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Managing Organizational Diversity

Carolina Machado · J. Paulo Davim Editors

Trends and Challenges in Management and Engineering

Managing Organizational Diversity

Carolina Machado • J. Paulo Davim Editors

Managing Organizational Diversity Trends and Challenges in Management and Engineering

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Editors Carolina Machado School of Economics and Management University of Minho Braga Portugal

J. Paulo Davim Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Aveiro Aveiro Portugal

ISBN 978-3-319-54923-1 ISBN 978-3-319-54925-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54925-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017933070

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

Managing Organizational Diversity—Trends and Challenges in Management and Engineering covers the issues of organizational diversity in nowadays organiza- tions. Markets, day after day, are changing more and quicker than ever. All over the world academics as well as practitioners are seeking to understand how organiza- tions manage and/or can manage the diversity of knowledge, skills, people, workforce, cultures, and approaches that they are facing day after day, in order to obtain more effective competitive advantages. They are anxious to know what trends and challenges they need to deal with in order to become competitive and act in a pro-active way. Nowadays, greater than ever before, the need to manage this diversity is one of the main aims of organizational management. Successful orga- nizations are those which understand the importance of all their assets, namely, financial, physical, material, human, and intellectual. The management of all of them is of critical relevance to the organization.

Conscious of the importance of these issues, and in order to answer the concerns expressed by many academics, as well as executives and managers, this book looks to help these professionals to understand and implement in their organizations effective strategies, policies, and practices of how to manage organizational diversity. It looks to show what are the different trends and challenges that orga- nizations are facing in the way how they manage and/or need to manage their organizational diversity.

Looking to communicate the recent developments and thinking in what concerns the latest research activity relating to organizational diversity management world-wide, the present book provides discussion and the exchange of information on principles, strategies, models, techniques, methodologies, and applications of the organizational diversity management, trends and challenges, in the field of industry, commerce and services.

Following these concerns, this book provides, in seven chapters, a channel of com- munication to disseminate, among academics/researchers, managers and engineers, the way how organizations are developing in order to maximize and increase the add value that they can obtain from their organizational diversity and the way how this diversity is managed. More precisely, Chap. 1 discusses “Inclusion: Diversity Management 2.0”;

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Chap. 2 contains information about “Hard Times, Less Compassion? Distinct Perspectives Towards Distinct Minorities in the Portuguese Organizational Context”; Chap. 3 covers “Cultural Complexity in Large Organisations”, Chap. 4 describes “Employee and Human Resource Managers Perceptions About Family-Friendly Work Practices: A Case Study Focused on Perceived Organizational Support”, Chap. 5 focuses on “Workforce Diversity in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Is Social Identification Stronger Than the Business Case Argument?”, Chap. 6 gives information about “Gender and Entrepreneurship in Angola: Narratives of the ‘Muambeiras’ of Lubango”, finally, in Chap. 7 “Expatriate Women: A Dream Waiting to Come True” is presented.

These theoretical and practical contributions will lead to an upper level of knowledge of these functional managerial and business subjects, at the same time that it will contribute to the acquisition of new conceptual skills able to answer to the challenges and changes set by the competitive business environment in which organizations are involved.

The Editors acknowledge their gratitude to Springer for this opportunity and for their professional support. Finally, we would like to thank to all chapter authors for their interest and availability to work on this project.

Braga, Portugal Carolina Machado Aveiro, Portugal J. Paulo Davim

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Contents

Inclusion: Diversity Management 2.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Deirdre O’Donovan

Hard Times, Less Compassion? Distinct Perspectives Towards Distinct Minorities in the Portuguese Organizational Context . . . . . . . . . 29 Iris Barbosa

Cultural Complexity in Large Organisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Nick G. Chandler

Employee and Human Resource Managers Perceptions About Family-Friendly Work Practices: A Case Study Focused on Perceived Organizational Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Sandra Amorim and Gina Gaio Santos

Workforce Diversity in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Is Social Identification Stronger Than the Business Case Argument? . . . . . 95 David Starr-Glass

Gender and Entrepreneurship in Angola: Narratives of the ‘Muambeiras’ of Lubango . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Evanice Nadya and Emilia Fernandes

