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Diverse and Disengaged?
A new paper by a Harvard University business professor says there's more social isolation in ethnically diverse communities. Workplace diversity experts say there may be a similar problem in corporate America -- and employers must find solutions that go beyond basic sensitivity training.
Does diversity actually lead to diminished employee engagement in the workplace? A controversial paper by a Harvard University business professor raises that possibility. In his paper, Robert Putnam says new evidence shows that the more ethnically diverse a city or neighborhood is, the more people are socially isolated. People in diverse neighborhoods trust other people less -- even those in their own ethnic groups -- and have less confidence in their leaders. They also have fewer friends, and are less likely to volunteer, give to charity, or get involved in a community project. But they do watch more television. People tend to pull in, Putnam says. To "hunker down." Putnam says he doesn't know whether diversity's effect in communities can also be found in the workplace -- more research is needed for that -- but he suspects it does. He believes employers need to take the problem seriously, and go far beyond sensitivity training that simply tells people not to be uncomfortable around each other. "It requires a lot of conscious attention, not easy, happy-talk," he says. Putnam says that despite the findings, he's optimistic about diversity, and believes that in the long run, it's beneficial both in the community and on the job. If Putnam's findings were applied to the workplace, one would expect to see a lower level of employee engagement in companies with a lot of ethnic diversity. They'd "hunker down," and be reluctant to do more than the minimum requirements of their jobs. They'd be less likely to volunteer for projects or suggest new ideas. They'd tend to socialize less, even with those of their own group, and have less faith in their bosses. And they'd probably surf the Internet more -- the office equivalent of watching TV. Diversity experts say they know of no studies showing that diversity leads to this kind of withdrawal in the workplace, but like Putnam, some believe it probably does. "You have less sense of a community overall," says Howard Ross, the founder and chief learning officer of Cook Ross, a Silver Spring, Md.-based HR consulting firm that focuses on diversity. While Putnam's report has caused "some defensiveness in the diversity industry," he says, "anybody who has seen the situation knows that what Putnam is saying is true." The most obvious problem, Ross and others say, is that when different races or ethnic groups are put together in the same workplace, they often distrust each other. "You see it in the company cafeteria" when blacks sit with other blacks, and whites with whites, he says. If the boss is of a different ethnic group, employees tend to trust him or her less, and may be less assertive. In ethnically diverse workplaces, he says, there's more turnover. All this may result from "fear and discomfort -- we resort back to our tribalistic tendencies," he says. Ross believes companies need to do more to help employees understand why different groups see things in different ways, and how they can work together. "We need to set aside the time," he says. "We have to go a lot further." R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training, in Atlanta, says diversity needs to be "managed." "If you have diversity, you're going to have tension," he says. The issue is "how to make quality decisions despite the tension." Thomas, a senior fellow at the American Institute for Managing Diversity, and author of Building on the Promise of Diversity: How We Can Move on to the Next Level in Our Workplaces, our Community and Our Society, says that "if we can't make people feel at home, they won't engage." The tension of diversity can be managed, he says, in a "requirements-driven organization," where the employees' focus can be shifted away from employees' differences and onto business imperatives. Scott E. Page, a University of Michigan professor and author of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies, says Putnam's findings are "depressing" but not surprising. "Everybody in the diversity industry knows that more diversity means less trust," he says. In order to deal with the problem, diversity has to be "leveraged." Companies should put together teams of people who think differently, which leads to creativity and innovation. What happens, he says, is that once an employee realizes that workers from other groups can help spark his or her own creativity, the mistrust starts to go away. Certain kinds of diversity training can actually exacerbate the problem by breeding resentment, according to Frederick Lynch, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., and the author of The Diversity Machine: The Drive to Change the 'White Male Workplace.' "If it's in-your-face, people -- particularly Americans -- don't like that," he says. In addition, if people feel they have to "walk on eggshells" to avoid offending people, "that reinforces group barriers." Putnam agrees that diversity training, when done in a forced or superficial way, does little to solve the problems he identifies. He believes that companies should try to get employees focused on a common corporate identity, rather than group identities. "Make clear that the rules are color-blind," he says. "Seek identities that cut across other lines." It's not an easy task, or a quick one. Companies have to think in the long term, he says, adding that the "long term does not mean six months." September 24, 2007 Copyright 2007© LRP Publications |
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