Workplace Conflicts: Culture and Diversity

Culture and Diversity: Workplace Conflicts

Workplace Conflict: Diversity Training

Diversity-training is one of the most common methods used by organizations today to address cultural differences among employees, and thereby minimize the risk of workplace conflict (Samovar, et al., 2009). It basically entails i) educating employees on how cultural differences at the workplace could affect the way people interact, and ii) raising their personal awareness on the compliance issues of sexual harassment, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), and Affirmative Action (AA) (NCRVE, n.d.). If conducted effectively, diversity training not only improves the way employees interact with each other, but also increases job satisfaction and reduces the rate of employee turnover (Samovar, et al., 2009). Research has shown that more than 60% of companies in the U.S. conduct diversity training; however, the same studies have also shown mixed results in regard to the success of these diversity programs (NCRVE, n.d.). So, why are some diversity programs more successful at achieving their intended objectives than others? As Samovar and his colleagues (2009) point out, it's all about effectiveness.

Different views have been put forth to explain exactly what constitutes an effective diversity training program. According to the National Center for Research in Vocational Training (NCRVE, n.d.), there are a number of crucial factors that drive effectiveness in employee diversity programs, the first of which is needs assessment -- a program will only realize its intended objectives if it is designed and structured as to respond to the specific needs of the organization (NCRVE, n.d.; Samovar, et al., 2009). An organization needs to conduct a proper needs-assessment to determine exactly what the problem in the organization is, what the cultural climate is, and hence, the type of training that would be most appropriate in addressing the same (Samovar, et al., 2009). Organizations have different cultures and different workforce compositions, and what may work for one organization may not necessarily work for another; by identifying their unique diversity needs, therefore, organizations are better-placed to set proper training objectives and develop effective implementation strategies (Samovar, et al., 2009).

The primary reason most training programs fail is because organizations neglect the needs-assessment phase of program development and design their diversity programs around implicit assumptions (it will work here just because it worked elsewhere) as opposed to explicit demonstration (NCRVE, n.d.). The Center stresses that despite the huge costs involved in conducting needs-assessments, it is still paramount for organizations to conduct the same because failure to do so is likely to result in even greater losses in the long-term. Organizations could conduct needs-assessment through conducting appraisals, studying recent discrimination complaints suits, or interviewing managers and employees to determine whether there are any problems related to racism, sexism, discrimination, and so forth (NCRVE, n.d.).

Besides conducting needs-assessments, organizations need to structure and design their training programs in such a way that they align with the organizational strategic plan (Samovar, et al., 2009). Diversity programs cannot work effectively if they are structured to stand alone, separately from other business processes. Samovar and his colleagues (2009) express that most organizations tend to isolate diversity initiatives from other business approaches; the NCRVE (n.d.), however, posits that in order to be effective, diversity training programs need to be closely-tied to other strategic business processes such as employee-empowerment, reengineering, team-building, and total quality management.