Diversity Management and Demographic Differences-based Discrimination: The Case of Turkish Manufacturing Industry

In the late 1980s workforce became more diverse in terms of demographic changes, cultural differences and other characteristics of organizational members. This diversity was a reflection of changing global markets. Workforce diversity has both positive and negative effects on organizational performance. Therefore, it is becoming important especially for medium- and large-scale businesses. In order to manage increasingly workforce diversity and to prevent discrimination, diversity management is now considered as a major part of strategic human resource management. The purpose of this study is to establish the dimensions of discrimination that occur due to demographic differences in Turkish manufacturing industry. The findings of the research indicate that demographic characteristics, socio-cultural structure, managerial policy and behaviors, union tendency and regional differences, laws and local community, gender, educational and age differences, and political opinions have influence on discrimination. According to the results, discrimination has been observed mostly in job processes such as promotions and appointments, human resource selection, job/employment examination and interviews, and performance appraisal.     

Managing organizational ethics: How ethics becomes pervasive within organizations

This study analyzes real experiences of culture management to better understand how ethics permeates organizations. In addition to reviewing the literature, we used an action-research methodology and conducted semistructured interviews in Spain and in the U.S. to approach the complexity and challenges of fostering a culture in which ethical considerations are a regular part of business discussions and decision making. The consistency of findings suggests patterns of organizational conditions, cultural elements, and opportunities that influence the management of organizational cultures centered on core ethical values. The ethical competencies of leaders and of the workforce also emerged as key factors. We identify three conditions—a sense of responsibility to society, conditions for ethical deliberation, and respect for moral autonomy—coupled with a diverse set of cultural elements that cause ethics to take root in culture when the opportunity arises. Leaders can use this knowledge of the mechanisms by which organizational factors influence ethical pervasiveness to better manage organizational ethics.     

What leads to cultural intelligence?

The ability to interact effectively in multiple cultures is not a skill possessed by all; yet, it is becoming more important in today's global business world. Recently, this skill has been labeled cultural intelligence (CQ), and has caught the attention of business leaders and researchers alike. While previous studies have examined potential outcomes of cultural intelligence, possible antecedents are examined herein. This investigation generates some insight regarding the impact of cultural exposure on CQ, as well as developing an understanding of how the depth of cultural exposure influences a person's cultural intelligence. Findings indicate that certain types of exposures to other cultures (such as education abroad and employment abroad) and the level of exposure from these experiences increases cultural intelligence. These findings are critical for multinational firms as managers hire, promote, train, and prepare employees for international assignments. Additionally, some have discussed how cultural intelligence is a critical skill for global business leaders, and it seems likely that CQ will become increasingly important due to the rise of diversity in the workforce.     

Boundary-crossing and the localization of capabilities in a Japanese multinational firm

We conducted a case study to explore the challenges encountered by a foreign subsidiary of a Japanese multinational firm when localizing its organizational capabilities in China. Drawing on the concepts of boundaries and boundary-crossing, we identify pragmatic and cultural knowledge boundaries, which denied opportunities for the host-country employees to contribute their local expertise to augment the firm's core capabilities within the domains of research and development and operational protocols. However, within those domains that were regarded as complementary to or peripheral to the firm's core capabilities, host-country employees were granted more scope to cross the associated pragmatic boundaries.     

Sectoral Differences in Value Congruence and Job Attitudes: The Case of Nursing Home Employees

Drawing on a survey of nursing staff of nursing homes in a Midwestern state in the United States, the study examines how the relationships between employee–organization value congruence and job attitudes vary between nonprofit and for-profit organizational types. Statistical comparison of the levels of employee value congruence and job attitudes does not suggest significant difference between the two types of employees. Although value congruence is found positively associated with nursing home employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and negatively associated with intent to quit, consistent with prior research, the difference in the magnitude of the relationships between the two types of employees is not found. These findings suggest inconsistency with conventional wisdom of profiling employee value according to organizational ownership type.     

