I never gave much thought to the idea that large parts of America, were not diverse. Since I grew up in New Jersey and New York City diversity has always been part of my every day.
It wasn’t until this election season that I realized that even though I grew up in diversity, that diversity broke itself into sub-communities that I often just floated through, but was never really a part of. Not because I didn’t want to, but that is what just naturally ends up happening.
I never really thought too deeply about diversity, past gender, race, and maybe at times sexual orientation. It is important to note that the Managing Cultural Differences textbook, gave an overwhelming list on what makes up Diversity. (Smokers/non (smokers? interesting.)
As a business student and perhaps a future business person, this does present a challenge in managing so many different ways in which your workforce can be diverse.
And if you really think about it, we’ve only been wrestling with these issues from a legal standard point for a relatively short time, it was only in 1965, that Executive Order 11246 was signed, which prohibited discrimination “based on race, sex, creed, religion, color, or national origin.” (United States Department of Labor, 2017)
While globalization may have hit a stumbling block in 2016; it is inevitable that globalization will continue, and perhaps even pick up speed. Essentially that means that as leaders we are going to have to manage even more diversity than ever before.
How do we go about this in a way that speeds up progress rather than halt it?
One of the ways in which businesses and organizations are doing this is by Diversity Training Programs.
I never really thought about this for myself, because I am a Latino Woman, I’m the one others get trained to deal with. However, I have become acutely aware that I could probably be a candidate for Diversity Training. And I’ve seen how in companies I’ve worked in the past, Diversity Training hasn’t really worked. And I often asked myself why.
According to Managing Diversity in the Workplace by Bayonne Z. Grant and Brian H. Kliener, The cornerstones of diversity in the workplace are the following six values:
“Self-Awareness, Clear Headedness, Openness, Candor, Adaptability and Egalitarianism.” (Grant & Kleiner, 1997)
And while those sound high-minded and possible for everyone, ultimately the only thing that can actually make a different is “Authenticity,” (Lipman, 2016) this means that you have to authentically want to work in a diverse atmosphere… Most people and companies give good lip service to diversity, but unless there is an authentic desire to actually grow more diverse, then the same issues keep coming back-up, often time by the time Diversity training is brought to a company, is because there is already some sort of tension. Diversity training occurs, but within a short time, it goes back to being the same, because the people undergoing that training didn’t feel an authentic need to change, they were just doing what is required of them.
I think for me, the reason why I give myself good odds, is because I have a value that is important to embrace diversity. That is curiosity, I want to explore the world and I want to meet as many different people.
The story of your life will be the many journeys you take, and the people you allow into your life. Why would anyone choose the same over a variety of experiences?
References
Grant, B. Z., & Kleiner, B. H. (1997). Managing diversity in the workplace. Equal Opportunities International, 26-32.
Lipman, V. (2016, August 1). Why Doesn’t Diversity Training Work? Retrieved from Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2016/08/01/why-doesnt-diversity-training-work/#44093a7d5cd6
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. London: Routldege.
United States Department of Labor. (2017, January 27). Executive Order 11246, As Amended. Retrieved from United States Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/statutes/eo11246.htm
“Diversity training occurs, but within a short time, it goes back to being the same, because the people undergoing that training didn’t feel an authentic need to change, they were just doing what is required of them.”
“I think for me, the reason why I give myself good odds, is because I have a value that is important to embrace diversity. That is curiosity, I want to explore the world and I want to meet as many different people.”
This particular section of your post screamed to me because I believe if you have to want to change then these types of programs will work. Unfortunate, many people have the idea of ethnocentrism and never take the time to learn about what make people individuals. You have to have an open mind about the world and the individuals who make earth uniquely special.
If funny you state that you “never gave much thought to the idea that large parts of America were not diverse.” I grew up in Pennsylvania and then moved to Colorado. Throughout my life I have seen diversity everywhere. Even when I joined my company ten years ago my diversity has expanded a lot more (because my company is a worldwide company). I started to travel more for work and when to California, Europe, and India. I have been involved in many different projects that involved a lot of people from different cultures. With that stated, I have a friend at work that’s from Alabama but has lived in Colorado for many years. She and I have talked about our different cultures and our experiences. She mentioned to me one day that in the south still segregates black and white people. This blew my mind as I have never really traveled to the south so I have never experienced their cultural differences. At that point, I slowly started to learn that there were issues with segregation and it seemed to me that it might be more focused on different areas of the country and world. Do you think that might be true; that some areas of the United States sit have problems with people accepting diversity?
