Enriching Team Competency Through Diversity Immersion Projects

Carolyn Wiethoff Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Kelley School of Business [email protected]

Overview

• Motivation for the study • Practical and theoretical background • Mechanics of the project • Hypotheses • Methodology and measures • Results • Limitations • Implications • Future plans • Discussion (throughout and at the end)

Motivation for the Study

• Importance of teamwork in business careers • Need for Indiana University students to experience diversity • Personal desire for diversity-competent students • Investigation of generational differences in prejudice

Team Competency in a Diverse Workforce

• Awareness –> knowledge and understanding –> behavior and action steps • Understand how the dynamics of diversity affect organizations and their members • Change individual behavior to effectively cope with those dynamics • Avoid diversity-related problems • Capitalize on diversity-related opportunities • Be comfortable with difference

Theoretical Foundations

• Social Identity Theory – In-groups and out-groups – Identity and self-esteem protected by group membership • Contact Hypothesis – Proximate, cooperative interactions on an equalized basis with someone from an out group minimizes prejudice toward the out group – Contact needs to be cooperative and pleasant

The Immersion Project*

1: Identification of individual “discomfort groups” 2: Assignment to particular group 3: Reflect on current beliefs about the group (turned in for a grade prior to beginning the project) 4: Immersion activities (5 weeks, out of class/alone, oral updates in class) Interviews, lectures, books, movies, websites, meetings, events….

5: Final written assignment in response to questions *This assignment developed and modified with assistance from the incomparable Rod Haywood

Additional In-Class Activities

• Race-related ethics case (Harvard’s Jonah Creighton) • Gender role differences case (Harvard’s Work Patterns at Ditto) • Lecture/discussion of stereotyping and its related problems in organizations • Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual course content – View the Simpson’s Homer’s Phobia with discussion – Guest speaker: Michael, bisexual and HIV-positive

Hypotheses

1: Immersion in a group will result in less prejudice toward that group 2: Immersion in a group will reduce reported prejudice toward other groups

Methodology

• Students in Z304, Honors “Managing Behavior in Organizations” (n=32) – Business Honors – Liberal Arts and Management Program – Mostly first-semester juniors • Measures (Week 3, Week 15, anonymous) – Prejudicial attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, women, ethnic minorities – Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religious Orientation – Modern Racism, Modern Sexism – All scales created/validated in existing literature

Groups Studied in Immersion Projects

• Lesbians (n=6) • Democrats (n=5) • Evangelical Christians (n=5) • Republicans (n=5) • Gay men (n=4) • Jewish Students (n=4) • Latinas (n=3)

Results (ANOVA Time 1 v. Time 2)

1: Change in prejudice toward target group (only for students studying that group) – Moderate (significant at p =.17, n=6) changes toward lesbians, no other changes noted – Students studying evangelical Christians went in opposite direction (less tolerance), though results not significant (n=5) 2: Change in prejudice toward other groups (for all students) – Change for gay men significant at p = .10

A Note on Measurement

• Threw out traditional racism and sexism scales (no variance) • Good variance on Modern Racism and Modern Sexism scales • Good variance on Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Attitudes Toward Gays scales • Added confidence in quality of study!

Limitations

• Small class size, single class • Socially desirable responses?

• Variation in immersion -- Examples: – Gay men: 15 quality research articles, 3 books, 1 movie, 1 phone interview – Gay men: 14 face-to-face interviews, 3 books, multiple meetings of Out and Black Like Me, joined PFLAG, 3 movies, 2 TV shows – Lesbians: 1 website, 2 interviews with IU employees (1 LGBT office live, 1 President of IU LGBT Alumni Association via e-mail)

Implications: In-Class

• Classroom interactions matter!

– Most significant attitude change is correlated with classroom speaker • Consistent with Contact Hypothesis literature: – Class becomes an “in-group” accessible to visitors – Interaction is viewed as mutually beneficial – Face-to-face interaction is assured – Instructor can model appropriate behavior • Classroom becomes a “comfort zone” • Probably need in-class experiences before individual immersion projects begin

Implications: Immersion Projects

• Immersion projects benefit individual students, as quotations from their papers indicate: – “I believe this project has opened up my eyes to what is really behind many African Americans’ eyes, but I could have realized these things sooner if I would have just let down my guard and offered to spend more time talking with this group of individuals.”

Implications: Student Benefit

• “Before starting this project, I had little understanding of Evangelical Christians. I had the stereotype of them as vocal activists who often stand on the corners of the campus handing out miniature Bibles and condemning abortion. Looking back, I feel ashamed I had pigeon-holed such a diverse group of individuals. They are definitely not the workplace horror I had imagined they would be.”

Implications: Student Benefit

• “While my political views have not changed as a result of researching hardcore Democrats, my knowledge of these individuals has. No longer do I perceive these liberals as senseless, capitalist-hating fools, but rather as individuals whose logic is based on the desire for equality across America. Through completing this project, I have been able to start to climb out of my conservative, Midwestern mindset and make sense of left minded thought.”

Implications: Student Benefit

• “At its core, this paper deals with difference. At the beginning, I believed that my previous experiences, background, and personal character made me a very understanding individual. Through immersing myself into a group and topic I had very little knowledge of, I now know different. We all hold biases; it is what makes us different; it is what makes us the same. It is the interpretation and management of those differences that matters most.”

Future Plans

• Repeat study Fall 2006 with multiple classes – More control: Some out-groups only explored in class, others only done in immersion projects – Also measure confidence and competence in interactions (self-report and role play) – Do second follow-up survey in following term • Ongoing journals to investigate the process more thoroughly

Discussion

• What are your best practices to enhance students’ diversity competencies?

• How can we best structure classroom interactions with out-groups?

• What other measurement tools should we use in these investigations? What outcomes can/should we study?