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Diversity in Organizations
Diversity
- Two major forms of diversity observed in an organization: Male and Female
- Other forms of diversification: Age, Race, Ethnicity, Abilities, etc. Advantages of diversity in an organization: ➢ Wide pool of skills and abilities, ➢ More number of ideas Challenges of diversity in an organization: ➢ Chances of miscommunication, misunderstanding and conflicts are higher. ➢ Different cultures and belief systems which make it difficult to work with single approach
Levels of Diversity
Surface-Level Diversity : ➢ Difference due to gender, age, ethnicity, race, or disability which may activate certain stereotypes. Deep Level Diversity : ➢ Differences due to values, personality and work preferences that becomes progressively more important for determining similarity. Discrimination Discrimination means making judgements about individuals based on stereotypes regarding their demographic group.
Forms of Discrimination:
Types of Discrimination Definition Examples in Organization Discriminatory policies or practices Denying equal opportunity to employees Elderly Workers are often targeted during layoffs Sexual Harassment Unwanted verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature Bringing strippers into office or foster persuasive sexual rumors Intimidation Direct bullying a specific group of employees Afro-American employees are often discriminated Mockery and Insults Jokes or negative stereotypes Asking Arab people about bombings Exclusion Exclusion of certain people from job opportunities, social events, etc. Many woman in finance are not assigned proper tasks Incivility Disrespectful treatment, including aggressive behaviour or ignoring opinions Female lawyers are often cut off by male attorneys
Biographical characteristics:
Since Organizational Behaviour deals with analyzing the variables that effect employee productivity and other factors, we will try to understand how the biographical characteristics such as age, gender, race, disability and length of service. AGE: The relation between age and performance is considered from different perspectives in this case. It is generally perceived that employees who are old lack in flexibility and resisting new technologies. At the same time they believe that people who are old add their ethics, commitment to the quality and experience to the work. Once the employee starts getting older they have fewer job opportunities. Few assumptions that we have regarding impact of age are like how age effects absenteeism, productivity decline with age are explained by conducting researches it is found that older employees have lower rates of avoidable absence. It is also observed that age and job task performance are unrelated and that older employees are more engaged in citizenship behaviour. The final concern one has is about age and job satisfaction, the studies however do not show up a clear result. It is still observed that among professionals satisfaction tends to increase while they age and among non-professionals it decreases. Discrimination was related to lower levels of commitment to the company which is related to lower levels of organizational performance. Age discrimination could be fought with higher levels of organizational performance. SEX: It is found that women scored slightly higher than men on performance measure. We could see from the data that even though women earn 60 percent of the bachelors’ degree in the US it is found that professors still view their female UG students as less competent than males and in India though women do well in board exams they are prone to accept occupational stereotypes. Research says that managers are still influenced by gender bias while recruiting employees and women are given less challenging roles when compared with their male colleagues. Women are subjected to more sex based discrimination and it is also known that they earn less comparatively. Women are considered more hostile, less desirable as supervisors when they take up traditionally male domains. Working mothers also face “maternal wall bias”. Research says that employees who are subjected to more discrimination tend to leave the company. Even though above circumstances exist women at top positions have been reporting that these perceptions are changing. RACE AND ETHNICITY: It being a controversial issue, evidence suggests that people find it difficult to interact with other racial groups. The following three observations have been made regarding race:
- Individuals slightly favour colleagues of their own race in case of performance evaluations
- Minority groups perceive discrimination to be more prevalent in work place.
Physical Abilities – It is defined as the capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, dexterity, strength and similar characteristics. Nine basic abilities needed in the performance of physical tasks are:
- Dynamic strength
- Trunk strength
- Static strength
- Explosive strength
- Extent flexibility
- Dynamic flexibility
- Body coordination
- Balance
- Stamina The Role of Disabilities also needs to be considered while formulating workplace policies that recognize diversity in terms of disability status.
Diversity Management
Diversity management makes everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others. Steps in Diversity Management
1. Attracting - To enhance the work force, the recruitment can be targeted towards specific demographic groups unrepresented in the workforce. This can be done through advertisement and recruitment process at college level, institute level. Women and minorities have greater inclination in employment which makes them easy to hire 2. Selection - People from various demographic background are selected after per the requirement 3. Developing and retaining – this is also an important part of diversity management as it help to train employees. It also helps to retain employees and maintain demographic division Importance of Diversity in groups ➔ To know if diversity hurts performance or facilitates ➔ To know the effectiveness of homogeneous groups and diverse group and make comparison ➔ Reduce difference and achieve superior result Effectiveness of diversity programs ➔ Encourage equally employment opportunity ➔ Teach tech manager how to handle diversity ➔ No employee discrimination ➔ Improves participation of women and minorities in top management.
ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION
Attitude : Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people or events.
Main components of attitude: There are three main components:
- Cognitive component : The opinion or belief segment of an attitude. The statement “My pay is low”, “My supervisor is unfair” is cognitive component of an attitude.
- Affective component : The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. The statement “I am angry over how little I am paid” is affective component.
- Behavioural component : An intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. The statement “I’m going to look for another job that plays better” is behaviour component. In organizations, attitudes are important for their behavioral component. If workers believe, for example, that supervisors, auditors, bosses and time-and – motion engineers are all in conspiracy to make employees work harder for the same or less money, it makes sense to try to understand how these attitudes formed, how they relate to actual job behavior, and how they might be changed. THE THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes. DESIRE TO REDUCE DISSONANCE DEPENDS ON THREE FACTORS
- Importance of elements creating dissonance.
- Degree of individual influence over elements.
- Rewards involved in dissonance.
- Individual will be more motivated to reduce dissonance when the attitudes are important or when they believe the dissonance is due to something they can control.
- The dissonance is less distressing if accompanied by something good, such as higher pay rise than expected. MODERATING VARIABLES:
- Importance of attitude
- Specificity of the attitude
- Accessibility of the attitude
- Social pressure on the individual
- Direct experience with the attitude MAJOR JOB ATTTITUDES:
- Job Satisfaction - A positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics
- The best job you had, was best because- you liked the work & you liked the people with whom you worked.
- Interesting jobs which provide training, variety, independence and control satisfies most of the employees.
- Job satisfaction is not just about job conditions. Personality also plays a role. Researches have shown that people who have positive core self-evaluations – who believe in their inner worth and basic competence are more satisfied with their jobs than those with negative core self-evaluations. The impact of Satisfied and Dissatisfied Employees on the workplace: One theoretical model – the exit-voice-loyalty-neglect framework is helpful in understanding the consequences of dissatisfaction. Table illustrates the framework’s four responses which differ along 2 dimensions: constructive/destructive and active/passive. The responses are as follows: Constructive Destructive Active VOICE EXIT Passive LOYALTY NEGLECT
- Exit: Directs the behaviour toward leaving the organization. Researchers study individual terminations and collective turnover, the total loss to organization of employee knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics.
- Voice: includes actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors and undertaking some forms of union activity.
- Loyalty : means passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve including speaking up for organization in the face of external criticism and trusting the organization to “do the right thing”
- Neglect : The neglect response passively allows conditions to worsen and includes chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced efforts, and increased error rate. Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in a work place has several outcomes which can be understood with the relationship of job satisfaction with various other things such as
- Performance
- Organizational citizenship behavior
- Customer satisfaction
- Absenteeism
- Turnover Job satisfaction and job performance are highly interrelated. Some researchers had a firm belief that this relationship is a myth however several studies have proven quite strongly that an organization with higher level of job satisfaction for the employees is likely to be more productive. But this connection doesn’t mean that an employee who is happy in his/her personal life or due to some happy inducers provided by the company will lead to a good productivity. The value of happiness or satisfaction can be viewed on the profit equation only when that happy employee is highly engaged with the company. Job satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour A satisfied employee's contribution not only reflects in profit equation but also is a major contributor in an employee's organizational behavior. A satisfied employee is more likely to talk positive about the organization and b which engages other employees as well. While on the contrary part if an employee receives any kind of negative vibes, there are more chances of leaving the company. Job satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction A satisfied employee also leads to increase in the number of customers. In a company especially, service based one a satisfied employee will can go beyond the normal expectations for customer's satisfaction which also increases the sense of loyalty towards the company among the customers. Job satisfaction and Absenteeism If an employee is dissatisfied it will result into more number of absenteeism or may be looking for a better alternative if there is any which will have a great impact on the company or organization. Absenteeism is not only caused due to dissatisfaction in the work place but also by liberal sick leaves given by the company. Job satisfaction and Turnover Switching into a different company is motivated by low job satisfaction environment in the work place and also because of lucrative job offers. Job dissatisfaction is likely to translate into turnover when the employee has a high human capital such as high education, ability. Job satisfaction and Workplace Deviance
