Diversity at Work Place

UNIT 3 DIVERSITY AT WORK PLACE*

Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Meaning of Workplace Diversity
3.2.1 Benefits of Workplace Diversity

3.2.2 Benefits of Diverse Workforce to the Employees

3.2.3 Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
3.3 Gender Issues
3.3.1 Conceptual Difference between ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’
3.3.2 Gender Differences

3.3.3 Gender Stereotype

3.3.4 Sexual Harassment

3.3.4.1 Sexual Harassment Behavior

3.3.4.2 Steps to Prevent Sexual Harassment

3.3.4.3 Laws Against Sexual Harassment

3.4 Cross- Cultural Issues
3.4.1 Types of Cross-Cultural Issues

3.4.2 Hofstede's Model of Cultural Dimensions

3.5 Let Us Sum Up
3.6 Reference
3.7 Key Words
3.8 Answers to Check Your Progress
3.9 Unit End Questions

3.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
 discuss the meaning of workplace diversity;
 explainvaried gender issues;
 explainvarious cross- cultural issues; and
 describe the Hofstede’s cross cultural model.

*
Dr. Smita Gupta, Faculty, Discipline pf Psychology, IGNOU, Delhi
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Introduction to D
HRM 3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous unit, you were introduced to the nature, role, functions and
relevance of human resource development. In the present unit, you will be
introduced about the concept of diversity. The way an organization needs to
have diverse technologies for its growth advancement, similarly, an
organization needs to promote a diverse work force belonging to different
gender, culture, expertise and educational backgrounds. Diverse workforce
provides a more vivid and rich expertise. However, it is a challenge for the
organization to manage its diverse work force.. There are various gender
related issues, which will also be discussed in the present unit. The
organization especially multinational companies involve employees from
different countries who might not be acquainted with the culture of their
colleagues belonging to other countries. The present unit will try to discuss
about these related aspects in the further sections.

3.2 MEANING OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

Work place diversity refers to the tendency of the organisations to recruit and
maintain employees belonging to different gender, sexual orientation, religion,
age, ethnicity, education, and other related attributes. Giving a priority to
diversity and inclusion initiatives has provided a scope of more diverse team
work which ultimately provides a set up for success. The workforce diversity
is not only a good initiative for organizational growth; it is also a step
towards growth of humanity.Having a diverse workforce, that is, employees
belonging to different genders, nations or culture is the relevant characteristic
of a diverse workplace. The diverse workforce is not only relevant as well as
beneficial for the organization/employers; it is beneficial for employees too.
Let us discuss the benefits of work force diversity for the employers as well
as employees.

3.2.1 Benefits of Diverse Workforce to the Employers

The following are some of the benefits of workforce diversity:

 Increased talent pool: The inclusion setup of work force diversity

attracts a wider range of candidates who are looking for a progressive
place to work. As a result, it provides an opportunity for the organization
to recruit the best talent. The diverse workforce contributes differently
due to their vivid background, thought, ethnicity, and other factors.

 Increased innovation: A heterogeneous group of employees contribute

towards uniqueness, variety, thinking beyond, creativity, unique
perspective and differential thought towards planning and decision
making, which is a hardly possible if the group of employees, are
homogenous. Therefore, including a diverse workforce leads to more
innovation. Diversity in workforce and work environment contributes
toward more ideas.
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 Increased work performance: The diverse workforce creates a work Diversity at Work Place

environment which includes a representation of different cultures,

backgrounds, and ways of thinking which provides an opportunity for
employees to learn experience and enhance their expertise. Such
opportunity in turn, provides an increase efficiency and performance of
employees.

 Increased output: Diverse workforces not only contribute towards the

talent pool of the organization, they also contribute towards better
problem solving, decision making, enhanced output and productivity of
the organisations.

 Increase employee commitment: In an environment where the

organization promotes diversity, all the employees feel accepted and
valued. This is return will definitely increase commitment of the
employees as well as employee retention.

3.2.2 Benefits of Diverse Workforce to the Employees

The above points discussed the benefits of workforce diversity among the
employers. Now, let us discuss what exactly the benefits of the work force
diversity are for the employees:

 Reduced conflicts: The workplace which promotes diversity, there are

more chances that employees can better understand each other's
differences. This reduces the chance of conflict and often unites people
with a common purpose rather than divide them.

