Diversity and Inclusion has been the topic of the month. Last week, Community Business sponsored the Diversity and Inclusion conference with over 200 participants, a fantastic line up of speakers and impressive list of corporate sponsors.
In the same week, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) held their annual meeting to honor the banking industry leaders in diversity. Read, Susan Antilla’s article, No News is Bad News for Women on Wall Street on Bloomberg and you will find….. well…. “there wasn’t alot to report.”
This week, Diversity Best Practices and Working Mother Media are holding a conference in Beijing offering a deep dive into Diversity issues facing China. Looking at the line up of speakers, it’s mostly multinationals sharing knowledge and challenges they’re facing in China.
Despite the focus, few organizations have explored the concept of Diversity across the multiple countries in the Asia Pacific Region. Similar to other corporate initiatives, there appears to be a one size fits all model, which might good for the bottom line but ultimately misses the subtle nuances and differences across countries and organizations.
Similar to leadership theories, diversity programs are generally constructed and defined by European and American terms. Very little has been written or researched on the definition of diversity and how this concept is actualized across the various cultures in the Asia Pacific Region.
Tailoring Diversity programs may very well be the next stage of development in building gender rich, culturally aware organizations.
Stay tuned.