➢ Sadness ➢ Anger ➢ Disgust Basic Moods When we group emotions into positive and negative categories, they become mood states because now we are looking at them more generally instead of isolating one particular emotion. ➢ Positive affect is a mood dimension consisting of sanguine feelings such as excitement, alertness and excitement at the high end and contentedness, calmness and serenity at the low end. ➢ Negative affect is a mood dimension consisting of nervousness, stress and anxiety at the high end and boredom, depression and fatigue on the other. Positivity offset : Normally at zero input (when nothing in particular is going on), most individuals experience a mildly positive mood. Functions of Emotions ➢ Rationality: Contrary to popular belief, research has shown that emotions are actually critical to rational thinking and brain injury studies have corroborated the fact that we must have the ability to experience emotions to be rational. This is because our emotions provide important information about how we understand the world around us. The key to good decision making is to incorporate both thinking AND feeling in our decisions. ➢ Ethics: Our moral reactions include sympathy for suffering of others, guilt about our own behaviour, contempt for those who behave unethically. Research has shown that these reactions are actually based on feelings rather than cold cognition. However, we see our moral boundaries as logical and reasonable, not as emotional. Unfortunately, this feeling allows us to sometimes justify purely emotional reactions as “ethical”. Sources of Emotions and Moods ➢ Personality: Moods and emotions have a trait component – affect intensity. Affectively intense people are likely to experience positive and negative moods more deeply – when they are sad, they are really sad, when they are happy, they are really happy. ➢ Time of the Day: People vary in their moods by the time of the day. Research suggests that, commonly, levels of positive affect tend to stay still late morning and remain level till early evening. Then it begins to drop until midnight.
➢ Day of the Week: In most countries, people tend to be in their best moods on weekends
- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The lowest positive affect is displayed on Monday. This is due to the stress that develops owing to a full working week ahead. ➢ Weather: Contrary to belief, research shows that people do NOT report a better mood on bright and sunny days. This is owing to illusory correlation – a phenomenon when people associate two events that in reality have no connection. ➢ Stress: Stress influences negative emotion. They build over time and the cumulative effect worsens our moods and we experience more negative emotions. Recent studies have
❖ Deep acting : deep acting is trying to modify our true inner feelings based on display rules. It deals with felt emotions. It has been proved in a research the surface acting is a stressful to employees while mindfulness is beneficial to employee well-being. Displaying emotions we don’t really feel is exhausting, so it is important to give employees a chance to relax and recharge. AFFECTIVE EVENTS THEORY It is a model that demonstrates that employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this reaction influences their job, with regards to performance and satisfaction. The Affective Events Theory has the following conclusions:- ➢ An emotional episode is actually a series of emotional experiences, precipitated by a single event and containing elements of both emotions and mood cycles. ➢ Current emotions influence job satisfaction at any given time, along with the history of emotions. ➢ The effect of moods and emotions on performance fluctuates, since they themselves fluctuate over time.
➢ Emotion-driven behaviours are normally short in duration and of high variability. ➢ Since emotions, even positive ones, tend to be incompatible with behaviours needed to do a job, they typically have a negative influence on performance. In conclusion, the Affective Events theory has two salient features:- ➢ Firstly, emotions provide valuable insights into how workplace hassles or uplifting events influence employee performance and satisfaction. ➢ Secondly, emotions or events that cause them should not be ignored by employees as well as managers. Emotional Intelligence Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to (1) Perceive emotions in self and others, (2) understand the meaning of these emotions and (3) regulate one’s emotions accordingly in a cascading model as shown below. The Case for EI: The arguments in favor of EI includes intuitive appeal criteria prediction and biological factors. ➢ INTUITIVE APPEAL: It suggests that people who can detect other’s emotions, control their own emotions, and handle social interactions well tend to perform better in corporate world.
- Acknowledging rather than suppressing emotional responses to situations, and re- evaluating events after they occur.
- Venting (open expression of emotions*) *whether venting emotions helps the “venter” feel better depends upon the listener’s response. If the listener is supportive, the venter feels better and if the listener doesn’t respond, the venter may actually feel worse. Individuals who are higher in the personality trait of neuroticism or have lower levels of self- esteem have more trouble in regulating emotions and often find their moods are beyond their ability to control. Research suggests there is a downside to trying to change the way you feel as changing emotions takes effort which can be exhausting. It can be concluded that while there is much promise in emotion regulation techniques, the best route to a positive workplace is to recruit positive-minded individuals and to train leaders to manage their moods, job attitudes, and performance. The best leaders manage emotions as much as they do tasks and activities. OB Applications of Emotions and Moods
- Selection: One implication from the evidence to date on EI is that employers should consider it a factor in hiring employees, especially in jobs that demand a high degree of social interaction
- Decision Making: Positive emotions can increase problem-solving skills and help us understand and analyse new information.
