Efficiency of Diversity and Multicultural Training - Research Paper Example

What Kinds of Diversity/Multicultural Trainings Are Offered At Companies And How Effective They Really Are? Before we begin to contemplate on the said topic we first need to know what we are talking about here and what we need to think, diversity training at different companies. First, what actually is diversity? Diversity is a verb, which means variety, multiplicity. Here we are regarding diversity in culture. The various people and the different views they share on different aspects of life. When talking about diversity we usually refer to the term as an acceptable expression throughout the human race. People are trying to clear away their misconceptions on other people on various physical or cultural aspects and accept each other as one. And the marketing companies these days are trying for the same goal by providing training to their employers to be able to accept those differences and work accordingly for the benefit of the firm. We will be talking about what are the phases that an employer has to go through in their session of training and how efficiently their training program is working. Margaret Mead, who was an American cultural anthropologist born December 16, 1901 and died November 15, 1978, stated a very famous quote; “always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." Her words reflect the outlook that every person is unique in their own ways but still the same to everyone else. Being humans and living in this world we are provided with a culture, an ethnicity, a race, cast, language, historical values and religion with the exception of some cases. Putting aside all these differences and working together for the same goal and developing respect for each other’s differences are what the companies today are trying to teach their employees. The training programs that the companies are offering aim in developing people’s minds in a non stereotypical way by not distinguishing between each other on the uncontrollable factors like age, sex and race, accounting one’s profile on the way they dress and the language they speak. The companies are trying to build uniformity between the groups by trying to remove the concepts of minority discrimination from people’s minds. In the era of today it has become mandatory that the practice of work takes place between different minds of different people to be giving out a variety of opinions or ideas for the firm they work for. The way this world is diverse the same way its demands are increasing and different for that reason. Working together with different people provides greater creativity, better outcome and more appropriate subjects to work on to satisfy the needs of the customers. Keeping these things in mind companies today launch diversity training programs that teach us to respect individual differences and work through them with different people sharing the same aim. They teach us to avoid not the differences that are uncontrolled of one’s desires but also personality traits such as being aggressive, extrovert and flexible or the opposites of them. Keeping your conscience active and enabling oneself to mould into the environment according to the demands are the basics they strive for. The international computer developing firm of Intel interprets the idea of working in a diverse environment in one of their advertisements in which Ajay Bhatt, an Indian-American computer architect who helped define and develop several widely used technologies was featured. At the end of the commercial many workers of the Intel Corporation were shown of different ethnicities singing the same melody of their company. Companies are working hard on attracting minority groups by arranging different events of attraction and preferring to professional psychologists for the help of those people in referring them to work with the company ignoring the differences among groups they have to work with. With much disappointment, it isn’t working. Even after much deliberate efforts, the classes that trainees take for the diversity program only seems to enrage them. It is necessary for the learners that they put their emotions aside when learning about this but this doesn’t seem to happen. In most of the cases the students or trainees are seen complaining about the wrong way of teaching. Many have been heard saying that its racism the diversity program teaches. For the diversity training it is necessary that one becomes much patient and show tolerance towards the teachings and doesn’t make quick decisions or jump to conclusions. In one of their books, David A Levy, James E Parco, Fred R Blass, say in their book ‘The 52nd Floor – Thinking Deeply About Leadership’ (2009); that diversity training exists out of necessity and; “When you think about tolerance in these terms, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between tolerance and intolerance.” Here their mentioning of this means that people who show tolerance on the subjects regarding the subject are very similar to people who are intolerant. When in a class of diversity training employees were asked to give their views about religious, rich, black and bold people the class showed a very upset reaction. The students said that it wasn’t diversity they were teaching it was racism they were talking about. This showed the intolerant behavior and the students who showed the tolerant behavior were seen asking questions at the end of the class to the teacher. Questions like, “what do you consider a fat man dressed in a white fur coat with gold chains hanging around his neck?” getting upset when receiving the answer that “he’s just a man in white to me.” The tolerant people here were upset at the way of teaching. Instead of working, the diversity training program brings out negative feedback. In the book ‘The Diversity Machine – The Drive to Change the White Male Workplace’ (1st editions 2001) according to the author, Frederick R. Lynch, in the discussion session; “(one) audience member reminded everyone that ‘training doesn't end after the worker is hired.’ Another questioner seconded consultant Lawrence's concern about promoting stereotypes through diversity training.” The author’s study shows how the teachers of diversity training, in their work, are misunderstood as stereotypes and racists. Instead of thinking with an open mind the students or the employees only give back negative outcome by thinking emotionally instead of having a logical thinking when dealing with such subject. The diversity training programs mostly deal with the subjects such as minorities or women and try to attract them to work with them by arranging the right sort of attraction for them and bringing the right kind of trainers in pursuing women to their firm. In an article by Alana Conner Snibbe she mentions (in a Stanford Social Innovation Review, winter 2007) that according to a sociologist at the University of California, Barkley, “What the trainers didn’t do was notice that the firm was systematically assigning its institutional clients to its male attorneys. Without experience representing these most prestigious counselees, the female attorneys stayed stuck in the lowest rungs of the practice.” The reason for the abundant negative outcome is due to the backward thinking of minds people attending these programs. The point of views that the ancestors of one generation held are still passed on from one to another and are almost impossible to change. No one can change a person’s criteria of thinking if they make it their belief. In the book ‘Sex at Work: Attraction, Orientation, Harassment, Flirtation and Discrimination’ (page 38, September 30, 2001) the authors, Mari Florence, Ed Fortson. mention, “What good is having the best written antidiscrimination/harassment policy if the boss doesn't take it seriously or even violates it.” Many of the diversity training programs people tend to avoid emotional topics such as a person’s religion, political views or most importantly sexual orientation. In the magazine ‘The Advocate’ issue of 17 May 1994 it was mentioned that; “If the company has any forum for discussing "differences" in the workforce (such as diversity training), gays and lesbians should be included on the agenda.” Avoiding topics such as these only creates a sensation in the people’s mind making them think that these things are considered bad eve in the diversity training programs which is wrong and should be taken notice of as improvement. In the TIME magazine issue of April 2007 the sociologist Frank Dobbin of Harvard University commented after a study on diversity training that; “Although the likelihood of minorities holding management positions has increased, the raw percentages of minorities in management remain quite low." His study along with his colleagues Alexandra Kalev of the University of California, Berkeley, and Erin Kelly of the University of Minnesota showed that diversity training held “little to no effect on the racial and gender mix of a company's top ranks.” Forbes, a business news magazine in its Volume 162, Issue 5-9 dated August 10, 1998 stated that; “Diversity doesn't take anyone out of the picture; it just widens the picture." Many psychologists and consultants argue that the programs for diversity training are the best way to overcome the stereotypical thinking of people. Even after their claims the groundbreaking study of the three sociologists and multiple reviews of the work done by consultant showed that instead of doing what the diversity training programs promise they actually encourage stereotyping. In the book ‘Personnel Law’ by Kenneth L. Sovereign in year 1984 the author states his views on the hiring of companies, the way they should be picking their employees. “Hire on merit and forget about diversity training. Train everyone and if the training doesn't work, get rid of the marginal employee.” The author Alana Conner also mentioned in her article that companies try to attract women by teaching them; “how to talk to women without offending them and how to be sensitive to the fact that women are responsible for childbearing and child rearing” Seeing the results of diversity trainings these days the companies are now looking for a newer way to recognize the needs of their customers and how to train their employees accordingly. In a book by Hellen Hemphill and Ray Haines in 1997, they mentioned that due to emphasis on support of women rights and minorities the male society stroke back with anger on the topic due to which companies now tend to avoid such programs. Johan McNamara of AT&T mentions that; ““Diversity training is really a non issue. “There doesn’t seem to be the same emphasis as there used to be to force people to enter diversity training programs” Which in short only means that the rise of diversity training is now on its fall and that the programs that companies offer don’t seem to work. References. The 52nd Floor: Thinking Deeply about Leadership - Page 134. David A Levy, James E Parco, Fred R Blass. DIVERSITY MACHINE: The Drive to Change the "White Male Workplace" Frederick R. Lynch. Discrimination, Harassment, and the Failure of Diversity Training: What to Do Now. Ray Haines, Hellen HemphillHellen Hemphill (Author) › Visit Amazon's Hellen Hemphill Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central Personnel Law (4th Edition) Kenneth Sovereign He Talks Like a White Boy: Reflections of a Conservative Black Man on Faith, Family, Politics, and Authenticity. Joseph C. Phillips. Sex at work: attraction, orientation, harassment, flirtation and discrimination. Mari Florence, Ed Fortson. The Advocate - 17 May 1994 - Page 34 Forbes: Volume 162, Issues 5-9 Read More