 Increased confidence: The employees feel valued and are likely to also
be more confident due to their unique qualities in a multifaceted
organization. Therefore, diversity generates more confidence and
increases the efficiency of individual as well as team members. It creates
an environment where the ideas of each employee is given due
importance and enhances the proximity among peer group as well.

 Increased commitment: If the employers provide a diverse and

inclusion set up, the employees feel more committed towards the
organization, as it values the relevance and capability of everyone. This
ultimately enhances their morale and employee engagement.

3.2.3 Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace

 Aligning diversity practices, individual goals and organizational
goals: It becomes a challenge for employers. Though each organization
has its own unique features but aligning them to the diversity practices is
a challenge for them. Employees from diverse back ground differ in their
values and beliefs due to differences in culture and it is very difficult to
keep in to account of them culture of each employees, so that their
commitment is not affected.

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 Plan of Action and its implementation: When an organization decides
to include a diverse workforce, it needs to plan the strategies for the
same, well in advance. The organization might fall in to trouble if it is
unable to get a supportive workforce, team as well as resources in place,
for implementing the plan of action smoothly.

 Managing Training and Awareness Programs: It is the responsibility

of the organization to make each employee realise the importance of the
culture, sex and other diverse backgrounds of other employees. Diversity
can serve to be a boon for productivity of an organization, if it can train
its employees to understand, cooperate and be sensitive towards other
employees as well as the relevance of diversity.

 Prejudices and biases:It is a challenge for the organization to overcome

the cultural prejudices and individual biases towards each other. This
leads to a situation where, even with the best intentions, people have the
tendency to bring bias into their everyday interactions, including in the
workplace.

 Rigidity and resistance: The tendency of mental fixedness leads to

rigidity in thoughts and behavior among individuals and that is why
many people are not comfortable with unfamiliar people and changes
brought in organization. It is difficult for the organization to overcome
such internal resistances.

Though the above challenges are faced by organisations but proper training
and awareness may help the organisations to minimise their effect.

Check Your Progress I

1) What is workplace diversity?

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

3.3 GENDER ISSUES

Gender is also one of the crucial aspects that the employees need to be
sensitised for, while the organization recruits a diverse workforce. The
expected or assumed gender roles many a times lead to several expectations
and issues. In the upcoming sub-section we will discuss about two such
issues, namely- gender stereotype and sexual harassment.

Before we start discussing about the gender related issues in an organization,

it is important for you to understand the conceptual differences between the
terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ as well as ‘gender differences’.
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3.3.1 Conceptual Difference between ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’
The terms sex and gender are frequently used interchangeably. Though, both
the terms have different meanings. The term sex highlights the biological
category of male or female, as defined by physical differences in genetic
composition and in reproductive anatomy and function. On the other
hand, gender refers to the cultural, social, and psychological meanings that
are associated with masculinity and femininity (Wood & Eagly, 2002). It is
therefore clear that sex is associated with a person being biologically
different (male/female), while gender is associated with the degree of
masculine or feminine traits and related qualities. There are different terms
related to gender which distinguish them from the term sex such as:

 Gender Roles: Each culture has categorised certain behaviours, attitudes,

and personality traits that are expected to belong to the categories of
masculinity or femininity and these refers to their gender roles.

 Gender Identity: An individual’s gender identity refers to their

psychological sense of being male or female. It is important to
understand at this juncture that may be a person is biologically a female
but has a male gender identity while being attracted to women, or any
other combination of identities and orientations.

In contrast, sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individual’s

emotional and erotic attraction toward members of the opposite sex, the same
sex, or both sexes.

3.3.2 Gender Differences

Differences in gender among individuals can be based upon their biological
differences (male/female) with reference to their work capabilities; the
gender roles and the various gender stereotypes. Basically, gender differences
refer to differences in nature, behavior, capabilities and actions among
individuals. For example, in context of temperament, boys are slightly less
able to suppress inappropriate responses and slightly more likely to blurt
things out than girls (Else-Quest, Hyde, Goldsmith, & Van Hulle, 2006).
Further, researches also reflect that many of these gender differences do not
show innate differences, instead they reflect the differences in personal
experiences and the way they have been socialized. Researches reflect that
several gender differences are not actual differences, but they are the
differences due the various gender stereotypes. For example, Hyde in 2005
found that girls are not more fearful, shy, or scared of new things than boys;
boys are not angrier than girls and girls are not more emotional than boys;
boys do not perform better in the math subject than girls; and girls are not
more talkative than boys.

