Race & Diversity in the Workplace

As businesses continue to broaden their reach in the global marketplace, special care is taken to respect and even celebrate diversity in the workplace. Many companies train their employees and management to develop sensitivity towards their coworkers, in order to further cultivate this environment of tolerance, understanding and appreciation. This is especially important where there has always been a vast cultural divide in terms of racial differences and stereotypes.

Definition

Diversity in the workplace, simply defined, is the recognition and respect of the different attributes that each individual brings to the company regardless of race, gender or any other variety of biases. Diversity training strives to teach respect and empathy within each individual so that every employee feels appreciated and the company thrives as a whole.

Training

In diversity training, exercises teach the individuals about mutual respect. Further, groups are taught to open up to each other to point out the ways they are similar, rather than the ways they are different. Prejudices and discrimination are addressed so that all parties can understand the subtle ways in which they might have fallen back on misinformed stereotypes. Role playing is often utilized, and individuals are taught to examine how it may feel to be included or excluded from a group.

Benefits

There are many benefits of a good diversity management in the workplace. Creative problem solving broadens as different individuals offer insight from another perspective. Production increases as the sense of teamwork increases and new processes are adopted. New attitudes and languages are introduced, giving American businesses better understanding of the global marketplace.

Challenges

Diversity training is an ongoing and time-consuming process. The challenges that diversity training faces is that racial stereotypes and biases are not eradicated in a single training session and very often change must start at the higher rungs of the corporate ladder.

Considerations

Despite the focus on diversity training, "Time" magazine reported in 2007 that the training itself failed to attract women or minorities into higher ranking positions within the company. Sociologists Frank Dobbin of Harvard, Alexandra Kalev of the University of California, Berkeley and Erin Kelly of the University of Minnesota deduced that what really proved effective in terms of minorities in management was mentorship. This is the process of pairing an employee with a knowledgeable mentor, from whom that individual can learn through a one-on-one relationship.

The study also concluded that a company's use of diversity training did not give it any leverage in discrimination cases that made it to court.

Overall, the combination of several approaches seems to be most successful. Having individuals or committees designated to oversee diversity ensures direct accountability for maintaining a standard. According to "Time" magazine, this approach used in addition to the mentor programs showed the highest rate of increase for minorities to rise up to managerial positions.

References

• Head Start of Greater Dallas: Diversity In The Workplace
• Critical Multicultural Pavilion: Strategies and Preparation:
• EthnoConnect: Business Advantages of Diversity in the Workplace
• AllBusiness.com: The challenge of managing diversity in the workplace.
• Time.com: Employee Diversity Training Doesn't Work