Three Perspectives on Workplace Diversity
David Thomas and Robin Ely (1996) differentiate between three different perspectives that organizations take regarding workplace diversity and each of these come along with different organizational outcomes. Firstly, discrimination and fairness organizations focus on complying with Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. These organizations see workplace diversity as a problem or threat but they must recruit employees with diverse backgrounds in order to avoid litigation costs. Besides, these organizations do not value or utilize the diversity of thought, experience, knowledge and skills that people bring to the organization and show a colorblind approach. Using a colorblind approach, an organization tries to ignore individual differences like race, gender, and nationality and attempts to treat each employee as if everyone has the same background. This approach is ineffective because people can not simply ignore obvious characteristics of others like race and gender. Consequently, colorblindness can not prevent discrimination but it simply results in not talking about discrimination that might or might not be present. Furthermore, a colorblind approach hinders an organization from exploiting the potential profit that can be gained by valuing diversity in an organization.
On the other hand, access and legitimacy organizations recruit a diverse workforce to use them as a source for niche knowledge. Specifically, these organizations use diversity among the employees to better understand the diverse markets that these employees represent. This niche knowledge that comes along with an employee is kept within a small segment of the organization and is not incorporated throughout the entire organization. The problem with access and legitimacy organizations is that minority workers are simply valued for their niche knowledge which may lead to feelings of alienation and exploitation. Additionally, these organizations miss out on the long-term benefits of workplace diversity because as soon as the organization gets access to the market that the minority employee represents it does not try to incorporate and learn from the skills, beliefs, and practices used in order to capitalize on diversity in the long run.
Lastly, learning and effectiveness organizations use diversity as an opportunity for all organizational members (majority as well as minority members) to contribute to the organization in new and different ways. Learning organizations are characterized by total employee involvement and collaboration. A learning organization learns because it supports innovative thinking and new ideas and therefore undergoes a continuous transformation.
The Organizational Outcomes
We can conclude that discrimination and fairness organizations as well as access and legitimacy organizations fail to utilize diversity's potential. In many of these organizations, the organization's effectiveness is even weakened by workplace diversity. Poorly managed workplace diversity can result in a high degree of miscommunication, tension, and conflict. Edward Hubbard emphasizes in an interview with Peter Quarry (2005) that in organizations the time that needs to be invested by employees to overcome these interpersonal barriers is classified as outside of mission-critical work. On the other hand, mission-critical work is the portion of the job that directly contributes to an organization’s efficiency. Consequently, it becomes apparent that the more time employees need to spend on outside of mission-critical work, the less efficient the organization is as a whole.
Lastly, organizations that would be classified as learning and effectiveness organizations make the most of workplace diversity. For instance, these organizations use the increased creativity that is gained by recruiting a diverse workforce and use this creativity to develop new organizational ideas and concepts. These organizations do not have to worry about legal issues and litigation costs because they not only focus on preventing discrimination in the hiring process ,but also on the integration of distinct employees once they are hired.
Us versus Them
Mannix and Neale (2006) have a pessimistic view regarding the outcomes of workplace diversity concerning team interaction and performance. Their arguments are based on the similarity-attraction theory as well as social identity and self-categorization theories. The similarity-attraction theory states that similarities on attributes such as attitudes, values, and beliefs facilitate interpersonal liking and communication which leads to a higher productivity in homogenous work groups in contrast to diverse work groups. Based on this theory, it can be predicted that employees avoid communicating with those employees they dislike or with those that hold opinions or views differing from their own. Mannix and Neale (2006) highlight that also surface-level diversity inhibits a work group’s performance because research shows that members of racially and culturally dissimilar work groups are less likely to be attracted to one another and will have more difficulty communicating with each other than members of racially and culturally homogeneous work groups. Referring to social identity and self-categorization theories, it can be observed that members of heterogeneous work groups are more likely to categorize themselves and others in terms of demographic characteristics than are members of homogenous groups. These social categorizations result in “us versus them” distinctions. To be more specific, work group members that are categorized as out-group members because they differ in categories such as race, gender, values or beliefs are seen more negatively and judged more quickly than are work group members that are categorized as in-group members. The end result is that diverse work groups in which members categorize each other and function poorly because their actions lead to negative social processes like biased behavior towards out-group members and favoritism towards in-group members. The consequences of these processes are not only increases in conflict and decreases in social integration, but also an inhibition of the potential benefits that were described in the preceding paragraphs.
The Key
The key point concerning the advantages and disadvantages of workplace diversity, which is emphasized by Stockdale and Crosby (2004), seems to be that it depends on how well the diversity is managed and whether the advantages or disadvantages evolve. Well-managed workplace diversity can be an opportunity to increase an organization’s effectiveness but poorly managed workplace diversity can become a problem and can actually decrease an organization’s effectiveness. The implementation of diversity training that teaches sensitivity towards minorities is a strategy that can help to prevent the negative processes described in the preceding paragraph such as social categorization. Diversity training has the potential to reduce conflict in work groups and improve the overall work group's climate. Lastly, it is also important to highlight that the avoidance of a diverse workplace by only hiring majority employees is very likely to be illegal due to the discrimination legislation we have implemented in our society.
