Seven Problems of Diversity Management Programs

Here are some of the common problems of diversity management programs:

1. There is not a clear distinction between diversity management, equal employment opportunity, and affirmative action. As a result, employees receive what seem to be mixed signals, such as "Don't discriminate on the basis of race and sex" and "Consider race and sex."
2. Upper management, in an effort to appear hip and cutting-edge, brings in zealots to conduct training. Let some ideologues put your team through their "All white guys are racist" workshops and your workforce will be more divided than ever.
3. Hiring preferences are given to achieve diversity. Time to talk to the attorneys about a thing called employment discrimination law.
4. Ceilings are set for certain groups. When the focus is on diversity instead of equal opportunity, it is extremely easy to fall into pre-ordained limits on group representation.
5. The business benefits of racial/sexual/ethnic diversity are overstated. Linking diversity to business benefits raises the natural question: If studies demonstrated that diversity is not good for business, would the program be scrapped? Stressing equal opportunity and intellectual diversity is more practical.
6. The diversity office becomes a dumping ground where tokenism thrives. This adds to the impression that diversity is simply a program for special interests and that the proponents don't know what they're talking about.
7. The diversity program is launched before the organization has a strong equal opportunity program. This creates a credibility gap since employees can see that the organization is talking about sophisticated improvements in communication and team-building while the basic obligation of having a nondiscriminatory workplace has not been seriously addressed.