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The document is an overview of the 6th edition of 'Understanding and Managing Diversity,' which emphasizes the importance of managing workplace diversity in a changing global economy. It outlines the structure of the text, which includes sections on individual perspectives, primary and secondary dimensions of diversity, and managing diversity in terms of ethical and legal issues. The edition features new cases, pedagogical updates, and capstone assignments to enhance learning about diversity management.

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The document is an overview of the 6th edition of 'Understanding and Managing Diversity,' which emphasizes the importance of managing workplace diversity in a changing global economy. It outlines the structure of the text, which includes sections on individual perspectives, primary and secondary dimensions of diversity, and managing diversity in terms of ethical and legal issues. The edition features new cases, pedagogical updates, and capstone assignments to enhance learning about diversity management.

Uploaded by

tremebalazc2
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Contents

Preface xiii
About the Authors xvii

Understanding Workplace Diversity: Where


Have We Been and Where Are We Going? 1
Section I Understanding Individual Perspectives
of Diversity 8
1. Diversity Today: Fact or Fiction? 11
Carol P. Harvey
2. Diversity! 12
Jeanne M. Aurelio and Christopher Laib
3. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema 14
Horace Miner
4. Increasing Multicultural Understanding: Uncovering
Stereotypes 21
John R. Bowman
5. I am … 25
M. June Allard
6. Are You Privileged? 26
Mark Julien and Micheal T. Stratton
7. White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of
Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s
Studies 29
Peggy McIntosh
8. The Emotional Connection of Distinguishing Differences
and Conflict 38
Carole G. Parker
9. Exploring Diversity in Your Organization 45
Carol P. Harvey
10. The Pitney Bowes’ Case: A Legacy of Diversity
Management 48
Carol P. Harvey
Integrative Questions for Section I 55

vii
viii Contents

Section II Understanding the Primary Dimensions


of Diversity: Race and Ethnicity 56
11. Being An Only: A Field Assignment 59
Carol P. Harvey
12. Thriving in a Multicultural Classroom 60
Michelle R. Dunlap
13. Since We Elected an African American President Twice,
Is Racism Still an Issue in America? 70
Joyce McNickles
14. Immigration Patterns: The Transition Process 83
M. June Allard
15. The Coca-Cola Company: Then and Now 98
Carol P. Harvey
Integrative Questions for Section II 107

Section III Understanding the Primary Dimensions


of Diversity: Age, Gender, Sexual
Orientation, and Physical and Mental
Challenges 108
16. How Old Should You Be to Drive a Bus? Exploring
Ageism 110
Sharon P. McKechnie
17. Generational Diversity in the Workplace 111
Diane M. Holtzman, Evonne J. Kruger, and
Charles D. Srock
18. Exploring The Gender Gap: What Are the Issues? 120
Carol P. Harvey and Deborah L. Larsen
19. When Women Do Lead: Gender Bias 2013 Style 131
Carol P. Harvey
20. The Paradox of Male Privilege: Toward a Gender
Democracy & Democratic Manhood 133
Steven D. Farough
21. Sorting Through Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Issues in the American Workplace 142
Gerald Hunt
22. Is This Sexual Harassment? 154
Carol P. Harvey
Contents ix

23. Musical Chairs 156


M. June Allard
24. Professor on Wheels: A Case of Disability and
Diversity 158
Mark E. Moore and Caryl L. Martin
25. The Cracker Barrel Restaurants 166
John Howard
26. Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores: Postscript 174
Carol P. Harvey
Integrative Questions for Section III 175

Section IV Understanding the Secondary Dimensions of


Diversity: Social Class, Religion, Appearance/
Weight, Language/Communication, and Military
Service 177
27. Does Social Class Make a Difference? 179
Carol P. Harvey
28. Social Class: The Fiction of American Meritocracy 182
Colleen A. Fahy
29. Religion in the U.S. Workplace 196
Kathleen M. Fisher, Jeanne M. McNett, and
Pamela D. Sherer
30. Understanding Intercultural Communications in
Today’s Global Environment 210
Gina Ruxton and Carol P. Harvey
31. Communicating with a Global Call Center
Exercise 219
Carol P. Harvey
32. The Culture of the U.S. Air Force and Its Impact
on a Mobile Training Team Case 222
Christopher C. Butts, Elizabeth Sanz, Kizzy M. Parks,
and Daniel P. McDonald
33. Fighting for Equal Opportunity: Women’s Changing
Roles in the U.S. Military 228
Joseph R. Bongiovi
34. Choosing the Board: Charting the Course with
Competing Priorities 242
M. June Allard
x Contents

35. Appearance and Weight: Discrimination in


the Workplace 244
M. June Allard
36. Fairfax Metropolitan Hospital: The Candidate 255
M. June Allard
Integrative Questions for Section IV 257

Section V Managing Diversity in Terms of the Ethical,


Legal, Media, and Marketing Issues 259
37. The Ethics of Workplace Diversity 261
Jeanne McNett
38. Ethics and Diversity Cases: Legal Applications
in the Workplace 273
M. June Allard
39. How Canada Promotes Workplace Diversity 282
Marc S. Mentzer
40. A Report on the Current Health of the Media 289
M. June Allard
41. Exercises in Media Diversity 299
M. June Allard
42. New Business Opportunities: Changing Consumer
Markets 302
M. June Allard
43. Points of Law: The Bar Exam 317
M. June Allard
44. Chick-fil-A and the Media 319
Carol P. Harvey
Integrative Questions for Section V 323

Section VI Managing Organizational Change and


Diversity: Current Issues 324
45. What Do Organizations Do to Manage Diversity? Examining
Corporate Leadership, Training, Mentoring, Employee
Resource Groups, and Social Responsibility Programs 326
Carol P. Harvey
46. Work-Life Balance Issues: Changing When and How the Work
Gets Done 338
Carol P. Harvey
Contents xi

47. The Six Sigma Case: Promotion at the Western


Company 347
Rana Haq
48. Diversity and Inclusion Awards: A Critical
Examination 353
M. June Allard
49. One Workplace Bully is One Too Many: The Four
Faces of Bullying 369
Andra Gumbus
50. A Case of Harassment, Discrimination, or Bullying?
You Decide… 379
Andra Gumbus
51. The Path to Inclusion: The Business Case for Diversity
at Ocean Spray 384
Carol P. Harvey
Integrative Questions for Section VI 388

Section VII Capstone Experiences for Understanding


and Managing Diversity 390
52. Creating a Case to Better Understand and Manage
­Diversity 392
Carol P. Harvey
53. Creating Diversity Awareness: A Video Project 395
Cary J. LeBlanc
54. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting
a Diversity Audit Using Rubrics 399
Carol P. Harvey
Integrative Questions for Section VII 406

Index 408
This page intentionally left blank
Preface

Much has changed since we started writing diversity textbooks. Today, overt discrimination
has become less acceptable. There is more awareness of the impact of multiple social identi-
ties. There is more realization now that organizations must change the way they manage their
employees to maximize the advantages that diversity can bring to the workplace in a challenging
global economy, if they are to benefit from the richness of a diverse and productive workforce.
However, as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claims and recent
lawsuits substantiate, there is still considerable workplace discrimination and harassment. As
the workplace becomes more diverse because of demographic shifts, immigration, and global
business, there is an increasing need to understand that workers are not all alike and are far less
willing to assimilate than in the past. In a highly competitive marketplace, organizations need to
manage in ways that promote a feeling of inclusion in order to tap into all the creativity and tal-
ent that diversity has the potential to contribute. This is why we write these books.

