personality & culture • page 1perky/uofr/fall2004/mgmt341u/handout-final.pdfcivil rights act...

personality & culture • page 1


AHHH! What do I wear?

you’rehired!Congratulations, you have just been hired by MegaCorp Inc.as a team leader. Our office is a business casual environment.We look forward to seeing you on Monday!

A B C D

What to wear?You have been hired by Mega-Corp, Inc. You have been told that the office environment is business casual. Based on this information, what would you wear to the office on the first day?

The clothes in this picture run from very casual (A), to traditional formal business attire (D).

What do you think qualifies as business casual?

photos from http://www.macys.com (2004)

reporttorichmondWhat outfit would you wear if your office was in Richmond?

B CA D

What if your new office was in Richmond?Would your choice of outfit change if you knew that your job was in Richmond?

Richmond is very similar to many areas of the country, and what would be acceptable business casual attire in Richmond would be the outfits displayed in B and C above.

reporttonewyorkWhat outfit would you wear if your office was in NewYork?

CBA D

What if your office was in New York?Would you pick a different outfit if your office was in New York?

You should. In most major cities, the concept of business casual is more formal than in smaller cities like Richmond. In New York, the outfits in C and D would be acceptable.

The outfits worn by the figures in B would be considered too casual for most offices in the city.


reporttosiliconvalleyWhat outfit would you wear if your office was in Silicon Valley?

BA C D

What if your office was in Silicon Valley?Silicon Valley is where the concept of business casual originated. In this area of California, anything goes, and typically you will see people dressed in outfits similar to A or B.

Typically this style of business casual is seen in high technology areas such as the Silicon Valley area of California and Seattle.

The point of this exerciseThis exercise wasn’t a lesson in good fashion sense, but rather to illustrate that what might be commonly accepted in one place, might be completely different in another.

The concept of “business casual” means different things depending on the industry, and even the location of the business.

This is just once example about how culture can affect business, and that’s what this presentation is about. When personal-ity and culture mix in the workplace, what you have is diversity.


Presentation OverviewThis presentation is about personality and culture and its effects on management and business. This is a huge topic, there are entire courses dedicated to understanding personality. There are entire books dedicated to understanding culture. So this presentation will be a small overview of the topics that one might encounter as a manager.

When this presentation is over, you should have a basic understanding of the following: • How do culture and personality combine to create diversity. • Why is diversity in the workplace necessary? • What are businesses doing? • What can managers do? • Recent issues in diversity management.


What is the diverse workforce?The diverse workforce is made up of several spheres of influ-ence. Each of these spheres affect and create the workforce at a business.

These spheres are: • National Culture • Local Culture • Corporate Culture • Employee’s Personalities

Where these spheres meet is the diverse workforce.

National CultureEvery country has a national culture. It is what makes a country unique. There are several ways to evaluate culture. One way devised by Clifford Clark, uses five categories to measure how a culture operates:

Relationship to Nature: Does the culture beleive that one should be in harmony with nature, or that one should control nature? Cultures that seek harmony tend be particular about the environment they work in. They may be less effective if they perceive that the environment is uncomfortable. A good example of a culture that values harmony with nature is the Japanese.

Relationship to the Supernatural: This relationship refers to a culture’s percep-tion of spirituality. Those that have high spirituality are less likely to question authority figures than those from less supernatural society.

Relationship to Other Human Beings: This measures how groups are formed in societies and how formal the interac-tions among people are. Some societies are very heirarchal, and beleive that one should socialize with similar level work-ers. An example of a society that values a heirarchal relationship is France.

Time Orientation: Does the culture value traditions and history or change and innovation? Cultures that value tradition tend to view time as limitless, and are not driven by by the clock as much as those that value change and innovation. Mexico is a good example of a culture that values tradition.

Activity Orientation: How does the culture perceive “downtime.” Some cul-tures see “downtime” as necessary to process information. Other’s see the time as wasteful, and unnecessary. Man countries in Europe value downtime, and give employees shorter work days and longer vacations in order to help them be more productive.

Source: Clark


Broad CategoryCovering:

Regional Culture

Local Culture

Subcultures

Family Culture

whatconstitutesdiversity?local culture

Going Beyond National CultureOne can use the measures for national culture to apply to smaller segments of culture. These include:

Regional Culture: The area in which you live. For in-stance, the East Coast of the United States is very dif-ferent from the Midwest. (A good example is to think about all the different names for cola beverages: Coke, pop, soda, cola).

