How to become an ethnical diversified organization
A case study at Promens Care
Promens
Care
Master thesis, specialization Human Resource Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business
December 20, 2011 Yvonne Hendriks Studentnumber:1759345 Hoofdweg 13 7871 TB Klijndijk tel.: 0623805488 e-mail: y.hendriks@student.rug.nl Supervisor/ university Drs. J. van Polen
Supervisor/ field of study M. Smits
ABSTRACT
Which insights and actions are needed to make the personnel practices at PC more aimed at ethnical diversity? How does the WMO and Dekra audit influence the organization? What are internal pressures to become more diversified? And how do these factors influence the choice to become an ethnical diverse organization or not.
TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT ... 2
TABLE OF CONTENT ... 3
1. INTRODUCTION ... 4
2. (ETHNIC) DIVERSITY A BROAD AND MULTI PERSPECTIVE PHENOMENON ... 7
2.1 Understanding diversity ... 7
2.2 Diversity policies and climate ... 8
2.3 Leadership and diversity ... 9
2.4 Recruiting a diverse workforce ... 11
2.5 Implementing diversity policies ... 15
3. METHOD ... 17 3.1 Procedure ... 17 3.2 Respondents ... 18 3.3 Measurement ... 18 4. RESULTS ... 20 4.1 Ethnical diversity ... 20
4.2 Workforce and client diversity ... 20
1. INTRODUCTION
Workforce diversity has become a central issue for companies all over the world (Choi & Rainey, 2010; Pitts, Hicklin, Hawes & Melton, 2010). McInnes (1999) stated that workforce diversity refers to policies and practices that seek to include people within a workforce who are considered to be, in some way, different from those in the prevailing constituency. Pitts et al. (2010) stress the importance of creating a corporate culture, which allows employees from different backgrounds to succeed. Definitions of workforce diversity are evolving due to the workforce composition, which has become more diverse over the last years (Pitts et al., 2010). Diversity is described by Pitts et al. (2010) as historically underrepresented groups, and at the same time they recognize that diversity could focus on other dimensions like, age, ethnicity, professional background or religion. The primary focus of this paper is on ethnic diversity, which could be interpreted as Horowitz (1986) argues,
“ ascription - connection to birth - is the primacy criterion for ethnicity”.
Changes in the composition in the labor market, especially the aging of workers, participation of women and a growing percentage of ethnic diverse workers lead to remarkable changes. These changes are for example, different cultural driven assumptions about the role of work, about values and teamwork, and also different approaches to communication (Pitts et al., 2010). Diversity policies help companies to react to these changes.
There are several advantages for companies when implementing diversity policies. Choi & Rainey (2010) and Pitts et al. (2010) underscore the positive impact of diversity on organizational outcomes, like performance, satisfaction, and turnover. This perspective is based on information and decision making theories. These theories show that diversity has a positive effect on the decision making process, innovativeness, creative problems solutions, idea generation, skills and insights. Besides these positive effects, Pitts et al. (2010) also found negative effects of diversity, which is based on social categorization and social identity theories (Turner, 1987). These theories state that due to the high level of diversity, organizations could face high coordination costs, process-oriented problems like poor communication, faulty decision making and mistrust among employees.
favorability and high amount of resources, and/or (c) in order to adapt to environmental norms.
Uncertainty in the environment makes companies develop strategies for minimizing ambiguity. This has two implications, companies can either turn into themselves and concentrate on their own core and protect themselves against unknown threats, or they can exploit the changing and uncertain environment as a strategy for success. In the context of diversity programs, organization may choose to implement such programs as a mean of ward off environmental uncertainty. Risk-averse organizations try in this way to minimize uncertainty in their environment by decisions making that favours stability (Pitts et al. 2010). The second explanation is that the environment promotes implementation of diversity management through high amount of resources. When there are plentiful resources, rules for adoption becomes more relaxed, which implies that programs like diversity are more likely to be accepted. The third explanation is based on the fact that organizations in the same business area adapt to the same norms. Diversity management is mostly implemented because of norms or others encouraging the company to implement diversity management (Pitts et al., 2010).
Based on what is discussed above, it could be desirable for companies to implement diversity policies. Especially in the light of current changes, where more women and ethnical diverse employees enter the workforce (CBS Statline, 2011; Pitss et al., 2009), and the anticipated growth of ethnical diversity among clients of PC (CBS Statline, 2011) ethnical diversity policies could be of value for Promens Care (PC). Therefore PC wants to investigate what it should do, if they want to implement successfully diversity policies.
PC provides care for people with an intellectual disability, a disability due to psychiatric problems, and people who need social care. PC is active in twelve municipalities in the province of Drenthe and Groningen, employs almost 2000 employees, and offers services to more than 3000 clients.
consideration of an active diversity policy very important and desirable at the same time. At this moment there is no diversity policy that focus on ethnic diversity. Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate what PC could do if it wants to implement a diversity policy, and make the organization a more diverse one. In order to conduct this research the following research question will be central:
Which insights and actions are needed to make the personnel practices at PC more aimed at ethnical diversity?
Answers to this question will give the HR department the opportunity to take appropriate actions.
