Managing Diversity: An Annotated and Classified Bibliography in (Library) Human Resources
This bibliography provides brief abstracts of recent (2000-present) articles and full-length texts treating diversity in human resources and personnel management. A few texts listed focus specifically on diversity in the library context.
- Age
- Assessment
- Communication
- Customer Relations
- Disability
- Diversity (General)
- Ethnicity
- Globalizatin
- Human Resource Management (General)
- Implementation Strategies
- Libraries
- Public Sector
- Religion
- Sexuality
- Strategic Planning
- Training
- Transgender
Lancaster, L. C., & Stillman, D. (2002). When generations collide: Who they are. Why they clash. How to solve the generational puzzle at work. New York : HarperBusiness.
Writing for a broad audience of employees and managers from all four primary generational groups, corporate communication consultants Lancaster and Stillman aim to create a practical guide to working with and facilitating the efforts of all employees. With chapters describing the generational groups, their career paths and motivations, recruiting and retention strategies for different generations, and likely intergenerational conflicts in the workplace, this book promises to be a useful guide for all sides of workplace age conflicts. However, the authors’ anecdotal and generalized discussions make the text more successful as a broad and easy-to-read introduction to generational conflicts than as a resource for either substantive insight into the root causes of such conflicts or practical strategies for their resolution.
Zemke, R., Raines, C., & Filipczak, B. (2000). Generations at work: Managing the clash of veterans, boomers, xers, and nexters in your workplace. New York : AMACOM.
This text by three training/communication specialists, is rich in practical tools for working with and managing an intergenerational workforce. Particularly useful are the case studies, practice exercises, Q & A section, and two appendices (a survey of workplace “cross-generational friendliness” and a bibliography of web resources for the different generations). Also, while the text focuses on the same generational categories and general descriptions used elsewhere, it provides an especially extensive and useful overview and analysis of the key experiences, motivations, work philosophies, etc. of the four broad generational groups.
De Meuse, K. P., & Hostager, T. J. (2001). Developing an instrument for measuring attitudes toward and perceptions of workplace diversity: An initial report. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 12(1), 33-52. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
The authors, both professors of Management, present the results of the creation and administration of their “Reaction-To-Diversity” (RTD) Inventory in various workplaces over three years. This article is valuable as a discussion of the need for quantifiable measures of the impact of diversity initiatives in the workplace. Likely even more valuable for the HR professional is the author’s inclusion of the RTD Inventory. This inventory and the analysis surrounding it would add an important set of tools for HR managers in understanding and acting on their workplace’s attitudes toward diversity, something that would in turn be invaluable for larger SHRM efforts.
Bowen, F., & Blackmon, K. (2003). Spirals of silence: The dynamic effects of diversity on organizational voice. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1393-1417. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
This article explores the impact of areas of “invisible diversity,” in particular, sexual orientation, on individual and workgroup communications. Using a combination of theoretical and ethnographic analysis the authors make a powerful case for the (mostly) detrimental effects on individuals and their coworker relationships of non-disclosure of invisible aspects of diversity. The theoretical framework of this article, while potentially intimidating for readers used to more practical texts, provides an important analysis of the often insidious impact of the subtle messages sent in the workplace about both obvious and invisible aspects of identity. In cautioning diversity leaders about the importance of working on improving conditions for all aspects of diversity in the workplace, the authors make a useful and timely contribution to the discourse on managing diversity. (Crosslisted under Sexuality)
Sadri, G., & Tran, H. (2002). Managing your diverse workforce through improved communication. The Journal of Management Development, 21(3), 227-237. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
Much of the literature on workplace diversity considers ways to improve employee-employee interactions or ways for managers to recruit and retain a diverse workforce, so this article on the importance of positive supervisor/employee communication to fostering a healthy environment for a diverse workforce, is a welcome additional piece of the diversity picture. The authors provide a brief overview of the literature on diversity in the workplace and then offer their short- and long-term strategies for improving workplace fairness: managing personal growth and mentoring respectively. The authors’ literature review is too perfunctory to be either useful or persuasive, but their supervisor/employee communication strategies and the accompanying implementation case studies usefully articulate these often overlooked diversity management strategies.
