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1 – 10 of over 44000Primary data based on 1,083 observations were analyzed to examine the reactions and perceptions of male and female employees across categories about workforce diversity status in…
Abstract
Primary data based on 1,083 observations were analyzed to examine the reactions and perceptions of male and female employees across categories about workforce diversity status in Indian organizations. Results indicated the prevalence of gender and category (racial) discrimination in Indian organizations. Male employees rated female employees less qualified, less competent, and less productive than females rated themselves. General category employees perceived that minority and socially disadvantaged employees were less competent and productive. Almost all employees believed that minority, socially disadvantaged, and disabled employees were provided with comparatively less organizational support in terms of working facilities, promotions, and salary increases. Even females of the general category believed that they had less chance of receiving working facilities, promotions, and salary increases than males from the general category. Further, each category of employees believed themselves to be more important than others. Females from all the categories valued diversity more highly than males. Females from the general category and both males and females from minority, disabled, and socially disadvantaged categories placed higher value on employers’ efforts to promote diversity compared with general category males.
Jackie Marshall Arnold and Mary-Kate Sableski
To describe the development of a rubric for identifying diversity in children’s literature to inform literature selection for classroom instruction. Drawing on research literature…
Abstract
To describe the development of a rubric for identifying diversity in children’s literature to inform literature selection for classroom instruction. Drawing on research literature and data collection reporting the need for increased awareness of the use of diverse children’s literature in elementary and middle school classrooms, we designed and field-tested a rubric for use in identifying diversity in children’s literature. Using constant comparative methods to identify themes in the data, we continually refined the categories in a rubric designed to guide the selection of diverse children’s literature. Content analysis of children’s literature for diverse elements informed the development of the rubric categories. The results of this study produced a field-tested rubric that can be utilized by classroom teachers and researchers to guide their literature selections with the goal of representing increased diversity. Findings demonstrated that a rubric with four clearly defined categories was more user-friendly to classroom teachers, and that applying the rubric when discussing children’s literature led to conversation and collaboration among colleagues. This study demonstrated that the rubric can be applied to literature selections with classroom teachers and can be used to stimulate conversation about diversity in children’s literature as it applies to the classroom context. This chapter’s rubric provides a useful tool for classroom teachers. Teachers can use this tool to assist them in selecting diverse children’s literature for their classrooms. Administrators and literacy coaches can use this rubric as a way to stimulate conversation surrounding diverse children’s literature.
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Raj Singh Badhesha, James M. Schmidtke, Anne Cummings and Scott D. Moore
This paper aims to examine the effects of watching a video providing knowledge about either a Sikh student or an older student on participants' knowledge about each particular…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of watching a video providing knowledge about either a Sikh student or an older student on participants' knowledge about each particular group, their attitudes towards that group.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a pre‐post experimental design and examined the effects of diversity awareness training using a short web‐based video.
Findings
Results indicated that watching a Sikh video significantly increased knowledge of Sikhs and had a marginally significant effect on improving attitudes toward that target group. Additionally, White participants experienced a greater positive attitude change towards Sikhs than non‐White participants. There were no significant effects on knowledge or attitude change for older individuals. However, watching either video was associated with a decline in participants' multiculturalism attitudes.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that further work is needed on the effects of specifically focused diversity training as well as more general multicultural training. The study only examined short‐term change in participants' knowledge and attitudes: more research is needed to examine the long‐term effects of diversity training.
Practical implications
The results indicate that organizations should perform some type of need assessment prior to conducting diversity training because narrowly focused diversity training is not likely to have generalized effects.
Originality/value
The paper should interest academics and practitioners since there is very little research that has examined how diversity training works and whether it is effective.
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Henriett Primecz and Jasmin Mahadevan
Using intersectionality and introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, this paper aims to discuss how diversity is applicable to changing…
Abstract
Purpose
Using intersectionality and introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, this paper aims to discuss how diversity is applicable to changing cultural contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a conceptual paper built upon relevant empirical research findings from critical cross-cultural management studies.
Findings
By applying intersectionality as a conceptual lens, this paper underscores the practical and conceptual limitations of the business case for diversity, in particular in a culturally diverse international business (IB) setting. Introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, the authors identify the need to investigate and manage diversity across distinct categories, and as intersecting with culture, context and power.
Research limitations/implications
This paper builds on previous empirical research in critical cross-cultural management studies using intersectionality as a conceptual lens and draws implications for diversity management in an IB setting from there. The authors add to the critique of the business case by showing its failures of identifying and, consequently, managing diversity, equality/equity and inclusion (DEI) in IB settings.
