Demographic characteristics affect employee performance and satisfaction both positively and negatively. They create the first impression of an employee to his or her colleagues.
Being a victim of demographic discrimination is not a good feeling. I happened to have colleagues who were way too younger than me, hence got discriminated by virtue of age. They credited my experience, desire for quality and decision-making skills. I, however, was not so enthusiastic about the change in technology and I wasn’t flexible enough. That’s why I faced a lot of opposition from my younger colleagues.
Furthermore, being a Black American, promotions and pay rises were rare, because the management favored the white Americans. evaluations of my performance was also low. Chiefly judgment was subjective because of my race. Both the age and race discrimination led to psychological trauma and weighed negatively on my job satisfaction.
I also experienced gender discrimination. Being female taking a leadership position, the males in my department felt that I was unfit to lead them. Than also negatively affected balance between my motherly responsibility and office work.
My experience is not the only one and some other forms of demographic discrimination in companies include tenure, religion and disability of all forms (Robbins and Judge, 2012).
Reactions
I reacted by adopting the following values that helped me counter the pressure from my colleagues. First, I developed a proactive personality that enabled me to appreciate my work and be productive despite the challenges. I achieve that by taking couple of personality tests in order to improve my personal qualities. According to recent research, personality tests are important to managers themselves, but are indispensable as they helped them choose the best candidate for the opened position (Van der Zee, Zaal & Piekstra, 2003). Secondly, I developed a positive core self-evaluation, this boosted my self-esteem and my overall performance. Furthermore, I was able to set higher goals and become more ambitious, which increased my assertiveness to acheive outstanding results. Finally, I started monitoring myself which made me highly sensitive to external cues, hence able to adjust to my changing working conditions. I presented striking balance at managing my private and public spheres, hence earning better performance rates.
How could have the situation been made better?
Every employee should aim at creating a competitive working conditions for their partners. That’s why my colleagues could have made the situation better. For example, by considering my deep-level diversity rather than my surface-level diversity. The latter is crucial when creating collaborative atmosphere and increasing performance at work (Chattopadhyay, Tluchowska & George, 2004).
Organization Role
According to Robbins and Judge (2012) organizations can eliminate discrimination by adopting a non-discriminatory policy. For instance, any employee who breaches this policy should face consequences so as to create the right climate and loyalty to the company ideology, by ensuring respect for workers and supporting their dignity. Acknowledging that discrimination could occur from time to time, prepares the manager to be ready to tackle it according to company’s policy.
Furthermore, organizations, who train workers, create awareness among employees of their attitudes to fellow employees. Similarly, team building trips also enable employees take quality time off official work, which helps form healthier relationships and eventually curb discrimination (Gephart, 2004).
Additional suggestions and engaging questions
In conclusion, I challenge each employee to evaluate their personality and values, in a bid to eliminate demographic discrimination. What would be your reaction, if you were in the place of the colleague you discriminate by virtue of surface-level diversity? Finally, I suggest that organizations should involve all employees in decision-making, to ensure that no one is left out in awareness creation.
References
Chattopadhyay, P., Tluchowska, M., $ George, E.( 2004). Identifying the Ingroup: A Closer Look at the Influence of Demographic Dissimilarity on Employee Social Identity. Academy of Management Review, 29(2), 180–202.
Gephart, R. P. (2004). Qualitative research and the Academy of Management Journal. Academy of Management Journal, 47(4), 454-462.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T (2012). Organizational Behavior 15th Edition. Boston, USA: Prentice Hall.
Van der Zee, K., Zaal, J., & Piekstra, J. (2003). Validation of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire in the Context of Personnel Selection. European Journal of Personality, 17(1), 77–100.