4 - Workplace: Diversity & Inclusion Flashcards
Visible Traits
Generally external physical characteristics that are easily recognizable
Examples:
- Culture
- Ethnicity/race
- Nationality
- Gender
- Physical attributes
- Age
- Language
Invisible Traits
- Attributes that are not readily seen
- Perspectives and life experiences
Examples:
- Education
- Family status
- Values and beliefs
- Work styles
- Socioeconomic status
Equity
- A focus on promoting fairness and justice via organizational structure
- Use available support systems to ensure that everyone ends up at the same level
- Different meanings in world of business
- Finance: ownership
- Compensation: relative fairness in total rewards
- Hiring: equal opportunity to work
Equality
Focuses on providing equal support levels to all employees
Four Layers of Diversity
Gardenswartz & Rowe
We are all multidimensional and none of the many ways that can be used to “identify” us tells the whole story.
- Personality: style, characteristics, preferences, perceptions, behaviors, cognitive & learning styles
- Internal dimensions: assigned at birth (little control)
- External dimensions: results of life experiences and choices (geographic location, income, habits, religion, education, appearance, marital status)
- Organizational dimensions: position in organization (field of work, division, department, unity, location, union affliction, management status)
Inclusion
The extent to which each person in an organization feels welcomed, respected, supported and valued as a team member
- “How do we make them feel welcome?”
- How you leverage the value of diversity.
Diversity
- “Who do we bring into our organization?”
- Is the result of effective inclusion
Covering
Defensive behavior occurs when an organization recruits a diverse workforce but promotes assimilation (becoming similar)
- Appearance
- Affiliation
- Advocacy
- Association
Benefits of Diversity
- Improved creativity and innovation
- Recruitment and retention
- Market strengths
- Branding
- Global integration/local differentiation
Costs and Challenges of Diversity
- Fragmented, nonproductive, indecisive teams
- Increased costs and time frames: training, recruitment, management
- Communication difficulties
- Blurred branding
- Stereotyping
- Global integration/local differentiation
- Up-front costs for designing diversity strategy/programs
Ways to Increase Diversity
Organizations must truly embrace diversity and integrate varied lifestyles, beliefs, and needs into business culture; no edicts from “on high” will lead to true change.
- Voluntary training
- Self-managed teams
- Cross-training
- College recruitment targeting women and minorities
- Mentoring for women and minorities
- Diversity task forces
- Diversity managers
Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Process
Executive Commitment
To make the business case for D&I, you must:
- Show that it can play a critical role in achieving core business goals.
- Link it to your organization’s unique mission, vision, and business objectives.
- Realign it over time with corporate strategic reevaluation and repositioning.
Preliminary Assessment
Twofold purpose:
- Identify current needs to set corresponding priorities, goals, and objectives.
- Provide benchmarks to measure the success or failure of subsequent D&I strategies.
Data:
- Demographic
- Turnover
- Employee opinion & customer satisfaction
- Employees attitude about how inclusively they are treated
- Leadership interviews to determine goals, expectations and concenrs
Diversity Council Key Responsibilities
Infrastructure Creation
- Setting goals and priorities
- Ensuring alignment with core business strategies
- Identifying obstacles and opportunities
- Recommending actions
- Monitoring the process
- Collecting data and evaluating results
System Changes
Review and revise to align with diversity goals:
- Organizational systems
- Operational processes, procedures, and practices
Training
Measurement and Evaluation
