{"id":288,"date":"2008-10-06T07:13:51","date_gmt":"2008-10-06T13:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=288"},"modified":"2008-10-06T07:15:27","modified_gmt":"2008-10-06T13:15:27","slug":"mandatory-diversity-training-may-do-more-harm-than-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2008\/10\/06\/mandatory-diversity-training-may-do-more-harm-than-good\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;mandatory diversity training may do more harm than good&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday the <a href=\"http:\/\/hamptonroads.com\/2008\/10\/mandatory-diversity-training-may-do-more-harm-good\">Virginian-Pilot<\/a> ran a story about the potentially negative consequences of workplace diversity training. A 2005 study from the Society for Human Resource Management concluded that about two-thirds of companies engage in diversity training, but that most of these efforts backfire, resulting in a more homogeneous workforce. The source of the trouble appears to be that most sessions are mandatory rather than voluntary, and focus solely on the legal dangers and not on the benefits of diversity in business settings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Call in the sociologists to break down the problem&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThey force their workers and managers to sit through this training, and they hit them in the head with the possible legal sanctions,\u201d said one of the researchers, Alexandra Kalev, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Kalev and Frank Dobbin, a sociology professor at Harvard University, reviewed the types of diversity training programs and the composition of the work force at the companies. They found that optional sessions are more likely to lead to increased numbers of women and minorities in the workplace.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because mandatory sessions might trigger resentment and unintentionally \u201cactivate biases,\u201d Kalev said. When they\u2019re voluntary, she said, employees are more likely to search for the positives to justify the use of their time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A better idea&#8230;.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Too many diversity training programs, [Kalev] said, are designed as \u201ca ticket out of jail\u201d \u2013 a way to bolster a company\u2019s defense if it faces discrimination suits. Too often, [she] said, the sessions concentrate on legal minefields.\u00a0\u201cYou have to behave this way,\u201d she said, \u201cotherwise we will get sued and we\u2019ll have bad publicity.\u201d\u00a0That also turns off employees.\u00a0\u201cThe legal content is so boring and so intimidating,\u201d she said, \u201cand it\u2019s usually exaggerated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Better, she said, to focus on how diversity helps them achieve their strategic goals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hamptonroads.com\/2008\/10\/mandatory-diversity-training-may-do-more-harm-good\">Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday the Virginian-Pilot ran a story about the potentially negative consequences of workplace diversity training. A 2005 study from the Society for Human Resource Management concluded that about two-thirds of companies engage in diversity training, but that most of these efforts backfire, resulting in a more homogeneous workforce. The source of the trouble appears to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}