Recession and Diversity

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/17/how-the-recession-is-affecting-racial-diversity-in-the-workplace/

This is an interesting article from CNN I found on diversity and how the recession is affecting it.  It was showing that during the recession some companies were laying off people of color first.  "In good economic times, people know they are supposed to support diversity and will tend to hire a minority candidate to get affirmative action points. But when times are tough, people tend to look out for their own group and isolate outsiders, and that's when discrimination can begin to rear its ugly head." This was a quote from the article and I could unfortunately see how this could be true.  What do you guys think?  Do you think this just so happens to be the theme in this one company or do you think it is intentional?  I've gotta hope not but subconsciously I feel as though it certainly could be true.


Alec

CSI Normal Review

We as team 5 were extremely efficient while demonstrating the cooperator role.  The Cooperator role is found in the social part of the circle and according to the textbook is defined as, supporting those with expertise towards the team’s goal.  We all worked together towards a common goal of trying to figure out who the main suspect was.  After reviewing Figure 9.7 in the textbook, I feel that I best demonstrated the contractor’s role.  The contractor’s role is a task role and according to the textbook includes behaviors that serve to organize the team’s work.  I feel that when the project began I helped assign the roles and the topics we should address about the fugitives.  . 

In my opinion our group was missing a major part of the task role, the critic role.  The textbook claims that the critic role is similar to the term “devil’s advocate.”  We all trusted each other in the group and we never picked up on the fact that our sheets were different.  If we had a critic in our group it is possible that he would have wished to see everyone else’s sheets to verify what they said.  He would not go based solely on their word and would request that they verified their answers.  A critic would of kept us in check and provided a lot of benefits to our group.

I feel that we are in the early stages of development as a team.  We are starting to get to know each other and becoming comfortable expressing our ideas as a whole to each other but we have yet to be tested.  I feel that every strong group is tested and arguing occurs to provide benefits to the group, and we have yet to experience that.  Right now we are all calibrating with each other and trying not to start any fighting.  I feel that after we become tested as a group, we will bond even closer. 

Brian Gabriel

You Know What Happens When You Assume...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-05/intel-chairman-says-board-diversity-must-reflect-global-markets.html

Intel has been a very smart company over the years. They recognized that their product would be a challenge to sell since it is never directly seen by the consumer, so they came up with the "Intel Inside" campaign, which was brilliant and has been wildly successful. Now it would seem that Intel is demonstrating, in just one more way, the kinds of smart decisions that have allowed them to be an industry leader for so long.

This article discusses how Intel Corp. Chairman Jane Shaw stated that Intel is looking to increase diversity on their board of directors. This is because Intel is seeing rapid growth in China, a market that continues to look promising for some time to come. However, while Intel has a large market share in China, they do not have anyone from China represented on their board of directors. This means the viewpoint that the board has is skewed and does not accurately reflect the opinions and concerns of all their stakeholders or consumers. I like that Shaw is looking to diversify the board in attempts to better understand the developing Chinese market and learn how to appeal to it.

Since one of my majors is marketing, I have studied the subject a fair amount by this point in my academic career, and have come to the realization that it is difficult to create advertisements that are geared towards specific target audiences without having an in-depth knowledge of that market. If one is creating an advertisement for a target audience that they belong to, it is rather simple to understand the target audience and create ads with sincerity that demonstrate to the consumer the value of the product. However, if one does not belong to the target audience they are advertising to, it becomes a temptation to assume things one shouldn't, and then mistakes are made. It is invaluable to have a diverse team of people in these situations so that one will have a better idea of how to market to that specific target audience. Shaw has done an excellent job of not assuming that she understands her Chinese stockholders and the market over there. Instead, she desires to bring more diversity to the board, this is prudent. Diversity adds new levels of perception and creativity to any team and that is certainly a worthy goal for Intel to be pursuing with the Board of Directors.

In conclusion, if one assumes that they can make good decisions for groups that they are unfamiliar with, then that person will most likely inadvertently make decisions that have negative consequences for the organization. However, with diverse team, one greatly increases their likelihood for coming up with better solutions.


Josh Throop

Diversity

http://wonkette.com/449148/black-man-arrested-fired-from-job-for-trying-to-cash-large-check

We have been debating whether or not diversity still exists in the work place.  I know Josh discussed surface level and deep level diversity but this article clearly represents that it is almost impossible to get over surface level diversity.   This black man was simply trying to turn in his tax return and was accused of the check being a fake.  After getting arrested, the man lost his job while sitting in the county jail for the weekend.  

This article clearly represents that we can never overcome surface level diversity.  This was an act of racism without a doubt, but this occurred in a workplace environment.   How are we suppose to hire someone based on their qualifications alone and not possibly be accused of not having enough diversity?  

If Chase bank employees are turning down customers because they don't believe they can own a home in a nice neighborhood, well I do not blame the minority group for becoming upset with lack of diversity in the workplace.  All I am saying is that we might as well ignore the issue of race and religion and stop having quotas to hire a certain number of minorities.  This is something that we will never overcome and ignoring the situation would be best for everyone.     

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

http://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/human-resource-articles/cultural-diversity-workplace-2517.html

This article talks about diversity as a whole in the workplace and how it affects employees and management. It goes over the difference from simply hiring a diverse group of employees from things like affirmative action and actually managing that group after they are hired, which is extremely different.  I totally agree with the problems of affirmative action that the article states.  One of the problems with affirmative action is that it began to be perceived as public relation scheme more concerned about quota than about individuals."  This, to me, is a huge downside to specifically going out and forcing diversity among the workplace.  Diversity has huge benefits and is extremely important, but the way in which you create diversity can not be simply a numbers game.  It has to be about the individual and then secondly the diversity of the group as a whole.  I think that at this time we need to cut back on things like affirmative action because we clearly are all ready making up for the issue... "America's workforce is changing- and changing rapidly. "By the end of year 2000, it's expected that only one in seven new employee will be white male."  We need to focus on things like managing the diversity that we already have in place and making sure all employees are comfortable with diversity.  I think in general this article is helpful to see the key points of where we are going with diversity and where we have been in the past.  The old ways of diversity was to simply assimilate everyone (of all backgrounds) to the company's culture.  But now we see what great advantages it is to gather a group of individuals who embrace their difference backgrounds to come together and look at things in a new light and who see things differently.

Posted by Alec

Managing Millennials

The workplace has seen many changes over the last 50 years.  Fifty years ago, people would work one or two jobs for their career their entire lives.  Now we expect to change jobs about every 3-4 years.  Once baby-boomers entered the workforce, this introduced the largest generational class in the workplace and still is to date.  But more and more baby- boomers are starting to retire and with-in the next 5 years the vast majority of them will have retired or very close to retirement.  This brings a big problem to employers who have had baby-boomer employees that have worked for companies as long as 10, 20, or even 30 years or more.  This brings about the largest shift in the workforce, with the introduction of the millennials.

Millennials, or Generation Y as they are sometimes referred to, is starting to enter into the workforce, bringing a huge cultural change with them.  This generation has been brought up in a technology filled environment and sees the world in a whole different way than past generations.  The millennials have known to be very social, free spirited, the troublesome generation, fighting authority and the most difficult to manage.  They also may be the key for success for businesses of the future, not only for how they see the world, but also because of their numbers.

As the once dominant baby-boomer workforce is starting to retire, millions of jobs will open up.  The millennial generation is said to be the next largest (and possibly thee largest) generation to have entered into the workforce.  As I said before this brings about a huge cultural shift, and employers need to be ready for this change, because how they handle this new change will determine how the company will do in the future.

For employers, this means that it has never been more important to attract a younger working class.  It is important for employers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the millennial generation in order to target those needs build a new working class.  Employers and managers need to develop new training courses and mentoring in order to tailor and harness this new generation.  Another very important factor for employers are once they have attracted, trained and have mentored new employees, they need to make sure that they retain this new workforce and continue to grow and develop.  Brought up in a fast pace, ever changing environment, millennials like a work environment that reflects that, so it is important to have new tasks and projects in order to keep them engaged and interested it their work and are more likely to stay with the company.

What does this mean in terms of diversity?  It means that there is going to be a huge generational diversity change, from an older working class to a much younger one in the next few years.  It is extremely important that employers are aware of this and start planning on how to handle this age diversity in the work place and make sure that the work environment fits the needs of younger employees, without discriminating against the older generations.  Millennials are also a much more culturally diverse generation, and so it is important that employers take note of this and attract a wide range of young employees.

As a part of the millennial generation, I find this to be a very exciting time as fresh blood moves into the workforce.  Our generation has a lot of potential for growth and development and I see this as an opportunity to reshape the business world.  Being a more cultural, well-rounded generation, allows us to bring a lot of different perspectives to the table.  With this generational switch, it also means that the competitive job market will become even more competitive, especially as employers are all trying to attract our generation.  But as a very competitive, craving action, full of life and optimism, I feel that we are up for the challenge and adversity that awaits and should bring about a whole new cultural shift.

Posted by Jordan

Don’t Manage Like Michael Scott

So many people think diversity is determined solely on a person’s complexion and race; this video really demonstrates this. In the hit show The Office, Michael Scott, the manager of a regional branch of Dunder Mifflin, takes it upon himself to train his employees on the significance of diversity in the workplace. This is of course a noble and worthwhile endeavor in which at one point Michael shows his workforce a video he made in attempts to explain the significance of diversity. See link below to view the video Michael Scott made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1XIfUy9bdY

 In this video Michael starts by saying “Diversity…is the cornerstone of progress.” Now of course diversity management is crucial to businesses, Michael’s correct about that, but only if understood and applied correctly.  In Michael Scott’s limited view of diversity, he automatically thinks of racial divides and skin color. The fact is though, many other managers, while they might not fabricate such ridiculous “quotes” from Abraham Lincoln, still have just as limited a view of what diversity truly is and how it impacts a business.

Judging people by purely their race of origin or other outward features does not address any sort of deep-level diversity or its effects on performance. When in management, you need to recognize more than just outward appearance and racial background. For instance, is the employee positive or negative affective, and how might that impact the workplace? If you have several employees that are rather negative individuals, it might be prudent to not have them working on projects together. Being a positive or negative affective is not correlated to any surface level diversity.

Also, as a manger, one must be wary of potential faultlines that could develop leading to strife and disunity amongst employees. Now, sometimes faultlines can arise due to surface-level diversities, but those are easier to overcome than the alternative, deep-level diversities. Two groups of people divided on politics, religion, or ethical codes, are much more difficult to manage than two groups of peopled that are divided by race, age, or gender.

Even knowing what an employee’s level of self-esteem is can be important. Some employees might need to be praised and encouraged frequently or else they will quickly become discouraged, while other employees have very high self-esteem and are aware of their own self-efficacy. This again has very little to do with surface-level diversity and has everything to do with the specific individual and their unique characteristics.

So don’t manage like Michael Scott and stereotype people based on minor, surface-level differences, but consider the more complex characteristics of people, the deep-level factors, and manage people accordingly.

Posted by Josh Throop