Leveraging Diversity to Appeal to an Expanding and Diversifying Customer Base for Long-Term Performance in General Parts Inc.’s Industry

"Leveraging Diversity to Appeal to an Expanding and Diversifying Customer Base for Long-Term Performance in General Parts Inc.’s Industry: A Comprehensive Training Curriculum for Leaders and Teammates."


Abstract
The strategic-leverage of a diversity initiative for General Parts Inc. (GPI), the parent company of Carquest and Worldpac, was studied. A multi-activity intervention based on this program was also designed using the following resources: Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction; The Society for Human Resource Management; Langdon, Whiteside, and McKenna’s “Intervention Resource Guide”; Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr.’s “Building on the Promise of Diversity; Diversity Executive Magazine; and automotive industry diversity authority Monica Emerson.

Introduction
As charged, a lesson plan to address a diversity issue as a training solution was designed by using a case study, feedback, texts, resources, and a template.

Case Study Description
General Parts Inc. (GPI), parent company of Carquest and Worldpac, wanted to become a “global brand of excellence”. Nine steps were created to journey the initiative.

Concerns
Although ideal, certain Diversity Journey Steps (DJS) as co-identified with Global Lead Management Consulting gave cause for concern.

Discussion
What was learned from feedback
Questions arose including who the diversity initiative was aimed at/to. Suggestions included: cross-cultural training, bottom-line focus on cause of training and the desired solution

What was learned from published text, “Building on the Promise of Diversity”
When crafting Strategic Diversity Management ™, it is important to apply the following roadmap: use multiple activities to help sustain diversity intervention progress.

Interventions
Training interventions considered in the design
Complementary interventions included: Customer Feedback, Just-In-Time Training, Performance Analysis, and Results-Based Management.
Description of intervention deployed in the design
Action Learning was adopted to fully sustain Strategic Diversity Management ™.

Lesson Plan
Title: “Leveraging Diversity: A training curriculum for leaders & teammates.” Date: December 7, 2008 Instructional Designer: Monique Burey-Ballard
PLEASE CONTACT VIA EMAIL (moniball77@yahoo.com) FOR A COPY

REFERENCES
*Alden, J. (1999). Results-Based Management. In D. Langdon, K. Whiteside, & M. McKenna
(Eds.), Intervention Resource Guide: 50 Performance Improvement Tools (pp. 330-336). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Pfeiffer.

*Brethower, D.M. (1999). Performance Analysis. In D. Langdon, K. Whiteside, & M. McKenna
(Eds.), Intervention Resource Guide: 50 Performance Improvement Tools (pp. 280-286). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Pfeiffer.

*Burey-Ballard, M. (2008, November 24). Monica Emerson, Diversity Consultant. [Creation date: Monday, November 24, 2008 1:33:52 PM CST]. Retrieved December 07, 2008, from Discussion Board Message posted to http://blackboard.roosevelt.edu/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_120993_1&conf_id=29803&forum_id=46896&nav=discussion_board_entry&thread_id=1445690&message_id=1445690

*DiBenedetto, J.E. (2008). Case Study: Shifting Diversity Into Overdrive. Diversity Executive,
1(2), 60-62. Retrieved from November 24, 2008, from http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mediatec/de_200811/

*Gardenswartz, L. & Rowe, A. (1999). Workplace Diversity: A Product of the SHRM ®
Diversity Initiative. Retrieved December 7, 2008, from http://www.shrm.org/diversity/buskit699.pdf

*Marquardt, M.J. (1999). Action Learning. In D. Langdon, K. Whiteside, & M. McKenna (Eds.),
Intervention Resource Guide: 50 Performance Improvement Tools (pp. 52-58). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Pfeiffer.

*Phillips, B. (Interviewer) & Emerson, M. (Interviewee). (2004, January 12). Keeping the Dream Alive: Tips from the High-flying Icons of Diversity [Interview transcript]. Retrieved from Black Engineer on November 22, 2008, from http://www.blackengineer.com/artman/publish/printer_183.shtml

*Razvi, M. (2008). Assignment 6[Diversity by Design Lesson Plan] Template. Retrieved
September 17, 2008, from http://blackboard.roosevelt.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_120993_1

*Rothwell, W. (1999). On-The-Job Training (OJT). In D. Langdon, K. Whiteside, & M.
McKenna (Eds.), Intervention Resource Guide: 50 Performance Improvement Tools (pp. 243-250). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Pfeiffer.

*Thomas, R. R. (2006). Building on the Promise of Diversity: How We Can Move to the Next
Level in Our Workplaces, Our Communities, and Our Society. New York: AMACOM.

*Zemke, R. (1999). Customer Feedback. In D. Langdon, K. Whiteside, & M. McKenna (Eds.),
Intervention Resource Guide: 50 Performance Improvement Tools (pp. 131-141). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Pfeiffer.