2. (ETHNIC) DIVERSITY A BROAD AND MULTI PERSPECTIVE PHENOMENON
In the preceding chapter a short general introduction has been given on diversity. It was explained why companies should or can choose to implement diversity policies and how they could benefit (or not) from it. Now the motives of implementing diversity policies are clear, the next question is how can an organization become diverse? What actions and tools are needed in order to develop and implement an effective diversity management? In the following chapter this question will be explained more thoroughly by the use of literature, which will discuss how to create a diverse organizational climate, how to attract and retain employees from a different ethnic background, and how to implement these policies.
2.1 Understanding diversity
The on-going question is “what exactly is diversity?” Many definitions of diversity can be found in literature. Most of these focuses on readily detectable attributes like age, sex, racial-ethnicity, education or religion. Some other definitions are also focused on underlying attributes that become evident after knowing a person for some time. Examples of these underlying attributes are personality, knowledge and/or personal values (Jackson, Joshi & Erhardt, 2003). In America we see diversity mainly described as white versus black, while in European context diversity is described in broader terms like gender, religion or ethnical background.
An ideal organizational workforce is one that reflects society best within the organization, and at the same time this also depends on the degree of customer interaction (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, & Ananeh-Firempong, 2003). This implies that between countries and different business areas this reflection and interaction is different (WMO, 2011; Gertner et al., 2008). This creates two points of differences for optimal workforce diversity.
provided by the employees should be tailored to meet the client’s social, cultural and linguistic needs (Betancourt et al., 2003).
In the Netherlands the WMO (2011) describes that a diverse workforce consists of: (a) both man and women, (b) both young and old employees, (c) both autochthones and ethnical minorities, (d) persons with(out) a (work) disability, (e) persons with different sexual orientations, and (f) persons that are (not) reintegrating in the work process. From the above it can be concluded that diversity is a broad concept and organizations could be limited to the extent they can/have to implement diversity programs depending on different factors like, country diversity, customer interaction, labour laws etcetera.
In this paper we assume that diversity is based on ethnic backgrounds, therefore distinction will be made between autochthones and ethnical minorities in the client and personnel population of PC. In the definition autochthones are considered to be those people who are born and raised in the Netherlands by parents whom also where born and raised in the Netherlands. Ethnical minorities are those people who are born and raised in another country than the Netherlands or are born in the Netherlands but are raised by (a) parent(s) who is/are originally from another country (CBS, 1999). The narrow view of distinguishing between autochthones and ethnical minority is chosen because of the easiness of registration and strict categorization within PC.
2.2 Diversity policies and climate
In the last three decades research has focused on the empirical examination of the effects of diversity on individual, group and organizational level outcomes (Harrison and Klein, 2007). This growth in research is parallel to the increases in heterogeneity in the workforce (CBS, 2011), and diversity policies are used by organizations to keep up with these increasing heterogeneity rates (Carrell & Sigler, 2006). The primary goals of these policies are to recruit, promote and retain a diverse workforce (Herdman & McMillan-Capehart, 2010). Through the use of diversity policies, organizations try to establish a diversity climate. Such a climate reflects the diversity values of the organization, like fairness, equity and inclusion. Employees use the diversity climate to determine the degree of fit between their own personal diversity values and those of the organizations. Based on this, the degree of fit can be high, meaning that employees staying with the organization, or low, resulting in turnover (Knouse, 2009).
“presence and enforcement of relevant policies, such as affirmative action, perceptions of the
fairness of organizational procedures, such as performance evaluation and the reward structure, the diversity reputation of the organization, the diversity commitment of top management, and the overall tendency of the organization towards inclusion of all employees” (p.401). Based on this, one could say that diversity climate consist both of formal
and informal procedures, and on the perception of these procedures by the employees (Knouse, 2009; McKay & Avery, 2006).
An important consequence of implementing the above diversity initiatives should be changes in employee’s perceptions regarding the importance of diversity in the organization. Past research supports this statement by showing the most important positive relationships between diversity climate and organizational outcomes, including turnover intentions, job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Herdman & McMillan-Capehart, 2010). Besides this, diversity climate has also shown to mitigate the adverse effects of diversity such as conflicts, decreased productivity and lower commitment to the organization (Gonzalez & DeNisi, 2009) and moderates the relationship between diversity and firm performance (Gonzalez & DeNisi, 2009). Until now, researchers have not found the ultimate explanation for the relationship between diversity and firm performance.
For organizations it is important to know what their level of diversity climate is if they want to establish a diverse organization. They have to realize that a diverse workforce requires formal and informal procedures that establish a feeling among the employees that the organization values diversity and is willing to put in effort to establish and maintain a diverse workforce.
2.3 Leadership and diversity
An important aspect of diversity within organizations is how to ensure that the positive effects of diversity out weight the drawbacks that are associated with heterogeneity. One way to deal with this is to make a good fit between leadership styles and team values and diversity (Kearney & Gebert, 2009).
Within diverse teams, team leaders play a powerful role in shaping team processes and outcomes. Accordingly, their behaviours may influence the extent to which diversity values results in team conflict.
Burke, Stagl, Klein, Goodwin, Salas & Halpin (2006) identified three categories of behaviours that are considered to be task-focused leadership behaviours. These categories are: transactional, initiating structure, and boundary spanning.
Transactional leadership behaviours are built on dyadic exchanges whereby the leader provides praise, rewards, or punishment to their subordinates. A focus on reward contingencies and exchange relationships is often seen with this type of leadership (Burke et al, 2006). Leaders who show initiating structure emphasize the accomplishment of task objectives through the minimization of role ambiguity and conflicts. Lastly, boundary spanning includes both politically orientated communication that increases the resources available to the team and networking communication that expands the amount and variety of information that is available to the team (Brown & Eisenhard, 1995).
