communications writing question and need the explanation and answer to help me learn.
Please read two articles under Case Study related to the high tech industries’ toxic culture and diversity.
Once you read two articles, please provide your takeaways for each article in a paragraph.
To get full credit, please provide two paragraphs by the end of Tuesday (10/31).
Please provide your in-depth thoughts. If you just copy and paste from an article, that does not count toward your takeaways.
Make that connection with the chapter 12 and the lecture.
-Textbook: Miller, K., & Barbour, J. (2015). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes (7th ed.). Cengage Group.
Requirements: 1 Page single spaced
Organizational Diversity ProcessesCOMM 306Dr. Katie Kang
Agenda•Be able to describe how the workplace is changing in terms of the representation and participation of women and minorities.•Understand the ways in which diversity in the workplace extends beyond the experiences of women and racial and ethnic minorities to other co-cultural groups such as disabled and LGBT employees.•Know about the challenges of the diverse and multicultural organization, including dealing with everyday workplace interactions and balancing work and home.
Diversity
Stereotyping and Discrimination
Relational Barriers in Organizational Systems1.Women and ethnic minorities experience limited access to or exclusion from informal communication networks. (ex: glass ceiling)2.Mentoring relationship•Mentor as an experienced, productive manager who relates well to a less-experienced employee and facilitates his/her personal development for the benefit of the individual as well as that of organization•Women mentoring relationship•Minority employees trying to move into the executive suites
Relational Barriers in Organizational Systems3.Tokenism •Women & minorities in managerial positions are often tokens or highly visible representatives of their gender or ethnic minority•White males represent the vast majority of employees, especially among the ranks of management•Token’s performances are hindered because of the pressure to which their visibility subjects them and because members of the dominant group exaggerate differences according to stereotypes.
Glass ceiling•Unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities
Multi-cultural Organization•Three phases of workplace development in the area of cultural and gender diversity•1) First-generation affirmative action – meeting legally mandated requirements for gender and ethnic diversity•2) Second-generation affirmative action – meeting affirmative action goals in terms of numbers, and the emphasis shifts to supporting female and minority employees•3) Multicultural organization – creating an atmosphere of inclusion including changing on many fronts, including fairness, empowerment, and openness (Formal & Informal integration)
The Diverse Organization•Benefits: cost, resource-acquisition, marketing, creativity, problem-solving, & systems flexibility•Challenges:•Avoiding negative effects of diversity management programs•Sexual harassment•Balancing work and home
Any questions?
6/9/20, 4)02 PMFive Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress | WIREDPage 1 of 7https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/SARA HARRISONBUSINESS10.01.2019 07:00 AMFive Years of Tech Diversity ReportsÑand Little ProgressIn 2014, when Silicon Valley companies began disclosing the demographics oftheir workforces, advocates hoped for change. It hasn’t worked out that way.ITÕS BEEN FIVE years since Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft Þrst released diversity reports,revealing the companiesÕ workforces were overwhelmingly white or Asian men. Five years sinceFacebook Þrst acknowledged it had Òmore work to doÑa lot more,Ó and CEO Tim Cook wrote Appleemployees a letter promising the company would be Òas innovative in advancing diversity as we are indeveloping products.ÓSince then, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn and expanded in the cloud, Facebook gained roughly 1 billionmonthly active users, Google achieved quantum supremacy, and Apple released the Apple Watch,Airpods, and iPhones 6s through 11. Despite their business successes, though, none of these big techcompanies has made much progress in diversifying their workforces.The numbers are particularly stark among technical workersÑthe coders, engineers, and data scientistswho make these companies hum. At Google and Microsoft, the share of US technical employees whoare black or Latinx rose by less than a percentage point since 2014. The share of black technicalILLUSTRATION: ELENA LACEY; GETTY IMAGES
