Lecture 7 Flashcards
Article: Equal performance, different grade: women’s performance in discussion perceived worse than men’s
“Women are still underrepresented in many male associated areas such as high profile positions. One reason for this imbalance is how men and women are evaluated: Women are evaluated more poorly than men in many different contexts based on their individual task performance and individual competencies.”
If men and women perform equally but women are evaluated more negatively it may demotivate women to join discussion or speak up.
The paper a female professor in Groningen was fired for
A female professor was fired, there was a long case about it, and this was the paper that she wrote that became the starting point of the problem. The paper is a really good paper. The paper shows that sometimes affirmative action that is aimed to help minoritized or marginalized groups turn out to become counterproductive. Especially if the people who are involved are not aware of the importance of affirmative action.
- E.g., “If you are helped with affirmative action it makes your life easier so we can implement a harder way of evaluating you.”
Undoing gender in academia: personal reflections on equal opportunity schemes
“In particular, while the RFF scheme was specifically designed to close the gender gap at all career stages by facilitating the flow-through of women to the higher functions in the university, I came to believe that initiatives deliberately set up to promote gender equality might inadvertently work against women.”
Higher qualified women are hired in lower positions.
Traditional bias: “Men are hired on potential, women on actual output”
Hiring women from outside the Netherlands contributes to “otherness”
“Diversity without inclusion hurts both parties”
What are the three key issues that unintended backlash of equal opportunity schemes revolve around?
According to “Undoing gender in academia: personal reflections on equal opportunity schemes”
- They are designed in ways that inadvertently facilitate the structural discrimination they purportedly seek to challenge and moderate.
- Equal opportunity schemes can be seen as undermining meritocratic principles, thereby lending legitimization to senior (male) academics’ active reduction of any perceived or real benefits of the schemes.
- The common top-down practice of imposing diversity on organizations hurts both the minority and the majority group.
How can you implement change in organizations?
- Bridging faultlines
- Diversity and inclusion
- Needs assessment
- Diversity training
- Conflict intervention
o Social categorization is needed for maximizing good outcomes but may lead to conflict - Coaching
o One on one or one on two more intensive training/consultation - Evaluation research
Informational diversity
Differences in knowledge bases and perspectives that members bring to the group.
Bridging faultlines
Sometimes it is impossible/inevitable to have diverse groups. This diversity can be based on informational diversity, this means that in one group you can have different individuals with different skills and different information, therefore you will have informationally diverse groups. But because of social categorization and certain perceptions (e.g., women are better than men in marketing), then even though you have informationally diverse teams, you have different groups handling different information/tasks. In a way there is conversions of different characteristics that create this fault line.
A convergence of diverse characteristics that lead to these faultlines which leads to these categorizations. So you create a line between people even though the team is supposed to be diverse in terms of information possession.
Article: Bridging faultlines by valuing diversity: diversity beliefs, information elaboration, and performance in diverse work groups
“Groups were persuaded either of the value of diversity or the value of similarity for group performance, and they were provided with either homogenous or heterogeneous information.”
“Informationally diverse groups performed better when they held pro-diversity rather than pro-similarity beliefs, whereas the performance of informationally homogeneous groups was unaffected by diversity beliefs.”
“This effect was mediated by group-level information elaboration.”
How can you deal with bridging faultlines in a diverse team?
By insuring people have pro diversity beliefs, that diversity is important and beneficial. If that is the case, the faultline will be less like to result in bad performance. Good performance can be achieved if the members have pro diversity beliefs.
Bridging faultlines by valuing diversity
Male participants are told that they have to have a type M personality type and female participants are told to have a type F personality. This is where the convergence happens. Even though the groups are diverse there are still categorizations in groups due to the personality types.
Because of a more efficient information elaboration, informationally diverse groups performed better when they held pro-diversity beliefs rather than pro-similarity beliefs.
Article: Diversity and inclusion (Shore et al., 2011)
The paper shows that diversity without inclusion doesn’t work.
According to the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer) every person has a need for belongingness and a need for uniqueness. That’s why belongingness and uniqueness work together to create feelings of inclusion.
Inclusion framework of the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer)
Low value in uniqueness + low belongingness = exclusion
Low value in uniqueness + high belongingness = assimilation
High value in uniqueness + low belongingness = differentiation
High value in uniqueness + high belongingness = inclusion
Exclusion in the inclusion framework of the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer)
- Low value in uniqueness + low belongingness
- Individual is not treated as an organizational insider with unique value in the work group but there are other employees or groups who are insiders.
Assimilation in the inclusion framework of the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer)
- Low value in uniqueness + high belongingness
- Individual is treated as an insider in the work group when they conform to organizational/dominant culture norms and downplay uniqueness.
