BUS 272 Lecture 3: Values, Attitudes, and Diversity in the Workplace

Values definition

• Values: Basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence”

• Value system

Research on Values 

• Rokeach: Two types of values 

  • Terminal: Goals that individuals would like to achieve during their lifetime

  • Instrumental: preferable ways of behaving 

• Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

• Power distance 

  • The extent to which less powerful members of society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.

  • How much people accept the hierarchy and authority 

• Individualism vs Collectivism

  • Making a decision to benefit oneself vs benefit the community 

• Masculinity vs Femininity

• Uncertainty Avoidance

  • How much embracing of change happens? Are people willing to take risks to change or just stay the same 

• Long-term vs Short-term orientation

  • Describes a society's focus on future rewards versus past and present values

• Indulgence/Restraint 

  • The idea of seeking pleasure vs being more restrained and renouncing that type of pleasure

  • Self control 

Canada’s Diverse Society

• Generational differences

  • When you put people into categories (e.g millennials vs Gen Z), it raises the question of where is the cutoff? What determines if you’re in one category or the other?

• Large immigrant population

• Francophone

• Indigenous peoples

Making a Case for Diversity

• Business case: Organizations value diversity because it is instrumental to organizational goals 

  • “do it because it has benefits”

• Fairness/moral case: Organizations should value diversity because it is the morally and ethically sound 

  • “do it because it’s right”

Challenges of managing a diverse workforce

• Miscommunication

• Conflict

• Discrimination

• Stereotyping

Cultural Intelligence

Cultural intelligence: The ability to understand someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures in the same way as would people from his or her culture

Attitudes

• Positive or negative statements about objects, people or events 

• Attitudes are less stable than values 

• Cognitive, affective, and behavioural components 

Job satisfaction

• Job satisfaction: refers to an individual’s general attitude toward his or her job

• Causes of job satisfaction:

  • Like the work you do and the people you work with

  • Interesting jobs that provide training, variety, independence, and control satisfy most employees

• Outcomes of job satisfaction:

  • Performance, turnover, absenteeism, organizarional citizenship behavior (OCB)

Organizational commitment

• Organizational commitment: a degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization 

  • Affective: An employee’s emotional attachment to their organization, feel a sense of belonging, identify with the goals and values 

  • Continuance: An individual's perceived economic value of remaining with an organization.

  • Normative: The obligation an individual feels to stay with an organization for moral or ethical reasons.

Other important job attitudes

• Employee engagement

  • An individual's involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work he or she does.

  • The more engaged you are or the more you like what you’re doing, the higher the performance because you put more effort into it

• Perceived organizational support (POS)

  • Does the organization value me? If you feel supported by your organization, then you’re going to want to say

• Organizational identification 

  • More extreme version of affective commitment

  • My status,pride, and who I am come from being a part of this organization

  • Even when they leave the organization, they still have lingering commitment, they are still proud of having been a part of the organization