Keller graduate school of management, Gm591 Mamun Chowdhury

(Research question: How do differing perspectives affect out views of workforce diversity?)

Introduction: Diversity relates to gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief, including that people are different in other respects such as educational level, job function, socio-economic background, personality profile, marital status and whether or not one has family. Diversity and demographic differences can impact individual behavior by creating conflict in the workplace. The success of an organization depends on the workforce of the organization. A workforce made up of diverse individuals from different backgrounds can bring the best talent to an organization. Today, there are more and more ethnic people joining the workforce of the United States. Since the United States is considered the land of opportunity, more people from different backgrounds have migrated to our country over the past 100+ years to obtain work. Now, due to an increase in globalization and companies becoming more diverse, we are seeing even more people of ethnic backgrounds relocating to the United States for opportunities. With the increase in education, this is bringing forth many individuals of whom tend to have a great deal of input into organizations that otherwise would not have happened. These individuals bring a vast array of knowledge from their culture and beliefs. They tend to see things differently and have afforded companies to understand the needs of people throughout the world.

Back ground : Organizationally, inclusion of diverse people is most effective when those individuals are incorporated in systematic ways into important (and appropriate) business and decision-making processes in the organization. One Fortune 500 corporation insisted on staffing its board with particular proportions of whites, African Americans, white women, and non-U.S. members. The organization argued that they were not concerned about quotas and tokenism because there were more than enough highly qualified individuals of each respective background to serve. Rather, they argued that they were concerned about composing the board in a way they felt would benefit the operation of the corporation. Problem statement: organizations often experienced a series of problems related to this increase in diversity because business leadership had failed to think strategically about why women in the workforce were important to the business. This lack of thoughtfulness produced two fundamental problems in the face of increased diversity. First, the women who entered the organization were subjected to professional and personal hardships that resulted from the organization’s lack of preparedness in tackling the overt and subtle sexism that already existed in their systems. Second, all organization members, old and new, were often left to figure out why this new influx of talent would add value above and beyond the people already in the organization. In the absence of a clear articulation of this rationale, fantasies arose about how women were displacing men and how they were unqualified to do so.

Literature review: Social Identity theory As research shows, employees mental satisfaction is important because they relate to what social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner termed social identity theory. Social identity theory was developed to understand the psychological basis of discrimination . It describes individuals as having not one but multiple “personal selves” that correspond with membership in different social groups. For example, you have different “identities” depending on your group membership : you may have an identity as a woman, a Latina, an “ Alpha Delta Pi” sorority sister, etc. Social identity theory ways that just the mere act of categorizing yourself as a member of a group will lead you to have favoritism toward that group. This favoritism will be displayed in the form of “in- group” enhancement at the expense of the out group. In other words, by becoming a member of Alpha Delta Pi you enhance the status of that group and positively differentiate Alpha Delta Pi relative to the sororities.
In terms of race and ethnicity, social identity theory suggests that simply by having racial or ethical groups it becomes salient in people’s minds; individuals will feel these identities and engage in group and out group categorizations. In organizational contexts these categorizations can be subtle but powerful and primarily noticeable to those in the “out group” category . Organizations may not intend to create discriminatory environments, but having only a few members of a group may evoke a strong out group identity .This may make them feel uncomfortable and less a part of the organization.

Research and diversity: Research study by WorkWorlds' Human Resources Corporation and Huff, Carver, Villani & Associates that utilizes behavioral event interview techniques to identify core competencies of recognized diversity leaders. The function and skill analysis defines the job; the core competencies identify qualities of individuals who will most likely perform well in the job. Studies like these can be used in the HR process for selection; compensation and rewards; training; development; succession planning; performance management; and career planning for diversity professionals. As the research is unfolding, diversity leadership competency extends beyond the diversity practitioners to a generalized responsibility of leadership throughout the organization from the Board and CEO levels, and cascading down, straight through the organization.

