Summary of the CIPD 'Research into practice' report
This report is a collection of five case study examples exploring how some organisations have used diversity to support their business goals. The case studies were collected through a variety of research methods, and the report was written by Mustafa Ozbilgin of the University of East Anglia, Ahu Tatli of Queen Mary, University of London, Dianah Worman OBE, Chartered FCIPD, Adviser CIPD, Gary Mulholland of the University of Hertfordshire, and Sally Humpage, Adviser CIPD. Please visit our bookstore for more details and to find out how to order.
The report captures valuable learning on how to progress diversity and what makes good diversity practice. The organisations share their aims, strategies, approaches and experiences in developing and implementing diversity-focused programmes and initiatives, and how these initiatives impact on and add value to business performance.
The case studies cover both the private and public sectors.
The case study organisations
The organisations that took part are Barclays plc, Worcestershire County Council, Oxford Brookes University, Carlton Television and Ford of Britain.
Barclays plc
In 2001, Barclays launched a ground breaking Equality and Diversity programme. It covered a wide range of diversity issues including disability, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and age. The programme applied to all Barclay’s stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, and the community.
This case study shows how the organisation drives towards diversity excellence in everything it does as a business and as an employer.
It is clear from the Barclays case that there is a need for developing sophisticated business, social, moral and community case arguments in support for promoting diversity management initiatives. If diversity management is to be integrated in all business processes, it should be supported in firm evidence from every aspect of the business.
Worcestershire County Council
In 2002, Worcestershire County Council launched ‘Worcestershire – We All Make It Unique.’ This was a four phase race diversity communication and training programme. It was designed specifically to raise awareness among employees and to improve customer service, particularly in the larger ethnic minority communities that it served.
This case study shows quite starkly that organisations situated in seemingly ethnically homogenous locations, who claim that diversity is not relevant for them, may need to look more closely at their customers and the sub-regions and divisions of the locality in which they operate because these may have greater diversity and differing requirements.
Oxford Brookes University
This case study outlines how the HR Director, working with the business school, took the sound base of diversity management that had been developed through the 1990’s in the University and extended it. The aim was to encourage better work-life balance and increase the promotion of women to senior positions within the University.
The results show how bringing together researchers from the business school and HR practitioners brought success in building an equality policy for the University. Such a well informed approach to diversity management ensured better planning and a close attention to subsequent impacts
Carlton Television
This is a case study of a diversity initiative in the broadcasting industry. It describes how the leading broadcasters came together to launch the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN) in 2000 and what it has subsequently achieved. The aim was to modernise the portrayal of ethnic minorities in mainstream programming so that racial diversity on and behind the screen reflects today’s multicultural Britain.
The results show how the CDN have generated a template to help the television industry achieve diversity and how it has become an important model for other creative industries in the public and private sector.
Ford of Britain
This case study shows how Ford has played a pivotal role in developing new policies and innovative practices intended to promote diversity. For Ford, the key to a successful diversity strategy was inclusion rather than representation, which would require a process of organisational cultural change. To achieve this Ford introduced a four-stage change programme that aimed to mainstream diversity, give ownership of the change process to everyone in the organisation including top management, ensure efficient communication of the change plans and evaluate their progress.
Diversity management at Ford has been a long term process to ensure cultural change. The case study shows that this is achieved most successfully when Diversity Management is not seen as a human resource activity alone and is supported by strong leadership and a performance led culture, made sustainable through constant reviews of progress against set targets.
Key learning points
Each of the case studies draw out important lessons for national and organisational policy as well as good diversity practice. Some key learning points include:
- Clear leadership is essential and a performance-driven culture is a great tool for achieving success
- Diversity management should be integrated with mainstream business activity to have lasting impact
- Successful diversity management engages with all business processes and stakeholders and is not limited to the HR function
- Diversity management initiatives need to have differing stages: information gathering, policy-making, practice and assessment in order to be successful and sustained
- Diversity networks are instrumental in helping organisations to learn from one another, adopt industry best practice and disseminate policy and methods of managing diversity.
OZBILGIN, M., TATLI, A., WORMAN, D., MULHOLLAND, G., HUMPAGE, S. (2007) Managing diversity in practice: supporting business goals. 'Research into practice' report. London: CIPD.