What

What is
is Diversity?
Diversity?

 Diversity refers to the variety or multiplicity of

demographic features that characterize a
company’s workforce, particularly in terms of
race, gender, culture, national origin,
handicap, age and religion

 Diversity leads to better performance and

innovation provided it is well managed
 Levels
Levels of
of Diversity
Diversity
 Surface-level Diversity. Differences in easily perceived
characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnicity, age,
disability etc. that do not necessarily reflect the ways
people think or feel but may activate certain
stereotypes

 Deep-level Diversity. Differences in values, personality

and work preferences that become progressively more
important for determining similarity as people get to
know one another better
 OBJECTIVE/OUTCOME
OBJECTIVE/OUTCOME
 Understand what is Diversity

 Impact of Diversity in a workplace / project

environment

 Diversity impact on better performance and

innovation

 Understand art of Management of Diversity

 Understand Organisation Culture &

Environment
 Diversity
Diversity
 Discrimination. Taking specific actions towards or
against the employees/people on the basis of their
differences. Usually it has negative connotation

– Unfair discrimination means making judgments about

individuals based on stereotypes regarding their
demographic groups

– It also means creation of undue differences between

genders, ages, family backgrounds etc., which leads
to de-motivation and may lead to law-suits
 Biographical
Biographical Characteristics
Characteristics
 Personal characteristics. Such as age, gender, and
marital status that are objective and easily obtained
 Age.
– Age has both merits & demerits
– Employers have different perception about old and
young employees
– It is usually said that age has no direct relationship with
productivity
– Older workers have more wisdom, judgment,
experience, strong work ethics and more commitment
towards work
– Moreover, they are less likely to resign, have fewer
absences, less turnover and report higher job
satisfaction than the young ones
 Biographical
Biographical Characteristics
Characteristics
 Gender/Sex.
– There are few important differences between men and
women that do affect their job performance; however,
these differences should not be used as discriminatory
tool
– Working mothers prefer part-time work and flexible
schedules and telecommuting in order to
accommodate family responsibilities; some sort of
work-life balance
– Absenteeism rate, due to family commitments
 Biographical
Biographical Characteristics
Characteristics
 Marital Status. Married employees have specific
issue that affect their job
 Productivity / Seniority. There is positive relationship
between productivity and seniority. Similarly, old
employees have less turnover ‘past history is the best
predictor of future performance’
 Differently Abled Persons. Be accommodated as per
suitability for the job - Capacity be utilized
 Ability,
Ability, Intellect,
Intellect, and
and Intelligence
Intelligence
 Ability:
An individual’s capacity to perform the
various tasks in a job.

 Physical Ability:
The capacity to do physical activities.

 Intellectual Ability:
The capacity to do mental activities.

 General Mental Ability (GMA): An overall factor of

intelligence, as suggested by the positive correlations
among specific intellectual ability.
 Physical
Physical Abilities
Abilities
Physical Abilities:
The capacity to do tasks demanding
stamina, dexterity, strength, and
similar characteristics
 Diversity
Diversity Management
Management
Diversity Management:
Diversity is likely to be more useful if everyone realizes
its importance and is ready to accept it
The process and programs by which Managers make
everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and
differences of others
Affirmative Action:
Steps taken for the purpose of eliminating the present
effects of past discrimination
 Diversity
Diversity Management
Management
Diversity management is undertaken to avoid workplace
discriminatory practices:
Recruitment:

•Word of Mouth regarding job opportunities should be

avoided as it may create a perception about favoring
some particular group
•Misleading information to bar some members of any
group to apply for some job
•Help Wanted Ads only for males or only for females are
considered unethical, unless gender is bonafide
requirement for a job
 Diversity
Diversity Management
Management

Selection Standards:
•Tests, which are irrelevant to the job should be avoided
•Reference to relatives or known candidates will deprive
the organization from hiring brilliant people
•Height, weight or physical characteristics are unethical
unless any justification is given
•Application forms should preferably not contain
questions about disabilities, marital status, age,
citizenship
 Diversity
Diversity Management
Management Practices
Practices

 Diversity management aims at maximizing diversity’s

potential benefits while minimizing its potential barriers
 Special attention should be paid to national culture of
employees for better management of workplace
diversity
 Diversity
Diversity Management
Management Practices
Practices

•Educate Managers.
•Emphasize on benefits of diversity in both formal and
informal sessions/meetings
•Foster personal development practices and
acknowledge value of diverse talent
•Continuous diversity training to be included in the
annual training program
•Look for any barriers for equal opportunity for
advancement
 Diversity
Diversity Management
Management Practices
Practices
 Diversity Management usually involves five steps:
 Provide strong leadership (top leadership acting as role
model to encourage diversity)
 Assess the Situation (assess nature of diversity and what
are issues to be addressed)
 Provide diversity training and education (highlight merits
of diversity and giving importance/ respect to diverse
people)
 Change culture and management system (workplace
culture should demonstrate through words and actions
and managers should follow established workplace
values)
 Evaluate diversity management programs (may
conduct a survey to get views of employees about
diversity
ORGANIZATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
CULTURE AND
AND
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
 Culture Vis a Vis Values

• Organizational Culture: The shared values,

principles, traditions, the way of doing things
that influence the way organizational
members act

