Rationale
The Machpherson Report, first published in February 1999, dramatically altered the way we view and understand equal opportunities in the workplace. The report gave us the term ‘institutional racism’ and helped us to understand the effect that organisations can have on disadvantaged groups both within their workforce and in the wider community at large.
Since the report the concept of equal opportunity has evolved from being a policy into a set of practical activities and measures that large scale organisations can put in place to combat institutional discrimination.
The report showed that much discriminatory action or behaviour within an organisation can be unknowing or unwitting and highlighted the importance of training to build understanding of racism awareness (see recommendation 54, MacPherson Report).
The Engaging Diversity Development Partnership (Engaging Diversity DP) aimed to create an approach to learning that would engage high volumes of people at work and be easy to deploy and manage within large scale organisations.
In order to inspire real motivation to change behaviour the learning needed to operate in the affective (emotional) domain of individuals. The Engaging Diversity DP also wanted to use an imaginative approach to building awareness of diversity to help combat the inertia of many organisational cultures.
A 2004 CIPD report called Driving Diversity Progress suggests that changing attitudes among any workforce is possible. The emphasis of the Engaging Diversity learning programme would be on engaging, empowering and energising people through consistent messages delivered over time.