Swanson, D. R. (2002). Diversity programs: Attitude and realities in the contemporary corporate environment. Corporate Communications, 7(4), 257-269. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
This article analyzes the results of focus groups and individual interviews treating the topic of diversity conducted with diversity directors and mid-level managers in corporate environments. While several topics are discussed as being of concern to these managers, the author observes that an overarching factor in these topics and in the interviews themselves was the lack of a useful discursive framework for discussing workplace diversity in meaningful ways. The author outlines several training strategies for improving workplace communication about—and therefore thinking about—diversity, among them clarifying organizational diversity goals, articulating the rationale for the diversity program, and making the diversity plan and program transparent to all stakeholders.
Barker, S., & Härtel, C. E. J. (2004). Intercultural service encounters: an exploratory study of customer experiences. Cross Cultural Management, 11(1), 3-14. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
Using ethnographic interviews and analysis to consider the impact of employee diversity on customer satisfaction, the authors argue that a diverse employee pool is important for improving satisfaction among diverse customers. This research provides a specific and documented justification for the sometimes overly vague sense that diversity is a good goal for human resources managers. In this way, the article offers human resources and other diversity managers a way to articulate the importance of diversity initiatives to the larger strategic mission of an institution.
Hogan, G. (2003). The inclusive corporation: A disability handbook for business professionals. Athens , OH : Ohio University Press.
The author, a corporate disability consultant, provides in this book a kind of portable and inexpensive disability consultation. Offering detailed chapters explaining the Americans with Disabilities Act, exploring the relationship of disability to larger diversity initiatives, discussing stereotype and language issues, and analyzing extensive case studies, Hogan’s text is a tremendous resource for all workplaces. Making the work of even more value are the final four chapters—which lay out specific and practical plans for: pre-employment issues, on-the-job issues, marketing and accessibility, and marketing and message issues—and the appendices (checklists for inclusive employment/marketing issues and an extensive resource list). The book’s first chapter provides an overview of the extensive impact of people with disabilities and their loved ones on any customer and employee base, something that could prove useful to managers seeking concrete justifications for their efforts in this area. (Crosslisted under Implementation Strategies)
Aghazadeh, S. M. (2004). Managing workforce diversity as an essential resource for improving organizational performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 53(6), 521-531. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
Aghazadeh, a professor of Management, aims in this essay to lay out strategies for mangers needing to “learn about…understand…and respect diversity.” He addresses five topics: the impact of diversity on organizational culture, strategies for diversity (only equal employment opportunity and affirmative action are discussed), advantages of diversity, disadvantages of diversity, and an organizational case study. Within each topic, though, the author relies largely on assumptions and a scant literature review, the essay aims to do much more than its ten pages and methodology allow.
Cross, E. Y. (2000). Managing diversity: The courage to lead. Westport , CT : Quorum Books.
This text presents a useful orientation to the field of diversity management and an important intervention in that field. Unlike many similar works, the text attends to both the individual emotional issues involved in a diverse workplace as well as the political and structural elements that aid or hamper a diverse workplace. The text provides a careful history and theoretical framework for workplace diversity initiatives as well as case studies of their implementation. The appendices offer further tools for managers working on diversity: essays by two contributors on the role of communication in organizational change and strategies for measuring workplace attitudes toward diversity, a guide for further reading, and a diversity glossary.
Easley, C. A. (2001). Developing, valuing and managing diversity in the new millennium. Organization Development Journal, 19 (4), 38-50. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
The author, a professor of Management at Governors State University and longtime HR manager, presents an insightful theoretical overview and critique of the state of the diversity field and offers detailed, theoretically sound, case-based, and practical suggestions for new workplace diversity methods. She argues that traditional diversity management approaches are lacking because they provide few measurements of their success, reward superficial diversity changes, and largely avoid issues of deep organizational structure and culture. As an alternative to this model, the author offers an organizational transformation model in which organizations wishing to change must thoroughly measure the current state of diversity in the organization, use Organization Development approaches (matched to specific organizational needs revealed in the diversity assessment) to integrate diversity goals into strategic planning and organizational culture, involve employees into the change process, and engage in strategic learning throughout the change process.
Hankins, G. G. (2000). Diversity blues: How to shake'em. Cincinnati , OH : Telvic Press.
This text, by a Ph.D. and professional in Organizational Behavior and Development, offers a general introduction to diversity issues in the workplace, focusing on gender and race issues. The author’s choice to focus on prejudice and discrimination as the primary challenges to positive environments for diversity seems out-of-step with both recent developments in the field of diversity management and current challenges in diversity management. With no clear theoretical intervention to make, few specific change strategies to offer, and neither a broad enough focus to be a true introduction to the field nor a narrow focus on deeply exploring a specific diversity area, this text offers little for diversity managers or others concerned with the topic.
de la Peña McCook, K. Ed. (2000). Ethnic Diversity in Library and Information Science [Special issue, Electronic version]. Library Trends, 49(1). Retrieved December 26, 2004. (Primary listing under Libraries)
Albrecht, M. H. (2001). International HRM: Managing diversity in the workplace. Oxford : Blackwell Business.
This anthology of thirty-seven essays and case studies in diversity management (many of which have been published elsewhere), edited by a professor of Management at the University of Illinois, Chicago, offers a range of timely, theoretically and methodologically strong, and practically-oriented approaches to this topic. With three of its six sections focusing on international issues and the inclusion of many essays from beyond the U.S. context, the text’s transnational focus is especially useful for bringing diversity management techniques up-to-date with the present moment of advanced globalization.
Human Resources Management (General)
Caster, M. A. (2001). Survivor: How HR can survive & thrive in the organization. Organization Development Journal, 19(2), 79-93. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
In an effort to counter the trend of outsourcing Human Resources, the author offers five strategies for improving the effectiveness and impact of HRM in the workplace. The author focuses on ways Human Resources would benefit from incorporating strategies from Organizational Development that integrate practical management issues and larger strategic planning. Among these strategies, the author considers the impact of improved diversity management efforts for increasing the strategic role of human resources in the organization, arguing that Human Resources diversity initiatives are important resources for organizational innovation that can ill-afford to be lost through outsourcing. For organizations facing such outsourcing plans, this article provides useful arguments for the value of in-house HRM.
Kossek, E. E., Markel, K. S., & McHugh, P. P. (2003). Increasing diversity as an HRM change strategy. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16(3), 328-352. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
Observing that the majority of the literature on diversity management addresses organizational- rather than work-group-level changes, the authors offer a rigorous and valuable study of such work-group diversity experiences. As the authors hypothesized, their eight-year study of diversity programs and changes among faculty at one university suggests that despite significant organization-wide progress in diversity, the work-group level experience of this progress is often uneven at best and negative at worst. The authors offer three useful and practical suggestions for improving diversity initiatives at all levels of an organization: make diversity changes (for instance, team-building and diversity resource allocation) at the work-group as well as organizational level; design diversity initiatives so that demographic shifts not only improve organization-wide, but also so that within workgroups demographic subgroups have significant representation and power; and ensure that diversity initiatives are effective through all levels of the organizational hierarchy.
Richard, O. C., & Johnson, N. B. (2001). Understanding the impact of human resource diversity practices on firm performance. Journal of Managerial Issues, 13(2), 177-196. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
This challenging article, by two professors of Management, applies models from the well-theorized field of Strategic Human Resources Management to the undertheorized realm of diversity management. The authors suggest that a SHRM model for theorizing and implementing diversity initiatives in the workplace offers the benefit of examining and working from an understanding of the relationship between diversity practices and outcomes across the organization. The authors further suggest, controversially, that diversity is likely to be of relatively more benefit to organizations needing high levels of innovation than those requiring efficiency and, hence, that diversity management should be one strategy among many implemented in coordination with organizational goals. This article is likely to be of most use to managers already involved in SHRM who are considering the relationship of diversity to their strategic planning.
Cox, T., Jr. (2001). Creating the multicultural organization: A strategy for capturing the power of diversity. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.
Using a textbook structure, the award-winning author and professor in Human Resource Management offers a readable overview of current challenges and strategies in diversity management. The author presents useful theoretical models, practical examples and case studies, some detailed tools for given HRM issues, and questions for further study. The author’s approach consists of five interlinked strategies for organizational transformation: develop strong diversity leadership throughout the organization, support all diversity initiatives with research and measurement, create educational programs matched to the needs of the organization, attend to diversity at the systemic as well as individual level, and consistently monitor the progress of and renew diversity initiatives. The primary criticism to be made of this introduction is that it is just that: an introduction and overview of the field and its best strategies and practices rather than the kind of practical and detailed implementation handbook it seems to want to be.
Thiederman, S. (2003). Making diversity work: 7 steps for defeating bias in the workplace. Chicago : Dearborn Trade Publishing.
