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Teaching Business Students About Diversity:
An Experiential, Multimedia Approach
Pamela L. Cox
State University of New York College at Oswego

ABSTRACT

To prepare business students for an increasingly diverse workforce, business schools are beginning to include diversity training in their curriculum.  The content and evaluation of a diversity course for business students are described along with the objectives of the course and the factors that contributed to successfully meeting these objectives.

Introduction

Businesses have embraced diversity training as a way of improving their track record for hiring and promoting women, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and other diverse populations (Kennedy, 1995). Diversity training has become an emerging trend as organizations seek to gain and maintain a competitive edge in the new, increasingly global economy (Law, 1998). Effective diversity management can result in better utilization of talent, increased marketplace understanding, and enhanced creativity (Gilbert & Ivancevich, 2000). Skills that employees develop through diversity training may make them more productive overall (Goff, 1998).  States one diversity consultant: “Lower absenteeism, lower employee turnover, increased productivity. Employees spend a lot of energy assimilating to a corporate culture that’s not sensitive to diversity. That’s energy that could be better spent creating new opportunities for the company or just doing their jobs” (Goff, p. 27). The changing workplace, economic conditions, increased competition, changing customer bases, labor shortages, and relocation of employees to other communities and countries are all reasons an increasing number of organizations are offering diversity training to employees (Brown, 1998). A recent study indicates that diversity training is a high priority for 93% of Fortune 500 companies (PR Newswire, 1998).
To prepare business students for an increasingly diverse workforce, business schools need to include diversity training in their curriculum. Employers are looking for job candidates capable of communicating in a culturally diverse workplace (Job Choices, 2000).  In addition, schools like Smith College are using diversity training as part of an initiative directed toward becoming an anti-racist institution (Basham, Donner, Killough, & Rozas, 1997, p. 564).
Despite good intentions many diversity training programs appear to be backfiring and intensifying hostility and bad feelings among groups rather than improving them (Beaver, 1995; Flynn, 1998). Critics of diversity training argue that the cure may be worse than the disease (Kennedy).  When asked to create a diversity management course as part of the business curriculum at my college, I first conducted a review of the literature on diversity training in order to identify the factors that seem to contribute to diversity training success and those that contribute to its failure. I also spoke at length with a manager in charge of a successful diversity training program.  This paper discusses the pitfalls of

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diversity training as well as the keys to diversity training success.  The diversity course I developed, taught, and evaluated is described in detail along with the objectives of the course and the factors that contributed to successfully meeting these objectives. The results of an assessment of the course are also discussed.

Factors Contributing to Diversity Training Success and Failure

Criticisms of diversity training fall into four major categories:

1.      The “blame and shame” nature of some programs appears to be spawning a white male backlash (Beaver; Christensen & Nemetz, 1996) where white males feel targeted (Flynn), stereotyped and blamed (Hemphill & Haines, 1998).

2.      Diversity training may accentuate group differences and perpetuate stereotypes instead of promoting harmony (Beaver, Kennedy).

3.      The interests of all employees may not be taken into account with programs recognizing some diverse groups and not others (Kennedy). Training may focus primarily on gender and race issues (Hemphill & Haines, Brown).

Successful diversity training initiatives appear to have several things in common. The training goes beyond valuing diversity to valuing individuals and seeks to create an atmosphere of inclusion among all groups at all levels (Flynn, 1998).  The training program makes a distinction between affirmative action and valuing differences with diversity defined in a manner that recognizes a wide range of characteristics including race, religion, age, personality attributes, working style, and many other factors (Overmyer Day; Rynes & Rosen, 1995). Successful initiatives show the link between diversity and business goals; providing a context for diversity training to help everyone understand why diversity is important (Overmyer Day; Gilbert & Ivancevich). The training focuses on behavior and discussions of whether behavior is appropriate. The focus is on targeting behavior and not blaming individuals or groups (Flynn; Hemphill & Haines). Finally, the training uses a multi-media, experiential approach with role-playing, simulations, videos, and discussions. Participants are allowed and encouraged to express themselves with the experiential approach accommodating a wide variety of learning styles (Morris, Romero, & Tan, 1996).

Pedagogy

The design of the course revolved around the following goals:

1.      Create an inclusive atmosphere within the class where the characteristics and contributions of all students are valued.

2.      Demonstrate the link between valuing diversity and business goals. Stress the importance of diversity education to students’ career goals.

3.      Focus on behaviors that are appropriate and identify those that are inappropriate. Educate students about the habit patterns leading to inappropriate behavior.

