By Michael D. Lee, CSP
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 had
a profound effect on diversity training in the United States. If
anything positive can be gleaned from the tragedy of that day, it
is the fact that managers are much more concerned about the impact
that culture has on their workforces. On the downside, many people
are now afraid to discuss cultural differences for fear of offending
others. As a result, cultural misunderstandings in the workplace
continue to have a negative impact on productivity and profitability.
Diversity training has been affected by
the events of September 11 in five major ways:
1. Increased budgets for diversity training.
Clearly, corporate America has a lot to learn about foreign cultures.
For example, the communication style of Middle Eastern
cultures differs dramatically from that of American culture. People
from that region prefer strong eye contact and they stand closer
when conversing than Americans do. These cultural traits may give
Middle Easterners a reputation as “aggressive” by American
standards.
2. Slashed travel budgets for training
and conventions. As a result of the slow economy and fear
of airline travel, more companies are engaging diversity trainers
to conduct smaller, in-house training programs.
3. The realization that culture can impact
learning styles. Not everyone is comfortable obtaining
information through lectures. More and more firms nationwide are
trying to incorporate “multimodal” presentation techniques
that reach not only auditory learners, but visual and kinesthetic
students as well.
4. Diversity training has become much
more tied to overall profitability than solely to retention.
Over 60% of human resources professionals report that diversity
initiatives have contributed to their companies’ success.
This shift is one of the reasons for increased spending on diversity
training.
5. Diversity training has become increasingly
separated from liability reduction efforts. In the past,
executives viewed the training as simply a way to prevent racial
discrimination charges.
Prior to 9/11, diversity training had already
evolved from the finger pointing and blaming of the 1970s and 1980s
to a more positive embracing of differences in the 1990s. In the
new millennium, companies are proactively seeking out people from
diverse cultures to help them survive against increasing challenging
competition. Businesses in America now see the potential benefits
multicultural workers provide such as increased productivity, language
skills, global perspective, negotiation skills, new ideas and creative
solutions to difficult problems. Progressive companies endeavor
to harness the power of multiethnic Americans as a new secret weapon
against international as well as domestic competition.
Today, the majority of diversity training is primarily
focused on helping businesses understand people’s differences
so they can work together as a team. In addition, companies who
have customers from diverse cultures are showing interest in learning
how to sell more products and services to this group.
The current shortage of workers in the U.S. has
many companies actively seeking workers from overseas. Unfortunately,
the cultural differences of these employees are rarely addressed
until it’s too late. If any awareness training is provided
at all, it is usually focused on helping European-American workers
understand differences in personal space, eye contact, hygiene,
gestures and communication style. Unfortunately, little is being
done to assist new immigrants in understanding the unique aspects
of the American culture such as our obsession with time, individualistic
attitudes and capitalistic ideas.
Sensitivity training for prospective overseas
workers has generally been the main focus of many companies in helping
prepare their employees for overseas assignments. Most of the emphasis
has been on avoiding offense to others and personal safety as opposed
to really understanding the people with whom their workers are going
to live side by side.
Liability reduction programs are still a prime
driver of some diversity initiatives. To avoid discrimination complaints,
some companies seek to actively hire multiethnic workers and to
purchase from minority small businesses. Others simply remind employees
not to tell racially biased jokes. Some companies only provide diversity
training as a means of developing an affirmative defense against
discrimination complaints.
The tragedy of September 11, 2001 certainly heightened
sensitivities about cultural differences. Our company used to have
to devote large amounts of training on the differences between Eastern
Indians and Pakistanis or the fact that Asians are from 17 major
distinct cultures and should be not be lumped together into one
single group. After 9/11, we have observed both managers and workers
are trying to be more sensitive to all cultural differences and
we are now able to spend more time on bridging those differences.
Unfortunately, the diversity initiatives we have
observed are mostly unsupported by top management except for lip
service. While managers may encourage various training and celebratory
activities, they rarely attend themselves. What does this say to
culturally diverse workers as well as the rest of the organization?
The progression of diversity training usually
begins with anti-harassment and sensitivity training, usually as
the result of a lawsuit. Then cultural awareness training may be
implemented to prevent further claims, hopefully moving into a celebration
of diversity. The next plateau is diversity initiatives including
development of cultural employee networks and building multicultural
teams to increase productivity. Companies that have diverse customers
learn to customize their marketing, presentations and products to
meet the unique needs of their consumers. The final stage is full
inclusion of minorities into every strata of the organization so
that culture no longer becomes an issue.
Bottom line: since 9/11, managers
are much more aware of the necessity of diversity training. We try
to help them see the benefits that can be reaped from having a fully
integrated workforce. Can more be done to reduce the tensions that
result from ethnically diverse people working together? Certainly!
Will more be done to help everyone get past differences? That’s
up to you.
Author Bio: Michael D. Lee,
MBA, is the first Asian-American to earn the Certified Speaking
Professional (CSP) designation. His company, Seminars Unlimited,
provides keynote speeches, training and consulting on diversity
and selling to the ethnic markets in America. Mr. Lee can be reached
at (800) 41-SPEAK or by e-mail at: seminars@netvista.net.
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