Learn to embrace the tension of diversity
Harvard Business Review
As leaders, the rich diversity of culture and thought around the world is one of our greatest resources — if we use it as such. Differences of ideas, methods, motivations, and competencies can be used to build great organizations. However, this wonderful resource can be a double-edge sword as cross-cultural exchanges present unlimited possibilities for misunderstandings and cultural blunders.More

Report: Most hospitals lack gay nondiscrimination policies
Advocate
President Barack Obama's April memorandum ordering hospitals to ensure visitation rights for same-sex partners will radically change how the vast majority of U.S. health care institutions currently treat gay and lesbian patients, a new study finds.More

Discrimination now more subtle
HR.BLR.com
The nature of discrimination claims is changing, a new study found. When the antidiscrimination laws were enacted a half century ago, discrimination was often blatant. Employers would state outright that they were unwilling to hire blacks or that a certain job "wasn't suitable for a lady." Today, the picture is more complex.More

Redefining Gen Y
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
The point of generational analysis — indeed, of understanding any dimension of diversity — is the recognition that unique formative experiences condition us to see and act differently. Because members of any single generation have lived through the same times and shared many formative experiences, common themes tend to characterize how they behave. Not surprisingly, this shows up acutely in the workplace.More

Americans support laws to prohibit weight discrimination
Health News - HealthCanal.com
American adults are in favor of legislation to prohibit weight discrimination, particularly in the workplace, according to a Yale University study published online in the journal Obesity.More

When social networking and the workplace collide
Human Resource Executive Online
According to a recent Forrester Research survey, more than 4-in-5 U.S. online adults use social media at least once a month. Moreover, another recently commissioned survey suggests that almost 80 percent of job recruiters and hiring managers in the United States have reviewed online information posted to social-networking sites and blogs to screen job candidates. Yet, despite the widespread use of social-networking websites by both employers and employees, recent polls suggest that employers are not adequately addressing the business implications of using social networking websites.More

Beastly toward beauty?
The Morning Call
In an odd twist of timing, a new book about workplace discrimination against the "unattractive" has coincided with a lawsuit by a woman who claims she was fired because she was too attractive. Deborah L. Rhode, a Stanford law professor and the author of "The Beauty Bias," thinks that "looksism" is such a pervasive problem that the only recourse is to impose laws similar to those designed to combat discrimination based on race and gender. This would mean (to cite two real-life examples of alleged beauty bias) Hooters waitresses couldn't be fired for gaining weight and managers at Abercrombie & Fitch couldn't monitor their sales staff for acne breakouts. Moreover, Rhode argues, such laws would serve as a corrective to what she sees as commonplace attractiveness prejudice.More