Managing Diversity: A Comment

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Berne, Rosalyn W.

Affiliations: Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, Box 6550, Charlottesville, Virginia 22906, USA

Abstract: The comment points to ‘managing diversity’ programs within business organizations as built upon an inherently weak structure. I argue that without a moral imperative, (a sense of ‘should’, or ‘ought’, derived from principles and beliefs regarding the treatment of human beings), the diversity programs will fail in their effort to build more competitively successful organizations. Three theoretical views of diversity are considered. It is pointed out that these representative views do not acknowledge the innate weakness of typical diversity management programs. This commentary claims to predict not only the likely failure of the programs themselves, but also that the programs will by design cause deeper and wider dis-ease within the organization.

Keywords: Cultural differences, diversity consciousness, human potential, managing diversity, morality, projected demographic changes

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-1994-13110

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 71-74, 1994