Sessie 17: HR policies &
training
Diversity training: Putting theory into practice (Pendry)
In this article, we demonstrate how increased adherence to the principles of established
social psychological theory can guide and make more coherent the development of diversity
initiatives.
Diversity training: Research status
Although DT has many purposes, a primary one is to facilitate the integration of minority
groups into the workforce, usually by attempting to confer on the entire workforce the skills,
knowledge and motivation to work productively alongside dissimilar others and/or to interact
effectively with a diverse customer population.
DT might well be defined as any discrete programme, or set of programmes, which aims to
influence participants to increase their positive – or decrease their negative – intergroup
behaviours, such that less prejudice or discrimination is displayed towards others perceived
as different in their group affiliation(s).
Thus, for the collaboration between DT practitioners and academics to work, academics
need to be more cognizant of real-world complications before generalizing laboratory
phenomena, pay more attention to the successful innovations of DT practitioners in training
sessions, and then follow up by considering their utility for social psychological theory and
research.
How social psychological theory can help: Programme design
Our goal here is to highlight a few approaches that are commonly used by diversity trainers,
suggest some new approaches that capitalize on the social cognition approach to
stereotyping, and seek a preliminary evaluation of their likelihood of success based upon our
knowledge of the extant social psychological literature and their initial success in DT
sessions.
Classic approaches (informative/enlightenment; dissonance and guilt-inducing; social
identity) and newer approaches (use of cognitive tasks to create awareness of own bias).
1. Informative/englightenment
a. These programmes aim to inform participants, raising awareness of the
continuing existence of societal or workplace bias and on occasion
emphasizing particular groups’ historic misdemeanours in this respect.
b. There may be an emphasis upon highlighting social norms of equality.
c. Enlightenment may be used to encourage participants to take the perspective
of members of other groups, in an attempt to create emotional empathy.
d. These are admirable objectives, but a social psychological analysis of the
informative approach would not be very optimistic about achieving all the
aforementioned outcomes.
e. Moreover, it may be difficult to evoke trainees’ sense of personal responsibility
for bias via informational means alone.
f. What is often simultaneously needed is an impetus to accept and be
motivated to change one’s biased behaviour. In a practical sense, this finding
suggests that DT programmes utilizing information/enlightenment might
usefully add components to the training that evoke personal responsibility.
1
, g. Another result of confronting historically advantaged groups with their bias is
that it can incite their anger, contempt or feelings of persecution, leading to
backlash against diversity programmes to the detriment of intergroup
relations.
h. On a slightly more positive note, there is some indirect evidence to suggest
that enlightenment approaches may work better when they utilize material that
fosters emotional empathy via perspective taking.
i. Thus, to achieve DT goals, the effectiveness of informative approaches in
isolation seems quite limited.
2. Dissonance or guilt-inducing approaches
a. Other DT approaches attempt to elicit trainees’ emotional reactions by using
more confrontational and interactive methods, which increase the likelihood
that an individual will feel dissonance or guilt and consequently take personal
responsibility for inequity. Two approaches that have garnered some attention
from social psychologists and have been frequently used by DT practitioners
are the Walking through White Privilege exercise and Jane Elliott’s Blue-Eyed/
Brown-Eyed simulation.
b. Walking through White Privilege (WTWP) exercise
i. Participants in the training session line up on one side of a room and
respond to a number of statements (e.g. ‘I can easily find a doll for my
child that represents his or her race’) by taking a pace forward if they
agree (i.e. have the privilege). Statements increase in severity
regarding the consequence of the privilege. Typically, White
participants take many more paces forward than participants of other
ethnic or racial groups as they acknowledge their privileges, thereby
providing a spatial demonstration of what happens in society
ii. After reading the final statement, DT practitioners ask participants to
face one another and tell each other what they are thinking and
feeling.
iii. Highlighting intergroup differences can backfire in terms of reducing
positive intergroup feelings and behavior.
iv. It is unlikely that DT practitioners would be surprised by the defensive
responses of some participants. Rather, they would argue that it is the
discussion after the exercise – with the DT practitioner competently
facilitating the session – that results in participants learning the
‘correct’ lesson.
v. The WTWP exercise provides a clear example of how improved
outcomes may be obtained by considering theory and research from
social psychology. However, any conclusions about the success or
failure of DT exercises need to be tempered by how DT practitioners
employ the actual exercise and handle its aftermath. Consequently,
conversation and information exchange between theorists and
practitioners would clearly benefit trainers utilizing the WTWP exercise.
c. Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed exercise
i. Student participants were assigned to one of two treatment conditions:
the experimental group (i.e. Blue Eyed/Brown-Eyed exercise) or a
control group (who received a presentation on intergroup relations).
