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Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 13: Diversity and Cross-Cultural Adjustments
Learning Objectives
13.1: Compare and contrast surface-level and deep-level diversity.
13.2: Name the characteristics of five generations at work, and describe how millennials
will affect organizations.
13.3: Explain why culture is important for understanding organizational behavior (OB).
Chapter Summary
Chapter summary here.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Trends Impacting Diversity and Inclusion
A. Current meaning of diversity meaning was first used in the early 1990s following
the passage of U.S. equal employment opportunity laws protecting certain classes
of employees based upon their sex, race, and ethnicity.
i. Today, having a diverse workforce increases performance.
ii. Organizations that embrace diversity build more inclusive work
environments.
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a. Investment in skill development for minorities will be an important
priority for the workforce.
D. Wage equality is a moving target that requires constant monitoring.
i. However, pay equity sends an important message to employees about
diversity and inclusion.
a. This alone makes it worth monitoring closely.
E. Effective leaders need a sound understanding of diversity and cultural differences.
i. Due in part to the shifting demographic composition of the workforce
II. Diversity
A. Workplace diversity is the differences between individuals at work on any
attribute that may evoke the perception that the other person is different from the
self.
i. Differences may pose a challenge for leaders who must unite their
followers in the pursuit of common goals.
a. Leadership is impossible outside of a community defined by shared
C. Surface-Level and Deep-Level Diversity
i. Surface-level diversity: Differences among group members in overt,
biological characteristics that are typically reflected in physical features
a. Relationships of sex, race, and age had mixed results in the
prediction of job performance and work attitude.
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ii. Deep-level diversity: Differences among members’ attitudes, beliefs, and
values
a. When deep-level diversity is considered rather than surface level,
diversity may actually positively contribute to work group
functioning and effectiveness.
iii. In culturally diverse teams, deep-level diversity is related to creativity and
innovation but surface-level diversity is not.
III. Generations at the Workplace
A. Five generations now in or departing the workplace may differ in their approach to
work.
i. Traditionalists: A generation born before 1943, now retiring or passed on.
a. Increasing retirement age means many will remain in the workforce
for some time because retirement plans were dented by the Great
Recession of 2007 to 2009.
iv. Millennials: A generation born between 1977 and 1997, which is
characterized by an entrepreneurial spirit and may lead to founding a
business while working for another organization
a. Largest group currently in the workforce
b. Employers must transition from “boomer–centric” environments to
“millennial–centric” ones.
B. The Millennials
i. Studies suggest that millennials are the only generational group that does
not conceptually link organizational commitment with workplace culture.
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Scandura, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 3e
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ii. Millennials have different work attitudes from other generations, thus
making an understanding of their attitudes toward duty, drive, and reward
important to successfully managing them.
iv. Millennials want praise when they do a good job and rewards for hard
work on occasion.
a. Prefer clear, one-on-one, honest feedback from their bosses
b. Enjoy communicating with and learning from coworkers
vi. Tend to challenge the status quo and are often too impatient to keep the
same job for many years
vii. Far more digitally qualified than the generations before
a. Quickly acquire new information technology skills
viii. Wide networks of friends nurtured with social media platforms
C. Generation Z
i. Generation Z is the “net generation” because of the highly developed
digital era they were born into.
a. May be called the “Facebook generation,” “digital natives,” or
sometimes the “iGeneration”
ii. Like millennials, make heavy use of social media
iii. Norms differ from millennial norms:
a. Use slang and expressions that may seem strange to other
generations, and this distances them from other groups
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IV. What is Culture?
A. Sociological definition of culture:
i. Shared by almost all members of a social group
ii. Older members of the group pass it on to younger members.
iii. Shapes behavior or structures one’s perception of the world
B. A straightforward definition of culture: the unstated standard operating procedures
or ways of doing things
C. Different countries may share cultural values.
i. Conversely, cultural values may vary widely within a country.
D. Much of culture is not immediately apparent; therefore, judgements by a leader
based only on what they see are likely to backfire.
i. “Invisible” aspects are so deeply rooted they may go unquestioned.
E. High-Context Versus Low-Context Cultures
i. High-context cultures: Cultures that heavily rely on situational cues for
meaning when perceiving and communicating with others
a. Often places an increased value on “getting to know” someone as a
person before proceeding to business
b. May refrain from voicing concern to superiors in an organization
ii. Low-context cultures: Cultures in which written and spoken words carry
F. Hofstede’s Cultural Values
i. See Table 13.2 Hofstede’s Cultural Values
a. Power distance: Deference to authority
b. Collectivism-individualism: Group orientation
c. Uncertainty avoidance: Risk aversion
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d. Relationship orientation: Extent to which one focuses on people
(“femininity”) over material things (“masculinity”)
ii. Hofstede’s data came from 40 countries initially, later expanded to 62.
a. Identified cultural values were relatively stable over time
b. Created “cultural clusters” of countries
iii. National culture and collectivism are fairly well-researched.
G. Criticisms and Usefulness of Hofstede’s Research
i. Limited relevancy of a model developed in 1980
ii. Belief that it is not possible to characterize all people in one culture the
same way
iii. Use of nations limits the research as countries may be highly similar to
one another.
a. For example, the United States and Canada have very similar
cultures.
iv. Hofstede studies also lack attention to political influences on the data
collected in the 1980s.
a. Original data drew from just one company, IBM, for initial research
v. Culture may be extremely complex to reduce to four or five dimensions.
vi. However, there were benefits to his research:
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significantly related to organizational commitment, identification,
citizenship behavior, team-related attitudes, and feedback seeking.
c. However, personality and demographics were better predictors of
performance, absenteeism, and turnover than cultural values.
