Does Diversity Have to Mean Fewer White Guys?

An interesting article hit my email today. I am sure others have seen it as well. It is entitled Are White Males Under Attack?  Written by Kellye Whitney for Diversity Executive it discusses the premise of Stephen DeFelice, author of  The Attack on the White Male — and the Weakening of America, that diversity programs have reduced the competitive spirit of business and government in America. According to the article DeFelice makes the following points:

• The competitive spirit of America was that of the founding fathers, white males, and that is what made the country great.
• The civil rights movement, feminism, and diversity quotas have become (and have been) an anti-white male movement.
• Increasing legislation and its accompanying enforced diversity are detrimental.
• Diversity is mostly about quotas, and these quotas often are filled in lieu of competence.
• What is good for the individual or organization may not be good for the country as a whole.
• Diversity is working against the safety of our country because diversity means the weakening of the male.

Pretty strong statements. Author Whiney did get a response from the diversity perspective. "Cedric D. Thurman, senior vice president and chief diversity officer for Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc., said DeFelice’s use of the historical success of our nation prior to the 1950s as a reference point doesn’t take into account that our world is not static." Whitney further quotes Thurman as saying “We live in a world with changing demographics, changing economics, ever-changing political views, as well as technological changes. All of these factors impact the health and strength of all nations. Since we cannot live in a bubble and we cannot freeze time, we have to think strategically about how to build a strong nation. Besides, not everyone believes that things were so great prior to the 1950s.”

DeFelice says "This anti-white male mentality out there, we’ve got to get rid of it. I would tell the diversity guys [to] push for white male participation and more freedom of expression, get rid of ‘politically correct.' "

From my point of view diversity is just a fact of life. The changing world has dictated that we are not going back. However, diversity is more than just race and sex. I participated in a "diversity session" once where the leaders where both African-Americans. They presented it mostly as a race issue. Having come from a human resources background I made the point to them that they were being too narrow. I used myself and another group member as examples. Though both of us are white and both of us had been reared in military families we both had very different backgrounds. His father was an officer. My father was enlisted. We had different privileges, different stores, different clubs, different pools and different housing we had access to. Although we were ostenively the same on the surface, "white males", we were very different people.

As a white male, especially one in human resources, I will admit that there is somewhat of a siege mentality. It started with Bakke. (If you are in HR and that is not familiar then look it up. Is something you should know.) I remember when I turned 40 and thought "Finally, I reached a protected catagory!" But the seige mentality has continued.

I think the field of human resources should lead the way and show that diversity is ALL INCLUSIVE. Yet I get dismayed when I see all female, or all African-American HR organizations. The profession that should be the banner holders of diversity carry those banners of exclusivity. Yet how would the members feel if there was an organization of White Male HR Professionals? I believe there would be a major outcry to such an organization. AND FOR THE RECORD I AM NOT SUGGESTING ONE. I am just making a point. While I don't agree with DeFelice I do like that he is making a point that diversity needs to be more diverse. I also agree with him that diversity just for the sake of diversity is foolish. It does need competence added to it.
Diversity for the sake of diversity is much the same as consistency just for the sake of consistency. That doesn't work in HR either.

Mid-Summer Carnival of HR: Education for HR

The mid-summer edition of the Carnival of HR is being hosted by Jennifer McClure of Unbridled Talent in her Online Degree edition. There are some very interesting and educational posts to be found and you can get a semester's worth of learning in a few hours just by reading these blog posts.

You can find learning material on leadership, corporate culture, diversity, technology, performance management, psychology, recruiting, social media, talent and much more.

So, if you want to be stimulated, educated, elucidated, and just made plain 'ol smarter then trot on over to Unbridled Talent and grab yourself some learnin'.

Top 5 Monday "Reads" for the HR Professional

It is hard to keep up with reading blogs. There are just too many good ones. So to help you out here are 5 that I consider a good way to start off a new week.

1. Ann Bares writes on Mission Critical Skills: The Haves & The Have Nots. She talks about realities of the marketplace today and what skills are necessary for a company's success. She offers insights into the importance of communicating those skills to the employees that don't have.
2. In my opinion business is under assault. One way is in the crackdowns the US government has instituted. One of these is the crackdown on independent contractors. Dennis Westlind of World At Work, talk about this in Federal Government to Crackdown on "Misclassified" Independent Contractors? He talks about the IRS' increased attention and provides a link to a handy guide.
3. My favorite consulting guru Alan Weiss talks about the pursuit of perfection and how useless that can be. Lance Haun, a great HR blogger, echos the same sentiment in The Useless Goal of Perfection. He takes it on a personal level, but it has lessons galore for all of us.
4. One of the primary strategic skills of an HR professional is environmental scanning. The Human Markets blog provides us an opportunity to exercise that skill by discussing Long-Term Unemployment and the implications to our companies and our future recruiting. Exercise some foresight and read this. Food for thought.
5. Paul Herbert, in a Fistful of Talent post, tells us that our core values as an organization do not have to suffer in the name of diversity. His post, called Looking for Diversity? Look for a Difference of Opinion Not Value shows a variety of opinions will introduce productive diversity in your organization.

