Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Given These Hurdles, What's a Manager to Do?

Having good intentions is a necessary but insufficient step toward gaining the competitive advantages of a diverse workforce. To achieve the benefits of diversity in the workplace, managers must create a work climate that leverages the potential advantages of diversity while minimizing potential disadvantages.^[76]

Managing diversity is not rocket science, but it is not common sense, either. Historically, the common organizational wisdom was to manage diversity through assimilation. In other words, organizational leaders, consultants, and researchers created a model of the ideal manager. The manager was someone who was expected to look, think, and act a lot like the leaders, consultants, and researchers ...