Inclusive workplace is theme of CU conference for community college leaders

By Linda Myers

Lisa Nishii, an assistant professor of human resource studies in Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, is interested in what organizations are doing, or not doing, to adapt to a more multicultural workforce.

Morris Pearson, Mohawk Community College, shows a box representing an inclusive organization where all employees are valued. Looking on, right, is Scott Burnham, Clinton Community College. The creativity exercise in Ives Hall Aug. 5 was part of a Cornell conference of community college administrators. Robert Barker/University Photography

Her area of expertise fit right into the organizational inclusiveness theme of a conference on campus this Aug. 4-6 aimed at senior staff at community colleges and sponsored by the Cornell-based Institute for Community College Development (ICCD).

Those participating in "College and Community: A Working Conference on Inclusion" included 43 upper-level administrators from community colleges in 12 New York counties and five other states. Nishii saw it as the perfect opportunity to survey the participants for a multiyear study that she is doing on how inclusiveness within an organization affects its performance. If they find a clear link, "companies may be willing to invest more" in diversity and inclusion initiatives, she said.

Another Cornell faculty member disseminating her research at the conference was Susan Woods. A senior extension associate at the ILR School's Programs for Employment and Workplace Studies (PEWS), she helped developed a model, Framework for Building Organizational Inclusion, that she shared with attendees.

"What, exactly, constitutes an inclusive organization for you?" Woods asked attendees. After hearing such words and phrases as "engagement," "connectedness," "shared, but not necessarily identical, values" and a "sense of safety," she noted that to create change within an organization "you need a vision" of the way things should be.

"What excited me about the model is it's all about organizational change," said Barbara Viniar, executive director of ICCD, which is housed in the ILR School's Extension Building.

A third Cornell presenter at the conference, Tony Simons, an associate professor of organizational management at the School of Hotel Administration, spoke to participants about his research on the "integrity dividend" and diversity. Simons, who has trademarked the term, has done studies showing that organizations prosper when their managers are seen as having the values they talk about. Simons pointed out that employees are rightly skeptical about diversity talk, as much of it has been empty. Real change, he argued, requires putting resources behind the words.

Two other PEWS affiliates, Robert Rich and Jane Maestro-Scherer also presented, and Robin Ely, a professor at Harvard Business School, spoke via videoconference about leadership and inclusivity. Other presenters were Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble and Pamila Fisher, chancellor, Yosemite Community College District, which has one of the most diverse student groups in the nation. And in a creativity workshop, teams designed boxes with exteriors intended to represent exclusive organizations (spiky, tied up in knots), and interiors that portrayed inclusive ones (bright colored, star-studded). In addition, participants discussed how inclusiveness might shape the student experience.

Viniar is pleased that the conference is starting to raise the profile of ICCD on campus and hopes to involve more Cornell faculty in future initiatives. "Part of our mission is research," she noted. "We're looking for more people at Cornell who have skills that leaders of community colleges might be interested in."

She described ICCD as "a leadership organization" and explained that it is led by a 22-person board of directors that includes three Cornell appointees, the State University of New York vice chancellor for community colleges and 16 college presidents, among others.

Lee Riddell, assistant director of ICCD, manages the conference and other programs. For more information on ICCD, contact Riddell at 255-7758 or iccd@cornell.edu or visit this Web site: http://www.ICCD.cornell.edu.