1. Week 2: Managing in a Diverse and
Changing World
Instructor: Jean-Pierre Mulumba Ph. D.
Overview of Section One:
Understanding Individual
Perspectives of Diversity
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2. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Learning Objectives
 Understand why diversity management requires
organizational change
 Present common definitions of terms and
theoretical frameworks which provide a
foundation for this course
 Explain how diversity can become a competitive
advantage in today’s marketplace
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3. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Introduction
◦ Workplace diversity is now accepted
as a fact of organization life
 Transition is not easy and corporate
leadership is often lacking
◦ Need to capitalize on its advantages
and to minimize its complexities
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4. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Introduction
◦ Issues and challenges remain
 Workers still struggle with prejudice,
sexual harassment, and discrimination.
 Organizations still sued over civil rights
violations,
 Overlook opportunities to benefit from
their diverse workforces and boards
 Fail to see the marketing potential of
diverse consumers.
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5. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Need to Change
 While many organizations have tried to
adapt to the new situation
 Transition is not easy and corporate
leadership is missing.
 As a result, organizations are facing new
challenges
oNeed for change.
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6. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Need to Change: Unfreezing
o There exist additional forces pushing for the
unfreezing of traditional ways of managing
diversity:
o Recognition of different dimensions of diversity,
o New legislation
o Movement to value difference
o Growing opportunities to serve new global and
domestic markets
o Awareness of diversity competitive advantage
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7. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Need to Change: Change
Process
o At the same time, there is recognition of a link
between this change and a solid diversity
leadership on:
o The corporate and employee network group levels,
o Assessment of diversity efforts, and effective training
 That changes individual attitudes and organizational cultures
in terms of differences.
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8. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Need to Change: Refreezing
o The refreezing that results produces new ways of
working
o new policies and programs,
o community outreach to diverse populations, and
assessment
 That leads to further strategic changes.
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9. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Change Model
Change
Leadership
Corporate Boards
Diversity Audits
ERGs
Training
Unfreezing
Demographics
Global Expansion
Laws
Market Opportunities
Values
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Refreezing
Social Responsibility
Best Practices
Awards
Flexible Work

10. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
The Business Case for
Diversity
 Motivated and productive employees
 Less turnover
 More creativity
 Competitive market advantages
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11. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Understanding Workforce
Diversity Definitions
o The Civil Rights Act of 1964 defined diversity in
terms of race, color, national origin, religion, and
sex.
o As more legislation protecting specific groups
more categories were added.
o People with disability
o Older People
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12. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Understanding Workforce
Diversity Definitions
o But these legal definition based on social identity
categories were
o Limited in scope
o Have changed over the years
o Do not account for multiple identities or saliency
o Encourage generalizations
o Are exclusionary
o Ignore organizational contexts
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13. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Understanding Workforce
Diversity Definitions
o A strategic definition should be
o inclusive of many recognized types of difference
o recognizes the need for organizations to change the
way the people is managed and the way they work
o Market driven
o Recognizing diversity as a competitive advantage i.e.,
the business advantage
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14. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Definition of Diversity for This
Course
It is both the ways that people differ that
affect their workplace experiences in terms
of performance, motivation, communication
and inclusion and the need for organizational
strategies that address the diversity of the
changing external environment such as
customers, suppliers and the community.
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15. Understanding Ourselves: the
Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Need for Introspection and SelfAwareness
 Prejudice: preconceived evaluative attitudes
based on social group memberships (Section I of
the text)
 Stereotypes: generalized beliefs that all
members of a group possess the same
characteristics
 Learned categories
 Complexity-identity theory
 Discrimination: behaving differently towards a
person because of his social identity group
membership
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16. Understanding social group
Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
memberships: the need to know
others
o The group memberships affect our personal and
professional lives.
o Loden (1996) provides a framework of memberships
identities into two interlocking categories:
o Primary: are permanent, less changeable, and usually more
central to one’s self-perception (Sections II & III of the text)
o Secondary, differences more changeable and less visible
(Sections IV & V of the text)
o Remember: people can have multiple social identities
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17. Loden’s Dimensions of Diversity
Primary
Secondary
Age
Geographic location
Gender
Military & work experience
Mental/Physical abilities
Family status
Race
Income, Religion
Ethnic heritage
First language, Education
Sexual orientation
Organizational role & level
Communication & work
styles
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18. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Managing Diversity and
Organizational Change
 This matter is discussed in section 6
o Many forces pushing organizations to adapt to
diversity are external and not controllable
o The following three frameworks will help you to
analyze, managing diversity and change in
organizations.
o The first is Schein’s levels of culture in the
following slide
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19. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Schein’s Levels of Organizational
Culture
 Surface level attributes (visible)
 Includes organizational structures, processes,
dress, rituals,
physical layout, etc.
 Values (espoused and operational)
 Espoused values are what the what the
organization says it values in terms, of strategies
philosophies, etc.,
 Not necessarily what it does.
 What it does are the operational values.
 Basic underlying assumptions
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 Real source of values and behavior;
 Philosophies sometimes unconscious and difficult to
change

20. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Three organizational paradigms
(Thomas & Ely)
This approach is about the organization starting to
change the process by applying three-stage paradigm
model.
o The first stage is the discrimination and fairness paradigm:
 The organization is concentrated on avoiding lawsuits through
recruitment and retention of diverse employees
Expected to assimilate into the dominant group.
o The second is the access and legitimacy paradigm:
 Diversity is a competitive advantage in terms of understanding
changing customer markets.
o The third is where diversity really works best
 It is learning and effectiveness paradigm
 Diversity is part of its mission, assessment, and adjustment
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21. Managing in a Diverse and Changing World
Inclusion Breakthrough (Miller & Katz)

The third approach is to think organizational
diversity in terms of achieving a change: an
inclusion breakthrough (Miller & Katz)
o Breaking out of the diversity-in-a-box model by
changing the organization culture
o Allow diversity to change in terms of a competitive
advantage.
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