Mary Gowan, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, was a presenter at the 2011 Joint Triad HR Leadership, Diversity, and Inclusion Conference held at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday, May 17. The conference theme was "What's Next? HR & the New Frontier."
Dean Gowan spoke to 80 human resource managers during her session, “Moving from ‘Mini-Me’ to Diversity and Inclusion in Succession Planning.” The term “mini-me” has been used to describe the tendency in organizations to provide opportunities for development and promotion of people who look like and have similar characteristics to the people making the employment decisions.
Gowan’s session included discussion of the most critical factors for succession planning and the importance of integrating diversity into those plans to attract, develop and retain a diverse workforce.
Sponsors of the conference included the Greensboro, Winston Salem, High Point, and Alamance County chapters of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Gowan is a member of the SHRM Foundation Board of Directors.