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Hi all: In response to Vicki's question regarding a measure for assessing the effectiveness of diversity education and David's thorough response ...

It would be helpful for me to know how the measure will be used.  For example, will the measure be used in conducting research targeted at a specific journal or will it be used to convince your dept chairs, deans, etc (even yourself) of the effectiveness of the course – such as making an argument that courses on diversity should be mandatory for management majors (which I believe they should!).

Regarding a "measure" of effectiveness that can be used for the latter purpose (i.e. convincing chairs, deans, etc of the necessity for diversity courses), I believe that qualitative measures are best.  For example, I use the written comments from my end of course teaching evaluations for this purpose. Here is an example of a student comment that indicates to me that the course was effective: "The course truly illustrated how diversity affects us in and outside of the organization. I have used the course material on the job and have achieved success in situations. I was able to improve my working relationship with a subordinate by applying some of the tools I learned in this class."

Essentially, I am suggesting that the effectiveness of the class may be different for each student depending on their expectations and goals (rather than, or perhaps in addition to our expectations and goals for them) as well as their current work situation.  The student I quoted above was motivated to apply the course content to his work situation and did so successfully.  However, another student commented that "I didn't learn any skills on how to effectively manager (sic) people with a diverse background or how to deal with issues around diversity as a manager."

Another good source for qualitative comments for me has been student journals.  I have them write about a situation at work or from their personal lives and how the material from class has helped them view situations differently, improve relationships, or manage more effectively.

I hope you read thoughts from others on this list regarding this interesting and important topic.

Take care, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lynn</st1:place></st1:city>

Vicki,

That's a good question - and one I'm thinking about as I finalize my plans for the fall semester.

The appropriate measure, of course, depends on how one defines "effectiveness" and that depends on ones desired goals. Do you want your students to obtain new knowledge? Do you want them to change their attitudes toward diversity or toward specific demographic groups? Do you want them to acquire multicultural competency skills? Do you want them to change their behaviors? And for each of the foregoing questions, which specific knowledge/attitudes/skills/behaviors do you want them to change? Goals come first, which is the reason the first session at the 2008 conference on diversity education (som.gmu.edu/diversity) was a facilitated discussion on goals. [Next year's conference will be July 16-18.]

Some questions are given at the end of Harvey & Allard (2009). Understanding and managing diversity (4th edition). I don't know about the earlier editions.

I'd love to see more good research on this question, but that's a challenge, given the need for appropriate comparison groups, IRB approval, etc.

Many thanks for raising this issue. I'll be interested in seeing the other responses.

Cheers,
David

<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Taylor</st1:place></st1:city>, Vicki wrote:

-- 

David A. Kravitz

Professor and Management Area Chair

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Vicki and all,

As David Kravitz mentioned, being able to measure effectiveness requires knowing the criteria, which in turn depend on one's goals. The slides I used to guide the facilitated discussion that we had at the GMU conference in July to which David referred are available here: http://somweb.gmu.edu/diveduc08/files/Ferdman%20Facilitated%20Discussion%202008%20TTWD.pdf. Included in the slides is my summary of the themes that came up when I posted the following question on LinkedIn: What do you believe are and/or should be the key goals of diversity training (e.g., in organizational settings) and of diversity education (e.g., in university courses)? You can also see the detailed answers provided by 28 folks here: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/management/organizational-development/MGM_ODV/265828-122187. We are also working on transcribing the detailed results of the facilitated discussion at GMU, and will post those when ready.

Regards,

Bernardo Ferdman

Bernardo M. Ferdman, Ph.D. <bferdman@alliant.edu>

Professor, Marshall Goldsmith School of Management

Alliant International University (http://www.alliant.edu)

10455 Pomerado Rd., San Diego, CA 92131-1799, USA

Tel. +1 858 635-4408; Fax +1 858 635-4455

Webpages: <http://bernardoferdman.org>, <http://faculty.alliant.edu> (click on "Bernardo Ferdman")

Hi all: In response to Vicki's question regarding a measure for assessing the effectiveness of diversity education and David's thorough response ...

It would be helpful for me to know how the measure will be used.  For example, will the measure be used in conducting research targeted at a specific journal or will it be used to convince your dept chairs, deans, etc (even yourself) of the effectiveness of the course – such as making an argument that courses on diversity should be mandatory for management majors (which I believe they should!).

Regarding a "measure" of effectiveness that can be used for the latter purpose (i.e. convincing chairs, deans, etc of the necessity for diversity courses), I believe that qualitative measures are best.  For example, I use the written comments from my end of course teaching evaluations for this purpose. Here is an example of a student comment that indicates to me that the course was effective: "The course truly illustrated how diversity affects us in and outside of the organization. I have used the course material on the job and have achieved success in situations. I was able to improve my working relationship with a subordinate by applying some of the tools I learned in this class."

Essentially, I am suggesting that the effectiveness of the class may be different for each student depending on their expectations and goals (rather than, or perhaps in addition to our expectations and goals for them) as well as their current work situation.  The student I quoted above was motivated to apply the course content to his work situation and did so successfully.  However, another student commented that "I didn't learn any skills on how to effectively manager (sic) people with a diverse background or how to deal with issues around diversity as a manager."

Another good source for qualitative comments for me has been student journals.  I have them write about a situation at work or from their personal lives and how the material from class has helped them view situations differently, improve relationships, or manage more effectively.

I hope you read thoughts from others on this list regarding this interesting and important topic.

Take care, Lynn

Vicki,

That's a good question - and one I'm thinking about as I finalize my plans for the fall semester.

The appropriate measure, of course, depends on how one defines "effectiveness" and that depends on ones desired goals. Do you want your students to obtain new knowledge? Do you want them to change their attitudes toward diversity or toward specific demographic groups? Do you want them to acquire multicultural competency skills? Do you want them to change their behaviors? And for each of the foregoing questions, which specific knowledge/attitudes/skills/behaviors do you want them to change? Goals come first, which is the reason the first session at the 2008 conference on diversity education (som.gmu.edu/diversity) was a facilitated discussion on goals. [Next year's conference will be July 16-18.]

Some questions are given at the end of Harvey & Allard (2009). Understanding and managing diversity (4th edition). I don't know about the earlier editions.

I'd love to see more good research on this question, but that's a challenge, given the need for appropriate comparison groups, IRB approval, etc.

Many thanks for raising this issue. I'll be interested in seeing the other responses.

Cheers,
David

Taylor, Vicki wrote:

Vicki,

Re measures, a great place to start would be the chapter by Donna Chrobot-Mason, Alison Konrad, and Frank Linnehan, "Measures for Quantitative Diversity Scholarship" in the book, Handbook of Workplace Diversity, edited by Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle (Sage, 2006). Also, look at measures such as the Intercultural Development Inventory  (http://idiinventory.com)  (see http://idiinventory.com/pdf/idi_bibliography.pdf for a bibliography).

-Bernardo

Bernardo M. Ferdman, Ph.D. <bferdman@alliant.edu>

Professor, Marshall Goldsmith School of Management

Alliant International University (http://www.alliant.edu)

10455 Pomerado Rd., San Diego, CA 92131-1799, USA

Tel. +1 858 635-4408; Fax +1 858 635-4455

Webpages: <http://bernardoferdman.org>, <http://faculty.alliant.edu> (click on "Bernardo Ferdman")