Local Culture: The culture of the immediate general area one lives in. Richmond has its own culture. New York has its own culture.

Subcultures: Subcultures are small groups of like-minded individuals. Sometimes they are geographically grouped, others are grouped by common interests. One’s religion might be a subculture, so can the fact that one really likes Star Trek.

Family Culture: Each family has its own traditions, beleifs and other factors that make it a culture of its own.

Factors of Corporate Culture

Innovation & Risk Taking

Attention to Detail

Outcome Orientation

People Orientation

Team Orientation

Aggressiveness

Stability

whatconstitutesdiversity?corporate culture

Corporate Culture

Source: Robbins (2001)

Businesses can have cultures as well. This is the final component of the diverse workforce. The authors of our textbook have come up with sev-eral factors to evaluate when looking at corpo-rate culture. These are:

Innovation & Risk Taking: Companies that in-novate and are not afraid to fail. (3M)Attention to Detail: These are the companies that beleive in the highest quality possible. (Motorola)

Outcome Orientation: These companies beleive the outcome of business is the most important. For instance good customer service, or high ethical standards (Nordstrom).

People Orientation: These companies truly value employees, and value employee input. (Adobe Systems)

Team Orientation: These companies define identity by the teams within the company.

Agressiveness: A culture that is demandind, unrelenting, and wants to be on top of the game. (Microsoft).Stability: These companies seek to be constantly growing, and never re-

personality & culture • page 7Employeeʼs Personalitieswhatconstitutesdiversity?

What is Personality?

Character Traits

Behavior Traits

Emotional Traits

Mental Traits

etc. etc.

Personality Tests

Myers-Briggs

Keirsey Temperament

Type A/Type B

employee’s personalitiesEvery person is an individual, with unique traits. These traits make up a person’s personality.

One’s personality possesses (but is not limited to): • Character Traits • Behavioral Traits • Emotional Traits • Mental TraitsYour personality is created by a mixture of your biology, your upbringing, your gender, your race, life events, your intelligence and many other factors.

The Myers Briggs personality test is considered the de facto standard for quantifying personality. This test derives a general synopsis of ones personality based on where one falls in the following categories:Introvert/ Extrovert: Does one recharge by interacting with others, or spending time alone?Intuitive/ Sensing: How do you take in information?Thinking/ Feeling: How do you make decisions?Judging/ Perceiving: How do you organize your life?

From the Myers-Briggs Test came the Keirsey Tempera-ment Sorter. This test will result in one’s disposition, and can show the type of work environment one might prefer. It breaks down personalities into four categories and 8 sub-categories. Take the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Test Online:

http://similarminds.com/myers-briggs-jung.html

• Rationals (Engineers/ Coordinators)• Idealists (Advocates/ Mentors)• Guardians (Administrators/ Conservators)• Artisans (Operators/ Entertainers)

Finally, a very simplified version of categorizing personality is the Type A/B personality. Type A personalities tend to be driven, ag-gressive and suffer from low self-esteem. B types tend to be more introspective, calmer, and more centered.

Sources: Robbins (2000), “Free Myers...” (n.d.)

Why is diversity in the workplace important?The next segment of this presentation will incor-porate what we just learned about personality and culture and apply these learnings to the workplace.

We’ll first take a look at the legal aspects of han-dling cultural and personality in the workplace.

Then we’ll look at some of the benefits that bring-ing diversity into the workplace provides.


Globalization requirescultural respect &understanding

Cross-cultural teamsbenefit the workplace:

more innovation

higher creativity

better adjustment to

environmental changes

better problem solving

whyisdiversityimportant?it makes good sense

A diverse workplace is good for businessWhile laws may force a business to accept diversity no matter what, there are many other reasons that a diverse workforce benefits business.

As the marketplace becomes more global, it has become increasingly important for businesses to work within different cultures. Managers may have to man-age employees in different regions, or interact with of-fices, suppliers or customers across the globe. A good grasp of culture and diversity is important.

In addition to better interaction in the global mar-ketplace, diversity in the workplace has other proven benefits. Diverse teams and workplaces have been studied, and have seen benefits in the form of “in-creased creativity, better non-routine problem solving, more comprehensive consideration of alternatives, and higher quality ideas” (Bellinger, Hillman).

