Knowledge and Understanding

Knowledge and understanding are key areas that influence how we respond to workforce diversity, according to Mendez-Russell, co-author of the Discovering Diversity Profile (1994). Diversity knowledge is defined as “the extent to which an individual possesses information about others from diverse backgrounds and cultures.” If developed properly, a person’s knowledge base will proceed from notions of stereotypes due to cultural programming to a level of information. When a manager operates with rudimentary awareness from basic cultural programming, stereotypes can develop because there is limited data. With this limited data, managers tend to make generalizations about people. Many of these generalizations are based ...

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