Diversity, Positive Org Practices leading to better business performance.

The Miscellaneous-10685

Renee Bailey, Spencer Davis, Christopher Lini, Landon Mason, Lucas Roetcisoender

Consumer expansion plays a key role in management decisions and organizational behavior.  The purpose of this blog is to unpack organizations overall approach in attempting to broaden their consumer base and the connection that this has with the organization as a whole.

Hopkins, W. E., & Gross, M. A. (2015). Absorptive Capacity: A Proposed Framework for Strengthening the Business Case for Diversity. SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 80(2), 4–12. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=108928644&site=ehost-live

This article explores research specific to developing a case for implementing diversity efforts in both the marketplace and a business’s own workplace. It relates to the process of absorption capacity specifically, and how it contributes to diversity in both the marketplace and workplace. This is extremely relevant to our research because it focuses on the relationship between investing in expanding a company’s absorption capacity, which is defined as, “a limit to the quantity of scientific or technological information that a firm can absorb or the rate at which this information is absorbed,” and its effects on team diversity, and in turn, its influence on purchasing behavior in an ever-growing diverse consumer market. This article is also resourceful due to its immense observation on organizational behavior and connection to diversity. Although this article goes extremely in-depth on these effects, it does fall short on a micro approach, as it is broadly speaks of these topics while we are more narrowly focusing our research on the United States workplace and marketplace.

Harvey, M. G., & Griffith, D. A. (2002). Developing Effective Intercultural Relationships: The Importance of Communication Strategies. Thunderbird International Business Review, 44(4), 455–476. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1002/tie.10029

In this academic journal, focus is drawn to the importance of developing strong intercultural communication strategies in relation to culturally diverse employees, interorganizational partners, and customers. Their argument and suggested strategy concerns how essential it is for a global organization to invest in relationship development among consumer expansion goals and business relationships, which addresses our research in the importance of diversity in an ever-diversifying workplace and marketplace. However, there are limitations for the purposes of our research, as this article only addresses organizations and companies within the global marketplace, and does not elaborate necessarily on diversity itself, but rather intercultural communication. Additionally, our focus is within the United States workplace and marketplace, which inherently limits the specificity of the market and workforce we are looking for. With this, it is still important to consider how relationship development and intercultural communication can relate to a more diverse workplace and consumer base, and in turn result in increased success for an organization/company. It also ties well with our focus on organizational behavior.

Madeira, A. B., Da Silveira, J. A. G., & Toledo, L. A. (2015). Marketing Segmentation: Your Role For Diversity in Dynamical Systems. GESTÃO.Org: Revista Eletrônica de Gestão Organizacional, 13(1), 71–78. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=116243835&site=ehost-live

This article explores the original bases of market segmentation and how it needs to be changed in our diversity-focused marketplace today. It concludes that, “diversity and the need to belong is a fundamental characteristic of individuals today,” and an anthropological and neurological lens can help differentiate consumers that would otherwise be characterized within the same market segment. This would further develop an even more differentiated approach to marketing and a diversity-focused consumer base. This article unfortunately falls short with analysis on workplace diversity and how it relates to consumer expansion. However, it can be resourceful for analyzing the ever-growing United States’ diversity of consumers and how to further segment them within a marketing strategy.

Hyun, J., & Fairhurst, A. (2018). Understanding consumers’ purchasing behavior of ethnically disparate products. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 17(1), e114–e126. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1002/cb.1691

Interestingly, the purpose of this academic journal is to look into the drivers of consumers’ interest in, “ethnically disparate products,” rather than just on products generally associated with an ethnic culture. Additionally, it addresses how generally “exotic” products in the United States’ marketplace falls short within an increasingly aware, diversity-seeking population on products. Unlike other articles in our research, this up-to-date study explores the increasingly diverse United States marketplace we are addressing, which can help increase understanding of consumer behavior with growing markets of culturally specific segmented products. This article lacks organizational behavior topics and does not discuss workplace diversity. However, its focus on consumer behavior in a growing diverse marketplace with culture-based products is important to our overall analysis of consumer expansion and diversity within the marketplace, specifically.

Creating Open Spaces and Minds

MISHRA, R. (2017). Creating Open Spaces And Minds. Human Capital, 20(8), 48–49. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=121046710&site=ehost-live

This article establishes how diversity in the workplace leads to positive change and engagement within an organization, having benefits in a multitude of aspects within a business. It explains the benefits not only in the firm, but also how the firm can attract new consumers. Having diversity in the workplace generates a stronger atmosphere as new attitudes, visions, and ideas are brought from different cultures and lifestyles. The author, Ravendera Mishra, explains the importance of acceptance at a place of work on employees work ethic. Employees that feel welcomed in their place of work encourages more ideas to flow, an enjoyment for what they do, and innovation. This is crucial to our topic because it lays out the importance of expanding diversity in both the workplace and within a target market of consumers, as well as the benefits a company can gain from implementing a diverse workforce. This article intersects our ideas of organizational behavior, consumer expansion, and diversity, specifically in the workplace.

Tung, R. (2008). The Cross-Cultural Research Imperative: The Need to Balance Cross-National and Intra-National Diversity. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(1), 41-46. Retrieved January 30, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/25483243

This article discusses how cross-national and intra-national diversity are imbalanced in society today and how actions need to be made to correct that. It also provides a brief summary on how comparative management has changed over time. The article also discusses how despite progress being made towards the study of work values, there are still limitations. This article will be useful to our team’s research because it talks about changes over time due to diversity and how its effects are more prevalent than many of us are aware of.