Advertising and recruitment: Marketing to minorities

Growing diversity, increasing multinationalism, and a need to better understand minority consumers make recruiting minority professionals to the workplace exceedingly important. This study examines the influences of a frequently used tool in organizational recruitment, the recruitment advertisement. Specifically, this research examines the influence of the racial composition of employees portrayed in these advertisements on a diverse sample of job‐seeker reactions. These reactions include perceptions of organizational attractiveness, perceived compatibility to the organization, and evaluations of organizational image. In addition, it was expected that the race of the perceiver, the job seeker, would moderate these relationships. Mixed support for the hypotheses was found. Implications for advertising, marketing, and recruitment research given emerging domestic diversity are offered. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Is it Spillover or Compensation? Effects of Community and Organizational Diversity Climates on Race Differentiated Employee Intent to Stay

Business ethics scholars have long viewed organizational diversity climate as a reflection of organizational ethics. Previous research on organizational diversity climate, for the most part, has neglected to consider the influence of community diversity climate on employment relations. In order to address this gap in the literature, we examined the relationship between organizational and community diversity climates in impacting employees’ intent to stay with their organization. In doing so, we tested two competing hypotheses. First, we tested for the positive spillover of community diversity climate on employees’ intent to stay in their organization. Second, we tested for the compensation hypothesis, whereby community diversity climate moderated the organizational diversity climate-employee intent to stay relationship, with the above relationship being stronger for individuals hailing from communities with poor diversity climates. In addition, we also posited a three-way interaction model of community diversity climate, organizational diversity climate, and employee racial affiliations with the interaction between organizational and community diversity climates on intent to stay being stronger for the minority employees. The results of the study, which are based on a survey of 165 employees working in a Midwestern US organization, supported the compensation hypothesis with the interactive influence of organizational and community diversity climates on employee intent to stay being stronger for minorities, as opposed to White employees.     

Organizational Value for Age Diversity and Potential Applicants’ Organizational Attraction: Individual Attitudes Matter

Using diversity climate theory and research, this paper examines the relationships among an organization’s actions which indicate a value for age diversity and potential applicants’ reactions toward that organization. Specifically, we investigate the interactive effects of an organization’s age diversity, an organization’s age diversity management practices, and potential applicants’ individual attitudes toward age diversity on two outcome variables, organizational attractiveness and expected age discrimination. We conducted an experimental survey study with a sample of 244 German employees likely to be in the job market again in their careers. Organizational age diversity and age diversity management practices were positively related to organizational attractiveness and negatively related to expected age discrimination. Results also support a three-way interaction of an organization’s age diversity, an organization’s age diversity management practices, and potential applicants’ attitudes toward age diversity on both dependent variables. The findings demonstrate the importance of considering individual attitudes toward age diversity in assessing the effectiveness of an organization’s age diversity and age diversity management practices.     

The impact of MNE cultural diversity on the internationalization-performance relationship: Theory and evidence from European multinational enterprises

Prior work has established the importance of degree of internationalization for understanding the performance of multinational enterprises. Despite all efforts, however, the relationship between degree of internationalization and firm performance (I-P) is still the subject of ongoing debate following inconclusive findings. We suggest that the international business literature has largely overlooked MNE cultural diversity as an essential determinant of the I-P relationship. We argue that the impact of the degree of internationalization on MNE performance is contingent on MNE cultural diversity. The impact of the degree of internationalization on performance is positive for MNEs that operate in culturally similar countries and negative for MNEs that operate in culturally diverse countries. Our study is among the first to examine the impact of MNE cultural diversity on the I-P relationship with a unique panel dataset from European multinationals. The results provide convincing support for our approach to the study of the degree of internationalization and MNE performance.     

Reconceptualizing cultural distance: The role of cultural experience reserve in cross-border acquisitions

Cultural distance is one of the most widely used distance construct in international business. However, scholars have long questioned the notion that cultural distance has a homogenous impact on organizational actions and performance. We redress this by examining how the relationship between cultural differences and deal abandonment in cross-border acquisitions is contingent on firm-level cultural experience reserve and industry affiliation. Drawing on the organizational learning theory and cultural friction perspective, we first propose that the cultural experience reserve of a focal firm mitigates the positive impact of cultural differences on cross-border deal abandonment. We then hypothesize that the firm's industry context affects the uncertainties associated with cultural differences. Our findings based on a sample of 197 Indian services sector firms support our theoretical predictions.     

