Diversification Has Changed Managerial Interaction with the Workforce

DIVERSIFICATION HAS CHANGED MANAGERIAL INTERACTION WITH THE WORKFORCE

Abstract

The diversification of the American Workforce has changed the way managers interact with employees. This diversification is due to tighter labor markets, increased immigration, and women entering the workforce. Cultural factors, not present before, have caused managers to develop new methods of tasking, motivating, and educating these diverse employees. Essentially these new methods have been a change in interpersonal behavior, the way a manager acts and re-acts to employees. This change in behavior was necessary to increase productivity and maintain a competitive edge in the market place.

I. Introduction

In my Cultural Anthropology course, I had to learn and memorize the definition of culture; "Culture is an organized system of learned behavior patterns, always made manifest in a group, making that group distinctive from other groups..." This definition was the basis for my understanding and ability to learn about other people, different than myself and from different backgrounds, during my studies in Anthropology and Psychology. This definition has the key element of what culture is, a system of behavior distinctive to a particular group of people. These behaviors range from cultural norms to religious beliefs.

In business, the effectiveness of an organization rests on the ability of the management to interact with its employees and to motivate the workforce to accomplish the goals of the company. This ability of interaction between the manager and the employees depends on the managers understanding of the cultural differences between himself and his employees. The masculine form is only being used as example for the purpose of this paper. It is understood that the managers will most likely be male or female.

An organization is affected by cultural factors on many levels. The top management forms the basic foundation of an organization when they set the primary goals for that organization, the reason the organization is in business. An example would be that a car company in the United States of America would have the ultimate goal of making large amounts of profit for it's stakeholders. This goal is derived in the root cultural tenant of capitalism. The United States was founded with capitalist ideas and so American managers will have capitalist ideas. Now the same type of company in the Soviet Union, before the end of the cold war, may have had an ultimate goal of making efficient military vehicles, not being concerned about the profit margin rather the purpose of the product. This goal would have been derived from the socialist belief of "all things are for the good of the state."

As the influence of culture affects the direction of the company, it also affects the interaction between the managers and the employees. In the example of the American auto plant, the interaction between manager and employee was one based on western ideas of supervision and motivation. Today these ideas are changing. As people of other races and other ethnic groups continue to emigrate, they will bring even more diversity and possibly lifestyle changes to the United States. (Bowman-Kruhm and Wirths, 1998) This diversity will impact every aspect of life in America, especially the workforce and how managers interact with this workforce.

II. Why the workforce is Diverse in America

There are three factors that have contributed to the diversity in the growing workforce: tight labor markets, immigration, and increase in women entering the workforce. A tight labor market has been created by the decline in the overall labor force growth. In the 1990's, the labor force growth fell 1.3 percent annually, down from 2.3 percent between 1962 and 1979. Annual labor force growth is expected to fall even further in the years to come, to less than 1 percent between 1998 and 2006. (Businessweek, n.d.)

Immigration has contributed significantly to growing workforce diversity. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, immigrants' account for half of the workforce growth in the 1990's. Also, the foreign born population now makes up almost 10 percent of the total population, the highest since 1930.

Another force contributing to increased workforce diversity is the increase of women entering the workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that 61 percent of the new labor force entrants between 1994 and 2005 will be women and by 2020 women will make up over 50 percent of the labor force in America. (Kowalenko, 2000)

III. Immediate Affects of Diversity on Businesses

This change in workforce diversity will present employers with new workplace challenges. The lower level of education in some immigrant populations will make their integration into today's workplace more difficult. Employers will have to take a more active role in preparing workers for jobs, trough remedial education, language training, and skill upgrading.

The increased presence of women in the workforce may require changes in the traditional structure of work. Because women still shoulder the majority of household responsibilities and child rearing, they favor more flexible work arrangements.

Once these diverse peoples enter the workforce, they are faced with numerous obstacles. These obstacles often include not having a mentor with in the company, the lack of company role models from the same background as the employee, fewer opportunities for management positions, difficulties balancing work and family, and exclusion from some of the informal networks within the company organization. (Kowalenko, 2000)

Not only are the general business practices of the company affected by this increase in diversity, but also the manager's behavior towards employees must change.

IV. Changing Managerial Behavior

It is a natural behavior to believe that your culture is normal compared to that of other cultures and sometimes that belief extends to that of superiority. This consequently leads to an ethnocentric way of thinking, meaning we ignore the distinction between our culture and that of another. (Businessweek, n.d.) We assume that other people will operate from the same cultural guidelines that we do. Many managers operate from the "one-size-fit's all" era of management. As the diversity of the workforce grows, managers must take time to accept and learn to understand that some people are different and have different needs. (DeVoe, 1999) It is up