Differentiation in the inclusion framework of the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer)
- High value in uniqueness + low belongingness
- Individual is not treated as an organizational insider in the work group but their unique characteristics are seen as valuable and required for group/organization success.
Inclusion in the inclusion framework of the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer)
- High value in uniqueness + high belongingness = inclusion
- Individual is treated as an insider and also allowed/encouraged to retain uniqueness within the work group.
What do you need to implement change in organizations?
You don’t need to create new things. You start with evaluating the procedures and you need to pay attention to some things if you want to make a change in organizations.
What can you analyze within the framework of standard organizational processes to make a change in organizations?
- Unequal treatment
- Criteria and procedures used
- Stereotyping and stereotype threat
- Processes surrounding token and solo status
- Marginalization, segregation, and/or exclusion
- Disidentification from domains or from organization
- Ambivalence, reduced motivation and performance
- Leadership
Schneider-Ross analysis
Range of benefits of workforce diversity within organizations.
Business case for diversity, the most common reasons cited for diversity are business reasons.
“All diversity and equality strategies need to be kept tied to the business model.”
Needs to be built from the top (management).
The biggest group of respondents (33%) made diversity a business priority only at the end of the 1990’s.
Why do all diversity and equality strategies need to be kept tied to the business model?
- Improved productivity (Procter & Gamble)
- Cost savings (BT)
- Better service delivery (The crown prosecution service)
- Better marketing (Sadvury Schweppes)
Why do diversity programs need to be built from the top?
Because when the top makes important decisions, they can make policies that provide space/time/costs for diversity training.
The decisions to have affirmative actions, to have fair procedures etc. come from those in power.
What are the conditions for successful change?
Importance of message priority.
Make advantages to organization and individuals explicit.
Maintain sustained attention over long-term.
Importance of message priority
Support of management (leadership is a key factor behind the initiation of policies and plays a critical role in the implementation of policy).
Integrate into general company strategy.
- A lot of companies try to integrate that diversity is an important value
Accountability of individuals and organization.
- If you don’t, you will never be able to identify problems or shortcomings that hinder the change or slow it down.
Do not abandon in case of mergers/downsizing.
- Otherwise it is not going to be sustainable
Make advantages to organization and individuals explicit.
Make it clear to those that will be affected by the policy (everybody in the organization) why you are doing it and make clear what you don’t compromise on (e.g., quality, your position, your ability to get a promotion)
Texaco example
“After accusations of racial insensitivity Texaco seeks to regain public trust”
“Firm scrambles as audio tape shows alleged racism in the boardroom”
It was a PR nightmare.
Careful scrutiny by courts and public.
- Scrutiny on their policies
Explicit and reasonable goals identified and achieved.
Movement towards goals part of annual management evaluations.
What is the result of the Texaco scandal?
- 40% new hires minority employees
- 25% new promotions minority employees
- 1 billion dollars to businesses owned by women and minorities
- Small positive changes in 80% White top executives
- Maintained financial prosperity of company
What do companies often need to start to have more diversity related policies?
They need to have something happen in order to take action.
Needs assessment
Needs assessment is an important first step.
If we want to make diversity policies, the first thing we need to look at is whether or not you need it.
- If the answer is yes: in what area do you need it?
- When you know in which area you need it, you need to ask yourself a few questions:
o What are the necessary forms of diversity action?
o What are the current procedures in the company that inhibit or support inclusion?
o Do the people working in this company have the knowledge and skills needed to make organizations become more diverse?
o Do we have analysis or some kind of report: qualitative and quantitative? And if we don’t, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to analyze the outcomes/process of these policies?
When is there no point in spending money on diversity and inclusion policies?
If you don’t measure anything in the end.
Facets of the organization to analyze
Teamwork, efficiency, misunderstandings, stereotyping, prejudice
- Demography of company, departments, and levels
- Recruitment, selection and promotion procedures
- Rewards and reward criteria
- Complaint procedures
- Communication within and between organizational levels
- Covariation of issues with group characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, age, or other background factors of importance in the organization.
What is the covariation of issues with group characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, age, or other background factors of importance in the organization related to?
Intersectional perspectives.
- E.g., White women tend to want to have more agency, but black women are stereotyped as strong women, increasing sense of agency is not necessary for them. What they might need is for the company to address the perception that black people are not as capable as white people.
You should not only look at what a specific group needs but you should also look at the covariation between groups.
Needs assessment methods
Conduct research
- Surveys, interviews, focus groups
- Observations
- Inspection of documents/minutes
- Benchmarking
What is benchmarking?
- Comparing your business and performance to best practices from other companies;
- Comparing what your company has done to what other companies have done