Focus of The Sixth Edition


We see diversity, the ways we differ that may affect our organizational experiences, as a change
process that occurs on three levels: the individual, the social identity group level, and the organiza-
tional level. Beginning the study of diversity requires that each of us take an introspective look at
our beliefs and our own socialization. While most people will deny that they have any prejudices at
all, that is simply not the reality. Although it is often an unconscious process, it is quite natural to
tend to favor some people over others. We do feel more at ease with some people and less comfort-
able with others. Once we realize that others may experience the world differently, we need to be
open to learning about others’ social identities. It is not always easy to understand what a differ-
ence race, gender, physical abilities, religion, appearance, and sexual identity may make in other
people’s lives. Lastly, we examine and evaluate what organizations are doing or not doing to man-
age the needs of today’s diverse workforce. Are they maximizing productivity and minimizing
conflict? Are they working toward inclusion by tapping into the potential of their diverse workers?
Because of space constraints, focus of this text is primarily on North American diversity.
However, we are well aware that global diversity is an important topic. So, we have added a
Global Notes feature to incorporate some international perspectives on diversity issues.

New In The Sixth Edition


Ever responsive to the constant changes in workplace diversity, the proliferation of online educa-
tion, the growth of global business, feedback from our reviewers, and the 2013 revision of AACSB
business accreditation standards, we have incorporated many pedagogical and topical changes
into this edition. However, we have retained our interdisciplinary approach to diversity with
contributions from experts in management, psychology, economics, sociology, law, and business.
New content features include:
• New cases that illustrate today’s important diversity issues: Six Sigma (work-life balance),
Joy’s Dilemma (bullying), Professor on Wheels (physical challenge), Chick-fil-A (sexual

xiii
xiv Preface

orientation, ethics, and law), Ocean Spray (the business case for diversity), the U.S. Air
Force in Central America (intercultural communication), and When Women Do Lead
(gender harassment). Additional cases are available in the Instructor’s Manual.
• Three capstone assignments—complete with grading rubrics: A case writing research
project, the production of a diversity video, and the diversity audit assignments provide a
broader selection of capstone course assignments.
• New material, significant revisions, and updates: In addition to new cases, articles, and
exercises we have substantially revised and updated 14 articles and 5 exercises and added
many additional Points of Law, Diversity on the Web, Writing Assignment, and Best
Practices boxes.
New pedagogical features include:
• Global Notes—which illustrate diversity issues in an international context.
• Rubrics—for evaluating all of the capstone assignments.
• Linkages for Active Learning—an integrated approach to the organization of the book
that begins each section with an expanded introduction followed by an interactive exer-
cise. Laws are placed within the context of their relevant topics. Each section concludes
with a major case and integrative questions that synthesize readings and encourage critical
thinking.
• Did You Know …?—introductory features to capture students’ interest.

Organization of The Text


This edition is organized into seven main sections. To provide additional linkages for learning,
articles are placed with the exercises and cases that illustrate their topics.

Building the Foundation for Understanding Diversity


Section I—Provides students with a foundation for the course. The goals here are to illustrate
that diversity is still a workplace issue in the twenty-first century by providing students with
basic information by challenging them to examine their own beliefs about differences.

Primary and Secondary Diversity


Sections II and III—Focus on understanding the primary dimensions of diversity: race,
ethnicity, gender, age, physical/mental challenges, and sexual orientation.
Section IV—Covers secondary aspects of diversity, such as social class, religion, appear-
ance/weight, communication/first language, and the military experience.

Managing Diversity: Ethical, Legal, Media, and Marketing Issues


Section V—Explores contextual elements that impact diversity such as ethics, the laws in
the United States and Canada, the media, and marketing opportunities.

Managing Organizational Change and Diversity: Current Issues


Section VI—Focuses on what organizations can do to improve the ways that they man-
age diversity and covers emerging issues. Topics include diversity leadership, employee
Preface xv

resource groups, mentoring, flexible work arrangements, training, social responsi­bility,


diversity awards, marketing opportunities, work-life balance, the flexible workplace,
­bullying, and the business case for diversity.
Section VII—Features three capstone assignments with grading rubrics that provide
­students with opportunities to synthesize their learning.

The Association To Advance Collegiate Schools


of Business (AACSB)
In accordance with AACSB’s 2013 academic standards that require accredited institutions
to demonstrate that diversity is included in their programs in a manner consistent with their
­individual missions and cultural contexts, our structure and format allow instructors to ­easily
customize the diversity components of their courses according to their individual needs. In
­keeping with AACSB’s focus on assurance of learning, in this edition we have included ­learning
goals at the beginning of each section of the book, integrative questions at the end of each sec-
tion, and goals for individual articles in the Instructor’s Manual, as well as capstone course
assignments complete with grading rubrics.

Faculty Resources
The materials listed below are available online in a downloadable digital format at http://www.
pearsonhighered.com/educator.
• Instructor’s Manual—This extensive resource features course, article, and case outlines,
case teaching notes, pedagogical tips, answers to discussion questions, extra cases, assess-
ment materials, and tips for teaching with film.
• PowerPoint Slides—These are available at http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator

Acknowledgments
We are most grateful to our contributing authors, whose expertise and writing talent makes this
text possible. Special thanks to Martin Mitchell from Ocean Spray, who gave so willingly of his
time for numerous interviews, and to Maria Alicata, Jillian Pentergast, Lucia A. Doucette, and
Katy Beach from Assumption College for their assistance in preparing this manuscript. Thanks
to our reviewers.
This page intentionally left blank
About The Authors

Carol P. Harvey, EdD, is Professor Emerita from Assumption College where she was the former
Chair of the Business Studies Department and Director of the MBA program. She received her
EdD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, her MBA and CAGS from Northeastern
University, and an MA in Psychology from Assumption College. Formerly employed as a man-
ager at the Xerox Corporation, she is currently teaching leadership and organizational behavior at
Suffolk University in Boston, and is teaching Diversity in Organizations online for the University
of Southern Maine.
Dr. Harvey received the 2011 ALANA faculty award from Assumption College, is the co-
recipient of the Roethlisburger award for the best article published in 2002 in the Journal of
Management ­Education from the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, and received a vol-
unteer of the year award for her m
­ entoring of female entrepreneurs from the Center for Women
in Enterprise. She can be reached at ­[email protected] or [email protected].

M. June Allard, PhD, is Professor Emerita from Worcester State University where she served as
Chair of the Psychology and the Social and Behavioral Science departments. She holds a PhD
from Michigan State University in Social Psychology with a specialization in cross-cultural re-
search. She is the recipient of nine national fellowships, numerous Distinguished Service and
Outstanding Teaching awards, and is listed in numerous national and international directories of
scientists and women leaders.
Dr. Allard has conducted academic program reviews and evaluations for over 30 years and
is a ­recognized expert in this field. She currently maintains a consulting practice, designing and
conducting research and project evaluations. Formerly employed as a senior scientist in the re-
search and development industry in Washington, D.C., she has directed a wide range of projects
on government contracts in industry as well as in university research institutes.
She has been a site visitor for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges for
­collegiate ­accreditation and on the doctoral Accreditation Visiting Committee for the ­American
Psychological ­Association (APA), as well as a member of the APA Departmental C ­ onsulting
Service. Dr. Allard has l­ectured on program evaluation in over a dozen different countries
­([email protected]).
Please feel free to contact us at any time to share ideas and resources for teaching about
diversity in the workplace.
Always,
Carol P. Harvey & M. June Allard

xvii
This page intentionally left blank
Understanding Workplace
Diversity: Where Have We Been
and Where Are We Going?
Carol P. Harvey
Suffolk University,
Assumption College, Professor Emerita

A
lthough there is little agreement on the definition, we have chosen to define diversity
as the ways in which people differ that may affect their organizational experiences in
terms of performance, motivation, communication, and inclusion. Our definition is
broad enough to recognize the impact of multiple dimensions of diversity and the ever-changing
categories of group memberships that matter to people. To understand where diversity manage-
ment is today, it is necessary to examine where it has been.