6/9/20, 4)02 PMFive Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress | WIREDPage 2 of 7https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/workers at Apple is unchanged at 6 percent, less than half blacksÕ 13 percent share of the USpopulation.The companies report more progress for women. At Facebook, the technical workforce is 23 percentfemale, up from 15 percent in 2014; Google reports similar gains. But no company is close to parity,despite having repeatedly pledged millions to address the problem.Amazon does not report demographics for its tech workforce, making it impossible to gauge the retailgiantÕs progress on diversity against other big tech companies. Amazon says almost 42 percent of itsworkers were women, and almost 42 percent of its US workers black or Latinx, at the end of last year.But those numbers include the vast majority of AmazonÕs 647,000 employees who work in itsdistribution centers.Freada Kapor Klein, a founding partner at venture capital Þrm Kapor Capital and a longtime advocatefor diversity in tech, is bafßed by how differently tech companies treat their diversity investments fromother business initiatives. ÒIf you wasted a billion dollars and nowhere near met your target, youwouldnÕt get your bonus, you wouldnÕt have a job. And yet there seem to be no consequences,Ó she says.ÒDespite all the words, despite all the money, despite all the platitudes and initiatives, itÕs hard to saythat the companies are really taking it seriously.Ó
6/9/20, 4)02 PMFive Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress | WIREDPage 3 of 7https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/WhiteAsianLatinxBlackNativeMixedFew Gains for Blacks and Latinx in Big TechPercentage of tech workers by race and ethnicity in 2014 and the most recent report.Apple 2014Apple 2018Facebook 2014Facebook 2019Google 2014Google 2019Microsoft 2014Microsoft 201854%23%7649%35%8653%41%40%52%460%34%48%43%457%35%451%39%5Totals may not equal 100% because of rounding and options to list more than one race.Chart: WIRED ¥ Source: The companiesThe companies insist they are working diligently and sincerely, but that they face obstacles. For onething, thereÕs what Klein calls a Òdenominator problem.Ó The ÞrmsÕ workforces have grown signiÞcantlysince 2014Ñmeaning they had to hire thousands of women and racial and ethnic minorities just tomaintain the historical diversity of their staff. Facebook, for example, more than quadrupled its headcount over that period, to 39,651 at the end of June.In addition, the companies point to their efforts to encourage more women and minorities to considertech, to help address a legacy of underrepresentation. In 2017, only 9 percent of college studentsgraduating with a degree in computer science were black, and only 10 percent were Latinx. Googleinvested $25 million to give more black and Latinx students exposure to computer science, and createda one-year residency at Google for juniors at historically black colleges. Facebook, similarly, hasinvested in training programs, internships, and projects like TechPrep, meant to introduce the tech Þeldto people from nontraditional backgrounds. Apple partners with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund,
6/9/20, 4)02 PMFive Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress | WIREDPage 4 of 7https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/Girls Who Code, and educational institutions like community colleges that traditional serve minoritystudents.Microsoft and Apple did not make spokespeople available for comment for this story.Maxine Williams, FacebookÕs chief diversity ofÞcer, says some of the companyÕs efforts have yieldedresults, but itÕs taken time to Þgure out what works and what doesnÕt. Plus, she says these are long-terminvestments. Tech companies have to wait until those high school and college students graduate andapply for jobs to reap the beneÞts of these programs.Once those more diverse hires arrive, companies have to learn how to keep them. In 2018, Googlereported attrition data for the Þrst time, showing black and Latinx employees left at higher rates thantheir white counterparts. In response, the company took steps including hiring retention case managersto work with employees from underrepresented backgrounds. This year, attrition rates fell for thosegroups. But Jim Heighington, GoogleÕs head of diversity strategy, described the situation via email witha familiar phrase: ÒThere is still work to be done.ÓOther companies donÕt release their attrition numbers, but a 2017 report from the Kapor Center found itto be a big problem across the industry. That report surveyed over 2,000 tech employees who left theirjobs, and found many people of color felt they had unfairly been passed over for a promotion or facedstereotyping. A recent survey by diversity nonproÞt Girls Who Code revealed that many women whoapplied for internships at tech companies said their interviewers asked inappropriate or gender-biasedquestions. Others reported being ßirted with, dismissed, or demeaned.
