59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
EVALUATING DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:
CONDUCTING A DIVERSITY AUDIT
Carol P. Harvey
Assumption College Professor Emerita
Goals
• To provide a capstone learning experience for students that enables them to
see how the theory and cases studied during the semester apply in the real world
• To allow students to improve their critical thinking skills by developing and applying
criteria to the evaluation of an organization’s diversity initiatives
• To provide students with an opportunity to compare and assess the relative levels of
leadership commitment and resource allocation that organizations have to implementing
and managing diversity programs
• To help students to learn about the dynamics of working on a team
• To showcase the unique ways that organizations can manage diversity by finding
productive ways that diversity can impact their missions and to illustrate how other
organizations may be limiting their diversity initiatives to legal compliance
Time Required
This is a capstone team-learning project designed to be completed over the course of the
semester. Introduce the assignment early in the semester by assembling teams and explaining the
instructions for the assignment and answering students’ questions.
Option
Although instructors may choose to have students present their findings without writing the
paper, do not omit the class presentations. Much of the learning from this assignment comes from
comparing the results from one group’s organization with another. After hearing several
presentations, students often pick up on trends such as diversity by the numbers, valuing diversity
only in terms of the diverse customers it may generate, lack of systemic organizational change,
etc.
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
Instructions
Early in the semester, divide the class into teams of 4-6 members depending on the size of the
class. If there is minimal obvious diversity in the class, teams can be assigned alphabetically by
last name. When there is a more diverse student body, the instructor may choose to group the
students in teams that maximize their opportunity to learn to work in diverse groups. Another
alternative is to simply do it by random selection by putting all of the names in a hat and drawing
names (first five are team #1, etc).
However, it is preferable to distribute a sheet that lists the “skills” needed to complete the project
(writing, organizing, researching, interviewing, preparing PowerPoint slides, etc.) and then asking
students to rank themselves on a scale of #1 to #5 with #1 being their strongest skill and #5 being
their weakest. You may want to assemble the teams as functional work teams with a strong
writer, researcher, etc. on each team. Allowing students to self-select teams can result in sub-
groups, within the team, etc.
The instructor should explain his/her expectations for the assignment in detail. Begin by
discussing the goals of this learning experience. Then work through the steps in the “Evaluating
Diversity in the Real World: Conducting a Diversity Audit” assignment found in the text. The
following notes that correspond to the titles and numbers 1-7 in the student instructions in the text
may help you.
Some instructors use peer evaluation forms that allow each member of the team to evaluate every
other member’s contributions to the project in terms of effort, cooperation, productivity, quality
of the work produced, etc. If you use such a system, now is a good time to explain this
requirement to the class.
1. Finding an organization willing to work with the group
Allow the class as a whole to brainstorm ways that student groups can get an organization to
cooperate with them. Since their jobs, internships, friends, and parents’ connections may provide
easier access to a contact within an organization, this provides a learning opportunity to point out
how being “privileged” through “social networks” and social capital makes resources available to
some and not to others.
Initially, students may worry about finding a company to work with them. However, this has not
proved to be a problem. Many organizations, even those with few proactive diversity policies, are
eager to talk about their efforts. Encourage students to use different types of organizations: large
and small, non-profit and for profit, etc. Discourage or forbid students from using their own
college. Making contacts and going out into the real world to see how less familiar organizations
operate are essential parts of the learning experience. It is often helpful at the end of the class,
when this assignment is explained, to stop a few minutes early to allow the student groups to
exchange phone and email contact information or to set up their first meeting.
The major problem to avoid at this stage is student procrastination. One way to do this is to list a
date on the syllabus when each student group has to tell the class what organization they will be
auditing and a little about the organization (type of business, why they selected this particular
organization, etc.). Remind them that the process of contacting and gaining access to an
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
VII – 17
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
organization is much like the process of getting a job interview – persistence and manners pay
off.
2. Conducting Secondary Research
Explain that secondary research is internal and external material gathered for another purpose.
Examples include corporate websites, annual reports, census data, newspaper articles, reports of
court cases, industry newsletters, employee handbooks, etc. While these will not perfectly match
the requirements of this assignment, they may provide useful background to understanding the
organization’s power structure, values, culture and industry, policies, etc.
For example, annual reports (if available) are designed as stockholder information pieces.
However, they often show photographs of the members of the board of trustees and/or senior staff
which helps students to determine if there diversity at the highest levels of power in the
organization and corporate value statements that reveal much about the espoused culture of the
organization.