The Historical Context of Workplace Diversity—the Early


Years (1960s and 1970s)
We have been writing about diversity for almost twenty years and in that timeframe much has
changed. Historically, the United States has always had a diverse population due to its heritage of
immigration, slavery, and religious freedom. However, in the 1960s, early civil rights legislation
(see Points of Law) became a catalyst for workplace change. The initial focus was on “righting
the wrongs” experienced by people with visible differences, particularly race and gender. During
this period, there was much confusion about how to accomplish this goal, especially in terms of
the Executive Orders that required Affirmative Action plans. Because responsibility for diversity
often resided in Human Resources departments that had minimal power to initiate change, most

1
2 Understanding Workplace Diversity

diversity training focused on how to avoid lawsuits. This approach often led to hiring unquali-
fied workers to fulfill what was interpreted as a “quota” of women and minorities. At times,
people were hired or promoted simply because of their race or gender which set them up for
failure. Even when qualified women and people of color were selected, they were often expected
to behave, dress, and talk like white men. The analogy often used then was that of a “melting pot”
where everyone was expected to blend into the organization and minimize their differences. This
led to poor morale, job turnover, and even backlash against the very groups the legislation was
designed to benefit.

The Valuing Diversity Era—(1980s and 1990s)


In 1987, The Hudson Institute published a landmark study, Workforce 2000: Work and
Workers for the Twenty-First Century (Johnson & Packer). This report analyzed the popula-
tion trends and projected the growth of nonwhites, women, and older employees in the work-
force, and anticipated the expansion of global business. The authors stated that by 2000 the
net newcomers to the U.S. workforce would be primarily women and racial minorities. While
the need to understand diverse perspectives was increasing, many managers struggled to do it
effectively. The reality was that the workplace was becoming more diverse in terms of not just
race and gender but also age, ethnicity, people with physical challenges, and so on. Training
tended to focus on identifying differences between groups, which were often generalizations
that failed to recognize that people hold multiple group identities, some more important to
them than others.
Diversity theorists responded to these changes. Organizations began to realize that work-
force differences could potentially offer business advantages and that differences were far broader

G Points of Law
Early U.S. Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws
Equal Pay Act (1963)—Males and females must receive the same salary for jobs that ­require
equal skill, effort and responsibility.
Civil Rights Act (1964)—Prohibits discrimination in employment in terms of hiring, pro-
motion, firing, etc. on the basis of race, sex, national origin, religion and color.
Executive Orders, 10925, 11246, and 11375 (1961 and 1965)—Required organizations that
accept ­federal funds and/or have federal contracts to submit a written Affirmative Action
plan. The plans were i­ntended to demonstrate that the organization was making progress
in the hiring and promotion of people from groups that had been previously discriminated
against in the past.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1974)—Protects workers over forty years of age
from discrimination in terms of hiring, firing, promotion, benefits, training and pay.
Understanding Workplace Diversity 3

than just race and gender. In 1991, an article by Cox and Blake explained, but did not validate, six
ways that organizations could make diversity a competitive advantage by:
• reducing the turnover costs
• attracting the best talent from diverse groups
• creating a marketing advantage in global business
• improving creative thinking by having input from diverse perspectives
• improving the quality of business decisions
• increasing systems flexibility by developing new policies and procedures and ways of
leading.
To their credit, the authors also cautioned that moving from a homogeneous to a h ­ eterogeneous
workplace required significant organizational changes such as support from top management in
terms of diversity training, research, and ongoing monitoring to determine the effectiveness of
change initiatives.
In 1992, R. Roosevelt Thomas called for the death of affirmative action, but urged
­institutions to adopt management practices and policies that would help all employees be pro-
ductive and to reach their full potential.
In 1996, Marilyn Loden developed a more inclusive framework that classified the
­dimensions of diversity into two categories: primary that are more permanent, less change-
able, and more central to one’s identity and secondary which are usually less visible, less
central to one’s experiences, and more changeable (see Exhibit I-1). She depicted the dimen-
sions of diversity as a wheel with primary dimensions as the central core and secondary as
the outer ring. This classification broadened people’s ideas about diversity, was more inclu-
sive of white men, and created greater awareness that most people have multiple dimensions
of diversity.
Gardenswartz and Rowe expanded these dimensions to include personality differences as
central to one’s identity and organizational differences, such as seniority, functional level, man-
agement status, or union membership, as a peripheral outer ring (1995).

Primary Dimensions Secondary Dimensions

Age Geographic Location


Gender Military and Work Experience
Race Family Status
Mental and Physical Abilities Income
Ethnicity Religion
Sexual Orientation Education
First Language
Organizational Role and Level
Communication and Work Style
Adapted from Loden, M. (1996). Implementing Diversity. New York: McGraw Hill.

EXHIBIT I-1   Loden’s Dimensions of Diversity


4 Understanding Workplace Diversity

During this time, capitalizing on the advantages that diversity could bring to organizations
was still a challenge. Being diverse was described using the metaphor of a salad or stew where
the “ingredients,” that is, diverse people, each contribute their uniqueness to the whole but do
not “melt” or change into one. While this is an improvement over expecting assimilation, it also
emphasized differences, and generalized stereotypes, rather than finding similarities between
co-workers.
Rather than making systemic changes, some organizations interpreted “valuing differ-
ences” superficially by having ethnic food days, providing training that involved playing diver-
sity games, or assigning diverse employees to jobs without much authority that involved taking
care of other diverse employees and/or investigating discrimination claims. Yet, there were some
organizations like IBM and Xerox where the leadership believed that diversity could be a com-
petitive advantage (see the Pitney Bowes’ case); diversity was taken more seriously and resulted
in significant organizational change.
Thomas and Ely (1996) developed a model that classified diversity management into three
organizational paradigms, or ways of viewing diversity:
• Discrimination and fairness as exemplified more in the first era
• Access and legitimacy that corresponds to the second era, where differences are empha-
sized and valued because they help organizations to understand and market to growing
diverse and global markets
• Learning and effectiveness where organizations connect diversity and its advantages
to the organizational mission and goals which was at the time a novel idea for most
companies
Toward the end of this period, researchers began to examine what is known as the busi-
ness case for diversity, that is, trying to prove mathematically that a diverse workforce could
lower costs, provide a competitive advantage in the global marketplace, and improve the quality
of creativity and problem solving. If this sounds a bit familiar, it is basically placing a dollar value
on the advantages of diversity that Cox and Blake wrote about in their 1991 article. The results
of this effort are controversial and mixed. For example, while MIT’s Kochan et al.’s five-year but
small sample study could not confirm the business case, the University of Chicago’s 1996–1997
study of over a thousand organizations found that diversity did have a net positive financial
impact on the organizations’ bottom line (Herring, 2010).
Since so many internal and external factors are constantly interacting, perhaps, a more
practical approach to proving that diversity generates a return on its costs is to measure the
results of individual programs and policies. Then, evaluate and adjust them as needed. For exam-
ple, if a diverse team with native speakers develops a plan for designing, naming, promoting,
packaging, and marketing a product for a particular country, how are the sales trending and
what are the changes in your market share? Or, how much did offering a part-time option of
working two days a week for three months improve your retention of employees who are new
parents over last year’s figures?

