Diversity Have on Organizational Behaviors?

¶ … diversity have on organizational behaviors?

Diversity

This research paper provides information regarding comprehending the issue of diversity and its effects on organizational behavior. The paper starts off with a description of some studies which enable to understand the elements of cultural diversity, the factors of cultural diversity which lead towards a successful organization, the dilemmas confronted by organizations desiring to acquire and maintain organizational diversity and how diversity influences the operations of organizations. The study shall further discuss about some studies and theories such as 'Social Identification and Categorization Theory' and 'similarity/attraction theory' which showed a negative link between diversity and organizational behaviors. The paper states that even though there have been studies and theories showing a negative relationship between diversity and organizational performance, there have been several studies and theories which show a positive link. These studies and theories are discussed at length in the paper which attempt to show that diversity influences organizational behavior and is essential for positive organizational performances. Finally, the paper shall discuss about the elements required to bring about positive organizational performances as a result of the efforts of diversity.

Introduction:

In the present day business atmosphere, organizations are tending to be more and more diverse, expediting the significance of the comprehension of the dynamics of diversity in organizations. Comprehending the dynamics of diversity assists the organization in handling the outcome of diversity by entailing guidance in the alternatives available and/or growth of interventions. (Guzzo; Salas, 1995) More currently, managers as well as researchers similarly have initiated asking as to if there is any empirical relationship among diversity and organizational performance and to understand the impact of diversity on organizational performance. (Jackson; Joshi, 2001)

Discussion:

People from varying cultural groups in the United States have varying perspectives, apparent in their beliefs, attitudes, values, and behavioral activities. There exist several research analyses that particularly narrate these variations. In one remarkable comparative study by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck pertaining to values within five cultures in the Southwest U.S., discovered value orientations across which they presumed all individuals look for meaning. One of such orientations is the way people consider nature. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck revealed three different modes by which people linked to the natural circumstances, such as peace with nature, subdued to nature and having mastery over the nature. Individuals or cultural group might associate with nature in all three modes; however they would differ in their order of preference. Normally, the prominent European-American culture, wherein the Extension Service progressed, basically values mastery over the nature, while several Native Americans, Asian-Americans and Latino-Americans basically value residing in accord with nature. This core value influences the decisions that individuals arrive at in their day-to-day lives. (Schauber, 2001)

In another study, Edward T. Hall showed a distinction regarding the manner in which individuals consider time. Some cultures, like the conventional European-American culture, visualize time as being linear as well as sequential, known as mono-chronic. Other cultures like Native American, Asian-American, African-American and Latinos think of time as several matters occurring at once and with persons known as poly-chronic. Poly-chronic persons visualize time as an enormous resource and linkages take significance over that of the schedules. Hence one may see polychromic persons as being mostly late for meetings, while the mono-chronic persons might be more acquainted to punctuality. Mono-chronic persons might go towards believing that 'time tends to be money'. Contrary to this the polychromic persons might visualize time as a scope to continue with others. Such few illustrations of differing beliefs and values give rise to the degree of the prospective differentiations among us, as the population of our nation has tend to be more culturally diverse. (Schauber, 2001) strong organization is characterized by a general endeavor to make people with different talents, backgrounds and capabilities to function collectively towards the objective or mission of the organization. A successful organization which is culturally diverse is one whose culture includes all of the differing groups and constituents it aims to serve. The mission, values, objectives, policies, processes and principles of the organization conform to a culture that is apparent in several perspectives and adaptability to differing values, beliefs and styles of communication. (Schauber, 2001) it is often asked as to whether diversity is good for organization and how does diversity affect organizational behavior/performance? The Diversity Research Network, an organization of scholars from 6 universities who completed the largest field-based study on this issue of diversity in relation to organizational behavior/performance stated that a variety of contextual variables, incorporating the culture of the organization, techniques and practices relating to human resource development, assist to decide as to if diversity empowers performance or reduces it. (Kwak, 2003)

There prevails a linkage among three social dilemmas confronted by organizations desiring to acquire and maintain organizational diversity, the dilemmas with regard to organizational involvement, managerial involvement, and individual involvement. The functional and social group diversity provides advantage for organizations like adaptation, creativity and innovation, and accessibility to external networks; however there are costs that dissuade organizations from carrying forward these advantages. The costs related with organizational involvement in diversity initiatives evolve since managers as well as their employees consider organizational contradictions and organize their relationships on the basis of social identity basis, so that temporary hindrances and collective boundaries encircle diversity. Finding solutions to the subordinate issues of managerial and individual involvement entails the key to solving the dilemmas with regard to organizational involvement. (Schneider; Northcraft, 1999)

