Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
CHAPTER 16
Diversity and Global Cultures
There are new faces in the neighborhood
Chapter 16 Overview
Each Chapter contains several inset features designed to assist the student reader in applying the
concepts to relevant examples. Management Live illustrates how experiences and activities relate
to work performance. Hot Topic explores samples of debated topics in business and strategy.
Facts to Consider introduces research or trends that may be used for class discussion in the
classroom or online for distance learning. Insight profiles the importance of positive team
contributions. Quick Case presents a business related scenario for class analysis and discussion.
This chapter begins by examining the importance of diversity in the workplace. As the
population ages, it also becomes more ethnically diverse. The concept of inclusion and diversity
Chapter 16 Takeaways:
Takeaway 16.1: Understand what we need to know about diversity in the workplace.
Takeaway 16.2: Understand what we need to know about diversity among global cultures.
Chapter 16 Lecture Outline
• Takeaway Question 16.1: What Should We Know About Diversity in the Workplace?
o Inclusion drives the business case for diversity.
o Multicultural organizations cultures value and support diversity.
o Diversity bias exists in many situations
o Organizational subcultures create diversity challenges.
o Managing diversity is a leadership priority.
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
• Takeaway Question 16.2: What Should We Know About Diversity Among Global
Cultures?
o Culture shock is discomfort in cross-cultural situations.
o Cultural intelligence is an ability to adapt to foreign cultures.
Chapter 16 Supporting Materials:
Figures
Figure 16.1 How do glass ceilings constrain career advancement for women and minorities?
Figure 16.2 How do countries compare on Hofstede’s five dimensions of national cultures?
What’s Inside
• Management Live: Discrimination Fears Over Social Media Use in Hiring
• Ethics Check: Fair-Trade fashion
Applications
• TestPrep 16 Multiple-Choice Questions
• Skill Building Portfolio
o Self-Assessment 16: Diversity Awareness
Chapter Outline:
Takeaway 16.1: What Should We Know About Diversity in the Workplace?
• Diversity describes attributes such as race, gender, age, and other individual differences.
• Inclusion drives the business case for diversity
✓ Revolving door syndrome refers to high employee turnover among minorities and
women.
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
• Multicultural organizations value and support diversity
✓ Multicultural organization – based on pluralism and operates with inclusivity and
respect for diversity
✓ Multicultural organizations display commitments to diversity like those listed below:
• Table 16.1 “Characteristics of a Multicultural Organization”
Pluralism—Members of minority and majority cultures influence key values and
policies.
Structural integration—Minority-culture members are well represented at all -levels and
• Diversity Bias Exists in Many Situations
• Leaking pipeline problem shows up in male dominant organizational cultures. It
occurs as women leave careers because their employer lacks family-friendly human
• Figure 16.1 illustrates the concept of how glass ceilings constrain career
advancement for women and minorities:
Organizations consist of a majority culture (often white males) and minority cultures
• Organizational subcultures can create diversity challenges
➢ Organizational subcultures are informal groupings of person with shared
identity can form around such things as:
✓ Occupations
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
✓ Ethnicity
✓ Religion
✓ Ethnic or national subcultures — exist among people from various races,
language groups, regions, and countries.
✓ Cultural intelligence — sometimes called CQ, is defined as a “person’s
capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural
diversity.”
• Managing diversity is a top leadership priority
• Margin figure illustrates continuum of leadership approaches to diversity
described by R. Roosevelt Thomas
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
DISCUSSION TOPIC
Point out to students that diversity maturity is relevant to how they deal with relationships in the
educational environment as well as in the workplace. Have the students assess their own
diversity maturity within their college/university community, by answering Yes or No to the
following questions:
Do you accept responsibility for improving your performance?
Do you understand diversity concepts?
Do you make decisions about other based on their abilities?
Do you understand that diversity issues are complex?
Are you able to cope with tensions in addressing diversity?
Are you willing to challenge the way things are?
Are you willing to learn continuously?
16.1 Questions for discussion with suggested answers
1) What subcultures do you see operating at work and/or in school, and how do they affect
relationships and daily events?
2) What are some of the things organizations and leaders can do to reduce diversity bias
faced by minorities and women in the workplace?
3) What does the existence of an affirmative action policy say about an organization’s
commitment to diversity?
16.1 Career Situation: What Would You Do?
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
One of your co-workers brought along his friend to lunch. When discussing his new -female
boss, the friend says: “It really irritates me not only that she gets the job just because she’s a
woman, but she’s also Hispanic. There’s no way that someone like me had a chance given her
pedigree. And she now has the gall to act as if we’re all one big happy team and the rest of us
should accept her leadership. As for me, I’ll do my best to make it difficult for her to succeed.” It
was uncomfortable for you just to hear this. Your co-worker looks dismayed but isn’t -saying
anything. What do you do? Will you just let the comment go, or do something more?
Student answers will vary. Students based on their personality and perspectives will approach
Takeaway 16.2: What Should We Know About Diversity Among Global
Cultures?
