Abstract
Although workplace diversity training has been a common practice in American companies for the past 15 years, little systematic assessment has been conducted. It appears that many organizational leaders and human resource professionals simply assume that the training activities had a positive effect. In the current study, a large manufacturing organization was interested in implementing a diversity program company-wide. However, before doing so, a pilot study was conducted with a critical layer of senior management to determine whether the training would be effective. The Workplace Diversity Survey was administered: (a) one week prior to the training, (b) the week immediately after the training was completed, and (c) three months later. The instrument measured the overall efficacy of the diversity training as well as five specific dimensions of participant perceptions. The results demonstrated that the program participants significantly increased both their overall and dimensional scores. This improvement was maintained throughout the period of study. Implications for the evaluation of diversity training and the use of executive management as a pilot group were discussed.
Recommended Citation
De Meuse, Kenneth P.; Hostager, Todd J.; and O'Neill, Kathryn S.
(2006)
"Measuring the Effectiveness of a Workplace Diversity Training Program: A Field Study,"
Journal of the North American Management Society: Vol. 1:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/jnams/vol1/iss1/3