Chapter 12 is an entire chapter devoted to diversity. It explains exactly what diversity is, common mistakes in dealing with diversity, what are the individual differences associated with diversity and finally how to manage a diverse work force. Diversity is a variety of demographic, cultural, and personal differences among people who work in an organization and the customers who do business there. The main misconception is that diversity is interchangeable with affirmative action. However, that statement is far off basis.
Diversity is much more in depth because it deals with a wider variety of contributing factors. The chapter talks about the individual differences associated with diversity. These factors include surface level differences such as age, gender, race, and physical disabilities. There are also deep level differences such as personality, attitudes and values. Finally, the chapter discusses how to manage diverse working environments. They introduce methods such as: 1) The discrimination and fairness method, 2) The access and legitimacy method, and finally 3) The learning and effectiveness method.
They also mention some types of training that are already out there to help diverse working environments work as a whole, from the top positions to the lowest positions. What Would You Do II The question that Avon, the worldwide distributor of makeup and personal products to women, has is whether to choose a man or a woman for the new position of CEO in the company. Of the six candidates for the position, four of them are women. Avon has a high percentage of women in managerial positions, more so than any other Fortune 500 company, but they have never had a female CEO.
Now my decision is whether or not to choose one of the male candidates or one of the female candidates. Personally, I believe that a woman should be chosen for the position. All of the people mentioned seemed that they are qualified to hold such a distinguished position among the company. In such a diverse working environment, it would be good for a company to have a female CEO leading the way. Also, it seems even more acceptable since Avon is a company that is primarily for women. Who better to run a company for women than a woman herself?
Besides, men are always wondering what it is that women really want. Only a woman truly knows what a woman wants. It isnt exactly sexist in any way because there are still men at high positions such as on the board that can contribute and not feel as though they are a minority and their ideas have no true meaning. According to the Employment Policy Foundation (EPF), the total number of full time, year round management jobs held by women in 2000 was 5. 5 million – a 58 percent increase compared to 1991. Women now hold 40 percent of all management jobs, up from 36 percent in 1991.
Obviously, this number must increase to imply a truly diverse working environment throughout the nation and the world. So why not start with Avon. After reading this section and making my decision I was curious if Avon had selected its new CEO. It turns out that they had and HER name is Andrea Jung, a 39-year-old Princeton Graduate who earned her reputation as an executive at Bloomingdales. Article Critique In the June 1999 issue of Fast Company, Russ Mitchell wrote an article called How to Manage Geeks. The article was written about Eric Schmidt, CEO of Novell Inc.
Schmidt, in the article refers to his computer techies as geeks and how he goes about managing them for the benefit of the company as well as the techies themselves. Schmidt goes on to say that in order to keep his employees happy he must get to know them, make their accomplishments well known, special types of promotions such as becoming a distinguished engineer, find innovative ways to motivate them, not critique them himself but let other techies critique them, and finally keep groups small for a larger group could inversely effect the outcome of the final project.
Schmidt has turned around Novel since his arrival and his management of geeks is a big part of the companys success. Schmidt has pointed out, just as in chapter 12, that diversity can be important. He deals with the deep level diversity of all his techies such as their attitudes, personalities, as well as their beliefs. He also deals with some of the surface level diversity such as stereotyping of his employees. Schmidt has also mastered the diversity methods of management, the diversity principles and the diversity training and practices mentioned in chapter 12.
