Diversity and Performance: A Shotgun Marriage?

Books and articles promoting “diversity” abound. Many of their authors are not clear what they mean by diversity. Many seem to be naive about the amount of conflict “diversity” can engender. And almost all authors assume–without presenting any meaningful evidence–that diversity is somehow good for organizations. This article attempts to define diversity, suggest the conflict that is often associated with it, and then investigate the conditions (if any) under which diversity with its attendant conflict can benefit the organization.     

How Expert Designers Design

Two studies were carried out with expert educational designers at Arthur Andersen and the Open University of the Netherlands to determine the priorities they employed when designing competence‐based learning environments. Designers in a university context and in a business context agree almost completely on what principles are important, the most important being that one should start a design enterprise from the needs of the learners, instead of the content structure of the learning do main. The main difference between the two groups is that university designers find it extremely important to consider alternative solutions during the whole design process; something that is considerably less important by business designers. University designers also tend to focus on the project plan and the desired characteristics of the instructional blueprint whereas business designers were much more client‐oriented and stressed the importance of “buying in” the client early in the process.