David Thomas and Robin Ely (1996) differentiate between three different perspectives that organizations take regarding workplace diversity and each of these come along with different organizational outcomes. Firstly, discrimination and fairness organizations focus on complying with Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. These organizations see workplace diversity as a problem or threat but they must recruit employees with diverse backgrounds in order to avoid litigation costs. Besides, these organizations do not value or utilize the diversity of thought, experience, knowledge and skills that people bring to the organization and show a colorblind approach. Using a colorblind approach, an organization tries to ignore individual differences like race, gender, and nationality and attempts to treat each employee as if everyone has the same background. This approach is ineffective because people can not simply ignore obvious characteristics of others like race and gender. Consequently, colorblindness can not prevent discrimination but it simply results in not talking about discrimination that might or might not be present. Furthermore, a colorblind approach hinders an organization from exploiting the potential profit that can be gained by valuing diversity in an organization.
On the other hand, access and legitimacy organizations recruit a diverse workforce to use them as a source for niche knowledge. Specifically, these organizations use diversity among the employees to better understand the diverse markets that these employees represent. This niche knowledge that comes along with an employee is kept within a small segment of the organization and is not incorporated throughout the entire organization. The problem with access and legitimacy organizations is that minority workers are simply valued for their niche knowledge which may lead to feelings of alienation and exploitation. Additionally, these organizations miss out on the long-term benefits of workplace diversity because as soon as the organization gets access to the market that the minority employee represents it does not try to incorporate and learn from the skills, beliefs, and practices used in order to capitalize on diversity in the long run.
Lastly, learning and effectiveness organizations use diversity as an opportunity for all organizational members (majority as well as minority members) to contribute to the organization in new and different ways. Learning organizations are characterized by total employee involvement and collaboration. A learning organization learns because it supports innovative thinking and new ideas and therefore undergoes a continuous transformation.
The Organizational Outcomes
We can conclude that discrimination and fairness organizations as well as access and legitimacy organizations fail to utilize diversity's potential. In many of these organizations, the organization's effectiveness is even weakened by workplace diversity. Poorly managed workplace diversity can result in a high degree of miscommunication, tension, and conflict. Edward Hubbard emphasizes in an interview with Peter Quarry (2005) that in organizations the time that needs to be invested by employees to overcome these interpersonal barriers is classified as outside of mission-critical work. On the other hand, mission-critical work is the portion of the job that directly contributes to an organization’s efficiency. Consequently, it becomes apparent that the more time employees need to spend on outside of mission-critical work, the less efficient the organization is as a whole.
Lastly, organizations that would be classified as learning and effectiveness organizations make the most of workplace diversity. For instance, these organizations use the increased creativity that is gained by recruiting a diverse workforce and use this creativity to develop new organizational ideas and concepts. These organizations do not have to worry about legal issues and litigation costs because they not only focus on preventing discrimination in the hiring process ,but also on the integration of distinct employees once they are hired.
Us versus Them
Mannix and Neale (2006) have a pessimistic view regarding the outcomes of workplace diversity concerning team interaction and performance. Their arguments are based on the similarity-attraction theory as well as social identity and self-categorization theories. The similarity-attraction theory states that similarities on attributes such as attitudes, values, and beliefs facilitate interpersonal liking and communication which leads to a higher productivity in homogenous work groups in contrast to diverse work groups. Based on this theory, it can be predicted that employees avoid communicating with those employees they dislike or with those that hold opinions or views differing from their own. Mannix and Neale (2006) highlight that also surface-level diversity inhibits a work group’s performance because research shows that members of racially and culturally dissimilar work groups are less likely to be attracted to one another and will have more difficulty communicating with each other than members of racially and culturally homogeneous work groups. Referring to social identity and self-categorization theories, it can be observed that members of heterogeneous work groups are more likely to categorize themselves and others in terms of demographic characteristics than are members of homogenous groups. These social categorizations result in “us versus them” distinctions. To be more specific, work group members that are categorized as out-group members because they differ in categories such as race, gender, values or beliefs are seen more negatively and judged more quickly than are work group members that are categorized as in-group members. The end result is that diverse work groups in which members categorize each other and function poorly because their actions lead to negative social processes like biased behavior towards out-group members and favoritism towards in-group members. The consequences of these processes are not only increases in conflict and decreases in social integration, but also an inhibition of the potential benefits that were described in the preceding paragraphs.
The Key
The key point concerning the advantages and disadvantages of workplace diversity, which is emphasized by Stockdale and Crosby (2004), seems to be that it depends on how well the diversity is managed and whether the advantages or disadvantages evolve. Well-managed workplace diversity can be an opportunity to increase an organization’s effectiveness but poorly managed workplace diversity can become a problem and can actually decrease an organization’s effectiveness. The implementation of diversity training that teaches sensitivity towards minorities is a strategy that can help to prevent the negative processes described in the preceding paragraph such as social categorization. Diversity training has the potential to reduce conflict in work groups and improve the overall work group's climate. Lastly, it is also important to highlight that the avoidance of a diverse workplace by only hiring majority employees is very likely to be illegal due to the discrimination legislation we have implemented in our society.