Lecture notes Making Diversity Work ()

Lecture 1
Theories and research regarding the benefits and challenges of building diverse and inclusive
organizations.
Multidisciplinary approach to gain a multi-level understanding of how to promote diversity and
inclusion at the:
 Institutional level
 Symbolic level
 Experiential level

Best method approach:
 Integrated
 SMART-goals
 Evidence-based

Multi-level, interdisciplinary approach
Symbolical
 How are women and non-dominant groups and their societal roles represented in the
linguistic, narrative and visual structure that shape the organization?
Institutional
 What are effective responses to inequality and exclusion at work on the institutional level?
Experiential
 How do women and non-dominant group members experience the many forms of inequality
in the workplace? How do these groups experience institutional measures aimed at
correcting these inequalities
All these different levels are needed. Also evidence-based research is needed.

Diversity dimensions
 Surface-level dissimilarity (relatively visible/ readily detectable)
 Deep-level dissimilarity (relatively invisible/ underlying)
Not always very clear to make the distinction. It depends on what you know about people




Why organizations work with diversity
 Moral reasons – right thing to do
o Equal treatment
o Equal opportunity
o Equal outcomes
 Societal reasons – changing labor force for example
o Emphasize good outcomes
o Focus on consequences of inequality (not morally, but just because you have to/
practical)

,  Compliance (legal framework, apply for subsides)
 Synergetic reasons (feel good)
o Relationship employee and organization
o Personal and business economic growth
o Employee satisfaction
o Harmony among employees
 Business-economic reasons (feel good in order to perform better)
o Attract diverse employees
o Increase service to diverse populations
o Increase well-being, retention of employees
o Improve relations between employees
o Increase creativity and productivity
o Reduce lawsuits/ legal challenges
o Enhance reputation
 There is some criticism on this reason

Which diversity matters?
Matters for what?
Not self-evident that diversity leads to better performance and innovation
 Social identity theory  het bewustzijn van een persoon tot een bepaalde groep te behoren
en door anderen als zodanig behandeld te worden. Die groep heeft een gewenst zelfbeeld en
wordt door anderen als uniek onderscheiden
 Similarity-attraction theory  the widespread tendency of people to be attracted to others
who are similar to themselves in important respects
 Information-elaboration processes (better performance)  Information elaboration enables
functionally diverse teams to transform their breadth of knowledge resources into actionable
solutions to complex problems.
Diversity paradox  both positive and negative consequences can occur. The question is when what
happens

Diversity  team performance?


Can be connected, but it doesn’t necessarily
needs to be




Climate for inclusion definition
 Fair and unbiased treatment of employees
 Open toward and values differences between employees
 Includes all employees in decision-making

Consequences of perceived inclusion
Sense of inclusion  + Job satisfaction
- Work-related stress
- Turnover intentions

Perceived inclusion
 Perception of employee that the group gives them a sense of authenticity and belonging

, o Two sub dimensions of inclusion
Antecedent of perceived inclusion




There is no negative relation when: (This is a buffering effect)




Conclusion
 Climate for inclusion buffers negative effects of feelings of dissimilarity on perceived
inclusion
 Deep-level dissimilarity was more important than surface-level dissimilarity for social
inclusion at work (but not always found)
o Now businesses mostly focus on surface-level dissimilarities
 Climate for inclusion not only benefits inclusion of ‘dissimilar’ people, but also ‘similar’
people

Mechanisms of inclusion
 Social categorization and intergroup bias
 Similarity-attraction (subgroup formation)
 Minority stress and related processes (monitoring environment for cues of belonging)

When people feel dissimilar to most people at work, they are more uncertain about the colleagues,
but also the other way around. In the perception of the individual! Receive less trust. They think also
that the colleagues are trusting them less, less approving and less likely to initiate interaction. Also
the other way around
 Climate for inclusion moderate these processes.

^talked a lot about the experiential level

Manels - example
 All-male panels (man, suits, white, grey hair)
 This can evoke feelings of dissimilarity
 Symbolic level  this is apparently what expertise looks like  can make you feel bad
(experiential)
 Institutional level  It is about the regulations, policies that are in place in an organization.
Administrative things  nepotism somebody picked these people  Criteria can be
formulated that is only applicable to these people

From best practices to best methods
Diversity and inclusion policies should be: