WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

Expanding Diversity Consciousness in the Workplace

Expanding Diversity Consciousness in the Workplace

Literature Review

Despite the wealth of prescriptive information on how to manage diversity, relatively little attention has been paid to measures of workplace diversity. The demographic shift toward a more diverse work force had a profound impact on the business world during the 1990s. Numerous books, articles, seminars, and training programs offered advice on how to manage diversity effectively (Bartunek, Gordon, Weathersby, 2009). Despite this wealth of prescriptive information, comparatively little attention had been devoted to measurement issues. Ironically, some studies have shown that diversity programs can actually have a negative net effect on the workplace through reinforced stereotypes, intergroup conflicts, lawsuits, and other undesired impacts (Bieri, Atkins, Brian, Leaman, Miller, Tripodi, 2006).

How do executives, trainers, and consultants know that the resources spent on diversity training had a positive effect on employee perceptions of diversity in the workplace? How do they know that participants gained a heightened understanding, sensitivity, and acceptance of individual differences? Existing measures of workplace diversity provide some help in addressing these questions (Coren, Suedfeld, 2010). For example, tracking changes in workplace demographics, promotions, terminations, grievances, and lawsuits before and after diversity training can yield valuable (albeit indirect) information about the behavioral effects of such training (Cox, Beale, 2006). Research by Training can lead to increased knowledge about diversity and a greater readiness to value diversity. While this study was valuable in showing how training can promote an enhanced appreciation for the different views that individuals may hold towards diversity, it failed to explicitly measure participants' own views on diversity in the workplace (Cox, Blake, 2007). These views are probed by assessing employees' perceptions of the climate for diversity within their present organization. Although this approach yielded useful information regarding how individuals viewed diversity in the context of their current company, it failed to assess diversity perceptions on a more general level (Fernandez, Barr, 2009). As a result, it is difficult to determine the degree to which the responses were due to situational characteristics (e.g., the particular nature of the current organizational context) or personal biases, beliefs, and attitudes toward diversity (De Meuse, Hostager, 2007). If individuals bring different views about diversity to the same workplace, we should not be surprised to find significant variations in their perceptions of the firm's diversity climate. Works by Cox & Beale (2007) demonstrated that members of the same organization can vary significantly in their cultural orientations and preferences towards work. De Meuse and Hostager (2007) identified five categories of diversity reactions:

1. Emotional Reactions- Initial, visceral responses to workplace diversity; an individual's gut feelings" about diversity in general;

2. Behavioral Reactions- What an individual does (or intends to do) in response to diversity; verbal and nonverbal actions;

3. Judgments- An individual's normative evaluation of diversity; one's value judgments regarding diversity in principle (e.g., is diversity good or bad);

4. Personal Consequences- Beliefs regarding perceived outcomes on an individual level; an individual's views on how diversity will affect them ...