Interpersonal trust as the mediator of workplace diversity and

well-being of employees
Cultural diversity is important for economic growth as well as for spiritual, intellectual and
emotional well-being. The study states certain benefits of diversity such as higher productivity,
innovation and higher wages with firms leading to integration of skills and abilities of
individual from different backgrounds resulting in higher problem-solving abilities. On the
other hand it also talks about certain drawbacks such as high diversity at workplace resulting
in cultural conflicts, adversely affecting social capital, and higher misunderstanding due to
ethnic difference and also it may result in higher communication barriers and non-cooperation
between individuals from diverse backgrounds, hampering the productivity. The study focuses
on the effects of diversity on the well-being on working individuals in India. It draws out 3
hypotheses: -
I. Perceived diversity has a significant relationship between diversity and well-being on
workplace.
II. Competence trust will mediate the relationship between diversity and well-being on
workplace.
III. Integrity trust, benevolence trust and predictability trust will not mediate the
relationship between diversity and well-being on workplace.
On the basis of these hypotheses they tested a model where diversity was independent variable,
well-being was dependent variable and different trusts were mediating variables. The data was
collected using survey method from middle to top level employees from seven companies from
finance and ICT sector located in Delhi-NCR region of India. In total 113 individuals
responded to the questionnaire prepared. The demographics for the test ranged from males and
females with varying age, experience and education. Four scales were utilized in this research.
(1) to measure diversity at workplace on a 5-point scale,
(2) to measure dimensions of interpersonal trust on a 7-point scale,
(3) to measure expressive ties on a 5-point scale and
(4) to measure employees’ well being using 20-items job related affective well-being scale.
The research found out that diversity at workplace is positively associated with well-being of
the employees. Out of all, competence trust was found out to be significantly mediating this
relation. Integrity trust on the other hand was found out to be positively associated with
diversity but had no effect on the well-being, thus failed to me a significant mediator.
Benevolence trust and predictability trust were found to be associated with diversity. This
research has unique implication for policy makers while considering a strategy to promote the
well-being of employees, they should consider to strengthen interpersonal trust among the
members of organization as higher level of interpersonal trust result in stronger relations hence
contribute to well-being.
 The Case for Diversity
The article draws some parallels between the time period of present and 50 years back. It talks
about how the technology have changed so much and further states that these drastic changes
will keep on occurring. A simple logical conclusion that can be drawn is that there will be more
jobs in the technology sector or in the field of science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM) and there is shortfall of workers, one reason being lack of diversity in organizations
(as per many reports). The article describes diversity as ‘identity diversity’ which refers to
personally identifiable characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.
The article gives many examples on how big companies such as Intel, PepsiCo and Microsoft
have taken initiatives to close the diversity gap which will ultimately help to address the
projected shortfall in STEM professionals. The article further tries to identify the relation
between diversity and financial performance. The consulting organization McKinsey &
Company studies how identity diversity ties to financial performance. Its 2015 report outlined
several key findings, that companies in top quartile for racial, ethnic and gender diversity are
more likely to have returns above the national industry median. The article tries to find the
connection of such effect and states what Ty Francis and Erica Salmon Byren have discussed
during an episode of Nasdaq’s Behind The Bell. They are of the opinion that when companies
encourage diversity and inclusion, the employees feel a sense of belonging and therefore are
more committed to the business. This is the main reason why companies with diverse
management teams outperforms their peers. The article also states what Scott E. Page
mentioned as keynote speaker at 2017 Society of Actuaries (SOA) Annual Meeting and
Exhibit, that the more diverse viewpoints that are represented within a group of individuals,
the better the overall output of the group in likely to be. He terms this as the “diversity bonus”.
