Disproving the accusation that managing diversity is just another catchphrase for providing opportunities for women and minorities at the expense of white men is crucial to the successful management of diversity programs. Otherwise, these programs are likely to engender resentment, heighten anxieties, and inflame the prejudices of those who feel threatened. Management should continually emphasize the positive aspects of capitalizing on employee diversity by framing it as something that (1) must be done to gain a competitive advantage and (2) is in the best interests of all employees. Training programs, if properly designed, may be used as efficient vehicles to convey these messages. Another approach is to use rewards. For instance, Whirlpool distributed an extra $2,700 to each employee in its Benton Harbor, Michigan, plant in a single year in response to productivity and quality improvements. The plant has a significant minority population, and the group incentive induced all employees to work closely together in what they saw as a win-win effort.160

Ideally, organizations should adopt an inclusive definition of diversity that addresses all kinds of differences among employees, including (but not limited to) race and gender. A broad definition of diversity will invite participation and decrease resistance.

As we discussed earlier, an inherent danger in diversity programs is inadvertent reinforcement of the notion that one can draw conclusions about a particular person based simply on his or her group characteristics. Remember, differences between individuals within any given group are almost always greater than the “average” or typical differences between any two groups. Cultural determinism —promoting the idea that one can infer an individual’s motivations, interests, values, and behavioral traits based on that individual’s group memberships—robs employees of their individuality and creates a divisive mind-set of “them versus us.”

Unfortunately, cultural awareness programs and other diversity training activities tend (unintentionally) to overdramatize diversity. This may lead participants to hold assumptions regarding groups that are totally incorrect (and most likely offensive) when applied to specific employees.161 Some organizations have begun to use the term inclusiveness training to promote the idea that such training is intended to unite people rather than treat them as members of a particular class.