A Critical Evaluation and Analysis of Diversity Training- the Positive and Negatives

The approaches used in diversity training owe much on the history of this practice. Diversity training came to be as a result of a universal call to affirmed action that revolutionized the demographic composition in organizations (Paluck 580). Originally, companies instituted diversity measures to counter legal implication threats. The practice evolved from being a single day event to a continuum occurrence that characterized hiring, retention and rewarding of employees. This was actually the birth of the diversity management practice, which modern organizations are trying to catch up with. It is important to discuss the approaches here because they help critically analyze on whether diversity training help in bettering performance in an organization or not.

Two approaches have been used namely instructional approach and experiential approach training (Paluck 580). Under the instructional approach, the training involves giving information and raising both general and detailed awareness of the problems associated with diversity discrimination (Paluck 581). These problems mainly revolve around misunderstanding of diversity. This approach capitalizes on teaching the benefits of having a friendly diversity acceptance behavior and policies for the employees and the organization at large (Paluck 581). The instructions are given through lectures, videos and facts sheets. This approach also uses group discussions to convey the messages. However, the group discussions should be directed by a professional diversity trainer lest they turn out to be breeding grounds for diversity animosity. Some of the information shared touch on information intended to replace myths/stereotypes, equal opportunity regulations, demographic changes in a count...

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...e backgrounds, to do business or work together. If, by any chance, this people do not understand each other in terms of cultural backgrounds, the company is at a risk of underperforming. Among other factors, a company’s exceptional performance depends on a favorable relationship among the employees. People from diverse backgrounds often crush on each other at the work place because the frequency of misunderstanding each other is very high. This owes much on prejudice and stereotypes which people hold on those from different backgrounds. It is in such scenarios that the importance of diversity training cannot be underscored. This is due to the fact that diversity training aim at ironing out all the differences emanating from diverse backgrounds and help in establishing impeccable cohesion among all the stakeholders in an organization (Bezrukova, Jehn and Spell 218).