Diversity in Organizations & Job Satisfaction

Lecture 2 By Dr. Joseph Darmoe

Diversity
We are all not the same. Some of the notable areas that we are different include:
Ethnicity Tenure Religion Sexual Orientation Gender Identity

Effective diversity management increases an organizations access to the widest pool of skills, abilities, and ideas. Differences lead to miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict.

Diversity
Three main variables that impact organizational performance Ability Biographical characteristics, and learning

Ability
Ability directly influences an employees level of performance.
Given the desire to get high-performing employees, what can a manager do about ability?

First, an effective selection process will improve the fit between employees and job requirements. A job analysis will provide information about jobs currently being done and the abilities individuals need to perform the jobs adequately. Applicants can then be tested, interviewed, and evaluated on the degree to which they possess the necessary abilities. Second, promotion and transfer decisions affecting individuals already in the organizations employ, which should reflect candidates abilities. As with new employees, care should be taken to assess critical abilities incumbents will need in the job and match those with the organizations human resources.

Ability(Cont.)
Third, managers can improve the fit by finetuning the job to better match an incumbents abilities. Often, modifications with no significant impact on the jobs basic activities, such as changing equipment or reorganizing tasks within a group, can better adapt work to the specific talents of a given employee.

Biographical Characteristics
We can readily observe biographical characteristics, but that doesnt mean we should explicitly use them in management decisions. We also need to be aware of implicit biases we or other managers may have.
Ethnic groups comprise a larger component of the workforce. Earnings Gaps between groups, including gender, have narrowed.

Biographical Characteristics (Cont)

factors are clear in an employees personnel file. There is a sizable amount of research on these factors (age, gender, length of service). Age
It is tempting to assume that age is also inversely related to absenteeism. There is a widespread belief that productivity declines with age and that individual skills decay over time. The relationship between age and job satisfaction is mixed.

Diversity Management and Learning

Diversity management must be an ongoing commitment that crosses all levels of the organization. Group management, recruiting, hiring, retention, and development practices can all be designed to leverage diversity for the organizations competitive advantage. Policies to improve the climate for diversity can be effective, so long as they are designed to acknowledge all employees perspectives. One-shot diversity training sessions are less likely to be effective than comprehensive programs that address the climate for diversity at multiple levels.

Gender
There are few, if any, important differences between men and women that will affect their job performance,
There is no significant difference in job productivity between men and women. Women are more willing to conform to authority. There is a difference between men and women in terms of preference for work schedules.

Tenure
The issue of the impact of job seniority on job performance has been subject to misconceptions and speculations. Extensive reviews of the seniority-productivity relationship have been conducted.
Tenure is also a potent variable in explaining turnover. Tenure has consistently been found to be negatively related to turnover and has been suggested as one of the single best predictors of turnover. The evidence indicates that tenure and satisfaction are positively related.

Race
Race:
Employees tend to favor colleagues from their own race in performance evaluations, promotion decisions, pay raises.

Disability
Research on workers with disabilities have found: They receive higher performance evaluations. Based on lower performance expectations. They are less likely to be hired.

Attitude
Attitudes are evaluative statements that are either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. Three components of an attitude
Cognitive component Affective component Behavioral component

Does Behavior Always Follow from Attitudes?

The attitudes people hold determine what they do. Festinger proposed that cases of attitude following behavior illustrate the effects of cognitive dissonance, any incompatibility an individual might perceive between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and their behavior.

Moderating Variables
Importance of the attitude Its correspondence to behavior Its accessibility The presence of social pressure Whether or not a person has had direct experience with the behavior The attitudebehavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to something with which we have direct personal experience

Job Related Attitudes

OB focuses our attention on a very limited number of job-related attitudes. Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three attitudes: job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.

 Job Satisfaction
Definition: refers to a collection of feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job. A high level of job satisfaction equals positive attitudes toward the job and vice versa.

Job Involvement
A workable definition: the measure of the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his/her job and considers his/her perceived performance level important to self-worth.

Organizational Commitment
Definition: A state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals. Affective Commitmentemotional attachment to the organization and belief in its values Continuance Commitmentvalue of remaining with an organization compared to alternatives Normative Commitmentobligation to remain with the organization for moral or ethical reasons A positive relationship appears to exist between organizational commitment and job productivity, but it is a modest one.

