The International Journal of Human Resource Management · 2001 · 189 citations · 20 references
ManagementHuman Resource ManagementStrategic ManagementOrganizational CommunicationPrejudiceStrategic Human Resource ManagementDiversityDiversity StrategyGroup DiversityEnvironmental FactorsOrganizational DiversityOrganizational Performance Assessment
Managing diversity is a key challenge for HRM, as HRM activities generate affective, cognitive, symbolic, and communicative outcomes that influence individual, group, and organizational performance. The study develops a framework linking strategic diversity management to HRM design and uses it to examine how workforce diversity affects group interactions and performance, and how it relates to other HRM policies in two companies. The authors propose a framework that incorporates environmental factors into strategic diversity management, guiding the design and implementation of HRM activities. The findings show that a diversity management strategy shapes meaning formation and performance perceptions, that a shared vocabulary and interpretive tools are crucial, and that case narratives illustrate diversity’s impact on daily interactions and group functioning. Keywords: Performance, Case Studies.
Abstract Today, managing diversity is considered one of the main challenges for HRM in modern organizations. In this article, a framework is developed to suggest that the design and implementation of HRM activities should be influenced by strategic choices on the management of diversity which are themselves shaped by environmental factors. The HRM activities lead to four types of outcomes (affective, cognitive, symbolic and communicative) that affect individual, group and organizational performance. This framework is used to explore the effects of workforce diversity in two cases and to provide answers to three central questions: how does diversity influence the interactions in and the performance of diverse groups, and what is the relation between management diversity and other HRM policies in the two companies? The findings indicate that an organization's strategy for managing diversity influences both the process of meaning formation regarding diversity and the perception of performance effects. The availability of an organizational vocabulary and of instruments to interpret interactions in terms of diversity make a crucial difference. The stories and incidents from the two cases show how diversity affects both the daily interactions and the functioning of diverse groups. Keywords: PerformanceCase Studies
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