Expatriate Women: A Dream Waiting to Come True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Claudia Carvalho and Carolina Feliciana Machado

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

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Editors and Contributors

About the Editors Carolina Machado received her Ph.D. degree in Management Sciences (Organizational and Politics Management area/Human Resources Management) from the University of Minho in 1999, and Master degree in Management (Strategic Human Resource Management) from Technical University of Lisbon in 1994. Teaching in the Human Resources Management subjects since 1989 at University of Minho, she has been Associate Professor since 2004, with experience and research interest areas in the field of human resource management, international human resource man- agement, human resource management in SMEs, training and development, management change, and knowledge management. She is Head of Human Resources Management Work Group at University of Minho, as well as Chief Editor of the International Journal of Applied Management Sciences and Engineering (IJAMSE).

J. Paulo Davim received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1997, M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (materials and manufacturing processes) in 1991, Dip Eng Graduate (5 years) in Mechanical Engineering in 1986, from the University of Porto (FEUP), the Aggregate title from the University of Coimbra in 2005 and a D.Sc. from London Metropolitan University in 2013. He is Eur Ing by FEANI-Brussels and Senior Chartered Engineer by the Portuguese Institution of Engineers with a MBA and Specialist title in Engineering and Industrial Management. Currently, he is Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Aveiro. He has more than 30 years of teaching and research experience in manu- facturing, materials and mechanical engineering with a special emphasis in machining & tribology. Recently, he has also interest in management/industrial engineering and higher education for sustainability/engineering education. He has received several scientific awards. He has worked as evaluator of projects for international research agencies as well as examiner of Ph.D. thesis for many universities. He is the Editor in Chief of several international journals, guest editor of journals, books editor, book series editor and scientific advisory for many international journals and conferences. Presently, he is an editorial board member of 30 international journals and acts as reviewer for more than 80 prestigious Web of Science journals. In addition, he has also published as editor (and co-editor) more than 80 books and as author (and co-author) more than 10 books, 60 book chapters and 400 articles in journals and conferences (more than 200 articles in journals indexed in Web of Science/h-index 36+ and SCOPUS/h-index 45+).

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Contributors

Sandra Amorim Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Iris Barbosa Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Claudia Carvalho Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Nick G. Chandler Budapest Business School, Budapest, Hungary

Emilia Fernandes Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Carolina Feliciana Machado Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Evanice Nadya Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Deirdre O’Donovan Department of Organisational and Professional Development, School of Business, Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland

Gina Gaio Santos Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

David Starr-Glass University of New York in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic; Empire State College, State University of New York, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA; Jerusalem, Israel

x Editors and Contributors

Inclusion: Diversity Management 2.0

Deirdre O’Donovan

Abstract This chapter discusses the concept of inclusion, and proposes that organisations should move beyond traditional diversity management initiatives towards inclusion. It is not suggested that organisations skip over diversity man- agement. Instead, it is suggested that they begin with diversity management and move towards inclusion, which, as the title of this chapter suggests, can arguably be considered Diversity Management 2.0. This chapter begins by defining and explaining the concept of diversity and diversity management, before presenting an argument for inclusion and outlining how organisations may begin their inclu- sionary efforts.

Diversity: What Is It?

Diversity is not a new phenomenon, rather has always been present in societies. Any two people are diverse from each other, no matter how similar they may appear. Given that diversity has always been present in societies, it is arguable that diversity has also always been present in organisations [1]. An apparent increase in diversity in workforces today may be attributable to a number of factors, including, for example, globalisation, anti-discrimination legislation and changes in demo- graphics [2–8]. Regardless of the reason for its presence, and organisational interest in the concept, in order to better understand what diversity means for organisations, the concept must first be understood.

Although ever-present, defining diversity is difficult. First, difficulties lie in the fact that diversity concerns both visible and invisible characteristics [8, 9], and can be considered subjective, meaning it is created by individuals who characterise others as similar or dissimilar to themselves [10]. Diversity can also be considered context dependant, as individuals cannot be defined as “different” in isolation,

D. O’Donovan (&) Department of Organisational and Professional Development, School of Business, Cork Institute of Technology, Rossa Avenue, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 C. Machado and J.P. Davim (eds.), Managing Organizational Diversity, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54925-5_1

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rather only when compared to others in their environment [9]. Diversity is also a relative term [9]. The relativity of diversity considers diversity indicators as ambiguous as, for example, two individuals may identify as female, but one may be more “feminine” than the other.