Reason for diversifying workforce: It is clear that the greatest benefits of workforce diversity will be experienced not by the companies that have learned to employ people in spite of their differences, but by the companies that have learned to employ people because of them. From this perspective , workforce diversity refers to a mix of people within a workforce who are considered to be, in some way, different from those in the prevailing constituency. Seven important reasons for organizations to engage policies, and perspectives, practices to diversify their workforce are :

* Resource Imperative : Today’s talent is overwhelmingly represented by people from a vast array of backgrounds and life experiences. Competitive companies cannot allow discriminatory preferences and practices to impede them from attracting best available talent. * Capacity-Building Strategy : Tumultuous change is the norm. Companies that prosper have the capacity to effectively solve problems, rapidly adapt to new situations, readily identify new opportunities, and quickly capitalize on them. This capacity is only realized by a diverse range of talent, experience, knowledge, insight, and imagination in their workforces. * Marketing Strategy :To ensure the products and services are designed to appeal to the buying power of diverse customer bases, “smart” companies are hiring people from all walks of life for their specialized insights and knowledge ; the makeup of their workforce reflects their customer base. * Business Communications Strategy : All organizations are seeing a growing diversity in the workforces around them their vendors, partners, and customers. Those that choose to retain homogenous workforces will likely find themselves increasingly ineffective in their external interactions and communications. * Economic Payback : Many groups of people who have been excluded from workplaces are consequently reliant on tax supported social service programs. Diversifying the workforce, particularly through initiatives like welfare to work, can effectively turn tax users into taxpayers. * Social Responsibility : By diversifying our workforces we can help people who are “disadvantaged “ in our communities get opportunities to earn a living and achieve their dreams. * Legal Requirements : Many employers are under legislative mandates to be nondiscriminatory in their employment practices. Noncompliance with Equal Employment Opportunity or Affirmative Action legislation can result in fines and/or loss of contracts with government agencies.
Being social responsible and diverse gives back to communities in a big way, because businesses are providing jobs for minorities and helping them fulfill their dreams. Diversity in the workforce has its economic payback, by giving. How different Perspective effect on workforce diversity: The United States today is a society struggling with its own diversity. There have been and still are many perspectives on how we as a society should come together and interact with others of different races, cultures and ethnic groups.
The Anglo Conformity Perspective views the values, norms and standards of the United States as an extension of English cultures because the English were the dominant group during the colonial era and when the new nation was emerging. (pp. 177) This group rejects diversity and favors homogeneity maintain that everyone should conform to the values, norms and standards determined by the Anglo founders of the country and was modified by the continuing white majority. This requires that immigrants conform to the Anglo way and abandon their ethnic heritages – the customs, ceremonies, clothing and traditions of their former culture. All immigrants even the Europeans were required to adopt the American ways and become similar to everyone else. Some immigrant groups benefited from the Anglo conformity such as the Northern Europeans. When they conformed to the Anglo ways by the way they dressed, , talked and behave, they became easily accepted because their skin color was white. Their skin color gave them obvious advantages over other immigrants who were of other colors. White advantage didcause frustration among those of color who had conformed to the Anglo ways. This was mainly because they were still denied rewards given to the “white” immigrant groups. Many immigrants with lighter skin could “pass for white”.This allowed them many advantages but they paid a psychological price. Their success over shoed the power of Anglo conformity but it also contradicted the concept of America as a melting pot.

The Melting Pot Perspective is a conceptual belief that when immigrants from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds come to United States they blend into the culture and mixed together with those who have come before, develop into a new distinctly American identity. (pp.177) This perspective has been especially attractive in intellectual, artistic and political circles with its compelling images of Americans as a blend of cultures living in harmony. The Melting Pot perspective today focuses more on de-emphasizing differences and emphasized the need to disregard diversity and accept immigrants as long as they can speak English and become citizens.
The Separatism Perspective is a conceptual belief in the notion of establishing entirely separate societies for distinct racial, ethnic or other groups that exist within a society. (pp. 177) Separatism is the most easily recognized perspective yet it is the most pessimistic. Separatism is largely based on the belief that ineradicable difference exist between groups of people and that differences inevitably cause hostility. The logical outcome is to believe that different groups have their own places separate from each other and should only interact when necessary. At different times both the minority and majority have advocated for the separatist perspective. Although there are separatist groups in the United States today, they attract few followers and most are perceived as hate groups such as the Black Muslims or the Arian Nation. Although not all of these groups advocate hatred, they tend to subscribe to the pessimistic separatist premise.

