ABSTRACT
This chapter advances the idea that diversity management can be incorporated into an organization's strategy for achieving positive deviance. It proposes two key practices: a commitment to organizational learning and the capacity to strategically leverage resources to create value for organizational stakeholders. The mental models that govern diversity management practices can be challenging for many organizations. But it is also an opportunity to create generative dynamics, the ability of an organization to develop, expand, reconfigure, and transform resources to achieve organizational goals as a result of its diversity. The organization undergoes an inclusion systems assessment, in which an organization measures and analyzes its current diversity management practices. After completion of the assessment, the organization conducts focus groups and produces a strategic gap analysis report to further analyze diversity management practices and outcomes. In the context of managing diversity, the chapter concludes that learning organizations are better positioned to engage in practices that focus their energies on producing positive deviant behavior.