The Third Era—Diversity Management


and Inclusion in the Twenty-first Century
Today, many managers and organizations realize that diversity can benefit both the
individual and the organization but for many reasons, including changes in workforce
composition, the acknowledgment of the effects of multiple social identities, and the need
Understanding Workplace Diversity 5

to establish an inclusive organizational culture, diversity is much broader in scope and


more ­complicated to manage than initially imagined. To benefit from the personal and
­o rganizational ­a dvantages of diversity requires support from the corporate level of an
organization.
The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse especially through immigration (see
Allard’s article) and the expansion of global opportunities, particularly in the BRICKS coun-
tries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Korea, and South Africa). Increasingly sophisticated forms
of technology have made international communication skills practically a job requirement (see
Ruxton’s article). At the same time, the workforce is becoming increasingly female and older as
Baby Boomers defer retirement.
Loden’s secondary dimensions of diversity have been expanded to include new catego-
ries such as political beliefs, spirituality, physical characteristics, and work styles. Family sta-
tus has taken on new importance as working parents struggle with workplace balance issues,
Muslims experience post 9-11 discrimination, and returning military veterans vie for jobs in a
tight economy. Today, most people are no longer defined by a single social identity, or charac-
teristic. Assuming that a person is defined by a single set of characteristics is called the error of
essentialism. An Asian American man’s work life experience may be affected far more by his
being a person with a disability than by his race or gender.
In 2002, Miller and Katz authored a book called The Inclusion Breakthrough: Unleashing
the Real Power of Diversity, which suggested that organizations must need to “break out of
the diversity box” mentality and change their cultures, policies, and structures in order to
benefit from the diversity of their employees. Like the third paradigm of Thomas and Ely,
Miller and Katz call for linking diversity to organizational goals and mission but went a step
further to document the need for a more inclusive approach to diversity. It makes sense that
when employees, including white men who still hold most of the leadership positions, feel
“included” they will feel freer to offer new ideas, safer to point out mistakes in others’ reason-
ing, and be more apt to refer competent colleagues for jobs. All of these can add value to the
organization in terms of the advantages of a diverse workforce (see Ocean Spray case).
Despite considerable progress, managing diversity is complex and offers new challenges
in the twenty-first century. Women can now fight in combat. There is a second-term African
American president. Gays and lesbians can marry in many states. However, women and racial
minorities still hold very few board seats or corporate-level positions. There is still no U.S. federal
legislation that protects LGBT employees, workplace bullying is rampant, the unemployment
rate for people with disabilities is double that of the able-bodied, and the Equal Employment
Commission (EEOC) is now filing lawsuits against companies that are requiring genetic infor-
mation from healthy job applicants discriminated against because of their family’s medical his-
tory (Trottman, 2013).
After examining the individual and social identity issues, we will frame managing diversity
as a change process (see Figure I-1). While external forces such as demographics and the expan-
sion of global business opportunities are pushing for change, it will only happen with supportive
corporate level leadership through diversity audits, training and input from employee resource
groups (ERGs),and so on. The refreezing process results in practices, policies, and programs
such as more flexible work arrangements, recognition through awards, and best practices as sup-
plier diversity programs.
6 Understanding Workplace Diversity

UNFREEZING CHANGE
Demographics Leadership
Global Expansion Corporate Boards
Laws Diversity Audits
Market Opportunities ERGs
Values Training

REFREEZING
Social Responsibility
Best Practices
Awards
Flexible Work
Figure I-1 Change Model

Bibliography
Cox, T. and Blake, S. (1991). Managing cultural diversity research network. Human Resources
diversity: Implications for organizational com- Management, 42 (1), 3–21.
petitiveness. Academy of Management Executive, Loden, M. (1996). Implementing Diversity. New
5 (3), 45–56. York: McGraw Hill.
Gardenswartz, L. and Rowe, A. (1995). Diverse Miller, F.A. and Katz, J.H. (2002). The Inclusion
Teams at Work. Irwin: New York. Breakthrough: Unleashing the Real Power
Herring, C. (2010). Does diversity pay? Race, gen- of Diversity. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
der, and the business case for diversity. American Publishers.
Sociological Review, 74 (2), 208–224. Thomas, D.A. and Ely, R.J. (1996). Making dif-
Johnson, W.B. and Packer, A.E. (1987). Workforce ferences matter: A new paradigm for man-
2000: Work and Workers for the Twenty- aging diversity. Harvard Business Review,
First Century. Indianapolis, IN: The Hudson September–October.
Institute. Trottman, M. (July 23, 2013). Genetic tests create
Kochan, T., et al. (Spring 2003). The effects of diver- pitfalls for employers. The Wall Street Journal,
sity on business performance: The report of the B-1 & B-7.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
And it would be a long time before lessons were over at three
o’clock! And after school he could not go home nor to the
Shelestovs’, but must go to give a lesson at Wolf’s. This Wolf, a
wealthy Jew who had turned Lutheran, did not send his children to
the high school, but had them taught at home by the high-school
masters, and paid five roubles a lesson.
He was bored, bored, bored.
At three o’clock he went to Wolf’s and spent there, as it seemed to
him, an eternity. He left there at five o’clock, and before seven he
had to be at the high school again to a meeting of the masters —to
draw up the plan for the viva voce examination of the fourth and
sixth classes.
When late in the evening he left the high school and went to the
Shelestovs’, his heart was beating and his face was flushed. A month
before, even a week before, he had, every time that he made up his
mind to speak to her, prepared a whole speech, with an introduction
and a conclusion. Now he had not one word ready; everything was
in a muddle in his head, and all he knew was that today he would
certainly declare himself, and that it was utterly impossible to wait
any longer.
“I will ask her to come to the garden,” he thought; “we’ll walk
about a little and I’ll speak.”
There was not a soul in the hall; he went into the dining-room and
then into the drawing-room. . . . There was no one there either. He
could hear Varya arguing with some one upstairs and the clink of the
dressmaker’s scissors in the nursery.
There was a little room in the house which had three names: the
little room, the passage room, and the dark room. There was a big
cupboard in it where they kept medicines, gunpowder, and their
hunting gear. Leading from this room to the first floor was a narrow
wooden staircase where cats were always asleep. There were two
doors in it—one leading to the nursery, one to the drawing-room.
When Nikitin went into this room to go upstairs, the door from the
nursery opened and shut with such a bang that it made the stairs
and the cupboard tremble; Masha, in a dark dress, ran in with a
piece of blue material in her hand, and, not noticing Nikitin, darted
towards the stairs.
“Stay . . .” said Nikitin, stopping her. “Good-evening, Godefroi . . . .
Allow me. . . .”
He gasped, he did not know what to say; with one hand he held
her hand and with the other the blue material. And she was half
frightened, half surprised, and looked at him with big eyes.
“Allow me . . .” Nikitin went on, afraid she would go away. “There’s
something I must say to you. . . . Only . . . it’s inconvenient here. I
cannot, I am incapable. . . . Understand, Godefroi, I can’t —that’s all
. . . .”
The blue material slipped on to the floor, and Nikitin took Masha
by the other hand. She turned pale, moved her lips, then stepped
back from Nikitin and found herself in the corner between the wall
and the cupboard.
“On my honour, I assure you . . .” he said softly. “Masha, on my
honour. . . .”
She threw back her head and he kissed her lips, and that the kiss
might last longer he put his fingers to her cheeks; and it somehow
happened that he found himself in the corner between the cupboard
and the wall, and she put her arms round his neck and pressed her
head against his chin.
Then they both ran into the garden. The Shelestoys had a garden
of nine acres. There were about twenty old maples and lime-trees in
it; there was one fir-tree, and all the rest were fruit-trees: cherries,
apples, pears, horse-chestnuts, silvery olive-trees. . . . There were
heaps of flowers, too.
Nikitin and Masha ran along the avenues in silence, laughed,
asked each other from time to time disconnected questions which
they did not answer. A crescent moon was shining over the garden,
and drowsy tulips and irises were stretching up from the dark grass
in its faint light, as though entreating for words of love for them,
too.
When Nikitin and Masha went back to the house, the officers and
the young ladies were already assembled and dancing the mazurka.
Again Polyansky led the grand chain through all the rooms, again
after dancing they played “fate.” Before supper, when the visitors
had gone into the dining-room, Masha, left alone with Nikitin,
pressed close to him and said:
“You must speak to papa and Varya yourself; I am ashamed.”
After supper he talked to the old father. After listening to him,
Shelestov thought a little and said:
“I am very grateful for the honour you do me and my daughter,
but let me speak to you as a friend. I will speak to you, not as a
father, but as one gentleman to another. Tell me, why do you want
to be married so young? Only peasants are married so young, and
that, of course, is loutishness. But why should you? Where’s the
satisfaction of putting on the fetters at your age?”
“I am not young!” said Nikitin, offended. “I am in my twenty-
seventh year.”
“Papa, the farrier has come!” cried Varya from the other room.
And the conversation broke off. Varya, Masha, and Polyansky saw
Nikitin home. When they reached his gate, Varya said:
“Why is it your mysterious Metropolit Metropolititch never shows
himself anywhere? He might come and see us.”
The mysterious Ippolit Ippolititch was sitting on his bed, taking off
his trousers, when Nikitin went in to him.
“Don’t go to bed, my dear fellow,” said Nikitin breathlessly. “Stop a
minute; don’t go to bed!”
Ippolit Ippolititch put on his trousers hurriedly and asked in a
flutter:
“What is it?”
“I am going to be married.”
Nikitin sat down beside his companion, and looking at him
wonderingly, as though surprised at himself, said:
“Only fancy, I am going to be married! To Masha Shelestov! I
made an offer today.”
“Well? She seems a good sort of girl. Only she is very young.”
“Yes, she is young,” sighed Nikitin, and shrugged his shoulders
with a careworn air. “Very, very young!”
“She was my pupil at the high school. I know her. She wasn’t bad
at geography, but she was no good at history. And she was
inattentive in class, too.”
Nikitin for some reason felt suddenly sorry for his companion, and
longed to say something kind and comforting to him.
“My dear fellow, why don’t you get married?” he asked. “Why
don’t you marry Varya, for instance? She is a splendid, first-rate girl!
It’s true she is very fond of arguing, but a heart . . . what a heart!
She was just asking about you. Marry her, my dear boy! Eh?”
He knew perfectly well that Varya would not marry this dull, snub-
nosed man, but still persuaded him to marry her—why?
“Marriage is a serious step,” said Ippolit Ippolititch after a
moment’s thought. “One has to look at it all round and weigh things
thoroughly; it’s not to be done rashly. Prudence is always a good
thing, and especially in marriage, when a man, ceasing to be a
bachelor, begins a new life.”
And he talked of what every one has known for ages. Nikitin did
not stay to listen, said goodnight, and went to his own room. He
undressed quickly and quickly got into bed, in order to be able to
think the sooner of his happiness, of Masha, of the future; he
smiled, then suddenly recalled that he had not read Lessing.
“I must read him,” he thought. “Though, after all, why should I?
Bother him!”
And exhausted by his happiness, he fell asleep at once and went
on smiling till the morning.
He dreamed of the thud of horses’ hoofs on a wooden floor; he
dreamed of the black horse Count Nulin, then of the white Giant and
its sister Maika, being led out of the stable.

