Lesson 6: Diversity
1. Diversity
è how individual characteristics like age, gender, ethnicity, and abilities can
influence employee performance
demographic characteristics
-e.g., gender
levels of diversity
-surface-level diversity: differences in easily perceived characteristics such as
gender, race, ethnicity, are, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the ways
people think or feel but what may activate certain stereotypes
-deep-level diversity: differences in values, personality, and work preferences that
become progressively more important for determining similarly as people get to know
one another better
-diversification with culturally related countries might lead to greater homogeneity of
perception, particularly if it concentrates in individuals rather than groups and
includes improvement of opportunities for all individuals
-managing diversity involves everyone and benefits everyone as separate groups
are not singled out
-increased diversity may also mean increases in discriminatory practices
2. Discrimination
discrimination
-to note a difference between things, which in itself isn’t necessarily bad
stereotyping
-judging someone based on our perception of the group to which that person
belongs
-can be insidious not only because how they may affect the perpetrators of
discrimination but also because they can affect how potential targets of
discrimination see themselves
stereotype threat
-distinctive, something that stands out
-stereotype threat: the degree to which we agree internally with the generally
negative stereotyped perceptions of our groups
-can serve as a “brain drain” for employees, causing them to deplete their working
memories so that they do not perform well on employment tests or training
-serious implications for the workplace
-can lead to underperformance on tests, training exercises, etc.
-no highlighting of group differences
-adopting transparent practices
Lesson 6 1/4
1. Diversity
è how individual characteristics like age, gender, ethnicity, and abilities can
influence employee performance
demographic characteristics
-e.g., gender
levels of diversity
-surface-level diversity: differences in easily perceived characteristics such as
gender, race, ethnicity, are, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the ways
people think or feel but what may activate certain stereotypes
-deep-level diversity: differences in values, personality, and work preferences that
become progressively more important for determining similarly as people get to know
one another better
-diversification with culturally related countries might lead to greater homogeneity of
perception, particularly if it concentrates in individuals rather than groups and
includes improvement of opportunities for all individuals
-managing diversity involves everyone and benefits everyone as separate groups
are not singled out
-increased diversity may also mean increases in discriminatory practices
2. Discrimination
discrimination
-to note a difference between things, which in itself isn’t necessarily bad
stereotyping
-judging someone based on our perception of the group to which that person
belongs
-can be insidious not only because how they may affect the perpetrators of
discrimination but also because they can affect how potential targets of
discrimination see themselves
stereotype threat
-distinctive, something that stands out
-stereotype threat: the degree to which we agree internally with the generally
negative stereotyped perceptions of our groups
-can serve as a “brain drain” for employees, causing them to deplete their working
memories so that they do not perform well on employment tests or training
-serious implications for the workplace
-can lead to underperformance on tests, training exercises, etc.
-no highlighting of group differences
-adopting transparent practices
Lesson 6 1/4
