Diversity Flashcards
What is neoliberalism?
Neoliberalism is the idea that economic freedom leads to individualism as there is no priority for the common good and individual effort and reward are incentivized (related to RBV). It is focused on:
➔ Short-term profit maximization
➔ The instrumentality of labour
➔ Individualism among workers
Collective systems (i.e. trade unions) are diminished and employees are treated purely as instruments for organizational profit
What are idiosyncratic deals (I-Deals)?
Individually negotiated agreements between employee and employer as part of social exchange theory. They are initiated by the employee and are:
1) Heterogeneous
2) Mutually beneficial
3) Varying in scope
What is individualized HRM?
An agreement between individual employee and employer initiated by the organization. The availability of such agreements relates to signaling theory whereas the actual use may be lower but still appreciated. It allows for negotiations in:
1) Development
2) Flexible work arrangements
3) Pay practices
What is the umbrella model of aging?
The umbrella model of aging states that as we get older we become more diverse and less homogenous. Many HR policies targeted at younger workers (T&D, promotions) aren’t as attractive for older workers who are more heterogenous.
Relates to the ASA model: overtime organizations become more homogeneous, but by offering a variety of HR practices this can be combatted.
Name the traditional versus contemporary employee life course perspective
Traditional:
Learning ➔ working ➔ retirement
Contemporary:
Learning ➔ working ➔ learning/family ➔ working ➔ retirement
Future:
Learning ➔ Working ➔ learning/family/volunteering
How can you combat experience concentration?
Employees working for a risk insurance company, were specialists on one type of insurance with many 40-45 year old employees that were burning out. When they start they were allowed to explore the types of insurances. Later on they were no longer being challenged due to becoming specialized in one type of insurance and getting asked the same questions over and over again, becoming bored.
It is therefore important to continue learning (included in the contemporary life course perspective)
When it comes to research by Bal (2015) and Kooij et al. (2011), what were their findings in relation to the aging workforce?
➔ The use of development led to increased absenteeism among older workers (learning abilities decline with age)
➔ Flexible work was favoured by older workers but resulted in more turnover for younger workers (signaling theory, feel less invested in)
➔ Extrinsic social motives (recognition and prestige) decline with age
➔ Desire for job security increases with age
What is workplace dignity (Bal, 2017)?
The value and worth we have as human beings and assumes that the workplace in itself has a dignity, or an intrinsic, sacred worth. By seeing humans as instruments for profit (neoliberalism), we strip the dignity of people.
Kant: people should never be treated as a means towards an end, but a means towards themselves.
It should help prevent violation of human dignity while simultaneously respecting, protecting and promting human dignity.
How is workplace dignity achieved?
➔ Making use of workplace democracy and power distribution where instead of high-level managers making key decisions, this power is distributed across the company via internal voice mechanisms and elections. Managers are elected by employees and act as representatives rather than traditional managers.
➔ Ownership: making employees legal owners of a company though shares
➔ Works councils: approving decisions made by higher up management
What are the three cases that promote gender equity?
➔ Business case: improved quality, innovation and productivity
➔ Moral case: treating people equally and with dignity (see Bal & De Jong, 2017)
➔ Legal case: laws in place to ensure gender equity
What does equity mean?
Equity recognizes that we don’t all have the same background, experiences and capacities. Therefore we should consider the needs of each individual.
What is gender inequality?
A social process by which people are treated differently and disadvantageously, under similar circumstances, on the basis of gender.
Which challenges are there in NL when it comes to gender inequality?
➔ Pay gap
➔ Few women in leadership
➔ Gender representation in corporate boards
➔ Pregnant women discriminated
➔ Sexual harassments
➔ More women work PT which is undervalued and leads to them being overlooked for promotions
➔ Female dominated fields pay less, when women take over a field the pay drops (e.g. pilots, biologists, engineering)
What is gender role theory?
Gender role theory states that the female gender role (more maternal) is perceived as incompatible with leadership roles and characteristics
➔ Women received as less favourable candidates
➔ Different evaluations of same leadership qualities
➔ PT work and career breaks influence promotions
➔ Work-family conflict
Why is there a lack of male involvement in gender equity?
Gender equity initiatives are more successful when men participate in them, however they don’t as they:
1) Miss how it benefits them
2) They feel they do not have legitimacy to work on it
This results in a lack of psychological ownership
What can organizations do to combat gender inequality?
➔ Quotas: but make people aware of why they exists
➔ Women leadership programs
➔ Flexible work arrangements: make them available to all staff and not just work-family accommodations
➔ Diversity training: needs to be embedded in the organization or else it will make people complacent about their bias
What can HR do to combat gender inequality?
➔ Revise job vacancies (make them gender-neutral, especially with characteristics)
➔ Diverse selection committee members
➔ Create a code of conduct
➔ Create a culture that supports practices
➔ Assess performance evaluation for bias: hold managers accountable
What did Dobbin et al. (2015) find when it came to managerial motivation and organizational reforms?
Manager motivations are instrumental to reforms
➔ Diversity is promoted when managers are engaged in recruiting and training women/minorities for management
➔ Diversity is obstructed by reforms designed to control managerial bias and often backfire and lead to resistance
➔ Accountability to diversity managers or federal regulators leads to managers being more aware
➔ Hiring and promotion transparency helps by expanding the applicant pool
➔ Organizations often choose programs that do not actually promote diversity
What are Affirmative action programs (AAPs) and equal opportunity (EO) initiatives?
The term is often referred to the practice of advantaging members of target groups over equally qualified majority group candidates or in extreme cases (only when court-mandated) over more qualified majority group members in hiring and promotion decisions. Weaker forms of AAPs referred to as equal opportunity (EO) and include the guidelines and/or practices that reduce managerial discretion (Dobbin et al. found this may backfire)
Explain the diversity process model by Nishii et al. (2018)
Espoused diversity practices (a) ➔ enacted diversity practices (b) ➔ perceptions of practices (c) ➔ attitudinal & cognitive reactions ➔ behavioural reactions ➔ outcomes for the organization (e.g. managerial diversity, legal discrimination, performance)
(a) Influenced by accountability structures, workforce demography and the institutional environment
(b) Who they are implemented by (woman or man), how they are formalized
(c) The personal relevance or gain and the authenticity of signals