3.3.3 Gender Stereotype

It refers to the beliefs and expectations people hold about the typical
characteristics, preferences, and behaviours of men and women. Based on the 43
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gender, the characters and behaviours of males and females are categorised in
societies. Due to such categories, males and females are differentially treated
(a concept called, gender discrimination) and therefore gender discrimination
is one of the unavoidable consequence of gender stereotype. Since childhood
we experience and come to know about several such discriminations and by
the time we reach to the stage of adulthood, we ourselves tend to hold many
such gender stereotypes. Bigler and Liben (2006) postulated the
Developmental Intergroup theory which is a theoretical model of social
stereotyping and prejudices. The theory explains several factors like,
environmental control, social and legal policies as well as education
significantly contributes toward development of gender stereotypes. Further,
the theory also explains that the children start paying more attention to
gender as a source of information about self and others because of their
parents or related adults continuous focus on gender. The theory further
mentions that the tendency to group people on basis of their gender and other
aspects increases because adults use such labels or categories in daily routine
activities, like, greeting people as- “ Good morning boys and girls!” or
assigning of different desks and notice boards to males and females.

3.3.4 Sexual Harassment

The gender stereotypes leads to differential treatment towards males and
females. When such treatment is reflected through sexual behaviors ( e.g.-
unwanted touch, sexual comments, jokes or eve teasing). Such a treatment is
called as sexual harassment and it may be in form of physical behavior (e.g.
unwanted touch) or mental (for example a person/victim may feel threatened
if someone shares sexual jokes with someone). It is basically a result of
gender discrimination and is a kind of work place harassment. It can take
place at any social setting including- family, workplace, and school and so
on. It should also be understood that the victims of such harassment can be of
any gender that is, male, female or transgender.

Sexual harassment is a kind of threat, pressure, coercion or bullying and is

totally on basis of the sex of the victim employee or employees. It can also be
in form of a promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. The act of
sexual harassment may also be in form of an unwelcome sexual gesture or
behaviour whether directly or indirectly as sexual remarks; physical contact
and advances; showing pornography; a demand or request for sexual favours;
any other unwelcome physical, verbal/non-verbal conduct being sexual in
nature. According to India’s constitution, sexual harassment invades the
fundamental right of a woman to gender equality under Article 14 of the
Constitution of India and her right to life and live with dignity under Article
21 of the Constitution. Although there is no specific law against sexual
harassment at workplace in India but many provisions in other legislations
protect against sexual harassment at workplace, such as Section 354, Indian
Penal Code (IPC) deals with “assault or criminal force to a woman with the

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intent to outrage her modesty, and Section 509, IPC deals with “word,
gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman”.

Work Place Harassment

An action towards targeted employee or employees, which makes them

uncomfortable at their work place. Such kind of unwanted actions hampers the
work performance of employees, and also make the employees feel their work
place as a hostile environment. The harassment may be based on such factors
as race, gender, culture, age, sexual orientation, or religious preference. It can
be manifested in three ways:

Work Place Bullying Work Place Discrimination Sexual Harassment

The behaviour of the boss/ Any kind of conduct, action, behaviour A kind of threat, pressure,
supervisor or peer which is or decision which is taken against an coercion or bullying and is
employee on basis of some prejudice or
harmful for the subordinate or the totally on basis of the sex of the
filthy beliefs. The employees may be
colleague. Bullying behaviours victim employee or employees.
discriminated on the basis of age, sex,
may differ from humiliation to race, culture. Discrimination occurs It can also be in form of a
several other tactics which would when an employee suffers promise of rewards in exchange
in a way try to embarrass or unfavourable or unfair treatment due to for sexual favors.
dishonour the target employee or their race, religion, national origin,
subordinate at the work place. disabled or veteran status, or other
legally protected characteristics.E.g.
E.g. cyber bullying, group
Assault, defamation, interference
bullying, coercive bullying.

