ddInterpersonal 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
ddadmisunderstanding 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 3hypotheses: -
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.affefed
III. Integrity trust, benevolence trust and predictability trust will not mediate the
relationship between diversity and well-being on workplace.afadfaadvvad
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.

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 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 Authenticitywrgerg
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
dsggfsftheir 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.efwgfvwgwrgfwr
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. defweefwef
(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. qegtfwr3hq3thyrtqh
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

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