Diversity Training

Abstract

Diversity is becoming increasingly important to organizations due to changing workforce demographics and ever increasing global competition. One estimate indicates that in the next decade, nearly seventy-five percent of all newly created jobs in the United States will be filled with historically underrepresented demographic segments such as women and minorities (Pendry, Driscoll, Field, 2007). The increase in workplace diversity will create challenges and opportunities for organizations. In 1988, diversity management was not listed among the top forty training topics for organizations; by 1994, more than half of the organizations surveyed indicated that they provided some form of diversity training for employees (Roberson, Kulik, & Pepper, 2000). As of 2000, the majority of government agencies and sixty percent of Fortune 500 companies provided some form of diversity training to employees (Roberson et al., 2000).

Keywords: Diversity, Training, Workforce Demographics