If students are auditing a large corporation, be sure that they use library databases for secondary
research. Legal data bases and newspaper databases often provide helpful material.
Point out to the students that organizations vary a great deal in the amount and type of
information they choose to keep confidential and what they are comfortable sharing with
outsiders.
Note: In the electronic age, students often mistakenly think that the Internet is the source of all the
information that they need. Caution students that an organization’s webpage is the public face
that it chooses to reveal. Student groups have found major contradictions between the information
that they learned on visits and through published source compared to the information on an
organization’s website. If your class has done the Internet audit exercise in the text, they will be
more aware of this and more critical of the information on the organization’s own website.
3. Preparing to Visit the Organization
Secondary data often provides the foundation for many of the questions asked at the actual visit.
For this reason, all members of the team should be very familiar with published material on this
organization. It is important that each group develop their own appropriate questions and criteria
for the organization that they are planning to visit. However, it may be helpful to review some
basic principles of effective question development and interviewing (i.e., Avoiding yes/no type
questions in favor of “how,” “why,” “could you provide an example of how your organization…”
etc.) Ask easy to answer less challenging questions at the beginning of the interview, and work up
to the more probing questions later, etc.
To explain how to develop criteria for diversity management, tell the students that we all develop
criteria, or standards whether conscious or unconscious, that we use to evaluate people, places,
ideas and experiences. An effective way to communicate this is to conduct a brief discussion of
the “criteria” or standards that students use to evaluate a familiar experience such as a movie.
Ask, “How do you explain why you liked or didn’t like a particular movie?” Students will give
answers such as, “It was too violent” (criteria = not excessively violent), “It made me laugh”
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
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(criteria = funny), “I really like one of the stars” (criteria = liking the actor), “I loved the music”
(criteria = good music), etc. This can lead to a discussion of the conscious and unconscious
criteria that we develop to evaluate the worth of things.
Next, brainstorm as a class some potential criteria that a student team could use to evaluate the
diversity efforts of an organization. Initially, students may think of the make-up of the board of
trustees, and upper management (i.e., are they really diverse in obvious demographic ways?).
Later, they develop more creative criteria. For example,
• Is the organization inclusive of many types of difference and is diversity linked to the
organizational mission? (Criteria = evidence of inclusive practices and policies and a
mission statement that reflects the contribution that diversity makes to the organization.)
• What causes and charities does the organization support? (Criteria =
social responsibility efforts that support diverse groups not just the pet
charities of upper-management.)
• What are the organizational values and how are these manifested? (Criteria = the
organization “walks the talk” in terms of operational zing these values into their policies
and practices or are the values only espoused?)
• Do their benefits and work scheduling practices recognize the needs of diverse
employees? (e.g., cafeteria plans, spousal health insurance for gay and lesbian employees,
day care, flextime, job sharing, phased retirement programs, etc.)
• What is the content and scope of diversity training efforts, etc? Who gets trained? Who
conducts the training? How long does it last? Is it ongoing? How are its outcomes
measured? (Criteria = all levels of employees receive meaningful, measurable, ongoing
diversity training?)
• What is the organization’s motivation/reason for having diversity initiatives? (Criteria =
AA/EEO such as avoiding sexual harassment lawsuits; the personal beliefs of a strong
leader; recognition of the need to have employees who relate to and understand target
customers, thinking that it is the right thing to do, etc.)
• Does the organization have an effective supplier diversity program? (Criteria = a supplier
diversity program that benefits women and minority owned businesses.)
• Who is responsible for implementing diversity programs? (Criteria = having an involved
CEO, a diverse Board and a CDO who reports to someone on the corporate level.)
• Does the organization have an ERG program? (Criteria = employee resource groups that
are well organized, accomplish their goals and assess their programs?)
• Has the organization won any significant awards for their diversity programs? (Criteria =
awards earned for successful diversity policies and practices.)
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
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Remind the students that they need to relate what they learn about and what they see at their
organization to the semester’s readings, particularly the theoretical pieces. Stress to the class that
the most valuable learning will come from their small group discussions after they have gathered
their primary and secondary data. This is when the students must measure the company’s
performance against their previously established criteria.
