Alexandria Sananikone
Professor Kwon
MW 230-345
05 April 2017
Case Analysis Paper
It is important for the public sector to have diversity. Its main focus is to have a work environment with employees of varying race, sex, and age. Therefore, the purpose of diversity management is to reduce racism within organizations to create a fair, open, and comfortable environment for both white males and minorities. According to Von Bergen, “it has been estimated that at the turn of the millennium only 15 percent of new entrants to the workforce were white males,” justifying that diversity is more prevalent since “white males are rapidly becoming a minority in the workforce” (239-240). Even though racism is not expressed as much today compared to the past, it is still prevalent in certain organizations. In the two cases provided, along with Choi’s “Diversity in the US Federal Government” and Von Bergen’s “Unintended Negative Effects of Diversity Management,” one can see the dilemmas that organizations face in managing diverse workers and the factors that make diversity management challenging.
To begin with, affirmative action and ethnic discrimination pose an issue in the organization involving diversity management. Case 12 deals with the concept of affirmative action. According to Pynes, affirmative action is “a more assertive strategy needed to correct for past and existing discrimination since women and minorities were underrepresented in the workforce” (93). A black woman who suffered from a brain aneurysm was given a promotion in rank when she returned to work after a year. She accepted the promotion and transferred out to Indiana. She states, “At the time I was unaware of the fact that Indiana held the record for the state with the most number of Ku Klux Klan lynchings of blacks. I soon discovered that Bedford was a blue-collar community that made no effort to conceal the fact that African Americans were not welcome in their town” (70). As a woman and a minority with a minor disability, she probably was hesitant and worried, but gave her new job a chance. The supervisor had no issues in regards to her race, and awarded her with an honorable reward for her amazing performance. When he retired, the new supervisor wanted an all-white environment. She claims that “working with this supervisor became so stressful that my health began to deteriorate” (71). Evidently, the harassment of the new supervisor became a major dilemma that negatively affected her work performance and well-being. She “followed department guidelines and filed a complaint with EEO” (71). Unfortunately, the supervisor ended up achieving what he originally wanted. Human Resources did not address her problem immediately, and, because of this, she had to return home and lose all her job benefits.
Similarly, Case 14 deals with an issue known as ethnic discrimination. Ethnic discrimination can be described as unfair treatment and rude remarks due to race. This case describes the multiple victims of ethnic discrimination within the Eastern New Mexico Medical Center (ENMMC). Physician Indrit Khalsa made many racially-derogatory remarks to employees that bothered them and released confidential patient information without consent. Nothing happened and abusive behaviors continued, so Finn, an employee at ENMMC, wrote a memo to Dr. Tristani, Vice President of Medical Affairs. She mentions that “their complaints echo of direct verbal abuse, gender discrimination, racially inflammatory remarks, breach of patient confidentiality, and unprofessionalism” (81). Because of Khalsa’s behavior, there is a high turnover in this department. Finn receives a call from Dr. Khalsa’s secretary stating that “he’s not a very happy camper” when Human Resources should have either fired the doctor for his misbehavior or put him on probation (81).
Secondly, Choi and Von Bergen, mention several factors that make diversity management challenging. Both Choi and Von Bergen agree that it is difficult to manage a successful diverse employee population effectively in correlation to job performance. Choi’s publication mentions that “Byrne’s (1971) similar-attraction-theory suggests that people prefer interacting with similar others and find interactions with them easier,” and “individuals in diverse groups tend to feel less safe and to trust each other less” (606). This makes diversity management difficult because it is not based on comfort of similarity, but creates an unfamiliar work setting where there is no sense of belonging or relativeness because everyone is racially and ethnically different. When the employee population’s ethnicity/race is different, they are “less likely to induce emotional conflict for teams working on the routine tasks than those with complex tasks” (Choi 607). With diversity, turnover is likely in the organization since the differing individuals “tend to be less psychologically committed to their organizations, less integrated with others in the majority, and more likely to be absent and leave their organizations” (607). Yet, if the employees get used to the diverse atmosphere and interact amongst their peers, then the “surface-level differences tend to become less important over time and people tend to pay more attention to deep-level differences, reducing prejudices and stereotypic thoughts” (611).
