Most Diversity Training Ineffective, Study Finds

Feb 2008

Most diversity training efforts at American companies are ineffective and even counterproductive in increasing the number of women and minorities in managerial positions, according to an analysis that turns decades of conventional wisdom, government policy and court rulings on their head.

A comprehensive review of 31 years of data from 830 mid-size to large U.S. workplaces found that the kind of diversity training exercises offered at most firms were followed by a 7.5 percent drop in the number of women in management. The number of black, female managers fell by 10 percent, and the number of black men in top positions fell by 12 percent. Similar effects were seen for Latinos and Asians.

The analysis did not find that all diversity training is useless. Rather, it showed that mandatory programs -- often undertaken mainly with an eye to avoiding liability in discrimination lawsuits -- were the problem.

Today, U.S. businesses spend from $200 million to $300 million a year on diversity training, but the new study found that much of it is superficial and ineffective.

Several experts offered two reasons for this: The first is that businesses are responding rationally to the legal environment, since several Supreme Court rulings have held that companies with mandatory diversity training are in a stronger position if they face a discrimination lawsuit. Second, many companies, with the implicit cooperation of diversity trainers, find it easier to offer exercises that serve public relations goals, rather than to embrace real change.

The study reports that narratives about interpersonal conflict that are sometimes featured in "sensitivity training" can be counterproductive.  They upset many people, who then actively resist change. But more important, the report states, they downplay the importance of organizational structure in embracing, or resisting, long-term change.

Longtime diversity trainer Billy Vaughn said the results match what he has seen in practice. Vaughn is the co-founder of the national firm Diversity Training University International, which has been hired by organizations including wireless phone giant Qualcomm and the Central Intelligence Agency.

"If they are doing it for legal protection, they don't care" whether the training works, he said. It was hardly surprising that training could have counterproductive effects, he added, when the attitude often is, "Just do it, and just do it as cheaply as possible."

John Sarno, president of the Employers Association of  New Jersey, has trained thousands of supervisors at hundreds of companies since 1995. He concurs with the study’s findings.

“For the most part, companies see diversity as a legal compliance issue, not as a meaningful opportunity to create a more productive working environment,” he says.  “Our research indicates that members get sued regardless of training because of this.”

In response, Sarno has developed training that gets at the root causes of conflict and treats diversity as a corporate value, rather than as a legal necessity.

“This type of value-based training is really not for everyone. By and large, it’s for employers that already get it,” he adds.