The article further states that we cannot fully achieve the benefits of diversity of thoughts when
we fail to include each person in the discussion. Too do this effectively we must consider
inherent differences in personality types. One such example is introverts and extroverts. If
introverts are placed among extroverts then their views might get overlooked or
underappreciated which leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy and happiness. The article
also talks about how we may not be able to change every sphere that effect diversity in
organizations but as an individual we can do certain things that can encourage a culture of
diversity and inclusion and fully tap into the cognitive diversity of your team. Make sure to
hear from everyone, research says that 41% of meetings are dominated by just two of the
meeting attendees and 92% of meeting participants say that if that could more freely share ideas
in meetings, that would feel more happy and engaged at work. This can help the organization
to capitalize on the benefits of diversity of thought. Effective engagement of all is the best way
to collect all points. Try a matrixed approach, this is a technique which is based on project-
to-project basis. This includes shuffling of people on every project with the other members of
the organization each having unique skills. This approach can also be used to expose employees
to new assignment every time. This approach also offer participants more diversity in their
interactions with other members of organization. This also generates a sense of belongingness
and motivate employees. It will improve the diversity of your own experience and will make
your contribution more valuable in the future. Choose mentors and mentees that don’t look
like you, this helps because he may be able to provide a different viewpoint to things that you
probably would not have considered. He can expose you to different backgrounds and
experiences. Campbell Soup Company’s president and CEO, Denise Morrison, said that “the
path to diversity begins with supporting, mentoring and sponsoring diverse women and men to
become leaders and entrepreneurs”. Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, says that “a lot of people
in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to
connect”
 Diversity and Authenticity
Today the reality in the corporate world is that people believe in numbers to get maximum
respect in the organization, they feel that higher numbers will take them higher in the
organization but they fail to understand a basic dimension. That is in between of all these
numbers they fail to make interpersonal relations with their colleagues that hinders their
promotion or upward movement in the organization. The main reason that these people give
for such discomfort to open up to colleagues is their ‘ethnicity’. They fail to understand that
their career mobility can be affected by their colleagues’ feelings of familiarity or closeness
with them. The main problem that today’s corporate world faces is building a workplace
relationships that is across racial boundaries. Being one’s true self and disclosing elements of
one’s personal life, forming social connections are easier within one’s own group than they are
across a demographic boundary. Employees are hesitate to open up and build deeper
relationships that lead both to success and to more happiness at work. The need is to recognize
this challenge and take specific steps to make it easier. Social events can create a strain, social
events out of office are important venue for building relationships with colleagues, for example
(1) official company events, (2) informal get-togethers by small groups of staffers and (3)
professional development activities such as community service events. One logical why these
might fail is not because the minority fail to show up, in fact the proportion is equal but they
find it difficult to bond with co-workers making small talks across racial lines. “what am I
supposed to say in these social networking settings?”, “How do I jump into the conversation
when I often have no idea what they are talking about?” are certain questions that pop up in the
minds of minority. Some even hesitate to blend in because they fell unsafe to share personal
information that might be used against them. Another set of studies reviled that black people
would prefer to open up to black rather than white when their performance in organization is
average because they fell that their performance will be associated to their race. Strategies to
reduce the stress, (1) Structure. It is something that many organizations now a days use to
reduce the stress between diverse workers. Instead of having a formal cocktail party where
minority find it difficult to crack a conversation with their colleagues it is a better idea to
arrange a ice-breaking party where it is easier for minority to blend into the conversation. Same
set of structure can also be used at work which will result in interpersonal communication and
ultimately to a diverse workplace. (2) Learning. Orientation about the differences in the
organization can help but at a certain level. This learning must be now carried to individual
level. Like asking someone directly about something one can ask this in more engaging manner
such as the person do not form an opinion about you and further contributes to the conversation.
(3) Mentorship. Organizations should also try an approach of having a system of an informal
mentorship in which more experienced employees help new employees who find it difficult to
open up to other colleagues. This will help them to understand the differences and bring the
organization closer yet being diverse. Sharing should be encouraged thoughtfully with support
and with a focus on small and early wins. With all these solutions, any organization can achieve
a happy diverse workplace but this process needs time and patience. Overtime deeper
relationships depend on how people open up about personal things breaking racial boundaries.
