“At Sun, we believe that productive work environments are characterized by respect for the individual and strong, blended teams that are culturally and ethnically diverse. We pride ourselves in leveraging the different backgrounds people bring to Sun. It’s good business practice, it’s the law, and it’s the right thing to do.”
- Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc in an email to his employees on National Diversity Day 2008
In a society where corporate culture relies on “professionalism” and teamwork, no employee can exclude any coworker and expect to advance in a chosen career, especially if the reason for exclusion is protected by federal regulation. Sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, and national origin are examples of classes protected by either federal law or some state and local laws. The publicity and controversy surrounding topics such as equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, and non-discriminatory or non-preferential actions would lead a person to believe that the United States has entered a strange loop since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. Race, sex, and gender continue to be driving forces in corporate cultures and policies, but it seems less and less that the issues are matters of blatant racism, bigotry, and sexism. Instead, the majority of the population believes unlawful and overt discrimination has been nearly eliminated, and thus people are not proactive in their actions to promote diversity and inclusion. Blatant bigotry and hate crimes certainly have been reduced significantly in the United States since the days of slavery and government-sponsored racial segregation, but passive forms of bias, racism, and sexism persist into the modern day United States. Other countries differ greatly in their progress concerning diversity and inclusion attitudes. Every country and community holds differing viewpoints and policies on the state of discrimination in their respective societies, and cultural ideologies play a major role in the actions global corporations are able to pursue in the effort to increase diversity and inclusion in corporate offices. Every corporation operating in a global environment will face similar issues; Sun Microsystems is assumed to be representative of the majority of global corporations for the purpose of the following discussion.
Before delving into the issues global corporations face, certain key terms must be separated and defined. The terms “diversity” and “inclusion,” which are typically used interchangeably in common speech, each have their own purposes when applied to corporate policies. “Diversity” primarily refers to government compliance. When an employer discusses diversity, the reference is usually to federal, state, or local regulation around employment practices. “Inclusion” is an approach that integrates all people of all cultures into a single group of equals; it integrates policies, procedures, and systems into a single cohesive approach that includes all groups and cultures equally. The presence of inclusive, integrative policies should be transparent, or embedded so deeply into the systems that nothing is separated or excluded from the standard. Diversity can be considered a component of a total corporate inclusion strategy, and discussion of an inclusion model typically includes the processes to remain compliant with diversity regulations.
Within the United States, diversity is tightly regulated, especially for corporations that provide products or services to federal or state governments. Though there are many regulatory agencies that define and enforce diversity laws, the primary agency a large corporation must answer to is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If the corporation provides goods or services to government agencies, the corporation is also required to be compliant with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). In short, the regulatory agencies ensure that companies do not discriminate against employees on the basis of any protected status, and they require that companies take steps to correct and prevent discriminatory practices. Employers must be able to provide documentation regarding their hiring policies and practices.
Inclusion happens when an employer recognizes that “diverse opinions, experiences, and backgrounds truly do make good ideas even better” {Sun Microsystems 2006}. Sun Microsystems, only in operation since 1982, has had the opportunity to learn from the experiences of older tech giants such as IBM, HP, and Proctor & Gamble that existed during key points in United States history such as the Civil Rights Movement {Interview on Global Inclusion 2008}. Currently, major corporations are shifting outdated diversity processes to an inclusion-focused model. For example, Sun Microsystems embeds inclusion strategies into branding and communications, global talent pipelines, cross-cultural awareness and communication, global employee development, and work processes, tools, and productivity {Sun Microsystems 2006}. Sun Microsystems completes a survey every year to measure the progress and effectiveness of company objectives; inclusion efforts are measured as a major goal in this survey. Deemed the “Power of Sun” survey, the questions are designed to measure the internal environment, management behaviors, work process integration, talent pipeline activity, and the external reputation of the company {Sun Microsystems}. The “Power of Sun” survey responses are heavily utilized to improve performance of the global inclusion model.
Within a single country, diversity and inclusion efforts are implemented with similar effort to any other major corporate initiative. When a corporation attempts to globalize (or “glocalize”) a process or strategy, cultural and ideological differences pose difficult hurdles. Ideologies regarding race, sex, gender, and sexual orientation pose significant obstacles to the ability to tear down barriers preventing inclusion that transcends borders. The ways in which barriers to global inclusion affect companies are numerous, but a few examples stand out for the unique challenges they present.
The “Power of Sun” survey, mentioned above, is intended to measure the success of the inclusion policies. The good intentions of the survey were challenged when Sun Microsystems began implementing the survey to more countries than just the United States. As part of the survey, employees are given the chance to self-identify themselves based on Equal Employment Opportunity race categories and sex and gender categories such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ). The major issue shows itself in the self-identification of the GLBTQ categories. In some countries (primarily in the Asian Pacific), it is illegal to identify oneself as a member of the GLBTQ community, and answering the question would put employees at risk. On the other hand, some countries (especially in Europe) are more accepting of the GLBTQ community, and find the question intrusive. To ask employees in Europe to self-identify based on the GLBTQ categories would be similar to asking them what color underwear they are wearing. It is a personal question and the answer does not matter- it just is what it is. As a result of cultural differences, globalization of inclusion efforts for such groups becomes extremely difficult. Corporations find it extremely difficult to “glocalize” the questions across all cultural ideologies, thus making a global assessment of inclusion efforts a difficult goal to achieve.
Ideologies play a major role in how corporations are able to implement diversity and inclusion plans. The development of globalized process requires a significant amount of creativity and cultural understanding. One step corporations can take to increase their ability to implement such globalized processes include building a great knowledge base of cultural ideologies around the world and creatively embedding knowledge into the general infrastructure of the company’s process. A second step may include working with local governments and communities to establish a relationship in which ideas and attitudes regarding inclusion may be shared and increased understanding may be achieved by both parties. Certainly, consistent promotion of inclusion policies by global corporations will increase awareness of harmful ideologies and will help shape the change in global concepts of race and gender into an environment that promotes diversity and inclusion in all workplaces.
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Works Cited
Baker, Teri, Sun Microsystems, to Sherri Slate, Baker, Teri. “Interview on Global Inclusion.” September 29 2008.
Sun Microsystems, Inc. with Sun Microsystems, Inc. About Sun, Global Inclusion. Sun Microsystems, Inc. December 15, 2008 <http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/globalinclusion>.
—, Global Inclusion @ Sun. Sharing a Committment to Success. Sun Microsystems, Inc., 2006. January 1, 2000.
U.S. Department of Labor with Employment Standards Administration. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). December 15, 2008 <http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/>.
U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission with U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. December 15, 2008 <http://www.eeoc.gov/>.
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