4. Visiting the Organization/Conducting Primary Research
Realistically, students’ busy academic, work and athletic schedules sometimes make it
impossible for every member of the group to visit the organization together. However, those who
can’t attend do miss a valuable part of the learning experience. For example, one student group
visited the headquarters of a large manufacturer whose diversity efforts were reported as
examples of “best practices” in several periodicals. So, the students were looking for validation of
the importance of diversity to this organization. The person in charge of the whole diversity
program appeared to be one notch above the secretarial level and had an office in a hallway! This
alerted the students to ask questions and evaluate the situation. They discovered that its diversity
efforts were valid but the contact was merely located in a temporary place while her office was
being redecorated.
Since they do represent the college/university, it is also helpful to remind students to dress and act
professionally on their visit, to be prompt for their appointment, to ask how long they have for the
interview(s) and to send a written thank you note later.
5. Post-Visit Activity
This discussion is the heart of the diversity audit because now students need to evaluate what they
know from secondary sources, what they saw on the visit and what they learned through the
interviews. Here the groups also have the opportunity to add additional criteria that they did not
think of before visiting the organization and conducting the interviews but that they now realize
are obvious oversights. For example, a group may find that an organization is very diverse in
terms of race and ethnicity. However, on visiting the company, they learn that turnover and lack
of innovation are serious problems. Although the company had visible demographic diversity, it
did little to use the power of diversity to generate new ideas or address the systemic needs for
training employees in terms of teamwork and intercultural communication.
One team audited an organization whose benefits and human resource policies did not support the
needs of the religious diversity of their employees. Although the company had many Indian,
Middle-Eastern, and Asian employees, the company observed the traditional Christian and public
holidays and had no floating holidays that could be used on other religious occasions by its many
Muslim and Buddhist employees. The cafeteria featured no vegetarian dishes and employees sat
together in their own ethnic groups. Vacation time couldn’t be accrued and had to be taken in the
year that it was earned. This resulted in employees from India and the Far East taking unpaid
leaves to extend vacations with their distant relatives or to observe their religious practices.
There was a total lack of recognition that to capitalize on the positive aspects of diversity, an
organization has to do more than just recruit diverse employees.
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
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Another group had not established any criteria for communication. When they visited the
organization’s website, they discovered that it featured photographs of its all white, middle-aged
male management team. In addition, even though these were individual not a group photograph,
every man wore a white shirt, no jacket and a similar tie! They looked like clones. In the
interview, managers told the student team that they were willing to hire women and minorities but
had trouble recruiting them. Any diverse employee who checked out the website first might be
turned off early in the recruitment process!
6. Written Report and/or Presentation
The written report should be crisp and well-written. This is why the suggested length is 12-14
pages of text plus exhibits and a bibliography. There is an outline provided in the text article.
Allowing the report to be longer may encourage a lot of company history and summary rather
than analysis and evaluation.
Sometimes an organization will ask for a copy of the students’ report. This is a decision that each
instructor should make based on his/her own preferences, the abilities of the class and the
complex issue of using students (particularly undergraduates) as unpaid consultants. Based on
experience, students do a more balanced assessment auditing an organization and a better job
when they know that the material will not be read by anyone at the organization. Sometimes a
good compromise is for the students to meet with their contact and review only the
recommendation section.
7. Presentation
The actual presentation can be done during the last week of class or during the final exam period.
In both the report and the presentation, it is important that the focus be on evaluating the
organization against the group’s criteria rather than on a long organizational history. Groups are
also encouraged to develop a list of recommended actions. For example, in the two examples
cited above, the students suggested: reviewing holiday and vacation scheduling policies;
conducting a survey on the cafeteria; providing diversity training; and recommended that since
web pages are often a first source of information for job applicants, reviewing its contents and,
layout in terms of their appeal to a diverse applicant pool is a must.
After presenting their audit, the team should stop and ask the class to “grade” the organization in
terms of its diversity management. This technique insures that the entire class pays attention to
other groups’ presentations and adds an element of “fun” to the class. Once students have shown
by raising their hands how many gave the organization an A, A–, B+…F, the presenting team
should reveal its “grade” and rational for the evaluation. The following Diversity Audit
Evaluation sheet can be completed by the instructor and copies returned to each member of the
team for feedback.
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Teaching Tips
Mini Project. “Evaluating Organizational Commitment to Diversity by Auditing Websites”
(Diversity on the Web assignment) can be used as a mini project that allows student groups to
work together on a small project before conducting the longer, more involved, diversity audit. If
this is an online class, papers can be posted as an attachment to a discussion board. Students can
then discuss the different results on the discussion board.