In the organisational context, Jackson and Joshi [6] develop the concept of diversity further by exploring workplace or work team diversity. In doing so, the concepts of Relations-Oriented Diversity, Task-Oriented Diversity, Readily Detected Diversity and Underlying Diversity were introduced. Relations-oriented diversity concerns attributes that are instrumental in shaping interpersonal rela- tionships, but have no ostensible implications for the performance of tasks. These attributes include, gender, age and religion. Task-oriented diversity concerns attributes, such as for example, education level, experience and cognitive abilities, which do seem to have an implication for work task performance. Readily detected diversity concerns differences among team members on a number of characteristics which are relatively easily discernible, such as age or nationality. Underlying diversity, in contrast, concerns attributes which become evident through interaction, such as personality or attitudes [6].

It is important to note that while diversity studies traditionally focussed on diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity and culture, diversity encompasses many other differences, perhaps almost an infinite number [11]. Although difficult to define, a number of definitions of diversity exist. Joplin and Daus [12] offer a clear, simple, concise definition of the complex concept, proposing it to simply refer to all the ways in which people differ from each other. Although brief, this definition underscores that individuals can differ from each other in a multitude of ways.

Under a more workplace-oriented focus, Griffin and Moorhead [4: 31] define diversity as concerning:

The similarities and differences in such characteristics as age, gender, ethnic heritage, physical abilities and disabilities, race and sexual orientation among the employees of organizations.

However it is defined, diversity is a broad, complex concept that concerns every individual. Additionally, diversity in the workplace is considered to carry impli- cations for management, and so must be managed. Consequently, diversity man- agement is more fully discussed later in this chapter.

Benefits Associated with Diversity

Diversity in the workplace can offer organisations a number of potential benefits. According to a number of authors, leveraging diversity in the workforce is increas- ingly being seen as a strategic resource for competitive advantage [13–15]. It has also been argued that diversity is critical to the success of an organisation’s bottom line [16]. It is interesting to note that many of the advantages associated with diversity mirror those associated with inclusion, as will be evident later in the chapter.

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One potential advantage associated with diversity concerns Cost Savings. Cost savings, in this instance, focus on the negative impact the mismanagement of diversity has on an organisation’s bottom line. This negative impact specifically refers to higher staff turnover costs, higher absenteeism rates and lawsuits on sexual, age and race discrimination. Regarding higher turnover costs, turnover among diverse employees is a costly and significant problem for many organisa- tions, as are the subsequent added recruiting, staffing and training costs per person. Additionally, a persistent flow of employees through an organisation results in employees continually climbing the learning curve, rather than performing to their full potential [13, 17]. It is arguable, therefore, that managing diversity enables employees to perform to their potential [18].

The second element of the cost savings argument concerns lowering absenteeism rates. Absenteeism rates, as has been well documented, can amount to significant costs for organisations. Absenteeism can occur when individuals do not feel secure about their status, as such insecurity prevents employees from fully engaging at work. Monks [7] suggests that the introduction of diversity initiatives has a positive influence on absenteeism rates, tending to result in a reduction of both labour turnover and absenteeism levels.

The final aspect of the cost savings argument focuses on lawsuits on sexual, age and race discrimination, or, perhaps more specifically, a strategic organisational effort to avoid their occurrence [17, 19, 20]. Diversity programmes should assist organisations in complying with laws regarding discrimination, and ensure that policies and processes are in place in organisations to deter discrimination lawsuits, as organisations that are conscious of the diversity of their workforce are more likely to anticipate problems, thus potentially reduce the risk of litigation [13, 21]. Kim [22] examines this argument from an alternative angle, discussing it in terms of company image. Organisations can focus on improving the company’s public image or enhancing its image by using diversity management to reduce the chance of discrimination law suits. It must be cautioned, however, that with the exception of costs relating to turnover, actual cost savings from improving diversity man- agement are difficult to measure [23].

