ABSTRACT
Individuals and organizations reject or embrace diversity for a number of reasons. In some cases, old organizational norms and stereotypes of what constitutes the “ideal” workforce are to blame for this resistance (Williams, 2000). Other times, however, avoiding change seems to make good business sense. For example, organizations may feel that they do not have the resources to invest in diversity initiatives or that the change may lead to lost profit. These analyses, however, are outdated. In fact, resisting change to increase diversity is often substantially costly to organizations because of increased attrition and decreased organizational commitment among talented employees, and hence loss of intellectual capital. A solid diversity strategy can address these issues, especially when the organization is already experiencing different turnover rates between women and men, or between White employees and employees of color (Gerkovich, 2005).
