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Chapter 7:
RESPECTING EMPLOYEE DIVERSITY
CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER AND ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
In studying this chapter, students should consider the questions below.
“CQ1” refers to “Chapter Question 1.” This question appears at the end of the textbook
chapter.
“AQ1” refers to an “Additional Question 1.” This is an “additional” question related to
the chapter. It is not listed at the end of the textbook chapter as a “Chapter Question”.
These items are numbered within the two categories based on the order in which the
answer appears in the chapter.
CQ1: What are the four diversity dimensions?
CQ2: What is the evolution of ethnic and religious diversity in the United States beginning with
Christopher Columbus?
CQ3: Describe several workplace discrimination issues. What laws govern these issues?
CQ4: Discuss five competitive advantages of diversity management.
CQ5: What are some of the best operational practices for managing diversity?
CQ6: What are the recommended ten-steps for implementing a diversity initiative?
AQ1: What is the difference between being a member of a dominant group and a subordinate
group?
CQ7: Describe several diversity training workshops. How would you address the typical
problems associated with diversity training?
CHAPTER 7 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, students should be able to:
Describe competitive advantages of diversity
Explain the most common types of workplace discrimination
Adopt best operational practices for managing diversity
Successfully implement a diversity initiative
Facilitate a variety of diversity workshops
CHAPTER 7 OVERVIEW
This chapter provides a brief history of population diversity in the United States. Harmful
discriminatory employment practices and behaviors led to the need for Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Title VII
defines, and the EEOC monitors, illegal types of workplace discrimination.
There are many competitive advantages of appropriately managing diversity. The chapter
examines the most common types of workplace discrimination and the best operational practices
for enhancing and managing diversity, including a 10-step process for implementing a diversity
initiative. Diversity training problems and solutions are examined, and instructions offered for
conducting a series of diversity training workshops that increase social group self-awareness,
explore specific issues, and help employees manage different communication styles.
CHAPTER 7 LECTURE OUTLINE
Teaching Objective: To increase awareness of diversity issues and offer a range of diversity
training workshops.
Suggested Time: Two to three hours of class time is recommended to present this chapter.
I. Chapter Question 1: What are the four diversity dimensions?
Permanent dimension
Evolving dimension
II. Chapter Question 2: What is the evolution of ethnic and religious diversity in the
United States beginning with Christopher Columbus?
Columbus to 1790
1800s to 2010
Discriminatory employment practices
III. Chapter Question 3: Describe several workplace discrimination issues. What laws
govern these issues?
Self-categorization theory
Workplace discrimination
Gender discrimination
Pay inequality
Pregnancy
IV. Chapter Question 4: Discuss five competitive advantages of diversity management.
V. Chapter Question 5: What are some of the best operational practices for managing
diversity?
VI. Chapter Question 6: What are the recommended ten-steps for implementing a
diversity initiative?
VII. Additional Question 1: What is the difference between being a member of a
dominant group and a subordinate group?
VIII. Chapter Question 7: Describe several diversity training workshops. How would you
address the typical problems associated with diversity training?
Workshop options
Communication style
CHAPTER 7 SUPPORTING MATERIALS
Textbook Inserts
Ethical Dilemma Analysis
What would you do?
Let’s Build a Building
In the Real World: Enron
Exhibits
Exhibit 7.1: Diversity Dimensions
Exhibit 7.2: Tattoo Discrimination
Exhibit 7.3: Diversity Training Problems and Solutions
Exhibit 7.4: Who Are You Exercise
Exhibit 7.5: Dominant/Subordinate Group Dynamics
Exhibit 7.6: Experiences Being Prejudged Exercise
Exhibit 7.7: Individual Uniqueness and Commonalities Exercise
Exhibit 7.8: Communication Styles
Thematic Boxes
Tips and Techniques
Best Practice in Use
CHAPTER QUESTION 1: WHAT ARE THE FOUR DIVERSITY DIMENSIONS?
Diversity is a complex concept. Respecting the diverse aspects of people goes beyond the factors
that fall under the purview of the EEOC.
PERMANENT DIMENSION
EVOLVING DIMENSION
PERSONALITY DIMENSION
As discussed in Chapter 3, personality theorists and researchers have reached a general
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is probably the most popular personality
assessment tool used by employers is based on four paired items.
ORGANIZATIONAL DIMENSION
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Have students experience the “Who Are You?” exercise in Exhibit 7.4. Examine how the
diversity dimensions impact who they are, and discuss the results in small groups.
1. Describe your permanent dimensions (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and birth
generation).
2. Describe your evolving dimensions (i.e., age, height, weight, religion, education, physical
ability, marital status, income level, and geographic location).
3. Describe your personality dimensions (i.e., Big Five Personality Model or Myers-Briggs Type
Indicators).