4.      Include a variety of exercises, role-playing simulations, videos, and discussions in order to stimulate student enthusiasm and interest in the material.

5.      Allow students to participate and express themselves in a variety of ways – through journal entries, class discussions, role-playing, presentations, and experiential exercises.

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The course was taught over the January inter-session in fifteen, three-hour sessions.  Table 1 (see Appendix A) is an outline of the course including session topics, textbook assignments, handouts and articles, exercises, and journal entries. A bibliography of assigned articles, a description of experiential exercises, and a list of journal entry questions can be found in Appendix B.

The first part of the course (sessions 1-4) dealt with creating a broad, inclusive definition of diversity. Students were encouraged to explore their own diversity through exercises, classroom discussion, and journal entries. The differences between affirmative action and valuing diversity were identified.  The film “Working Girl” was viewed and discussed.  The discussion focused on gender and social class issues that can become barriers to opportunity.

During session five, the link between valuing diversity and achieving business goals was explored. Students were presented with the costs of ignoring diversity and the benefits of valuing diversity in the video “A Peacock in a Land of Penguins”. The article “Valley of Denial” emphasized costs of ignoring diversity in Silicon Valley.  Sessions 6 through 8 focused on the origins of thought patterns leading to inappropriate behavior in organizations. The origins of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination were discussed. A clip from “Twilight Zone: The Movie” dealt with prejudice and discrimination. Students also viewed “A Class Divided”, a film depicting Jane Elliott’s classic 1968 experiment with Iowa first graders. The film highlights the origins of prejudice and discrimination in a compelling way that generated much discussion among students in the class. Excerpts from the book Black Like Me were discussed so that students could begin to develop an appreciation for barriers created by racial prejudice and discrimination.

Sessions 9 and 10 examined the development of empathy for diverse groups and individuals.  The movie “Soul Man” and “American History X” both dealt with learning what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Strategies for coping with discrimination were examined in sessions 11, 12, and 13. The movies “Ruby Bridges” and “Soul Food” explored the power of tradition, family, and faith in overcoming adversity. Students were encouraged to discuss and explore the cultural traditions within their own families that help them to deal with challenges in their own lives.
Equal employment law and harassment in the workplace were explored in session 14. An emphasis was placed on identifying appropriate and inappropriate workplace behaviors. The movies “Disclosure” and “Nine to Five” generated a lively discussion of the relationship between sexual harassment and power. “Disclosure” was particularly effective in illustrating the breadth of sexual harassment legislation in that the movie depicts a white male who accuses his female boss of sexual harassment. Students also read articles describing how companies like Ford, Mitsubishi, and Texaco have paid a high cost for harassment and are now developing initiatives geared to generating appropriate workplace behaviors.

Managing diverse work teams and effective practices for managing diversity were discussed during the last session of the class. Students explored the diversity within their class groups through a team building exercise and looked at the value of team diversity in the movie “Sneakers”. Students worked in groups throughout the semester

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and were responsible for researching media depiction of a dimension of diversity and the impact of the media on the treatment of individuals in organizations. Each group presented their findings during the last class session (see Appendix B for a description of the presentation assignment).

Course Evaluation

On the last day of class, students were asked to assess and comment on the effectiveness of the course (see Appendix C for course evaluation questions and a table of the results). All nineteen students registered for the course completed the course evaluation which asked students to respond to twenty-four statements using a five point scale (1=agree, 2=somewhat agree, 3=undecided, no opinion, 4=somewhat disagree, 5=disagree). Students were also asked to rate course videos and exercises using a five point scale (1=poor, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent), and to respond to eleven qualitative questions pertaining to the course.

Results

Eighty-five percent of the students surveyed felt that by understanding their own diversity, they could better appreciate and value diversity in others. Ninety-five percent of the students felt they had a better understanding of actions companies can take to effectively manage diversity. Most of the students (95%) felt that viewing films, keeping a journal, and participating in class exercises were effective ways of learning about diversity. Ninety-five percent of the students felt the course had changed the way they would think about diversity in the future. When asked if they would recommend the course to a friend, 94% responded affirmatively. Ninety-five percent of the students felt the course should be a required course for all business majors.

Students felt the strongest aspects of the course were the videos, journal entries, class discussion, and the group presentations. The journal entries “made you think about what happened in class” and the videos “were all relevant to the topics we were studying and helped us to get a better understanding of the course content.” One student commented that keeping a journal “helped me explore feelings I didn’t know I had.” Another student stated: “I enjoyed the journal. It’s nice to see your own thoughts in words. It helps to make it easier to evaluate them.”  Several students recommended that the course require more journal entries.