II

“I
t was very crowded and noisy in the church, and once some
one cried out, and the head priest, who was marrying Masha
and me, looked through his spectacles at the crowd, and
said severely: ‘Don’t move about the church, and don’t make a
noise, but stand quietly and pray. You should have the fear of God in
your hearts.’
“My best men were two of my colleagues, and Masha’s best men
were Captain Polyansky and Lieutenant Gernet. The bishop’s choir
sang superbly. The sputtering of the candles, the brilliant light, the
gorgeous dresses, the officers, the numbers of gay, happy faces, and
a special ethereal look in Masha, everything together—the
surroundings and the words of the wedding prayers—moved me to
tears and filled me with triumph. I thought how my life had
blossomed, how poetically it was shaping itself! Two years ago I was
still a student, I was living in cheap furnished rooms, without money,
without relations, and, as I fancied then, with nothing to look
forward to. Now I am a teacher in the high school in one of the best
provincial towns, with a secure income, loved, spoiled. It is for my
sake, I thought, this crowd is collected, for my sake three candelabra
have been lighted, the deacon is booming, the choir is doing its
best; and it’s for my sake that this young creature, whom I soon
shall call my wife, is so young, so elegant, and so joyful. I recalled
our first meetings, our rides into the country, my declaration of love
and the weather, which, as though expressly, was so exquisitely fine
all the summer; and the happiness which at one time in my old
rooms seemed to me possible only in novels and stories, I was now
experiencing in reality—I was now, as it were, holding it in my
hands.
“After the ceremony they all crowded in disorder round Masha and
me, expressed their genuine pleasure, congratulated us and wished
us joy. The brigadier-general, an old man of seventy, confined
himself to congratulating Masha, and said to her in a squeaky, aged
voice, so loud that it could be heard all over the church:
“‘I hope that even after you are married you may remain the rose
you are now, my dear.’
“The officers, the director, and all the teachers smiled from
politeness, and I was conscious of an agreeable artificial smile on my
face, too. Dear Ippolit Ippolititch, the teacher of history and
geography, who always says what every one has heard before,
pressed my hand warmly and said with feeling:
“‘Hitherto you have been unmarried and have lived alone, and
now you are married and no longer single.’
“From the church we went to a two-storied house which I am
receiving as part of the dowry. Besides that house Masha is bringing
me twenty thousand roubles, as well as a piece of waste land with a
shanty on it, where I am told there are numbers of hens and ducks
which are not looked after and are turning wild. When I got home
from the church, I stretched myself at full length on the low sofa in
my new study and began to smoke; I felt snug, cosy, and
comfortable, as I never had in my life before. And meanwhile the
wedding party were shouting ‘Hurrah!’ while a wretched band in the
hall played flourishes and all sorts of trash. Varya, Masha’s sister, ran
into the study with a wineglass in her hand, and with a queer,
strained expression, as though her mouth were full of water;
apparently she had meant to go on further, but she suddenly burst
out laughing and sobbing, and the wineglass crashed on the floor.
We took her by the arms and led her away.
“‘Nobody can understand!’ she muttered afterwards, lying on the
old nurse’s bed in a back room. ‘Nobody, nobody! My God, nobody
can understand!’
“But every one understood very well that she was four years older
than her sister Masha, and still unmarried, and that she was crying,
not from envy, but from the melancholy consciousness that her time
was passing, and perhaps had passed. When they danced the
quadrille, she was back in the drawing-room with a tear-stained and
heavily powdered face, and I saw Captain Polyansky holding a plate
of ice before her while she ate it with a spoon.
“It is past five o’clock in the morning. I took up my diary to
describe my complete and perfect happiness, and thought I would
write a good six pages, and read it tomorrow to Masha; but, strange
to say, everything is muddled in my head and as misty as a dream,
and I can remember vividly nothing but that episode with Varya, and
I want to write, ‘Poor Varya!’ I could go on sitting here and writing
‘Poor Varya!’ By the way, the trees have begun rustling; it will rain.
The crows are cawing, and my Masha, who has just gone to sleep,
has for some reason a sorrowful face.”
For a long while afterwards Nikitin did not write his diary. At the
beginning of August he had the school examinations, and after the
fifteenth the classes began. As a rule he set off for school before
nine in the morning, and before ten o’clock he was looking at his
watch and pining for his Masha and his new house. In the lower
forms he would set some boy to dictate, and while the boys were
writing, would sit in the window with his eyes shut, dreaming;
whether he dreamed of the future or recalled the past, everything
seemed to him equally delightful, like a fairy tale. In the senior
classes they were reading aloud Gogol or Pushkin’s prose works, and
that made him sleepy; people, trees, fields, horses, rose before his
imagination, and he would say with a sigh, as though fascinated by
the author:
“How lovely!”
At the midday recess Masha used to send him lunch in a snow-
white napkin, and he would eat it slowly, with pauses, to prolong the
enjoyment of it; and Ippolit Ippolititch, whose lunch as a rule
consisted of nothing but bread, looked at him with respect and envy,
and gave expression to some familiar fact, such as:
“Men cannot live without food.”
After school Nikitin went straight to give his private lessons, and
when at last by six o’clock he got home, he felt excited and anxious,
as though he had been away for a year. He would run upstairs
breathless, find Masha, throw his arms round her, and kiss her and
swear that he loved her, that he could not live without her, declare
that he had missed her fearfully, and ask her in trepidation how she
was and why she looked so depressed. Then they would dine
together. After dinner he would lie on the sofa in his study and
smoke, while she sat beside him and talked in a low voice.
His happiest days now were Sundays and holidays, when he was
at home from morning till evening. On those days he took part in the
naïve but extraordinarily pleasant life which reminded him of a
pastoral idyl. He was never weary of watching how his sensible and
practical Masha was arranging her nest, and anxious to show that he
was of some use in the house, he would do something useless— for
instance, bring the chaise out of the stable and look at it from every
side. Masha had installed a regular dairy with three cows, and in her
cellar she had many jugs of milk and pots of sour cream, and she
kept it all for butter. Sometimes, by way of a joke, Nikitin would ask
her for a glass of milk, and she would be quite upset because it was
against her rules; but he would laugh and throw his arms round her,
saying:
“There, there; I was joking, my darling! I was joking!”
Or he would laugh at her strictness when, finding in the cupboard
some stale bit of cheese or sausage as hard as a stone, she would
say seriously:
“They will eat that in the kitchen.”
He would observe that such a scrap was only fit for a mousetrap,
and she would reply warmly that men knew nothing about
housekeeping, and that it was just the same to the servants if you
were to send down a hundredweight of savouries to the kitchen. He
would agree, and embrace her enthusiastically. Everything that was
just in what she said seemed to him extraordinary and amazing; and
what did not fit in with his convictions seemed to him naïve and
touching.
Sometimes he was in a philosophical mood, and he would begin to
discuss some abstract subject while she listened and looked at his
face with curiosity.
“I am immensely happy with you, my joy,” he used to say, playing
with her fingers or plaiting and unplaiting her hair. “But I don’t look
upon this happiness of mine as something that has come to me by
chance, as though it had dropped from heaven. This happiness is a
perfectly natural, consistent, logical consequence. I believe that man
is the creator of his own happiness, and now I am enjoying just
what I have myself created. Yes, I speak without false modesty: I
have created this happiness myself and I have a right to it. You
know my past. My unhappy childhood, without father or mother; my
depressing youth, poverty—all this was a struggle, all this was the
path by which I made my way to happiness. . . .”
In October the school sustained a heavy loss: Ippolit Ippolititch
was taken ill with erysipelas on the head and died. For two days
before his death he was unconscious and delirious, but even in his
delirium he said nothing that was not perfectly well known to every
one.
“The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea. . . . Horses eat oats and
hay. . . .”
There were no lessons at the high school on the day of his
funeral. His colleagues and pupils were the coffin-bearers, and the
school choir sang all the way to the grave the anthem “Holy God.”
Three priests, two deacons, all his pupils and the staff of the boys’
high school, and the bishop’s choir in their best kaftans, took part in
the procession. And passers-by who met the solemn procession,
crossed themselves and said:
“God grant us all such a death.”
Returning home from the cemetery much moved, Nikitin got out
his diary from the table and wrote:
“We have just consigned to the tomb Ippolit Ippolititch Ryzhitsky.
