Modeling the Impact of Diversity Management

Abstract

Public management research on diversity suffers from a lack of coherence and little theory building. There have been few attempts to establish a comprehensive theoretical framework through which streams of research can unite and better inform public managers—rather, issues of recruitment, management, and cultural values are pursued as wholly separate areas of inquiry. This article critically evaluates the current ways in which public management research addresses the diversity issue and proposes a new comprehensive model for research. The model is based on three functions of diversity management: recruiting and outreach, building cultural awareness, and promoting pragmatic management policy. These functions are linked to organizational performance through a series of intermediate steps, and the resulting model for quantitative analysis is specified.