J. Mike Hateley Northrop Gurmman

The Northrop Grumman Story

As a major division of a 50,000-employee corporation, Northrop Grumman's Military Aircraft Systems Division finds its staff well-diversified in a wide range of areas, including ethnic backgrounds, and job experiences.  But diversification isn't enough.  "It's maximizing diversity in the workforce that is the real integral part to achieving business success," says J. Mike Hateley, corporate vice president of personnel at the Northrop Grumman headquarters in Los Angeles.

The Military Aircraft Systems Division produces and supports the most advanced long-range bombers in the world (the stealthy B-2 Spirits along with other sophisticated weapons systems, such as the F-14 Tomcat fighter and major sections of the F/A-18 hornet and Super Hornet strike fighters).

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading designer, systems integrator and manufacturer of military surveillance and combat aircraft, defense electronics and systems, aerospace management and information systems aerospace management and information systems, marine propulsion, precision weapons, space systems, and commercial and military aero structures.  The Military Aircraft Systems Division employs about 14,000 people in California, New York, Florida, Louisiana and North Dakota.

Hateley has worked for Northrop Grumman for the past 22 years.  He is responsible for human resources planning, workforce diversity, employee relations, executive development, ethics, and resources information systems.

Being a California native of Hispanic decent, Hateley has adopted a broadly conceived and bottom-line oriented view of the diverse workplace.  "We still recognize there is room for improvement, particularly in our senior management ranks.  However, diversity has not been a numbers for us," he says.  "Leadership needs to be engaged and own the strategy.  Our mangers understand that subordinates contribute more when they come from diverse backgrounds."

These strategies, Hateley claims, deal with training, mentoring and leadership dialogues - key initiatives used by Northrop Grumman to address diversity.  "In the past year, we capitalized on this support by advancing these three initiatives to maximize the diversity of our work force.  I would not assert we are the role model, but I would assert that the vector is in the right direction when it comes to achieving this goal," Hateley says.

Training

The company's training initiative is part of its annual learning conference used also to address many other development needs for managers.  "We have not offered classes in how to do diversity," he says.  "Instead, we use the conference to help stimulate thinking about diversity, in both quantitative, it's-good-for-business terms as well as qualitative, people-are-are-most-important-asset insights.  This training helps to demonstrate that embracing diversity is equivalent to full us of human resources."

Rather than hearing a politically correct, morally based lecture, managers learned at the diversity course that diversity is both a leadership and a business imperative.  The key notion was for managers to being using and developing all their people to their fullest potential.  Filing to do so, Hateley comments, wastes valuable resources.  this attitude helps to emphasize that diversity efforts are inclusive of all people, and not just targeted at any one group.

But training is not enough, Hateley says.  For this reason, training combined with mentoring is essential to achieving the common goal

Mentoring

At its formation, Hateley believes the mentoring program has potential to groom future leaders and executive  from all backgrounds.  "It is imperative that the protégés (or partners, as we call them) broadly represent women and minorities from the very beginning," he says.

"I'm proud to say that the mentoring program we began in 1995 is still [receiving] strong support and participation from the highest management levels," Hateley says.  "It gives everyone who is involved insight into diverse backgrounds and [into] diverse areas of the company.  We see it as an outstanding method to unleash the fullest potential in people"

"Our mentoring efforts have evolved to where participants to where participants are now matched based on mutual learning interests," he adds.  "In other words, protégés indicate the development they want to obtain.  They are then matched with a mentor who has that expertise.  Considering we are all accomplishing large statements of work, while also dealing with mergers, potential mergers, plant closures, downsizing and retention, we need to develop all the expertise we have."

Leadership Dialogues

According to Hateley, nearly every manager in thye division participated in diversity training program in 1997.  In almost every sesion, someone asked a variation of the question: "What do i do in my organization to achieve diversity?". Hateley comments that it seems as though people were looking for a 12-step program to achieve diversity.  This was not the mission.  Instead, the company implemented a dialogue process, patterned after the annual national Days of Dialogue conference.  Do far, dialogues have been built on a foundation of mutual respect, mutual meaning and mutual purpose.

"We trusted our employees to use these sessions, not just to point a finger at management, but as opportunities for understanding, listening and problem solving.  And they have,"  Hateley says.

In fact, several hundred employees have taken full advantage of at least on e dialogue session and many are coming back.

These efforts, along with training and mentoring, have helped provide the Northrop Grumman's division with the necessary tools to maximize  diversity.  Although there are still diversity challenges in the organization, Hateley says, "these tree initiatives demonstrate the value of focusing on diversity and cultivating a mind set that both values and integrates diversity.

"Thus, the work force that is performing to its fullest potential will produce the results that its customers and shareholders expect, and that our employees expect of themselves."   

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