In addition, companies that embrace diversity has shown to be better at adjusting to environmental uncertainty and change.

Source: Bellinger, Hillman (2000)

Important Diversity Laws:

Equal Pay Act (1963)

Civil Rights Act (1964, 1972)

Vocational Rehabilitation Act (1973)

Vietnam-Era Veterans’ ReadjustmentAct (1974)

Age Discrimination in Employment Act(1967, 1978, 1986)

Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978)

Mandatory Retirement Act (1978)

Immigration Reform and Control Act(1986)

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

Civil Rights Act (1991)

Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)

whyisdiversityimportant?it’s the law

US legislation governing diversity in the workplaceOne reason managers should be concerned about diversity, is the laws the affect diversity in the workplace.Some of the important US laws that affect diversity are:

EQUAL PAY ACT (1963): Prohibits unequal pay based on gender.CIVIL RIGHTS ACT (1964, 1972): Prohibits discrimi-nation based on race, color, religion, national origin or gender.VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION ACT (1973): Prohibits discrimination based on physical or mental dis-abilities.VIETNAM-ERA VETERANS’ READJUSTMENT AS-SISTANCE ACT (1974): Prohibits discrimination against disabled veterans.AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT (1967, 1978, 1986): Prohibits discrimination based on age for employees between 40 and 65. Restricts mandatory retirement.Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978): Prohibits dismissal of women for becoming pregnant, also protects employ-ment during maternity leave.MANDATORY RETIREMENT ACT (1978): Prohibits forced retirement before 70.Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986): Prohibits the

employment of illegal aliens, but also prohibits discrimina-tion based on national origin or citizenship.AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (1990): Re-quires that reasonable accommodations are made for em-ployees with physical or mental disabilities.CIVIL RIGHTS ACT (1991): Creates stricter penalties for companies that discriminate. Places the burden of proof on the employer.Family and Medical Leave Act (1993): In companies with 50 or more employees, an employee can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family or medical reasons.

Source: Robbins


What can businesses do to manage diversity?whatarecompaniesdoing?

Establish formal policies

Hold training for all employees

Offer training, mentoring, andother paths to promotion foremployees.

Have retention plans foremployees.

Hold managers accountablefor meeting diversity goals The American Institute for Managing Diversity

websitehttp://www.aimd.org/

��

The United Natiosn has outlined several key things that businesses can do to manage the diverse workplace:

• Successful businesses have established formal policies and procedures. This helps ensure that diversity policies have top level awareness and approval.

• Diversity training is provided to all employees in the workforce. Training can consist of a topic covered in orientation to week-long seminars and workshops. The American Institute for Managing Diversity (http://www.aimd.org) of-fers classes and handbooks for these seminars.

• It’s been discovered that mandatory quotas are not as successful as providing company-wide opportunities for training and mentor-ing to employees. Promotions based on skill prevent resentment, but each employee should be given the opportunity to gain new skills for promotion.

• Successful companies have retention plans for employees. This may include offering leaves of

Sources: Reichenberth (2001), American Institute for Managing Diversity (n.d.)

absense, flexible hours and other programs that will retain and keep good employees.

• Successful companies hold managers accountable for meeting diversity objectives.

diversityinbusinessWhat are businesses and managers doing?

• What successful companies do• Steps managers can take• The Spiral of Silence• Recent concerns about diversity

Diversity in BusinessNow that we understand why diversity is im-portant in the workplace, we’re going to talk about specific ways to incorporate different personalities and cultures into the workplace.

We’re going to look at what successful com-panies are doing.We’re going to look at what successful man-agers do.We’re also going to talk about the spiral of silence, and how to combat it.and finally, we’re going to talk about some recent issues in diversity management.


The Spiral of Silence

Marginalizes workers

Creates lower job satisfaction

Work to dissolve thespiral of silence

Get personal with employees

Encourage all members of team

to have leadership roles.

whatcanmanagersdo?the spiral of silence

Managers need to dissolve the spiral of silenceIn their essay “Spirals of Silence: The Dy-namic Effects of Diversity on Organizational Voice,” Frances Bowen and Kate Blackmon discuss what they term the spiral of silence.

