Diversity training pitfalls and possibilities: An exploration of small and mid-size US organizations

Abstract

This qualitative, exploratory study examines the development and implementation of diversity training in small and mid-size organizations in a Midwestern region of the United States. The results are contrasted with diversity best practices and found lacking in key elements identified as most likely to yield success. Specifically, the organizations in this study did not provide training beyond awareness level, failed to conduct front-end needs assessment, provided little if any in-depth evaluation of diversity training and showed varying support for diversity endeavors from the leadership and through connecting diversity training with other systemic initiatives. The article concludes with recommendations for additional exploration of adapting effective diversity training practices to minimize pitfalls and maximize possibilities in small and mid-size systems.     

Does Ethnic Diversity Mean Cultural Diversity?

This paper examines the degree of cultural diversity between two ethnic groups in South Florida. The cultural attitudes and causal attributions for unethical work behavior of 269 Anglo and Hispanic business graduate students and of 255 Anglo and Hispanic business executives were investigated. Findings from t-test comparisons for both of these samples suggest a strong agreement between Hispanics and Anglos in their individualism and collectivism orientation, as well as in their process of justifying potentially unethical decisions. Implications for theory, research and practices will be discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

团队虚拟性的维度研究

为了解决不同的虚拟性定义导致无法准确地衡量团队虚拟程度及其对绩效的影响,在分析国外团队虚拟性研究的基础上,提出了虚拟性三维模型:对虚拟工具的依赖程度、沟通的信息丰富度以及团队成员的多样化程度,并分析了三者之间的关系;指出此三维模型对管理理论和实践的影响。     

Technical rationality and professional artistry in HRD practice

Abstract

This paper outlines the limitations of a technical rationalist approach to HRD practice without seeking to negate it. It then offers a complementary view based on Schon's notion of the reflective practitioner which exhorts HRD practitioners to embrace complexity and reflection. We outline, first, a number of dimensions of diversity which confer complexity upon HRD practice, and, second, a series of suggested questions that may aid the framing of practical problems in a more effective way than might be the case with a purely technical rationalist approach. We urge novice (and expert) HRD practitioners to adopt a mind set that is contemplative of the diversities that they may encounter in practice and which is conjectural with regard to how these diversities may impact upon problems and their solutions.     

Determinants of group-level overconfidence in teams: A quasi-experimental investigation of diversity and tenure

Teams of business leaders make most strategic decisions in organizations. However, although a large body of research has analyzed cognitive biases of individual leaders, little is known about how those biases affect teams on the group level. Therefore, on the basis of research into group decision making and group diversity, we analyze demographic diversity and group tenure as two important determinants of overconfidence in groups. We report findings from a quasi-experimental field study involving 46 management teams, which suggest that diversity and tenure have separate, direct effects on group overconfidence. More specifically, we show that demographic diversity reduces group overconfidence, while group tenure increases it. These findings add a dynamic dimension to the conceptualization of group overconfidence in teams.     

团队两种多样性、互动行为与学习能力关系的研究

团队学习的研究重点已由基本问题界定(定义、类型等)扩展到对其机理(前因、后果关系等)的详尽探讨,但团队多样性与团队学习关系的研究尚显不足。本文定义了团队目标偏好多样性与知识经验多样性两个概念,之后详细探讨两种多样性如何影响团队学习能力。实证研究结果显示:团队目标偏好多样性越高,团队学习能力越弱;团队知识经验多样性越高,团队学习能力越强;两种导向的互动行为是调节多样性与团队学习能力关系的重要变量,当事实导向互动行为与情感导向互动行为比较多时,目标偏好多样性对团队学习能力的负向影响作用减弱,知识经验多样性对团队学习能力的正向影响作用增强;两种多样性通过团队学习能力的中介作用而间接影响团队绩效。     

The Determinants and Effects of Board Nomination Committees*

This article assesses the corporate governance-related antecedents of nomination committee adoption, and the impact of nomination committees’ existence and their composition on board independence and board demographic diversity. We conducted a longitudinal study of board composition amongst 210 Swiss public companies from January 2001 through December 2003, a period during which the Swiss (Stock) Exchange (SWX) introduced new corporate governance-related disclosure guidelines. We find firms with nomination committees are more likely to have a higher number of independent and foreign directors, but not more likely to have a higher number of female board members. Further, the existence of nomination committees is associated with a higher degree of nationality diversity but is not related to board educational diversity. We also find that nomination committee composition matters in the nomination of independent and foreign, but not of female directors. Our results suggest that understanding different board roles and composition require a multi-theoretical approach, and that agency theory, resource-dependence theory and group effectiveness theory help to explain different aspects of board composition and effectiveness. Finally, the article discusses the concept of diversity and appropriate ways to study diversity in a boardroom context. * The Editor acknowledges that Hans van Ees, Morten Huse, and Jonas Gabrielsson – convenors of the EURAM (European Academy of Management) Corporate Governance track in 2004 – acted as Co-Editors on this paper.     