Colleagues must be intentional about connecting with people who are different and getting out
of their comfort zone. They might feel like they are taking a risk but it is one worth taking. To
sum up, organizations that recognises these challenges can take certain steps to make it easier.
Creating a structure in social events can reduce the anxiety associated with small talk. Leaders
can model a learning mindset where they can understand differences between people and create
an opportunity to hear something new. At last mentorship can prove to be very helpful in
bridging the gap between minority and majority of workers which will ultimately result in a
happier workplace and a diverse one.
 THINK DiFFERENT
The article starts with an example of Lindsay Grenawalt where she started her job as head of
people operations at cockroach Labs, a software company in New York City where her CEO
approached her and briefed her about the challenge the company is currently facing, that is lack
of diversity. At the time, the company’s engineering team had no women representation. She
approached the problem with a mindset of developing inclusive environment that achieved
diversity in all areas including traditional ones like race and gender and also less-explored like
the way people think and work. Cockroach is one of the companies realizing the benefits of
cognitive diversity, also known as diversity of thought or neurodiversity where the workforce
include people who brainstorm, problem-solve, evaluate and strategize in a variety of ways.
The need for cognitive diversity is because jobs that required specialised skill are being
automated or disappearing. Organizations are looking for people who can fill more-challenging
roles. Ten copies of the same person don’t do much good that is why you need traditional
diversity and neurodiversity and they both go hand in hand. Inclusivity in hiring, organizations
must understand the need of hour and start to eliminate the problem right from the root.
6 WAYS TO PROMOTE COGNITIVE DIVERSITY.
(1) Hold unconscious bias workshops that will help employees uncover their own
preconceptions including the tendency to hire people they connect with.
(2) You should stop providing resumes to hiring managers. Implement exercise based
interviews and allow candidates to prepare ahead of time which will increase cognitive
diversity.
(3) Use a cognitive ability assessment which will help to discover variations in how current
employees think.
(4) Conducting different tests in the hiring process to find the thinking process of all the
team members.
(5) Creating processes that encourage people to ask different questions and speak up, both
to co-workers and executive.
(6) Celebrating employees’ new ideas and different ways of thinking.
It is also very important on the part of organizations to understand the different thinking styles
to increase the cognitive diversity or neurodiversity in the organization. Researchers have
identified seven thinking and behavioural tendencies.
Analytical thinking, Structural thinking, Social thinking, Conceptual thinking,
Expressive, Assertive and Flexibility
Celebrating different ways of thinking is itself a different way of thinking, but organizations
should understand that it is not necessary to invest heavily to build a diverse team, they need
to understand the basic idea that cognitive diversity can be achieved by being open to different
opinions and following up on new ideas and thoughts. For example, CEO and COO of Progyny
hold a round table conference every month that is open to new workers as well. This encourages
employees to open up in the organization and facilitate conversation. The company also have
a mentoring program intended to make people feel comfortable and happy approaching higher-
ups.
There are certain challenges that might come up while embracing cognitive diversity in your
workforce. That is people will think differently in the organization and will have different
approaches and perspectives. They will question and will even disagree with each other. Which
will require leaders who are equipped to manage disagreements to provide constructive
feedback and continuing to encourage employees to speak their minds.
1) Rajput, N., Talan, A. (2017). Interpersonal trust as the mediator of workplace diversity
and well-being of employees. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing. 2017, Vol. 8 (Issue
7) p688-673
2) Stephenson, M. (2018). The Case for Diversity. August/September 2018 Archives | The
Actuary Magazine, Volume 15 (Issue 4) [online], p28-33.
3) Phillips, K., Dumas, T. and Rothbard, T. (2018). Diversity and Authenticity. Harvard
Business Review, volume 96 (Issue 2), p132-136.
4) Powers, M. (2018). "THINK DiFFERENT" HRMagazine, Vol. 63, Issue 5, June-
August 2018 | Online Research Library: Questia, p90-95