To fully comprehend the manner in which diversity influences the operations of organizations, the interpersonal dynamics related with task associated diversity and relationship-based diversity must be taken into account. 'Readily detected attributes' could be decided in a rapid manner and consciousness with only minimum exposure to or less understanding regarding the individual. Attributes that could be easily noticed incorporate organizational as well as tenure of the team, department or group membership, formal credentials and levels of education, ethnicity, race, sex and age. 'Underlying attributes' are less prevalent, more problematic to verify and pertains to increased interpretation and are construal. Moreover, certain attributes might be specifically concerned with work responsibilities, while others are prominent basically since they influence the social link within an organization. Managers sometimes hypothesize that task associated attributes are strong deciding elements of behavior and results in organizations and that relation based attributes play only a small part. But relationship-based attributes design attitude even while they are not related with responsibility associated attributes. Relationship associated attributes activate stereotypes that affect the manner in which individuals think and consider about themselves and that of others, what information is considered, who consults with whom, and who has the most authority in decision-making procedures. While managers might give rise to overestimate the significance of task-associated attributes, organizational researchers might try to overestimate the significance of underlying attributes. (Jackson; Joshi, 2001)

Diversity and its management has been an important aspect in the public administration study literature during the last several decades; in fact, the area of study has witnessed inquiry provided to the issue of diversity and the influence of diversity on organizational behavior results. Probably the initial studies on record that analyzed ethnicity and organizational behaviors were performed in the year 1958. Katz and others analyzed the interpersonal dealings between blacks and whites in a laboratory study comprising of 18 groups of four persons. Each team had 2 white students and 2 black students. The study applied open as well as positive communication as the result of interest. Not amazingly, white students were considered to be more prone compared to blacks to communicate and when they did in fact engage in communication, they were prone to direct their comments towards each other, not towards the black students in their group. Such outcomes tend to indicate the status distinctions between blacks and whites, at a time during the 1950s, something that considers any older study associated with ethnicity to work associated results questionable. Other initial studies have problems from the same extendability concern. While evaluating a diversity stature like ethnicity which is considered to be so political and socially infused, it is pertinent to regard the social context while deciding whether any study continues to be significant. (Pitts; Jarry, 2005)

More recent studies on diversity impacts has seen mixed results -- with certain studies revealing a positive link between ethnic diversity and organizational performance, while others reveal a negative link. Certain studies have revealed a negative link between diversity and organizational performance. Many of these studies apply individual performance assessments as the result of interest, and majority of the studies reveal that, in diverse groups or organizations, employees are less prone to attain positive performance assessments from supervisors. Greenhaus and others also revealed a linkage between organizational diversity and reduced career satisfaction, reduced organizational dedication, and employee views of unlikely promotion. Tsui and others found that in diverse organizations, minority members, or that of the basic out-group, were less dedicated to the organization, more prone to be absent from reporting for work and more prone to be in active quest of other jobs. Kizilos and others showed that diverse organizations portrayed reduced pro-social organizational behavior compared to homogenous groups, and Pelled and others, showed proof that increased standards of ethnic diversity are linked to more emotional contradiction in organizations. Riordan and Shore showed that in diverse organizations, employees are less considered to be committed or view that they are prone to grow in the organization. (Pitts; Jarry, 2005)

With this contextual understanding we could have a comprehension of the 'Social Identification and Categorization Theory'. The social identification theory shows that people involve in several social comparisons to others on the basis of ethnicity, gender, religion, and socio-economic standing, amongst others. Empirical research has indicated that people mostly accord negative features to members of the out-group due to this process, understanding the out-group to be consisting of persons who are less honest, faithful, and cooperative or being intelligent. The procedures of categorization mostly include physical traits like ethnicity, gender, as well as age. Concerning that membership within the out-group is considered as a deficiency, this categorization mostly lead to persons assuming those from varied ethnicity as being essentially worse than what they actually are or at the very minimum, being unreliable. Social identification and categorization theory, further presumes that persons typecast and arrive at judgments in a quick manner regarding those who are from other groups. In a diverse organization, there are several out groups compared to in groups, a process that is considered to lead to increased difficulties with regard to communication, trust as well as cooperation. Thus, work procedures would be made much more problematic, thereby resulting in the final product ideology or remedies to be weaker. This theory ultimately recommends a negative linkage between diversity and organizational attitude. (Pitts; Jarry, 2005)

