HND 2 Diversity in Organizations Lim Sei Kee

HND – 2. Diversity in Organizations Lim Sei Kee @ c. K

What’s happening now? • The predominantly white, male managerial workforce gave way to a gender-balanced, multiethnic workforce. • Women today are much more likely to be employed full-time, have more education, and earn wages comparable to those of men. • Workers over the age of 55 are an increasingly large portion of the workforce.

Diversity • Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest possible pool of skills, abilities, and ideas. • Managers also need to recognize that differences among people can lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict.

Two levels of diversity • Surface-level diversity • Differences in easily perceived characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel but that may activate certain stereotypes.

Two levels of diversity • Deep-level diversity • Differences in values, and personality, and work preferences that become progressively more important for determining similarity as people get to know one another better.

Discrimination • To discriminate is to note a difference between things, which in itself is not necessarily bad. • Rather than looking at individual characteristics, unfair discrimination assumes everyone in a group is the same.

Forms of Discrimination Discriminatory policies or practices Actions taken by representatives of the organization that deny equal opportunity to perform or unequal rewards for performance Sexual harassment Unwanted sexual advances and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that create a hostile or offensive work environment Intimidation Overt threats or bullying directed at members of specific groups of employees Mockery and insults Jokes or negative stereotypes; sometimes the result of jokes taken too far Exclusion of certain people from job opportunities, social events, discussions, or informal mentoring; can occur unintentionally

Biographical Characteristics • AGE, GENDER, and length of service (TENDER) are some of the most obvious ways employees differ. • It is easily definable and readily available – data that can be obtained, for the most part, from an employee’s human resources (HR) file.

AGE • Older workers bring to their jobs, such as experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality. • Older workers are perceived as lacking flexibility and resisting new technology.

Relationship with AGE • Age – turnover: The older you get, the less likely you are to quit your job. • Age- absenteeism: In general, older employees have lower rates of avoidable absence than do young employees. • Age – productivity: It is often assumed that skills like speed, agility, strength and coordination decay over time and that prolonged job boredom and lack of intellectual stimulation contribute to reduced productivity.

Relationship with AGE • Age- satisfaction: Older workers tend to be more satisfied with their work, report better relationships with co-workers, and are more committed to their employing organizations. • Satisfaction tends to continually increase among professionals as they age, whereas it falls among nonprofessionals during middle age and then rises again in the later years.

GENDER • Few issues initiate more debates, misconceptions, and unsupported opinions than whether women perform as well on jobs as men do. • There are no consistent male-female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability.

• Working mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible work schedules, and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities. • Women are more likely to turn over than men. Women also have higher rates of absenteeism than men do. • Regardless of gender, parents were rated lower in job commitment, achievement striving, and dependability than individuals without children, but mothers were rated especially low in competence.

Other biographical characteristics • Tenure: work experience. • Tenure- absence: Seniority is negatively related to absenteeism. • Tenure- turnover: The longer a person is in a job, the less likely he or she is to quit. • Tenure- job satisfaction: Tenure is positively related to job satisfaction.

Ability Contrary to what we were taught in grade school, we were not all created equal in our abilities. Definition: An individual’s current capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. • Made up of two sets of factors: ▫ Intellectual Abilities ▫ Physical Abilities

Intellectual Abilities The abilities needed to perform mental activities- for thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. General Mental Ability (GMA) is a measure of overall intelligence. Examples: IQ (Intelligence quotient) tests, GCE ‘O’ level.

Dimensions of Intellectual Ability • Number Aptitude Accountant: Computing the sales tax • Verbal Comprehension Plant manager: Following corporate policies on hiring • Perceptual Speed Fire investigator: Identifying clues to support a charge of arson • Inductive Reasoning Market researcher: Forecasting demand for a product in the next time period

Dimensions of Intellectual Ability • Deductive Reasoning Supervisor: Choosing between two different suggestions offered by employees • Spatial Visualization Interior decorator: Redecorating an office • Memory Salesperson: Remembering the names of customers

Physical Abilities �The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.

