Managing Diversity in U.S. Federal Agencies: Effects of Diversity and Diversity Management on Employee Perceptions of Organizational Performance

• Published in: Public administration review Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 109 - 121
• Main Authors: Choi, Sungjoo, Rainey, Hal G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2010; Wiley Subscription Services; American Society for Public Administration
• Subjects: Affirmative action; Business management; Conflict Resolution; Corporate culture; Cultural diversity; Cultural Pluralism; Current Trends in Public Personnel Administration; Decision making; Demography; Diversity in the workplace; Diversity indices; Empirical research; Evidence; Federal employees; Gender; Government Agencies; Government Employees; Heterogeneous Grouping; Homogeneous Grouping; Human Capital; Human resources; Identity theory; Labor Force; Laboratories; Management; Minorities; Multiculturalism; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Nonprofit organizations; Organizational Culture; Organizational Effectiveness; Organizational performance; Perceptions; Personnel Data; Personnel management; Public administration; Public sector; Racial diversity; Recruitment; Researchers; Studies; Teams; U.S.A; United States; Validity; Work place; Workforce; Workplace diversity; Workplaces; United States > US
• ISSN: 0033-3352; 1540-6210
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02115.x

Diversity in the workplace is a central issue for contemporary organizational management. Concomitantly, managing increased diversity deserves greater concern in public, private, and nonprofit organizations. The authors address the effects of diversity and diversity management on employee perceptions of organizational performance in U.S. federal agencies by developing measures of three variables: diversity, diversity management, and perceived organizational performance. Drawing from the Central Personnel Data File and the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey, their findings suggest that racial diversity relates negatively to organizational performance. When moderated by diversity management policies and practices and team processes, however, racial diversity correlates positively with organizational performance. Gender and age diversity and their interactions with contextual variables produce mixed results, suggesting that gender and age diversity reflect more complicated relationships. This article provides evidence for several benefits derived from effectively managing diversity.