The individual and psychological approach to diversity in the workplace presented in this text represents a radical departure from the majority of recent material available on diversity management. While the majority of literature attends to structural factors in organizational effectiveness regarding diversity and measurable strategies to improve it, this author, a well-known diversity expert and Ph.D., approaches diversity as predominantly an issue of individual bias that can best be overcome by personal reflection and improved diversity dialogue. The text provides many case studies, exercises, and questions for further exploration, but the lack of attention to the real, material structures involved in diversity (in)effectiveness makes this text (at least taken alone) unlikely to be of much assistance in thorough organizational change around diversity.
Hogan, G. (2003). The inclusive corporation: A disability handbook for business professionals. Athens , OH : Ohio University Press. (Primary listing under Disability)
de la Peña McCook, K. Ed. (2000). Ethnic Diversity in Library and Information Science [Special issue, Electronic version]. Library Trends, 49(1). Retrieved December 26, 2004 .
In this journal special issue, the editor, Distinguished University Professor of Library Science at the University of South Florida and well-known diversity scholar and activist, collects articles addressing a range of issues relating to ethnic diversity and library and information science. In compiling these articles, the editor focused on presenting ethnically diverse voices addressing the impact of ethnically diverse library scholar/activists in the creation of a more democratic and effective field of librarianship. The various essays trace the historical impact of ethnically diverse leaders in librarianship and point to the need for continued and concerted efforts to develop a diverse profession responsive to the needs of a diverse culture. A logical and necessary companion special issue would pick up where this one left off: moving beyond considerations of ethnicity alone to attend to the class, sexual, disability, gender, and other vectors of diversity also helping to shape this field. (Crosslisted under Ethnicity)
Montgomery, J. G. (2002). A most delicate matter: religious issues and conflict in the US library workplace. Library Management, 23(8), 422-434. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
This is a timely essay on the historical and legal context for religious conflict in the workplace, and especially in the library setting. The author argues that given increasing heterogeneity in the workplace and other factors, workplace conflicts over religion are increasing and are likely to continue to do so. That in mind, the author provides a careful reading of laws addressing workplace religious conflicts and their special implications for and potential for conflict with the library setting and its commitment to free access to information. Moving out from that analysis the author offers a sample workplace religious diversity statement and several practical strategies for responding to religious conflict. (Crosslisted under Religion)
Foldy, E. G. (2004). Learning from diversity: A theoretical exploration. Public Administration Review, 64(5), 529-539. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
This theoretical discussion of the challenges and opportunities of learning in the context of diversity, especially in the more diverse public sector, usefully complicates the conversation regarding the value and challenges of workplace diversity. While much of the diversity literature assumes that diversity benefits organizational effectiveness by increasing opportunities for learning and innovation, this article attends to the specific reasons diversity may (and may not) support increased organizational learning. The article combines theoretical approaches from diversity management and group learning. The author argues that the threats and power disparities presented by diversity are likely to hamper group learning unless group members hold conceptual frames and enact behaviors based in notions that diversity and discussions about it are beneficial to learning.
Riccucci, N. M. (2002). Managing diversity in public sector workforces. Boulder , CO : Westview Press.
Emerging from observations about the increasing diversity of the workforce at large and the tendency for the public sector workforce to manifest this diversity in particular, this short text uses the public sector as an extensive case study for diversity management in general. The author presents chapters on Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity as well as more general strategies for implementing diversity initiatives in the workplace. Also included are chapters treating specific aspects of diversity—race/ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexuality—and an appendix of organizations in the public sector working effectively with diversity.
Montgomery, J. G. (2002). A most delicate matter: religious issues and conflict in the US library workplace. Library Management, 23(8), 422-434. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database. (Primary listing under Libraries)
Badgett, M. V. L. (2001). Money, myths, and change: The economic lives of lesbians and gay men.Worlds of desire: The Chicago series on sexuality, gender, and culture . Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
The author, an economics professor and the research director of the nation’s leading gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (glbt) policy think tank, presents in this study a much needed, rigorously grounded corrective to the leading assumptions regarding the economic conditions of this nation’s glbt people. While the text does not focus specifically on workplace issues, the author’s treatments of benefits discrimination and other economic penalties for being gay and workplace policy issues are sure to be of use to all diversity and human resource managers as they work to attract and retain a diverse workforce and establish justice in the workplace.