6/9/20, 4)02 PMFive Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress | WIREDPage 5 of 7https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/MenWomenThe Share of Women in Tech Jobs Has GrownPercentage of men and women in tech jobs in 2014 and the most recent report.Apple 2014Apple 2019Facebook 2014Facebook 2019Google 2014Google 2019Microsoft 2014Microsoft 201980%20%77%23%85%15%77%23%83%17%77%23%83%17%80%20%Chart: WIRED ¥ Source: The companiesKlein says the attrition problem reveals that despite all their investments, tech companies still havenÕtaddressed biases in their cultures. Those biases led to unfair hiring practices that created relativelyhomogenous workforces, she adds, and theyÕll keep companies from achieving their diversity goals. Ifcompanies canÕt change their cultures, theyÕll have a hard time hiring fast enough to move the numbers.And they probably wonÕt be able to keep new hires around for much longer than their predecessors.There are some brights spots. AnitaB.org, which advocates for women in tech, found that largercompanies, including Microsoft, are promoting women at a slightly higher rate than men.Correspondingly, those larger companiesÕ retention rates for women exceeded those of small andmidsize companies. That may, in part, explain why the share of women in tech has steadily risen.Jacqueline Copeland, AnitaB.orgÕs chief operating ofÞcer, says the data indicates tech companies mayÞnally be reaching a tipping point, where there are enough women at organizations to truly change theculture.That doesnÕt mean companies can become complacent. In 1985 more than 35 percent of computerscience majors were women. But by 2010, that share had dipped below 20 percent, driven by a number
6/9/20, 4)02 PMFive Years of Tech Diversity Reports—and Little Progress | WIREDPage 6 of 7https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/of factorsÑincluding advertising campaigns that sold computers to boys instead of girls, and popularideas about what coders should look like (nerdy, white, and male).To truly change culture, says Klein, Òthere isnÕt a checklist, there isnÕt a silver bullet. This is hard worksustained over years. ThatÕs the crux of the problem.Ó That means tech companies need to keepinvesting in hiring programs, build better retention initiatives, and get everyone, at every level of thecompany, to value and prioritize diverse and inclusive workforces. Or, to paraphrase a diversity reportor two (or four), thereÕs a lot more work to do.More Great WIRED StoriesWhy are rich people so mean?How cities reshape the evolutionary path of urban wildlifeThe iOS 13 privacy and security features you should knowThe Òsmart kitchenÓ is very stupidArtiÞcial intelligence confronts a ÒreproducibilityÓ crisis! How do machines learn? Plus, read the latest news on artiÞcial intelligence” Want the best tools to get healthy? Check out our Gear teamÕs picks for the best Þtnesstrackers, running gear (including shoes and socks), and best headphones.Sara Harrison is a freelancer who covers science and business. She is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School ofJournalism and Carleton College.CONTRIBUTORFeatured Video
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 1 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/SHANNON FAGAN / PORTLAND PRESS HERALD VIA GETTYTo see this venture-capital firmÕssexual-harassment policy, myonly option was to show up inperson. This firm is one of thebiggest names in start-upinvesting. Last year, I emailedone of the firmÕs partners to askIDEASSilicon ValleyÕs Toxic CultureRequires a Legal FixClosing a legal loophole will improve the tech industryÕs officecultureÑand help gig-economy workers and other independentcontractors, too.SEPTEMBER 5, 2019Ginny FahsTechnology policy fellow atthe Aspen Institute
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 2 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/for a digital copy of itsharassment and discriminationpolicy, and learned it wasavailable only if I traveled toMenlo Park. The next week, Itook a $57 Uber from SanFrancisco to Sand Hill Road, arow of office parks housing scoresof venture-capital, or VC, firms.This unassuming strip is the seatof power in Silicon Valley; itÕswhere every entrepreneur dreamsof raising money for hercompany. Entering the buildingthrough glass doors, I sat downto read a printed sexual-harassment policy under the gazeof the firmÕs human-resourceschief. I could not take photos ornotes.I am a software engineer who hasworked for two San Franciscostartups and launched anonprofit of my own. Like manywomen in the tech industry, Ihave been harassed by a VCinvestor in the course of mycareer. But reporting my ownexperiences was not the point ofthis excursion. In 2018, I teamed
