Organizations must be clear about what they are committed to accomplish before launching a diversity program. Rather than reacting to periodic events, organizations will be better served by thinking strategically about the level of proficiency and understanding required to achieve its diversity goals. Doing so will help to address negative occurrences in the context of an overall diversity framework, and will prove useful in determining appropriate intervention. Thus, the organization will have the advantage of correlating the chosen intervention to the strategic business purpose that makes it necessary. When an organization becomes clear on how to articulate its diversity strategy, the chances for a successful outcome go up dramatically.
Employees are better able to understand the strategic reasons requiring their personal involvement.
Supervisors are better equipped to explain why employee attendance is requested, and leadership becomes clear about how much time, money, effort and personal presence is required to ensure strategic goals are met. As important as any of the above is the structure which will emerge to serve as a backdrop against which to view noncompliance. Individuals would instead be challenged to offer alternatives to meet strategic diversity initiatives. Without such an understanding at all levels of the organization, any approach runs the risk of failure through its own entropy, for which there is already ample evidence in the larger society. If organizations are to evolve into inclusive and valuing environments, they will likely need the assistance of diversity professionals from within, or outside of, the organization.