Peace to your ashes, modest worker! Masha, Varya, and all the
women at the funeral, wept from genuine feeling, perhaps because
they knew this uninteresting, humble man had never been loved by
a woman. I wanted to say a warm word at my colleague’s grave, but
I was warned that this might displease the director, as he did not like
our poor friend. I believe that this is the first day since my marriage
that my heart has been heavy.”
There was no other event of note in the scholastic year.
The winter was mild, with wet snow and no frost; on Epiphany
Eve, for instance, the wind howled all night as though it were
autumn, and water trickled off the roofs; and in the morning, at the
ceremony of the blessing of the water, the police allowed no one to
go on the river, because they said the ice was swelling up and
looked dark. But in spite of bad weather Nikitin’s life was as happy
as in summer. And, indeed, he acquired another source of pleasure;
he learned to play vint. Only one thing troubled him, moved him to
anger, and seemed to prevent him from being perfectly happy: the
cats and dogs which formed part of his wife’s dowry. The rooms,
especially in the morning, always smelt like a menagerie, and
nothing could destroy the odour; the cats frequently fought with the
dogs. The spiteful beast Mushka was fed a dozen times a day; she
still refused to recognize Nikitin and growled at him: “Rrr . . . nga-
nga-nga!”
One night in Lent he was returning home from the club where he
had been playing cards. It was dark, raining, and muddy. Nikitin had
an unpleasant feeling at the bottom of his heart and could not
account for it. He did not know whether it was because he had lost
twelve roubles at cards, or whether because one of the players,
when they were settling up, had said that of course Nikitin had pots
of money, with obvious reference to his wife’s portion. He did not
regret the twelve roubles, and there was nothing offensive in what
had been said; but, still, there was the unpleasant feeling. He did
not even feel a desire to go home.
“Foo, how horrid!” he said, standing still at a lamp-post.
It occurred to him that he did not regret the twelve roubles
because he got them for nothing. If he had been a working man he
would have known the value of every farthing, and would not have
been so careless whether he lost or won. And his good-fortune had
all, he reflected, come to him by chance, for nothing, and really was
as superfluous for him as medicine for the healthy. If, like the vast
majority of people, he had been harassed by anxiety for his daily
bread, had been struggling for existence, if his back and chest had
ached from work, then supper, a warm snug home, and domestic
happiness, would have been the necessity, the compensation, the
crown of his life; as it was, all this had a strange, indefinite
significance for him.
“Foo, how horrid!” he repeated, knowing perfectly well that these
reflections were in themselves a bad sign.
When he got home Masha was in bed: she was breathing evenly
and smiling, and was evidently sleeping with great enjoyment. Near
her the white cat lay curled up, purring. While Nikitin lit the candle
and lighted his cigarette, Masha woke up and greedily drank a glass
of water.
“I ate too many sweets,” she said, and laughed. “Have you been
home?” she asked after a pause.
“No.”
Nikitin knew already that Captain Polyansky, on whom Varya had
been building great hopes of late, was being transferred to one of
the western provinces, and was already making his farewell visits in
the town, and so it was depressing at his father-in-law’s.
“Varya looked in this evening,” said Masha, sitting up. “She did not
say anything, but one could see from her face how wretched she is,
poor darling! I can’t bear Polyansky. He is fat and bloated, and when
he walks or dances his cheeks shake. . . . He is not a man I would
choose. But, still, I did think he was a decent person.”
“I think he is a decent person now,” said Nikitin.
“Then why has he treated Varya so badly?”
“Why badly?” asked Nikitin, beginning to feel irritation against the
white cat, who was stretching and arching its back. “As far as I
know, he has made no proposal and has given her no promises.”
“Then why was he so often at the house? If he didn’t mean to
marry her, he oughtn’t to have come.”
Nikitin put out the candle and got into bed. But he felt disinclined
to lie down and to sleep. He felt as though his head were immense
and empty as a barn, and that new, peculiar thoughts were
wandering about in it like tall shadows. He thought that, apart from
the soft light of the ikon lamp, that beamed upon their quiet
domestic happiness, that apart from this little world in which he and
this cat lived so peacefully and happily, there was another world. . . .
And he had a passionate, poignant longing to be in that other world,
to work himself at some factory or big workshop, to address big
audiences, to write, to publish, to raise a stir, to exhaust himself, to
suffer. . . . He wanted something that would engross him till he
forgot himself, ceased to care for the personal happiness which
yielded him only sensations so monotonous. And suddenly there
rose vividly before his imagination the figure of Shebaldin with his
clean-shaven face, saying to him with horror: “You haven’t even
read Lessing! You are quite behind the times! How you have gone to
seed!”
Masha woke up and again drank some water. He glanced at her
neck, at her plump shoulders and throat, and remembered the word
the brigadier-general had used in church—“rose.”
“Rose,” he muttered, and laughed.
His laugh was answered by a sleepy growl from Mushka under the
bed: “Rrr . . . nga-nga-nga . . . !”
A heavy anger sank like a cold weight on his heart, and he felt
tempted to say something rude to Masha, and even to jump up and
hit her; his heart began throbbing.
“So then,” he asked, restraining himself, “since I went to your
house, I was bound in duty to marry you?”
“Of course. You know that very well.”
“That’s nice.” And a minute later he repeated: “That’s nice.”
To relieve the throbbing of his heart, and to avoid saying too
much, Nikitin went to his study and lay down on the sofa, without a
pillow; then he lay on the floor on the carpet.
“What nonsense it is!” he said to reassure himself. “You are a
teacher, you are working in the noblest of callings. . . . What need
have you of any other world? What rubbish!”
But almost immediately he told himself with conviction that he
was not a real teacher, but simply a government employé, as
commonplace and mediocre as the Czech who taught Greek. He had
never had a vocation for teaching, he knew nothing of the theory of
teaching, and never had been interested in the subject; he did not
know how to treat children; he did not understand the significance
of what he taught, and perhaps did not teach the right things. Poor
Ippolit Ippolititch had been frankly stupid, and all the boys, as well
as his colleagues, knew what he was and what to expect from him;
but he, Nikitin, like the Czech, knew how to conceal his stupidity and
cleverly deceived every one by pretending that, thank God, his
teaching was a success. These new ideas frightened Nikitin; he
rejected them, called them stupid, and believed that all this was due
to his nerves, that he would laugh at himself.
And he did, in fact, by the morning laugh at himself and call
himself an old woman; but it was clear to him that his peace of mind
was lost, perhaps, for ever, and that in that little two-story house
happiness was henceforth impossible for him. He realized that the
illusion had evaporated, and that a new life of unrest and clear sight
was beginning which was incompatible with peace and personal
happiness.
Next day, which was Sunday, he was at the school chapel, and
there met his colleagues and the director. It seemed to him that they
were entirely preoccupied with concealing their ignorance and
discontent with life, and he, too, to conceal his uneasiness, smiled
affably and talked of trivialities. Then he went to the station and saw
the mail train come in and go out, and it was agreeable to him to be
alone and not to have to talk to any one.
At home he found Varya and his father-in-law, who had come to
dinner. Varya’s eyes were red with crying, and she complained of a
headache, while Shelestov ate a great deal, saying that young men
nowadays were unreliable, and that there was very little gentlemanly
feeling among them.
“It’s loutishness!” he said. “I shall tell him so to his face: ‘It’s
loutishness, sir,’ I shall say.”
Nikitin smiled affably and helped Masha to look after their guests,
but after dinner he went to his study and shut the door.
The March sun was shining brightly in at the windows and
shedding its warm rays on the table. It was only the twentieth of the
month, but already the cabmen were driving with wheels, and the
starlings were noisy in the garden. It was just the weather in which
Masha would come in, put one arm round his neck, tell him the
horses were saddled or the chaise was at the door, and ask him
what she should put on to keep warm. Spring was beginning as
exquisitely as last spring, and it promised the same joys. . . . But
Nikitin was thinking that it would be nice to take a holiday and go to
Moscow, and stay at his old lodgings there. In the next room they
were drinking coffee and talking of Captain Polyansky, while he tried
not to listen and wrote in his diary: “Where am I, my God? I am
surrounded by vulgarity and vulgarity. Wearisome, insignificant
people, pots of sour cream, jugs of milk, cockroaches, stupid
women. . . . There is nothing more terrible, mortifying, and
distressing than vulgarity. I must escape from here, I must escape
today, or I shall go out of my mind!”
NOT WANTED