Investor response to appointment of female CEOs and CFOs

We study the impact of appointing women to top executive positions from an investor perspective. We analyze whether shareholders value announcement of appointment of women to top positions differently than they do appointment of men. This study uses an international sample of 100 announcements of top executive appointments of women who replace men and investigates how shareholders respond to such appointments. This research combines an event study with a matched pair analysis to compare the response from investors regarding appointment of female versus male CEOs and CFOs. We establish that investors do not seem to value appointment of women significantly differently from that of men. This finding suggests that, from the investor perspective, there appears to be no business case for a particular gender when it comes to appointing a CEO or CFO.     

Higher Education's Role in the Dialogue on Race

The university is a logical locus for discussionof the role race has played in our society. Perhaps noAmerican institution is more committed to free andopen dialogue than the university. Higher educationcan thus provide a context for the recognition ofissues as well as a forum for the resolution ofinitiatives. To date, however, university attempts atdiversity training have often imbued recipients withself-consciousness, usurping the unity implicit in theword `university' and evoking an even greater tendencytoward separatism. The university's traditional questfor truth has been subverted by a subtle and pervasivesense that some views are more correct than others,that openness is dangerous, and that some issues mighteven be taboo. At best, such an approach to diversityleads to a fragile stalemate among self-containedenclaves. By championing President Clinton's call fora dialogue on race, the university can restore itselfas an institution that puts honesty above all else.Not only is there a resonant rationale for theuniversity's central responsibility in this debate,but there is also a pedagogical means by which itsrole can be realized. This paper proposes a model forethnic dialogue relevant to either a text-based orissues-based class. Borrowing from pedagogy developedin professional schools, we believe that the tenets ofthe `case method' can create a climate conducive tothe substantive scrutiny of race, ethnicity, andprejudice in general. We argue that this dialogueshould not be a mere add-on to college life, butintegrated into existing curricula in the socialsciences, literature, and history. Heated debate canthen occur without anger, and race/ethnicity can bediscussed without fear of recrimination.Paradoxically, the very expression of ethnicity may bethe catalyst that eventually moves multiculturalismtoward interculturalism – where differences are nolonger articulated, measurable or even discernible.     

Board leadership structure and diversity over CEO time in office: A test of the evolutionary perspective on Italian firms

An evolutionary perspective on CEO-board relations suggests that CEO objectives and interests change over time, and that board roles should shift accordingly, from CEO leadership development during the early stages of CEO time in office toward monitoring during the latest stages. This study examines how two board characteristics, board leadership structure and board diversity, shape innovation investment among Italian firms. Empirical results support the hypothesized effects, suggesting that the board’s effects are contingent upon CEO time in office.     

A Theory of Diversity

How can diversity be measured? What does it mean to value biodiversity? Can we assist Noah in constructing his preferences? To address these questions, we propose a multi‐attribute approach under which the diversity of a set of species is the sum of the values of all attributes possessed by some species in the set. We develop the basic intuitions and requirements for a theory of diversity and show that the multi‐attribute approach satisfies them in a flexible yet tractable manner. A natural starting point is to think of the diversity of a set as an aggregate of the pairwise dissimilarities between its elements. The multi‐attribute framework allows one to make this program formally precise. It is shown that the program can be realized if and only if the family of relevant attributes is well‐ordered (“acyclic”). Moreover, there is a unique functional form aggregating dissimilarity into diversity, the length of a minimum spanning tree. Examples are taxonomic hierarchies and lines representing uni‐dimensional qualities. In multi‐dimensional settings, pairwise dissimilarity information among elements is insufficient to determine their diversity. By consequence, the qualitative and quantitative behavior of diversity differs fundamentally.     

Employee demographics and job training satisfaction: the relationship between dimensions of diversity and satisfaction with job training

Human resource development professionals serve many diverse populations of learners in the workplace. They do so with limited resources which leads to a dilemma: How to most effectively and efficiently meet the needs of all learners in the workplace, given the different job duties, backgrounds, skills and abilities of each learner. This empirical study examines job training satisfaction among customer and technical service employees in nine different organizations in the US and Canada. The study concluded that there were no differences in job training satisfaction when examined with dimensions of diversity such as age groups, gender and race/ethnicity. There were differences in job training satisfaction, however, when examined with job type, job status, and job tenure.     

包容性领导研究述评与展望

工作场所中的员工多样化使得包容性管理日益受到重视,作为包容性管理核心之一的包容性领导也因此得到广泛关注.鉴于此,首先对包容性和包容性管理进行了回顾;然后,对包容性领导理论、构念、影响因素和作用等进行了深入阐述,并结合中国情境,进一步提出包容性领导的二维结构及可能测量方式;最后,提出了中国情境下包容性领导的未来研究方向,以期对今后的相关研究有所借鉴.     

