Book excerpt: Diversity managers who want to integrate cost-effective, battle-tested initiatives dont have enough tools and resources to identify and apply best practices to actual work situations. These programs demand time, energy, and moneyand the empirical evidence about outcomes is limited. The few studies out there contradict each other, which can make it nearly impossible to determine what practices to implement. Dr. Shelton J. Goode, who has spent more than twenty years as a diversity and human resource management professional, cuts through the clutter to help you locate strengths and weaknesses in your diversity strategy. You can learn how to benchmark organizational efforts against the actions other companies have taken to manage diversity; identify outdated paradigms and misguided diversity management initiatives that have prevented others from capitalizing on talent embedded within the ranks; and judge where past efforts have yielded success and which initiatives require a new approach. Despite the importance of linking diversity to the organizations bottom line, there has been no single, comprehensive resource that employees could turn to for guidanceuntil now! Business leaders at every level can find best practices to achieve organizational goals in Diversity Managers: Angels of Mercy or Barbarians at the Gate.