Managing diversity in organizations: An integrative model and agenda for future research

The literature on policies, procedures, and practices of diversity management in organizations is currently fragmented and often contradictory in highlighting what is effective diversity management, and which organizational and societal factors facilitate or hinder its implementation. In order to provide a comprehensive and cohesive view of diversity management in organizations, we develop a multilevel model informed by the social identity approach that explains, on the basis of a work motivation logic, the processes by, and the conditions under which employee dissimilarity within diverse work groups is related to innovation, effectiveness, and well-being. Building on this new model, we then identify those work group factors (e.g., climate for inclusion and supervisory leadership), organizational factors (e.g., diversity management policies and procedures, and top management's diversity beliefs), and societal factors (e.g., legislation, socioeconomic situation, and culture) that are likely to contribute to the effective management of diversity in organizations. In our discussion of the theoretical implications of the proposed model, we offer a set of propositions to serve as a guide for future research. We conclude with a discussion of possible limitations of the model and practical implications for managing diversity in organizations.     

Prehension movements in a patient (AC) with posterior parietal cortex damage and posterior callosal section

Prehension movements of the right hand were recorded in a right-handed man (AC), with an injury to the left posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and with a section of the left half of the splenium. The kinematic analysis of AC's grasping movements in direct and perturbed conditions was compared to that of five control subjects. A novel effect in prehension was revealed--a hemispace effect--in healthy controls only. Movements to the left hemispace were faster, longer, and with a smaller grasp aperture; perturbation of both object position and distance resulted in the attenuation of the direction effect on movement time and the time to velocity peak, with a reverse pattern in the time to maximum grip aperture. Nevertheless, the correlation between transport velocity amplitude and grasp aperture remained stable in both perturbed and non-perturbed movements, reflecting the coordination between reaching and grasping in control subjects. In contrast, transport and grasp, as well as their coordination in both direct and perturbed conditions, were negatively affected by the PPC and splenium lesion in AC, suggesting that transport and grasp rely on two functionally identifiable subsystems.     

Differential attachment responses of male and female infants to frightening maternal behavior: Tend or befriend versus fight or flight?

Taylor and colleagues (2000) proposed that males tend to display fight or flight responses to threat while females are more likely to display affiliative "tend or befriend" responses. In light of this hypothesis, gender differences in infant attachment behaviors were examined in a sample of 65 low-income mother-infant dyads, half of whom were referred to a home-based intervention service because of concerns about the quality of caregiving. Attachment behaviors were assessed in the Ainsworth Strange Situation when infants were 18 months old, and maternal behaviors were coded both for frightened or frightening behaviors, using the Main and Hesse (1992) coding inventory, and for disrupted affective communication using the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification assessment tool (AMBIANCE; Lyons-Ruth, Bronfman, & Parsons, 1999). Results indicated that as maternal behavior became more frightening, female infants tended to approach their mothers more than male infants. These gender differences in response to maternal frightening behavior also were evident in the clinically referred subsample. The results suggest that gender-based differences in tendencies to show affiliative behaviors to threat may complicate interpretation of attachment behavior in clinical contexts.     

Brain activity varies with modulation of dynamic pitch variance in sentence melody

Fourteen native speakers of German heard normal sentences, sentences which were either lacking dynamic pitch variation (flattened speech), or comprised of intonation contour exclusively (degraded speech). Participants were to listen carefully to the sentences and to perform a rehearsal task. Passive listening to flattened speech compared to normal speech produced strong brain responses in right cortical areas, particularly in the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG). Passive listening to degraded speech compared to either normal or flattened speech particularly involved fronto-opercular and subcortical (Putamen, Caudate Nucleus) regions bilaterally. Additionally the Rolandic operculum (premotor cortex) in the right hemisphere subserved processing of neat sentence intonation. As a function of explicit rehearsing sentence intonation we found several activation foci in the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area), the left inferior precentral sulcus, and the left Rolandic fissure. The data allow several suggestions: First, both flattened and degraded speech evoked differential brain responses in the pSTG, particularly in the planum temporale (PT) bilaterally indicating that this region mediates integration of slowly and rapidly changing acoustic cues during comprehension of spoken language. Second, the bilateral circuit active whilst participants receive degraded speech reflects general effort allocation. Third, the differential finding for passive perception and explicit rehearsal of intonation contour suggests a right fronto-lateral network for processing and a left fronto-lateral network for producing prosodic information. Finally, it appears that brain areas which subserve speech (frontal operculum) and premotor functions (Rolandic operculum) coincidently support the processing of intonation contour in spoken sentence comprehension.     