Practical implications
Organizations (e.g. MNEs) are enabled to clearly see the limitations of the business case and provided with a conceptual lens for addressing DEI issues in a more contextualized and intersectional manner.
Originality/value
This paper introduces intersectionality, as discussed and applied in critical cross-cultural management studies, as a conceptual lens for outlining the limitations of the business case for diversity and for promoting DEI in an IB setting in more complicated, realistic and relevant ways.
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Xiaosong Dong, Hanqi Tu, Hanzhe Zhu, Tianlang Liu, Xing Zhao and Kai Xie
This study aims to explore the opposite effects of single-category versus multi-category products information diversity on consumer decision making. Further, the authors…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the opposite effects of single-category versus multi-category products information diversity on consumer decision making. Further, the authors investigate the moderating role of three categories of visitors – direct, hesitant and hedonic – in the relationship between product information diversity and consumer decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
The research utilizes a sample of 1,101,062 product click streams from 4,200 consumers. Visitors are clustered using the k-means algorithm. The diversity of information recommendations for single and multi-category products is characterized using granularity and dispersion, respectively. Empirical analysis is conducted to examine their influence on the two-stage decision-making process of heterogeneous online visitors.
Findings
The study reveals that the impact of recommended information diversity on consumer decision making differs significantly between single-category and multiple-category products. Specifically, information diversity in single-category products enhances consumers' click and purchase intention, while information diversity in multiple-category products reduces consumers' click and purchase intention. Moreover, based on the analysis of online visiting heterogeneity, hesitant, direct and hedonic features enhance the positive impact of granularity on consumer decision making; while direct features exacerbate the negative impact of dispersion on consumer decision making.
Originality/value
First, the article provides support for studies related to information cocoon. Second, the research contributes evidence to support the information overload theory. Third, the research enriches the field of precision marketing theory.
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Subhash C. Kundu and Archana Mor
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employee perceptions of diversity (i.e. significance of diversity and diversity management, and value of diversity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employee perceptions of diversity (i.e. significance of diversity and diversity management, and value of diversity practices employed) and perceived organizational performance. It also attempts to examine whether the perceptions of diversity vary among employees from different diversity backgrounds (i.e. across gender and categories) in Indian IT industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data based on 402 respondents were analysed using statistical tools like factor analysis, correlations, analysis of variance, means, grand means, and regression.
Findings
Results indicated that employees irrespective of their diversity backgrounds positively acknowledged diversity and diversity management. However, limited but significant differences were observed among employee perceptions regarding valuing the diversity practices employed based on their diversity backgrounds. Further, employees’ perception of promotion of gender diversity was found to be positively related to perceived organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
This paper relied on self-report surveys for data collection. Future studies should collect data using multiple methods to avoid common-method bias. As the sample was drawn from India, specifically from IT industry, the conclusions may not be generalized to other industries. Future studies may be conducted across industries covering different cultural settings.
Practical implications
Implications are first, that, in addition to investing in initiatives for promoting diversity, especially gender diversity, organizations need to ensure positive perceptibility of these initiatives by employees. Second, to foster acceptance and effectiveness of gender/diversity initiatives in organizations, managers need to ensure men and majority group employees are part of these initiatives. Third, IT industry needs to reassess their hiring strategies and should design diversity programmes with goals in mind, if not quotas, to hire and retain diverse employees to explore their potential contribution.
Originality/value
Inclusion of employees of Indian IT industry of different categories will definitely add value to the existing knowledge on diversity, management theory, and practice.
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E. Holly Buttner and William Latimer Tullar
Workforce analytics is an evolving measurement approach in human resource (HR) planning and strategy implementation. Workforce analytics can help organizations manage one of their…
Abstract
Purpose
Workforce analytics is an evolving measurement approach in human resource (HR) planning and strategy implementation. Workforce analytics can help organizations manage one of their most important resources: their human capital. The purpose of this paper is to propose a diversity metric, called the D-Metric, as a new tool for HR planning. The D-Metric can be used to assess the demographic representativeness of employees across skill categories of an organization’s workforce compared to its relevant labor markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present a real example and discuss possible applications of the D-Metric in HRM strategic planning and diversity research.
