Exam 3: Managing Diversity

A "good" manager is nowadays perceived as a competent woman.

Fresh Effects is a large, now global, natural skin care and toiletries manufacturer with headquarters in Vancouver. The company is thriving and its products are more popular than ever due to the growing interest in natural products free of toxic ingredients and artificial chemicals. The company employees are overwhelmingly female who obviously would have an interest in working for such a business. However, a look at the executive offices shows a different picture. All but one of the executives running the company are men, and none are from visible minorities. A group of highly educated, mid-level managers and supervisors have been meeting in an unofficial "club" to discuss their roles and careers in the company. They all believe in the company and want to stay, but also feel that they would like to have a greater role in the management and strategy formulation going forward. -Mona has been employed at Fresh Effects for eight years as a package design coordinator.She loves her job and has many innovative ideas that over the years have proved successful.She recently applied for a job as a director of creative solutions,which would be a direct line upward from her current position.To her dismay the company promoted Logan who theoretically was below her in the company hierarchy,albeit in a different department.But nevertheless Logan has been in the company only five years and has no direct creative design experience.Mona was discussing her disappointment with Rana,Ailin,and Lucia,three of her colleagues.Their conclusion was the despite being a company whose products appeal mostly to women,the company management seems to feel that ________.

Workforce diversity and inclusion,when managed effectively,play a central role in ________ in organizations.

________,whether intentional or not,can lead to serious negative consequences for employers.

Jeremy, Amanda, Taylor, and Omar work in the design department at Casuarina which makes casual and fitness related clothing for the local market. The company has been up and running for over five years and is making profit. Now they are in the process of expanding to the Japanese market where Canadian brands and quality are highly valued. The company has from the beginning embraced diversity as the founders were from Ireland and Turkey. As the company expanded, more diverse and multicultural employees were brought in. There are one or two pockets of the company where talented Caucasian employees at times seem standoffish and keep themselves apart from the rest of the employees during breaks or social occasions. -Jeremy has been with the company since the beginning.He was one of the original investors having retired from his 20 year career in banking and wanting a new challenge.He has risen to be the head of the design department because his original degree was in fine arts and he still has an itch to do something creative.Jeremy looks his age and feels a bit out of place among the mostly very young workforce,but he has the knowledge and even the technical skills to compete with most.Jeremy's coworkers view him with mixed feelings.Some of them see his contribution positively and ________.

Race is a social and cultural characteristic maintained by a shared heritage.

When the VP of marketing selected the new product development team members,he made sure there was a mix of ages,genders,and ethnicities on the team.This VP was most concerned with ________.

People are going to be different.The focus of managers should be to ________.

Diversity must be integrated into every aspect of the business including ________.

Organizations bringing in new talent expect employees to assimilate into a uniform corporate culture.

Diverse workforces bring different and unique perspectives to organizations.

Management at FinnTech think the company is doing well. They have grown from the original 8 employees to the current 26. In the last year the business has been booming and they quickly needed more employees. Now the company has a comfortable mix of the original 8 men, some women and visible minorities. The original 8 run the company from executive positions. Because employment laws in Canada have changed considerably, the executives at FinnTech have made a concerted effort to bring in more women and visible minorities. The women work in less important positions in the company and most of the factory floor workers are recent immigrants and visible minorities. They know that Asians are good with figures so they brought in Anna Li to head the two-person accounting department. They even hired one of the newly arrived Syrian refugees as he was highly recommended for his technical skills. The company lounge and lunch room is a popular place for employees to mix and get to know one another although it seems that there are closed groups that are drawn to one another all the time. Tom Harrington is the HR manager and often drops in, visibly for coffee and doughnuts, but in reality to observe and listen how the employees get along. -Kathleen is a long time employee and is talking to Linda who is here for her first day.Discussion turns to personal likes and dislikes.Kathleen likes cats.She believes people who own cats are independent and free spirited.She finds out that Linda has a cat.Therefore Linda must be independent and free-spirited.In order,what is happening here?

How does surface-level diversity differ from deep-level diversity?

Diversity refers to ________ that might be present in a workplace.

"Surface level diversity" includes easily perceived differences such as race,sex,and age.

Anson Jung's company was growing quite fast.He has been hiring several new people.Feeling most comfortable with his Chinese ethnicity he has tended to bring in other ethnic Chinese as his employees.He is now considering that his company must reflect the community in which it operates,which is highly multicultural.He is viewing his hiring practices from a(n)________ perspective as diversity hiring is the right thing to do.

Aging of the population and increase in immigration are fundamentally changing the Canadian workplace.As a result organizations recognize that ________.

In his exit interview,Carlos,a member of visible minority,explained that he had been passed over for promotions in favour of less qualified candidates.This situation relates to ________.

In developing countries where birth rates remain high,one of the benefits is a(n)________ which comes from a rising proportion of young people entering the workforce and driving economic growth.

Management at FinnTech think the company is doing well. They have grown from the original 8 employees to the current 26. In the last year the business has been booming and they quickly needed more employees. Now the company has a comfortable mix of the original 8 men, some women and visible minorities. The original 8 run the company from executive positions. Because employment laws in Canada have changed considerably, the executives at FinnTech have made a concerted effort to bring in more women and visible minorities. The women work in less important positions in the company and most of the factory floor workers are recent immigrants and visible minorities. They know that Asians are good with figures so they brought in Anna Li to head the two-person accounting department. They even hired one of the newly arrived Syrian refugees as he was highly recommended for his technical skills. The company lounge and lunch room is a popular place for employees to mix and get to know one another although it seems that there are closed groups that are drawn to one another all the time. Tom Harrington is the HR manager and often drops in, visibly for coffee and doughnuts, but in reality to observe and listen how the employees get along. -Adnan Massri,the newly hired Syrian refugee speaks passable English.He does not speak about his religion and tries hard to emulate the Canadian employees in order to fit in.He knows he is currently on a six month probation to see how he performs.Although he is not aware of it,it is a common finding that individuals in workplaces tend to ________ in hiring decisions and performance evaluations.