The current status of diversity initiatives in eight U.S.-based multinational corporations was examined through a process involving semistructured interviews of diversity managers and analysis of their annual reports for fiscal 1996 and related documents. The 8 corporations were randomly selected from the 30 multinational corporations in Illinois. The corporations defined diversity sufficiently broadly that it could include everyone in the organization. Seven factors influenced diversity in these corporations: demographic changes; diverse marketplace; need to improve productivity and remain competitive; globalization; top management's focus on diversity as a business strategy; legal concerns; and diverse work teams. In the corporations studied, 116 domestic diversity initiatives in the following areas were identified: leadership and management, training and education, community relations, communication, performance and accountability, work-life balance, and career development. Although education and training were determined to be the most effective diversity initiatives, companies were placing greatest efforts in leadership and management (which ranked second in effectiveness). The corporations studied were also implementing a variety of diversity initiatives at the international level. (Contains 81 references. Appended are a list of the types of related documents collected and the annual report and related document analysis forms.) (MN)