• Culture shock is discomfort in cross-cultural situations
✓ Culture shock is feelings of confusion and discomfort when in or dealing with an
unfamiliar culture
✓ Stages of adjustment to a new culture (or culture shock), include:
• Cultural intelligence is the capacity to adapt and adjust to foreign cultures
➢ High cultural self-awareness and flexibility
➢ Willingness to learn from what is unfamiliar; modification of behaviors to act
with sensitivity to another culture’s ways
DISCUSSION TOPIC
If any of your students have lived or traveled abroad, ask them to describe their experiences and
relate them to the stages of adjusting to a new culture.
• The “silent” languages of cultures include context, time, and space
• High-context cultures – what is said or written may convey only part of the real
message
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
• Cultural tightness and looseness varies around the world
✓ In a tight culture, such as ones found in Korea, Japan, or Malaysia, social norms
• Hofstede’s model identifies five value differences among national cultures
• See Figure 16.2 for a depiction of how countries compare on Hofstede’s five
dimensions of national cultures:
• Power distance is the degree to which a society accepts or rejects the unequal
distribution of power among people in organizations and the institutions of society
• Intercultural competencies are essential career skills
✓ Intercultural competencies, skills and personal characteristics help us function
successfully in cross-cultural situations.
✓ They are “must haves” for career success.
✓ Perception management – a person must be inquisitive and curious about cultural
differences and be flexible and nonjudgmental when interpreting and dealing with
situations in which differences are at play.
✓ Relationship management – a person must be genuinely interested in others, sensitive to
their emotions and feelings, and able to make personal adjustments while engaging in
cross-cultural interactions.
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Teaching Notes
In this section, ideas, exercises, and assignments are provided to assist you in integrating the
concepts in Exploring Management for your students, especially the special features of the text.
Management Live: Discrimination fears over social media use in hiring
Yes, so we’ve all been warned about the damage to our reputations and careers from
inappropriate social media activity. But what about the job search transaction itself? When so
many recruiters are checking the social media histories of job applicants, there may be more at
Ask students: If a recruiter can’t legally ask an interviewee “Are you married or pregnant?” or
“What is your sexual preference?” what are the legalities of finding answers to these questions
from the Internet? And if recruiters get social media information on one candidate but not on
another, does this amount to discrimination that both aren’t being treated equally?
Ethics Check: Fair-Trade fashion
Perhaps you’re one of a growing number of consumers who like to shop “fair trade.” Does it feel
good when you buy coffee, for example, that is certified as grown by persons who were paid
fairly for their labor? But what about clothing? The “You Decide” questions ask: Are you
Facts to Consider: Employee Disengagement Varies Among World Cultures
The Gallup organization regularly measures employee engagement around the world. One recent
result showed the following rankings in respect to employees who self report as “actively
disengaged” from their work.
• Australia and New Zealand – 16%
• United States and Canada – 18%
Discuss why disengagement in the Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada, is
less than that reported in the other regions. Could there be a cultural explanation for the results,
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
or is it more an economic issue? Ask students if they are surprised that even the best countries
report 16% active disengagement?
Hot Topic: Explanations vary for motherhood wage gap
The difference in earnings between mothers and non-mothers is called the “motherhood wage
gap.” Where and why does it exist? The answer to question one is pretty much everywhere.
Some findings from world surveys indicate that it is higher in developing than developed
countries, that it increases with size of family, and that it tends to fall with the presence of female
versus male children. So, what about question two – why does it exist at all?
Ask students if they would you agree that the “motherhood wage gap” is a real issue in our
society and discuss possible explanations? Do they view this whole issue with a sense of
optimism or pessimism, and why?
Quick Case: Silent Team Members
The course instructor assigned teams to complete a case study in two parts spaced two weeks
apart. Part A requires a preliminary oral presentation; Part B requires a final presentation and
written report. Your team has five members, including two internationals from Japan and
Indonesia. The team held three face-to-face meetings to finish Part A. The internationals were
What can you say and do at this meeting to set the stage for higher performance on Part B? How
might team dynamics and cross-cultural diversity have contributed to the Part A results? What
insights from cultural models might explain the behavior of your international teammates? How
can they be fully engaged so that the team takes best advantage of all of talents going forward?
What role can you play during future team meetings to help accomplish this goal?
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Explore Yourself: Diversity Maturity
Today’s organizations and the nature of our global workforce demand diversity maturity
from anyone who is serious about career success. Being mature about diversity means being
able to answer a confident “yes” to questions such as these:
• Do you accept responsibility for improving your performance?
• Do you understand diversity concepts?
Terms to Define
Biculturalism
Cultural intelligence
Ethnic or national subcultures
Ethnocentrism
Inclusivity
Individualism—collectivism
Intercultural Competencies
Masculinity-femininity
Monochronic culture
Polychronic culture
Power distance
Proxemics
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 4th edition Instructor’s Manual
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. Which statement is most consistent with arguments that diversity is good for -organizations?
2. When members of minority cultures feel that they have to behave similar to the ways of the
majority culture, this tendency is called ______________
3. The beliefs that older workers are not creative and prefer routine, low-stress jobs are stereotypes
that might create bad feelings among members of different ______________subcultures in
4. Among the three leadership approaches to diversity identified by Thomas, which one is primarily
directed at making sure that minorities and women are hired by the organization?
