We study minority representation in the workplace when employers engage in optimal sequential search and minorities convey noisier signals of ability than mainstream job candidates. The greater signal noise makes it harder for minorities to change employers' prior beliefs. When employers are selective, this leads to minority underrepresentation in the workplace. Diversity improves when the cost of interviewing, the average skill level of candidates, or the opportunity cost of not hiring increases. Reducing the cost of firing also increases minority representation. When employers are sufficiently unselective, the rigidity of employers' beliefs leads to overrepresentation of minorities. (JEL D83, J15, J24, J71, M12, M51)
This article reports on a study of gender and race issues in the regional office of a federal agency. After setting their own research agenda of salient issues, employees completed a long, closed-ended questionnaire; a smaller sample also responded to ten open-ended questions. The results suggest that men, women, and people of color in the agency do not share a common culture of organizational life; instead, each group organizes its experience in the agency in different ways. The authors suggest that a theoretical perspective in which gender and race are viewed as cultures provides a useful framework for understanding cultural diversity in the workplace and a necessary starting point for managing a diverse workforce.
In the changing demographics of American society, workplace diversity is today's reality. Organisations that refuse to recognise this fact risk failure in the future. Managing diversity is a business issue, not a moral, social, or legal concern. The challenge is not creating a diverse workforce, but empowering one. It is about enlightening managers to persuade a diverse workforce to raise its productivity by utilising all members to their fullest potential, thereby increasing profitability or effectiveness. Diversity refers not just to race and gender, but encompasses differences such as ages, merged companies, union/non‐union, exempt/non‐exempt, organisational newcomers and organisational oldtimers. The goal is to get the level of performance from a heterogeneous group that was formerly attained by the homogeneous group. Learning to manage diversity makes companies more competitive. In order to effectively manage diversity, organisational culture change is usually necessary.
PurposeGiven the growing importance of the Hispanic population in the USA, the increasing presence of this minority at all organizational levels, and the possibility that different subcultures would value different traits when hiring, the purpose of this research was to determine if there were culture‐related differences in the importance placed on 26 job applicant attributes by Hispanics and non‐Hispanics who were involved in hiring.Design/methodology/approachThis study compares the importance ratings of 26 job selection attributes by Hispanic and non‐Hispanic respondents to determine the hiring criteria that are important to each group, and to see if differences are statistically significant.FindingsSignificant differences in mean rating scores were found in 13 of the 26 criteria. The Hispanic sample attached greater importance to subjective traits, while the non‐Hispanic group had higher ratings for objectively‐assessed traits.Practical implicationsGiven organizational efforts to increase diversity and changing demographics in the US workforce, the results of this study should prove useful to individuals and organizations in the private and public sectors. The findings show that Hispanic and non‐Hispanic respondents had significantly different perceptions with regard to the importance of certain hiring criteria and hence, may assess candidates differently because of what they consider important.Originality/valueThese findings should lead to better understanding among US subcultures, help organizations manage cultural diversity, assist academicians in preparing students for business careers, and improve the matching process between hiring organizations and job applicants.