Determinants of employees’ attitudes toward union membership in India

Drawing on data from a survey of 252 unionized full-time employees from large Indian organizations, this study examined whether individual level job related variables and individual cultural value dimensions of individualism–collectivism (I–C) were predictive of employees’ attitudes toward union membership. Using regression analysis, the author found that over and above the effects of demographic and job-related variables, work situation dissatisfaction and perceived work stress were able to predict union attitudes significantly and positively for the sample. The relationship of union attitude was highly significant and negative with a consultative managerial style. Collectivism was able to predict the union attitudes positively, whereas individualism was negatively related to the union attitudes. The interaction between employees’ perceived work stress and work situation dissatisfaction are found to have a positive influence on their union attitudes. The results and implications of findings are discussed in the paper with reference to the literature on role of cultural dimensions (I–C) and job related factors in relation to organizational outcomes like union membership.     

The Relationship of Downward Mobbing with Leadership Style and Organizational Attitudes

The present study investigates (1) the relationship of different leadership styles (transactional, transformational, authoritarian, paternalistic) with mobbing behaviors of superiors (i.e., downward mobbing) and (2) organizational attitudes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention) of mobbing victims. Data were collected from 251 white-collar employees. Path analysis findings showed that transformational and transactional leadership decreased the likelihood of mobbing, whereas authoritarian leadership increased it. Paternalistic leadership was mildly and negatively associated with mobbing. Regarding the consequences of mobbing for employees’ organizational attitudes, the same analyses suggested that higher perceptions of downward mobbing was significantly associated with lower job satisfaction, lower affective commitment, higher continuous commitment, and higher turnover intention.     

Managing relational conflict in Korean social enterprises: The role of participatory HRM practices,diversity climate,and perceived social impact

Social enterprises are hybrid organizations that primarily pursue social missions while also seeking economic gains. Drawing on workplace diversity and conflict theories, this article addresses recent calls for further research to explore how employees within social enterprises experience internal conflicts arising from the organizational pursuit of dual, competing missions (i.e., social and economic), and how social enterprises manage, and potentially overcome, these challenges. In the context of Korean social enterprise, we conducted a quantitative study that built on an initial explorative qualitative study. Our research examined whether perceived participatory human resource management practices and diversity climate increase employees’ affective commitment by reducing their relational conflict. We further explored a boundary condition, perceived social impact, which strengthened this mediation relationship. Our results offer significant insights into social enterprise, business ethics, and broader management literature. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Diversity,Leadership and Workplace Relations in Australia

Australia, as a multicultural society, faces many challenges, not the least of which is that of coping with increasing cultural diversity in the workplace, and - as the global trend continues, even accelerates, in the new millennium - managing cross-cultural issues will become more and more of a priority. The specific cultural diversity issue considered in this contribution is the relationship between perceived leadership behaviour and subordinate job satisfaction in two different cultural groups, Vietnamese and Australian. The validity of the leadership and job satisfaction theories in cultures other than the ones in which they originated is challenged, and it is argued that the change in business environments such as globalization, international mergers and acquisitions, and diverse cultural workforces has made the universal assumptions of these theories questionable.     

Educating the Global Manager

Abstract

The culturally diverse classroom would seem to be the ideal resource that educators can tap to develop their students' cross-cultural competence and bridge different cultures. However, evidence from the education literature suggests that students typically do not benefit from classroom diversity and that, in general, there is a lack of cross-cultural interactions between different cultural groups on campus. In this paper, we provide an integrated framework for developing students' cross-cultural competence by drawing on the cultural diversity in the classroom. The framework incorporates established and frequently used strategies for developing cross-cultural competence, as well as additional strategies that we have devised (such as diversity audits, self-awareness and ‘other’-awareness tools, student-generated cases and virtual linkages). We explain how this approach uses cultural diversity inherent in the classroom as a basis for students' awareness and understanding of cultural differences, knowledge of other cultures and the application of skills.     