- Creativity:^ Positive moods and feedback may increase creativity
- Openness to experiences
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Motivation: Organizations that promote positive moods at work are likely to have a more motivated workforce.
- Leadership: The ability to lead others is a fundamental quality that organizations look for in employees. Effective leaders rely on emotional appeals to help convey their messages.124 In fact, the expression of emotions in speeches is often the critical element that makes us accept or reject a leader’s message
- Negotiation: Emotions may inspire negotiator performance. Displaying a negative emotion (such as anger) can be effective, but feeling bad about your performance appears to impair future negotiations.
- Customer Service: A worker’s emotional state influences customer service, which influences levels of repeat business and levels of customer satisfaction. In addition, employees’ emotions may also transfer to the customer. Studies indicate a matching
effect between employee and customer emotions, an effect that OB practitioners call emotional contagion, the “catching” of emotions from others
- Job Attitudes: Emotions at work get carried home but rarely carry over to the next day.
- Deviant Workplace Behaviours: Those feeling negative emotions are more likely to engage in deviant behaviours at work.
- Safety and Injury at Work: Bad moods can contribute to injuries on the job.
- How Managers Can Influence Moods: Managers can use humour and give their employees small tokens of appreciation for work well done. Selecting positive team members can have a contagion effect as positive moods transmit from team member to team member.
Personality and Values
The definition of Personality was coined by Gordon Allport. “The dynamic organization within an individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”. Put simply, it means the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others. Measuring personality is most important for managers as they help in hiring decisions and forecasting. The most common means of measuring personality is through self-report surveys in which individuals rate themselves. Here the respondent might lie or practice impression management and accuracy is also a big problem. Observer-ratings surveys provide an independent assessment of personality in which a co- worker or another observer does the rating. Though reports of self-reporting and observer rating are correlated research suggest observer ratings better predict surveys on the job. Personality determinants: An individual’s personality is based on hereditary and environment. Personality appears to be a result of both however it tends to support hereditary more than environment. Heredity refers to factors determined at conception; one’s biological, physiological, and inherent psychological makeup. Researchers found that genetics accounts for 50% of personality similarities between twins, and more than 30% interest in occupation and leisure interest. Early work on personality tried to identify and label enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behaviour called personality traits. The Myers Briggs type indicator This is the most widely used personality assessment instrument in the world. It’s a 100 question test which helps respondents to be classified as ➔ Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I). Extraverted individuals are outgoing, sociable, and assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy.
The Dark Triad – Negative personality traits MACHIAVELLIANISM : An individual here is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance and that ends can justify means. “If it works, use it” is a consistent perspective used by them. Study shows that these people can be manipulative, less positively affected by knowing an organization engaged in high level CSR. NARCISSIM : this is a youth so vain and proud that he fell in love with his own image. Psychology describes this person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, requires excessive admiration, has a sense of entitlement and is arrogant. Both leaders and managers score high on narcissism. Narcissism and its effects are not limited to celebrities and CEO’s. PSYCHOPATHY : in organizational behavior this does not mean insanity, here this means a lack of concern for others, lack of guilt or remorse for their actions. Research suggests that psychopathy is related to use of hard influence tactics.
Other personality traits Core self-evaluation: People having positive of this trait are confident, like themselves and see themselves as effective. This enhances their performance. Whereas, people with negative of this trait tend to question their abilities. Self-monitoring: This describes an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behaviour to external, situational factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability in adjusting their behavior to external situational factors. They are highly sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in different situations, sometimes presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and their private self. People who prefer to remain true to themselves and are reluctant to adjust their behavior with changing environment shows the trait of low self- monitoring. They would tend to perform better in workplace. Proactive personality : People who actively take initiative to improve their current circumstances or create new ones show proactive personalities. Proactive personality may be important for work teams. Personality and situations The effect of particular traits on organizational behavior depends on the situation. Situation strength theory: A theory indicating that the way personality translates into behaviour depends on the strength of the situation. By situation strength, we mean the degree to which norms, cues or standard dictate appropriate behaviour. Four elements that dictate situation strength in organizations:
- Clarity
- Consistency
- Constraints
- Consequences Trait Activation theory: A theory that predicts that some situations, events, or interventions activate a trait more than others. For example, a commission-based compensation plan would likely activate individual differences in extraversion because extraversion is more reward-sensitive, than, say, openness. On the other hand, in jobs that allow expression of individual creativity, individual differences in openness may better predict creative behavior than individual differences in extraversion would.