Writing Assignment
Assessing Group Diversity, Process, and Conflict Resolution
During the completion of this group project, you have had the opportunity to interact
with students who may be different from you in some less visible ways. In addition
to visible social identity group differences, such as race, and gender, often, differences
in terms of personality, time management, leadership styles, values, etc. can cause
conflict in terms of the quality, satisfaction and completion of group projects both in
classes and in the workplace. Since you are finishing a course on “diversity”
management, this is a good time to assess the issues of productivity, individual
difference and conflict resolution in terms of this work group.
Using the project journal that you have kept during the semester, write a 4-5 page
paper that analyzes your group’s performance in terms of the group process, i.e.,
how effectively this group worked together. In your paper, be sure to answer the
following questions but do NOT use any actual names of group members:
• What were the primary differences in terms of working style that helped or
hindered this group from accomplishing their objectives for this project?
• How did the group effectively or ineffectively deal with these differences?
• Did someone assume a leadership role? Was the leadership style effective or
ineffective? Why?
• If there were conflicts or conflict avoidance in this group, apply Parker’s
article, “The Emotional Connection of Distinguishing Differences and
Conflict” to evaluate the resolution or lack of resolution of the conflicts.
• In retrospect, what could the group have done differently to produce a more
effective project? What could the group have done differently to do it more
efficiently?
• What have you learned from this assignment about diversity that can also be
applied to productively managing the differences that can be “invisible” in the
workplace?
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
Diversity on the Web
Evaluating Organizational Commitment to Diversity
by Auditing Websites
In the twenty-first century, websites are an important channel of communication
between organizations and their external stakeholders. If an organization is serious
about its commitment to diversity, one would expect that this would be reflected in
the design, content, and graphics of the website. Potential employees, customers,
suppliers, etc. often turn first to a website before initiating interaction with an
organization. If diversity is really integral to the mission and values of an
organization, information on diversity should be easily accessible, informative, and
well integrated into the website.
Your instructor will select an industry such as healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing
government, education, sports, etc. or specific websites that members of the class will
use for this assignment. Then, prepare a report on the following:
1. Evaluate how accessible diversity related material is on this website. Is there a
direct link from the home page? What type of results does entering the term
“diversity” in a search box yield? Or do you have to explore on your own?
Sometimes searching under “careers” or “press releases” may produce some
diversity related results. On some websites, students will have to explore deeply
into web pages to find material related to diversity. What does this say about the
organization’s commitment to diversity?
2. Evaluate the usefulness of the diversity information to potential employees,
customers, and suppliers. Is the diversity material related to the organization’s
business case for diversity, core values, mission, etc. the way that the organization
does business? How current is the diversity-related material? For a good example
explore Hewlett Packard’s website at:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/diversity/
3 Evaluate the appropriateness of the photographs and graphic material that relates
to diversity. Some websites will feature photographs of diverse employees and
customers, yet not link this material to the verbal content. Some reuse the same
pictures on different pages, etc. On the Hewlett Packard website, notice the
photos they use and the diversity value chain graphic available at:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/diversity/value.html
4 Using the website that you were assigned for this project, assume that
you are a) a potential employee, b) a potential customer, and c) a potential
supplier or subcontractor. What perceptions might you have about this
organization’s commitment to diversity based solely on the website?
Looking at this website, do you think that it encourages or discourages
diverse employees to apply for jobs in this organization? Why or why not?
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
5. What internal management issues can affect the prominence that diversity
gets or doesn’t get on an organization’s website?
6. Are there any diversity awards listed on the website? If so, review the criteria and
selection process as presented in the Allard article on awards or if the award is not
mentioned in that article. Evaluate the value of the award through the sponsoring
organization’s website.
7. If students report their findings to the class, they can briefly demonstrate the best
and worst features of the websites and the following question may then be used
for class discussion:
Assume that you are a (female, over 55, racial minority, person
with a physical challenge, gay or lesbian, etc.) job applicant and
you have read ads for job openings for which you are fully qualified
in all of the companies presented in class.
What perceptions might you have of each company before you even walk in
the door?
Would you still apply? Why or why not?
Teaching Tip
An evaluation form for the audit project follows. Simply cut and paste this form as a Word
document. You can space the five criteria to allow room for your comments as needed.
