ABSTRACT
This chapter presents information on diversity management origin and practice in the USA, so as to provide the background for understanding developments in Europe. It considers the factors that have been generally seen as providing the stimulus to the growth of diversity management in the US. The chapter follows by a presentation of examples of the main constituents of diversity management practice in the US, drawing on existing surveys of the topic. As the workforce is becoming more heterogeneous, so is the domestic market becoming more ethnically diverse. Diverse customers are more complex and differ in their needs, tastes, and desires. The growth of diversity management is shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a service economy. US companies are increasingly buying companies in other parts of the world, and foreign companies are increasingly buying. Most of the major demographic, organisational and structural developments which have stimulated diversity management in the US can be said to apply in Europe.
