Are diversity programs benefitting African Americans?

While it promises to be the key to true multiculturalism in the workplace, its benefits have eluded the people it was originally intended to help.

THE TERM "DIVERSITY" HAS BECOME A corporate catchphrase, as American companies struggle to come to terms with an increasingly diverse workforce and customer base. Half of all U.S. employers have established some kind of formal initiative to manage cultural diversity, according to a 1995 survey by the American Management Association. The news is encouraging--at least, on the surface.

But are these programs benefiting African Americans? Do they eliminate prejudice in the workplace or push it underground? While the stated objective of many diversity efforts is to make the workplace more hospitable to all people, are they effective at removing the subtle barriers to advancement that still exist for people of color?

In a word: yes. But just barely. Corporate America is working to accept and utilize its diverse workforce, but it's not working hard or fast enough. While there has been a lot of cosmetic commitment to change within organizations, this effort, according to some employees, has amounted to little more than a few hours of sensitivity training. Not many organizations have placed diversity at the top of their organizational goals.

SUBJECT TO INTERPRETATION

Many employers are going about the diversity challenge the wrong way. While they recognize a need to make the workplace more accepting of differences, they place too much emphasis on changing the attitudes of people in a company--instead of changing the company culture itself They do this by focusing solely on all-inclusive diversity training.

After the Hudson Institute's 1987 groundbreaking study, Workforce 2000, forecasted that minorities would dominate the workplace landscape in the next millennium, the "angry white male" became a popular media icon. (Ironically, as the rancor of angry white men filled the media, the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission reported that in 1995, 95%-97% of senior managers at Fortune 1,000 companies were men and 97% were white.) Many corporations began broadening their approach to diversity management, in an effort to include--rather than ostracize--any employee.

What began years ago as an effort to uncover and eliminate harmful stereotypes about women and minorities has now evolved into a discussion about every kind of difference imaginable, including religion, communication style, management rank, education, age--even family birth order. Furthermore, since diversity has become a global issue, it has diluted the original intent as a tool for creating opportunities for women and minorities in America. Elsie Cross, the Philadelphia-based organizational development consultant who coined the term "managing diversity," explains: "People who have come to diversity issues late have added every conceivable difference there is. This takes the focus off of real oppression, including racism, sexism and homophobia. I think employers who take this approach are attempting to pander to white-male fears and paranoia. While other differences may be important, they haven't led to the most egregious forms of discrimination in this country."

Alice Gresham Hunter, president of One World Staffing in Seattle. agrees. "While an inclusive definition of diversity is Important, she says, m some companies it has become a way to pretend the primary issues of racism and sexism have gone away."

Bills such as California's Proposition 209, aimed at eliminating affirmative action in federal and state education and employment, have also made many of the watered-down versions of diversity management more palatable. With the perception that less attention needs to be devoted to meeting affirmative action goals, diversity is softpedaled or, in some cases, backpedaled at some organizations. For these companies, it has become the politically correct way to continue to "voluntarily" meet affirmative action goals.

The broad definition of diversity used by most firms diffuses the racial issue. Ford Motor Co., for example, recently launched a corporate training initiative to raise employee awareness of discrimination relating to gender and age, in addition to race. The effort is designed to help employees understand the increasing diversity of American society, its impact on employee relationships and its effect on the company's customer base--all of which are important. "Ford is creating an awareness of understanding diversity," says a company human resources associate, speaking anonymously, "and their next step is to learn how to manage across differences. I don't think the company is willing to acknowledge that difficulties still exist," she continues. "There is strong support for this initiative due to the demands of the marketplace, but there needs to be greater recognition that few managers know how to work with and develop people who are different from them. Short-term training," she adds, "doesn't change business practices--it only creates awareness."

STILL A LONG WAY TO GO

"The exclusion of attention to race is not the most serious problem in this by any means," notes Taylor Cox, Ph.D., author of Cultural Diversity in Organizations. "Most of these efforts are either poorly designed or implemented." As a result, he believes that diversity management has not brought about the improvement in career and promotion opportunities for the groups it has set out to serve. "I don't think African Americans have gotten the benefit that they could have gotten," says Cox, an associate professor at the University of Michigan Business School.