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
DIVERSITY AUDIT EVALUATION
Group Members
______________________________________________________
Name of the Organization
________________________________________________________________
1. QUALITY OF SECONDARY RESEARCH
2. QUALTIY OF GROUP’S CRITERIA
3. HOW WELL DID THE GROUP EVALUATE THIS ORGANIZATION AGAINST
THE STATED CRITERIA?
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
4. COMMENTS ON THE QUALITY OF THE PAPER
5. COMMENTS ON THE GROUP’S PRESENTATION
Group Grade _________________
59. Evaluating Diversity Management: Conducting a Diversity Audit
Joyce D. McNickles DIVERSITY AUDIT RUBRIC McNickles & Associates
Background
Organization, industry and
interviewee information: extremely
well-written. All information is
relevant.
20 points
Organization, industry and
interviewee information:
extremely well-written.
Most information is relevant.
16 points
Organization, industry and
interviewee information:
extremely well-written. Not all
information is clear. Some
relevant information is missing.
12 points
Organization, industry and
interviewee information:
extremely well-written. Very
little information is relevant.
8 points
Diversity Criteria
Criteria for diversity for an
organization of this type:
comprehensive, clear, and well-
written description, with rationale
supported by many citations from
course readings.
20 points
Criteria for diversity for an
organization of this type: mostly
complete, clear, and well-written
with rationale supported by some
citations from course readings.
16 points
Criteria for diversity for an
organization of this type: partly
complete, not consistently clear.
Rationale not clearly described
and/or not supported with
citations from course readings.
12 points
Criteria for diversity for an
organization of this type: very
unclear description of criteria
with weak rationale and
unsupported with citations from
course readings.
8 points
Evaluation
Explanation of why organization does
/does not meet each criterion: clear,
detailed evaluations with both
strengths and weaknesses identified
and reflecting findings from both
primary and secondary sources in
relation to all criteria.
20 points
Explanation of why organization
does/does not meet each
criterion: clear, evaluations
identify strengths and
weaknesses reflecting findings
from both primary & secondary
sources in relation to all criteria.
16 points
Explanation of why organization
does/does not meet each
criterion: somewhat clear, but
not detailed. Evaluation
identifies strengths and
weaknesses reflecting findings
from both primary & secondary
sources for some, but not all
criteria.
12 points
Explanation of why organization
does/does not meet each
criterion: unclear evaluation
with strengths and weaknesses
not clearly identified; no
reflection of findings from both
primary and secondary sources
for criteria.
8 points
Recommendations
and Summary
Summary and steps for improving
diversity: clear and specific with
rationale for all recommendations
supported with many citations from
course readings.
20 points
Summary and steps for
improving diversity: clear and
specific with rationale for most
recommendations supported with
many citations from course
readings.
16 points
Summary and steps for
improving diversity: steps not
always supported with rationale;
somewhat unclear and/or not
always supported with relevant
citations from course readings.
12 points
Summary and steps for
improving diversity: unclear
summary and steps or no
rationale for recommendations.
8 points
Writing Quality
Writing: clear, concise, and well-
organized with appropriate headings
and sub-headings. Excellent grammar,
spelling, and punctuation. APA
guidelines followed for citing sources.
20 points
Writing: clear, concise, and well-
organized with appropriate
headings and sub-headings. Few
grammatical errors. APA
guidelines followed fairly well
for citing sources.
16 points
Writing: lacks clarity,
conciseness, and organization.
Contains grammatical errors.
APA guidelines not followed
well for citing sources.
12 points
Writing: unfocused, rambling, or
contains serious errors. Poorly
organized. APA guidelines not
used for citing sources.
8 points
Section VII. Integrative Questions
INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS FOR SECTION VII
1. Name two readings, cases or exercises from this text that challenged or changed
your previously held beliefs about workplace diversity. For each one, explain why
this material was effective in teaching you about diversity.
2. Retake the I Am… exercise. If your answers have changed, what has changed and
why do you think that has happened? If your answers have not changed, why do you
think that is the case?
3. Social media and technology are rapidly changing our world. How does social
media technology effect workplace diversity? Does it help or hinder those who are
less privileged? Why?
4. During this course, did you discover any prejudices that you did not previously
recognize you held? During this course, did you discover any privileges that you did
not previously recognize you had? If so, how will having this information make you
a better manager in the future?
5. How does achieving an improved level of understanding about differences benefit
both individuals and organizations in the workplace? How can achieving an
improved level of understanding about differences benefit individuals in terms their
personal lives?