Fig. 3.1: Types of Work Place Discrimination

3.3.4.1 Sexual Harassment Behaviour

There is a varied range of behaviours that falls under the category of sexual
harassment. It may be related to a situation or an experience felt by the
victims or the recipient. The motive or act of the perpretrator might vary from
case to case or individuals to individuals.

Martha Langelan (1993) has categorized perpetrators in to four types of

harassers. They can be mentioned as follows:

 Predatory harasser: A predatory harasser refers to an individual who

experiences some kind of sexual thrills by humiliating others. They may
coercively try to gain sexual favors and may harass their targets just to
see their responses. The targets become their victims, if they are unable
to resist or oppose such harassers.

 Dominance harasser: A dominant harasser is an individual who uses

sexual extortion upon targets in order to dominate or boost their ego.

 Strategic or territorial harasser: These harassers apply strategies to

harass their targets with an aim to seek privilege in jobs or physical
locations, for example a male employee might harass a female employee
in a predominantly male occupation.

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strangers and perform sexual harassment usually at roads and streets or at
public places. Their behavior includes physical, verbal or non verbal
actions and remarks which are sexual in nature.

3.3.4.2 Steps to Prevent Sexual Harassment

No doubts there are certain articles and amendments done in order to protect
the act of sexual harassment at work place. But as said, ‘prevention is always
better than cure’. Then instead of waiting for the incidents to happen, the
organisation as well as employees can take care of several factors in advance.
Some of the steps which can be followed in order to avoid such unwanted
actions can be as follows:

i) The management may place notices, publish articles as well as circulate

notifications against the prohibition of sexual harassment;

ii) As regards private employers, steps should be taken to include the

aforesaid prohibitions in the standing orders under the Industrial
Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946;

iii) The work environment as well as the work conditions should be as such
that there is no hostile environment towards women at work places and
no employee woman should have reasonable grounds to believe that she
is disadvantaged in connection with her employment;

iv) The organisations should formulate certain policies norms as well as

disciplinary actions against such misconducts;

v) The organisation should form certain committee which can facilitate

victim employees to complain and deal with such kind of harassment.

3.3.4.3 Laws Against Sexual Harassment

The constitution of India has enacted several laws in order to protect the
employees against exploitation, violence and harassment at work place. Some
of them can be pointed out as follows.

Though, no laws have been amended against sexual harassment at work

place, yet certain sections of IPC have regulated certain rules and guidelines
against it. They can be mentioned as follows:

1) Section 294: This section mentions that a person or a group of person

will be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term that
may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both to the annoyance
of others, if the person (a) does any obscene act in any public place, or
(b) sings, recites and utters any obscene songs, ballads or words, in or
near any public space’.

2) Section 354: The section mentions that an individual or group of

individuals shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may
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extend to two years, or with fine, or with both if they assault or use
criminal force on any woman, intending to outrage her modesty or
knowing it likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty.

3) Section 509: The section holds that whoever intends to insult the
modesty of a woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or
exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or
that such gesture is seen by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of
such woman, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term
which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.’

4) Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act (1987): According

to this act, if an individual harasses another with books, photographs,
paintings, films, pamphlets, packages, etc. containing the “indecent
representation of women”, they are liable for a minimum sentence of two
years. Section 7 (Offenses by Companies) further holds companies
where there has been “indecent representation of women” (such as the
display of pornography) on the premises, guilty of offenses under this
act, with a minimum sentence of two years.

Check Your Progress Ii

1) State whether the following are ‘True’ or ‘False’:

Sr. No. Statement True/

False
1 Gender refers to the cultural, social, and psychological
meanings that are associated with masculinity and
femininity.
2 The employees feel less confident due to their unique
qualities in a multifaceted organization.
3 Having a diverse workforce is not only relevant as well
as beneficial for the organization/employers; it is
beneficial for employees too.
4 An individual’s gender identity refers to their
physiological sense of being male or female.

