Moving beyond affirmative action into equal opportunity

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 12, 1990 by Nicholas Hadgis

Moving beyond affirmative action into equal opportunity

As hospitality corporations throughout the nation seek excellence, the ones that realize their goals will be those with leaders who learn to use fully the talent of our racially and sexually diverse population.

To be competitive in the 1990s, businesses must move beyond the artificial intervention of affirmative action to creating environments that provide true equal opportunity at all levels of their organizations.

The demographic trends that are reshaping the American workforce demand that the ability to manage diversity be developed throughout the ranks of management.

The Hudson Institute study titled "Workforce 2000" by William Johnston and Arnold Packer identified the following major trends:

* Most new jobs will be in services and information.

* There will be more immigrants in the workforce than at any other time World War I.

* Economic growth will depend more directly on increased demand for income-sensitive products, such as restaurant meals, luxury foods, travel, tourism and health care.

* Labor markets will be tighter becuse of the slower growth of the workforce and the smaller reservoir of well-qualified workers.

* One-third of new workers will be minotirites.

* Black women will account for the largest share of the increase in the non-white labor force. By the year 2000 black women will outnumber black men in the workforce.

* White males, thought of only a generation ago as the mainstays of the economy, will constitute only 15 percent of net additions to the labor force between 1985 and 2000. The challenge will exist for minorities to be prepared to succeed in the new job market as well as for corporations to manage the diversity.

Affirmative action has backing

Many Americans support affirmative action as an essential component in providing equal opportunity in corporations. It appears to be a moral, fair and corrective process, and it is certainly founded on good intentions. In its implementation, however, affirmative action tends to distort our understanding of racial discrimination.

In linking race to preference, we are reburdening society with the very relationships of race and stigmas we set out to eliminate. While affirmative action may have been necessary to initiate the opening of doors in corporate America, it is time to move beyond quotas and other forms of preferential treatment.

Such a focus on results at the expense of process does not develop equal opportunity throughout an organization. That can be achieved only through structural change driven by a corporate culture that values diversity and rewards the skillful management and development of human resources by managers and executives at all levels.

All too often, rigid segmentalist organizations maintain environments that limit networking and collaborative efforts. There is little opportunity for people to move out of their boxes, work on task forces, communicate across levels and simply learn more and develop. In fact, the corporate cultures and structures limiting growth for minorities tend to restrict the growth of all their people.

Such organizations find it difficult to achieve productive change and maintain business growth and success in a changing environment.

A much more productive model for corporations is described in "The Change Masters" by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The model is called "integrative." These companies provide their people with an environment of opportunity and empowerment.

Their job assignments are defined broadly, and they are encouraged to pull together their own teams, use procedures of their own choosing, go outside their area and take on new responsibilities.

By being less category conscious and focusing on people development, these companies have better communication across levels, across departments and across business lines. Such organizations have more productive people, respond well to change and have fewer barriers to minority advancement.

They invest heavily in education and training, and their investment pays off. Over the last 20 years, the integrative companies have been the most financially successful and are well prepared to continue being so as they move into the future.

The hospitality industry corporations that foster equal opportunity are successful in doing so because of their corporate culture and structure.

With commitment from the top and accountability for human resource development and equal opportunity throughout the organization, an environment is created where individuals, regardless of race of gender, can make the greatest contribution that they can.

In the success of their employees, integrative corporations find that they have the productivity, creativity and energy to compete and to realize financial success. Such companies understand that discrimination is a cost to the victim, to the organization and to society.

A corporation that can fully develop and manage its multicultural workforce will find itself to be an organization that can capitalize on the wealth of the diverse talents of its people.