History of and Concepts of Diversity Management Flashcards
Which societal changes lead to the development of Diversity Management in the US?
Societal changes like civil rights movements in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as well as other social movement organizations like the National Organization of Women (NOW 1966), the American Indian Movement (AIW 1968), Grey Panthers (1970) and Stonewall (1969) lead to the development of Diversity Management in the US.
Additional Info: There were several Equal Employment Opportunities laws and activities introduced like the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), Equal Pay Act (1963), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Age Discrimination Act (1967), Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) and Affirmative Action Plans (end 1960s).
Name and explain concepts of diversity management of organizations, according to Tomas (2001).
Based on case studies in the US, Ely and Thomas (2001) distinguishe three approaches to Diversity Management in organizations.
Firstly there is the ‘fairness and discrimination’ paradigm which describes the presence of minority grouo members within an organization without being integrated, having low chances for promotion. Instead they are being assigned responsible tasks that seem to be attractive but are problematic (comparably less authority, lower rewards) this is also described as ‘glass cliff’ effect. Often this is accompanied by ‘colour-bi´lind ideology’, lack of challenging power inequalities and ambiguous signals to women and minority group members.
The second paradigm is the so called ‘access and legitimacy’ paradigm. According to this concept the employees should mirror the customers. There often is access of women and minority group members to, particularly, marketing and product development. At the same time there is the problematic of reducing members of an organization to their membership to a certain social group instead of acceptance and inclusion.
The third paradigm is the ‘learning and effectiveness’ paradigm, according to which the organization is seen to increase its learning and effectiveness through Diversity Management. In this concept arguments of cost-reduction are connected to HRM (e.g. coworker satisfaction and productivity). Advantages in retention and recruitment as well as arguments connected to marketing, creativity and improved problem-solving are seen. There is the idea of increased flexibility because of experiences with conflicts within a diverse workforce.
Describe the approach for the implementation of diversity management of Hansen (2010).
AGIL scheme:
- Adaption: to the organization’s needs as well as making resources available that are needed for diversity management
- Goal Attainment: “enabling systems” which are connected to existing systems
- Integration: integration of members of the organization through “developing an attitude towards diversity” that fits to the organization, in order to prevent “the split off of particular diversity dimensions”
- Latent Pattern Maintenance: creation of a “diversity vision” that is according to the organization’s values
