Developing a Measurement Plan for Monitoring Diverse Friendships in the Workplace

Introduction

Altman (2017) and Zojceska (2018) argue that diversity is good for businesses and organizations. Diversity: Ensures a variety of Different Perspectives, Increases creativity; Increases Profits; Speeds-up Problem-Solving; Fosters Innovation; Produces Higher Employee Engagement; Improves Understanding of Clients, Markets, and Constituents; Reduces Employee Turnover; Enhances Brainstorming; Improves the Organization’s Reputation; Attracts New Employees; and Leads to Better Decision Making.

Corporate reports show that 76% of companies are wanting a more inclusive culture but only 11% of companies have achieved inclusion (Emelo, 2014, p. 48.). Law (2000) reports that developing a discipline of extending our boundaries is one way to reach a higher level of inclusion (see also Toosi, Sommers, & Ambady, 2012). Many organizations have created diversity officers or diversity committees within their Human Resources office to encourage diversity. The theme is often that diverse personnel can bring desirable innovations to the creative process within corporations as well as add needed cohesion. Unfortunately, the trainers have generally failed to develop accountability plans that employees can embrace and lack the data to talk about how true diversity and interdependence might look in the future as the corporation grows and changes. Organizations should know that they need to go beyond the appreciation of diversity and progress toward preparing worker-centered adoption of diverse relationships. This allows new employees to realize that a flow of diverse ideas from communication networks, stimulated by Human Resources, will contribute to the bottom-line and stimulate employee satisfaction (See Chamberlain, Stansell, & Zhao, 2021; Darling-Hammond, Lee, & Mendoza-Denton, 2020; Fay, & Kline, 2011; Gündemir, Homan, Usova, & Galinsky, 2017; Mortensen & Neeley, 2012; Payne, McDonald, & Hamm, 2013).

Regrettably, with all the legal red tape that Human Resources must oversee, little time is left to assure that corporate training includes relationship building over time across the demographics of the corporation. Hersey and Blanchard (1982, p. 6) quote John D. Rockefeller as saying, “I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.” Hersey and Blanchard stress the idea that most managers want employees that have strong interpersonal skills more than just job skills. This chapter calls for Human Resource officers to incorporate interpersonal diversity activities, skills, and accountability into their training to encourage employees to embrace their associations with diverse others which in turn will improve the vitality and overall synergy of the company.

There is considerable controversy surrounding the means, methods, practices, or results from diversity training and recruiting. This chapter is not the place to address those issues in depth. What is clear is that the current diversity training programs are generally failing (Lai, et al, 2016) to produce the synergies of diversity that can improve needed productivity and innovation. There clearly needs to be a new focus on measuring what matters (Doerr, 2018) on how diversity can add to the productivity, success, and longevity of the organization (Kirkpatrick, 1998; Reynolds, 2017). Doer (2018) makes it clear that organizations must have objectives and know what would count as key results. Kirkpatrick (1998) argues that training untethered from data on how they contribute to organizational goals and bottom-line outcomes (productivity and profit) is useless.