MANAGING DIVERSITY AT
NOAA...
DEFINITIONS & COMMONLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
Managing Diversity Definitions:
(1) Change Agents
Change agents are individuals within an organization, at any level.
They are educated about managing diversity, and committed to facilitating
change by modeling appropriate behaviors. They also take every opportunity
to ensure that systems, policies and practices are flexible enough to work
for everyone, modifying them as appropriate. Change agents include top
leadership, management and employees at every level. Because managing diversity
represents a major change in the management of human resources, without
multi-level change agents implementation will stall. It requires support
from leaders with vision, credibility and authority -- our champions. A
managing diversity champion actively supports the organization's commitment
to managing diversity and is seen by others as a valued member of the current
culture and thus has credibility as the organization moves to the new vision.
(2) Diversity
Diversity is any collective mixture characterized by similarities and
differences. It can refer to people, organizations, systems, etc. As a
consequence, diversity can be defined as, or limited to, any dimension
such as workforce diversity or functional diversity.
(3) Diversity Consultant
Diversity Consultants are change agents who assist the organization
in ensuring systems,
policies and practices (the organizational culture) work for everyone.
Diversity Consultants are NOAA managers or management officials who are
charged with providing support and guidance to other managers and heads
of offices in the implementation of the managing diversity strategy and
in the design of local initiatives. They are change agents who assist the
organization in ensuring systems, policies, practices and behaviors support
managing diversity.
(4) Managing Diversity (MD)
"Managing diversity is a comprehensive managerial process for developing
an environment that works for all employees."(1) Managing diversity
is a culture change process that ensures that the complexities within an
organization (systems, policies and practices) do not benefit any one group
more than another. Managing diversity encourages managers to enable, empower
and influence employees to operate with a set of challenges and opportunities
that will create a harmonious and productive working environment in which
each employee may achieve his or her full potential. Managing diversity
is inclusive, addresses workplace behaviors and understanding differences,
and focuses on an organization's culture and climate. With a managing diversity
capability, organizations are more adaptable to future change. Managing
diversity enhances our understanding of the needs of our employees and
customers so our employees have a better capacity to perform their jobs,
reach professional goals, and achieve NOAA's mission.
(5) Organizational
Assessment (Diagnostic Phase)
Organizational assessment involves discovering where the organization
is today. This process examines systems, policies and practices to ensure
they are flexible enough to support the future state environment. This
phase is at the heart of "managing diversity." It involves data collection
to assess the organizational climate. It can consist of diversity scans
(to see whether there is visible diversity), surveys which are attitudinal
in nature to get a sense of what the work environment is like, cultural
audits (which look at the organization's roots that drive its systems),
assessments of written and unwritten organization policies and procedures,
and reviews of complaint and grievance data. Change to support the effective
management of diversity must take place at a root level to be lasting.
(6) Organizational Culture
"Underlying values, beliefs and principles that serve as a foundation
for the organization's management system, as well as the set of management
practices and behaviors that both exemplify and reinforce those principles."(2)
(7) Understanding Differences
Understanding differences is the awareness and acceptance of differences
among and between people both on an interpersonal and personal level. It
encompasses myriad dimensions such as race, sex, age, thinking style, religion,
sexual orientation, professional degrees, and functionality. This can also
refer to organizations and systems (for example, field offices versus headquarters).
The objective is to enhance interpersonal or interfunctional relationships.
Commonly Asked Questions:
(1) How are affirmative action
(AA) and managing diversity different?
The practices of AA are government initiated, legally mandated, reactive
initiatives that emerged in response to America's historical treatment
of women, minorities and other protected groups. The goal of AA is to ensure
that our workforce reflects the community we serve through assimilation
and to raise the consciousness of employees about the contributions of
groups historically excluded from recognition.
Managing diversity is a non-mandated management approach to creating
an environment that allows all employees and customers to reach their full
potential in pursuit of the organization's mission. It excludes no one.
It is proactive, business linked, requires an assessment of the organizational
culture to ensure that it is supportive of inclusivity, and is an integral
part of our overall mission. All three approaches to workforce issues:
affirmative action, understanding differences and managing diversity are
needed; however, only affirmative action is mandated by law.
(2) Why manage diversity?
Managing diversity provides a process whereby we can carefully assess
where we are organizationally against where we want to be and examine or
modify barriers or inhibitors which prevent us from reaching our goals.
Managing diversity is the only cultural change strategy that focuses on
inclusivity and ensures that the organization's roots support the new vision,
initiatives
and behaviors. If roots (systems, policies or practices) are not supportive,
new initiatives may not succeed. Organizations must step up to the challenge
of effectively managing a diverse workforce, or likely be continually plagued
by high turnover, low morale, limited innovation, lagging productivity
and the inability to recruit and retain the best and brightest diverse
talent.
(3) What is the role of leadership in managing
diversity?
Leaders are responsible for acting as change agents and modeling behaviors
which support the creation of a future state which maximizes the contributions
of employees as they fulfill organizational goals.
Leaders are responsible for ensuring that:
- appropriate workplace behaviors are supported
- systems, policies and practices support vision
- managing diversity principles are integrated into the way of life of the
organization
- the organizational culture and its systems support the vision and are responsive
to environmental changes
- the environment is inclusive
- empowering, influencing and enabling others is practiced
- managing diversity is linked to other organizational change initiatives,
such as reengineering, communications, education and partnerships
(4) What is the role of the employee in managing
diversity?
Every employee is responsible for focusing on inclusion, and appropriate
and supportive workplace behavior. Each employee need not value all the
differences in our external customers and within the NOAA workforce, but
we should learn to acknowledge, accept and understand that similarities
and differences do exist. Each employee can help create a positive work
environment by identifying and working to change rigid practices that are
exclusive of all employees and add no value, and by identifying behaviors
and patterns of doing things, whether are conscious or unconscious, that
are exclusionary. Every employee affects organizational outcomes. With
each employee working on managing diversity, NOAA will move closer to an
environment where all ideas and perspectives are considered in order to
more effectively meet our mission.
END NOTES
1. Beyond Race and Gender, R. Roosevelt Thomas,
1991.
2. Cultural Diversity in Organizations, - Theory,
Research & Practice, Taylor Cox, Jr., 1994.
Back to NOAA Diversity Home Page