The Cultural Pluralism Perspective is the equal coexistence of diverse cultures in a mutually supportive relationship within the boundaries of one nation. (pp. 169) Pluralism is based on the belief in “equality of opportunity for all people, respect for human dignity and the conviction that no single pattern of living is good for everyone” (Pai & Adler, 1997, pp. 102). Advocates for pluralism believe that diversity is not a difficulty to overcome but a positive attribute of a society. pluralism encourages individuals to identify themselves in terms of their cultural heritage in addition to identifying themselves as American. Pluralism promotes bilingual education and allows them to continue to be fluent in their native language but also become fluent in English. Anglo conformity remains the main perspective among Americans even though there are many supporters of Cultural Pluralism. There are a few reasons for supporting pluralism such as

* The failure of Anglo conformity, * The impact on self-consciousness and self-determination refers to the impact of being perceived as different on one’s efforts to develop the kind of positive, self-consciousness that is essential for individuals to be confident in their ability to determine goals and to achieve them. If people consciously feel proud of who they are, it is easier to set goals and to believe they can be reached. * The necessity for human interdependence concerns the extent to which people depend on others. Individuals interact in any society ; as a society becomes more complex, people inevitabley become more dependent on each other. * The recognition of diversity as an ideal implies that people must promote the idea that our diversity constitutes the best possible situation. Diversity is regarded as a positive when people engage in solving problems. Diversity is also valued in the natural world; the more diversity there is a nature, the more likely it is that human life will adapt as new conditions arise. * The current existence of diversity is perhaps the most compelling argument for promoting pluralism. If some quality is characteristic of a society it makes sense that we value it rather than deny it or try to pretend it didn’t exist at all. I personally advocate the Cultural Pluralism perspective. This perspective recognizes the differences of others, allows for everyone to keep their cultural identity and to remain proud of who they are. This perspective allows for the equal coexistence of diverse cultures in a mutually supportive relationship within the boundaries of one nation. (pp. 169) Pluralism is based on the belief in “equality of opportunity for all people, respect for human dignity and the conviction that no single pattern of living is good for everyone” (Pai & Adler, 1997, pp. 102.

Negative Effects of Diversity: When group members are dissimilar with respect to particular demographic attributes, they may engage in a self-categorization process in which they classify themselves and others into distinct groups. This causes discrimination against out-groups. An increase in workforce diversity would lead to negative consequences such as decreased satisfaction with the group, lower levels of cohesiveness, reduced inter-group communication, decreased cooperation and higher levels of conflict. This poses a potential threat to organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Such negative outcomes would result in increased costs to the firm that ultimately would affect its performance.

Positive Effects of Diversity: Diversity becomes positive when organizations can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by selectively obtaining and effectively utilizing physical, human, and organizational resources. Heterogeneity is valuable to the firm because it can lead to increased creativity, flexibility, and better decision making and problem solving. Organizations that can successfully attract a diverse workforce will obtain value by matching the demographic characteristics of the markets they serve, positioning them to sell to a broader and more diverse customer base and, subsequently, potentially increasing their organizational performance. It means using different minds to achieve the same goal, instead of using many similar minds. It is also beneficial because the client/customer of a different race/ethnicity/religion/country will identify with the company more. This reiterates that a global organization needs and has to be diverse.

Cause /Problem Analysis: When someone uses the term diversity it can mean an array of things such as race, religion, color, gender, national origin, disabilities, sexual orientation, age, education, geographic origin, and skill characteristics. The concept of diversity is just someone who is different than the person you see when you look into the mirror. There are some big advantages in the world today when a group of diverse people work together for a common goal, because different people bring different things to the table such as skills and ideas. That is why today’s workforce is looking to improve their diversity levels to achieve that advantage over their competitor which is called the “competitive advantage”. Because of America’s history of discrimination, there are laws and organizations that help protect minorities from discrimination such as Affirmative Action and (EEOC) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Department). There are many controversial issues going on today suggesting that these laws and organizations are causing reverse discrimination in the workforce. America is the strongest and most powerful country on the planet and it’s not because of our leaders or technology, it’s because we are diverse.
Diversity in the workforce has become a major concern in today’s society. Because of its advantages, many businesses are looking to diversify their workforce. There are seven major reasons why large and small businesses are looking to diversify their company. Those reasons are social responsibility, economic payback, resource imperative, legal requirement, marketing strategy, business communication strategy, and capacity-building strategy (Diversity).
Being social responsible and diverse gives back to communities in a big way, because businesses are providing jobs for minorities and helping them fulfill their dreams. Diversity in the workforce has its economic payback, by giving.