Well there you have it. Start of your week with a BIG dose of learning in small amount of time.

Bilingualism: HR Skill Of The Future

According to the Census Bureau by 2050 Hispanics will comprise 30% of the U.S. population and Asians will comprise 9%. Combine this with the rapidly expanding "global" economy this will put bilinguil skills at the top of the list of necessary skills for HR professionals of the future.

The Census Bureau further reports that non-Hispanic whites will make up 46% of the population and blacks will be 15% of the population. This is a reduction from current levels for whites of 55% and just a marginal increase for blacks of less than 1%.

Oh by the way, one of the other languages you will have to speak is "old person". People over the age of 85 will triple to over 19 million by that time.

And it is going to be crowded too...an extra 134 milllion people by 2050. Currently we have 305 million residents.

Diversity will definately be on the table, but that time it may no longer be an issue because it will be the norm.

Of course the way things are going now, we may all be speaking Chinese or Russian by that time.

Birthdays and Work: Not As Easy As I Thought

Today (July 7th) is my birthday. (No need to send notes, that is not the purpose of this post. Though cash would be good.... Just joking!) Here in our office we wish each other happy birthday, and once a month we have a birthday cake and card for everyone who has a birthday that month. We are a small office, so it doesn't really involve a lot of time or expense. But we consider it important to recognize a day that many people consider important. I have found that with friends and employees that most people like to get a little recognition on that "special day."

However, as I was doing research on birthday celebrations at work I found that there is a wide variety of methods of recognition and some problem areas in recognizing birthdays. Here are some of the ways companies recognize a birthday:

• The employee gets the day off (found in many union contracts)


• The president of the company calls the employee and wishes them happy birthday


• HR sends a card to the employee


• Monthly celebrations for everyone with a birthday that month


• A celebration on the person's actual birthday that is paid for by the company


• The boss or fellow employees take the person to lunch


• The person's name is posted on the intranet, company newsletter, bulletin board, etc.


• The person having the birthday brings their own cake

Here are the problem areas associated with recognizing birthdays at work:

• Some religions don't celebrate birthdays, such as Jehovah's Witnesses


• Some cultures don't recognize birthdays, but do recognize things such as "naming day."


• Some people don't like the attention of a birthday

As I first started to write this I was going to weigh-in on saying that I think it is important to recognize someone on their birthday (and I will continue to do so with people I know) but after reading about it I am not so sure the birthday is the best day to have some "official" recognition. Official recognition should be work related. Recognize someone for their performance.

As a boss it is important to understand the diversity of your employee group. What works as recognition, what doesn't? As an HR department it is also very important to understand that diversity. Are we treading on thin ice with sanctioning official birthday celebrations?

What do you think? Too "politically correct" or a valid concern? What do you do?

Leadership Notes from a "Good to Great" Company

I had the opportunity to hear John G. Rice, Vice Chairman of GE, speak on leadership. GE is one of the companies Jim Collins wrote about in "Good to Great". In fact Rice's introducer said it is the only remaining company written about that continues to excel.

Rice talked about GE in general, his schedule as Vice Chairman, and about some of his leadership principles. At 51 years of age he is bright, energetic and has an incredible schedule that takes him around the globe meeting with "movers and shakers." Some of the points on leadership include:

• Teamplaying is a leadership skill.
• Leaders have to be flexible and adaptable. He does not expect his employees to work his schedule of time, he does expect them to produce the results he desires.
• A leader has to be "inclusive." If you can't handle diversity you will not be an effective leader.
• Leaders provide consistent and constructive feedback. No suprises at review time.

As he was talking about people he used a phrase that caught my ear. He referred to people's "strengths and development needs" instead of "strengths and weaknesses." That was pretty revealing of his people philosophy.

I know alot has been written about GE, both good and bad, but if Rice is an example of what kind of leader develops within that system then perhaps we should all pay a great deal more attention. I think I will be doing some more reading on GE. Anyone one have any suggestions?