Creating defining moments: A study examining the experience and impact of corporate diversity and inclusion training

Injustices and inequities continue to rise globally. It impacts every community and every industry, specifically in corporate organizations. Companies invest millions to offer diversity and inclusion training to address challenges in their respective community and often within their own business (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016). While training is the popular solution leaders rely on, it does not often produce the desired outcomes that organizations hoped for. Companies continue to have diversity and inclusion issues arise in their company that include lack of diversity, lack of empathy, and lack of ability to grow and be inclusive of minority groups. This quantitative and qualitative inquiry will explore how diversity and training can have a positive impact in an organization. To discover this ability, the study will evaluate a sports and entertainment company located in Texas. The company offers a required course on unconscious bias that all employees must complete. The researcher evaluates the employee’s experience in the training session, understands how they uniquely define diversity and inclusion and seeks to understand their perception on how the training course has made an impact of the organization. The study will include the findings from the research and describe the three themes that emerged: 1) diversity and inclusion is defined based on personal experience and background (2) diversity and inclusion training must connect to organizational practices and policies to create system change (3) courageous conversations and having an open mind are critical components of being a diverse and inclusive individual. The study concludes with implications for corporate organizations and recommendations on how to further this research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Morgan Venice

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ward Hood, Denice
• Pak, Yoon
• Huang, Wenhao D
• Trent, William

• Diversity And Inclusion
• Corporate Training And Development
• Unconscious Bias
• Leadership
• Organizational Culture
• Learning And Development
• Training Evaluation
• Organizational Impact

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Morgan Jones

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127330

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127330