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Guest post by: Sameer Madaan Become an Author

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Managers are increasingly concerned with changing employee attitudes to reflect shifting perspectives on racial, gender, and other diversity issues. A comment to a coworker of the opposite sex that 20 years ago might have been taken as a compliment-for instance, a male telling a female colleague that he thinks her outfit is sexy-can today become a career-limiting episode. As such, organizations are investing in training to help reshape the attitudes of employees.

The majority of large U.S. employers and a substantial proportion of medium-sized and smaller ones sponsor some sort of diversity training. Some examples: Police officers in Escondido, California, receive 36 hours of diversity training each year. The Federal Aviation Administration sponsors a mandatory 8-hour diversity seminar for employees of its Western Pacific region. Denny's restaurants put all its managers through 2 days of intensive diversity training, with each day lasting 7-9 hours.

What do these diversity programs look like and how do they address attitude change? They almost all include a self-evaluation phase. People are pressed to examine themselves and to confront ethnic and cultural stereotypes they might hold. Then participants typically take part in group discussions or panels with representatives from diverse groups. So, for instance, a Hmong man might describe his family's life in Southeast Asia and explain why they resettled in California; or a lesbian might describe how she discovered her sexual identity and the reaction of her friends and family when she came out.

Additional activities designed to change attitudes include arranging for people to do volunteer work in community or social service centers in order to meet face to face with individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds and using exercises that let participants feel what it's like to be different. For example, when people participate in the exercise Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes, in which people are segregated and stereotyped according to their eye color, participants see what it's like to be judged by something over which they have no control. Evidence suggests this exercise reduces negative attitudes toward individuals different from participants.

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