Periodic Report Summary 2 - WORKPLACE DIVERSITY (Inclusive identities in the context of increasing culturally diverse workplaces)
A series of interlinking studies were conducted to identify effects of cultural diversity and its management on national, organisational and personal level and respective links. Studies were conducted with participants of different cultural background and positions, within different types of organisations and across different countries, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Austria specifically.
The national context analyses revealed that those countries face quite similar issues when it comes to population demographics, economic needs and labour market participation rates. Besides such similarities the country histories of migration and their approach to dealing with diversity differ greatly as expressed in different diversity policies, public perceptions of a country international openness and prevalent socio-cultural values. Our findings clearly identify driving forces of implementing action programmes for ethnic minorities: a medium level of active national diversity policies, a positive public perception of a country's international openness and low uncertainty avoidance as prevalent cultural value orientation. On an organisational level, more action programmes can be found in the public and social service sector. Structural aspects, such as organisational size and workforce composition do not show any direct effects. On a personal level results show that a managers' personal positive approach towards diversity supports the employment of culturally diverse people and the active management of a culturally diverse workforce. Across the three countries we can identify commonalities in approaching and managing cultural diversity at the workplace such as language and selection issues and perceived benefits of diversity. The lack in implemented diversity management measures, neither as part of formal human resource (HR) management nor embedded in daily management routines, is striking.
In the course of our project we derived five possible approaches of organisations to address diversity. Those diversity perspectives are reinforcing homogeneity, colour-blind, fairness, access and integration and learning. Based on those five diversity perspectives we developed the diversity perspective questionnaire (DPQ) that proved to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure an organisations approach towards diversity and tests its effects on the well-being of staff, the inclusion of minority group members and the innovativeness of an organisation. Our cross-national study reveals that the effects of different diversity perspectives and management are comparable across countries. It makes a difference which diversity perspective an organisation employs: A fairness and colour-blind approach is positively linked to an organisation innovativeness and employee satisfaction, whereas an access approach - where benefits of diversity are assumed by solely diversifying the workforce but not actively managing it - even shows some negative effects. For the inclusion of culturally diverse employees, integration and learning perspectives are most helpful. Diversity management is particularly employed in organisations with fairness or integration and learning perspective and positively impacts innovation and attitudes towards diversity.
Based on our results, we recommend a proactive approach towards diversity on an organisational (e.g. diversity initiatives and training) and national level (e.g. diversity policies and promoting international openness), the consideration of the specific national, organisational and personal contexts and the drive for a fairness or integration and learning approach in organisations. If specific needs of different groups of people in organisations are acknowledged and supported and diversity supports learning and change, cultural diversity is of benefit for the organisation, its staff and diverse groups of employees.
The national context analyses revealed that those countries face quite similar issues when it comes to population demographics, economic needs and labour market participation rates. Besides such similarities the country histories of migration and their approach to dealing with diversity differ greatly as expressed in different diversity policies, public perceptions of a country international openness and prevalent socio-cultural values. Our findings clearly identify driving forces of implementing action programmes for ethnic minorities: a medium level of active national diversity policies, a positive public perception of a country's international openness and low uncertainty avoidance as prevalent cultural value orientation. On an organisational level, more action programmes can be found in the public and social service sector. Structural aspects, such as organisational size and workforce composition do not show any direct effects. On a personal level results show that a managers' personal positive approach towards diversity supports the employment of culturally diverse people and the active management of a culturally diverse workforce. Across the three countries we can identify commonalities in approaching and managing cultural diversity at the workplace such as language and selection issues and perceived benefits of diversity. The lack in implemented diversity management measures, neither as part of formal human resource (HR) management nor embedded in daily management routines, is striking.
In the course of our project we derived five possible approaches of organisations to address diversity. Those diversity perspectives are reinforcing homogeneity, colour-blind, fairness, access and integration and learning. Based on those five diversity perspectives we developed the diversity perspective questionnaire (DPQ) that proved to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure an organisations approach towards diversity and tests its effects on the well-being of staff, the inclusion of minority group members and the innovativeness of an organisation. Our cross-national study reveals that the effects of different diversity perspectives and management are comparable across countries. It makes a difference which diversity perspective an organisation employs: A fairness and colour-blind approach is positively linked to an organisation innovativeness and employee satisfaction, whereas an access approach - where benefits of diversity are assumed by solely diversifying the workforce but not actively managing it - even shows some negative effects. For the inclusion of culturally diverse employees, integration and learning perspectives are most helpful. Diversity management is particularly employed in organisations with fairness or integration and learning perspective and positively impacts innovation and attitudes towards diversity.
Based on our results, we recommend a proactive approach towards diversity on an organisational (e.g. diversity initiatives and training) and national level (e.g. diversity policies and promoting international openness), the consideration of the specific national, organisational and personal contexts and the drive for a fairness or integration and learning approach in organisations. If specific needs of different groups of people in organisations are acknowledged and supported and diversity supports learning and change, cultural diversity is of benefit for the organisation, its staff and diverse groups of employees.