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 3 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/up with three tech veterans, whohad also experienced harassment,to launch the #MovingForwardmovement to reform the venturecapital industry. Investors haveenormous power over whether astartup company survives. Theytake advantage of that power toharass startup founders, whichfederal civil-rights laws haveallowed them to do with legalimpunity. Venture capital andprivate equity hardly existed inthe mid-1960s, when equal-employment laws were written,so the role investors play inestablishing fair workplaces wasnever considered.Both then and now, employees ofa company are theoreticallyprotected from beingdiscriminated against or sexuallyharassed on the job. But othereconomic relationshipsÑsuch asaccepting investment money orserving as an independentcontractorÑhave no legalfoundation and can expose awould-be entrepreneur to abusive
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 4 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/behavior.In news reports in The New YorkTimes and The Information in thesummer of 2017, two dozenfemale entrepreneurs spoke outabout sexual harassment fromhigh-profile investors, includingJustin Caldbeck of BinaryCapital and Dave McClure of500 Startups. The former initiallydenied wrongdoing, thenapologized and resigned; thelatter wrote a now-deleted meaculpa entitled ÒI was a creep. IÕmsorry.Ó The need for culturechange was evident, but my#MovingForward collaboratorsand I also wanted VC firms tochange their policies to explicitlyforbid harassment of anddiscrimination against start-upfounders and other third partieswith whom the firms work. Werallied 89 VC firms to make theirharassment policies publiclyavailable on our website,VentureMovingForward.org; anadditional 33 made their policiesavailable via email. Everyparticipating firm also published
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 5 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/information about which of itsemployees would fieldcomplaints. Making thesedocuments available onlinemeant entrepreneurs no longerneeded to show up in person andrisk seeing their harasser just tolearnÑmuch less exerciseÑtheirlegal rights.[Read: Why is Silicon Valley soawful to women?]Changing corporate policies ishelpful, but it is not enough. Tosystemically curb harassment anddiscrimination in the venture-capital business, we need newlaws. Young companies fallthrough the cracks of federalemployment law when it comesto harassment and discriminationprotections. Legally,entrepreneurs are third parties,not employees of VC firms. Inreality, investors are the closestthing an entrepreneur has to aboss: Many are board memberswith voting power to fire theCEO. Employees have groundsto report bad behavior to the
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 6 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/U.S. Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission underTitle VII, but Title VII does notapply to third parties. As such,entrepreneurs have no grounds totake legal action when they areharassed or discriminated againstby investors, no matter howgenerous the companyÕs internalpolicy toward its own employees.The legal classification ofentrepreneurs as nonemployeesexacerbates the already intensepower imbalance betweenentrepreneurs and their investors.Entrepreneurs need VC fundingto turn their innovations intocompanies. Female foundersreceive only 2.2 percent ofventure-capital money and onlyabout one in 10 VC-backedentrepreneurs is nonwhite.Conversely, 92 percent ofinvestors at the top 100 venture-capital firms are men, and 78percent of VC employees arewhite. The power imbalances atplay mean that when harassmentand discrimination occur, theyare rarely reported. VCs who
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 7 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/behave poorly surely discourageunderrepresented entrepreneursfrom continuing to chase capital,leading promising business ideasto die prematurely.Venture-capital investorsÕtolerance for harassment anddiscrimination trickles down tothe tech companies they fund.When toxic workplace culturespervade any of their portfoliocompanies, VCs are in a strongposition to force these companiesto confront the problem. Becauseinvestors donÕt see discriminatoryor harassing behaviors as harmfulor illegal, they donÕt. Withouttop-down pressure to cultivate adignified workplace, manyentrepreneurs arenÕt as motivatedto care about inclusion withintheir companies. For the systemto change, investors need tounderstand harassment anddiscrimination and commit toeliminating themÑnot justwithin their own firms but alsoin the portfolio of companiesthat they back.
