Meeting the leadership challenge of a diverse and pluralistic workplace: Implications of self-efficacy for diversity training

Ways to maximize benefits of an increasingly diverse workforce and client base is a continuing concern for organizational leadership. The current processes for managing diversity continue to be necessary but are not sufficient to result in effective outcomes in 21st century organizational environments. Diversity training remains the primary method used to facilitate behavior change. However, existing diversity training is perceived to have failed, calling for a new diversity leadership focus to improve diversity performance. This paper proposes application of the research supporting the self-efficacy construct to build diversity self-efficacy and bridge the gap between diversity training and diversity performance.