4. Describe your organizational dimensions (i.e., hierarchical status, work content, department,
and seniority).
5. Which of these dimensions most strongly define who you are? Why?
CHAPTER QUESTION 2: WHAT IS THE EVOLUTION OF ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS
DIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATES BEGINNING WITH CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS?
When Christopher Columbus arrived on the shores of the Dominican Republic in 1492 the land
mass eventually named the United States served as home to an estimated 10 million indigenous
people.
COLUMBUS TO 1790
Columbus’ arrival led to a confrontation between social groups. Indigenous people did
not welcome Christopher Columbus with open arms, or vice versa. Differences in race,
ethnicity, religion, and language contributed to mistrust. Trading goods between the two
groups was soon followed by European conquest and enslavement of the indigenous
inhabitants with the aid of more powerful military technology.
1800s TO 2010
Beginning 1830, the federal government welcomed more British, Germans, and French
immigrants to help settle the expanding nation.
They were joined by three-quarters of a million poor Irish fleeing the potato famine
(1845-1849) and looking for employment and better land. Irish immigrants were
discriminated against not only because of their nationality, language, and economic
status, but also their religion: Roman Catholic.
The religious mix became more salient with the arrival of more than two million Jews
fleeing religious persecution in Russia and Europe, followed by Muslim Lebanese and
Syrians.
The annexation of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona added many Mexicans to the
American ethnic mosaic.
DISCRIMINATORY EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES
For nearly two centuries, from 1776 until 1964, Caucasian males primarily employed and
serviced people from their own national heritage and religious group, a pattern followed
by other racial and ethnic groups.
EMPLOYMENT-AT-WILL DOCTRINE
Businesses operated under the “employment-at-will doctrine” which allowed employers
and employees to end an employment relationship for any reason, or “at will,” so long as
it did not violate contractual agreements or federal, state, and municipal laws.
oThis doctrine was widely accepted during the industrial revolution and legally
codified in an 1884 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling clarifying that an employer
can “discharge or retain employees at will for good cause, for no cause, or even
for cause morally wrong, without being thereby guilty of legal wrong.”
oAs a result, during layoffs, employee dismissals were also often predicated on an
employee’s gender, race, ethnicity, or religious heritage.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made many of these discriminatory hiring,
promotion, and firing practices illegal.
UNITED STATES RACE/GENDER PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP 2008
The United States has evolved to the point where Barack Obama, an African-American
born to a Caucasian mother and Kenyan father, won the presidency in 2008, a diversity
accomplishment many believed impossible to achieve just a few decades earlier during
the late 1960s race riots.
Obama’s most notable contender for the Democratic Party nomination was a woman,
Hilary Clinton, as was the Republican Party’s Vice President nominee, Sarah Palin, then
the governor of Alaska.
ILLEGAL (UNDOCUMENTED) IMMIGRANTS
A contentious aspect of local, state, and national law is the treatment of undocumented, or
illegal, immigrants.
For the working poor and politically oppressed born in other nations, the United States
has always represented a land of opportunity and freedom.
But when the number of laborers exceeded job availability, anti-immigration sentiments
rose due to the decline in wages.
In 1921, the Emergency Quota Act placed limits on the number of immigrants admitted
into the United States, which often fluctuates due to labor needs.
Ever since then, immigrants have entered the nation illegally to seek employment or unite
with their legally immigrated family members.
In 2008, an estimated 12 million illegal, sometimes referred to as undocumented,
immigrants lived in the United States. Approximately 76 percent of illegal immigrants are
Hispanic, mostly from Mexico and Central America.
Illegal immigrants account for 5.4 percent of the national labor force. They typically
perform low-skilled and low-paid jobs. California, Arizona, and Nevada have the highest
percent of undocumented laborers, whose children and families have overwhelmed some
schools and state and local social services.
Federal law requires aliens who are 14 years old or older and in the United States for
more than 30 days to register with the federal government and maintain registration
documents in their possession at all times.
In 2010, the Arizona legislature passed a more restrictive state law requiring police who
stop aliens for a traffic violation or some other crime to ask for a driver’s license or some
other state ID. Those without proof of legal status on them may be detained and
eventually deported if no legal proof exists.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
In 1964 African-Americans had to sit at the back of a bus, could not stay in “white only” hotels,
could not drink from “white only” water fountains, or eat at “white only” restaurants. In the late
1960s, race riots destroyed large sections of major U.S. cities. During these race riots an
African-American boy named Barack Obama was being raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, and
would be elected President in 2008.
Why do you think that within 44 years, the United States went from blacks not being able to
drink from the same water fountain as whites to electing an African-American president? What
changes in organizations and attitudes took place over those years that enabled this dramatic
change to occur? How did this happen?
