Corporate Culture and Diversity

Overview/Description
 Has your company tried implementing diversity programs only to have them backfire? If the answer is yes, maybe the planners and implementers didn't have the information they needed about the impact that organizational, industry, and national culture can have on the success of any program that involves change. In this course, you will discover the three levels of corporate culture, one so invisible that it often takes an outsider to point it out. Moving on to industry and national cultures, you'll find out how the strategy behind your company's business objectives can explain diversity issues and forecast future problems for implementing or maintaining diversity programs. Did you know that organizations go through life cycles, too? You'll learn how the ability to change is often related to one of the six life-cycle stages of a company. Ultimately, you'll discover five core ingredients of organizational culture.

Target Audience
 Employees at any level who desire an understanding of diversity and how to positively implement and maintain valuing diversity programs within the organization.

Expected Duration
3.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Levels of Corporate Culture

  • recognize the benefits of being aware of how the levels of corporate culture affect diversity change initiatives.
  • identify examples of corporate culture "artifacts".
  • identify examples of a corporate culture's espoused values.
  • identify the relationship of underlying assumptions to the artifacts and espoused values of a given corporate culture.
  • identify whether change will succeed based on the elements of corporate culture.

    • Developmental Cycles of Organizations

  • recognize the benefit of assessing the developmental stage of an organization to determine its level of resistance to implementing successful diversity programs.
  • identify examples which show characteristics of the first cycle (organizational birth stage) of organizational development.
  • identify examples which show characteristics of the second cycle (early development stage) of organizational development.
  • identify examples which show characteristics of the third cycle (adolescent stage) of organizational development.
  • identify examples which show characteristics of the fourth cycle (young adult stage) of organizational development.
  • identify examples which show characteristics of the fifth cycle (mature stage) of organizational development.
  • identify examples which show characteristics of the sixth cycle (declining stage) of organizational development.

    • National Culture and Corporate Culture

  • recognize the importance of being aware of how national culture influences industry and corporate culture.
  • identify indicators of centralism in a given company.
  • identify the possible influences of industry culture on organizational culture in a given company.
  • identify the major elements of national culture that influence organizational cultures in the United States.

    • Company Culture and Levels of Competence

  • recognize the importance of knowing the levels of competence at which a company may operate.
  • identify the organizational competence level for a given example.
  • sequence companies in the order they are most likely to accept change based on their competency level.

    • Course Number: HR0144