The experimental group was further sorted into two groups by eye
colour (brown and non-brown/blue).
ii. While it is clear from these studies that the simulation certainly does
elicit emotional responses from participants, on the whole, such
2
training
Diversity training: Putting theory into practice (Pendry)
In this article, we demonstrate how increased adherence to the principles of established
social psychological theory can guide and make more coherent the development of diversity
initiatives.
Diversity training: Research status
Although DT has many purposes, a primary one is to facilitate the integration of minority
groups into the workforce, usually by attempting to confer on the entire workforce the skills,
knowledge and motivation to work productively alongside dissimilar others and/or to interact
effectively with a diverse customer population.
DT might well be defined as any discrete programme, or set of programmes, which aims to
influence participants to increase their positive – or decrease their negative – intergroup
behaviours, such that less prejudice or discrimination is displayed towards others perceived
as different in their group affiliation(s).
Thus, for the collaboration between DT practitioners and academics to work, academics
need to be more cognizant of real-world complications before generalizing laboratory
phenomena, pay more attention to the successful innovations of DT practitioners in training
sessions, and then follow up by considering their utility for social psychological theory and
research.
How social psychological theory can help: Programme design
Our goal here is to highlight a few approaches that are commonly used by diversity trainers,
suggest some new approaches that capitalize on the social cognition approach to
stereotyping, and seek a preliminary evaluation of their likelihood of success based upon our
knowledge of the extant social psychological literature and their initial success in DT
sessions.
Classic approaches (informative/enlightenment; dissonance and guilt-inducing; social
identity) and newer approaches (use of cognitive tasks to create awareness of own bias).
1. Informative/englightenment
a. These programmes aim to inform participants, raising awareness of the
continuing existence of societal or workplace bias and on occasion
emphasizing particular groups’ historic misdemeanours in this respect.
b. There may be an emphasis upon highlighting social norms of equality.
c. Enlightenment may be used to encourage participants to take the perspective
of members of other groups, in an attempt to create emotional empathy.
d. These are admirable objectives, but a social psychological analysis of the
informative approach would not be very optimistic about achieving all the
aforementioned outcomes.
e. Moreover, it may be difficult to evoke trainees’ sense of personal responsibility
for bias via informational means alone.
f. What is often simultaneously needed is an impetus to accept and be
motivated to change one’s biased behaviour. In a practical sense, this finding
suggests that DT programmes utilizing information/enlightenment might
usefully add components to the training that evoke personal responsibility.
1
, g. Another result of confronting historically advantaged groups with their bias is
that it can incite their anger, contempt or feelings of persecution, leading to
backlash against diversity programmes to the detriment of intergroup
relations.
h. On a slightly more positive note, there is some indirect evidence to suggest
that enlightenment approaches may work better when they utilize material that
fosters emotional empathy via perspective taking.
i. Thus, to achieve DT goals, the effectiveness of informative approaches in
isolation seems quite limited.
2. Dissonance or guilt-inducing approaches
a. Other DT approaches attempt to elicit trainees’ emotional reactions by using
more confrontational and interactive methods, which increase the likelihood
that an individual will feel dissonance or guilt and consequently take personal
responsibility for inequity. Two approaches that have garnered some attention
from social psychologists and have been frequently used by DT practitioners
are the Walking through White Privilege exercise and Jane Elliott’s Blue-Eyed/
Brown-Eyed simulation.
b. Walking through White Privilege (WTWP) exercise
i. Participants in the training session line up on one side of a room and
respond to a number of statements (e.g. ‘I can easily find a doll for my
child that represents his or her race’) by taking a pace forward if they
agree (i.e. have the privilege). Statements increase in severity
regarding the consequence of the privilege. Typically, White
participants take many more paces forward than participants of other
ethnic or racial groups as they acknowledge their privileges, thereby
providing a spatial demonstration of what happens in society
ii. After reading the final statement, DT practitioners ask participants to
face one another and tell each other what they are thinking and
feeling.
iii. Highlighting intergroup differences can backfire in terms of reducing
positive intergroup feelings and behavior.
iv. It is unlikely that DT practitioners would be surprised by the defensive
responses of some participants. Rather, they would argue that it is the
discussion after the exercise – with the DT practitioner competently
facilitating the session – that results in participants learning the
‘correct’ lesson.
v. The WTWP exercise provides a clear example of how improved
outcomes may be obtained by considering theory and research from
social psychology. However, any conclusions about the success or
failure of DT exercises need to be tempered by how DT practitioners
employ the actual exercise and handle its aftermath. Consequently,
conversation and information exchange between theorists and
practitioners would clearly benefit trainers utilizing the WTWP exercise.
c. Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed exercise
i. Student participants were assigned to one of two treatment conditions:
the experimental group (i.e. Blue Eyed/Brown-Eyed exercise) or a
control group (who received a presentation on intergroup relations).
The experimental group was further sorted into two groups by eye
colour (brown and non-brown/blue).
ii. While it is clear from these studies that the simulation certainly does
elicit emotional responses from participants, on the whole, such
2
