Over 20 years ago, I raised the question of whether corporations were prepared to recruit, select, develop and utilize a diverse talent pool. I also wondered aloud whether managing a racial, gender and ethnic diverse pool of human resources called for a different capability than that of managing a relatively homogeneous group of people. I contended that two different sets of processes were called for, and I labeled the process for a diverse pool “Managing Diversity.”
The goal of this process was “full utilization of human resources” in pursuit of competitive advantage and productivity gains.
This desired end was to be attained through “empowerment management. Essentially, I argued that for “empowerment management” to reach its full potential, it had to be integrated with “managing diversity.” In other words, a manager can not successfully empower a diverse work force without taking their diversity into account.
While Managing Diversity and Empowerment Management gained significant popularity, they never attained a comparable status in practice; however, their evolution has continued. Empowerment Management, for example, currently is part and parcel of what is now called Talent Management. Edward Lawler III in Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage argues that competitive realities are forcing many companies to pursue talent as a potential source of competitive advantage. He argues further that such companies must align their people process “toward the creation of working relationships that attract talented individuals and enable them to work together in an effective manner.”
On the other hand, Managing Diversity currently can be found embodied in what I define as the craft of Strategic Diversity Management, a framework for making quality decisions in the midst of differences, similarities and related tensions and complexities. And as with Empowerment Management and Managing Diversity, Strategic Diversity Management needs to be integrated with Talent Management.
As before, the question becomes, “Are there significant differences in developing a racial, gender, and ethnic diverse talent pool, as compared to a relatively homogenous body of human capital? Once again, I contend that the answer is, “Yes, there are significant differences.” I offer two illustrations below.
One, a Chief Operating Officer described his company’s promotional process as follows. “Up to a certain level if a candidate for promotion has the best written performance appraisals, he will receive the promotion. Above a certain level good performance appraisals are not good enough. You must also have a sponsor. This is where women and people of color do not fare well.”
Two, in another situation, a company had a “high potential” program for employees with substantial managerial promise. To be considered “high potential”, you had to pass the review of a “high potential” committee. While the committee regularly received and reviewed applications for the designation of “high potential” from a diverse pool of human capital, it frequently had positive comments about people of color candidates, but had never approved any person of color as “high potential”. When confronted with this reality, they could not believe the finding. However, their own investigation confirmed the accusation.
Integration of the current embodiments of Empowerment Management and Managing Diversity requires that such practices like the two illustrations must be examined thoroughly to determine why they do not work naturally well for all employees, and then modified as necessary. Stated differently, the concepts, principles and skills of Managing Diversity must be integrated with those of Empowerment Management to assure progress in making people a competitive advantage.
A critical implication for Chief Diversity Officers is that they must assure the integration of Managing Diversity with all of the people processes in their organization. I rarely see this degree of integration. If anything, Managing Diversity is integrated with recruitment and hiring, but, seldom do you see other people processes being designed with an explicit built-in diversity capability assuring effectiveness for all individuals.
Another implication for Chief Diversity Officers is that they must work to enhance the development and credibility of the field within their organization and in the broader societal context. . Unfortunately, progress “with numbers” and “best practice” awards do not necessarily translate into credibility beyond the boundaries of the field. More attention will have to be given to the development of Managing Diversity concepts, principles and skills, and their intersections with other managerial disciplines.
The stakes are high. If diversity considerations are not present in efforts to achieve competitive advantage through the development of talent, any gains in numerical representation of women and people of color will be difficult to sustain.
Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., is the CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training (RTCT) and the founder of the American Institute for Managing Diversity. He has been at the forefront of developing and implementing innovative concepts and strategies for maximizing organizational and individual potential through Diversity Management. He is the author of Building a House for Diversity; Beyond Race and Gender; Redefining Diversity; and Building on the Promise of Diversity.
