Increasing diversity awareness is made possible through implementing diversity awareness programs within a company. The objectives of these programs are to educate both managers and workers of their personal biases and stereotypes and of the diverse perspectives of people different than them. This is done by interacting with a person who is different, whether it is their age, gender, ethnicity, etc, in order to experience first-hand their diverse lifestyle.

If the company that Carl and Joyce work for implemented a diversity awareness program that annually required management to interact with a diverse employee different from them, their perspectives would both be expanded. It would allow management to have insight on the attitudes and perspectives of others, as well as show top management how things operate at the entry-level positions. In this situation, Carl could socially interact with a woman and Joyce could interact with higher management. 


A main point to increasing diversity skills is to improve the way that management interacts with subordinates and how everyone works together with people different than themselves. This will allow employees to proactively clear up any misunderstandings in a comfortable setting. 

This is an important technique for both Carl and Joyce to take advantage of because it would better their communication skills with each other. From this, Carl would learn how to positively speak to his subordinates, including Joyce. On the other hand, Joyce would be able to learn how to resolve misunderstandings and approach her problems with Carl directly instead of getting flustered. 


Flexibility in the workplace includes openness to new approaches, and not be threatened by new ideas, in order to create a good working environment for diverse employees. Being flexible includes, but is not limited to, allowing religious holidays off of work, ability to work from home and flexible hours. This relies on management being responsive to the needs of their diverse subordinates. 

To enable this technique, Joyce would need to effectively communicate to Carl if she needed to work from home when one of her kids gets sick. In return, Carl would be responsive to Joyce’s needs and take into consideration when/if it would be possible to work from home. He would need to consider that although Joyce’s needs may be different because she is a mother, it does not necessarily hinder her ability. Carl would need to work towards a solution to possible outcomes to Joyce’s needs. 


Employees should be evaluated based on objective performance criteria, instead of subjective material. It is the responsibility of management to ensure that each evaluation was completed with adequate time and attention in order to ensure completeness and accuracy.

In this situation, it is very important that Carl takes the time to personally evaluate Joyce’s performance before making a decision regarding promotion. This way, Carl would have firsthand experience of Joyce’s capabilities and any performance weaknesses and he could make an informed decision on her performance. It is extremely important for Carl to use objective material while performing the evaluation so that his personal perceptions do not interfere with its accuracy. 