Workforce localization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: issues and challenges

Despite some progress, the issue of equality at work remains more of an aspiration than achievement for organizations in developed economies across the world. In the UK, the debate on equality at work has been rekindled with a Labour government taking office, in 1997, with a commitment to equality generally and for women specifically. Fuelling the debate is the notion of managing diversity, which has emanated from the USA in recent years. This article seeks to explore the current nature of equality at work in the UK and gauge if managing diversity is in any way manifest in current organizational approaches to equality management. The exploration is rooted in four case-study organizations and is conducted through the lens of key organizational stakeholders. Beyond exposing the contemporary nature of equality at work in the case-study organizations, the empirical work allows the issues involved in the implementation of managing diversity in the UK context to be signalled.     

网络商店与社区便利店的商品虚拟展示合作研究

基于消费者效用理论，考虑网络商店在社区便利店内虚拟展示商品，实施商品种类合作的策略，分析了虚拟展示合作对双方决策以及市场均衡和利润的影响。研究结果表明，虚拟展示增加了社区便利店的商品多样性，促进了零售价格的增长，但虚拟展示商品和社区便利店内实物商品的竞争导致社区便利店利润降低，使得社区便利店缺乏主动参与合作的动机。基于纳什讨价还价模型，构建了基于平均主义的利润分成协调机制，实现了社区便利店和网络商店的商品虚拟展示合作，改善了参与双方的利润。     

Understanding Uncertainty

There is more information we don't know than we do know for making most critical decisions involving risks. Our focus must be on understanding and effectively dealing with what we don't know. As a first step in achieving this focus, a classification of the types of uncertainties that must be addressed and the sources of these types of uncertainties is presented. The purpose is to provide a framework for discussion about addressing uncertainty, particularly in risk analyses.
Both uncertainty and variability of information are addressed using four main classes:

• 1) 

  Metrical uncertainty and variability in measurement,
• 2) 

  Structural uncertainty due to complexity, including models and their validation,
• 3) 

  Temporal uncertainty in future and past states
• 4) 

  Translational uncertainty in explaining uncertain results.

The factors that contribute uncertainty and error to these classes are identified, and their interrelationships indicated. Both subjective and objective aspects are addressed.     

Top Management Team Internationalization and Firm-level Internationalization: The Moderating Effects of Home-region Institutional Diversity and Firm Global Focus

The factors that determine firms' levels of internationalization remain a focal area of international business research. Within this research stream, studies building on the upper echelons theory have investigated the influence of the demographic characteristics of the top management team (TMT) on firms' international expansion. However, the literature to date has overlooked the TMT's overall degree of internationalization as a key driver of firm-level internationalization. In our paper, we argue that by having self-selected into careers abroad, foreign TMT members by definition have a higher cognitive tolerance of foreignness than domestic TMT members do. We theorize that foreign TMT members' higher cognitive tolerance for foreignness enhances the overall TMT's level of international attention and international trust, thereby facilitating strategic decisions that favor firm-level internationalization. Additionally, we propose two key contingencies that attenuate this relationship: the institutional diversity of the firm's home region and the firm's global focus. Analysis of Fortune Global 500 firms supports the hypothesized relationship between TMT internationalization and firm-level internationalization, as well as the two moderation effects.     

How does job-related diversity affect boards' strategic participation? An information-processing approach

More than ever, corporate leaders consider the presence of different skills, knowledge, and experience in their boardrooms being important for boards' involvement throughout the whole strategy process. However, even though of great practical relevance, we have limited knowledge about how such diversity affects boards' active contribution to corporate strategy. Applying information-processing theory, we explore how job-related diversity may be an important determinant for boards' strategic participation. Using a survey database collected in Norway, we find that job-related diversity contributes to boards' strategic participation through directors' use of knowledge and skills.     

基于变革型领导的职能多样性对团队内知识共享的影响研究

以146个团队数据为样本,探讨了中国情境下变革型领导对职能多样性团队内知识共享的调节影响及其内在作用机制.研究结果表明,变革型领导行为调节职能多样性与团队内知识共享间的关系,团队认同感在变革型领导行为的调节影响中起中介作用.具体而言,变革型领导行为通过提高下属团队认同感的程度增强职能多样性对团队内知识共享的正面作用,当变革型领导行为水平越高时,下属的团队认同感越高,职能多样性与知识共享的正向关系越强.     

加权折扣单机排序干扰管理模型和算法研究

为解决机器排序中由于干扰事件的发生使初始最优加工时间表无法按计划执行的问题,构建同时考虑原目标和扰动目标的双目标干扰管理模型,对初始最优加工时间表进行调整并对未完工工件进行重排序;在双目标干扰管理模型中,原目标由所有工件的加权折扣完工时间和来度量,扰动目标由重排序后工件完工时间的变化来度量;结合量子比特在表示解的多样性方面的优点和非支配排序遗传算法在处理多目标排序问题上的优点,设计一种量子遗传算法和非支配排序遗传算法相结合的启发式进化算法对构建的模型进行求解。在数值算例中,通过比较若干项针对有效解集的性能指标发现,该混合算法求得的有效解集在多样性和与最优有效前沿的邻近性等方面优于目前得到广泛应用的非支配排序遗传算法,验证了构建的模型和算法对于求解机器排序干扰管理问题的有效性。