Diversity Paradigms - Chapter 19

1. Discrimination-and-Fairness Paradigm:

*Leaders usually focus on equal opportunity, fair treatment, recruitment, and compliance with federal equal Employment Opportunity requirements

*May offer mentoring and/or career-development programs for women & people of color

*Does tend to increase demographic diversity in an organization, and often succeeds in promoting fair treatment

*Insists that everyone is the same, with an emphasis on equal treatment - puts pressure on employees to make sure that important differences among them do not count



2. Access-and-Legitimacy Paradigm

*Predicated on the acceptance and celebration of differences

*Led to new professional and managerial opportunities for women and people of color

*Almost always operate in a business environment in which there is increased diversity among customers, clients, or the labor pool

*Tend to emphasize the role of cultural differences in a company without really analyzing those differences to see how they actually affect the work that is done

*Motivation for diversity usually emerges from very immediate and often crisis-oriented needs for access and legitimacy

*Objective is to place different people where their demographic characteristics match those of important constituents and markets



3. Learning-and-Effectiveness Paradigm (a.k.a. Emerging Paradigm)

*Incorporates aspects of the first two paradigms but goes beyond them by concretely connecting diversity to approaches to work

*Overarching theme of integration

*Promotes equal opportunity for all individuals

*Acknowledges cultural differences among people and recognizes the value in those differences

*Encourage people to make use of their background and cultural experiences, and let them influence/enhance their work