Based on the information from above and the available literature we can say that with task-focused leaders structures, everything has to do with team activities. They organize, define, and coordinate team activities; define roles and tasks that are expected from each individual team member; maintain formal standard; provide explicit deadlines; and plan ahead (Burke et al., 2006). These kinds of leaders create a strong team setting in which little room is left for individual and collective behaviour. Individual team members have almost no room to influence other team members with their own values and norms; this causes less conflict between team members whose values differ from one another (Klein et al., 2011). When a team leader is low in task-focused leadership, he pays relatively less attention to planning, prioritizing, and scheduling team activities. In teams where members all share the same values, this leadership approach may not engender conflict because group members who share similar values are more likely to agree about group actions such as goals, tasks, and procedures, thus reducing task conflict. But in teams with high levels of diversity, these low in task-focused leaders may be ineffective because they don’t create a strong team setting. Without this strong team setting, conflicts will arise in a diverse team (Klein et al., 2011).
Burke et al. (2006) also identified four categories of behaviours, which are considered to be person-focused. These categories are: transformational, consideration, empowerment, and motivational.
and context (Burke et al., 2006). Consideration is directed at maintaining a close social relationship and group cohesion. It is characterized by two-way open communication, mutual respect and trust, and an emphasis on satisfying employee needs. Person-focused leaders also show more behaviours associated with empowerment and motivation. Leaders emphasize the personal development of their subordinates and give them coaching, monitors them, and give feedback. These leaders also want to motivate their subordinates by promoting team members exerting continued effort by reward and recognition for their performance. But also reward behaviours which ensure that the needs and values of members are met through the provision of support for individuals and their efforts (Fleishman, Mumford, Zaccaro, Levin, Korotkin & Hein, 1991). These motivational behaviours do not involve coercion-based influence.
Leaders high in person-focused leadership are more ‘emotionally’ connected with their team members. They show warmth and consideration towards members, listen to their needs and concerns, treat them as equals and encourage two-way communication (Burke et al., 2006). Under these conditions, leaders with high person-focused leadership may create a weak situation, where team members will feel less constraint and will express their values more easily. When team members’ values are similar, this will reinforce and enhance team members’ feelings of cohesion, identity, and pride. Their similarity acts as a uniting force within the team (Klein et al., 2011). But in teams where team members’ values differ, person-focused leadership – and the weak setting it engenders – may foster and enable team members’ expression of their differing values. Under these conditions, the care and consideration by the person-focused leader may yield not cohesion, identity, and pride, but disapproval and frustration as team members react to the statements and behaviours of those whose values differ form their own (Klein et al., 2011).
To conclude, it can be stated that if organizations want to have a diverse workforce and therefore diverse teams, the (team) leaders have to bear in mind that diverse teams need different kinds of leadership than non-diverse teams to accomplish their goals. Organizations have to map team composition and team members’ values and align leadership with these values and composition.
2.4 Recruiting a diverse workforce
2000). Also in the Dutch society we see a move towards a diverse society and consequential the workforce becomes more diverse (CBS, 2011). Where the gross participation of woman and minorities were 54,4% and 53,5% in the beginning of 2000, these figures rose to 63,4% and 60,4% in 2010 (CBS, 2011). As a response to this, firms begin to consider alternative recruitment sources, using minority organizational representatives and changing recruitment messages to highlight issues of importance to the targeted applicant pool (Avery & McKay, 2006). Practices like these are used out of necessity of the anticipated demographic differences in response to traditional recruitment practices. For instance, minorities report significant less favourable images of organizations than did the majority group. Also women place different values on certain characteristics than males regarding work ethics (Thomas & Wise, 1999).
Opinions about diversity recruitment are not in shortage, but empirical finding about the topic are scattered with no organizing framework to integrate them (Thomas & Wise, 1999). Because of this, there is no one best way to organize diversity recruitment. In stead, there are multiple possibilities to shape an organization’s diversity recruitment strategy. In the next section, different topics about recruiting and retaining personnel will be discussed.
Where to find ethnic minorities?
How to let ethnic minorities apply?
To identify capable and diverse candidates, organizations have to recruit an applicant pool that is large and diverse enough (Newman & Lyon, 2009). Rynes (1991) defined recruitment as “All organizational practices and decisions that affect either the number, or
types, of individuals who are willing to apply for, or to accept, a given vacancy” (p. 429).
While searching for candidates, organizations make use of targeted recruiting. Targeted individuals are those needed to fill a specific gap in the applicant pool, which could be qualified ethnic applicants (Newman & Lyon, 2009). To alter their recruitment techniques, organizations could create a more diverse and qualified applicant pool.
If organizations want to increase the diversity of the organization, they have to recruit diverse candidates. Different recruitment methods have different implications. For example, informal recruitment methods may be effective for attracting high performing applicants, minorities are more likely to respond to formal recruitment methods (Newman & Lyon, 2009). There is one important pitfall organizations have to watch out for. When recruiting for more diversity in the organization, many recruitment efforts are focused on getting as much as possible minorities to apply. Although this increases the number of applicants, it also increases the number of applications from candidates who are unqualified or disinterested in the position (Newman & Lyon, 2009). Understanding what drives applicants to apply for a position is therefore crucial, also in the case when it comes down to recruiting ethnic minorities (Newman & Lyon, 2009).
