Business Case Studies & Business Publications

And Now The Hard Part: Role-Plays

Davidson, Martin N...

Case

And Now The Hard Part: Role-Plays

Davidson, Martin N.; Yemen, Gerry

OB-0965 | Published October 14, 2008 | 13 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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"The diversity lady has a label on her forehead and talks about the standard message," one senior executive at a large corporation said. "It's the same message we got 20 years ago. We do it annually but employees never get any of that. I've never had a diversity talk to my staff." Traditional diversity initiatives generally focus on specific dimensions of difference such as gender, race, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, or religion. This material involves role-plays among a diverse group of players that encourage inclusion of a broader scope of social-identity differences such as diversity of problem-solving styles and emotional intelligence differences.

Help students build expertise in understanding the impact diversity can have on broad organizational functioning. Encourage skillful handling of situations dealing with feedback, conflict, and talent assessment. Afford students an opportunity to develop persuasion techniques. Role-playing helps students learn to think on their feet as they plan to take action and implement the details.