DTUI Assessment Tools
The Resources You Need For Success

Organizational Assessment

People are talking more about the importance of appreciating human differences as demographics change and global migration increase diversity in our lives. People in the United States focus on "why we can't get along," while Europeans stress the importance of linking cultural differences to stimulating the economy. In either case, everyone will agree that the more a link can be made between diversity and productivity, the more everyone will benefit. Presumably, an organization in which each and every employee brings his or her full self in the service of productivity will have a competitive edge. This means in practice that:

• An Islamic employee can pray comfortably during work hours.
• A Latino male who can leave work to take his pregnant wife to the medical doctor for each visit is another example.
• A gay person who can wear makeup to work is yet another example.

Employers are understandably concerned about how much valuing differences will either pay off or create barriers for the organizations. They are no longer accepting the assumption that diversity will pay off. In fact, there are many examples that it does not. How many organizations have found that diversity leads to unanticipated problems, such as
interpersonal conflict, fear of litigation, and language barriers. Human capital assessment is needed to identify
what is needed to increase productivity and to capitalize off diversity.

Diversity professionals now have tools available that enable you to assess the relationship among human capital, diversity, and return on investment.

What you need to keep in mind to strategically use assessment tools:

1. Focus on measuring the impact of diversity on processes by considering the human capital needed to impact those processes (e.g., the attitude, knowledge, and skills needed to work productively).
2. Link assessment with the organization's vision and mission.
3. Include ways to identify performance gaps that should be addressed to increase productivity.
4. Establish a benchmark to compare performance with a standard.
5. Use assessment results to recognize performance that should be rewarded, and used as best practice examples.
6. Collect data that can be used to make decisions about resource allocations, projections, and scheduling.
7. Consider diversity as human capital in the assessment by measuring valued attitudes (e.g., appreciates differences among fellow employees), knowledge (e.g., understands the needs of a diverse client group), and skills (e.g., works effectively with employees across different groups).
8. Separate out non human capital factors, such as pay and benefits, in measuring the bottom line.
9. Tailor the assessment to focus on the bottom line (e.g., sales, service, teamwork, retention, etc.).
10. Use both qualitative and quantitative measurements. The numerical data will provide a simple, general picture of
    the organization's human capital as it relates to diversity. The qualitative data will offer specific examples needed to explain the quantitative results.

A full Organizational Assessment determines the extent that the organizational culture is inclusive and existing intercultural competency gaps. Most professionals conduct a few focus groups or key informant interviews to assess an organization's climate of inclusion. This is because the human relations profession is limited in the tools available that can precisely measure an organization's intercultural competency development needs. In addition, we have known little about how to adequately measure inclusion until recently. The result is that many professionals either do not measure inclusion at all before developing an invention, such as training, or they rely on poor measures. It is no wonder that many training and workshop participants complain that the training they receive is not useful in their everyday work lives. One approach offers everything the professional needs to overcome the challenges of organizational inclusion assessment.

A Stage Approach to Organizational Culture Assessment

Understanding an organization's culture with respect to diversity and inclusion is essential to promoting change. DTUI uses an approach to organizational culture assessment that focuses on determining the developmental stage of organizational inclusion. This information offers a mirror into the organization's specific needs related to promoting desired change. It is based on the assumptions that:

• Change is a process.
• Progress occurs in stages.
• Change occurs in a spiral, rather than linear manner-the organization goes through valleys and mountains in reaching its goals.
• Organizations must assess its current inclusion stage and preparedness for change.

Stages of Achieving an Inclusive Organization

Many organizations spend considerable resources on intensive employee diversity training without organization change results. An organization all too often takes on the challenge of organizational change without awareness of the pitfalls. DTUI uses a developmental stage model to identify interventions to promote inclusion. Competencies needed to move the organization from its current stage to the next are identified, along with general recommendations for interventions is made for each stage. The following five stages characterize an organization's development towards inclusion, and the intercultural competencies and interventions for each.

1. Exclusive Club (Stage 1): The primary view of an organization in this stage is that only those who fit into the traditional norms and values will succeed. Managers consciously and proudly promote sameness. Little room exists for differences. A female administrator will probably have to "out male" her male colleagues to feel accepted. The culture is resistant to change and members are unaware of the negative consequences for exclusion. In general, the Exclusive Club organization will benefit from internal programs that widen the range of acceptable behaviors for existing members before recruiting for diversity. Needed competencies include awareness of the sources of prejudice and discrimination (i.e., institutional, group, and individual), and their impact on the self, target, and the organization. The recommended intervention is to develop empathetic understanding of the consequences of inequities. For example, sharing personal stories; Intercultural walk exercise, discrimination video, Brown-eyes/Blue eyes, etc. Model intercultural competence.
   
2. Symbolic Difference "Pioneers" (Stage 2): Members share an understanding of the pros and cons of achieving inclusion within this stage, and the actions to promote inclusion. However, the organization suffers from being open to differences in appearance among employees, but not in values, beliefs, and behaviors. Gender and color blindness are used to describe the organization's inclusion stance. A few "token" employees who are different in appearance are hired. Most either leave shortly afterwards for a new organization, are dismissed for lacking the necessary knowledge and skills, or become stereotyped as troublemakers for their diversity commitment. This organization is better off minimizing the isolation of existing employees who show interest in achieving diversity. The other employees will need increased awareness of the institution's commitment to diversity, and made aware of the obstacles that limit or prevent the organization from achieving full inclusion. Attitude and Knowledge intercultural competencies are the focus in interventions. Members' attitude towards, and myths about, differences need to be addressed. Knowledge competency training is needed to show that institutional, group, and individual barriers to inclusion. The use objective data, reports, and research is needed for attitude change. For example, training that focuses on the impact of demographic changes, offers data that contradict myths (such as Affirmative Action criteria), and offers data that show benefits of diversity. Model intercultural competence.
   
3. Critical Mass (Stage 3): A Critical Mass stage exists when minorities represent 15% to 25% of the institution's population. This growth is evidence of a transition point in the organization, which includes recognizable differences in points of view among faculty, students, staff, and administrators. While a Critical Mass exists, resistance to inclusion of new ideas remains. The organization will jeopardize its diversity gains unless serious efforts to overcome the remaining barriers continue. A backlash will likely occur if members give up the effort as resistance demoralizes them. Intervention includes increasing leadership support and commitment, rewriting inclusive policies, and instituting inclusion incentive plans. Attitude, Knowledge, & Skills competency intervention is needed. Training that focuses on beliefs & values toward group differences (e.g., Colorblind exercise). Providing information that points out the benefits of the existing diversity among employees. Training exercises that build intercultural skills, such as communication. Model intercultural competence.
   
4. Acceptance (Stage 4): Employees are seen as belonging to several identity groups and their differences are considered to be added value. The organization's focus is no longer on making a business case for diversity. It now experiences the payoffs of promoting and managing diversity. The organization also takes advantage of opportunities to reward employees who model diversity and inclusion. Everyone understands that diversity and inclusion is part of the organizational culture. Interventions include redefining the values and beliefs about diversity to align the practices with inclusion values, and increasing the sense of inclusion among employees. Knowledge and skills intervention is needed. Offer opportunities to experience being immersed in social situations in which the individual is a minority. Prepare the individual for working with managers and supervisors who are from social groups that have not traditionally held those positions. Offer skills to help other employees with intercultural challenges. Model intercultural competence.
   
5. Inclusive Organization (Stage 5): The high performing organization actively includes and utilizes the wide range of skills and perspectives of its identity groups. The organization is always geared for and committed to constant change, improvement associated with increasing diversity, and the reality of diversity in the modern institution. Interventions include training for the constant use of clear, direct, and authentic communication in a diverse organization. Management needs to work on making certain that processes that promote the voices of inclusion in each individual, team, partnership, and group are in place. Overall, the focus is on sustaining efforts over time and avoiding complacency. Offer continuous learning opportunities to sustain and refine intercultural skills. Prepare new employees to learn the culture and the relevant intercultural competencies. Model intercultural competence.

In summary, the change is from consciously excluding differences to making differences a way of life in organizations while harnessing them in the service of productivity. In which stage is your organization?

An organization must assess its developmental stage of inclusion to understand its culture and gain insights into how to intervene in order to reach higher stages. DTUI uses several methods in assessing an organization's level of inclusion. We look over existing documentation (referred to as archival research), such as any strategic diversity initiative documents, employee policies and procedures, and information about the organization. Individual interviews with management and the leadership, as well as focus group interviews with other groups of employees provide insights into differences in perception of organizational inclusion among groups. We also offer an organizational inclusion survey to provide opportunities to reach large groups of people in a cost effect way and a quantitative measure. The use of all three is recommended to provide significant insights into the organization's needs.

Assessing the organization's current stage requires:

• a survey of as many employees as possible.
• Interviews with Key Informants (Leadership, management, and stakeholders.
• Focus groups with members of various departments and units within the organization.

Organizations can benefit from reaching higher developmental stages of inclusion. Assessment provides insight into the institution's culture in order to understand how to reach higher inclusion stages. DTUI uses several methods in assessing an institution's current level of inclusion. The following methods are used:

• Archival Method.
• Key Informant Interview.
• Focus Group Interview.
• Survey.

Archival research involves analyzing existing documentation, such as annual reports, employee policies and procedures, manuals, training, resources, advertisements, etc. Individual interviews with management and the leadership (referred to as Key Informant Interviews), as well as Focus Group interviews with identity groups, provide data that enable us to assess differences in perception of inclusion among groups within an institution.

Key Informant Interviews include interviews the management, diversity pioneers (i.e., those who are known to champion inclusion within the organization), leadership, diversity steering committee members, as well as any other individuals who are considered to have information that will enrich our understanding of the inclusion challenges and successes.

DTUI uses its own Organizational Inclusion Assessment (OIA) toolkit, which includes a survey, Key Informant Interview forms, Archival research forms, and Focus Group Interview items. Data from all four methods converge in determining the overall stage of inclusion an organization is currently in.

Click Here to find out more about the OIA toolkit.

Intercultural Competency Assessment

The Intercultural Capital Assessment Tool is to be used in conjunction with an organization-wide culture assessment. It consists of 50 items, which can be retaken as often as needed to determine your intercultural competence at it relates to awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills.

Each employee, or a sampling of employees from each department, is given the survey. An overall score for the organization is generated, and by unit and department. This tool is also used to identify individual intercultural strengths and challenges for intercultural coaching purposes.

This item is included in the OIA Toolkit. Click Here to find out more.

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