5. Pluralism and the absence of discrimination and prejudice in policies and practices are two
important hallmarks of ______________.
6. The term ______________helps describe an organization that fully integrates members of
minority cultures and majority cultures.
7. When members of the marketing department stick close to one another, as well as share jokes and
8. When someone experiences culture shock on a study abroad trip, the first stage is likely to be one
of anxiety caused by confusion in the new cultural setting. What is the next stage in culture
shock?
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 4th edition Instructor’s Manual
9. When dealing with proxemics as a silent language of culture, what is the issue of most concern?
10. In ______________cultures, members tend to do one thing at a time; in _________cultures,
members tend to do many things at once.
11. When a foreign visitor to India attends a dinner and criticizes as “primitive” the local custom of
eating with one’s fingers, he or she can be described as acting in a/an ______________way.
12. In a high-context culture we would expect to find ______________.
(a) low uncertainty avoidance
13. It is common in Malaysian culture for people to value teamwork and to display great respect for
authority. Hofstede would describe this culture as high in both ______________.
14. On which dimension of national culture did the United States score highest and Japan score
highest in Hofstede’s original survey research?
16. If someone commits what Hofstede calls the “ecological fallacy,” what are they likely to be
doing?
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Edition
Short-Response Questions:
16. What is the difference between valuing diversity and managing diversity?
17. How can subculture differences create diversity challenges in organizations?
18. If you were asked to give a short class presentation on the “silent languages” of culture, what
cultural issues would you talk about and what examples would you give?
The anthropologist Edward Hall identified communication context, time, and space as silent
languages of culture. High-context cultures rely on nonverbal and situational cues as well as
the spoken word to convey messages, whereas low-context cultures are more focused on what
19. In what ways can the power distance dimension of national culture become an important
issue in management?
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Edition
Integration and Application Questions:
20. A friend in West Virginia owns a small manufacturing firm employing about 50 workers. His
son spent a semester in Japan as an exchange student. Upon return, he said to his dad: “Boy,
the Japanese really do things right; everything is organized in teams; decisions are made by
consensus, with everyone participating; no one seems to disagree with anything the bosses
say. I think we should immediately start more teamwork and consensus decision making in
our factory.”
Questions: The friend asks you for advice. Using insights from Hofstede’s framework, what
would you say to him? What differences in the Japanese and American cultures should be
considered in this situation, and why?
The friend must recognize that the cultural differences between the United States and Japan
may affect the success of group-oriented work practices such as quality circles and work
Self-Assessment 16: Diversity Awareness
Instructions
Indicate “O” for often, “S” for sometimes, and “N” for never in response to each of the following
questions as they pertain to where you work or go to school.
1. How often have you heard jokes or remarks about other people that you consider offensive?
2. How often do you hear men “talk down” to women in an attempt to keep them in an inferior
status?
3. How often have you felt personal discomfort as the object of sexual harassment?
4. How often do you work or study with persons of different ethnic or national cultures?
5. How often have you felt disadvantaged because members of ethnic groups other than yours
were given special treatment?
6. How often have you seen a woman put in an uncomfortable situation because of unwelcome
advances by a man?
7. How often does it seem that African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, women, men, and
members of other minority demographic groups seem to “stick together” during work breaks or
other leisure situations?
8. How often do you feel uncomfortable about something you did and/or said to someone of the
opposite sex or a member of an ethnic or racial group other than yours?
9. How often do you feel efforts are made in this setting to raise the level of cross-cultural
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Edition
understanding among people who work and/or study together?
10. How often do you step in to communicate concerns to others when you feel actions and/or
words are used to the disadvantage of minorities?
Interpretation
There are no correct answers for the Diversity Awareness Checklist. The key issue is the extent
to which you are sensitive to diversity issues in the workplace or university. Are you comfortable
with your responses? How do you think others in your class responded? Why not share your
responses with others and examine different viewpoints on this important issue?
Class Exercise 16: Alligator River Story
Read this story.
Instructions
1. After reading the story, rank the five characters in the story beginning with the one you
consider the most offensive and ending with the one you consider the least objectionable.
2. Form groups as assigned by your instructor (at least four persons per group with gender
mixed). Each group should
3. After completing the prior steps, discuss in the group the outcomes and reasons for agreement
or disagreement on the rankings. Pay particular attention to any patterns that emerge.
4. Have a spokesperson be prepared to discuss the results of the exercise and the discussion
within your group with the rest of the class.
Team Project 16: Job Satisfaction Around the World
Question
Does job satisfaction vary around the world, and does it reflect differences in national cultures?
Instructions
1. Gather together recent reports on job satisfaction among workers in the United States.
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Edition
Suggested Team Exercise for Chapter 16
Community Involvement Exercise
Break the class into teams of three or four and ask each group to identify how many “cultures”
and/or “subcultures” are in their group? These may be related to ethnic, religious, age, gender,
etc. differences. Have them develop a list and then share it with the entire class.
Ask them to discuss how may in their group can speak and read more than one language?