• Values: These are the preferred modes of

actions that employees adopt over the
course of action
 Omnipotent Vs Symbolic View of
Management
• Omnipotent View: The view that managers are
directly responsible for an organization’s success or
failure

• Symbolic View: The view that much of an

organization’s success or failure is due to external
forces outside manager’s control

• What Reality Suggests: In reality Managers are

neither all powerful nor helpless; they have to work
under various constraints

Org Environment Managerial Org Culture

Discretion
 Organizational Culture

 Strong Culture: Organizational culture in which the

key values are intensely held and widely shared

 Weak Culture: Organizational culture in which key

values are limited to a group of employee, usually
among the members of top management
 Dimensions of Strong and Weak Culture
Strong Culture Weak Culture
• Values widely shared • Values limited to few people –
• Culture conveys consistent usually top management
messages about what is • Culture sends contradictory
important messages about what is
• Most employees can tell important
stories about company • Employees have little
history/heroes knowledge of company history
• Employees strongly identify or heroes
with culture • Employees have little
• Strong connection exists identification with culture
between shared values and • There is little connection
behaviors between shared values and
behaviors
 Dimensions of Organizational Culture
Attention to
details

Innovation &
Risk Taking Outcome
orientation
Organizational
Stability Culture
People
orientation
Aggressiveness

Team
orientation
 Dimensions of Organizational Culture
• Attention to detail: Degree to which employees are
expected to exhibit precision, analysis and attention
to detail
• Outcome Orientation: Degree to which managers
focus on results or outcomes rather than on how
these outcomes are achieved
• People Orientation: Degree to which management
decisions take into account the effects on people in
the organization
• Team Orientation: Degree to which work is
organized around teams rather than individuals
 Dimensions of Organizational Culture
• Aggressiveness: Degree to which employees are
aggressive and competitive rather than cooperative
• Stability: Degree to which organizational decisions
and actions emphasize maintaining the status quo
• Innovation and Risk Taking: Degree to which
employees are encouraged to be innovative and to
take risks
 Ethical Culture
• Ethical Culture: A culture composed of values,
traditions, and practices which are perceived to be
ethical is called an ethical culture. Following are the
suggestions of creating an ethical culture:

 Be a visible role model

 Communicate ethical expectations
 Provide ethics training
 Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones.
 Provide protective mechanisms so that employees
can discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical
behavior without fear.
 Innovative Culture
An innovative culture is the one and is the desire of
every organization; it has following characteristics:

• Challenge & involvement: Employees should be

involved in, motivated by and committed to long term
goals and success of the organization

• Freedom: Employees should be allowed to

independently define their work, exercise discretion and
take initiative in day to day activities

• Trust & openness: Employees should be supported

and respectful to each other

• Idea time: Employees should have time to elaborate

on new ideas before taking action
 Innovative Culture
• Playfulness/humor: The workplace should be
spontaneous, natural and full of fun

• Conflict resolution: Employees should be

empowered to make decisions and resolve issues, in
the best interest of organization

• Debates: Employees should be allowed to express

their opinions and put forth ideas for consideration
and review

• Risk taking: Managers should tolerate uncertainty

and ambiguity and employees should be rewarded for
risk taking
 Creating A Customer-Responsive Culture
A customer responsive culture has following
characteristics:
Characteristics Suggestions for Managers
Type of employees Hire people with personalities & attitudes
consistent with customer service – friendly,
attentive, enthusiastic, patient, good listener.
Type of job Design job so that employees have as much
environment control as possible to satisfy customers, without
rigid rules and procedures.
Empowerment Give employees discretion to make day to day
decisions on job related activities.
Role clarity Reduce uncertainty about what employees can and
cannot do by continual training on product
knowledge, listening, & other behavioral skills.
Consistent desire Clarify organization’s commitment to doing
to satisfy & delight whatever it takes, even if it is outside one’s normal
customers job requirements.
 Spirituality and Organizational Culture
 Workplace Spirituality: A feature of a culture where
organizational values promote a sense of purpose
through meaningful work that takes place in the context
of community. Such an organization recognizes that
people have a mind and a spirit who seek to find
meaning & purpose in their work and desire to connect
with other human beings and be part of the community.
 Spiritual organization five characteristics:
 Strong sense of purpose
 Focus on individual development
 Trust and openness
 Employee empowerment
 Toleration of employee expression
 Influence of External Environment
External environment: It refers to the factors and forces
outside an organization that affect the organization’s
performance. It has two components – specific
environment and general environment:
• Specific environment: External forces that have a
direct impact on manager’s decisions and actions
and are directly relevant to the achievement of an
organization’s goal. Main forces that make up specific
culture are:
o Customers
o Suppliers
o Competitors
o Pressure groups
 Influence of External Environment
• General environment: General environment includes
the broad external conditions that may affect an
organization. During various managerial functions,
these factors should be kept in mind, which are:

 Economic conditions
 Political/Legal, conditions
 Socio-cultural conditions
 Demographic conditions
 Technological conditions
 Global conditions
 OBJECTIVE/OUTCOME
OBJECTIVE/OUTCOME
 Have we understood what is Diversity

 How Diversity can impact workplace / project

environment

 Impact on better performance and innovation

 Clarity in art of Management of Diversity

 What is Organisation Culture & Environment?

Thank
Thank You
You