Processing of metaphoric and non-metaphoric alternative meanings of words after right- and left-hemispheric lesion

This study examines the specificity of the contribution of the right hemisphere to the processing of metaphoric meaning of words. Ten right- and 10 left-hemisphere-damaged subjects, and 20 normal control subjects were submitted to: (1) a word-triad task where they had to associate alternative metaphoric and non-metaphoric words to a target word, and to (2) a word-dyad task where they had to decide whether or not there was a semantic relationship between two words. The two tasks aimed at differentiating between the subjects' preference for a given semantic meaning versus a genuine semantic deficit for a particular meaning. Results revealed that both right- and left-hemisphere-damaged groups presented a genuine semantic deficit for the processing of metaphoric meaning. The absence of a double dissociation between the two brain-damaged groups does not support the hypothesis of a specific contribution of the right-hemisphere to the processing of metaphoric meaning of words.     

First-Pass versus Second-Pass Parsing Processes in a Wernicke''s and a Broca''s Aphasic: Electrophysiological Evidence for a Double Dissociation

The present paper is a first attempt to integrate the classical brain lesion behavioral impairment approach of functional neuroanatomy and the electrophysiological brain mapping approach in the domain of syntactic processing. In a group of normal age-matched controls we identified three electrophysiological components previously observed in correlation with language comprehension processes: an early left anterior negativity normally seen in correlation with syntactic first-pass parsing processes (ELAN), a centroparietal negativity seen in correlation with processes of lexical-semantic integration (N400), and a late centroparietal positivity observed in correlation with secondary syntactic processes of reanalysis and repair (P600). The early left anterior negativity was absent in a patient with an extended lesion in the anterior part of the left hemisphere sparing the temporal lobe, although the late centroparietal positivity and the centroparietal N400 were present. In a patient with a left temporal-parietal lesion the early left anterior negativity was found to be present, whereas the N400 component was absent. These findings suggest that first-pass parsing and secondary processes are subserved by distinct brain systems.     

Spatial compatibility effects in the writing page: A comparison of left-handed inverters and noninverters

In recent contribution, Moscovitch and Smith (1979) and Smith and Moscovitch (1979) reported that left-handed inverters responded faster, using one hand, to target stimuli presented in the contralateral, rather than ipsilateral, visual field. Moscovitch and Smith attributed this finding to an anomaly in the visual or visuomotor neurological organization of inverters. The present experiment was an attempt to replicate the Moscovitch and Smith result with the purpose of questioning the validity of their neurological account. Therefore quite a similar visual RT paradigm was used in left-handed inverters and noninverters, but the form of the response was changed. The subjects responded to the stimuli with a stylus contact, made with their left dominant hand, on an A4-format sheet of metal, in well-contrasted conditions of inverted and noninverted writing posture. Both groups, in either condition, displayed faster RTs for stimuli presented in the visual field ipsilateral to their responding hand. In addition, this visual field effect strongly interacted with the lateral position of the response-stylus on the page, despite the fact that this position was varied between trials. The present experiment shows that the Moscovitch and Smith result is not reliable. It also demonstrates that spatial S-R compatibility effects may arise in tasks not involving a choice between concurrent response locations.     

Contextes et variation trans-situationnelle des concepts

Les trois expériences présentées ont pour objectif de tester l'effet de divers contextes sur l'accès initial aux propriétés dominantes et secondaires de concepts de catégories naturelles. Les résultats indiquent l'existence d'un effet facilitateur du contexte, pour peu qu'il soit suffisamment contraignant du point de vue de la richesse sémantique, et ceci dans des temps qui garantissent l'implication de processus automatiques. Cette dernière interprétation est par ailleurs confirmée par l'absence constante d'inhibition. La dernière expérience infirme de plus l'hypothèse d'une facilitation intralexicale entre contexte et cible et confirme que c'est bien la construction sémantique élaborée par le sujet qui facilite l'accès à certaines propriétés spécifiquement pertinentes des concepts-amorces.