Chapter 3: Diversity

Question 1

Workforce diversity

Answer 1

differences among recruits and employees in characteristics such as gender, race, age, religion, cultural background, physical ability, or sexual orientation.

Question 2

Key Reasons for Growing Focus on Workforce Diversity

Answer 2

1. Demographic Changes
2. Failure to Manage Diversity
3. Social Movements and Public Awareness: BLM and MeToo

Question 3

Key Changes in the Canadian Workforce:

Answer 3

1. Multicultural and Multiethnic Workforce
2. Aging Population
3. Increasing Female Participation in the Workforce

Question 4

Strategic and Competitive Advantages of Diversity

Answer 4

1. Cost Argument
2. Resource-Acquisition Argument
3. Marketing
4. Creativity and Innovation
5. Problem-Solving
6. System-Flexibility

Question 5

Cost Argument for Diversity

Answer 5

Companies that successfully integrate and manage diverse employees will face lower costs in terms of turnover, recruitment, and training, compared to those that struggle with diversity issues.

Question 6

Resource-Acquisition Argument

Answer 6

Organizations with strong diversity initiatives will attract top talent, especially from groups that may have historically faced discrimination.

Question 7

Marketing

Answer 7

For global companies, having employees from diverse backgrounds can enhance cultural sensitivity and improve marketing strategies aimed at different demographics

Question 8

System-Flexibility

Answer 8

a multicultural workforce brings greater agility in responding to external shifts and challenges
- crucial for staying competitive in a dynamic global market

Question 9

diversity climate

Answer 9

• how well an organization advocates for fair HR policies, promotes equal opportunities, and fosters inclusion

linked to:
* Higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
* Increased employee engagement and better performance outcomes.
* Lower rates of turnover and withdrawal from the organization.

Question 10

Organizational Climate Perceptions

Answer 10

• employees’ shared perceptions of an organization’s policies, practices, and behaviors
• influenced by communication, leadership, and HR practices

Question 11

Trust Perceptions

Answer 11

ability (the competence of leadership)
benevolence (leaders’ caring nature)
integrity (adherence to acceptable values)

• trust among coworkers is equally important

Question 12

Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

Answer 12

o employees’ belief that the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being.
norm of reciprocity: leads to a sense of responsibility toward the organization’s success
o influenced by supervisors’ support, fairness in organizational procedures, and favourable work conditions

Question 13

Signaling Theory in Hiring

Answer 13

o Job applicants interpret recruitment experiences as signals about the organization.
o Discriminatory or invasive questions during recruitment may signal a lack of professionalism.

Question 14

Perceptual Challenges in Interviews

Answer 14

• Interviewers often compare applicants to an ideal stereotype.

Primacy Effect: Early information in an interview has a disproportionate impact on decisions.
- negative information tends to outweigh positive information.

Contrast Effects: Previous interviews can affect perceptions of current candidates.

Question 15

Benefits of Structured Interviews

Answer 15

Improve validity by using standardized evaluation, job-related questions, and consistency across candidates

Question 16

Rater Errors (6)

Answer 16

o Morning Bias: favoring early starters
o Leniency: Tendency to rate performance too positively.
o Harshness: Tendency to rate performance too negatively.
o Central Tendency: Avoiding extremes, with most ratings in the middle.
o Halo Effect: Rating on one trait influences perceptions of other traits (can be positive or negative).
o Similar-to-Me Effect: Raters may favor employees similar to themselves.

Question 17

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

Answer 17

o A rating scale with clear, specific behavioral examples for various performance levels (good, average, poor).
o Aims to reduce perceptual errors and improve rating accuracy by providing tangible examples.

Question 18

Frame-of-Reference (FOR) Training

Answer 18

A method for reducing biases and improving rating accuracy.
 Raters learn about performance dimensions and are given examples of good, average, and poor performance.
 Raters practice making evaluations and receive feedback to improve accuracy.