Class exercises and videos were rated good to excellent by the students. Stated one student: “It is almost a guarantee that students learn more with exercises that they enjoy.” The major criticism of the course was of the short time period in which it was taught. Students felt it was difficult to absorb material and complete assignments during the condensed inter-session. Course content could easily be adapted to a full semester format allowing students more time to absorb and process material.

Discussion

Course evaluation results suggest the goals of the course were met. The course appears to have accomplished the following objectives:

1.      Demonstrated the link between valuing diversity and business and academic goals

2.      Educated students about both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors concerning diversity

3.      Included a wide variety of teaching methods that stimulated student interest

4.      Allowed students to participate and express themselves in a variety of ways in an inclusive environment

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While the evaluation indicates students responded favorably to the course, these results should be viewed with caution.  Results are based on a sample size of only nineteen students. Also, the course evaluation method relies on student perceptions and self-reports. Self-reports may not be the best method of evaluating whether students’ attitudes toward diversity changed significantly as a result of taking the course.

A more reliable means of ascertaining student attitude change might be to administer an instrument on the first day of class designed to determine students’ initial attitudes toward diversity. The instrument could again be administered at the end of the semester and pretest/posttest results compared to determine whether a significant change in attitude had occurred.  The author has future plans to measure student attitude change using this method the next time the course is taught.

Conclusion

Diversity education can result in more effective organizational communication, better utilization of talent, increased understanding of a diverse customer base, and enhanced creativity. In order for students to perform effectively in today’s business environment, they need to develop the ability to communicate in an increasingly diverse work environment. Including diversity education as part of the business curriculum can help students to develop these skills. All too often, however, diversity training is conducted in a way that intensifies hostility between groups, increasing bad feelings rather than improving them. The course described in this paper attempted to avoid the pitfalls of unsuccessful diversity initiatives by creating an inclusive classroom environment, demonstrating the link between valuing diversity and business goals, focusing on appropriate workplace behaviors, and encouraging open student participation and expression of opinions. The multi-media, experiential approach increased student interest in the material, accommodated diverse learning styles, and gave the students a variety of ways to express themselves while learning about diversity.

References

Basham, K.K., Donner, S., Killough, R.M., & Rozas, L.W. (1997). Becoming an anti-racist institution. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 67, 3, 564-568.

Beaver, W. (1995). Let’s stop diversity training and start managing for diversity. Industrial Management, 37, 4, 7-9.

Brown, Q. (1998, October 19). Diversity training challenges assumptions. The Gazette (Colorado Springs).

Christensen, S.L. & Nemetz, P.L. (1996). The challenge of cultural diversity: Harnessing a diversity of views to understand multiculturalism. Academy of Management Review, 21, 2, 434-462.

Flynn, G. (1999). White males see diversity’s other side. Workforce, 78, 2, 52-55.

Gilbert, J.A. & Ivancevich, J.M. (2000). Valuing diversity: A tale of two organizations. Academy of Management Executive, 14, 1, 93-105.

Goff, L. (1998, June 8). Making the case for diversity training: Confronted by growing criticism, consultants focus on bottom line. Crain’s New York Business, p. 27.

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Hemphill, H. & Haines, R. (1998). Confronting discrimination in your workplace. HR Focus, 75, 7, S5-S6.

Job Choices. (2000). Communicating in the culturally diverse workplace. Job Choices: Diversity Edition 2000. National Association of Colleges and Employers, 106-108.

Kennedy, M. (1995, September 19). Diversity training faces critics. The Kansas City Star, p. D1.
Law, D.Y. (1998). An evaluation of a cultural diversity training program. Dissertation Abstracts International, 59 (5-B), 2468.

Lynch, F.R. (1997, March 12). Mine field of diversity training. Journal of Commerce, p. 11A.

Marcic, D. &  Seltzer, J. (1995). Considering stereotypes from a new perspective. Organizational Behavior: Experiences and Cases. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing, pp. 41-42.

Morris, L., Romero, J. & Tan, D.L. (1996, September). Changes in attitude after diversity training. Training and Development, 50, 9, 54-55.

Overmyer Day, L.E. (1995, December). The pitfalls of diversity training. Training and Development, 49, 12, 25-29.

PR Newswire. (1998, August 3). New survey released by the Society for Human Resource Management – 75% of Fortune 500 companies have diversity programs. PR Newswire.

Rynes, S. & Rosen, B. (1995). A field survey of factors affecting the adoption andperceived success of diversity training. Personnel Psychology, 48, 2, 247-270.

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 Appendix A

Table 1 – Course Outline