Discrimination, Harassment, and the Failure of Diversity Training: What to Do Now

By Ray Haines and Hellen Hemphill

Book Overview

Billions of dollars have been spent on the wrong solution to the complex, sensitive and emotionally charged issue of discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Companies originally invested in diversity training in order to meet Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity requirements, to reduce litigation costs, and to buy social peace. The result was often more social conflict--divisiveness, hostility, backlash, and an increase in litigation. This book offers a new, simple and effective solution to organizations that include the need to: establish, publish and enforce a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination and harassment; develop standards which define unacceptable professional workplace behaviors; and provide the relationship skills training necessary for all employees to meet the company's behavioral standards.

Diversity training failed because of its focus on awareness, understanding and appreciating differences rather than teaching basic skills to help employees relate more effectively with each other regardless of their differences. Companies have the right to require professional behavior from their employees. They do not have the right to ask their employees to change ther personal values and belief systems. This book provides a blueprint for a skills-based solution to the elimination of discrimination and harassment. It emphasizes the development of professional relationship skills to help employees work more effectively with their bosses, their peers, their team members, their customers, and all those individuals different from themselves. For all business executives, leaders, managers, supervisors, human resource specialists, trainers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and employees.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567201091
• ISBN13: 9781567201093
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

First half is great

The first half of this book is very well-researched and copiously footnoted. It demonstrates the basic weaknesses of all diversity training programs. The entire first half of the book can be summed up in a single sentence from page 60, "Studies show that at least 85 percent of those people fired from their jobs are dismissed because of interpersonal limitations, a statistic that holds true at all organizational levels. It is their inability to get along with others - coworkers, bosses, subordinates or customers - that is the cause of their troubles, not poor technical skills." Indeed, given the numerous instances of various million-dollar "discrimination" suits described in the book, any reflective reader will realize that every single instance of harm was a harm that resulted from someone, somewhere, acting like a boor. In short, we don't need diversity training, we need better manners. Manners are, of course, a two-way street. The first part of good manners means you try in every instance not to inflict unnecessary harm. However, given the way different lives are led, it is certain that a remark intended to be innocent may inadvertently serve as a match to fuel some lingering hurt. So the second part of good manners is equally important - don't take unnecessary offense. It used to be the hallmark of good breeding that a man or woman ignore slights or insults given, refuse to become entangled in them, refuse to play the victim. In America as in the rest of the world, that tradition has been largely destroyed. Having good manners, refusing to give or take unnecessary offense, refusing to give scandal or to take scandal - that is really all there is to effective "diversity" training. Everything else is garbage. The authors do spend the last half of the book discussing their special techniques, but it is neither particularly useful or important. The meta-message from the first half is what gives this book a high score.

They bring sanity to the cult of inclusiveness

This book is a refreshing reality check for what diversity training is doing to American corporate pool of employees. We are poisoning our own human resources through the divisiveness brought about with this absurd philosophy. Very well researched with survey results of over 500 corporate executives, this is the first diversity book I've read with any sources whatsoever. They had tremendous courage to publish it in the midst of extreme political correctness. For once, intellectual honesty and rationalism takes a stand. This book should be required reading for every CEO who has mandated diversity training in their company.