Diversity (business) - Implementation

Implementation

Diversity issues change over time, depending on local historical and dynamic conditions. Intentional "diversity programs" can assist schools, government agencies, and businesses facing rapid demographic changes in their local consumer market and labor pool by helping people work and understand one other better. Resources exist through best practice cases of organizations that have successfully created inclusive environments supporting and championing diversity.

An example of a company involved with creating diversity in the workplace is MentorNet, a nonprofit online mentoring organization that focuses on women and underrepresented minorities in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. MentorNet has used an algorithm to match over 30,000 mentor relationships since 1997. The organization gives students, especially women and underrepresented minorities, the chance to seek mentors to discuss how to overcome diversity obstacles in their fields and eventually their workplace.

Implementing diversity inclusion initiatives must start with the commitment from the top. Hegemony refers to the dominant structure where one group is benefitting over others; however, the dominant group is not "doing" this to the other marginalized groups, Mumby claims all members are a part of actively participating and maintaining the dominant structure. Max Weber used a web metaphor to explain that we live in a socially constructed web of meaning which we ourselves create and which we cannot live outside of. Individuals therefore have agency to create the structure and influence it through communication discourse practices, yet they are simultaneously constrained by what they create. When practical consciousness, which Gidden's refers to as taken for granted knowledge and behavior as a naturalized "way it is", is interrupted, then intentional change to the hegemonic system can occur. For this reason, with a commitment from top leaders in an organization to change the existing culture to one of diversity inclusion, the diversity change management process can succeed. This process includes analyzing where the organization is currently at through a diversity audit, creating a strategic action plan, gaining support by seeking stakeholder input, and holding individuals accountable through measurable results.