Avery & McKay (2006) argue that the success of diversity recruitment depends upon the organization conveying to prospective minority applicants that it values diversity in terms of fairness and inclusion. A way for organizations to communicate this during the early stages of recruitment is the use of organizational impression management (Avery & McKay, 2006). Two specific recruitment tactics have emerged: recruitment advertisement diversity and the characteristics of organizational recruiters.
Recruitment advertisement diversity. In recruitment ads, pictorial diversity is very
are successfully working in that organization. Perkins et al. (2000) and Avery, Hernandez & Hebl (2004) found that racial congruence between the applicant and the job and those shown in the advertisement increases both applicants’ perception of fit with, and their attraction to, the organization. Their research also indicated that minority job seekers are most attracted to companies showing other minorities, even if the individual is not of their own racial/ethnic group. In general it can be said that minority applicant tend to find ads depicting more diversity preferable to less diverse ads.
Characteristics of organizational recruiters. Organizations wanting to attract
candidates with specific characteristics should make sure that their recruiters also have those qualities. This is also known as the attraction-similarity perspective (Byrne & Griffitt, 1973). Young, Place, Rinehart, Jury, & Baits (1997) found in their study evidence that recruiter race affected organizational attractiveness towards minority groups. Minority job seekers place a higher emphasize on race than do majority groups. Avery et al. (2004) suggested that race does not have to be identical between applicant and the recruiter, but it is important that the recruiter is from a minority group. Aligning recruiter’s demographics to the demographics of the applicants is an effective method for increasing organizational diversity (Avery et al. 2004).
Instead of using recruitment strategies which seems to be ‘one size fits all’, organizations should recruit minority-focused recruiting, or using aptitude- and trait-based recruiting while targeting only member from the minority group. This will lead to an increase in qualified minority applicants. Besides pictorial diversity in advertisement, it is also important to describe the characteristics and qualities of the applicant and position description in more detail. If jobs are described in such a way that it needs, for example, ethnic candidates, these candidates will be more likely to apply for the position (Newman & Lyon, 2009). Another way to attract the minority candidates is to describe the organization in a way that attracts these candidates. Turban & Keon (1993) found that personality characteristics were related to features of organizational culture. Additionally, minority members may respond more positively to affirmative action messages that include an equal opportunity statement (Newman & Lyon, 2009).
How to retain ethnic minorities?
Once minorities are working in the organization, it is important to retain them as long as possible. Therefore it is important that members of the minority groups are working in visible authority positions, and that minorities have access to social networks (Newman & Lyon, 2009). Besides this, organizations must understand the fundamental values and challenges ethnic minorities face in the labour market. Most often, minorities in the organization possess a different pattern of work values than majority group members (Ng & Sears, 2010). Work values are generalized beliefs about the desirability of various aspects of work and work-related outcomes. These work values could be extrinsic (material aspects of work such as pay, benefits, and job security), intrinsic (psychological and cognitive satisfaction of working such as interesting work, challenge, variety, and intellectual stimulation), social values (relation with supervisor, co-workers, and others), and altruistic values (concern for the interest of others) (Ng & Sears, 2010).
Research from Ng & Sears (2010) indicated that ethnic minorities place a stronger emphasis on extrinsic work values than the majority group. They also found, however, that ethnic minorities value intrinsic outcomes discernibly more than the majority group. This effect is indicating that minority employees have strong expectation in terms of receiving fulfilling work and growth opportunities (Ng & Sears, 2010). Minorities had also a status that was linked to a greater emphasis on social values. They recognize that the inherent value in networking and relationship building and the benefits they provide in terms of access to information and resources (Ng & Sears, 2010). Altruism is also more valued by ethnic minorities, signalling that those with minority status may be more inclined to emphasize with those in disadvantage positions (Ng & Sears, 2010).
To conclude it can be stated that organizations have to keep in mind that ethnic minorities have different work values that the majority group in the organization. To make sure that minorities are maintained in the organization, the organization has to be aware of these differences and take actions and make plans which overcome these differences (Ng & Sears, 2010; Newman & Lyon, 2009).
2.5 Implementing diversity policies
3. METHOD
The research question in this paper was “Which insights and actions are needed to make the personnel practices at PC more aimed at ethnical diversity”. To answer this question, both qualitative and quantitative data were used. In the next section, the procedures, respondents and measurement will be discussed.
