A foreign-affiliated company in Japan. The company’s business has been growing recently, and management has stepped up its hiring. Recruitment is open not only to Japanese entry-level staff, but also to mid-career workers, foreign labor forces and employees with disabilities.

The recruiting efforts have been successful and, as a result, a new and diverse workforce is emerging – with the resulting variety of attitudes, values and viewpoints. (However, along with the positive aspects of the newly-diversified workforce, several new and serious problems have surfaced – among them, sexual harassment.) In order to help their employees enjoy working and encourage them to make the most of their unique skills and strengths, as well as overcome emerging difficulties, the company planned a half-day workshop for managers. The workshop’s fundamental goal? To better understand and engage in new thinking about a “diverse” environment:
-- To help managers see the concept of “diversity” in a positive light
-- To help managers re-think their professional roles in the company’s new and diverse environment, in order to grow into an even stronger organization.

Line managers from all sections.

The word “diversity” is often misunderstood. Companies frequently use it when they want to announce that they are open to hiring and promoting women, adding to their senior workforce, and bringing on employees of different nationalities, etc.
For managers, however, a “diverse” organization is sometimes viewed only as a workforce filled with multicultural backgrounds; they imagine it to be a complicated environment, and so think of it negatively.
This session was organized to eliminate this misunderstanding, and help managers realize that a “diverse” environment can contribute to the creation of a new and powerful team. The trainer facilitates the course by conducting quizzes and lecturing.

In this session, attendees are asked to imagine a reverse situation: what would it be like to manage in a “non-diverse” environment? By switching their point of view, attendees are encouraged to see the importance of a “diverse” environment.

Attendees are split into several groups and discuss case studies. Realistic cases, which could actually occur in their future, are presented as studies in diversity. By discussing and formulating solutions to each problem, attendees come to understand that there is no single, unique answer for these problems.