Organizations are paying increased attention to major demographic shifts in the U.S. population. Census data for 1990 show that almost one in every four Americans is Asian, African-American, or Hispanic, and late in the twenty-first century, whites are projected to be a plurality not a majority of the United States' population. These changes are resulting in an increasingly diverse labor pool and customer base. Some organizations choose to respond to workforce and customer demographics by initiating diversity management practices. Others resist, making only those changes necessary to comply with Affirmative Action guidelines. Dreachslin (1996) proposes a five-stage model to describe the organizational change from affirmative action to valuing diversity: discovery, assessment, exploration, transformation, and revitalization. Each stage is characterized by different diversity management practices.
This study is an exploration of hospitals' diversity management practices in the state of Pennsylvania. The study uses a survey instrument to operationalize Dreachslin's five-stage model developmental process that leads to effective diversity management. The survey consists of questions relating to diversity management policies and practices characteristic of each phase. The sample consists of senior management of hospitals in Pennsylvania. Diversity management stages are identified and validated by subjecting the items to principal components factor analysis. A diversity management profile is generated for each hospital consisting of the five scores for the different stages. This study provides a framework to assess the relative stage and strength of health care organizations' commitment to diversity management practices.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in the session will be able to: 1. Understand the importance of diversity management practices 2. Describe a five-stage model of organizational change leading to effective diversity management 3. Discuss the reliability and validity of a diversity management survey instrument
Keywords: Ethnic Minorities, Management
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.