Chapter 3 - Diversity in Todays Workforce

Question 1

Workforce

Answer 1

People who are available for work.

Question 2

Factors affecting the workforce:

Answer 2

• Sex
• age

Question 3

Glass ceiling

Answer 3

An invisible barrier in organizations that prevents women and minorities from rising to higher-level jobs and earning equal pay.

Question 4

Multi-generational workforce

Answer 4

People from different age groups working together in the workplace

Question 5

Generations

Answer 5

Baby boomers – Individuals born between 1946 and 1964.
Generation Xers – Individuals born between 1965 and 1980
Millennials – Individuals born between 1981 and 1996
Generation Zers - Individuals born between 1997 and 2012

Question 6

Diversity

Answer 6

Degree to which members of a group differ from one another in terms of any attribute that may be used as a basis for categorizing people

Question 7

Diversity management

Answer 7

actions taken by organizations to promote greater cooperation among employees from different backgrounds to make them feel comfortable within the organization’s structure and workplace environment

Question 8

Stereotypes -

Answer 8

Beliefs we have about a group of people that are generalized to individual members of that group

Question 9

Surface level diversity

Answer 9

Refers to diversity regarding fairly observable characteristics including race, ethnicity, sex, and age

Question 10

Deep level diversity

Answer 10

Refers to differences among group members in terms of characteristics that cannot be observed very easily but that become clearer through the experience of working together (values, attitudes, personality).

Question 11

Duel career couples

Answer 11

Both parties in a relationship that earn an income and exhibit high commitment to their work roles

Question 12

Emotional spillover

Answer 12

Situation that occurs when a negative or positive emotion carries over home to work or from work to home

Question 13

Emotional crossover

Answer 13

Situation that occurs when one partner experiences the emotions of the other partner

Question 14

Work family conflict

Answer 14

Situation that occurs when the demands at work interfere with one’s ability to cope with demands at home

Question 15

Sandwich families

Answer 15

Families with middle-age parents who are responsible for the care of their older parents as well as their own children

Question 16

Indefinite employment

Answer 16

Situation that occurs when people are hired with an unknown end point to their employment with a specific organization.

Question 17

Temporary workers

Answer 17

Individuals who work for an organization full- or part-time based on the needs of the organization.

Question 18

Advantages of hiring temporary workers:

Answer 18

Functional flexibility - Different knowledge, skills, and abilities within the workforce that can be applied when the situation requires them. Allows companies to respond quickly to their changing needs, competitors and market forces.

Numerical flexibility – Number of workers that a company employs at a given point in time. Allows companies to scale up or down in terms of workforce depending on their immediate and long-term needs.

Financial flexibility – Allows companies to save money, temp workers typically get paid for hours worked and receive no employee benefits.

Question 19

Outsourcing

Answer 19

Process of contracting work to an external source that the organization used to do as part of its own operations

Question 20

Offshoring

Answer 20

Practice of basing part of a company’s operations overseas, in which the company is still in charge of the operational process

Question 21

Independent contractors

Answer 21

Workers who perform specific duties for a client and have independent oversight over their own work

Question 22

Gig economy

Answer 22

Labor market characterized by temporary and freelance contract work rather than permanent jobs

Question 23

4 strategies to build an inclusive workforce:

Answer 23

1. Financial
   - Commit money to increase and deepen programs to develop skills of diverse populations
2. Social
   - Develop strong business relationships with diverse suppliers and vendors
   - Create employee resource groups that address inclusion and other benfits
3. Preformance
   - Hold senior managers accountable through organizational objectives that measure their performance against company diversity and inclusion goals
4. Communication
   - Encourage employees to step outside their conmfort zone to talk to co-workers aout their differences to increase overall understanding others perspectives

Question 24

Telecommuting

Answer 24

Performing all or part of an employee’s work tasks at home or off site at a location different than the office

Question 25

Flextime

Answer 25

System of working a set number of hours with the starting and finishing times chosen within agreed-upon limits by each employee

Question 26

Compressed work weeks

Answer 26

Opportunity for employees to work the same number of hours over fewer days

Question 27

Off-shift arrangement

Answer 27

Situation in which one parent or guardian is home at all times with their children—with one person working standard hours and the other working non-standard hours

Question 28

Mobility

Answer 28

moving on to work for another organization is known as mobility.

Question 29

Hybrid entrepreneurship

Answer 29

Experimenting part-time with self-employment before fully leaving behind the salary and security provided by traditional employment

Question 30

Inclusion

Answer 30

building true appreciation of the value of differences among people and the creation of an environment that makes all people feel they are valued and essential to the organization