Winning the competition for talent, or the “talent war”, refers to the attraction, retention and promotion of employees from different demographic groups, and is another argument for managing diversity [14, 17, 24]. It has been strongly sug- gested that an organisation’s future is dependent on the quality of talent it attracts and retains [16]. To sustain a competitive advantage, organisations must be able to optimise their human resources [17]. Indeed, Carbery and Cross [25] contend that for many organisations, one way in which effectiveness is measured is via the achievement, and maintenance, of sustainable competitive advantage. Organisations should focus on identifying, retaining and developing their key employees in order to gain a competitive advantage over competitors [26]. Organisations that are able to recruit, develop, retain and promote diverse employees are more likely to have an edge over their competition, as talented employees will be attracted to organisations that value their capabilities. These employees will also be more willing to invest in productive activity if they believe they are being treated fairly, and that career

Inclusion: Diversity Management 2.0 3

opportunities are available to them [17]. Espinoza [13] similarly advocates a belief that a diverse workforce allows diverse employees to identify with the company, making the company attractive to other diverse potential employees.

Diversity can also aid in employee retention, as commitment to diversity indi- cates to employees that the organisation cares for them as individuals [13, 21]. Organisations are cautioned that if they do not effectively manage diversity issues, diverse talent will leave in favour of a competitor who does [27, 28]. That being said, it is also noteworthy that Schneider’s [29] attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model indicates that the attraction and retention of diverse employees may not be a straightforward process, arguing that organisations naturally evolve towards social homogeneity as individuals prefer to be with others who bear similarities to them. While candidates are more attracted to organisations that they believe are made up of individuals similar to themselves, if, once hired, these employees do not seem to fit in with the rest of the organisation, they are more likely to experience dissatisfaction and, ultimately, leave. If such a condition repeats over a period of time, the result is a gradual homogenisation of an organ- isation [10, 29]. While this seems to suggest that homogeneity of the workforce may be inevitable, to avoid this natural drift towards homogeneity, and subsequent increased turnover costs, Jackson and Joshi [6] indicate a proactive approach to increasing diversity may be necessary. Arguably, this position would appear to support the assertion that diversity must be actively managed.

Driving business growth is another argument in favour of managing diversity [17]. Driving business growth centres on organisations managing diversity to leverage a number of possible opportunities. The first opportunity is based on organisations using workforce diversity to gain an increased understanding of the marketplace in which they operate [21, 27, 30, 31]. A 2003 report on diversity undertaken by the European Commission cited improved access to new market segments and improving performance in existing markets as benefits of diversity [30, 31]. Furthermore, customers and suppliers are becoming increasingly diverse, as indeed is the marketplace as a whole [16, 17, 23, 32]. It arguably makes sense that the understanding needed to market to diverse demographics, and to respond to their needs, naturally resides in marketers with the same background [17, 33]. Additionally, it has previously been found that individuals from a minority culture are sometimes more likely to give patronage to a sales representative from their own culture [23]. Similarly, in addition to gaining market penetration, organisations can benefit from the goodwill of diverse customers who prefer to buy products pro- duced by a diverse workforce, or who prefer to do business with organisations that have a diverse sales force [17]. Espinoza [13] advocates this line of reasoning, believing that an organisation’s sales force should match its customer base, adding that diversity provides a good image to an organisation’s customer base, and enhances company branding.

A further opportunity arising from diversity is greater employee creativity and innovation [7, 17, 27, 31, 34–36]. Attitudes, cognitive functioning and beliefs tend to vary with demographic variables such as gender, age and race. As diversity shapes how we view things, one consequence of diversity in an organisation’s

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workforce, therefore, is the presence of different perspectives or views on the performance of tasks [16, 17, 34]. If the varying approaches, views or opinions are considered, the likely result is the enablement of management to make better and more informed decisions [13]. Additionally, managing diversity can make em- ployees feel valued and supported, which tends to result in employees becoming more innovative [37]. It is also suggested that diversity can increase the quality of team problem-solving, as diversity among team members enables employees to see problems from an array of perspectives, based on their wide range of experiences, potentially producing better decisions [17, 21, 23, 24, 35, 38]. Van Knippenberg [38] cautions that in reality, however, groups often struggle in harnessing the potential advantages of diversity, which is perhaps unsurprising given our knowl- edge of the issue of group-think and the notion of group culture as a subculture of organisational culture. Additionally, organisations must now also attempt to not solely source the best individual for a position, but also consider the best combi- nation of individuals in terms of their characteristics [10].

