Environmental Context: Diversity and Ethics |  |
Chapter SummaryTwo of the major dynamic realities facing modern organizations are diversity and ethics. Diversity exists when there is an all-inclusive mixture of differences and similarities in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and/or education. There are a number of reasonsfor the rise of diversity in organizations, including the increasing number of women, minorities, and older employees in the workforce and legislative rulings that now require
organizations to ensure equal opportunity to women, minorities, older employees, and those challenged by a disability. There are individual and organizational approaches to managing diversity. Approaches at the individual level include learning and empathy;
at the organizational level, testing, training, mentoring, and the use of alternative work schedules and work/family programs can be implemented.
Ethics is involved with moral issues and choices and deals with right and wrong behavior. A number of cultural (family, friends, neighbors, education, religion, and the media), organizational (ethical codes, role models, policies and practices, and reward and punishment systems), and external forces (political, legal, economic, and international developments) help determine ethical behavior. These influences, acting interdependently, serve to help identify and shape ethical behavior in today’s organizations. There is increasing evidence of the positive impact that ethical behavior and social programs
have on “bottom-line” performance. Some of the major ethical issues especially relevant to the study of organizational behavior include sexual harassment, discrimination in pay and promotion, and the rights of privacy. Each of these ethical issues repre-sents
a challenge to today’s organizations and must be given recognition and attention and be carefully managed. |
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education