Diversity is Still Unfinished Business
Many U.S. companies have tried to conduct diversity programs in the last ten years. It's been a case study in how not to achieve social change.
Some places never intended to do more than have one session with an outside speaker. Some didn't have any mission or agenda for a follow-up after an initial "roll-out."
Some people fed the fallacy about white men disappearing from the workforce. They used scare tactics to get the attention of (white male) management and when they couldn't explain why their doomsday scenario didn't occur they lost credibility.
Some people who believed in pursuing the work didn't have any authority or support to do so. Some organizations don't know how to treat themselves as a social system or their endeavor as a social (much less socially responsible) activity.
Some places didn't know they should be developing internal resources and capability beyond attending an outsider's sessions.
Some companies obviously are not equipped to address human relations in any significant way-their personnel departments exist primarily to process people through the system, not to leverage "human resources," "intellectual capital," "knowledge work," or "human assets."
Some places were not willing to adjust their management practices. Some managers saw no reason to change and were not persuaded by any argument inside or outside of their operation.
Some companies treated diversity as a way to dodge Affirmative Action and Equal Employment guidelines, used "diversity" as a synonym for "minorities," and continued doing business as usual.
Some companies ran out of steam after the first pass-nobody told them there was more to it than that and they never figured it out.
Some places sponsored an interpersonal exercise without looking at how power is distributed in their systemic and historical practices. They settled for anything that was politically easier than addressing institutional change.
Some places assigned one person to diversity, without a budget, without a mandate, without a prayer of accomplishing anything.
Some places stalled for years by defining diversity as irrelevant to their work. Others spent years trying to define diversity and rejecting every definition. Others spent years studying what to do and then gave up.
Some companies never had any commitment to diversity but went through the motions because it was expected that they should look like they were doing something.
Add them all together and we had a lot of false starts, dead ends, and empty gestures. I keep hearing from people who were caught in such mixed messages and double-binds.
Diversity is many things-a bridge between organizational life and the reality of people's lives, building corporate capability, a multi-dimensional effect, the framework for interrelationships among people, a commitment to the humanity of our enterprises, a learning exchange, a strategic value, open-ended, dynamic, our lens on the world, a pathway to "liberty and justice for all.".
Diversity is the great noble calling of America. It remains the great unfinished business of the American workplace. For many companies, it is obviously harder than rocket science-we've been to the moon a number of times, but we still haven't dealt with the larger ramifications of diversity.
November 5, 1999
|