Our readings have identified many barriers to diversity in the workplace. Research a barrier that you are interested in or have experienced yourself. What solution would you propose for this barrier? Explain.

Citations need to be done properly!

The article highlights how informal practices can lead to discrimination in hiring that can impact a business’ employee recruitment efforts. The practices from this study in Finland are similar to issues faced by US firms.

Ylöstalo, H. & Otonkorpi-Lehtoranta, K. (2015, September). Informal practices of inequality in recruitment in Finland. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 5(3). p3-21. 19p

The article focuses on the 3 key stereotype threat mechanisms and how they impact business performance. Specifically, this article will challenge us to consider if we really know what bias or stereotypes we have, without even realizing that they impact our perceptions and the decisions we make.

• Casad, B. J., & Merritt, S. M. (2014). The Importance of stereotype threat mechanisms in workplace outcomes. Industrial & Organizational Psychology, 7(3), 413-419.

This article provides evidence that people can have unconscious prejudices. However, this article goes a step farther, and will provide us many tips on how to prevent prejudices, stereotypes, and biases from influencing the decisions we make every day.

• Wilkie, D. (2014). Bringing bias into the light. (cover story). HR Magazine, 59(12), 22.

This article focuses on making a business case for diversity. Specifically, that there is a talent shortage that requires diversity, the need to relate to customers requires diversity, and finally that diverse teams simply produce better results.

• Armstrong, C., Flood, P. C., Guthrie, J. P., Liu, W., MacCurtain, S., & Mkamwa, T. (2010). The impact of diversity and equality management on firm performance: Beyond high performance work systems. Human Resource Management, 49(6), 977-998.

This article focuses on our final topic of conversation for the week – barriers to diversity in the workplace. You will be introduced to key diversity terms and many diversity-focused coping strategies.

• Evans, A., & Chun, E. B. (2007). Coping With Behavioral and Organizational Barriers to Diversity in the Workplace. CUPA-HR Journal, 58(1), 3.

This article provides an excellent viewpoint of why prejudice is so hurtful to the workplace, and also provides some commonsense options to eliminate this.

• Perry, F. (2014). Reducing racial prejudice through workplace democracy. Journal of Social Philosophy, 45(2), 203-227.