The point you brought up about “that you have to authentically want to work in a diverse atmosphere” is a very interesting one that I have never really thought about. How do you go about trying to get people who are closed minded to open up and accept the world and changes that are happening? Sometimes I wonder if it’s not possible to make a close minded person a more open minded. Diversity training is definitely an option and my company doesn’t something every month to help educate the employees about other parts of the world and how their culture is different from the United States. But now I’m wondering if we need to start talking about our own diversity in the United States. This might help shine a light onto issues that some people might not know; just like friend telling me that south is a completely different world and they do things way different than other parts of the United States.
Hi Lourdes,
Isn’t it a funny thing that for practically our entire lives, we lived with so many different cultures and never even thought about it. May this was because it never affected us or reduced our ability to communicate effectively. Now that the world is blending at such a high rate of speed, especially with the Internet and the development of Globalization, we must pay closer attention to these issues. I too grew up in the New York area, and many of my friends were from different towns, and I too categized them from different towns to have a better understanding of their personalities and traits. It did seem that those who came from one town, were different from those from another town, weird! I too never realized the how complicated diversity was, and how it could be used to enhance performance for a corporation. But at the same time, if not properly integrated in the corporate culture, one that is derived from the joining of multiple cultures, it would cause a heap of trouble. It does seem strange that its only 51 years since the Executive Order was signed. Globalization is changing the way the world does business. The expansion of millions of people who never even had a job, are now selling products and services on the Internet. This extreme diversity in business design, will cause a major shift in global communication. It is not so diverse, that a person in Indonesia, in their basement, is selling USB keys with applications installed to people around the world. This Peron doesn’t even need to have employees to make a good living. There is a website called Global Diversity which brings important minds together to gain a greater understanding when maintaining respect for biologically centralized earth as we know it. Now with such a diverse structure in place, it may shift from the current issues dealing with fossil fuels, to something unimaginable we start to diminish.
Citation:
(PSU WC OLEAD 410 L3)
http://ncrve.berkeley.edu/CW82/Diversity.html
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. London: Routledge.
Lourdes,
Thank you for your post and compelling thoughts.
An item that immediately captured my attention was your opening line; “I never gave much thought to the idea that large parts of America, were not diverse.” I’d like to examine this thought with you. I submit that while you live an area of the country as diverse as NY/NJ, this does not necessarily define diversity for the rest of the country, nor for a given area (e.g. city, state, region).
One can certainly point to race as an indicator of diversity but the lesson text states; “Diversity can refer to physical differences, such as sex or skin color, but also to things that can’t be seen, such as differences in personality traits or differences in beliefs (such as religion or politics). Basically, anything that can distinguish one person from another constitutes diversity.” (PSU, 2017)
I have had the opportunity to travel all over this great country and see first-hand the diversity across our nation. The diversity standard in the U.S is not merely defined by the melting pot of New York or the greater Northeast but must also be inclusive of the farmers in Iowa, Mormon’s in Utah and Cajun’s in Louisiana….wouldn’t you agree?
Consider Utah, the place where I grew up. According to 2010 United States Census (Utah Demographic Statistics 2010) estimates 89.2% of the state population is white and European American. On the surface, not very diverse right?
But, dig a little deeper within that “white/European American” demographic you’ll find a large Icelandic American population…who’d have thought? Did you know Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Americans outnumber English American ancestry? How about that Finnish, Russian and Ukrainian Americans are significant in number throughout the state?
I’ve either met or personally know many people like those I’ve described above and based on my personal experience would absolutely consider this a diverse area.
If basically anything that can distinguish one person from another constitutes diversity, couldn’t Utah in its own way be considered as diverse as New York?
Pennsylvania State University, World Wide Campus (2017). OLEAD 410 Lesson 3: Diversity.
Resident Population Data, 2010, “Resident Population Data Census”. 2010.census.gov. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013.
State of Utah, 2017, Demographics & Statistics, https://www.utah.gov/about/demographics.html
Utah Demographic Statistics, 2010, InfoPlease, Retrieved January 28, 2017, http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/utah/demographic.html