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.