B
ETWEEN six and seven o’clock on a July evening, a crowd of
summer visitors—mostly fathers of families—burdened with
parcels, portfolios, and ladies’ hat-boxes, was trailing along
from the little station of Helkovo, in the direction of the summer
villas. They all looked exhausted, hungry, and ill-humoured, as
though the sun were not shining and the grass were not green for
them.
Trudging along among the others was Pavel Matveyitch Zaikin, a
member of the Circuit Court, a tall, stooping man, in a cheap cotton
dust-coat and with a cockade on his faded cap. He was perspiring,
red in the face, and gloomy. . . .
“Do you come out to your holiday home every day?” said a
summer visitor, in ginger-coloured trousers, addressing him.
“No, not every day,” Zaikin answered sullenly. “My wife and son
are staying here all the while, and I come down two or three times a
week. I haven’t time to come every day; besides, it is expensive.”
“You’re right there; it is expensive,” sighed he of the ginger
trousers. “In town you can’t walk to the station, you have to take a
cab; and then, the ticket costs forty-two kopecks; you buy a paper
for the journey; one is tempted to drink a glass of vodka. It’s all
petty expenditure not worth considering, but, mind you, in the
course of the summer it will run up to some two hundred roubles. Of
course, to be in the lap of Nature is worth any money—I don’t
dispute it . . . idyllic and all the rest of it; but of course, with the
salary an official gets, as you know yourself, every farthing has to be
considered. If you waste a halfpenny you lie awake all night. . . .
Yes. . . I receive, my dear sir—I haven’t the honour of knowing your
name—I receive a salary of very nearly two thousand roubles a year.
I am a civil councillor, I smoke second-rate tobacco, and I haven’t a
rouble to spare to buy Vichy water, prescribed me by the doctor for
gall-stones.”
“It’s altogether abominable,” said Zaikin after a brief silence. “I
maintain, sir, that summer holidays are the invention of the devil and
of woman. The devil was actuated in the present instance by malice,
woman by excessive frivolity. Mercy on us, it is not life at all; it is
hard labour, it is hell! It’s hot and stifling, you can hardly breathe,
and you wander about like a lost soul and can find no refuge. In
town there is no furniture, no servants. . . everything has been
carried off to the villa: you eat what you can get; you go without
your tea because there is no one to heat the samovar; you can’t
wash yourself; and when you come down here into this ‘lap of
Nature’ you have to walk, if you please, through the dust and heat. .
. . Phew! Are you married?”
“Yes. . . three children,” sighs Ginger Trousers.
“It’s abominable altogether. . . . It’s a wonder we are still alive.”
At last the summer visitors reached their destination. Zaikin said
good-bye to Ginger Trousers and went into his villa. He found a
death-like silence in the house. He could hear nothing but the
buzzing of the gnats, and the prayer for help of a fly destined for the
dinner of a spider. The windows were hung with muslin curtains,
through which the faded flowers of the geraniums showed red. On
the unpainted wooden walls near the oleographs flies were
slumbering. There was not a soul in the passage, the kitchen, or the
dining-room. In the room which was called indifferently the parlour
or the drawing-room, Zaikin found his son Petya, a little boy of six.
Petya was sitting at the table, and breathing loudly with his lower lip
stuck out, was engaged in cutting out the figure of a knave of
diamonds from a card.
“Oh, that’s you, father!” he said, without turning round. “Good-
evening.”
“Good-evening. . . . And where is mother?”
“Mother? She is gone with Olga Kirillovna to a rehearsal of the
play. The day after tomorrow they will have a performance. And they
will take me, too. . . . And will you go?”
“H’m! . . . When is she coming back?”
“She said she would be back in the evening.”
“And where is Natalya?”
“Mamma took Natalya with her to help her dress for the
performance, and Akulina has gone to the wood to get mushrooms.
Father, why is it that when gnats bite you their stomachs get red?”
“I don’t know. . . . Because they suck blood. So there is no one in
the house, then?”
“No one; I am all alone in the house.”
Zaikin sat down in an easy-chair, and for a moment gazed blankly
at the window.
“Who is going to get our dinner?” he asked.
“They haven’t cooked any dinner today, father. Mamma thought
you were not coming today, and did not order any dinner. She is
going to have dinner with Olga Kirillovna at the rehearsal.”
“Oh, thank you very much; and you, what have you to eat?”
“I’ve had some milk. They bought me six kopecks’ worth of milk.
And, father, why do gnats suck blood?”
Zaikin suddenly felt as though something heavy were rolling down
on his liver and beginning to gnaw it. He felt so vexed, so aggrieved,
and so bitter, that he was choking and tremulous; he wanted to
jump up, to bang something on the floor, and to burst into loud
abuse; but then he remembered that his doctor had absolutely
forbidden him all excitement, so he got up, and making an effort to
control himself, began whistling a tune from “Les Huguenots.”
“Father, can you act in plays?” he heard Petya’s voice.
“Oh, don’t worry me with stupid questions!” said Zaikin, getting
angry. “He sticks to one like a leaf in the bath! Here you are, six
years old, and just as silly as you were three years ago. . . . Stupid,
neglected child! Why are you spoiling those cards, for instance? How
dare you spoil them?”
“These cards aren’t yours,” said Petya, turning round. “Natalya
gave them me.”
“You are telling fibs, you are telling fibs, you horrid boy!” said
Zaikin, growing more and more irritated. “You are always telling fibs!
You want a whipping, you horrid little pig! I will pull your ears!”
Petya leapt up, and craning his neck, stared fixedly at his father’s
red and wrathful face. His big eyes first began blinking, then were
