1. Shifting Demographics
-Contemporary public and private sector workplaces are becoming—and will continue to become—increasingly diversified in terms of ethnicity, gender, race, physical ability, age, and sexual orientation.
-Added to the variation is an increasing reliance on
both technology, and an expanding temporary workforce.
-Such variations provide management the challenge and the opportunity to maintain organizational efficiency and effectiveness without devaluing employees’ diversity,and in the end better serve the American people.
2. Diversity Defined
-Not simply a perpetuation of legal mandates like affirmative-action. Valuing diversity requires the development of strategies to “manage and accommodate effectively diverse peoples in the workplace.”
-The process includes addressing challenges like communication breakdowns, misunderstandings, and outright hostility.
3. Management Strategies
-Top-down intitiatives: commitment from CEOs, agency leaders, mayors, governors, etc.
-Diversity management should be integrated into overall organizational goals, backed by adequate resources, and addressed via appropriate training.
-Flexibility is essential: there is no “one best way” to manage. Instead, strategies are tailored to each organization.
-Managers are the implementers, and accountability rests with them.
-A sense of ownership: everyone’s affected, and so everyone is involved.
4. Pitfalls of Avoiding Diversity
-Organizational ineffectiveness.
-Legal ramifications.