Nine Basic Physical Abilities • Strength Factors ▫ Dynamic strength: Ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously over time ▫ Trunk strength: Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk (particularly abdominal) muscles ▫ Static strength: Ability to exert force against external objects ▫ Explosive strength: Ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a series of explosive acts

Nine Basic Physical Abilities • Flexibility Factors ▫ Extent flexibility: Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible ▫ Dynamic flexibility: Ability to make rapid, repeatedly flexing movements • Other Factors ▫ Body coordination: Ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different parts of the body ▫ Balance: Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off balance ▫ Stamina: Ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged effort over time

Ability-Job Fit • Jobs make differing demands on people and that people differ in their abilities. • Employee performance is enhanced when there is a high ability-job fit.

Learning Any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience • Learning components: - Involves Change - Is Relatively Permanent - Is Acquired Through Experience

Theories of Learning • Classical Conditioning • A type of conditioning in which an individual responds to some stimulus that would not ordinarily produce such a response. • Operant Conditioning • A type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a reward or prevents a punishment. • Social-Learning Theory • People can learn through observation and direct experience.

Classical Conditioning Experiments to teach dogs to salivate in response to the ringing of bell, conducted in the early-1900 s by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Meat: Unconditioned stimulus Reaction that took place: Unconditioned response Bell: Conditioned stimulus Behavior of the dog: Conditioned response This is a passive form of learning. It is reflexive and not voluntary – not the best theory for OB learning.

Examples of Classical Conditioning # Your romantic partner always uses the same shampoo. Soon, the smell of that shampoo makes you feel happy. # You have a meal at a fast food restaurant that causes food poisoning. The next time you see a sign for that restaurant, you feel nauseous. # The nurse says “Now this won’t hurt a bit” just before stabbing you with a needle. The next time you hear “This won’t hurt” you cringe in fear.

Operant Conditioning • B. F. Skinner’s concept of Behaviorism: behavior follows stimuli in a relatively unthinking manner. • Key Concepts: ▫ Conditioned behavior: voluntary behavior that is learned, not reflexive. ▫ Reinforcement: the consequences of behavior which can increase or decrease the likelihood of behavior repetition. ▫ Pleasing consequences increase likelihood of repetition. ▫ Rewards are most effective immediately after performance. ▫ Unrewarded/punished behavior is unlikely to be repeated.

Operant conditioning • Behavior is a function of its consequences. • People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don’t want.

Examples of Operant Conditioning • A child learns to clean his/her room after being rewarded with TV time, every time he cleans it. • A person stops teasing his fiance about an issue after she gives him the silent treatment.

Social-Learning Theory • Based on the idea that people can also learn indirectly: by observation, reading, or just hearing about someone else’s – a model’s – experiences.

Examples of Social learning • Advertisements are prime examples of Social Learning Theory. We watch them, then copy them. • If your a new person to IGS and it's lunch time, and you finish with your lunch but you don't know where to put the tray you would follow someone who knows what their doing. • So you learn off of other peoples examples.

Shaping Behavior • Systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves an individual closer to the desired response • - Four ways Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement Punishment Extinction

Methods of Shaping Behavior: Positive Reinforcement Following a response with something pleasant. Negative Reinforcement Following a response by the termination or withdrawal of something unpleasant. Punishment Attempts to decrease the probability of specific behaviours being exhibited (eliminate undesirable behavior. ) Extinction Eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior. its purpose is to reduce unwanted behavior.

Schedules of Reinforcement • Two Major Types: ▫ Continuous Reinforcement �A desired behavior is reinforced each time it is demonstrated ▫ Intermittent Reinforcement �A desired behavior is reinforced often enough to make the behavior worth repeating but not every time it is demonstrated �Multiple frequencies.

Types of Intermittent Reinforcement • Ratio ▫ Depends on the number of responses made. • Interval ▫ Depends on the time between reinforcements. • Fixed ▫ Rewards are spaced at uniform time intervals or after a set number of responses. • Variable ▫ Rewards that are unpredictable or that vary relative to the behavior.

Reinforcement Schedule Nature Of Reinforcement Effects On Behavior Continuous Reward given Fast learning of new after each desired behavior but rapid behavior extinction Example Compliments • Schedules Of Reinforcement The timing of the behavioural Fixed Interval Reward given at : Average and irregular Weekly consequences that follow a given behavior. fixed time performances with Paychecks intervals rapid extinction Variable Interval Reward given at variable time intervals Moderately high and Pop Quizzes stable performance with slow extinction Fixed Ratio Reward given at High and stable Piece-rate Pay fixed amounts of performance attained output quickly but also with rapid extinction. Variable Ratio Reward given at Very high variable amounts performance with of output slow extinction Commissioned Sales