3.1 Procedure
Qualitative data about ethnical diversity, the need for it, organizational culture and current policies and actions regarding ethnical diversity were collected at the HR department and from location heads of different locations where care is given for clients. Qualitative data was used to find out the current situation regarding ethnical diversity, based on the care needs of the clients and the organizational culture. The HR manager was invited for an interview; furthermore, 4 location heads gave response to participate in an interview. The HR manager was chosen for the overall view and knowledge of the HR department, location head were chosen for the authority positions over locations and therefore knowing what important is on the work floor. The importance of knowing this lies in the fact that people at the HR department do not work on locations with clients, and therefore the knowledge of the location heads is important to use in this study. For the HR manager, the interview consisted of 20 questions and was build up from several influencing topics. These topics were, general questions regarding ethnical diversity, HR policies regarding ethnical diversity, leadership and diversity, organizational culture, and recruitment and retainment strategies. Knowing the current situation regarding ethnical diversity and the readiness of the organization to implement ethnical diversity policies is important, it makes clear which actions are needed to make the organization a more ethnical diverse one. The interview topics for the location heads were the same; only the questions that were asked were more tailored towards experiences on the work floor and questions regarding recruitment strategies were left out. The choice to leave that topic out is made because location heads are not involved in making this kind of strategy. In addition, the location heads were asked to fill out a short questionnaire that measured the kind of leadership style they possessed. The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions regarding person- or task-focused leadership. An overview of the interview questions and questionnaire is provided in appendix A.
named Beaufort. Data used during this research were mainly of the year 2011, and in some situations data was use of 2010. This was the case when data was used of CBS Statline. Data from CBS Statline was used to make a quantitative scan of the composition of the population. The scans of the clients and employees, and the scan of the population were compared with each other. Furthermore, the scans were used to find out if there was underrepresentation of certain population groups within the organization.
3.2 Respondents
In total 5 respondents participated in this research. There were 2 female and 2 male respondents who worked as location heads. Their average lengths of job tenure was 11 years, with a minimum of 3.5 years, and a maximum of 24 years. The HR manager was female who worked 1.5 years at PC.
3.3 Measurement
During the interviews, both open and closed questions were asked. Open questions were asked when the personal opinion or own experience was important. An example of such a question is: What do you understand by ethnical diversity? The questions are based on research outcomes of different authors who did extensive research about diversity and ethnical diversity in special. Theories and relations described in these papers were used as a basis for making the questions of the ongoing research.
General questions. The general questions about ethnical diversity are based on the
theory of Pitss et al. (2010) where they discuss the multiple views on ethnical diversity and the positive effects of ethnical diversity on organizational objectives. They concluded that policies regarding diversity need to be based on organizational interpretation and thereby ethnical diversity policies should be tailored to every organization.
HR policies. These questions are based on literature of different authors. For example
Betancourt et al. (2003) stressed in their paper the importance of tailored care to meet client’s social, cultural and linguistic needs, but organizations also need to consider what kind of image they want to give forth. An example question of this is: Does the workforce have the
desired ethnicity to meet the needs of the clients? Furthermore, Ng & Sears (2010) found out
that once ethnical minorities are working for the company, they put different emphasis on work values, making it important to know these differences and how to handle these. An example question therefore is: Are differences in religions taking into account when looking
Organizational culture. Knouse (2009) and Mckay & Avery (2006) did in their papers
research on the culture of an organization and found that it consisted of both formal and informal procedures, and that these procedures influenced outcomes like job satisfaction and commitment. Therefore, questions regarding culture were asked. An example question is: Is
there an open culture where everyone is treated fairly and equal?
Recruitment and retainment strategies. Questions regarding recruitment strategies
focuses on how the organization try to find qualified ethnical employees, how the organization try to recruit those employees and finally how they try to retain them. Avery & McKay argue in their paper that organizations should show it values diversity by showing possible ethnical applicants organizational policies of fairness and inclusion. Furthermore, Bernardi et al. (2002) showed that firms striving for higher diversity should show this diversity in their recruitment advertisements. Based on the above theories, an example question is: Does Promens Care display ethnical diversity in their recruitment
advertisements? Thomas & Wise (1999) and Avery & McKay (2006) show in their papers
that ethnical minorities react on different signals of the organization than the majority group. Therefore an example question is: Which specific actions are taken during the recruitment
stage to attract a more ethnical diverse workforce?
4. RESULTS
In this chapter the results of the interviews, secondary data search, and the outcomes of the leadership questionnaire will be elaborated. This section begins with describing the definition of ethnical diversity and the ethnical diversity of the workforce of PC, based on the interview results and secondary data. This will be followed with a description of the organizational culture based on the interview results. The organizational culture is succeeded by the results of the leadership questionnaire. Lastly, personnel policies regarding recruiting and retaining ethnical diversity will be elaborated.
4.1 Ethnical diversity
The general remark about ethnical diversity made by some of the location heads was that they could not come up with a definition of ethnical diversity. They saw all people as the same, and that people from a different country had something of extra value they could bring into their work activities because they were, for example, raised with a different set of values than people who were raised in the Netherlands.
From the interviews, several definitions of ethnical diversity were made. One location head described ethnical diverse people as those people who are not originally from the Netherlands, meaning that they were born in another country, or that their parents were born in another country; or ethnical different people are those who stay illegal in the Netherlands. Another definition was made by the head of the HRM department, ethnical diverse people was described as people who were born and raised in countries that are not part of the Western Europe culture.
4.2 Workforce and client diversity
The team composition regarding ethnical diversity is different across locations. Some teams do not even have ethnical diversity, others have one ethnical diverse person in the team, and some have even five ethnical diverse members within the team. Also the composition of the clients can be regarded as the same as the team composition, at some locations there is no ethnical diversity, at other there are one or two ethnical diverse clients, and some even have more than 6 ethnical diverse clients.
his/her location, he/she did not experience such cultural issues particularly. Specific examples of differences were that male clients did not want to be washed by female employees which has its basis in cultural differences, clients have feelings about revenge of honour and need help cooping with these feeling, or clients just need somebody who knows their values and land of origin first hand. It is therefore believed by the location heads that ethnical diverse clients benefit when there are ethnical diverse team members who have experience with the client’s ethnicity.