H. Cultural Tightness-Looseness
i. A more recent approach to understanding cultural differences.
iv. Tightness-looseness spectrum is reflected by the clarity and pervasiveness
of norms within societies and the degree of tolerance for deviation from
these norms.
a. Level of organizational accountability and individual accountability
v. Tight cultures:
a. More social controls
vi. Cultural tightness is possibly a response to ecological and historical
threats such as pathogens, scarcity, warfare, and other forms of ecological
threat.
a. Strict norms and harsh punishment for violating norms aid societies
in overcoming these challenges; the tightest cultures are those with
the most social complexity and threats.
b. Moreover, governments, the media, education, laws, and religion
shape cultural tightness.
I. GLOBE Studies of Cross-Cultural Leadership
i. Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness
(GLOBE) project: A large-scale study of cultural differences specifically
focused on cultural values and leadership.
a. Refined and extended the Hofstede cultural value framework
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b. Team-oriented: Effective at team building and implementing a
common goal
iii. GLOBE’s cultural “universals” of effective leadership:
a. Integrity
b. Vision
c. Being inspirational
d. Building teams
iv. GLOBE’s cultural “universals” of ineffective leadership:
V. Developing Global Leaders
A. Future leaders will be global leaders.
B. Cultural Intelligence
i. Cultural intelligence (CQ): An individual’s capabilities to function and
manage effectively in culturally diverse settings
ii. Dimensions of CQ:
a. Metacognitive CQ: The cognitive processing necessary to
recognize and understand expectations appropriate for different
cultural situations
iii. CQ may be acquired through training.
C. The Third Culture
i. Third culture: The construction of a mutually beneficial interactive
environment in which individuals from two different cultures can function
in a way beneficial to all involved.
a. Comprises shared frameworks, value systems, and communication
patterns that emerge when people from different cultures interact
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b. Over time and mutual adjustment, a third culture emerges, which
has features of both relevant cultures and facilitates successful and
comfortable interaction.
c. Phase 1. Initial contact may result in the person withdrawing from
the other person (or culture).
g. See Figure 13.3 Model of Third-Culture Building.
D. The Global Mindset
i. Progress in global business is limited because managers are increasingly
required to work across cultural boundaries, but people grow up mostly
living with those who are similar to themselves.
ii. Global mindset: A set of individual attributes that enhance a manager’s
ability to influence others who are different from them
a. Global psychological capital: The manager’s emotional energy and
willingness to engage in a global environment
iii. A person with a global mindset finds diversity interesting and not
intimidating.
a. Interacting with those from other cultures as an exciting challenge
b. Passionate about diversity and knowledgeable about culture
E. Cross-Cultural Adjustment Strategies
i. Four acculturation strategies:
a. Assimilation: Relinquishing cultural heritage and adopting the
beliefs and behaviors of the new culture
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d. Integration: Maintaining one’s cultural heritage and adopting a
new cultural identity; the identities remain independent of one
another, known as biculturalism
ii. Cultural retooling: The psychological process of adaptation to another
culture
F. Integrative Acculturation: Multiculturals
i. Multiculturals: Individuals who embrace more than two cultures
a. Necessary conditions: a degree of knowledge of, identification with,
and internalization of more than one societal culture
inborn.
VI. Culture Shock
A. Culture shock: Feeling stress and being uncomfortable when a new culture is
experienced for the first time
i. Symptoms of culture shock:
a. Stress because of effort required to adjust
b. Sense of loss or homesickness
c. Avoidance of interactions with host culture
d. Feeling helpless and wanting to depend on those from one’s home
country
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VII. Expatriate Adjustment
A. Global mobility: When individuals, and often their families, are relocated from
one country to another by an employer, generally from a familiar situation (a
home country) to a novel one (a host country) for a fixed time period
i. These individuals are known as expatriates.
B. An expatriate assignment can be either self-initiated or assigned by the
organization.
i. Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) choose to go abroad.
a. Self-initiated foreign work experience is significantly more likely to
be chosen by women and those having lower job levels.
b. Being flexible and culturally intelligent seems to influence the
intention to become an expatriate.
c. CQ is successfully related to acculturation.
ii. Assigned expatriates (AEs) are offered the opportunity by their
organization.
C. Helping expatriates adjust:
iv. Mentorship or networking provides essential support.
v. Training in cross-cultural interactions, culture, and language
D. Repatriation
i. Repatriation: The transition when the expatriate has completed the
international assignment and returns home, also known as reentry
ii. Expatriates are at high risk of leaving the organization after they return, up
to 24% in the first 2-3 years.
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a. Expatriate experiences confusion and disappointment that may lead
to a temporary state of depression and a sense of loss.
b. May look judgmentally upon their home culture and recognize its
negative aspects
c. May be disappointed in the reactions of coworkers and superiors
upon their return
d. Feel ignored, misunderstood, unappreciated, and like they will not
receive expected rewards and promotions for their work abroad
iv. “Culture bumps” in an expatriate’s return home can be relieved by:
a. Pinpointing specific times when you felt different or uncomfortable
v. Communication and validation are central to repatriation.
a. Communication is how much information the expatriate receives
regarding what is happening at home while on assignment.
b. Validation refers to the amount of recognition the expatriate gets for
success on the international assignment.
VIII. Leadership Implications: Becoming a Global Leader
A. Diversity takes multiple forms.
i. Embracing diversity is related to organizational effectiveness.
B. International management scholars have noted a shift from “international
management” to “global leadership” being the required skill set in today’s
business environment.
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iii. In regard to diversity, are there things you wish had been done
differently?
a. If so, what?
b. How would you have handled those things differently?
iv. What are specific things your company has done to ease those challenges?
v. What are your (or your company’s) future plans for diversity?
a. Do you have specific plans that will be implemented in the near
future?