Discrimination in the Workplace, Human Resources - General & Miscellaneous, Discrimination & Prejudice - General

Making Diversity Work : Seven Steps for Defeating Bias in the Workplace

Name: Making Diversity Work : Seven Steps for Defeating Bias in the Workplace
Author: Sondra B. Thiederman
ISBN: 9780793177639

by Sondra B. Thiederman

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Overview

Thiederman, a speaker and writer on workplace diversity and bias reduction, details a step-by-step strategy for minimizing bias in a business and maximizing the ability to manage diversity effectively in this guide for executives and managers. Using real-life examples and exercises, she provides tools for identifying and defeating biased attitudes and overcoming diversity-related conflict. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

About the Author, Sondra B. Thiederman

Dr. Sondra Thiederman has more than twenty years experience as a full-time speaker, trainer, and author on the topics of bias, diversity, and cross-cultural business. Since receiving her doctorate with an emphasis on cross-cultural studies from UCLA, her clients have included such leading corporations as Motorola, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Century 21 Real Estate, Marriott Corporation, American Express, Xerox Corporation, and AT&T as well as dozens of professional, government, and not-for-profit organizations. She has functioned as consultant to the University of California and the American Cancer Society and was appointed by Elizabeth Dole to the Diversity Advisory Council of the American Red Cross. Dr. Thiederman is also a member of the Diversity Collegium, a group of professionals who meet quarterly to discuss important diversity and bias-related issues.

Dr. Thiederman serves as narrator and consultant on several video training projects. These include Career Track's Managing Workplace Diversity and American Media's Bridging Cultural Barriers. The latter was based on Dr. Thiederman's first book and received the Certificate for Creative Excellence award at the U.S. Industrial Film & Video Festival. In addition, she worked with Talbot’s retail clothing chain on their in-house video, Customer Service in the 90s. Another video, Cultural Diversity in the Hospital Setting, was produced by Hospital Educational Services; the product is targeted to managers of health care workers. She is also the creator and producer of the best-selling motivational videos, Getting Along: Words of Encouragement and Words to Lead By.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Thiederman, a speaker on workplace diversity and author of Profiting in America's Multicultural Marketplace, offers practical ways everyone can be more aware of their biases, stereotypes and negative attitudes. It's essential, according to the author, that everyone, from low-level employee to business owner and executive, be more mindful of diversity in order to communicate more effectively, manage others and be more successful at work. Biases hurt everyone because they hinder decision making, hiring and keeping workers. "One of the really creepy things about biases is that they can easily become self-fulfilling prophecies. If a manager believes that an employee has a certain characteristic, darn if she doesn't find a way to make that characteristic come true." The author offers concrete steps to combat biases, including dissecting those biases and "putting [them] through triage." Thiederman uses her own experiences as well as those of others who give firsthand accounts. The writing is clear, and her approach is textbook-like with chapter summaries and sidebars emphasizing key points. In the end, this is a levelheaded examination of this important topic, which is already covered in many other books. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.