DEI and Workforce Diversity

• Lecture 7 focuses on managing a diverse workforce, and the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
• The lecturer is professor Julian Pfrombeck.

Course Schedule highlights:

• February 25th and 27th, lecture and tutorial covering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are scheduled, respectively.
• Chapter 16 is the reading material for this topic.
• Quiz 2 is scheduled on April 15th and will take place from 9:30 AM to 10:15 AM(45 minutes).

Diversity Dimensions Exercise

• The first task involves identifying three common things or characteristics shared with other students in the course, and submitting each as a separate answer.
• The second task involves identifying three differing things or characteristics from other students in the minority, and submitting each as a separate answer.

Commonalities Example

• Examples of commonalities include: interest in psychology, psychology major, attending tutorials, being diligent, and being bilingual.

Differences Example

• Examples of differences include: speaking spanish, being hungry, or not speaking cantonese.

Conceptualizations of Diversity

• Diversity can be viewed through separation, variety, and disparity.

The Diversity Iceberg

• Primary dimensions include: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Age,Disability
• Secondary dimensions include: Religion, Culture, Sexual Orientation, Thinking Style, and Family Status.
• Tertiary dimensions include: Beliefs, Assumptions, Perceptions, Attitudes, and Values.

Definition of diversity at work

• Workforce diversity refers to the differences between individuals at work.
• These differences may evoke a perception that the other person is different, and may be based on any attribute.
• Surface-level diversity includes easily perceived characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, or age.
• Deep-level diversity includes values, personality, and work preferences that are not visible.

Topics Covered

• Why is management of DEI important?
• Theoretical perspectives on diversity
• Diversity climate and climate for inclusion
• Inclusion in the workplace: Microaggressions and microaffirmations

Trends Driving Workforce Diversity

• Globalization and migration
• Female workforce participation
• Technological change
• Demographic change: Increased life expectancy and decreased fertility rates.

Diversity and Performance

• Gender and ethnic diversity are correlated with profitability, although women and minorities remain underrepresented.
• Diverse teams make better decisions up to 87% of the time.

Team Composition & Team Performance

• Personality: Agreeableness (+) and Conscientiousness (+)
• Team tenure (+)
• Team Diversity (+/-) - see lecture 6 & 7 on DEI
• Team Size (+/-)

Biased Products

• Biased products and services can range from facial recognition to medical treatment, to car safety and voice recognition systems.
• A more diverse workforce can lead to better products that address a wider range of diverse customers.

Discrimination Consequences

• Discrimination can result in reduced work motivation and performance, lower job satisfaction, and higher turnover intention among workers.
• It can also lead to higher levels of stress and poor psychological and physical health outcomes.
• It is an employer's responsibility to mitigate and prevent these consequences.

The Business Case for Workforce Diversity

• Instrumental perspective: Diversity enhances business performance
• Utilitarian ethical paradigm: Morality is determined by the extent to which it produces desirable consequences for many.
• Fairness perspective: Exclusion/discrimination is morally wrong
• Deontological ethical paradigm: Moral behavior aligns with established moral principles.
• Problems with the business case perspective include failure to empower minorities or overcome inequalities.
• Problems with the fairness perspective: Ignores business imperatives like shareholder needs.

Theoretical Perspectives on Diversity:

• How can team diversity boost performance?
• How can team diversity undermine performance?

Two Traditional Theoretical Perspectives

• Information/decision-making perspective
• Diversity as opportunity
• Social identity theory/Similarity-attraction perspective
• Diversity as challenge

Information/decision-making perspective

• Diverse employees possess non-redundant knowledge and experiences and have access to different knowledge networks
• Increase in pool of available knowledge, skills, and abilities
• More thorough and deeper information elaboration because conflicting perspectives need to be reconciled

Social identity theory/Similarity attraction perspective

• Easily detectable personal attributes include: Age, gender, and ethnicity.
• Used to categorize the self and others into in-group and out-group members.
• People favor interactions with similar others who reinforce one’s identity and provide a source of affirmation and self-esteem enhancement.

Theoretical Integration

• The Categorization-Elaboration Model
• The Dual-Pathway Model of Diversity

Diversity Conceptualizations

• Separation: disagreement
• Variety: unique or distinctive information
• Disparity: inequality or relative concentration

Diversity and Climate

• Diversity culture: Shared diversity values and belief.
• Diversity climate: Shared perceptions of diversity-enhancing policies.
• Formal and Informal practices for diversity: Formal practices include policies and recruitment. Informal practices include shared norms.

Good Climate Effects

• Attracts a diverse workforce
• Maintains diversity
• Enhances performance of racial minorities

Climate for Inclusion

• Shared perceptions of policies, practices, and procedures that gives everyone equal access to resources.
• Creates opportunities to connect and integrate individual differences, and involves individuals in decision-making.

Microaggressions in the Workplace

• Microaggressions are brief and commonplace verbal/nonverbal indignities that communicate hostile or negative slights and insults.

Responding to Microaggressions

• The more people that are present will result in less of a chance of a reaction stemming from diffusion of responsibility.
• Responding to a microaggression can be tricky, as it is often not easily obvious.

Being An Ally

• Being active and involved to champion inclusion.

Helping Others to Succeed

• Inclusive Behavior: Micro-Affirmations
• A definition of diversity as being invited to the party, and inclusion as being asked to dance." Verna Myers, Netflix, VP of Inclusion Strategy
• There is also a degree to which employees perceive that they are an esteemed member of the work group through experiencing treatment.
• Treatment that satisfies their needs for belongingness and uniqueness.