Management: Managing Individuals and a Diverse Work Force

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 pos...