3 November

IS THE INTEL EXPERIENCE A SIGN OF A DIVERSITY BACKLASH?

Just at the point when you could be forgiven for thinking that diversity in the workplace was about to take its place alongside Mom and Apple Pie – something so unarguably good that it’s almost superfluous to say so – along comes the backlash.

Having taken bold steps towards creating diversity-oriented teams by introducing new gender and ethnicity inclusion policies, Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, has been faced with a seriously negative reaction from a number of white male employees who feel that being ‘white’ and being ‘male’ is now a serious disadvantage.

Indeed, so aggrieved are some of them that unspecified threats have been made against certain members of the leadership team.

Is the Intel experience a sign of a Diversity backlash?

The reality is that it’s a natural human instinct to feel comfortable in homogenous groups – we like being with people ‘like us’. And having the security of that environment ‘threatened’ by a diversity policy, or a diktat from on high as it may well seem, can cause real resentment.

To read the full blog post:http://www.neelabettridge.com