Date of Completion

Fall 12-7-2015

Degree Type

Practicum

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Department

Public Administration

Committee Chair/First Advisor

William E. Baker, Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper studies different diversity training programs and diversity policies employed in managing an increasingly diverse workforce of six jurisdictions that are comparable in size and in diversity. It asked what level of support do these public administrators receive from the leadership team in promoting diversity and inclusion and how do they evaluate and measure the diversity programs’ performance? What are the challenges of public administrators in establishing and cultivating an equitable and supportive diverse workforce that is reflective of the diverse public that they serve? This paper also examines how well the employee demographic representing the public of each jurisdiction. Diversity includes a wide spread of attributes according to many scholars. For practical purposes, this research considers three diversity attributes which most organizations report to the Equal Employment Opportunity office annually: race and ethnicity, gender and disability. A two-step approach was employed in this study. First, it conducted an exploration of employment percentage of the attributes. Second, it conducted a structured interview with six questions. Findings are presented in matrix forms. Each of the six jurisdictions has some employee demographics do represent the public that they serve. For example, Fulton and Mecklenburg counties are the top two jurisdictions that best represent their citizens in terms of gender statistics. Most of the jurisdictions do not track any disability data. All six jurisdictions has no diversity policy and reaching out to a diverse applicant pool is the number one challenge that managers and administrators encounter in establishing and cultivating an equitable and supportive workplace.

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