Now with regard to 'similarity/attraction theory' we can understand that the theory states that individuals having same backgrounds might consider that they have much more in common when compared to each other than when compared to others from varied backgrounds, making it more possible for them to function jointly and cooperate towards creating a product or resolving an issue. Studies have indicated that in a circumstance wherein a person has the scope to interact with one of several varied individuals, he or she is considered to choose a person who is found to be similar. That one is considered to be most attached to those with similar or same attributes shows a clear forecast for the link between diversity and organizational behavior. Early studies applying the similarity/attraction terms revealed that dissimilarity give rise to deficiency of attraction to others that fostered itself via reduced communication, distortion of message and communication problems. Like the social identification and categorization theory, similarity/attraction study would forecast that increased levels of diversity are considered giving rise to defective work processes. Such defective work process, would contrarily give rise to low performance. (Pitts; Jarry, 2005)

Even though there have been studies and theories showing a negative relationship between diversity and organizational performance, there have been studies and theories which show a positive link. The 'Information & Decision-Making theory' is one such theory. The 'Information & Decision-Making theory' is based on the concept that the composition of the organization would influence the manner in which the group refines information, communicates and formulates decisions. The studies on information as well as decision-making in organizations reveal that, for these couple of particular operations, the defective procedures that come from high degree of heterogeneity are surpassed by advantages achieved by more creativity, a greater amount of ideas and a larger reservoir of information. Research has revealed that even in circumstances where diversity has an apparent adverse influence on work processes, the enhancement in information accessible to the group that evolves from diversity is sufficient for counteracting the process difficulties. The idea that diversity brings about a plethora of new opportunities to the table, enabling an organization to be more successful, has been the base for several claims that differentiation is a source of strength and resource for the organizations. Diversity is most possible to entail positive outcomes when the responsibility is to resolve a complicated issue, create a group of productive ideas or innovations, or create a new product. In such cases, the additional information and perspectives that are evident, the more likely the group would be to arrive at a maximum remedy. (Pitts; Jarry, 2005)

Research analyses indicating a positive link have evolved from both laboratory as well as field experiments. To illustrate, Watson and others generated 36 groups of students in a management course and told them to involve in a series of various case studies. The categories with increased degrees of diversity are prone to regard a great variety of views and options compared to groups that were comparatively homogeneous. Mc Leod and Lobel accorded a brainstorming session to a large sample involving college students who were both graduates as well as undergraduates, being categorized into different groups. While the diverse groups did not generate a greater amount of ideas or that of remedies, the ideas as well as remedies they generated were of greater quality compared to those which were produced by homogeneous categories. Two current field studies entail proof for a direct link between diversity as well as performance. Mullen & Cooper revealed that in-groups as well as out-groups varied during the course of the responsibility, like that the initially-generated groups, on the basis of task-irrelevant concerns, disappeared and new categories evolved which was more job-specific. They revealed that in-groups as well as in out-groups which were particularly associated with the responsibility were not against the organization in attaining positive results. O'Reilley and others, analyzed an organization having a reputation for giving importance to employee diversity, discovering that, inside the work teams of the organization, diversity generated positive, performance associated outcomes. (Pitts; Jarry, 2005)

Further a study of a large financial services firm, performed by associate professor Robin Ely as well as Professor David Thomas, both from the Harvard Business School, recommend regarding the way groups regard diversity is at the minimum as significant as the extent of diversity they demonstrate. Based on employee surveys as well as data regarding sales and client satisfaction attained from 480 of the retail branches of the company, Ely and Thomas arrived at the conclusion that racial diversity increased performance in units that considered diversity as a means for innovation and wisdom. Another analysis conducted by Susan Jackson and Aparna Joshi, considered team leaders as a major impact on the link between diversity and performance. On evaluating sales teams at another wide ranging information-processing company, they decided that ethnic diversity was related to superior performance wherein teams were guided by minority-group members, however not when the managers were white-skinned. When considered together, indicates Thomas Kochan of MITs Sloan School of Management, controller of the multiyear project, such analyses emphasizes the significance of promoting a more nuanced comprehension of the manner in which varied types of diversity impact the manner in which individuals function. Further they recommended the necessity to move ahead of the simple aspect of the business case with regard to diversity. The promoters of this perspective, that attained prominence during the 1990s, consider that diversity provides advantage to businesses by increasing team performance and enhancing their capability to cater to a diverse client base. (Kwak, 2003)

