Transformational Diversity

Reviews

Anita Rowe, Ph.D., Partner, Gardenswartz & Rowe and Emotional Intelligence and Diversity Institute

Transformational Diversity turns the kaleidoscope to bring another way to view and address diversity in corporations. It presents an approach that focuses on inclusion rather than the more traditional differences and applies the paradigm and methodology of intercultural competency to help organizations leverage diversity as an asset. The premise of the book is that by emphasizing intercultural competencies, organizations can transform their cultures and capitalize on diversity as a business advantage. The authors first explain why the current domestic diversity models and approaches are not sufficient to meet the inclusion needs of today’s global and multicultural corporations and then go on to show how Transformational Diversity can help. Aimed at a corporate audience, their focus is a pragmatic, business-oriented one that uses corporate examples, language and statistics to demonstrate the strategic case for inclusion, including contemporary issues such as social responsibility and downsizing/layoffs. For readers looking for answers to why regarding diversity and inclusion, this aspect is particularly helpful

One of the strengths of the Transformational Diversity approach is that it is based on four key areas that serve to focus the transformational work:
1. stressing values which drive differences in behavior
2. focusing on differences of relevance and consequence
3. aligning domestic diversity with a global perspective
4. developing intercultural sensitivity organization-wide