Case in point: As companies continue to grapple with managing a host of diversity initiatives, some black professionals are finding the entire notion to be more of a hindrance than a help. A female employee at one of the companies profiled in this article feels she contributed more to her company's diversity training than she gained. "In an effort to have a mix of people, they tend to taD the same people over and over," she explains. "Ordinarily, you should only have to go through a training session once, but I have gone through it three times because there are simply not that many black female executives to choose from."

And what is the value of diversity without the support of management at all levels? As evidenced by the Texaco fiasco, anti-discrimination policies, channels for complaints and diversity window dressing can be in place, but they mean nothing if mid-level senior managers play by their own rules.

To be fair, some diversity consultants believe a broad understanding of diversity is the right way to go. Anything that allows people to look at overall differences will help them to better understand racial issues, believes Roosevelt Thomas, Ph.D., president and founder of the American Institute for Managing Diversity at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Michele Fantt Harris, director of human resources for the Association of Medical Colleges in Washington, D'C., agrees, noting that all-inclusive programs are less threatening to all people. They make it easier to hear and eventually understand more about racial bias.

BUILDING A FOUNDATION

Nonetheless, regardless of how diversity training is structured, almost all consultants agree that training on its own does nothing to change the overall corporate culture. Unless the culture changes, Thomas says, trying to comfortably fit minorities into corporate America will be like trying to "fit elephants into houses built for giraffes. It will always be a poor fit."

An American Management Association study confirms that training, on its own, has little impact. The effectiveness of diversity training programs, the report found, was much lower in companies that offered training without sponsoring any other cultural-change initiative. On a scale of one to five, these programs were given a score of just 1.39. By comparison, the quality of training in companies that also had other diversity efforts in place was ranked twice as high, or 2.85.

In addition to training, employers should be focusing on developing, supporting and changing the environment around them to be more inclusive. But how? First, they must recognize that managing diversity is a long-term process--and not a one-shot deal--that starts with a thorough review of policies and practices that may be discriminatory. This includes looking at everything, from recruitment and retention practices to mentoring programs and merit increases, to make sure all segments of the workforce are included and encouraged to do their best. The most sophisticated programs set specific goals and make meeting them part of their workers' performance reviews. Some even link bonuses to an employee's success in managing diversity. "Awareness training on its own is good," Cross explains. "But if you don't follow up with other more strategic initiatives, there will be no lasting impact."

Hoechst Celanese Corp. is one company that takes its diversity efforts seriously. While every member of the corporate staff has to attend mandatory diversity training, the effort doesn't stop there. Hoechst has established long-range "equality plans" to push more minorities and women into management positions. Managers are held accountable--through their paycheck--for developing and promoting minority employees. Recruitment strategies are continually being reviewed to make sure job candidates come from a diverse talent pool. In some cases, jobs are even created so that women and minorities with high potential can advance.

To date, Hoechst's diversity efforts have benefited white females much more than African Americans, says Vernon Baker, vice president and general counsel of the company's Corporate Research and Technology Group. Yet he remains optimistic. "The company is driven by a need to service a diverse marketplace," he says, "and people here really do care about minority advancement. Regardless of whether their hearts are in the right place or not, African Americans will benefit from these efforts."

Baker's last comment is echoed by many African Americans who've followed the diversity movement: in the end, what's important is that dialogue is taking place, not what's driving it. Even though progress has been slow, and diversity efforts may be diluted, "anything that enhances our ability to address diversity is a step forward," asserts American Institute's Roosevelt Thomas.

If diversity is to ever fully take hold in a corporate culture, its effect on the bottom line must be proven. So many factors influence profits--such as the economy and changes within an organization--that it's difficult to link any single diversity policy to profitability, as revealed in a 1995 diversity management study by the International Benchmarking Clearinghouse. For now, hard proof has been elusive.

While many companies trumpet their diversity programs, the vast majority of them are not ready to tell it to the world. In an effort to examine this workplace phenomenon, BLACK ENTERPRISE contacted many companies over a three-month period, challenging them to put their diversity programs up for scrutiny.

Our first step was to go to some of the firms who came to us touting their programs. But many declined to cooperate when we requested more detailed information than what was contained in their diversity press kits. One company even declared that it was not prepared to give out that kind of information.

Other firms, such as Levi Strauss and Federal Express, were enthusiastic when we first approached them, but pulled out at the 11th hour. Reasons given ranged widely--from the unavailability of their diversity managers to not enough time. JC Penney and Pacific Gas & Electric were eager to participate, but due to space constraints we were unable to profile their programs. They will be companies to consider for future diversity management articles.

The following are profiles of diversity initiatives at four companies that agreed to be analyzed by our panel of experts--SC Johnson Wax, TIAA-CREF, Texas Instruments and Ameritech. While most of these companies admitted that their diversity programs weren't the best, the fact that they were willing to put them up for public scrutiny shows some commitment to change. Each profile is followed by an expert's analysis of the company's efforts.

SC JOHNSON WAX RACINE, WISCONSIN 

SC Johnson Wax is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning, personal care and insect control products. Products include Pledge, Windex, Glade air fresheners, Edge Shaving Gel, Aveeno Bath Products and Raid insecticides. It's also a leading supplier of products and services for commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. Its financial services include interests in venture capital and insurance. As a privately held corporation, SC Johnson Wax does not publicly report sales or earnings figures, but it did reveal that 1995 sales were roughly $4 billion. The company has some 12,600 employees in 49 countries, including 3,000 at the company's headquarters in Racine.

While noting that a breakdown of employee racial numbers was "not readily accessible," the company did say that its percentage of female executives had increased from 11% in 1993 to 15% in 1996. Minorities, which the company did not define, increased from 6%-8% over that same period. A low turnover rate of 5%-6% across all race and gender groups has resulted in very few openings. At least one of the 43 officers listed in the company profile is African American. Three others are women.

Since making the move toward diversity management in 1992, SC Johnson Wax has taken a broad approach to the issue. This includes focus groups where employees share their particular work experiences. There are also a number of family-friendly benefits and practices, including state-of-the-art corporate child care, flexible work situations and wellness and cultural programs.

Efforts, specifically their fatherhood initiative, are directed at men as well as women. The company also employs a transportation shuttle program; this helps to recruit and retain African American employees from major metropolitan areas like Milwaukee and Chicago.

The African American Business Council focuses on issues relating to the hiring and retention of African Americans. The Council has a direct line to decision makers and top management. The Supplier Diversity Program is responsible for an impressive 367% increase in purchases from minority and women-owned businesses from 1991-1995.

TIAA-CREF NEW YORK CITY 

The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) is one of the world's largest nonprofit pension funds, with $160 billion-plus in assets under management. Its purpose, as stated in its charter, is to aid and strengthen nonproprietary and nonprofit colleges, universities and other institutions by providing their employees with annuities, life insurance and sickness and accident benefits.

TIAA-CREF has not followed modern nomenclature by adopting the term diversity; instead, it adheres to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines. Managers are held accountable for ensuring diversity among their staff, and are evaluated on how they meet affirmative action objectives. Executive management and board members receive annual status reports on their equal employment opportunity and affirmative action programs.

Currently, 50% of TIAA-CREF's 4,470 employees are minorities and 59% are women. Minorities represent 18% of officials and managers and 40% of professional staff. African Americans make up 11.6% of officials and managers and 22.7% of the professional staff. TIAA's 10-member board includes five women, three African Americans and one Hispanic, while CREF's 10-member board consists of five women, two African Americans and two Asian Americans.

In addition to diverse recruiting and hiring, TIAA-CREF provides employees with internal and external training programs and tui-tion reimbursement to upgrade their skills and help them advance in the organization. TIAA-CREF supports various mentoring and internship Programs that encourage the development of females and minorities in business. These include the Minority Interchange Program, the Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program and the Courage to Succeed mentoring program for boys at a Harlem middle school.

TIAA-CREF has vendor relationships with about 200 minority- and female-owned businesses nationwide. Former Chairman and CEO Clifton Wharton was the first African American to head a Fortune 100 financial services company. Currenr Vice Chairman, President and COO Thomas W. Jones is also African American.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. DALLAS

Texas Instruments is a leading developer of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, electronic defense equipment and systems and software productivity tools, notebook computers, terminals, clad-metal products and thermostatic and electric devices. Ranked seventh in the volatile computer chip industry, with 1995 sales of $13.1 billion, TI leads the market in digital signal processors, the specialized chips used in personal computers and cellular phones.

The company aims to achieve three objectives: an inclusive environment and culture; diversity at all levels reflective of the available workforce; and individual responsibility for learning, growing and excelling. Although these efforts are worldwide and include all aspects of human differences, TI is currently focusing its efforts on women, Hispanics and African Americans--whose talent has historically been underutilized.

The company has over 56,000 employees worldwide, with African Americans accounting for 15% of the nonexempt workforce and 4% of the exempt or managerial/professional population (TI representatives add that over two-thirds of their exempt positions require technical degrees, and that African Americans earned less than 4% of the engineering degrees awarded in the U.S. during 1994-1995).

At the center of TI's diversity initiatives is the Diversity Network, with representation from the company's more than 20 diversity initiatives. The network provides a forum for the various initiatives to share ideas, solicit support and build coalitions. In addition, each major business unit has a manager of diversity and a corporate manager of diversity who are responsible for setting strategic direction and working closely with the various diversity networks.

TI's diversity efforts are linked to the strategic leadership of the organization, and include a recruiting plan, diversity training and mentoring programs. An incentive compensation program was developed in 1995 to reward managers for excelling in certain areas, one of which is diversity.

Minority vendors are wooed by a strong procurement program. Other vendors are educated through the use of roundtables, training and community involvement. TI is also a member active in community outreach projects such as the Dallas Women's Covenant and the Dallas Together Ethnic Minority Covenant.

AMERITECH CORP. CHICAGO

Ameritech provides local telephone service to more than 18 million business and residential customers in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. With 1995 sales of $13.4 billion and over 60,000 employees worldwide, Ameritech also provides other information-related products and services, including, cellular, mobile and paging services. Advertising and directory publishing, lease financing, interactive services and security monitoring are among the company's offerings. Internationally, its interests include local, long-distance and cellular telephone providers in Europe and New Zealand, among other locations. Ameritech's diversity program is broadly defined and looks at "all ways in which we [Ameritech employees] differ."

The program, now in its fourth year, considers everything from age, race and gender to differences in life experiences and birth order. The company seeks to recognize the value that each individual brings to the organization. Through employee advocacy groups, such as the Ameritech Black Advocacy Panel, Ameritech Hispanic Advisory Panel, the Corporate Executive Leadership Program, and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Employees of Ameritech, the company has created partnerships between employees and senior managers. The philosophy and support for diversity initiatives is directed from Ameritech's corporate office. However, all business units are held accountable for adhering to the diversity mission and implementing diversity strategies. Meeting diversity goals is part of the evaluation criteria for all employees, particularly managers, and rewards and bonuses are based on successfully meeting the objectives of their evaluations. Bonuses are awarded to organizational teams that have contributed to diversity. Meanwhile, the goal-setting process in the organization makes it incumbent upon each of the employees to follow suit. Barry Rand, executive vice president at Xerox Corp. is the only African American member of the board of directors.

One African American sits on the corporate management committee. Only 9.8% of senior managers reporting to a division president or corporate officer are African American. A number of these individuals are responsible for running business units with profit-and-loss accountability. In 1994, expenditures with minority and women vendors were $100,130,436, and African American-owned firms received 9% of this sum.

Stella M. Nkomo, Ph.D., professor and chairperson at the Belk College of Business Administration, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and co-author of Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women's Paths to Corporate Success.

SC Johnson Wax appears committed to honestly grappling with the complexity of the issues that must be addressed if diversity is to be valued. Their efforts contain a number of positive initiatives but, most importantly, top management views diversity as a business issue critical to SC Johnson's success as a global competitor.

To their credit, they understand managing diversity is much more than a program. It requires a total realignment of the organization and all of its members to value diversity. Good practice in valuing diversity suggests five ongoing processes: (1) building awareness of diversity, including self-awareness; (2) increasing knowledge of how diversity affects values, beliefs, world views and everyday experiences; (3) building interpersonal, cultural, communication and leadership skills/behaviors to remove barriers to effective work relationships in a diverse environment; (4) rethinking and redesigning organizational systems and programs to enhance and embrace diversity; and (5) weaving diversity into the strategic center of how the company does all its business.

Like so many other companies, SC Johnson Wax appears to have begun with building awareness and program development. Phase two, three and five are much more difficult to tackle. They require holding each manager and supervisor accountable for achieving diversity. It's important that diversity not be pigeonholed in a special department.

Ultimately, the benefits to African American employees may depend on how the company defines diversity. Like many others, they've taken a rather broad view of the definition. They seem to desire not to confine diversity to race and gender. There is a potential danger in defining diversity too broadly--it can end up not serving anyone well. This is not to say that other dimensions of diversity are not important, but there is a real danger in uniform solutions.

