Article Commentary: Another challenge worth acknowledging

Abstract

I commend Evelyn R. Carter, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Neil A. Lewis, Jr., on their thorough, compelling, and thought-provoking article, “Developing & Delivering Effective Anti-Bias Training: Challenges & Recommendations,” which reviewed the challenges that organizations face in using diversity training to develop employee competence at interacting with people who differ from them.1 Although I recognize each of the challenges they present and respect the solutions they offer, I want to address an additional important challenge to developing a workforce that embraces diversity—namely, that organizations are dependent on the labor market to provide prospective employees who possess the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other competencies needed to fulfill job responsibilities, yet too much of the labor force seems to start off with little inclination or skill for interacting constructively with diverse groups. Roughly 20 years have passed since Nancy E. Day and Betty J. Glick published the results of a national assessment detailing the level of employer satisfaction with the diversity-related competency of typical college graduates in the United States.2 They concluded that “HR managers who responded believe that college graduates do not possess the critical skills that are needed to handle diversity” and that “a minority of the organizations surveyed attempt to fill the diversity KSA [knowledge, skills, and abilities] gaps through corporate training.”2 A good deal of anecdotal evidence suggests that these conditions persist today; hence, one could argue that organizations are being forced to do the best they can with the little they have been given.