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 8 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/The corporate policies that the#MovingForward movementadvocates are designed to restorepower to entrepreneurs whomight otherwise remain silent.Similar protections should existin the law so that all VC firmsand all entrepreneurs are covered.Firms who have made theirharassment and discriminationpolicies available have seen anuptick in the number of reportsreceived from entrepreneurs; onefirm that had never beforereceived reports received threethe week thatVentureMovingForward.org wentlive. States are catching on. InOctober, California approvedlegislation to protect againstharassment in third-partybusiness relationships. Itspecifically forbids investor-entrepreneur harassment. NewYork followed with similarlegislation in June, and newlegislation in Massachusetts isexpected to move this year. Thesechanges would cover the threelargest VC markets in the United
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 9 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/States and serve as precedent forother statesÑsuch as Texas,Florida, and MarylandÑwithbooming venture-capitalcommunities.[Read: Is Silicon Valley ameritocracy?]VC industry representativesoppose such legislation, arguingthat it will dissuade investorsfrom meeting with women andentertaining their business ideas.This rebuttalÑFine, we wonÕtmeet with women at all!Ñepitomizes the immaturity andbias that are allowed to thrive inan industry with no legalsafeguards to curtail them.New legislative measures fromstates could have broadimplications nationally. The morestates begin to recognize specificthird-party relationships, themore grounds advocates forgreater inclusion will have toreclaim Title VII and reformfederal laws in ways that giverecourse to people subjected to
6/9/20, 4)29 PMTo Change Harassment in Silicon Valley, Change the Law – The AtlanticPage 10 of 13https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/change-harassment-silicon-valley-change-law/597373/harassment and discrimination inthe workplace, no matter howthey are classified.The fight for entrepreneurs opensthe door for any worker whodoesnÕt fit traditionalemployment models. The gigeconomy and contract labor areon the rise; ever more Americanswork in a third-party capacity.We need a baseline of decency inthe workplace, one that cannotexist without a standard thatapplies to all, employees or not.We want to hear what you thinkabout this article. Submit a letterto the editor or write toletters@theatlantic.com.
Organizational Diversity ProcessesCOMM 306Dr. Katie Kang
Agenda•Be able to describe how the workplace is changing in terms of the representation and participation of women and minorities.•Understand the ways in which diversity in the workplace extends beyond the experiences of women and racial and ethnic minorities to other co-cultural groups such as disabled and LGBT employees.•Know about the challenges of the diverse and multicultural organization, including dealing with everyday workplace interactions and balancing work and home.
Diversity
Stereotyping and Discrimination
Relational Barriers in Organizational Systems1.Women and ethnic minorities experience limited access to or exclusion from informal communication networks. (ex: glass ceiling)2.Mentoring relationship•Mentor as an experienced, productive manager who relates well to a less-experienced employee and facilitates his/her personal development for the benefit of the individual as well as that of organization•Women mentoring relationship•Minority employees trying to move into the executive suites
Relational Barriers in Organizational Systems3.Tokenism •Women & minorities in managerial positions are often tokens or highly visible representatives of their gender or ethnic minority•White males represent the vast majority of employees, especially among the ranks of management•Token’s performances are hindered because of the pressure to which their visibility subjects them and because members of the dominant group exaggerate differences according to stereotypes.
Glass ceiling•Unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities
Multi-cultural Organization•Three phases of workplace development in the area of cultural and gender diversity•1) First-generation affirmative action – meeting legally mandated requirements for gender and ethnic diversity•2) Second-generation affirmative action – meeting affirmative action goals in terms of numbers, and the emphasis shifts to supporting female and minority employees•3) Multicultural organization – creating an atmosphere of inclusion including changing on many fronts, including fairness, empowerment, and openness (Formal & Informal integration)
The Diverse Organization•Benefits: cost, resource-acquisition, marketing, creativity, problem-solving, & systems flexibility•Challenges:•Avoiding negative effects of diversity management programs•Sexual harassment•Balancing work and home
Any questions?