FREQUENT QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
A Historical View of Diversity Training?
How did Diversity Training get started?
The following is a historical view provided by Billy Vaughn, who is president, a
successful diversity trainer and founder of Diversity Training University International:
Diversity training has its history in peace negotiation, racial desegregation in the
United States, and race relations training. Historically, the settlement of disputes
between tribes and countries depended on masterful negotiations.
The 1960s witnessed both increased multinational business and racial tensions in large
American metropolitan areas. Multinational companies realized quickly that sending
managers to overseas companies without cross-cultural training caused problems. Sometimes
the overseas manager from the United States would unintentionally cause cultural
conflicts. Many managers found it difficult to adjust to the foreign culture. When a
manager seemed well-adjusted and working out fine, the spouse and children often failed to
make the transition. Repatriation, or adjustment to the return home, was also problematic
for employees who lived overseas for long periods.
Cross-cultural specialists were brought in or trained to meet the company's foreign
travel needs. Today, cross-cultural training is becoming more important with the increase
as multinational companies and mergers increase.
Efforts to desegregate American racial groups also contributed to the rise of diversity
training. The military led the way. A segregated military was considered ineffective and
counter to the image America wanted to present internationally. Troops across the
different military organizations received intensive race relations training. New recruits
received as much as week of full time, intensive race relations training in boot camp. The
primary focus was on black-white American relations. Recruits receive less intensive
training today and the focus is on human relations training to broaden the scope.
The 1960s also witnessed inner city disturbances that highlighted Black Americans'
point of view. They destroyed symbols of exploitation in their community, such as corner
markets and liquors. Government intervention sought to use talented negotiators to bring
an end to the crisis. Similar efforts took place after inner city disturbances resurfaced
in the 1980s.
A research report by Westinghouse surfaced in the mid 1980s. The report showed that
America needs to manage its increasing diversity to compete in the 21st century.
Multicultural education emerged in the late 1980s as colleges and universities sought to
include race and human relations in the general education curriculum. The goal was to
prepare citizens for living and working in the21st century. A focus on training teacher
education students to use multicultural education curriculum in their professional work
led to the development of the National Association of Multicultural Education in the early
1990s. The National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education emerged at the
same time.
Simultaneously, the presence of women in academia led to a litany of scholarly writings
and courses expressing their world view. Other groups, such as Latino Americans, Asian
Americans, Native Americans, people with disabilities, and other identity groups began to
actively express their world views. The result was a need to include these other
identities in American higher education.
Warriors initially learned negotiation skills through trial and error. Novice-expert
apprenticeship was the primary way that negotiation skills were passed on. Today, business
schools, social studies courses, and special degree programs teach negotiation skills.
DTUI is a part of this history. Diversity is a way of life and businesses are realizing
that it is a prosperous way of life too!
Terminology: Diversity is a contemporary term. It refers to the many ways in
which different groups express their world views. Some like to use the term human
diversity in this effort. DTUI uses the term cultural diversity to place emphasis on how
different world views represent cultural differences. We understand that diversity is not
a globally shared term. Cross-cultural is perhaps a better term from an international
perspective. We do not use it because our emphasis on discovering ways to effectively
interact beyond the differences. Diversity reflects inclusion from our perspective.
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Top of Page
Q&A: What is Diversity
Training?
Q&A: A Historical View
of Diversity Training?
Q&A: How Strong is the
Demand for Diversity Trainers?
Q&A: The Diversity
Trainer Profession
Q&A: The DTUI Training
Program
