DIVERSITY TRAINING

Diversity Training

Diversity Training

Introduction

Training to improve diversity competency involves a series of programs and activities that reveal similarities and differences among individuals and offer strategies for handling them. However, before any decisions are made concerning the planning and delivery of such training, it is important to define what an organization means by the term diversity. Diversity training may be narrowly focused on primary dimensions—characteristics trainees have no control over—such as age, race, ethnicity, and physical ability (Clements, 2005). Or such training can also include secondary dimensions—characteristics trainees have some control over—such as religious beliefs, marital status, educational level, and geographic location.

Awareness building is designed to increase understanding of the meaning and importance of diversity. Its aim is to reveal unexamined assumptions, biases, and tendencies that stereotype others and how these perceptions affect behaviors, decisions, and judgment. To build awareness, trainees are taught to become familiar with the myths, stereotypes, and cultural differences as well as the organizational barriers that inhibit the full contributions of all employees. This training helps members to be more flexible in their communications with others and to treat each person as an individual rather than rely on a stereotype. In most organizations, the rules for success and advancement are often unwritten and ambiguous. Awareness training offers a means to teach these unwritten rules or cultural values to those who need to know them.

Most organizational diversity training emphasizes the awareness component, and many experts believe that raising trainee awareness is more valuable than skill building. However, these programs rarely address, in a systematic fashion, tactics that enable participants to positively affect diverse work environments. The penchant for awareness training may reflect the greater accessibility of these programs and the tendency to prefer such training because it is relatively inexpensive, easy to conduct, and applicable in a variety of ...