Leaders’ Core Self-evaluation,Ethical Leadership,and Employees’ Job Performance: The Moderating Role of Employees’ Exchange Ideology

With the increasing demand for ethical standards in the current business environment, ethical leadership has received particular attention. Drawing on self-verification theory and social exchange theory, this study investigated the effect of leaders’ core self-evaluation on the display of ethical leadership and the moderating role of employees’ exchange ideology in the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ job performance (i.e., task performance and organizational citizenship behavior). Consistent with the hypotheses, the results from a sample of 225 dyads of employees and their immediate leaders showed a positive relationship between leaders’ core self-evaluation and ethical leadership. Moreover, the results showed that ethical leadership mediates the effects of leaders’ core self-evaluation on employees’ job performance. Furthermore, we found that employees’ exchange ideology moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and job performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Does Sleep Really Matter? Examining Sleep among Salespeople as Boundary Role Personnel for Key Job Factors

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Sleep deprivation among employees has become commonplace in the workforce. In the United States, the number of hours individuals sleep per night has declined by an hour and a half per night since the 1960s. As of 2005, seventy-four percent of individuals were getting less than eight hours of sleep per night on weekdays. There are negative ramifications to the organization when employees are sleep deprived such as lost productivity, increased accident rate, and increased absenteeism.

Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper: Although prior research has investigated the impact that sleep deprivation has on unique job positions (e.g., shift workers, transportation), no research has investigated how sleep impacts business-to-business sales employees. Due to the responsibilities of business-to-business sales employees, this type of position should not just be lumped in with other organizational employees. For example, business-to-business sales employees are boundary spanning employees that are responsible for generating revenue for the organization. These sales employees are also more likely to be physically, socially, and psychologically separated from the organization since they frequently work outside of the office. Because of these distinctive roles, this study examines if differences based on sleep duration exist for business-to-business sales employees for two individual and five organizational factors. The two individual factors consisted of grit and happiness while the five organizational factors consisted of perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions.

Methodology/Approach: Data was collected from 320 business-to-business sales employees using a cross industry survey. The survey was conducted using a Qualtrics panel. Sleep duration was broken into two groups with one group consisting of business-to-business sales employees who sleep, on average, seven or more hours per night and the other group consisting of business-to-business sales employees who sleep, on average, six or less hours per night. The sleep duration groups were determined based on prior research that found adults should regularly sleep seven or more hours per night in order to support optimal health. There were one hundred thirty-four respondents who slept six hours or less and one hundred eighty-six respondents who slept seven or more hours, on average, per night.

Findings: The research question developed was answered by examining the differences between means for the two individual constructs and the five key organizational constructs. Differences in sleep duration for six of the seven sales constructs. There were significant differences between those that slept seven or more hours per night from those that slept six or less for grit, perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Results found that business-to-business sales employees that slept seven or more hours per night exhibited more grit than those that slept six or less hours per night. In addition, business-to-business sales employees that slept six or less hours per night had higher perceptions of both organizational and supervisory support than those that slept seven or more hours per night. Furthermore, business-to-business sales employees that slept six or less hours per night displayed higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment than sales employees that slept seven or more hours per night. Finally, business-to-business sales employees that slept seven or more hours per night indicated higher levels of turnover intentions than sales employees that slept six or less hours per night. There were no significant differences between the two sleep groups for sales employee happiness. Although some of these results may appear to be counterintuitive, conservation of resources theory can be used to explain these findings.

