CONCEPT: Diversity in CAP

APPROXIMATE TIME: 1 hour

1. Define diversity.
2. Describe the importance of diversity in the CAP.
3. Describe the three diversity paradigms.
4. Discuss the strategy to change organizational culture to take advantage of diversity.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the advantages of diversity within your organization.

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: No additional materials are required. Refer to the Instructor Information   link in the User's Guide for the basic materials to teach a class.

Diversity is a quality that the Civil Air Patrol knows well. Taking full advantage of this diversity is more of a continuing process than a standard—we can never stop trying to leverage our unique diversity in new and more effective ways.

The purpose of this lesson is to define diversity, identify the benefits of taking advantage of a diverse population, and identify strategies that capitalize on CAP’s diverse membership. The legal implications seem minor when compared to the moral responsibility we have to not only develop an organization that includes all walks of life, but also uses diversity as a core competence.

1. Explore the definition of diversity among the audience.
2. Discuss the importance of diversity.
3. Discuss the three paradigms as described by Thomas and Ely:
4. Describe discrimination-and-fairness.
5. Describe access-and-legitimacy.
6. Describe the emerging paradigm: connecting diversity to work perspectives.
7. Discuss culture
8. Discuss a strategy to change culture
9. Discuss the preconditions for success
10. Discuss diversity in the squadron

Attention Step: (Slide 1) Are we taking advantage of our diversity? Is equal opportunity the right thing to do? Well, we probably aren’t doing everything we can to take advantage of diversity and chances are that equal opportunity is a nice phrase but doesn’t change the way we do business—just the people doing it. Today’s lesson is a great one and will hopefully inspire all of us to do more to take advantage of our greatest resource—our people!

Lesson Overview: (Slide 2) In this lesson we will begin by defining diversity itself. Next, we will discuss why diversifying is important. Next, we will discuss three diversity paradigms that describe different ways of dealing with diversity. We will follow that up by discussing how to actually change an organization to take better advantage of diversity. Finally, we will discuss how this unit stacks up in this process.

Main Point 1: (Slide 3) Define diversity. According to Webster’s it is simply being different—different age, race, creed, shoe size—whatever. But for our purposes here, Thomas and Ely provide a good definition. Thomas and Ely are a couple of smart guys who did the research that resulted in a great deal of this material.

Main Point 2: (Slide 4) Why. Legal obligations; moral obligations; more effective decision making occurs when the creativity of a diverse population is permitted to think and speak. Hey—it’s a proven fact that we all have different ways of looking at a problem and solving it. If we don’t have processes that permit this kind of thinking to go on, we are missing out on some of the best ideas. Sometimes even the people being stifled don’t know it because we have been conditioned to resolve things in ways not always our own.

Main Point 3: (Slide 5) The 3-Paradigms of Diversity. Thomas and Ely named these three paradigms (or models) represent where an organization exists in relation to taking advantage of diversity. The first, discrimination-and-fairness represents what many consider the EEO era—WAS. The next, access-and-legitimacy, represents the model that most organizations are stuck in today (though many may still be in the discrimination-and-fairness model.) The last paradigm is one that is just emerging and the one we should strive to emulate—what we’re going to be.

Main Point 3 Continued: (Slide 6) Discrimination-and-fairness. This is the equal opportunity model of yesteryear. An organization fitting this paradigm may have a mission statement that reads:

Prejudice has kept members of certain demographic groups out of organizations such as ours. As a matter of fairness and to comply with federal mandates, we need to work toward restructuring the makeup of our organization to let it more closely reflect that of society. We need managerial processes that ensure that all our employees are treated equally and with respect and that some are not given unfair advantage over others. (Thomas and Ely 81).

This thinking does ensure a diverse membership--but does it ensure diverse methods? It is clear and easy to understand, however. But it stifles creativity and does nothing to leverage your diverse talents.

We are living in an increasingly multicultural country, and new ethnic groups are quickly gaining consumer power. Our company needs a demographically more diverse workforce to help us gain access to these differentiated segments. We need employees with multilingual skills in order to understand and serve our customers better and to gain legitimacy with them. Diversity isn’t just fair; it makes business sense. (Thomas and Ely 83)

Hey-that’s much better right? Well, it is a businessman’s answer to a market void, but doesn’t help us very much. Although this is also clear, it moves to respond in diverse ways without any consideration of practicality. This is still only partially adequate.

Main Point 3 Continued: (Slide 8) Connecting Diversity to Work Perspectives. This is the emerging paradigm that organizations are only starting to realize. Here, we make room for diversity of all types to be active in the decision-making and creative processes. Where the first paradigm was basically assimilation (OK we accept you), to the second where we coalesced without thought and for the wrong reasons. But this third paradigm places everyone on the same team with our differences—not despite them (and not because of them). OK, but now that we know where we would like to be (this emerging paradigm) how do I get there?

Main Point 4: (Slide 9) Strategy. In order to develop a strategy to change a culture (which is basically what we are trying to do here) we have to first discuss what culture is and the fundamentals of altering it involve. First, the model on the slide (developed by Schein in ’85) is a great visual description of what culture includes. This is like an iceberg. The tip of the berg is visible above the surface. He describes this visible part as "artifacts." Artifacts are those remnants or signs that may (or may not) describe what the organization is like. Pictures on the wall, a flag—a sign on the wall that states our discrimination policy. These things are artifacts of our culture. The next level, values and beliefs are only partially visible and only if you look really close. This may be teamwork, or things that become regularly acceptable. If you were to ask what the unit’s policy was for discrimination and someone was able to tell you sincerely—then this could be the culture’s value. The final section is most difficult to see—the underlying assumptions. These things are so well ingrained in an organization that it is not even thought about in most cases. Underlying assumptions take a great deal of time normally to develop, and are also the most difficult to change. In order to change a culture completely, those underlying assumptions must be eventually addressed. However, the first step in changing organizational culture is normally through artifacts. Simply posting a new policy on discrimination would serve as an artifact. Next, if you could teach a class and stress the importance of your new policy you may actually have a chance of the values and beliefs being altered (what started as artifact may begin to become belief). These mechanisms (the policy, and the class) are considered embedding mechanisms. Everything you do related to this subject becomes an embedding mechanism (whether it be a positive statement that someone overheard, or an act that you performed to the contrary you are affecting the change). This process is painfully slow, but definitely worth it. In developing a strategy to change this organization, Thomas and Ely do offer us some helpful preconditions that help in the shift.

Main Point 4 Continued: (Slide 10) Preconditions for success. This list is self-explanatory but serves as an excellent checklist in your strategy—you’re taking the first step now. The last step is certainly a challenge.

Main Point 5: (Slide 11) Practical discussion. These are some sample questions to begin determining where your organization sits relative the three paradigms. If given time, establishing an initial commitment to develop a diversity initiative is possible, then establish time and date of first session to develop written unit strategy.

Conclusion: (Slide 12) We have gone through the definition of diversity and explained its importance (how we can leverage diversity to make the best decisions). We then discussed the three diversity models as discussed by Thomas and Ely (one was similar to Equal Opportunity, the other celebrated diversity, but only the last one took full advantage of diversity). Then we discussed culture (its three components and how to change culture itself with embedding mechanisms.) Next, we discussed a list of conditions that Thomas and Ely found preexisted in companies that were successful in shifting paradigms. Finally, we discussed diversity in our organization. Understanding and being committed to taking advantage of CAP's diverse population is very important to all of us, as an organization, and as a society.