ISSN:
1573-9716
Keywords:
SOCIAL IDENTITY
;
SOCIAL DILEMMAS
;
DIVERSITY
;
GROUP PROCESSES
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Sociology
Notes:
Abstract This paper explores the relationship among threesocial dilemmas faced by organizations wishing to attainand maintain workforce diversity: the dilemmas oforganizational participation, managerial participation, and individual participation. Functional andsocial category diversity offer benefits fororganizations (creativity, adaptation and innovation,and access to external networks), but there are costswhich deter organizations from pursuing thesebenefits. The costs associated with organizationalparticipation in diversity initiatives arise becausemanagers and their employees perceive organizationalconflicts and organize their interactions along socialidentity lines, so that temporal traps and collectivefences surround diversity. Resolving the subordinatedilemmas of managerial and individual participation provides the key to resolving the dilemma oforganizational participation. Social identity theory isused to understand the dilemmas and to develop possibleresolutions, which should make the benefits of diversity more immediately accessible toorganizations and society.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1016976817911
Permalink