The spiral of silence occurs when a minority in the workplace begins to feel ostrasized--ei-ther by innappropriate comments, or through a feeling of dominance from another culture.

People who are marginalized may keep quiet with ideas and input for fear of being further marginalized in the workplace. Their spiral of silence eventually leads to lower job satisfac-tion, and a manager may not know the reason until its too late.

To combat the spiral of silence, Bowen and Blackmon reccommend that managers make an effort to get to know each employee on a personal level. Employees that feel that they can trust a manager as a friend are more likely to speak up about issues in the work place.

In addition, the authors reccomend that man-agers hold and encourage interaction between employees outside of work. This encourages

the employees to get to know each other on a personal level, which also opens the door for discussion of diversity problems in the workplace.

Finally, they reccommend that managers intentionally encourage or assign marginalized employees to leadership roles. This may give them the impe-tus to speak up about issues, because the fear of a majority dominance is lessened.

Source: Bowen, Blackmon (2003)

Be Flexible

Seek work-life balance

Consider alternatives

Accommodate

Offer customized incentives

Lead by Example

Embrace differences

Encourage team participation

Mentor when needed

whatcanmanagersdo?be a team leader

Managers should lead by exampleManagers who are effective with diversity management employee two important management skills. The first is they are flexible with employees. They help employees have a good work-life balance, perhaps through flexible hours and scheduling or other options.

Effective managers are open to alternatives offered by employees. This helps to make employees comfortable with approaching the manager with ideas, even if they’re out of the norm for the business.

Effective managers accommodate employees. Find solutions that will help an employee perform his or her job.

Good managers will also offer customized incentives for employees. Perhaps one employee may appreciate additional time off, while another would appreciate a week at a training seminar to improve his or her skills. Good managers will embrace the differences, and show a willingness to consider all ideas, no matter how strange. Good managers will encourage everyone to participate, and will try to constantly improve interpersonal communications between employees.


recentdiversityissues

What qualifies as diversity?

In truly diverse environments a tendency occurs for “cliques” ofhomogenous people to develop.

Diverse teams can be considerably less effective on someprojects.

Legitimate issues with employees may be dismissed as“discrimination.”

Some employees may view special accommodations withresentment.

Recent Diversity Issues

As diversity management continues to mature, it is under constant scrutiny to for flaws and possible improvements. The latest studies in diversity management have produced some interesting new findings worthy of note.

One constantly evolving area is the definition of what qualifies as diversity. While legally, gender, race, color, and national origin are protected. Other areas such as sexual orientation and marital status are not legally protected, but covered under diversity in some companies. Additionally, disability has proven relatively hard for companies to define and handle.

Recent studies in the sociology of the workplace have revealed that in many diverse workgroups, there is ten-dency of homogenous cliques to develop. People with similar backgrounds and cultures tend to cluster together, often excluding those outside of the group. This can prove problematic when one clique becomes dominant. Many companies are dealing with this issue now through training, and through creating environments where employees can socialize in a non-work environment.

In addition, recent studies have also some some chinks in the armor of the idea that diverse teams produce better output. While generally diversity can be helpful with tasks that require a great deal of creativity and problem solving, diverse teams tend to perform worse than homogenous teams on tasks that require quick decision making, and also on tasks that are routine.

Other studies have shown that there may be issues with em-ployees that are ignored, or dismissed because an employee falls within a protected minority. For example, and em-ployee with a mental disorder may become verbally abusive when faced with criticism. To accommodate the employee, the manager may not approach the employee with feedback. Where an employee without the disorder may be disciplined or even terminated for such behavior, fear of lawsuits or other reprocussions may prevent the company from treating the employee the same as it would anyone else.

The previous issue leads right into another issue with diver-sity in the workplace. Recently there has been a backlash against many of the special accommodations that employees receive. One of the fastest growing complaints arise from family leave policies. Many workers who are single, or do not have kids have raised concerns about flexible schedul-ing, and leave for employees with sick parents, or children. They resent what they see as “bonuses” given to employees who are married or have children. Many are asking for equal leave time to take for vacation, or to care for a sick friend, or pet.

In all, many of the issues raised about modern diversity management are being tackled, companies now offer paid time off, instead of flexible leave for employees, so they can use the time for whatever they would like. Others have spelled our clear prolicies regarding workplace behavior, and nearly every major company spells out exactly what groups are covered under diversity policies.

