DIVERSITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES

Diversity And Public Sector Employees



Diversity And Public Sector Employees

Introduction

"Diversity" is being frequently used in the discussion of the employee. However, in the lexicon of human resources management, it has not yet acquired a consistent conceptual meaning. Public agencies have already witnessed considerable demographic changes during the past two decades. At the end of fiscal year 2006, the federal government employee consisted of more than 29% minorities (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2007a). The percentage of minorities holding positions within the executive branch increased between 1996 and 2006, but the percentage of women decreased during this same period. When the figures are broken down by specific racial and ethnic groups, the results indicate that all four minority groups have increased their share of executive branch positions between 1996 and 2006.

Discussion

Diversity within public agencies has also changed with respect to age and disabilities. The average age of the American worker is expected to continue to rise in the next two decades, with the number of workers between 16 and 24 years old falling by approximately 8%. The average age for full-time permanent federal civilian employees was 45.2 years in 2007, up from 44.3 years the previous year (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2007a). Although an aging employee can have positive effects (e.g., greater experience-based work knowledge), older workers may be less responsive to organizational changes, less mobile, less interested in training, and more prone to frustration by their lack of advancement (Lambs, 2006). Out of 32 federal agencies surveyed by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) in 2001 and 2002, 25 agencies indicated that the average age of their employees were increasing. However, most agencies had not yet encountered problems associated with an older employee.

According to recent census data, more than 15% of individuals entering the labour market have a disability. Disabilities include cognitive and physical impairments, such as blindness, epilepsy, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (Slack, 2007a). The percentage of persons employed in the executive branch with disabilities increased after the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, which heightened awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities; however, the share of positions held by persons with disabilities declined slightly between 2004 and 2007. In March 1997, President Clinton issued an executive order "to increase the employment of adults with disabilities to a rate that is as close as possible to the employment rate of the general adult population." Because of the increased attention toward workers with disabilities, agencies are being challenged to reevaluate their job descriptions, to determine their capacity to provide reasonable accommodations, and to reduce employment barriers.

Workplace environments will change as the demographic characteristics of the labour pool evolve (Hutchins&Sigelman, 2005;Kellough, 1990; Kellough & Elliott, 2002; Sigelman & Karnig, 2007). These changes, according to Loden and Loeser (2001), "have far reaching implications for the ways that public . . . institutions are to be led and managed in the future" ...