3.4 CROSS- CULTURAL ISSUES

It is important for you to understand that the culture of any society has a
significant influence upon gender roles. It is the culture that eminently shapes
the gender. The ethnicity, norms and ethics acts as an organising principle for
the society and therefore, attempts to give meaning and roles to the males and
females. They have also given roles and values to the third gender or the
gender fluid identities. Different cultures of the various societies assign
varied roles to the different genders which influences their work behavior at
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organisations. Therefore, the different roles of the gender cannot be separated
or analysed without their cultural as well as historical contexts. It should also
be mentioned here that there still exists certain gender inequities in the field
of workplace as well as home life. Therefore, culture is also a relevant aspect
as it needs to be dealt in a more sensitive way. In fact, employers as well as
employees should be sensitised towards gender and cultural issues.

3.4.1 Types of Cross-Cultural Issues

As mentioned earlier, a diverse workforce involves individuals belonging to
different genders and society. In such a case, they might have differences in
their way of dealing with life as well as work. Few of the cross cultural
differences might occur in the following ways:

 Differences in Behavior: The individuals might behave differently while

performing the same or similar tasks.

 Differences in Decision Making: Their priorities and ways of decision

making might be influenced by their learnt gender roles and societal
ethics. This also leads to differences in opinions, viewpoints and
outlooks of individuals.

 Differences in Communication Styles: Based on their experiential

learning, individuals might have differences not only in their ways of
dealing with targets/goals; they might also have differences in ways of
communication. In fact, there are certain non verbal communication
styles which are similar but have completely different meaning and
interpretations among various cultures. That is why, the differences in
communication style across the genders and culture is a very sensitive
aspect.

 Differences in ways of handling conflict: Due to the differences in

approaches, opinions and thoughts, the individuals have differences in
strategies towards handling grievances and conflict.

Therefore, the culture significantly influences the performance and

behavior of individuals belonging to different genders.

3.4.2 Hofstede's Model of Cultural Dimensions

In the way back 1970’s, a prominent psychologist Geert Hofstede gave a
model which mentions certain dimensions on basis of which the various
cultures can be distinguished. The model is also known as model of national
culture. These dimensions can be the basis of comparing the similarities and
differences between the culture of various societies. These dimensions can be
categorised as follows:

 Power Distance Index (PDI) (high versus low): According to Hofstede,

the PDI is a an index which focuses mainly on the level or the degree of
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equality or inequality among the people belonging to a particular society
of a country.

 Individualism versus Collectivism: It is the individualism or collectivism

which determines the extent to which a society reinforces individual
(being independent of others decisions) or collective (being dependent on
others for making choices and decisions). It also refers to the degree to
which the culture of a society gives importance to individual
achievement or to the interpersonal relationships.

 Masculinity versus Femininity: A society that gives preference to

Masculinity (MAS) focuses more upon the traditional masculine work
role model of achievement, control and power. It focuses more towards
heroism, assertiveness, outward and materialistic awards. On the
contrary, a society which is more oriented towards femininity, gives
preference to modesty, caring, cooperation and towards the quality of
life. In the context of an organization, it is referred to as ‘tough Vs tender
culture’.

 Uncertainty Avoidance Index (high versus low): It refers to the extent to

which a society tolerates or accepts the level of uncertainty and
ambiguity. The scores of these dimensions are determined by “high” or
“low” rankings within each category.

 Long- versus Short-Term Orientation (Originally named as Pragmatic

versus Normative."): This is with reference to the time horizon of a
particular society. The societies of countries which prefer long term
orientation prefer to be more realistic or pragmatic, naturalistic, modest,
and economical. Whereas, those societies which emphasize upon short-
term orientation, tend to emphasize more upon the principles, uniformity
and truth, and are typically more religious and nationalistic.

 Indulgence versus Restraint: This is a dimension which was recently

added by Michael Minkov and Hofstede. The dimension is scored as
high or low for any society of a country. Those societies which score
high on IVR score, promote people to gratify their personal needs, drives
and emotions, such as enjoying life and having fun. While, a society
which sc ores low on the dimension, suppresses individuals’
gratification. They society tries to control and regulate the behavior and
conduct of people. Their norms tend to be stricter.

According to Hofstede, the organisations should consider these

dimensions in order to understand the local culture of the employees
belonging to different societies (1996).