Solutiion: “diversity is good for business” is a function of individuals’ and organizations’ inability to fully capitalize on the impact diversity can have on broad organizational functioning. In an attempt to bridge this gap, I propose a new diversity model that focuses on what needs to be in place in order to leverage difference, not merely tolerate, appreciate, or celebrate it. Leveraging Difference
Leveraging difference is the capacity to use people’s distinctive competencies and approaches to the business as vehicles by which to transform business processes. The purpose of transforming those processes is to create sustainable competitive advantage for the firm. The leveraging difference approach to engaging diversity differs from the more traditional managing difference approaches in a number of significant ways. Leadership Perspective Strategic Focus Managing Difference Diversity is a problem to be solved Focus on effective human resource management Narrow scope, usually on salient social-identity differences Powerful learning for some individuals; Increase in representation in staffing of targeted differences Leveraging Difference Difference is an opportunity to be capitalized upon Focus on encouraging sustainable competitive advantage for the enterprise Broader scope on socialidentity differences, cognitive diversity, psychological diversity, etc. Individual learning and staffing changes; Positions organization to engage and leverage other differences in the future.
Having a diverse workforce and managing it properly is perceived as a competitive strategy that can not only help attract diverse customers but also employees who have different perspectives that can contribute to the creativity of the organization (Wentling, 1997). Researchers have found that an important reason for implementing diversity initiatives in organizations is to improve corporate productivity and profitability (Wentling, 1997). A diverse workforce catalyzes more organizational creativity and productivity because workers are drawn from a larger more democratic, gene pool (Prasad, 1997)

Recommendation: Recruit and develop people who add diversity. A second set of practices focuses on incorporating people who represent difference into the organization. By doing so, the organization encourages the kind of sustained engagement across difference that characterizes valuing difference. There are a number of recruitment and selection practices that help, including recruiting from nontraditional labor markets and well-administered affirmative action programs. There are also key developmental practices that maintain sustained presence of diverse people in the organization, including the development, mentoring, and hence promotion of diverse subordinates.
Reward and hold accountable for difference-related activities. Organization leaders and policy makers can do a great deal to encourage valuing of difference within the system. For example, the organization can reward behaviors and practices that link attention to difference to business success. If people know that individual and organizational relationships across difference are important, they will work to cultivate them. A corollary (often disregarded) is to attach accountability to difference-related activities. If difference really is valued, people should not only be rewarded for cultivating connections, but they should also be held accountable when they do not. Conclusion: As seen above, the steps that organizations must take to create and sustain diversity and inclusion are demanding and challenging, and to be effective they require a substantial degree of planning, resources and commitment. Diversity is not a path that organizations should embark just because other firms are doing it or because it is trendy. There should be a policy to determine why diversity is being implemented, how much and up to what extent it should be done. One should not be surprised if he finds a separate department for handling diversity in his firm in times to come. For many, if not most of today’s organizations, future success and in many cases even survival will depend on what they begin to do now to make sure that they use their diversity as a source of strength, and that they seek inclusion and justice in their everyday ways of working. Furthermore, the organization should be well equipped to manage their diverse employee strength.
In fact, for companies going global, effecting and managing workplace diversity is an imperative rather than a choice today. What remains to be seen is how well organizations can shape themselves to accept diversity and benefit from it thereafter.

References: 1) Sage Journals Online http://online.sagepub.com 2) Creating and Sustaining Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations: Strategies and Approaches by Evangelina Holvino, Bernardo M. Ferdman and Deborah Merrill-Sands, 1995
3)Koppelman, Kent L. & Goodhart, R. Lee (2008) Understanding Human Differences, Multicultural Education For A Diverse America, 2nd Ed.
4)Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. (pp. 163-183)
5)Organizational Behavior 11/e,ch-2,p45,46,49,50,101,102,103.
6) http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/wdn/upload/paper2.pdf