Research Implications: This exploratory study showcases the importance of good sleep among business-to-business sales employees. This study draws on the conservation of resources theory literature to explain the counterintuitive findings. This theory posits that individuals will retain and guard against resource depletion. Additionally, as resources become depleted, other resources are valued to a greater extent. In this study, the resource being depleted is the condition of sleep. When business-to-business sales employees experience a lower average amount of sleep per night (i.e., six hours or less), they perceive higher levels of support, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment than business-to-business sales employees who experience a higher average amount of sleep per night (i.e., seven hours or more). Although this study provides a good initial examination of how sleep impacts sales organizations, this study also highlights the need for additional business-to-business sales employee sleep research. This is the first study that has examined how sleep duration impacts business-to-business sales employees.

Practical Implications: This study is important to sales research because it highlights the impact that poor sleep of business-to-business sales employees has on the organization. For sales organizations, we provide guidance on ways a sales organization can help promote healthy sleep for their business-to-business sales employees. Some examples of guidance provided can be categorized into four primary categories. These categories include (1) proper sleep education, (2) sales management training, (3) creating a sleep friendly workplace environment, and (4) creating specific workplace policies to minimize sleep disturbances such as setting reasonable work hours and sleep accommodating travel schedules.     

Sales employees’ polychronicity and sales-service ambidexterity: Mediation of work engagement and moderation of store manager support

Sales employees are encountered with increasing job demands and volatile changes in the retail environment. In particular, the adoption of smart technologies in the retail sector has pressurized sales employees to be versatile and agile in the new marketplace. In this sense, performing multiple tasks within a limited time frame has become an important quality required for sales employees. Grounded in the job demands-resources model, we proposed that sales employees’ individualized resource (i.e., polychronicity) would be positively related to their sales-service ambidexterity though work engagement. We further posited that an organizational resource (i.e., store manager support) synergistically interacted with polychronicity to predict work engagement and subsequent sales–service ambidexterity. To test propositions, we collected multilevel data from 292 sales employees in 43 home-furnishing stores in India. Results demonstrated that the positive association among work engagement, polychronicity, and sales–service ambidexterity was more pronounced when store manager support was high than when it was low. These findings offer implications to overcome challenges faced by retail stores by indicating factors predicting sales–service ambidexterity in retail.     

Unbundling the differences between Psychic and Cultural Distance: An empirical examination of the existing measures

The diversity between the country-scores of Hofstede, Schwartz, GLOBE, Håkanson and Ambos and Dow and Karunaratna is the main focus of this study. To investigate the correlation between the country-scores of these CD (Cultural Distance), pPD (perceived Psychic Distance) and PDs (Psychic Distance stimuli) instruments we apply the Mantel test, a test predominantly used in anthropology and genetics, which can be particularly insightful when examining “distance” data. The matrix correlation findings provide evidence supporting the high diversity between these measures and their lack of consistent results for the same countries. Therefore, despite the similarity between the way of conceptualizing and operationalizing CD that Hofstede, Schwartz and GLOBE share, these CD measures do not report consistent findings. Consistently, the lack of correlation, between the PDs measure of Dow & Karunaratna and pPD of Håkanson & Ambos, indicates the diversity between PD stimuli measures and perceived PD measures. At the same time, while the two Psychic Distance (PD) measures indicate high correlation in some cases, overall they are highly diverse from the CD measures. We argue, therefore, that identical studies could reach significantly different conclusions by simply using different measures of CD,pPD&PDs which then denotes significant implications for the reliability of research findings. Additionally, we point out potential weaknesses of these measures when examining culturally proximate countries and multicultural nations.     

Gender differences in the work commitment of Chinese workers: An investigation of two alternative explanations

This study explores the differences in work commitment between Chinese male and female employees. We develop a model that specifies the major antecedents of job and organizational commitment in the Chinese workplace. We then examine whether the gender differences can be attributed to factors related to gender role ideology or unfavorable work conditions encountered by women. Several hypotheses are formulated and tested with a data set collected from 582 employees in Beijing. The findings reveal that employee work commitment is related to organizational support, job characteristics, and perceptions of gender discrimination. Further, it is found that the level of job commitment of women is lower than that of men, whereas the level of organizational commitment is the same for both sexes. The lower level of job commitment of women is due largely to their stronger perception of gender discrimination, receiving less challenging job assignments, and engaging in a low level of leader–member exchange. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.