Check Your Progress III

1) Fill in the following Blanks:

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a) The _______________ harassers apply strategies to harass their
targets with an aim to seek privilege in jobs or physical locations.
b) _______________ refers to an action towards targeted employee or
employees, which makes them uncomfortable at their work place.
c) The _____________________leads to differential treatment towards
males and females.
d) _______________________________postulated the Developmental
Intergroup theory.

3.5 LET US SUM UP

It can be summed up that the diversity of workforce provides a way of
dealing different aspects from various view points. It is the varied work force
which significantly contributes towards dealing with goals and targets of the
organization. The unit discussed about the various benefits and challenges of
the workforce diversity for both the employers as well as the employees. The
unit also discussed the relevance of gender differences at work place. It
further discussed about the various gender issues. At the end of the unit, you
were explained about the various cultural dimensions which distinguish the
cultures from each other, with the help of the Hofstede’s cultural model.

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http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/violence/costof.htm.
Accessed on 19/10/2020

http://www.dagensps.se/artiklar/2009/04/28/62219293/index.xml
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-workplace-harassment.htm
http://peoplefriendlypolice.wordpress.com/supreme-court-guidelines-
againstsexual-harassment/. Accessed on 07/01/2021

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/cochise-sociology-os/chapter/the-cross-
cultural-perspective/

http://www.opentextbooks.org.hk/ditatopic/7214. Accessed on 07/01/2021

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm. Accessed on
07/01/2021

https://hi.hofstede-insights.com/national-culture. Accessed on 8/01/2021

3.7 KEY WORDS

Work place diversity: The tendency of the organisations to recruit and
maintain employees belonging to different gender, sexual
orientation, religion, age, ethnicity, education, and other related attributes.

Gender Roles:The assigned/ expected behaviours, attitudes, and personality

traits in the categories of masculinity or femininity by the culture.

Gender Identity: An individual’s gender identity refers to their

psychological sense of being male or female.

Gender Differences: Differences in nature, behavior, capabilities and actions

among individuals.

Gender Stereotype: It refers to the beliefs and expectations people hold

about the typical characteristics, preferences, and behaviours of men and
women.

Workplace Bullying: The behaviour of the boss/ supervisor or peer which is

harmful for the subordinate or the colleague. Bullying behaviours may differ
from humiliation to several other tactics which would in a way try to
embarrass or dishonour the target employee or subordinate at the work place.

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 Diversity at Work Place
Workplace Discrimination: Any kind of conduct, action, behaviour or
decision which is taken against an employee on basis of some prejudice or
filthy beliefs. The employees may be discriminated on the basis of age, sex,
race, culture.

Sexual Harassment: A kind of threat, pressure, coercion or bullying and is

totally on basis of the sex of the victim employee or employees. It can also be
in form of a promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favours.

Workplace Harassment: An action towards targeted employee or

employees, which makes them uncomfortable at their work place. Such kind
of unwanted actions hampers the work performance of employees, and also
make the employees feel their work place as a hostile environment.

3.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress I

1) What is workplace diversity?

Work place diversity refers to the tendency of the organisations to recruit

and maintain employees belonging to different gender, sexual
orientation, religion, age, ethnicity, education, and other related
attributes.

1) State whether the following are ‘True’ or ‘False’:

Sr. Statement True/ False

No.
1 Gender refers to the cultural, social, and psychological True
meanings that are associated with masculinity and
femininity.
2 The employees feel less confident due to their unique False
qualities in a multifaceted organization.
3 Having a diverse workforce is not only relevant as well True
as beneficial for the organization/employers; it is
beneficial for employees too.
4 An individual’s gender identity refers to their False
physiological sense of being male or female.

Check Your Progress III

1) Fill in the following Blanks:

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Introduction to D
HRM
a) The strategic/territorial harassers apply strategies to harass their
targets with an aim to seek privilege in jobs or physical locations.

b) Workplace harassment refers to an action towards targeted employee

or employees, which makes them uncomfortable at their work place.

c) The gender stereotypes leads to differential treatment towards males

and females.

d) Bigler and Liben (2006) postulated the Developmental Intergroup

theory.

3.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Explain the benefits of diverse workforce to the employers.
2) Explain the benefits of diverse workforce to the employees.
3) Discuss the challenges of workforce diversity.
4) Describe the steps to prevent sexual harassment.
5) Elaborate the Hofstedes’ model of cultural dimension.

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