Sources: Linnenham, Konrad (1999), Adler (2001), Lorbecki (2001)


personality&cultureWhat constitutes “diversity?”

Why is diversity managementimportant?

What are businesses doing?

What can managers do?

Recent issues in diversitymanagement.

To Summarize:As the workplace grows more diverse, it is more important than ever for managers to understand diversity issues.

WHAT CONSTITUTES DIVERSITY?Diversity is influenced by the cultures surrounding the workplaces these include: • Employee Personalities • National Culture • Local Culture • Corporate Culture

WHY IS DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT?Diversity management is important firstly because itʼs the law. Companies cannot discriminate against minorities and those with disabilities. In addition, diversity management makes good sense in a growing global economy. Diverse teams perform better at certain tasks, and have better quality ideas than homogenous teams.

WHAT ARE BUSINESSES DOING?Businesses that are successful at managing diversity have diversity policies in writing, train all employees to under-stand diversity issues, offer training and retention programs for employees, and hold manager accountable for meeting diversity requirements.

WHAT CAN MANAGERS DO?Managers need to keep a constant and open line of communication open with employees to prevent the spiral of silence. Managers need to be team builders seeking diversity whenever possible. Managers should lead by example, embracing diverse teams.

RECENT ISSUES IN DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT.Some recent issues include the continual debate over what qualfies as minority, what qualifies as reasonable accom-modation, the issue of homogenous cliques developing in diverse workplaces, and the backlash against what some see as unfair accommodations.


Presentation SourcesAdler, Iiya (2001). Culture Shock. Business Mexico, Vol. 11, Issue 5 21. Retrieved September 12, 2004, from http://

gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000073025637&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=html&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=383

American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc. Retrieved October 3, 2004, from http://www.aimd.org

Bellinger, Larry; Hillman, Amy J. (2000). Does Tolerance Lead to Better Partnering? The Relationship Between Diversity Management and M&A. Business and Society, Vol. 39, Issue 3 323-337. Retrieved September 19, 2004, from http://firstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/DARead?key=0007-6503%252820000901%252939%253A3%253C323%253ADTLTBP%253E%26sp06sw04-33591-dzbetu77-64lehl%262c564ae20711210d978e2ed930873d99c00e4f17d95196637e27c4bfaee9900e&sessionid=0&db=ECO_FT&format=PDF

Bowen, Frances; Blackmon, Kate (2003). Spirals of Silence: The Dynamic Effects of Diversity on Organizational Voice. Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 40, Issue 6 1393-1417. Retrieved September 19, 2004, from http://firstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/DARead?key=0022-2380%252820030901%252940%253A6%253C1393%253ASOSTDE%253E%26sp06sw04-33591-dzbetu77-64lehl%26f3a9b5eb1b47609c64e938b417d2cd89241fbae814bbed5a118180059e66b19c&sessionid=0&db=ECO_FT&format=PDF

Clarke, Clifford (1994). Making Diversity More Manageable. Training & Development, Vol. 48, Issue 9 53-58. Re-trieved September 12, 2004, from http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000000034672&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=text&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=383

Free Myers Briggs Jung Preference Exploration Personality Test (n.d.) Retreived November 6, 2004, from http://similarminds.com/pref-myers-briggs-jung.html

Lennehan, Frank; Konrad, Alison M. (1999). Diluting Diversity: Implications for Intergroup Inequality in Organiza-tions. Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 8, Issue 4 399-414. Retrieved September 19, 2004, from http://first-search.oclc.org/WebZ/DARead?key=1056-4926%252819991201%25298%253A4%253C399%253ADDIFII%253E%26sp06sw04-33591-dzbetu77-64lehl%2645d11be9b8a1f5033c95c3f37889dda75c75029893b66420e3d7b2a3ae73ad90&sessionid=0&db=ECO_FT&format=PDF

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Macyʼs Online Catalog. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2004, from http://www.macys.com/catalog/index.ognc?CategoryID=118&PageID=118*1*12*-1*-1

Reichenberg, Neil E. (2001). Best Practices in Diversity Management. United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Managing Diversity in the Civil Service. Retrieved October 2, 2004, from unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/ pub-lic/documents/un/unpan000715.pdf

Robbins, Stephen P. (2000). Managing Today!. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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