Other Job attitudes

Perceived organizational support (POS) degree to which employees believe the organization values their contribution and cares about their well being Employee engagementindividuals involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, the work she does

Are These Job Attitudes Really All That Distinct?

Attitudes are highly related. Example: If you know someones affective commitment, you basically know their perceived organizational support. The redundancy is inefficient and confusing.

Attitude and job Satisfaction

Managers should be interested in their employees attitudes because attitudes give warnings of potential problems and because they influence behavior. Satisfied and committed employees, for instance, have lower rates of turnover, absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviors. They also perform better on the job. Given that managers want to keep resignations and absences downespecially among their most productive employeestheyll want to do things that generate positive job attitudes.

Attitude and job Satisfaction(2)

As one review put it, A sound measurement of overall job attitude is one of the most useful pieces of information an organization can have about its employees.

Attitude and job Satisfaction(3)

The most important thing managers can do to raise employee satisfaction is to focus on the intrinsic parts of the job, such as making the work challenging and interesting. Although paying employees poorly will likely not attract high-quality employees to the organization, or keep high performers, managers should realize that high pay alone is unlikely to create a satisfying work environment. Creating a satisfied workforce is hardly a guarantee of successful organizational performance, but evidence strongly suggests that whatever managers can do to improve employee attitudes will likely result in heightened organizational effectiveness.

Job Satisfaction
Measuring Job Satisfaction Our definition of job satisfactiona positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristicsis clearly broad Jobs require interacting with coworkers and bosses, following organizational rules and policies, meeting performance standards, living with less than ideal working conditions, and the like Two approaches for measuring Job Satisfaction are popular:
The single global rating is a response to one question. The second identifies key elements in a job such as the nature of the work, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, and relations with coworkers

How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?

Most people are satisfied with their jobs in the developed countries surveyed. Research shows that over the past 30 years, the majority of U.S. workers have been satisfied with their jobs Workers do seem to be less satisfied with their pay and promotion opportunities.

What Causes Job Satisfaction?

Most people prefer work that is challenging and stimulating. Jobs with good compensation have average job satisfaction levels. Money may be a motivator, but may not stimulate job satisfaction. There is a link between a persons personality and job satisfaction.

Impact of Dissatisfied and Satisfied Employees on the Workplace(1)

There are a number of ways employees can express dissatisfaction Exit: Behavior directed toward leaving the organization, including looking for a new position as well as resigning. Voice: Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity. Loyalty: Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism, and trusting the organization and its management to do the right thing. Neglect: Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.

Impact of Dissatisfied and Satisfied Employees on the Workplace(2)

Loyalty: Passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including speaking up for the organization in the face of external criticism, and trusting the organization and its management to do the right thing. Neglect: Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate.

Impact of Dissatisfied and Satisfied Employees on the Workplace(3)

Exit and neglect behaviors encompass our performance variablesproductivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Voice and loyalty are constructive behaviors that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations or to revive satisfactory working conditions. It helps us to understand situations, such as those sometimes found among unionized workers, where low job satisfaction is coupled with low turnover.

Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

Managers interest in job satisfaction tends to center on its effect on employee performance. Much research has been done on the impact of job satisfaction on employee job performance, absenteeism, and turnover. Satisfaction and job performance:
Happy workers are not necessarily productive workersthe evidence suggests that productivity is likely to lead to satisfaction.

Job Satisfaction and OCB

Job Satisfaction and OCB
Basically, job satisfaction comes down to conceptions of fair outcomes, treatment, and procedures. When you trust your employer, you are more likely to engage in behaviors that go beyond your formal job requirements.

Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

Evidence indicates that satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism

We find a consistent negative relationship between satisfaction and absenteeism. The more satisfied you are, the less likely you are to miss work.

 Job Satisfaction and Turnover

Satisfaction is also negatively related to turnover, but the correlation is stronger than what we found for absenteeism.

Job Satisfaction and Workplace Deviance

If employees dont like their work environment, they will respond somehow.

Managers Often Dont Get It

Given the evidence weve just reviewed, it should come as no surprise that job satisfaction can affect the bottom line.