" The human resource professional must be collaborators with management in overcoming practices rooted in the old mindset and redesigning human resource systems for cultural diversity. .
By the year 2000, seventy-five percent of jobs will require computer knowledge and skills, and consequently, new kinds of workplace training for a multi-cultural workforce ("Needed: Human, 1988"). Because of the requirements for new job skills, many organizations such as Mobil Corporation, Apple Computer, Xerox, Honeywell, Digital Equipment, Proctor & Gamble, and Hewlett-Packard have not only been sensitive to the changing pool of employees and the needs they bring (Filipowski, 1993) but have speared a key training program series called "Valuing Diversity." In doing so, they have developed an entrepreneurial labor force by recognizing everyone is not the same; there are differences.
This influx of significant numbers of minorities into the workplace provides the HRM an opportunity to design and implement programs that will contribute substantially to the profitability of the organization. At the same time, it will allow the culturally diverse workforce to prove their personal and professional competencies to the organization. The human resource professional will have to devote an inordinate amount of time and attention to the impact of workplace training on the fulfillment of organizational goals and vision. Within this diverse workforce, it is important for the human resource professional to design, implement, and evaluate training and development programs that do not stereotype or make assumptions on cultural backgrounds, because values, and needs vary within and across demographic categories. Also, American corporations must employ new models of management to ensure employees of different cultural backgrounds will no longer be disportionately represented in the workforce. This requires knowledge about how organizations function, as well as new evaluations and decision-making skills.
