An increasing number of Japanese firms are promoting diversity management to corporate value and growth. However, for many companies, initiatives promoting the capabilities of diverse human resources （HR） have not led to the anticipated growth. This study focused to get some implications about HR and workplace management from interview surveys with German and Swiss companies that have been practicing diversity management. Interviewed subjects comprised managers and officers in charge of HR diversity at seven large global enterprises （manufacturing and financial sectors） that have been proactively practicing diversity management.
The analytical findings are as follows.
It is believed that the authority of HR functions concentrated in personnel department should be weakened and the role of managers and individual employees in this matter should be enhanced if diversity management is to be promoted and made the norm at Japanese firm. Moreover, German and Swiss firms can provide a model in this regard. While they value the judgments of managers and the concurrence and choices of employees, they are building supportive mechanisms that will steer the career decisions of managers and employees in the appropriate direction.
Managers build diverse teams that will have a positive effect on their departments through hiring processes. Furthermore, they act to correct disparities and maintain fairness, based on the understanding that certain types of diversity, such as gender, lead to disparities in performance among subordinates. Simultaneously, they make their diverse teams understand what they think and fully share their departmental goals.
As teams become more diverse, managers need to take advantage of this diversity while pursuing the shared goals of their diverse team. Decentralizing the authority of HR functions to managers has both advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to discuss what extent HR department should delegate responsibility for its functions to managers who supervise diverse teams.
