Building a Shared Understanding and Commitment to Managing Diversity

Abstract

This study examined the perspectives of both employees and senior managers in one organization to determine if the communication between advisory panels representing diverse groups of employees and senior managers resulted in a shared understanding and commitment to diversity. An analysis of interview transcripts revealed a shared agreement among the majority of the participants regarding the advisory role of the panels. In addition, raising the sensitivity of senior managers, increasing career advancements for women and minorities, and improving interpersonal relationships were identified as positive effects, while a small group of participants thought that the panels had led to resentment of diverse groups. In 1995, a bipartisan Federal Commission, chaired by Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor, issued a final report titled solid investment: Making full use of the nation's human capital. The Commission completed its three-year fact-finding study by concluding that minorities and women are still consistently underrepresented at the highest levels of corporate America. Specifically, 97 percent of the senior managers of Fortune 1000 industrial and Fortune 500 companies are white and 95 percent to 97 percent are men (Department of Labor, 1995, p. iii). The Commission noted that it is against the best interests of business to exclude those Americans who constitute two thirds of the total population, two thirds of the consumer markets, and more than half of the workforce (Department of Labor, 1995, p.11). An earlier report issued by the Department of Labor in 1991 identified the barriers that women and minorities face including few career enhancing assignments, lack of acceptance of women and minorities in top management, and low morale resulting from being blocked and isolated. Faced with these barriers, many employees are unable to contribute fully in their jobs and the nation underutilizes a significant resource in the working population. As a result, the call for new ways for managing diversity and maximizing the full contribution of all employees has been raised by women and minorities as well as senior managers. Given this need to develop strategies to manage diversity more effectively, organizations have been experimenting with a variety of approaches. One common approach is to set up an internal diversity team with representatives from all groups of employees in the organization. Typically, the diversity team is charged with the goal of determining ways to enhance the diversity in the organization in order to respond more effectively to diverse markets and to recruit from a diverse labor pool. With representatives from all groups, the team presumably will be inclusive in their recommendations for managing diversity. Another approach, internal advisory groups or panels, consists of separate groups for African-American employees, Hispanic employees, or women employees. These internal advisory groups meet periodically with senior level management to have an open dialogue on the obvious, as well as subtle, barriers that prevent these groups from full participation in the organization. Through frequent communication, employees and managers can develop a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities of successfully managing cultural diversity. To date, research in business and managerial communication has focused little attention on the link between communication focused on managing diversity and the goal of creating a shared understanding of and commitment to diversity. The primary focus of this study is to examine the perspectives of both employees and senior managers in one organization to determine if the communication generated by advisory panels representing diverse groups of employees resulted in a shared understanding of, and commitment to, diversity. Review of Literature A number of books on managing diversity have been written in the last several years. …