Attitudes Toward Diversity: Determining Differences by Social Locators

• Main Author: Sympson, Stacey
• Format: Others
• Published: TopSCHOLAR® 1999
• Subjects: Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Race and Ethnicity; Sociology
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/759; http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1762&context=theses

Diversity training in workplaces is occurring across the U.S. at a growing rate. These programs attempt to make work environments more pluralistic for everyone. Conflict and feminist theory both agree that those with less power will see issues in a different way than will those with more power. This research involved a questionnaire administered to employees at a governmental agency in a small city in the Southeastern United States. Indices were used to measure attitudes toward diversity and sexual orientation. T-tests and multiple regressions were employed to determine the differences in employees' attitudes toward the two dependent variables. Results from 175 returned questionnaires showed females, nonwhites, and employees with fewer years of employment had more positive attitudes toward diversity and equality based on sexual orientation than did males, whites, and employees with a large number of years in the workforce.