The broad umbrella that diversity must have is one that recognizes the unique barriers of race and gender, while at the same time creating a work environment that values the diversity all employees bring to the organization. If organizations like SC Johnson Wax are to create a business environment that values all employees, then the particular barriers and issues confronting different groups must be addressed.

Ann M. Morrison, president of New Leaders Institute in Poway, California. Author of The New Leaders: Guidlines on Leadership Diversity in America and Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach the Top of America's Largest Corporations?

This unusual company truly has top-level diversity, which no doubt has prompted employees at all levels to invest in developing individuals and systems that will continue to encourage diversity.

The company compared its own progress with that of companies in similar industries that have been recognized for their diversity efforts, and the results have been encouraging. Benchmarking with outstanding companies is a good idea, particularly when the job categories are broken into specific levels and functions that provide meaningful data. Internal benchmarking is also needed to determine how well individuals are being promoted and developed via job rotations and training.

A host of recruitment programs contribute to their representation statistics as well as to the development of young people. Such outreach programs not only add to the company's talent pool, but also provide a needed community service.

TIAA-CREF has a stated emphasis on recruitment, but recruitment alone could not have been responsible for the level of diversity reached in this company. It appears that while many individuals are morally committed to diversity goals, employees are also held accountable for creating a diverse staff and providing career opportunities for blacks and other nontraditional managers. The results of the overall effort are impressive.

Iris Randall, president and founder of Roah, West & Randall, a management consulting firm in Danbury, Connecticut. Randall is also an advisory board member, workshop facilitator and guest lecturer at the American Institute for Managing Diversity at Morehouse University.

One of the key skills of the '90s is learning to accept individual differences and then using those differences to increase workplace performance. Doing all of this in an environment of inclusion can be a rewarding challenge--one that TI has determined important enough to commit not only time but money to its achievement. In the area of diversity, TI "walks the talk." They have gone on record as stating that their effectiveness at using the talents of people of different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives is key to their competitive advantage.

Employee advancement is a slow process, since it takes 10-12 years to develop within the company. In the last five years, the number of African Americans companywide has increased by 40%, while the number in senior management positions has increased by 70%--but African Americans still represent less than 4% of TI's employees. The next step should be to continue to hire African Americans at upper management levels while continuing to "grow their own." They should consider developing in-house diversity trainers (similar to Total Quality Management programs) who would be responsible for ensuring that everyone is trained.

A standard assessment tool for measuring comfort levels--that is, quantify employee knowledge, understanding, acceptance and behavior toward diversity--would be valuable. It would also help to properly audit and track the progress in these areas.

David A. Thomas, Ph.D., associate professor of organizational behavior and human resource management at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Currently writing a book, Breaking Glass: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America.

There is ample evidence that Ameritech's top executives actively support the company's efforts for developing and maintaining a diverse workforce.

While 14% of the company's executives and managers are African American, less than a third of them are men. With blacks representing more than 21% of the U.S. workforce, it's an ominous sign that black men make up less than 6% of Ameritech's workforce. African American representation increases the ability of all the company executives to provide leadership for the corporation's diversity efforts. Too often, when there is no diversity at the top, diversity becomes abstract to executives.

Ameritech's strategy for managing diversity extends significantly beyond a focus on the numbers. There are a number of active employee advocacy groups that help to ensure that certain minority employee experiences and perspectives are heard. Ameritech also has a Diversity Change Team led by senior executives who are charged with the task of defining and driving the initiative throughout the company.

A number of policies and procedures exist to ensure equity and fairness in corporate practices such as compensation, recruiting and hiring. The Ameritech Development Program recruits targeted individuals who are perceived to be future leaders for special development and leadership programs. Employees choosing to upgrade their skills by returning to school are reimbursed for 100% of the cost. The company also offers career development assistance.

If there is an area in which Ameritech appears to be exemplary, it's their initiative to develop relations with minority- and women-owned firms. Ameritech attempts to create a real business partnership with a commitment to helping minority enterprises grow their businesses and develop their organizational capabilities. Clearly, Ameritech's diversity initiatives have produced promising results. Their challenge going forward is to integrate managing diversity more closely with everyday aspects of running the business. Right now, there is little evidence that diversity is a theme or driver in other change efforts involving strategy, executive education, quality improvement and teamwork. The company has not made skills in managing diversity a prerequisite for assuming leadership roles, or a part of what they look for in consultants. This should come in time given their current level of commitment.