and just allow conditions to worsen or
and constructive attempts
they may choose to remain loyal to the
to improve conditions.
organization and just wait for change.

Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Job Performance
Satisfied workers are more productive AND
more productive workers are more satisfied!
The causality may run both ways.

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Satisfaction influences OCB through
perceptions of fairness.

Customer Satisfaction
Satisfied frontline employees increase
customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Absenteeism
Satisfied employees are moderately less likely
to miss work.
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Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

Intellectual ability is made up of many dimensions. They include
number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive
reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and memory.
Number aptitude is the ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetic
and will be effective in jobs requiring mathematical ability, such as an
accountant.
Verbal comprehension is the ability to understand what is read or
heard and the relationship of words to each other. This ability will be
helpful in jobs where the manager needs to understand policies in
order to carry out their job tasks.
Perceptual speed is the ability to identify visual similarities and
differences quickly and accurately. This particular ability is helpful
when an employee needs to take in a lot of information and make
decisions about the patterns, such as a detective or inspector.

Dimensions of Intellectual Ability

Inductive reasoning is present when an individual can identify a logical
sequence in a problem in order to help find a solution. An employee
who needs to make decisions about the future based on historical
information will need the ability of inductive reasoning.
Deductive reasoning is the ability to use logic and assess the
implications of the argument. When making choices between two
different possible solutions to a problem, a manager would need to
call upon their deductive reasoning skills.
Spatial Visualization is when someone can imagine how an object
would look if its position in space was changed. An employee who
needs to make decisions about office setup or interior design would
need to have a high level of spatial visualization ability.
Memory is the ability to retain and recall past experiences.
Individuals who need to act quickly in a situation, such as a paramedic
or nurse, would need a significant degree of memory ability.

Understanding Employees Personality

WEEK 5

What is Personality?
The dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his unique
adjustments to his environment. - Gordon Allport
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and
interacts with others, the measurable traits a person
exhibits

Measuring Personality
Helpful in hiring decisions
Most common method: self-reporting surveys
Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent
assessment of personality often better predictors

Personality Determinants
Heredity
Factors determined at conception: physical stature,
facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle
composition and reflexes, energy level, and biorhythms
This Heredity Approach argues that genes are the
source of personality
Twin studies: raised apart but very similar
personalities
Parents dont add much to personality development
There is some personality change over long time
periods

Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics that describe an
individuals behavior
The more consistent the characteristic and the
more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the
more important the trait.

Two dominant frameworks used to describe

personality:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Big Five Model

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Most widely-used instrument in the world.
Participants are classified on four axes to
determine one of 16 possible personality
types, such as ENTJ.
Extroverted (E) vs. Introverted (I)
Sensing (S) vs. Intuitive (N)
Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

The Types and Their Uses

Each of the sixteen possible combinations has a name,
for instance:
Visionaries (INTJ) are original, stubborn and driven.
Organizers (ESTJ) realistic, logical, analytical and
businesslike.
Conceptualizer (ENTP) entrepreneurial, innovative,
individualistic and resourceful.

Research results on validity mixed.

MBTI is a good tool for self-awareness and counseling.
Should not be used as a selection test for job candidates.

The Big Five Model of Personality

Dimensions
Extroversion
Sociable, gregarious, and assertive
Agreeableness
Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
Conscientiousness
Responsible, dependable, persistent, and organized
Emotional Stability
Calm, self-confident, secure under stress (positive), versus
nervous, depressed, and insecure under stress (negative)
Openness to Experience
Curious, imaginative, artistic, and sensitive

How Do the Big Five Traits Predict

Behavior?
Research has shown this to be a better framework.
Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to
higher job performance:
Highly conscientious people develop more job knowledge,
exert greater effort, and have better performance.
Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.
Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction.
Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have
good social skills.
Open people are more creative and can be good
leaders.
Agreeable people are good in social settings.

Other Personality Traits Relevant to OB

Core Self-Evaluation
The degree to which people like or dislike themselves
Positive self-evaluation leads to higher job performance

Machiavellianism
A pragmatic, emotionally distant power-player who believes that ends
justify the means
High Machs are manipulative, win more often, and persuade more
than they are persuaded. Flourish when:
Have direct interaction
Work with minimal rules and regulations
Emotions distract others

Narcissism
An arrogant, entitled, self-important person who needs excessive
admiration
Less effective in their jobs

More Relevant Personality Traits

Self-Monitoring
The ability to adjust behavior to meet external,
situational factors.
High monitors conform more and are more likely to
become leaders.

Risk Taking
The willingness to take chances.
May be best to align propensities with job
requirements.
Risk takers make faster decisions with less
information.

Even More Relevant Personality Traits

Type A Personality

Aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle

to achieve more in less time

Impatient: always moving, walking, and eating rapidly

Strive to think or do two or more things at once
Cannot cope with leisure time
Obsessed with achievement numbers

Prized in North America, but quality of the work is low

Type B people are the complete opposite
Proactive Personality

Identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action,

and perseveres to completion
Creates positive change in the environment

Understanding Employees Values

WEEK 6

Values
Basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how to
live your life that is personally or socially preferable
How to live life properly.
Importance of Values
Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation,
and behaviors

Influence our perception of the world around us

Represent interpretations of right and wrong
Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred
over others

Classifying Values Rokeach Value

Survey
Terminal Values
Desirable end-states of existence; the goals that a person
would like to achieve during his or her lifetime

Instrumental Values
Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving ones
terminal values

People in same occupations or categories tend to hold

similar values.
But values vary between groups.
Value differences make it difficult for groups to negotiate
and may create conflict.

Generational Values
Cohort

Entered
Workforce

Approximate
Current Age

Dominant Work Values

Veterans

1950-1964

65+

Hard working, conservative,

conforming; loyalty to the
organization

Boomers

1965-1985

40-60s

Success, achievement, ambition,

dislike of authority; loyalty to career

Xers

1985-2000

20-40s

Work/life balance, team-oriented,

dislike of rules; loyalty to relationships

Nexters

2000-Present

Under 30

Confident, financial success, selfreliant but team-oriented; loyalty to

both self and relationships

Linking Personality and Values to the

Workplace
Managers are less interested in someones ability
to do a specific job than in that persons flexibility.
Person-Job Fit:
John Hollands Personality-Job Fit Theory
Six personality types
Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI)

Key Points of the Model:

There appear to be intrinsic differences in personality
between people.
There are different types of jobs.
People in jobs congruent with their personality should be
more satisfied and have lower turnover.

Hollands Personality Types

Still Linking Personality to the

Workplace
In addition to matching the individuals personality to
the job, managers are also concerned with:
Person-Organization Fit:
The employees personality must fit with the
organizational culture.
People are attracted to organizations that match their
values.
Those who match are most likely to be selected.
Mismatches will result in turnover.
Can use the Big Five personality types to match to the
organizational culture.

HRD Implications
Personality
Screen for the Big Five trait of conscientiousness
Take into account the situational factors as well
MBTI can help with training and development
Values
Often explain attitudes, behaviors and perceptions
Higher performance and satisfaction achieved when the
individuals values match those of the organization

Global Implications
Personality
Do frameworks like Big Five transfer across cultures?
Yes, the but the frequency of type in the culture may vary.
Better in individualistic than collectivist cultures.

Values
Values differ across cultures.
Hofstedes Framework for assessing culture five value dimensions

Hofstedes Framework