On the other hand, Von Bergen states his opinions about how diversity management is ineffective and pardoxical. The goal of diversity management is to “create a positive work environment for all employees” (239). Therefore, every employee should understand that despite the diverse population, everyone is basically the same. Since 1993, multiple organizations have started to invest in diversity training. Von Bergen states that, “Despite the explosion of diversity training, Delikat reported that it is not clear that it benefits most employers” (240). If millions of dollars are being spent on diversity training and management, the outcome is not immediately evident. The goal of the process is long-term, rather than short-term, which can be accomplished over time with multiple sessions/meetings.
Another issue that arises from diversity management is reverse discrimination. Organizations are so focused on hiring more females and minorities that white males are actually becoming the minorities themselves. Von Bergen believes that “[instead of] approaching diversity training from the perspective that many whites are not racist and would welcome a diverse work force, diversity trainers often encourage an ‘us vs them’ atmosphere” (244). Instead of creating the positive work environment that every agency needs, diversity management is putting pressure upon the employees that there is a need for segregation rather than intermingling with others. Therefore, diversity training ends up being counterproductive because everyone is forced to acknowledge the differences instead of finding ways each employee can contribute to meet the organization’s goal(s).
In correlation, the effectiveness of diversity management within the organizations presented in the cases were not effective or sufficient at all. In Case 12, the black female had to resign from her job that she was good at because her new manager affected her work performance and health. In her situation, human resources failed to take her complaint into consideration. Therefore, everyone at her company denied their actions and basically made her look like a fool. Of course, if everyone was persuaded by the supervisor to deny their racism, then there was no reason for her to feel this way. Human resources should have understood her situation since she was the only minority in the company, located in a state where her ethnic background was not accepted. Obviously, if human resources did their job, she would not have had to write an informative letter to President Clinton in regards to her horrible work experience at Hoosier National Forest. As for Case 14, there were numerous complaints about the racial remarks physician Khalsa was responsible for towards the employees. The doctor has been racially offensive for a while if the turnover rate is high within his department. Undeniably, human resources failed to acknowledge the problems Dr. Khalsa brought onto his employees. Even after Finn sent a letter to Medical Affairs, Dr. Khalsa was very unhappy with the file of complaint. The diversity management in this situation should have taught the doctor how to keep his racial comments to himself and not stereotype.
The dilemmas presented in these cases have been overcome or simply avoided by having a straightforward management model to improve the administration of a diverse workforce. In order for diversity to not be an issue, Pynes mentions that “management must acknowledge and demonstrate support for the differences that these employees bring to the workplace” (127). Instead of focusing and stressing upon how everyone is ethnically different, they should learn how to accept it and use it to understand the outside world. Society today is culturally and ethnically diverse, so having diversity in many organizations can be beneficial in accomplishing and meeting the organization’s goals. For example, if a company were to be dominant in only one race, yet their services target a diverse audience, then they would be incapable to relate to every individual. The lack of diversity creates language barriers, lack of familiarity, and lack of understanding between employees to customer interaction. Without proper diversity management, everyone will fray away from working together as a team. This will eventually lead to a high turnover rate. A “successful management of diversity leads to better interpersonal communication among employees, responsiveness to social and demographic changes, a reduction in equal employment litigation, and a climate of fairness and equity” (Pynes, 130). Without a doubt, when all ethnic and racial backgrounds are accepted by every employee, this will create a sense of belongingness. Consequently, when everybody feels accepted and respected, managers should recognize and reward those who do a great job and contribute to the organization. After awhile, the thought of being isolated will disperse, thus increasing the performance of workers.
Overall, diversity management is difficult in being effective and successful because differences are not supported, but are seen as complications to the organization. There are controversial cases that are still present today that lack diversity within their organizations, which can cause ethnic tensions. The cases presented are great examples of how ineffective diversity management was conducted and how human resources failed to do their job in correcting the issues. In order for employees to understand diversity, they must not see it as a difference. Instead, they should accept the different ideas and skills each person can contribute to the company. The more diverse and effective management is, the more willing employees are likely to stay and accept new employees. Rather than creating a group, everyone can act as a whole and see each other as equals.