The HR manager stated that the organization itself could benefit from a higher level of ethnical diversity because society prefers diversified organizations; to become a more ethnical diverse organization is therefore also felt as a sort of social pressure at this moment. In the future the organization could benefit from this insight in ethnical diversity because it knows how to tap into the pool of ethnical diverse workers, and therefore can attract enough new ethnical diverse employees.
All location heads indicated that not all teams can be composed in such a way that the ethnicity of the clients is also found in the same rate among the employees, due to the fact that there are employees on an internal placing list and who must be hired. So no specific choice in that case can be made about ethnicity. But all location heads state that the teams can satisfy the needs of the ethnical diverse clients at his moment, even when there are no ethnical diverse employees in the team. The knowledge of dealing with different care needs is collected with the use of the Internet, other external institutions like COA (Centraal Orgaan opvang Asielzoekers; Central Organ care Asylum seekers), or internal locations reports and colleagues.
When employees or clients are from a different ethnical background, both the location heads and the HR manager indicate that differences are taken into account. For example if employees are Muslim and therefore want to take part at the Ramadan, attention is given to schedule the employees in such a way that working times are not conflicting with religion or, if it is possible, that employees can have vacations during these days. Also when clients do not eat pork because of religion, a substitute will be prepared for the client.
4.3 Organizational culture
development for individuals and every employee has the opportunity to show his knowledge and creativity. The HR manager added that employees do not have to follow very strict rules and protocols, they have a say in how they deliver care to clients. The drawback of this is unclarity, this because of the fact of freedom and personal interpretation of client care without following a lot of strict protocols. All interviewees indicated the existence of an open culture and transparency in policies where the main goal is to strive to equal and honest treatments to all employees and clients. This open culture is represented in equal opportunities everybody gets within the organization, despite ethnical backgrounds.
4.4 Leadership styles
The questionnaire about leadership styles showed that two of the location heads were slightly more person focused, and the other two were slightly more task focused. But these differences between person or task focus were very small. Based on this it is stated that all location heads have a mixed set of leadership styles and not one style in particular. All location heads indicated that they stick up for their personnel, had confidence in them, that there was a good 2-way communication within the team and the location head her/his-self contributed to a good work ethos. At one person focused statement, one location head answered negatively in contrast to the others. This location head indicated that he/she did not treat everybody within the team as equals, differences between employees and the tasks they need to execute were made. All location heads also showed comparison on the task-focused statements. Here one location head indicated in contrast to the others that he/she did not come up with clear deadlines and did not clearly specify what results where expected from the team.
4.5 Personnel policies
Within PC, both the personnel and client diversity can be considered as low. In 2010, 9,4% of the population are ethnical minorities in Drenthe, and for Groningen this percentage is 12,8%. At PC, 4% of the clients, and only 2% of the employees are an ethnical minority. Although the percentages are low, during the interviews it was indicated by two location heads that lately more ethnical diversity among the clients is seen at the locations.
During the interviews some problems were indicated that could causes ethnical minorities to choose not to apply for a job at PC. One location head mentioned that in vacancies, no attention is given to the fact that PC is preferably searching for a candidate of ethnicity. While there is need for an ethnical diverse employee because there are clients with ethnicity on the locations. It was also indicated that the vacancy texts where too general and did not indicate enough specific proceedings and were not informative enough to make a good representation of what is expected from a potential new employee. Lastly it was said by the HR manager that there would not be enough attention and approachability to make sure ethnical minorities will apply, this because the organization has strong norms and values. It could be possible that this scares of ethnical minorities because they cannot find themselves in these norms and values, they just do not fit in.
PC does not use special organizational recruiters. Mostly the location heads themselves read the letters and CV’s and let the HRM department know which candidates they want to invite for an interview. Depending on the function, HRM employees, location heads or the coordinates do the job interviews. During these interviews the focus is on whether the person has the right qualifications and if he/she fits within the team. Whether the person is an ethnical minority or not is not that important. It could be the case that there is a specific need for an employee of ethnicity. In the situation that an ethnical applicant is equally qualified as a non-ethnical applicant, the ethnical applicant will be chosen.
Furthermore, there are no specific policies or actions that target ethnical minorities. There are no specific actions that raise the inflow of ethnic employees. Both the location heads and HR manager recognize the importance of a good ratio between the ethnicity rate of the clients and the employees. Everybody in the organization is treated equally, and during the recruitment and selection procedures no distinctions are made between people.
5. DISCUSSION
The aim of this study was to investigate which insights and actions are needed to make the personnel practices at PC more aimed at ethnical diversity. Result of this study should lead to the first actions regarding ethnical diversity, whether this would be to implement ethnical diversity policies or the explicit choice not to implement diversity policies yet. Based on the finding of previous studies, this study focused on a number of variables and actions (diversity policies, diversity climate, leadership and diversity, and recruitment) which are needed to make the consideration whether or not to implement ethnical diversity policies.
The main conclusion of this study for PC to become an ethnical diverse organization is based on insights in the current ethnical diversity at PC, insights based on theory, and on actions that are needed to make PC a more ethnical diverse organization.
The research question of this study is:
Which insights and actions are needed to make the personnel practices at PC more aimed at ethnical diversity?
