women and the workforce minimize the risk of sex discrimination and harassment claims: (1) Company Policies and Procedures: Ensure that effective, wellcommunicated, up-to-date sexual harassment and other EEO policies and practices are in effect that comply with Federal, state, and local requirements, and that the company has standard and uniform methods for documenting personnel actions, including hiring, promotions, discipline, termination, and internal investigations as required based on allegations brought to the company’s attention. (2) Effective Internal Complaint Processes: Ensure that the company maintains effective internal complaint processes, i.e., all employees are aware of how to report and file a complaint; all complaints are investigated thoroughly in a timely manner; retaliation against employees for filing complaints is emphatically forbidden
grinch
Continued from page 107
Continued from page 109
and violations are strictly enforced; and when misconduct is substantiated, appropriate, swift and consistent discipline is appropriately administered. (3) Monitor Workplace and Workforce Practices: Gather and monitor informal and formal complaints to help promptly identify and remedy any potential problems areas or vulnerabilities. (4) Employee Training and Education Programs: Conduct thorough and comprehensive training and education programs for all employees, especially managers, as relates to the company’s policies, applicable laws, prohibited conduct and the company’s practices as relates to violations related thereto. (5) Prompt Response to Significant Allegations: Promptly and effectively address any actual, perceived, or potential gender inequities, before they grow into significant employee
group complaints. While there are no actions guaranteed to insulate a company from employment discrimination allegations, prudent major corporations will seek to enhance diversity and inclusion, and minimize legal and business exposure, by implementing the types of actions set forth above. Each of these practices are intended to work together and complement each other in the development of a comprehensive program to encourage a positive work environment. Weldon Latham is a Senior Partner and Practice Group Leader of the Holland & Knight LLP Corporate Diversity Counseling Group. He serves as Counsel to the Coca-Cola Procurement Advisory Council; Chair, Deloitte & Touche LLP Diversity Advisory Board; and General Counsel, National Coalition of Minority Businesses. www.hklaw.com. Special thanks to Paul Thomas and Sylvia James for their assistance in this article. PDJ
George F. Simons
Cultural policy
marketing feeding frenzy. What little is left after this flood is often a caricature or an Epcot version of the original culture, which can then be marketed as a cultural commodity as if it were the real thing.
A universal declaration of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 2001 asserted that, “Cultural diversity is as necessary for the human race as biodiversity is for the survival of living things.” Smaller cultures generally have no way of resisting the onslaught. They shrivel and disappear into natural history museums. Resistance on the part of religious groups to cultural invasion as in numerous Muslim areas today is too easily dismissed by the U.S as fundamentalism or despotism. More and more cultures, like natural environments, are rendered increasingly fragile and eventually destroyed by the American media and
In a few places such as Quebec, France, and Croatia, policymakers are attempting to put teeth into defending indigenous culture by promoting laws and providing subsidies that protect the cultural patrimony from the juggernaut industrie hollywoodienne and encourage development of local culture and the arts. UNESCO-sponsored legislation is coming into force shortly to stiffen this resistance, though one suspects “too little, too late.” Americans find it incomprehensible that much of the world currently sees the U.S. as the greatest threat to world peace. It will be even more shocking to hear that the U.S. is the world’s greatest threat to
Beneath the self-righteous rhetoric, the real problem is that they keep us from making another buck abroad.
page 110
Holland & Knight LLP
Profiles in Diversity Journal
•
November/December 2003
diversity. This is a paradox in which America would do well to understand rather than resist or dismiss, because it speaks to what is happening domestically as well as around the world. Globalism promises much. But the challenge is to avoid the brutal marginalization of cultural variety and instead encourage rich and diverse forms of cultural expression that are still vital. It calls us to integrity around the concept and practice of diversity that we have so well enunciated in the past two decades. Dr. George F. Simons is President of George Simons International (GSI) and an intercultural and diversity specialist. His most recent work is Putting Diversity to Work (2003, Crisp Publications, Inc.) with Simma Lieberman and Kate Berardo. He writes from Europe, where he is involved in the development of intercultural media and online initiatives. For more information, visit www.diversophy.com or by email at gsimons@diversophy.com. PDJ
1-800-573-2867 www.diversityjournal.com