Insights from professionals in the fields of organizational development and diversity provide practical tools to help employees and managers—regardless of race or gender—collaborate in reaching their workplace potential.
The contributions of more than 30 experts reframe the discussion on gender, race, and ethnicity in the U.S. workforce, examining the complex identity concerns facing workers who fall within minority groups and recommending practical solutions for dealing with workplace inequities. Through focused essays, experts explore new perspectives to persistent challenges and discuss progress made in addressing unequal treatment based on race and gender in the past eight years. This detailed reference explores every aspect of the issue, including mentoring, family leaves, pay inequity, multiracial and transgender identities, community involvement, and illegal harassment.
The first part of the book identifies employment discrimination based on multiracial identity, appearance, and transgender status. The second section unveils the psychology behind harassment on the job; the third section provides strategies for overcoming traditional obstacles for the disenfranchised. The final section discusses updates on laws dealing with the Family and Medical Leave Act. The book closes with success stories of women of color in U.S. leadership roles as well as others achieving success in their professions outside of the country. Accompanying tables, charts, and graphs illustrate the field’s most poignant research, such as the relationship between organizational effectiveness and diversity and the characteristics of those taking family and medical leave.
Features
- Presents new research on the many forms of employment discrimination based on multiracial identity, appearance, and transgender status
- Includes contributions from professionals in the fields of social psychology, law, gender studies, and ethics, among others
- Reveals effective ways for promoting inclusion of women and people of color in today's global workforce
- Covers the workforce in the public sector, private sector, and military
- Considers the role of social media in helping break through workplace barriers
Margaret Foegen Karsten is a professor of human resource management and internship coordinator in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, where she teaches courses on campus and online at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her published works include Management, Gender, and Race in the 21st Century and Praeger's Management and Gender: Issues and Attitudes as well as many articles, case studies, and encyclopedia entries.
Reviews
"Managers and professionals need to understand the complexities of diversity and the ways in which discrimination, prejudice, and modern racism manifest at work. This edited volume offers students, scholars and practitioners an important resource for understanding the complexities of diversity in today’s workforce."—Belle Rose Ragins, Professor of Management, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
"Professor Margaret Karsten has marshaled a powerful set of essays/chapters that accompany the reader in examining several critical and difficult processes brewing at the intersection of race, gender and ethnicity in the workplace. The internationally acclaimed set of contributors whom Karsten has assembled offer research and insights that build on established theoretical foundations and concepts; at the same time, they strike out in new directions, taking the reader to novel discourses on how workplaces are positively and negatively affected by these intersecting dimensions. The chapters provide guidance and inspiration for readers to both reflect and act as agents of change. This book will be an invaluable resource for those interested in a rich and nuanced understanding of race, gender, and ethnicity—scholars and practitioners alike."—Stacey Blake-Beard, Professor of Management
"Rosabeth Moss Kanter has noted that the success of organizations depends on effectively using human resources. Scholars have advocated bringing together from a variety of disciplines those concepts, theories, and research that may be useful to people in making decisions about the behavior of individuals and groups. It is noted that effective human resource management is of critical importance, considering the more complicated lifestyles of employees that necessitates job sharing and flex time, technological advances, demographic changes of the workforce (e.g., more women, minorities, and aging employees), and increased state and federal legislation that impact the workplace. Margaret Karsten’s new book integrates legal, social science and human resource management research and offers a blueprint for managers and leaders on ways to value and respect ALL people in the workplace."—Michele A. Paludi, PhD, Editor of Women, Work, and Family: How Companies Thrive with a 21st-Century Multicultural Workforce
"This very impressive volume provides a fresh and unique perspective on a range of contemporary race, gender, and ethnicity challenges in the workplace. The editor has assembled an excellent group of contributors who address complex issues in an authoritative and intellectually engaging manner. I recommend it highly."—Stella M. Nkomo, University of Pretoria, South Africa