Findings
The D-Metric is a statistic useful in assessing demographic representativeness in the occupational categories of an organization’s workforce compared to the demographics of its relevant labor markets. The methodology could be implemented to assess an organization’s work force representativeness on dimensions such as race, sex, age and pay levels. When the labor market is unitary, without measurable variance, a substitute metric, the U-Metric also presented in this paper, can be used.
Research limitations/implications
Use of the D-Metric requires publicly available labor market data with variance across labor market segments.
Originality/value
There currently is no published metric that evaluates the representativeness of an organization’s work force relative to its relevant labor markets. Many organizations seek a demographically representative workforce to better understand their diverse customer segments. Monitoring the representativeness of an organization’s work force, as captured in Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO-1) forms in the USA, for example, is an important component of HR management strategy. From a legal perspective, the D-Metric or the alternative U-Metric, could be useful in showing progress toward a demographically representative work force.
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Experienced reviewers in general can produce high-quality product reviews, and thereby get more helpful votes. This paper explores the question that whether the depth and width of…
Abstract
Purpose
Experienced reviewers in general can produce high-quality product reviews, and thereby get more helpful votes. This paper explores the question that whether the depth and width of the reviewers' experience distribution have effects on the helpfulness of their reviews.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting the restaurant review data from Yelp, the present paper classifies the restaurants in to different categories applying the Word2Vec technique, such as Asian or fast food. By evaluating the number of a user's historical reviews in a specific category, and the evenness of such distribution in different categories, the experience specialty and experience diversity are defined respectively.
Findings
The analysis shows that users specialised in a given category can produce more helpful reviews in that category. The users with diverse historical experience, i.e. have posted reviews for many categories, also can produce helpful reviews. In addition, the experience diversity shows a positive moderation effect on the influence of experience specialty. Thus, users with diverse experience while specialized in a particular category are the source of most helpful reviews.
Originality/value
While previous studies mostly consider the raw number of historical reviews as a reviewer's experience, we distinguish such experience by product category and focus on the width and depth of its distribution. The results not only shed lights on the mining of high-quality reviews and reviewers but also provide insights on the management of online review platforms and electronic marketing.
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Helen Abdali Soosan Fagan, Brooke Wells, Samantha Guenther and Gina S. Matkin
The impending demographic shift in the United States (Vespa et al., 2020) will require leadership educators to reexamine the relationship between diversity and inclusive…
Abstract
The impending demographic shift in the United States (Vespa et al., 2020) will require leadership educators to reexamine the relationship between diversity and inclusive leadership. Our literature review revealed inclusive leadership has historically not been viewed with a diversity perspective. To better understand the link between diversity and inclusive leadership, we reviewed how leadership scholars, researchers, and authors have described the attributes and impacts of inclusive leaders. Through inductive coding, we identified seven attributes (i.e., characteristics and actions) of inclusive leaders. When these attributes are acted upon, inclusive leaders create various impacts on followers. These impacts are applied to Shore et al.’s (2011) inclusion framework. Both the attributes and impacts are presented to provide information and tools to better equip leadership educators with the knowledge to foster classroom inclusion in diverse classroom environments.
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Mahmood Momin and Sabrina Chong
The purpose of this study is to examine how visual elements along with textual narratives are used to disclose workplace diversity-related information in corporate social and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how visual elements along with textual narratives are used to disclose workplace diversity-related information in corporate social and environmental reports.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative content analysis is used to examine the workplace diversity-related information in the 2016 standalone sustainability/corporate responsibility reports of 47 Fortune companies. A total of 539 tables, figures and photographs and their related textual narratives are analysed through an impression management lens.
Findings
The study finds that multiple types of visual elements are used to supplement textual narratives to communicate workplace diversity-related messages. The positive and often non-verifiable workplace diversity-related information is symbolically suggestive of the companies’ workplace diversity commitment and success. While tables and figures are typically presented using numbers, percentages and words to enhance and promote the positive information, the “feel-good” photographs are used to arouse positive feelings in the readers. These visual elements are presented in either a single-visual or mixed-visual presentation form.
Practical implications
This study has the potential to inform and assist preparers in the use of multiple visual elements and textual narratives to promote an impartial and substantive reporting of workplace diversity-related information. Understanding the motivation behind the usage and presentation of visual elements can be useful for the promulgation of guidelines for workplace diversity disclosure, and make readers aware that the visual elements can be exploited for impression management and symbolic legitimacy.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence on the use of multiple types of visual elements in the reporting of workplace diversity-related information. It demonstrates how these visual elements are strategically used and presented to deliver an impression of workplace diversity to the readers.
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