Diversity Training Essay

One way to work on diversity within organizations is diversity training. According to Risberg et al. (2012) training initiatives are meant to create awareness, where the apprentices are introduced to different values, behaviors and norms in order to foster interaction with people from different backgrounds and create a certain level of tolerance. The trainings are also aimed to create skills for a diverse work environment, where the participants are prepared to face and handle diversity on a daily basis at their work places (Risberg, Beauregard, & Sander, 2012). However, the impacts of the trainings in the individuals are difficult to measure and control, since the knowledge learned is difficult to place in everyday work life. It is believed that this kind of

Therefore, the training must be constant as individuals within the organization start to change behaviors and embrace diversity (Risberg, Beauregard, & Sander, 2012). Risberg et al. (2012) state that diversity training programs cannot be the sole foundation of diversity management; other diversity oriented programs must be in place.

Unconscious bias trainings can be beneficial for the employees to understand which mechanisms to be aware of when an organization is working towards becoming more gender diverse. Research suggest that men and women are measured differently at their workplaces (Kanter R. M., 1977). According to studies by Pollard (1999) biased reactions are unconscious, the result of stereotypical connotations where people are habitually unaware of their actions. Moreover, according to social psychology research, the regular human process of categorizing and related cognitive biases can result in and continue the individuals’ implicit dependence on stereotypes (Lee, 2005). Moule (2009) define a stereotype as a naive image or biased truth about a group or individuals according to a