Lecture 1 Flashcards
Meaning of Equality
Marginied groups have protested and fought for recognition, representation and protection.
Legistation covering equal pay, sex and racial discrimination introducted in 1970. More recently in 2000s laws have been introduced to cover discrimination on sexual orientation and religion
Meaning of Diversity
Organisations became interested with diversity in 1980s
Report by Jonhson & Packer (1987) showed in the future the labour force within America would be come more hetreogenous ( white males would no longer represent the workforce, would be more women and ethnic minorities)
Research: Benefit of women in senior management, profit (Business Case)
Deloitte, 2011- top 25% of firms in terms of women in senior management yielded 30% higher returns to their stakeholders compared to peers. Included 11 industries. Limitation- only fortune 500, women may have been exposed to training programs providing them with the skills to acheive
Why have a diverse workforce
Enhances critical thinking, problem solving and employee professional skills (Goldberg et al., 2019)
More people with disabilities
Ageing population= people work for longer
Companies with a diverse workforce recieve more positive attention from the media and boots attractiveness to future employees and customers (Robinson & Dechant, 1997).
Inclusion
Basis of inclusion lays in the sense of belogning (Barak, 2005)
inclusion is important for everyone, especially those who have been exlcuded historically (Winters, 2014)
Diversity alone does not improve performance (Robinson, 2008), requires inclusion
Having a diverse workforce doesnt mean people will feel included within the workplace (Billmoria et al., 2008)
Challenges Workplace diversity and Inclusion
Language, Race, Religion and sexual orinentation can result in hostility and disrespect in the workplace enviornment which leads to poor cohesion and team bonding (Winters, 2014)
Turnover costs and absenteesim rates are higher in diverse workplaces as induivudals do not feel fully secure at work, Monks, 2019 suggested that introduction of DEI initatives had a positive effect on turnover costs and absenteesim. Although managers are expected to run these initatives there is limited research which evidences they are trained to do so (Robbins, 2003)
Overall inclusion: personal experience, enterprise perception (Ellsworth et al., 2021)
Personal experience-
Authenticity: induviduals feel encoruaged to be themselves and speak up at work
Belonging: induvidals feel connected to others at work
Enterprise perception-
Acceptance: employees value and embrace diversity
Camaraderie: Employees have strong bondd and work together as a team
Fairness- employees recieve equitalle treatment and have a fair chance to suceed
What is the business case?
DEI matters because
Business case- Profit.
- Decrease abstenteesim and turnover (Bourke & Espidoe, 2019)
- Increases job satisfaction and commitment (McCallagen et al., 2019), as organisations are providing prayer rooms, dietry food etc.
- Enhances productivity (ILO, 2019)
- Establishes a climate of trust (Maurer & Qureshi, 2019)
- Improves quality of decisions (Reynolds & Lewis, 2017)
- Sparks creativity and innovation (Lorenzo et al., 2017)
- Finanacial performance outweighs competitors (Eswaran, 2019)
Evidence of the business case
- 20% of an employee’s desire to stay in an organisation is linked to feelings of inclusion (Dnika et al., 2019)
- 10% increase in perceptions of inclusion improves absenteeism, adding nearly one day a year in work attendance per employee (Bourke & Espedido, 2019)
- Mixed-gender teams can better manage group conflict compared to homogeneous teams and can better maximise creativity among members (Lee et al., 2018)
- Teams that include different viewpoints or thinking styles (cognitive diversity) solve problems faster (Reynolds & Lewis, 2017)
Organizations in the top quartile in racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial performance above medians (Mckinsey, 2015).
What is The McKinsey report
- One of the most cited sources that is used to justify the business case for diversity in organisations
- The findings are often used as evidence to support the argument that diversity is “good for business” specifically because it leads to more profits
- Widely referenced but also widely misrepresented
- Data drawn from 366 organisations from America, Canada, UK and Latin America – generalisable
- Explores the relationship between having a diverse leadership function and company performance
postive correlation between gender diversity on executive teams and financial performance (2017)
found that companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams—not only with respect to absolute representation but also of variety or mix of ethnicities —are 33 percent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability (2014)
- In the UK, for every 10% increase in gender diversity in the senior executive team, there was an increase of 3.5% in profits
- Companies in the bottom quartile in both gender and ethnicity underperformed the other three quartiles
The business case… correlational?
- “This correlation does not prove that the relationship is causal—that greater gender and ethnic diversity in corporate leadership automatically translates into more profit—but rather indicates that companies that commit to diverse leadership are more successful.”
- The relationship between diversity and profit is not explained
- It may be that profitable companies seek to become more diverse (rather than diversity leads to greater profits)
What is the social justice case?
- Equality, diversity and inclusion are the right way to treat people
- People want to be able to show up at work and be themselves and do their jobs without being discriminated against
- More than just complying with the law, HRM practices should ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to develop, progress and to be rewarded and recognised at work
- Everyone should have access to employment and to career development and training in an environment that is free from discrimination, bullying and harassment
(CIPD,2018)
Social justice case evidence from McGregor 2017 review
We should live in a country where every person, regardless of their ethnicity or background, is able to fulfil their potential at work
- For BAME individuals, there was discrimination and bias and every stage of the career
- If organisations fully utilised their talent it could boost the UK economy by £24 billion
Organisations and individuals tend to hire in their own image- unconcious bias
BME people are faced with a distinct lack of role models, they are more likely to perceive the workplace as hostile, they are less likely to apply for and be given promotions and
they are more likely to be disciplined or judged harshly
Problems increasing diversity
- Diversity and inclusion is poorly conceived, implemented and practiced
- Focus on leaders- rather than a holistic approach looking at the whole of the organisation
- Do not use an evidence based approach
- Adopt a “one at a time” approach or a “one size fits all” approach
- Rely on credibility indicators, generic business case for diversity, and/or one-off intervention
- “When it comes to Inclusion, there is no single approach, there is no one size fits all, there is no magic bullet” (Mckinsey, 2013)
What is the workforce diversity effects (Jen, Northcraft & Neale, 1999)
Workforce demographic diversity has benefits for organisations BUT at the same time there’s the potential for conflict between groups= organisations can be less cohesive with diverse workforces. To mediate this, its required to have diversity management and inclusion practices, to maximise the benefits and minimise the challenges.