Thus diversity might give rise to several encouraging results for decision making teams. Think of an illustration of an academic selection committee probing for a department chair. The diverse views of the members would unquestionably affect the decision processes. If handled well, their deliberations would finally lead to the selection of a Nobel laureate. And if not properly managed, others at higher strata would usurp the choice of the selection committee with regard to a new leader. (Guzzo; Salas, 1995)

Professor Taylor Cox of Michigan University recommends critical factors as to why it is pertinent to become an efficient culturally diverse organization. Cox indicated that diversity increases the productivity and problem solving capabilities of the organization. Once an organization can include diversity, unexploited talent as well as energy would be concentrated on attaining the objectives of the organization. Further it has been said by Cox that diversity is ethically, morally and socially the correct aspect to be done. As humans we have an affinity to support in-group members compared to the out-group members that entails in dominant-subordinate concerns. Simultaneously, one of the important values of our nation is with regard to equal scope. An attempt to deal with in-group as well as out-group bias would increase equal scope. Another point is that diversity influences the performance of employees belonging to the minority group. Cox's study reveal that if an employee feels that he or she is being undervalued, irrespective of what the organization reveals, then the work performance of an employee would be influenced. This gives rise to an increased turnover level for an organization. Finally, Cox indicates that diversity is a legal necessity. (Schauber, 2001)

In the United States, equal scope is favored by means of laws like the "Equal Pay Act, Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and American with Disabilities Act." (Schauber, 2001) Organizations particularly those that attain government funding, maintain programs of affirmative action in an attempt to comply with such laws. There are two additional causes regarding why cultural diversity of organizations is pertinent. It is to be noted that the organization which is culturally diverse might be more economical when considered in the long-term. When an organization is viewed as not adhering to equal opportunity laws, fines as well as expensive litigation are mostly the result. In the long run, it might be more economical to make investments in an organization prior to the rise of the necessity for litigation. It is also been stated that diversity would lead to improved service to a varying clientele. Against the background of the immense growth in the populations of minority groups, along with the majority-group population growth progresses in the U.S., service organizations would require a new amount of talents to improve the requirements of varying clientele in the communities. Hence including multiple views that show changing values as well as beliefs, could make an organization successful by supplementing a richness of enhanced creativity and adaptability towards change. (Schauber, 2001)

As globalization of businesses takes prominence, both managers as well as researchers are starting to view that the challenges of cross-cultural stopover are not confined to dealing with the necessity of expatriates. Rather globalization indicates that employees through the complete organization are functioning among some colleagues as well as clients who are diverse globally. Hence for organizations all around the globe, it has now tended to be growingly significant to handle international diversity successfully. (Jackson; Joshi, 2001) Managers as well as researchers equally recognize that diversity has become an unavoidable social tendency and figure out the way to maximize its advantages while reducing its negative impacts. (Kwak, 2003)

Presently, a growing amount of organizations are trying to increase inclusiveness of under represented persons by means of a proactive attempt to handle their diversity. (Gilbert; Stead; Ivancevich, 1999) Organizations can make efforts toward this objective by safeguarding internal experimentation and assessment, while human resource managers concentrate on formulating analytical techniques to bring about the relations between particular programs and organizational business performance. (Kwak, 2003) Since several of the particular assets and responsibilities of organizations evolve from diversity, to be successful, diverse decision making organizations should meticulously handle their assets as well as responsibilities. Performing so assumes a complete comprehension of the manner and the mode as to why diversity influences the attitude of organizations and their members. (Guzzo; Salas, 1995) With regard to the views on diversity which an organization had impacted the manner in which individuals revealed and handled tensions associated with diversity, whether those who had been conventionally underrepresented in the organization had regarded and considered by their colleagues, and the manner in which individuals interpreted the meaning of their racial identity at function. These contradictorily had implications regarding the manner in which the organization and its members operated. All three views with regard to diversity had been effective in encouraging managers to include diversity in their personnel's, however, only the integration-and-learning view showed the rationale as well as guidance required to attain sustained advantages from diversity. (Ely; Thomas, 2001)