BAD

Did Komen’s Lack of Board Diversity Cause Its Crisis?
The nonprofit breast-cancer-prevention group decided to defund Planned Parenthood, then flip-flopped after public outrage. Its CEO ended up resigning.

Lowe’s Muslim Publicity Gaffe Serves as Case Study of What Not to Do
The home-improvement chain caved in to an anti-Muslim group and stopped advertising on a reality show featuring Muslims. The public outcry was significant.

Chick-fil-A Caves on Funding Anti-Gay Groups But Is It Enough?
The flip-flops from the food chain have cost it several contracts and public support.

GOOD

Lessons on Values From Ellen & jcpenney
jcpenney CEO Ron Johnson stood up quickly and very publicly for the choice of lesbian Ellen DeGeneres as company spokesperson after anti-gay One Million Moms launched a campaign to have her removed.

Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong
When progressive corporations found out their local representatives in Tennessee supported anti-gay legislation, they were horrified and reacted swiftly to try to reverse the decision. It was too late, but their public statements were forthright and they have subsequently made sure this won’t happen again.

The post Diversity Crisis Communications: What to Do When Scandals Erupt appeared first on DiversityInc.

Disparities in Income

I think the trend of competitive people clustering will accelerate as global economics continue to evolve. Despite more than one-third of the world living on less than $2 a day, the average wage for every earner on the planet, according to the BBC article “Where are you on the global pay scale?,” is $18,000 per year in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars, which expresses what it would cost in the U.S. to get equivalent goods and services in your own country. The growth of the global middle class is accelerating for the same reason that the sorting inside our country is accelerating: technological advances in communication and transfer of money.

What’s the problem? The average wage in the United States is $42,980 (compared to $18,000 for the global average, which includes the United States). As economies grow, more people will be able to find work globally and there will be wealth generated, but not enough in the United States to keep up with the global growth rate. That means our average wage will likely continue to shrink as the developing world rises.

Why Top Performers Seek Diverse & Inclusive Workplaces

This tells me that the sorting trend is going to accelerate. The most talented people from around the world will sort themselves out. Many will come to the United States (if our government can get out of their way), since our economy is the largest on the planet. And the folks already here, your potential human capital, will aggressively sort themselves out, with the best and brightest proactively seeking “positive ecologies.”

Which folks are going to be attracted to YOUR company? Which business partners?

If you are a diversity practitioner and are concerned about “diversity fatigue,” here’s what I suggest you do: Connect the dots between reputation and talent development, philanthropy and supplier diversity. Reach out to your government-relations and marketing people, so they have a coherent understanding of your diversity reputation and how it applies to their roles. I still see many corporate diversity efforts (most not-for-profit and ALL federal-sector efforts) relegated to window dressing. Seen your budget shrink? That’s evidence of a sorting process, and you need to focus on getting that reversed. It starts with connecting the dots between your efforts and strategic trends.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post Ask the White Guy: Why Do People Get Tired of Diversity? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Photo: George Gojkovic/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images

 Rush Limbaugh is paying the price for his latest misogynistic comment. In today’s social-media world, where everything is on immediate public display, advertisers are fleeing his show. 

Limbaugh has made racist, homophobic and anti-women comments before without major repercussions. But this time, after he called Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for advocating for women’s reproductive rights, the public outcry has been immediate and intense, thanks to Facebook and Twitter. He apologized, but the damage has been done, as eight major advertisers have pulled the plug. These include: Quicken Loans, Sleep Train, Sleep Number, Citrix Systems, Carbonite, LegalZoom, ProFlowers and, most recently, AOL.

Social Media: Viral & Unforgiving 

Similar to our recent news analysis of Lowe’s Muslim publicity gaffe, Limbaugh’s repercussions all too clearly showcase the unforgiving nature of social media. Social media has evolved in the last few years from an online networking tool to a powerful medium for the viral spread of information, especially corporate and political publicity gaffes. 

Social-media users were quick to lobby Limbaugh’s advertisers to pull advertising from the show. A real-time Twitter report shows that Quicken loans received approximately 1,500 tweets and LegalZoom received more than 1,200 tweets within 24 hours, while Facebook had two anti-Limbaugh pages by Saturday with more than 18,000 and 6,000 likes. Additionally, the petition posted on Left Action website’s Boycott Rush page had almost 50,000 signatures within 24 hours.

What’s essential these days is speed of reaction. If someone offends or states something not in line with corporate values, a response must be immediate. Limbaugh’s delayed apology on Saturday (three days after the incident and two days after Fluke’s response on Thursday) did little to quell the viral backlash. ProFlowers said Sunday on its Facebook page that Limbaugh’s remarks “went beyond political discourse to a personal attack and do not reflect our values as a company.” 

The radio host has a long history of inappropriate and controversial comments, which can easily be found with a simple Google search. But this is the first time advertisers have deserted him in droves. Here’s a short example of some of his past remarks: 

• [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] once tried to join the Marines … They didn’t have uniforms or boots big enough to fit that butt and those ankles. (Sept. 23, 2009) 

• Obama’s got a healthcare logo that’s right out of Adolf Hitler’s playbook … Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate. (Aug. 6, 2009)  

• Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream. (April 10, 2009)  

• Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it. (Jan. 19, 2007)  

A Lesson in Corporate Values 

Limbaugh is neither the first nor the last to experience the repercussions of today’s instant-feedback social media. Here are some of our related examples: 

Jeremy Lin & Racism: 3 Ways to Stop Dangerous Stereotypes
Asian basketball star Jeremy Lin has become the subject of jokes and racist comments. What can you do to prevent stereotyping in your organization? 

Did Komen’s Lack of Board Diversity Cause Its Crisis?
The nonprofit organization’s board of directors is mostly Texan, homogeneous and wealthy. Here’s how the lack of diversity fueled its misstep over funding to Planned Parenthood. 

‘Blacks Should Not Be Satisfied With Food Stamps’: The Dangers of Stereotypes
Dr. Claude Steele, educator and expert on stereotypes, gives advice on the dangers of these kinds of misstatements, their impact on the workplace and how to handle them. 

‘I’m Puerto Rican – I’d Be Great at Selling Drugs’; ‘Not Married? She Must Be a Lesbian’
ABC’s comedy “Work It” has offended Latinos, LGBT people, TV critics and viewers. How can a company use its employee-resource groups, diversity councils and clarity of values to prevent multicultural missteps?

Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong
Are you violating your values? If you are, you can’t hide from the repercussions.

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