Diversity training

Diversity training is training for the purpose of increasing participants' cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills, which is based on the assumption that the training will benefit an organization by protecting against civil rights violations, increasing the inclusion of different identity groups, and promoting better teamwork .

Leading diverse teams

According to Bird (2007), many project managers may feel that they are treading new territory as they lead project teams made of individuals from different cultures, heterogeneous mixes, and differing demographics. This signals a lack of understanding of the techniques required to manage diverse teams which can lead to project managers being less efficient and effective. This in turn can cause the team member motivation, satisfaction levels and productivity to drop due to the lack of knowledge and skills needed to lead diverse teams. Bird further states that the project manager will need to refine and improve management techniques and should complete a post project evaluation to measure the overall results of managing the diverse teams.

Based on Bird’s research, the following positive approaches can be adopted by the project managers leading such heterogeneous teams in order to seek positive effects of managing diversity in project teams effectively:

• Recognize that diversity will bring a greater skills base when managed properly
• Improve the overall climate on diverse project teams in order to improve satisfaction, reduce conflicts, and improve team member retention
• Encourage creativity, flexibility, and innovation among the team members which will allow the injection of new ideas and challenge the normal organizational mindsets

Bird further concludes in his article that managing diversity provides greater opportunities for project teams with better performance, and greater strategic awareness, which enables them to be more innovative and responsive.

Controversial issues

In a paper published in the American Sociological Review, the authors concluded that efforts to mitigate managerial bias ultimately fail in the organization's aim to increase diversity in the management and leadership ranks. In contrast, programs that established specific responsibility for diversity, such as equal opportunity staff positions or diversity task forces, have proven most effective in general. However, the results also indicate that white American females benefit significantly more from these structural changes. The benefits for the Black female and male comparison groups were appreciably lower than that of the white females. Networking and mentoring, which were considered bias mitigating approaches, served Black females the most. Black males were the least likely to benefit from any of the methods.

The news media and bloggers have exploited the study results to question the merits of financing the sizeable diversity training industry. The January 2008 Washington Post used quotes from “longtime diversity trainer” Dr. Billy Vaughn (Diversity Training University International) and others to make the point that Kalev’s research suggests that other strategies may be more effective than diversity training for mobilizing people of color and women into management roles. Dr. Vaughn responded in his blog, The Short-Sighted Washington Post Article About Diversity Training, that the Kalev and his colleague’s assumption in conducting their research that diversity training is useful for breaking the glass ceiling was ill-conceived.

References

External links

• What Diversity & Inclusion is Really about - by Joerg Schmitz
• What is the "diversity training" profession?- by Diversity Training University International