What is diversity awareness?  Several decades ago, an ever-evolving dialogue on diversity became so compelling that it transcended the halls of academia and found a place around executive conference tables at some of America’s leading corporations. Initially, those who were permitted to share in this nascent dialogue regarding the impact an increasingly diverse population would have on the future of American businesses possessed one of two contrasting views: proscriptive or prescriptive. Proscriptive leaders decided little needed to be done to prepare for the demographic changes and proceeded to follow parochial paradigms. Even though change was predictable and foreseeable, their approach was to adopt a reactive strategy and respond to changes as they occurred. In contrast, the prescriptive leaders adopted a somewhat more proactive approach to changes in diversity. They began to empower themselves and others. Diversity projections began to be included in strategic planning processes. Executives and managers sought systematic steps to prepare themselves and their organizations for a demographic shift within the workplace and within the marketplace. Hiring practices, human resource policies, and marketing plans began to reflect a growing awareness of the value of diversity. ...[Click here to view full article]

In our continued efforts to better understand and effectively manage a diverse workforce, diversity initiatives have undergone numerous modifications: Total Quality Management (TQM), Teambuilding, Diversity Management, Valuing Diversity, and most recently Cultural Competency. Throughout this process, there is an increasing awareness that the American workplace is changing at an exponential rate. In looking back, virtually all leaders have had to come face to face with managing diversity in one of two ways: by vision or by pain!

Today, diversity is no longer an academic theory; it is a reality which must be factored into the way everyone does business. In order to develop and maintain a competitive edge in the contemporary marketplace, executives, managers, and their associates are compelled to become fully aware of the vital role diversity plays in virtually every aspect of our organizational and individual lives. While diversity awareness is essential to the effective management of diversity, it is only the first step towards developing a successful diversity initiative.

What is diversity knowledge? It has been said that awareness is to knowledge as fire is to burning. Just as combustion produces energy, diversity awareness produces a desire for greater knowledge. The ability to move beyond what we think we see, and what we have decided we already know, is made possible by increasing our knowledge of diversity. Diversity knowledge helps us reconsider how our own cultural programming predisposes us to recognize, respond, and react to human differences. Margaret Meade knew this all too well as she insisted, “If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.”

It is widely accepted that people tend to fear that which they do not understand; therefore, when we increase our knowledge about our differences, we also increase our understandings of the inherent value of diversity. This greater knowledge and understanding enables us to see beyond the personal bias of our own cultural lenses, thus allowing our former perceptions to be examined under the more factual light of personal experience.

Robert F. Kennedy once noted, “Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of freedom has inspired.” The knowledge that there is systemic value to be gained from cultural inclusion is not a foreign concept to us as Americans. The underlying principles of valuing and embracing diversity are part of the warp and woof by which the philosophical fabric of our nation was created. To a significant degree, the egalitarian seeds of democracy gave rise to the emblematic roots of diversity; this reality is embedded within our collective consciousness, just as indelibly as the words of Emma Lazarus are engraved upon one of the our nation’s most iconic monuments: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Why are diversity skills necessary? Jan Barton has written, “When we increase our knowledge of diversity, we come to view the mosaic of human diversity as a stained glass window. Each piece is different in shape, size, color, and texture; yet there is a ribbon of lead which serves as the common bond that holds them all together, thereby creating out of many diverse parts one single masterpiece.” Like the “ribbon of lead” in the window, our diversity skills allow us to create a cohesive bond which serves to bridge the gap between what would otherwise be scattered shards. Without effective diversity skills, employers and their employees are courting a similar chaos. In order for us to maintain inclusive relationships with persons of different backgrounds and diverse cultures, it is necessary for us to become fluent in our cross-cultural communications and competent in our cross-cultural interactions. Effective diversity skills enable us to relate with others in a manner that is culturally competent, mutually respectful, and organizationally beneficial. With regards to managing cross-cultural relationships within an inclusive environment, those who lack specific diversity skills are increasingly becoming a costly liability, too risky to be maintained.

How has the current economic climate affected diversity management? Dennis Cauchon reported in a recent article in USA Today that we are about to cross another significant diversity threshold. The number of women in the workforce is getting very close to outnumbering men for the first time in our nation’s history. There are several contributing factors. First, the roles of women are evolving throughout our society. Second, the recession is taking a dramatic toll on construction and manufacturing jobs which have been traditionally held by men. And third, the only sectors of our economy which have continued to grow in this recession are in industries that have traditionally hired more women than men; namely, health care, education, and governmental agencies. The result of these and other demographic factors is that 49.83% of the nation’s 132 million jobs are currently held by women.

Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, noted "It was a long historical slog to get to this point." The future which diversity advocates have long forecasted is now here. The pressures and promptings of a recessive economy have expedited the inevitable changes in the cultural, gender, and generational makeup of our workplaces. In addition to a disproportionate increase in the number of women, the recession has also affected the number of workers over the age of 55 who are holding onto jobs longer. Those delaying their retirement plans in order to make ends meet are coming into direct competition with younger workers looking to enter the workforce for the first time. A record number of older workers are also coming out of retirement and reentering the job market. In a real sense, the old and the young are converging and competing against each other in a manner that could barely be conceived of just a few years ago.

Such a diverse workforce creates a dynamic workplace wherein only the best and brightest minds are equipped to succeed. A never before seen paradigm is unfolding in the American workplace. However, as the Chinese symbols yin and yang serve to remind us, change bears within it many possibilities. With demographic changes affecting the very face of our workplace and the makeup of our workforce, managing diversity will continue to take on a more critical and central role in the ability of all American companies, organizations, and corporations to do business competitively. Rene Dubos has correctly pointed out that “Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.” -[Click here to minimize this article]