This study showed that ethnical diversity policies at PC are twofold driven by both Wet Maatschappelijke Opvang (WMO) and internal pressures like level of client interaction and societal norms and values.
The workforce of PC is not a good reflection of the population in Drenthe and Groningen. The population is much more diverse than the workforce of PC, meaning that PC has lower diversity rate as the population in Groningen and Drenthe. At the other hand it is stated that a good ratio of clients ethnical diversity to employee ethnical diversity is more important for PC. This is the case for all organizations where there is a high level of customer interaction, something that is present at all locations of PC. Here the differences are smaller, where 4% of the clients are ethnical diverse, against 2% of the employees. In actual figures this come down 120 ethnical diverse clients and 40 ethnical diverse employees. Meaning that 1 out of 3 ethnical diverse clients has a chance on an ethnical diverse employee at his side. In reality, this does not imply that all these clients need a personal ethnical employee, but it is important that at locations where ethnical diverse clients are present, that there is also an ethnical diverse employee in that team.
reintegration of employees. This reflects the norms and values of PC, and it shows also that all people are welcome.
Furthermore, location heads possess a mixed set of person- and task-leadership styles. This is a good mix for teams that are well developed, but for teams that have to deal with new members it is not the best mix. In that case, a task-focused leader will do a better job because there is more focus on the tasks that need to be done and less on the personal differences between employees (Klein et al., 2011).
Finally, in contrast to theory, PC does not undertake specific actions during the recruitment procedure to attract a more ethnical diverse applicant pool.
Based on these insights, it can be stated that PC is at the moment a non-diverse organization but with a beginning feeling that there will be a growing demand for more ethnical diversity among the employees. The cultural basis that permits a more ethnical diverse organization is present, only there is no mutual consistency of who is considered to be ethnical diverse. Following from the above it is recommended that PC should undertake the following actions
The first action is to define a clear and concrete definition of ethnical diversity. Such a definition is important because with information about ethnical diversity rates among the clients and employees, PC can easily check whether there is a good fit between the ethnical diversity rate of clients and that of employees. It also simplifies registration of ethnical diversity, and lastly, figures of the organization can easily be compared with figures of CBS Statline. Keeping track of ethnical diversity figures will lead to better insights in diversity rates, and to early visibility when ethnical diversity rates of the organization are not consistent with CBS Statline rates. Moreover, this gives the organization the opportunity to show the urgency when changes regarding ethnical diversity are made. Kotter (1995) strongly recommend this step in his theory. Although it is important to define ethnical diversity at PC, the definition must not act as a mechanism to purely distinguish between races. The organization must make clear to clients, employees and the outside environment that being ethnical diverse is considered as a value, especially when there are also ethnical diverse clients. The HRM department should in partnership with other influential persons of the organization define this definition, which Kotter (1995) describes as “forming a powerful guiding coalition”.
could cause lesser ethnical applicants for the job than when the organization gives specific attention and uses specific channels to reach ethnical applicants. Newman & Lyon (2009) and Avery & McKay (2006) describe in their paper actions that attracts more ethnical diverse applicants, which include; making use of pictorial diversity in advertisements and on the website of the organization, or using ethnical diverse recruiters as is stated by Young et al (1997) and Byrne & Griffitt (1973) in their papers. During the interviews it was also stated by one location head that the advertisements were not specific and detailed enough about the job and personal requirements of applicants. The job description was to general and that could cause that ethnical applicants do not see themselves working for PC, this statement is also found in the paper of Tuban & Keon (1995). Giving attention to the above described missing pieces could lead to a more ethnical diverse applicant pool. The actions needed are described in more detail below.
Attracting ethnical applicants requires the use of alternative recruitment channels. Examples of these channels are schools, immigrant media, and cooperation with asylum seekers organizations like COA. With a close cooperation with schools, the organization can try to commit ethnical diverse students to the organization by offering them a BBL-education (Beroepsbegeleidende Leerweg; Apprenticeship training).
With today’s technique, there are newspapers and websites tailored to all ethnicity groups living in the Netherlands. Having contact with these media, and placing information and advertisements in them, a more diverse applicant pool can be reached. Applicants can also be found in asylum seekers organizations, the organization can find qualified applicants, or applicants willing to follow an education and commit these people to the organization.
Besides these channels, it is also important to know what ethnical diverse people drive to apply for the job. In their advertisements, PC should let them know it values diversity. Race and ethnicity should be showed in advertisements and on the website, and evidence should be given that people like themselves are successfully working at PC. Also thoughts could be given to make use of attraction-similarity perspective. Furthermore, advertisements should be more detailed about characteristics and qualities of the applicants, and also a clear position description. If these descriptions make clear that ethnical diverse people are needed at PC, they are more likely to apply.
combined theory with practices. This study combined the most basic subjects for an effective and efficient ethnical diversity policy for organizations. With the use of this study, organization can find out whether ethnical diversity fits within their organization and their culture and based on insights where gaps exists and which actions should be taken to implement ethnical diversity policies.
On the other hand a limitation of this study is that there was a limited response to participate in this research. Although the outcomes of the four interviews where highly corresponding, it could turn out very different at other locations which where not included in this study. These differences can be caused because of different care needs of the clients, or because of region/place of the location. Another limitation is based on the fact that this paper is based on a limited set of influences. Many more environmental influences are present, for example that lesser people are choosing for a job in healthcare, which will make it even harder to find qualified (ethnical) candidates, but discussing all these influences would be impossible for this paper alone. More authors recognize this and also recommend further investigation (Avery and McKay, 2006; Burke et al. 2006; Ng and Sears, 2010).
