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enlightenment regarding cross-cultural realities,
there are numerous instances of concern.
In the later part of the decade of the 1990s
it became clear that diversity is not a buzzword.
Those corporate managers, in the
1980s and early 1990s, who believed diversity
management was just another human
resources management fad were sadly mistaken.
Diversity management as a concept
and an aspiration for management has
‘become deeply rooted in the US federal
government and has received bipartisan support
from both political parties’ (Ivancevich
and Gilbert, 2000: 75). The economic statistics
and demographic profile of the potential
customers and the new additions to the workforce
mandate corporate awareness of the
realities of diversity. Workplace 2000, published
by the Hudson Institute in 1987, was
widely quoted in the 1990s to predict the
shifts. But a powerful sense of presumption
for the status quo workforce still persisted in
the subconscious of many middle-aged executives.
It took the reality of market shifts, and
an increasingly diverse set of job applicants to
force awareness of the ‘demographic imperative’
that required corrective action in the
form of diversity management programming
(Cox, 1991). Many corporations have found it
difficult to maintain a diversity friendly image
in the wake of harsh criticism of past abuses.
By 1995 The Economist reported that 75 per
cent of the fifty largest US companies had
diversity directors or managers. Consequently
a macro view of diversity programming indicates
it has become an inherent part of corporate
environs.
This discussion examines attitudes toward,
and the focus of, contemporary corporate
diversity programmes. Managers and their
influence on diversity programming are at the
nucleus of this discussion. It develops from a
number of direct research resources developed
and conducted by the author. Those resources
include: six focus groups, made up of ten
diversity personnel in each group, conducted
in a business financial services unit of an
investment bank; interviews conducted with
twenty-six middle managers and eight executive
management level personnel in one of the
largest and most successful international
investment banks; observations from interviews
with corporate diversity directors who
have a responsibility to keep diversity firmly on
the agenda of corporate policy; and observations
from interviews with human resource
managers and corporate communication managers
who carry the responsibility for monitoring
diversity programmes.
Study of diversity personnel
At a micro level a focus group study of diversity
personnel and an interview based study
of mid-level managers, from two different
units of a large investment banking firm, provide
a snapshot of the attitudes and perceptions
of personnel in a white-collar industry
that espouses a commitment to diversity
programming. The units in these studies are
a part of one of the oldest American investment
banking institutions, and it has historically
been a leader that defined the nature
of that business. As such, the firm conveys
and maintains an image that has developed
over a rich history. The image of being a
leader in the investment banking industry has
been exceptionally important to the firm. It
defines itself as a world-class company operating
in the fast-moving, highly competitive
financial services marketplace, and realizes
that it must attract, keep and develop the
very best people. The CEO explains that: ‘We
are building for the next generation, not the
next transaction. To do this we must be an
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors