You are Maria Herrera and have been recently promoted to the

You are Maria Herrera and have been recently promoted to the position of director of financial analysis for a

medium size consumer goods firm. During your first few weeks on the job, you took the time to have lunch with

each of your subordinates to try to get to know them better. You have 12 direct reports who are junior and senior

financial analysts who support different product lines. Susan Epstein, one of the female financial analysts you had

lunch with, made the following statement: “I\'m so glad we finally have a woman in charge. Now, hopefully things

will get better around here.” You pressed Epstein to elaborate, but she clammed up. She indicated that she didn\'t

want to unnecessarily bias you and that the problems were pretty self-evident. In fact, Epstein was surprised that you

didn\'t know what she was talking about and jokingly mentioned that perhaps you should spend some time

undercover, observing her group and their interactions with others. You spoke with your supervisor and the former director who had been promoted and had volunteered to be on call if you had any questions. Neither man knew of any diversity-related issues in your group. In fact, your supervisor\'s response was, “We\'ve got a lot of problems, but fortunately that\'s not one of them.”

Question

1.What are you going to do to address this issue?

Solution

From the point of view of a new manager, it is understandable that it can be hard to deal with a comment like that from a subordinate; usually the new manager doesn’t know if he/she should consider the whole group interaction, or the particular behavior of the subordinate how made that statement to find out if there was some personal intention more than a group intention by saying that.

The manager should start by pointing out this situation to the human resources department, keeping the anonymity of the employee who made the statement, to maintain the situation impartially handled. This way the director can find support not only checking the individual qualifications of each of her subordinates, but also according to the law and the company’s policy, and can also consider (with the support of the HR department) some activities that could improve the communication in the workplace, no matter the age, gender, career, or any other particular differences. Also, designing recruitment methods that cater to both genders helps them get the right people in their workplace. Instead of advertising open positions on trade-specific websites only, expand to sites that cater to professional women. Conduct interviews with both male and female interviewers to encourage both perspectives about the candidates. Creating flexible benefit and retention plans allows employees to take advantage of the things that mean the most to them; men might be more worried about the bottom line, preferring to have several different medical-care savings options, for example, while women might prefer the ability to earn extra time off to spend with their families. Providing options that appeal to both genders can help maintain diversity in the workplace.

Employees diversity education: managing diversity in the workplace means educating your employees about how to work with different personalities. Women tend to rely on feelings and intuition more than men do, and they often need a sounding board for new ideas or to listen to problems; problems for which they aren\'t necessarily seeking solutions, just someone to listen. Men, on the other hand, bounce problems off coworkers seeking solutions. They are often blunt and to the point without much patience for small talk. Instead of forcing your employees to endure structured classes on diversity, manage the culture so it reflects that attitude. Talk one-on-one with your employees about working with people of the opposite sex and how to relate to them. Each gender has important insights to offer, and helping your employees recognize that creates a culture of professionals who work well together.

Diverse Decision-Making: When discussing important decisions such as staff changes and which new projects to take on, it’s important to gather a diverse group of employees. If possible, designing the group with the same number of men and women, or as close as possible. The diversity brings more innovative ideas that the others can elaborate on, creating a true team mentality. It sends the message that all employees are important, regardless of gender, and that they all have important roles in the company. This helps develop the idea that gender diversity is key to the company\'s success; when employees value each other\'s skills regardless of any gender boundaries, the business can be more productive.

Considering efficiency evaluations is also a good method to measure not only the group efficiency, but also individual capacities, not only according to the numbers, but also to the behavior and responsibility of the employees.

To manage gender diversity effectively, Maria Herrera must have a personal drive to make diversity a priority. In this case this is more than just making sure women and men get equally hired and promoted; it\'s an attitude that flows through the daily conversations and decisions. It is important to select diverse groups for projects to ensure the genders don\'t naturally separate, and also talking to her employees about success stories from gender-diverse work cultures can help them relate to the idea of diversity so it becomes the culture at work, not just her pet project.