Future research is necessary that discusses other environmental changes that has its influences on ethnical diversity policies. Like changes in the composition of society or changing of culture that influences people. Research must be done about work values and how likely it is that people will choose a specific job. Different influences, like immigration policies and acculturation in countries, can have a powerful effect on job searches of ethnical minorities. Ng and Sears (2010) also recognise this important subject and recommend further investigation into this subject.
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APPENDIX A
Vragenlijst locatiehoofden interview
1. Wat verstaat u onder etnische diversiteit? Kunt u hier een korte beschrijving van geven? 2. Wordt er in uw voorzieningen aandacht besteed aan etnische diversiteit?
2.1. Zo ja: waar blijkt dit uit? 2.2. Nee
3. Hoe etnisch divers zijn de teams & cliënten op uw locaties samengesteld?
4. Heeft de cliëntengroep op uw locaties behoefte aan etnische diversiteit? (wat is de meerwaarde?)
4.1. Zo ja; waar blijkt dit uit? 4.2. Zo nee; waar blijkt dit uit?
5. Heeft het personeelbestand de gewenste etniciteit om aan de behoeften van de cliënten te kunnen voldoen?
6. Kunt u de organisatiecultuur omschrijven?
7. Is er een open cultuur waarin eerlijk en gelijk wordt behandeld? 7.1. Zo ja: waar blijkt dit uit?
7.2. Zo nee: waar blijkt dit uit?
8. Welk imago wil Promens Care hebben op de arbeidsmarkt?
9. Hoe kan Promens Care aantrekkelijker worden gemaakt voor etnische minderheden om te gaan solliciteren?
10. Wordt er rekening gehouden met verschillende religies in de toepassing van vakantiedagen en/of feestdagen?
10.1. Ja met
10.2. Nee
11. Worden er trainingen of workshops gegeven die gericht zijn op etnische diversiteit? (her- en erkennen van verschillen)
11.1. Ja, namelijk
11.2. Nee
Vragenlijst P&O interview
1. Wat verstaat u onder etnische diversiteit? Kunt u hier een korte beschrijving van geven? 2. Wordt er binnen Promens Care aandacht besteed aan etnische diversiteit?
3. Is er een meerwaarde, volgens u, van een etnisch diversiteit voor de stichting? (bijv.
sociaal wenselijk, wenselijk voor de cliënten, voorbeeldrol) 4. Kunt u de organisatiecultuur omschrijven?
5. Is er een open cultuur waarin eerlijk en gelijk wordt behandeld? 5.1. Zo ja: waar blijkt dit uit?
5.2. Zo nee: waar blijkt dit uit?
6. Wordt er rekening gehouden met verschillende religies in de toepassing van vakantiedagen en/of feestdagen?
6.1. Ja met 6.2. Nee
7. Worden er trainingen of workshops gegeven die gericht zijn op etnische diversiteit? (her- en erkennen van verschillen)
7.1. Ja, namelijk 7.2. Nee
8. Worden leidinggevenden getraind in het omgaan met een divers personeelsbestand? 8.1. Ja, dit blijkt uit
8.2. Nee
9. Welk imago wil Promens Care hebben op de arbeidsmarkt?
10. Hoe kan Promens Care aantrekkelijker worden gemaakt voor etnische minderheden om te gaan solliciteren?
11. Is er beleid ontwikkeld om de instroom van deze doelgroep te bevorderen? 11.1. Zo ja: kunt u een korte omschrijving geven
11.2. Zo nee: wat zijn de redenen hiervoor?
12. Wat zijn de huidige kanalen om etnische minderheden te bereiken?
13. Wordt er tijdens het selectieproces/sollicitatieproces acties ondernomen om een kandidaat van etnische afkomst zich meer tot de organisatie aangetrokken te laten voelen? Bijv. door middel van een recruiter die zelf tot een minderheidsgroep behoord.
14. Welke specifieke acties worden er ondernomen om tot een etnisch diverser
personeelsbestand te komen tijdens de werving- en selectieprocedure? (gebruik diverse wervingskanalen, dmv selectiecommissie)
Vragenlijst leiderschapsstijlen locatiehoofden (worden beantwoord op 5 punts Likert)
3. Ik zorg ervoor dat mijn personeel de middelen heeft om het werk goed te kunnen doen 4. Ik toon vertrouwen te hebben in mijn personeel
5. Ik geef aan welke resultaten ik van mijn team verwacht
6. Ik spreek mijn personeel rechtstreeks aan op de behaalde resultaten 7. Ik zoek samen met mijn personeel naar oplossingen voor problemen 8. Ik steun mijn personeel als zij persoonlijke problemen hebben 9. Ik maak mijn verwachtingen duidelijk tegenover mijn personeel 10. Ik draag persoonlijk bij aan een goede sfeer binnen de voorziening 11. Ik neem de leiding bij het uitvoeren van taken
12. Ik coördineer alle taken binnen het team
13. Ik behandel iedereen binnen het team als gelijken 14. Ik plan zaken van tevoren
15. Ik stel duidelijke deadlines
