Robbins, Coulter, Leach, and Kilfoil, Management, 12Ce Chapter 3 Minicase: Managing Diversity Andre, manager of human resources at his organization, has been tasked with putting a plan together that would assist in managing diversity in the organization. He is aware that the companys president believes strongly in the benefits of a diverse workplace. However, there is some evidence that diversity is indeed an issue in the organization that is hindering the effectiveness of employees, particularly when they are working in a team environment. By extension, this issue has the potential to hinder the effectiveness of the organization. Thus, the effective management of diversity has become a top priority in the organization. To date, Andre has done some research on diversity in the workplace, and he has asked employees to complete an anonymous questionnaire about their perspectives on diversity. His research has brought to light the following: The demographic characteristics that we tend to think of when we think of diversity age, race, gender, ethnicity, and so onare just the tip of the iceberg. Differences in values, personality, and work preferences can affect the way people view organizational work rewards, communicate, react to leaders, negotiate, and generally behave at work. Work teams with diverse backgrounds often bring different and unique perspectives to discussions, which can result in more creative ideas and solutions. Andre has also made note of some key findings from his questionnaire: One issue with older workers is the perceptions people have of those workers. These include perceptions that theyre sick more often and they cant work as hard or as fast as younger employees. Misconceptions, mistaken beliefs, and unsupported opinions still exist about whether women perform their jobs as well as men do. There exist among employees preconceived beliefs, opinions, or judgments toward a people individually or a group of people. Some employees believe that married persons are more stable employees than single persons. Some employees admit to acting out their prejudicial attitudes toward people who are the targets of their prejudice. Andre is fully aware that the benefits of effectively managing diversity in the workplace are considerable, and include: better use of employee talent; increased quality of team problemsolving efforts; the ability to attract and retain employees of diverse backgrounds; reduced costs associated with high turnover, absenteeism, and lawsuits; and enhanced problem-solving ability. In addition to diversity skills training programs and encouraging senior management to visibly support diversity, some of the initiatives that he intends to propose in his report are having experienced organizational members provide advice and guidance to less-experienced members, and encouraging employees to form groups made up of employees connected by some common dimension of diversity and supporting such groups.

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