Bowen, F., & Blackmon, K. (2003). Spirals of silence: The dynamic effects of diversity on organizational voice. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1393-1417. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database. (Primary listing under Communication)
Herrschaft, D., & Mills, K. I. (2003). State of the workplace for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans 2003. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation - HRC WorkNet. Retrieved December 26, 2004 from http://www.hrc.org/worknet
Published annually, this most recent edition of the Human Rights Campaign’s overview of the legal and policy status for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (glbt) workers in the U.S. is a necessary instrument for human resources and diversity managers and others concerned with creating an equitable work environment. It provides detailed overviews of federal, state, and local laws treating sexual orientation and their implications for the workplace. Additionally, it treats important employer policies in areas of benefits and domestic partnership, sexual orientation discrimination and protection, and gender identity/expression. In an appendix, the report also provides the growing list of employers endorsing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a tool useful for encouraging ENDA endorsement in your own workplace. In this moment of rapid and confusing policy and legal changes regarding the status of glbt citizens and workers, such a guide is of special value.
Friday, E., & Friday, S. S. (2003). Managing diversity using a strategic planned change approach. The Journal of Management Development, 22(10), 863-880. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Emerald database.
Writing for an audience of diversity, human resource, and top-level managers, the authors present diversity treatment as a continuum from acknowledging diversity, to valuing it, and finally to managing it. From this understanding, the authors identify managing diversity as the appropriate target for workplace diversity. Managing diversity, as an active strategy for diversity, integrates well with the larger strategic goals of an organization. In order to benefit from diversity in the workplace, the authors argue, organizations should choose to move from acknowledging to managing change rather than be forced to do so in response to a diversity crisis. The authors identify two primary strategies in such diversity-oriented planned change: continued diversity planning and continued diversity training. As far as it goes, this is a useful framework. However, in the absence of a discussion of assessing the outcomes of diversity strategies, the approach falls short.
Bendick Jr., M., Egan, M. L., & Lofhjelm, S. M. (2001). Workforce diversity training: From anti-discrimination compliance to organizational development. Human Resource Planning, 24(2), 10-26. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
This study, based on interviews with 108 diversity managers and short case studies outlines trends in who conducts diversity training, what organizations deploy such training, and what kinds of diversity training most typically take place. Most valuable is this last topic. Here, the authors indicate that the least effective diversity training models tend to rest at the individual level, only treating personal feelings and behaviors regarding diversity. More effective diversity training takes place within an “organizational development” model, which focuses on the relationship between individual employee development and organizational strategic planning. Particularly useful for diversity and human resource managers, especially given the authors’ observation that only 25% of workplaces use the most effective diversity strategies, is the authors’ identification of nine benchmarks for successful organizational development approaches to diversity.
Wiethoff, C. (2004). Motivation to learn and diversity training: Application of the theory of planned behavior. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15(3), 263-278. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from Proquest database.
Finding that the literature on diversity training offers few theory-based models for judging and understanding the success or failure of given training initiatives, the author offers the present theory of planned behavior and motivation to learn. As the author clearly explains, TPB explains behavioral outcomes by the intention of the actor. In the case of diversity training, actor intention would be equivalent to the motivation to learn new approaches to diversity. TPB is further explained with reference to the particular actor attitudes brought to a task, most typically regarding: the benefits or costs of performing the behavior, the social support for performing or not performing the behavior, and the ease or difficulty of the behavior. Fortunately for researchers but unfortunately for practitioners, the author emphasizes the utility of the TPB model of diversity training for future diversity training research, avoiding entirely the model’s utility in diversity practices.
Sheehy, C. (2004). Transgender issues in the workplace: A tool for managers. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation - HRC WorkNet. Retrieved December 26, 2004 , from http://nmmstream.net/hrc/downloads/publications/tgtool.pdf database.
This guide is a rich resource for employers and human resources managers in responding justly to current and/or preparing for future diversity issues related to transgender identity. The author, the research coordinator for workplace issues at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s most visible gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights organization, provides an overview of issues and terms related to workplace issues for transgender employees. Especially useful are the guide’s specific policy recommendations and frequently asked questions. The guide’s appendices detail publications, legal cases, diversity specialists, and policy recommendations likely to be of special interest for diversity and human resource managers working with this issue.
