What is diversity? Disadvantages of Diversity Advantages of Diversity Why Diversity Efforts can Fail

1. Cox: Challenge of Managing Diversity • What is diversity? • Disadvantages of Diversity • Advantages of Diversity • Why Diversity Efforts can Fail

2. What is Diversity? • Diversity is • Differences in social & cultural group memberships among people in an employment, market or educational setting • Group memberships (e.g. gender, ethnicity, national origin, religion, etc) influence people’s major life experiences • Pie Chart Exercise • Backgrounds Exercise

3. Disadvantages of Diversity • Lowers Performance • Increase conflict • Lower commitment in work groups • Increase harassment and discrimination

4. Advantages of Diversity Improves/increases • Problem solving • Creativity & innovation • Organizational flexibility • Quality of Human Resources • Marketing strategies

5. Advantages of Diversity in Groups • Improves Problem Solving • Approach problems from multiple perspectives • Increases critical analyses in decision making due to differences in opinion • Need to train diverse groups on how to best utilize their differences • Improves Creativity • Evidence: Innovation, performance in marketing tasks • How?

6. Advantages of Diversity in Groups • Organizational Flexibility • Diverse people have different ways to organizing and reacting and reacting to information • Women score higher on tolerance for ambiguity which is linked to cognitive complexity • Bilinguals show more cognitive flexibility • Having broad policies, reducing standardization improves fluidity allowing org to respond to external changes faster and cheaper

7. Advantages of Diversity in Groups • Quality of Human Resources • Diversifying pool of potential employees increases org performance • Marketing • Respond effectively to cultural differences in marketplace • Public relations adv of managing diversity well (e.g, IBM) • Understanding consumer behavior • Improves customer relations • But remember warning by Brief et al!

8. Why Diversity Efforts can Fail • Incorrect diagnosis of problem • Incorrect solution • Misunderstanding rate of return on diversity efforts

9. Why Diversity Efforts can Fail • Incorrect diagnosis of problem • Need to change org culture (of conformity) to capitalize on differences in world views • Increasing representation or increasing sensitivity of current employees not sufficient • Incorrect Solution • Alignment of all systems within organization needed • e.g., Recruiting and hiring not sufficient if barriers in mentoring, appraisal, compensation systems not removed

10. Why Diversity Efforts can Fail • Misunderstanding rate of return on diversity efforts • Institutionalizing diversity competency takes several years of intense effort • Most org expect results in a year, change focus and withdraw attention from diversity efforts

11. Cox: Challenge of Managing Diversity • What is diversity? • Disadvantages of Diversity • Advantages of Diversity • Why Diversity Efforts can Fail