Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Factors of diversity
Age
o Older workers bring experience, judgment, a strong work
ethic, and commitment to quality.
o Belief: job performance declines with increasing age.
o The workforce is aging - U.S. legislation that, for all intents
and purposes, outlaws mandatory retirement.
Sex
o Few issues initiate more debates, misconceptions, and
unsupported opinions than whether women perform as well
on jobs as men do.
o Psychological studies have found women are more
agreeable and willing to conform to authority, whereas
men are more aggressive and more likely to have
expectations of success, but those differences are minor.
o Sexual orientation issues (e.g., domestic partner benefits),
gender identity
Race & Ethnicity
o Favor colleagues for their own race in performance
evaluations, promotion decisions, pay raises
o Different attitudes on affirmative action with AfricanAmericans preferring such programs than do whites.
o African-Americans generally do worse than whites in
employment decisions.
o No statistical difference between Whites and AfricanAmericans in observed absence rates, applied social skills
employers.
o Strong biases exist against those with mental impairment
Tenure (In Korea/Asian context)
Ability
Definition: An individuals capacity to perform the various tasks in a
job.
attraction
Information/Decision-Making Theory - Diversity leads to
better task-relevant processes and decision-making
employees
Lack of political savvy on the part of diverse employees
Difficulty in balancing career and family issues
Fears of reverse discrimination
Diversity is not seen as an organizational priority
The need to revamp the organizations performance appraisal
Benefits
o Less turnover
o Punctuality is a non-issue
o Need for motivation is less
o An end to workplace politics
o Good customer service skills
o Good role models
Implications
o Challenging work assignments that make a difference to
the firm
o Considerable autonomy and latitude in completing a
task.
o Equal access to training and learning opportunities when
it comes to new technology.
o Mentoring opportunities whereby older workers can pass
on accumulated knowledge to younger employees.
o Ensure that older workers receive sensitive, high-quality
supervision