To reduce discrimination and achieve a sustainable integration of an increasingly diverse workforce, organizations invest considerable time and money into diversity training. Some feel that tolerance acts as a vehicle to overcoming the barriers to learning in diversity training. Tolerance, however, can be interpreted in different ways and Von Bergen (Von Bergen, C. W. (2013). Misconstrued Tolerance: Issues for Multicultural and Diversity Training. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 27(2), 9-12.) and his colleague (Von Bergen, C. W., & Collier, G. (2013). Tolerance as Civility in Contemporary Workplace Diversity Initiatives. Administrative Issues Journal, 3(1), 86-97.) define the idea of tolerance somewhat differently than what many diversity trainers present. Please read these two articles and discuss them in this thread. Do you agree with the authors? Why and/or why not? Is tolerance overrated?