In addition to enhancing group and individual performance, less emphasis on employee conformity to past norms, via the open acceptance of diversity, should also improve creativity [23]. The notion that innovation is a positive consequence of the presence of a diverse organisation or team is grounded in two propositions [10]. First, it is assumed that diverse individuals have diverse, and consequently more novel, ideas. Second, if individuals approach the same task from diverse points of view, task-related conflicts are more likely to occur. Dealing with these conflicts should result in a more thorough consideration of all aspects and approaches, culminating in more innovative solutions [10, 39]. A related argument for managing diversity relates to the earlier mentioned concept of group-think, or rather avoiding it. Conflicts due to diverse perspectives result in questioning, and moving beyond, prior practices, thus require questioning of current ideas or prac- tices and the overcoming of group-think [10].

Diversity in organisations offers the potential to improve effectiveness at higher levels in the organisation. Heterogeneity of top management can prevent a myopic perspective at senior levels, and so leveraging diversity in higher levels of the organisation can provide the organisation with an opportunity to improve leadership effectiveness. Furthermore, the increased awareness developed by organisations that manage or adapt to diversity can help them become more effective in cross-cultural business situations [17, 21, 22, 27]. Additionally, good diversity skills are compatible with good people management skills, and so focussing on management’s ability to supervise a diverse workforce can result in improvement of their overall people management skills [21].

Managing diversity can also improve the organisations bottom line [2, 13, 14, 40–42]. Employees who believe their employer supports them have a tendency to be more productive. This increase in productivity positively impacts the organi- sation’s bottom line [2, 13]. A commitment to diversity enables every employee to contribute their individual ideas, talents and skills to the organisation, which again ultimately drives the organisations bottom line [40]. Moore [9], however, argues that the link between diversity and performance is not automatic or straightforward.

Inclusion: Diversity Management 2.0 5

As well as potentially improving organisational performance, diversity can also impact an organisation’s flexibility. Through managing diversity, organisations should become less standardised, and more fluid. This fluidity should, in turn, create greater flexibility, enabling organisations to react to environmental changes with greater speed, and at less cost [23]. Alternatively, organisations used to offering flexible arrangements, such as family friendly or work–life balance opportunities, may be better placed to overcome skills shortages or provide alter- natives to redundancies in difficult times through career breaks or job-sharing ini- tiatives, thus retaining their employees [21]. The culture of presenteeism in many organisations, however, can result in limited uptake of flexible working arrange- ments by employees due to fears that using such arrangements may result in reduced career opportunities, thereby nullifying the potential benefits [7].

While a number of arguments have been presented for diversity management, there are also many potential challenges associated with diversity in organisations, as discussed in the next section of this chapter.

Challenges Associated with Diversity in the Workforce

Managers may now find themselves with a new and pressing, or sensitive, set of challenges that were not as dominating, or perhaps were irrelevant, in an (appar- ently) homogenous workforce [12, 36]. Moreover, although managers are being increasingly called upon to deliver diversity strategies, there is little evidence that managers are receiving the training or support necessary to do so [7]. Consequently, managers may be more likely to view diversity a marginal activity, and be reactive, concentrating on minimal compliance, rather than proactive, concentrating on possible positive outcomes.

The genuine support and commitment of top management to diversity is crucial [7, 23, 28, 43]. A lack of commitment on the part of top management may pose a challenge, because if they do not talk about diversity, and embrace its values, diversity initiatives will not work [13]. Resources, such as human, financial and technical, must be committed, and provided to the organisation’s diversity initia- tives [23, 44]. Indeed, commitment from the organisations top leadership is seen as a component of a best practice approach to diversity management by the U.S. government’s Accountability Office [45]. While crucial, however, top management support alone is not sufficient. The use of champions for …