WORKPLACE DIVERSITY : Interview : Ann Morrison : She Helps Corporate Bosses See the Bottom-Line Benefits of Diversity
Some corporate chiefs have trouble seeing how the social argument for work force diversity translates to the bottom line, says consultant and author Ann M. Morrison. For that reason, Morrison, director of the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego, spent four years studying how a more diverse work force might also make good business sense.
She worked with 16 private and public companies and organizations that have been successful at moving women and minorities into their executive ranks--American Express Co., Kaiser Permanente and the Palo Alto Police Department, among others. In interviews with nearly 200 managers, Morrison discovered how the companies got that way and how they plan to stay that way.
Her findings are in her latest book, “The New Leaders: Guidelines on Leadership Diversity in America.” Morrison’s research on the factors that hold women back in corporate America were included in a 1987 book, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach the Top of America’s Largest Corporations?,” which she wrote with Randall White and Ellen Van Velsor.
Morrison spoke with Times staff writer Anne Michaud about her research and consulting work.
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QUESTION: Why do companies typically call you?
ANSWER: In some cases, it’s a crisis of some sort. They’ve got a lawsuit or something along those lines, and they realize it’s a bigger problem than one person or one incident.
But, more and more, what we’re seeing is that they realize this is something that can give them a competitive edge. And if they do something before they have to, before they’re forced to do something in a short time frame, they’re better able to tailor it and to see that it’s thorough.
Q: What is the typical pattern of response when you go into an organization? Are there heated discussions?
A: Well, there’s certainly discussion. But because I bring in research findings, I’m talking about what other organizations have done, what works, what doesn’t work.
So it’s much less threatening than when I’m more direct about what’s wrong with the way they’re managing, or what are the problems with their company.
Q: You’ve been quoted as saying that diversity is difficult to talk about. There are some obvious reasons--we are a culture that has a difficult time talking about race or gender. Are there other reasons you could elaborate on?
A: It’s so sensitive, it’s almost as if there’s no way out. Particularly if you’re white, the chances of you having some prejudicial views on race are very high. So there you are, almost put in a corner to say, “I’m a racist.”
The other thing is that we’re simply uncomfortable being with people who are different, let alone talking about these kinds of issues. One of the big barriers (to promotion) that we’ve found is that people are more comfortable with people like themselves. So now you get in a room with people of both sexes and different ethnic backgrounds, and you’re supposed to talk about these emotional issues of race and sex. I mean, it’s not even a normal work issue. It’s very sensitive, emotional, potentially confrontational stuff.
Another reason is that speaking frankly is scary to people. They think there might be repercussions, that they might derail their own careers. White men, in this case, risk alienating their white male friends.
Q: How so?
A: If they say, we have these issues of non-traditional people not getting enough resources or not getting enough opportunities, what are their friends and colleagues going to say? They almost treat that person as a traitor.
Q: In your book, you identify 10 practices that model companies use to promote diversity. You point out that seven of the 10 have to do with making managers accountable.
It used to be that we focused on recruitment because that’s so much of what the law required . . . hiring numbers. But then, we would lose the people we recruited.
We had high expectations that education would help change (managers’) attitudes, that their behavior would then fall in line. It didn’t because there were no consequences.
And, in some ways, what they were learning in these (diversity) seminars was not only not reinforced in the workplace, but there were contradictory expectations: Don’t rock the boat.
Q: You have written that segregated development programs, such as minority internships, create a backlash. How does that happen?
A: Several different ways. One manager we interviewed talked about malicious compliance. Managers will say, “OK, you want me to promote a woman? I’ll get a woman in there.” And they pick a person who isn’t very well suited to that position, knowing that she won’t do well. It’s a sabotage.
The backlash is very subtle now because many managers and supervisors know what to say. They read, they get out, they know that it’s not good to discriminate. So what they do is very much behind the scenes. If they have different candidates for promotion, they’ll find something wrong with the man of color, or the woman. They won’t say it’s because she’s a woman or because he’s Latino. It’ll be highlighting weaknesses of people and bringing those weaknesses out when decisions are being made.
Q: In your book is a list of five steps toward achieving diversity. Which is the most difficult for companies?
A: Step one, discovering the problems in your organization, has been a real problem. A lot of managers won’t do that because they think they already know the answers. If their turnover rate is high, for example, they like to jump into action and try to find a solution without asking anybody what the real problem is. It’s a knee-jerk reaction.
Q: Will the subject of diversity still be high on corporate agendas in five or 10 years? Or is this just a fad?
A: I don’t think it’s a fad. The demographics--not only of the workplace but of the customer base--are compelling.
The next five to 10 years are critical. We need to see more organizations make headway, to have some success, to have it visibly pay off for them.
Q: What is the next level of diversity programs?
A: One of the big disappointments in the research I’ve done is how little emphasis there is on results. We have to look at the potential outcome of a diversity effort, and what we would like to see happen. What does an organization look like when it has developed diversity? We need to nail that down.
