Diversity vs. Equal Opportunity–Tip of the Week

Last week Michael Wade, executive consultant and expert blogger (www.execupundit.com), and I had an email conversation about diversity vs. equal opportunity.  In his former life, Michael was the EEO Administrator for the City of Phoenix and the Command Equal Opportunity Officer for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command in DC, so he knows more than a little about these two subjects–about the difference between these two subjects.  Michael made some interesting points that I thought worth sharing with you in this week’s “Tip of the Week.”

It’s a mistake to emphasize diversity rather than equal opportunity.  Why?

–Diversity is starting to acquire a politically correct reputation with many employees–and employers–whereas you can find broad support for equal opportunity.  Pushing diversity instead of equal opportunity can spark resistance.

–Diversity is harder to define than equal opportunity and many supervisors get confused by what can come across as the “treat people the same only treat them differently” message.

–Many of the claims about diversity don’t withstand scrutiny.  For example, diversity isn’t required for great performance.  Take Toyota–not too diverse but an excellent company.  Intellectual diversity, which may be the most important kind, is often completely omitted when talking about diversity generally.

–Diversity goals can easily turn into ceilings for some groups and can mask hiring quotas.

Michael advises clients to have aggressive outreach to all segments of the community, emphasize equal opportunity, and then let the question of how diverse an organization is take care of itself.   While diversity training makes a lot of sense when it focuses on communicating with a diverse workforce, most (if not all) of the other benefits of diversity can be addressed under the umbrella of equal opportunity.

Now, that’s a good tip.