Written: Read Case 4-1 on pgs. 146 -147 of your text. 1.

Why do many companies find increasing and managing diversity to be difficult challenges?

Many companies find increasing and managing diversity to be difficult challenges because sometimes people respond differently to the same situation because of their cultures. What one person may take as a compliment, another may take as an insult. Many companies have difficulty establishing guidelines that fit all cultures, genders and sexual orientations as the typical management roles of the past do not work in newer, diverse workplaces.
2. What were the key elements in Blahna's successful diversity strategy? The key elements in Blahnas successful diversity strategy were forming a committee for Workplace Diversity. This committee held exist interviews in order to ascertain what was causing people to leave the company. The committee, upon its findings after the initial investigation, formed a 25-person diversity advisory committee, which then developed a multi-pronged approach for dealing with diversity issues. This approach also included reaching out to the community outside of the company as well as training conducted by diversity consultants. 3. Under what circumstances might the consulting pairs approach be most useful? This approach could be useful regarding any type of interoffice conflict between two parties and these conflicts do not need to necessarily occur because of diversity. Often times someone could use a tone that may be taken the wrong way by another co-worker. Often times many conflicts arise from misunderstandings. These conflicts can be minimized and resolved simply by using the consulting pairs approach. 4. What steps should management take to ensure that the consulting pairs approach is working? Management should monitor employee turnover and continue to hold exit interviews in order to ensure that the reason employees are leaving is not due to inter-company diversity issues. Additionally, semiannual or annual reviews should be held in an interactive forum so that the employees can share their experiences and expectations with their employers, just as the employer share their experiences and expectations of the employees job performance. It is important that management does not slow down or allows their effort in these areas to stall because all is working as expected for the time being. It is crucial to the longevity of the employees and the success of the company for management to ensure by all means available that they are willing to work with their employees to ensure continued success.