dimmed with moisture, and the boy’s face began working.
“But why are you scolding?” squealed Petya. “Why do you attack
me, you stupid? I am not interfering with anybody; I am not
naughty; I do what I am told, and yet . . . you are cross! Why are
you scolding me?”
The boy spoke with conviction, and wept so bitterly that Zaikin felt
conscience-stricken.
“Yes, really, why am I falling foul of him?” he thought. “Come,
come,” he said, touching the boy on the shoulder. “I am sorry, Petya
. . . forgive me. You are my good boy, my nice boy, I love you.”
Petya wiped his eyes with his sleeve, sat down, with a sigh, in the
same place and began cutting out the queen. Zaikin went off to his
own room. He stretched himself on the sofa, and putting his hands
behind his head, sank into thought. The boy’s tears had softened his
anger, and by degrees the oppression on his liver grew less. He felt
nothing but exhaustion and hunger.
“Father,” he heard on the other side of the door, “shall I show you
my collection of insects?”
“Yes, show me.”
Petya came into the study and handed his father a long green box.
Before raising it to his ear Zaikin could hear a despairing buzz and
the scratching of claws on the sides of the box. Opening the lid, he
saw a number of butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, and flies
fastened to the bottom of the box with pins. All except two or three
butterflies were still alive and moving.
“Why, the grasshopper is still alive!” said Petya in surprise. “I
caught him yesterday morning, and he is still alive!”
“Who taught you to pin them in this way?”
“Olga Kirillovna.”
“Olga Kirillovna ought to be pinned down like that herself!” said
Zaikin with repulsion. “Take them away! It’s shameful to torture
animals.”
“My God! How horribly he is being brought up!” he thought, as
Petya went out.
Pavel Matveyitch forgot his exhaustion and hunger, and thought of
nothing but his boy’s future. Meanwhile, outside the light was
gradually fading. . . . He could hear the summer visitors trooping
back from the evening bathe. Some one was stopping near the open
dining-room window and shouting: “Do you want any mushrooms?”
And getting no answer, shuffled on with bare feet. . . . But at last,
when the dusk was so thick that the outlines of the geraniums
behind the muslin curtain were lost, and whiffs of the freshness of
evening were coming in at the window, the door of the passage was
thrown open noisily, and there came a sound of rapid footsteps, talk,
and laughter. . . .
“Mamma!” shrieked Petya.
Zaikin peeped out of his study and saw his wife, Nadyezhda
Stepanovna, healthy and rosy as ever; with her he saw Olga
Kirillovna, a spare woman with fair hair and heavy freckles, and two
unknown men: one a lanky young man with curly red hair and a big
Adam’s apple; the other, a short stubby man with a shaven face like
an actor’s and a bluish crooked chin.
“Natalya, set the samovar,” cried Nadyezhda Stepanovna, with a
loud rustle of her skirts. “I hear Pavel Matveyitch is come. Pavel,
where are you? Good-evening, Pavel!” she said, running into the
study breathlessly. “So you’ve come. I am so glad. . . . Two of our
amateurs have come with me. . . . Come, I’ll introduce you. . . .
Here, the taller one is Koromyslov . . . he sings splendidly; and the
other, the little one . . . is called Smerkalov: he is a real actor . . . he
recites magnificently. Oh, how tired I am! We have just had a
rehearsal. . . . It goes splendidly. We are acting ‘The Lodger with the
Trombone’ and ‘Waiting for Him.’ . . . The performance is the day
after tomorrow. . . .”
“Why did you bring them?” asked Zaikin.
“I couldn’t help it, Poppet; after tea we must rehearse our parts
and sing something. . . . I am to sing a duet with Koromyslov. . . .
Oh, yes, I was almost forgetting! Darling, send Natalya to get some
sardines, vodka, cheese, and something else. They will most likely
stay to supper. . . . Oh, how tired I am!”
“H’m! I’ve no money.”
“You must, Poppet! It would be awkward! Don’t make me blush.”
Half an hour later Natalya was sent for vodka and savouries;
Zaikin, after drinking tea and eating a whole French loaf, went to his
bedroom and lay down on the bed, while Nadyezhda Stepanovna
and her visitors, with much noise and laughter, set to work to
rehearse their parts. For a long time Pavel Matveyitch heard
Koromyslov’s nasal reciting and Smerkalov’s theatrical exclamations.
. . . The rehearsal was followed by a long conversation, interrupted
by the shrill laughter of Olga Kirillovna. Smerkalov, as a real actor,
explained the parts with aplomb and heat. . . .
Then followed the duet, and after the duet there was the clatter of
crockery. . . . Through his drowsiness Zaikin heard them persuading
Smerkalov to read “The Woman who was a Sinner,” and heard him,
after affecting to refuse, begin to recite. He hissed, beat himself on
the breast, wept, laughed in a husky bass. . . . Zaikin scowled and
hid his head under the quilt.
“It’s a long way for you to go, and it’s dark,” he heard Nadyezhda
Stepanovna’s voice an hour later. “Why shouldn’t you stay the night
here? Koromyslov can sleep here in the drawing-room on the sofa,
and you, Smerkalov, in Petya’s bed. . . . I can put Petya in my
husband’s study. . . . Do stay, really!”
At last when the clock was striking two, all was hushed, the
bedroom door opened, and Nadyezhda Stepanovna appeared.
“Pavel, are you asleep?” she whispered.
“No; why?”
“Go into your study, darling, and lie on the sofa. I am going to put
Olga Kirillovna here, in your bed. Do go, dear! I would put her to
sleep in the study, but she is afraid to sleep alone. . . . Do get up!”
Zaikin got up, threw on his dressing-gown, and taking his pillow,
crept wearily to the study. . . . Feeling his way to his sofa, he lighted
a match, and saw Petya lying on the sofa. The boy was not asleep,
and, looking at the match with wide-open eyes:
“Father, why is it gnats don’t go to sleep at night?” he asked.
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