Examining the Relationships Between Diversity and Work Behaviors in U.S. Federal Agencies: Does Inclusive Management Make a Difference?
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Author | Kuk-Kyoung Moon |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0734371X16660157 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2016
Article
Review of Public Personnel Administration
2018, Vol. 38(2) 218 –247
Examining the Relationships
© The Author(s) 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X16660157
DOI: 10.1177/0734371X16660157
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Behaviors in U.S. Federal
Agencies: Does Inclusive
Management Make a
Difference?
Kuk-Kyoung Moon1
Abstract
Workforce diversity has been depicted as a double-edged sword that leads to both
positive and negative work-related outcomes. As a result, the critical issue in diversity
research is concerned with enhancing the benefits and reducing the detriments of
heterogeneity within organizations on work behaviors. By combining theories on
diversity and inclusiveness, this article examines inclusive management at the federal
subagency level as a moderator of the relationships between demographic diversity
(gender and race) and work behaviors (innovative and turnover behavior). Using
survey and personnel data drawn from federal subagencies, inclusive management—a
set of policies aimed at recognizing all employees as valued organizational insiders
with unique identities—not only strengthens the positive relationship between
racial diversity and innovative behavior but also attenuates the positive relationship
between gender diversity and turnover behavior. These findings suggest that inclusive
management is a key strategy for effectively managing diversity.
Keywords
demographic diversity, innovative behavior, turnover behavior, inclusive management
1University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Corresponding Author:
Kuk-Kyoung Moon, Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public and International
Affairs, University of Georgia, 204 Baldwin Hall, 355 South Jackson Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Email: vivamkk@gmail.com
Moon
219
Introduction
As a result of legal requirements supporting employees from different backgrounds,
such as Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity, employees of U.S.
federal agencies have become heterogeneous with respect to their demographic char-
acteristics over the past couple of decades (Choi, 2011a; Naff & Kellough, 2003; Pitts
& Jarry, 2009).1 This rapid demographic shift in the federal workforce has created a
significant demand for public administration scholars to explore the organizational
consequences of diversity (Pitts & Wise, 2010; Wise & Tschirhart, 2000). Although
some progress has been made (Choi, 2009, 2013; Choi & Rainey, 2010; Hur, 2013;
Langbein & Stazyk, 2013; Opstrup & Villadsen, 2015; Pitts, 2005; Pitts & Jarry,
2009), the dynamics of diversity in the public sector remain unclear due to mixed
research results. For instance, Milliken and Martins (1996) portrayed diversity as “a
double-edged sword, increasing the opportunity for creativity as well as the likelihood
that group members will be dissatisfied and fail to identify with the group” (p. 402).
Given the coexisting and conflicting effects of diversity on organizational outcomes,
scholars have begun to explore contextual moderators that maximize the potential
benefits and minimize the detriments of diversity (Qin, Smyrnios, & Deng, 2012).
Despite the growing attention to managing workforce diversity, one cannot find as
much relevant empirical research on this topic in the field of public administration as
in the business management field (Choi, 2009; Pitts & Towne, 2015; Pitts & Wise,
2010). That is, understanding the relationship of diversity with organizational out-
comes and the various personnel policies and practices that manage the relationship
still poses major challenges to public administration scholars and practitioners (Pitts &
Towne, 2015). Furthermore, given the different working environments between pub-
lic- and private-sector organizations, it is still unclear whether some empirical findings
in business management are applicable to public management (Choi, 2009, 2013). For
these reasons, many public administration scholars call for a greater number of empiri-
cal studies to advance our knowledge of how to make demographic diversity more
beneficial and less detrimental to public organizations (Choi, 2013; Langbein &
Stazyk, 2013; Pitts & Towne, 2015; Pitts & Wise, 2010; Wise & Tschirhart, 2000).
The current study aims to extend the previous research in two distinct ways. First,
responding to the need for more empirical research on the linkages between public
workforce diversity and organizational outcomes (Pitts & Jarry, 2009; Pitts & Towne,
2015; Pitts & Wise, 2010), this study examines the relationships between two dimen-
sions of demographic diversity (gender and race) and two types of behavioral out-
comes (innovative and turnover behavior). In particular, two competing theories about
diversity have mainly shaped these investigations. According to information/decision-
making theory, gender and racial/ethnic diversity facilitate innovative behavior
because demographic differences offer competitive advantages to unique sources of
information and divergent viewpoints. Conversely, drawing from social categorization
theory, gender and racial/ethnic diversity increase turnover behavior, because inter-
group conflict caused by perceived similarities and dissimilarities between ourselves
(in-group members) and others (out-group members) leads to less social integration
220
Review of Public Personnel Administration 38(2)
and cohesion. Second, this study explores the moderating role of inclusive manage-
ment in the relationships between diversity and work behaviors. While the two theo-
ries emphasize either the need for uniqueness or the need for belongingness, optimal
distinctiveness theory (ODT) argues that individuals continually seek to balance both
needs to achieve the highest level of their identities (Brewer, 1991; Hornsey & Jetten,
2004). That is, employees are likely to provide benefits to their organization in a situ-
ation in which “they feel a sense of belonging and feel valued for the characteristics on
which they are unique” (Shore et al., 2011, p. 1272). Building on ODT, inclusive man-
agement as a moderator may condition the relationships between workforce heteroge-
neity and work behaviors by recognizing diverse employees as organizational insiders,
attaching high values to their different social identity characteristics. Thus, this study
advances our understanding of the key role of inclusive management in enhancing the
potential benefits and lessening the detriments of diversity on innovative and turnover
behavior by analyzing recently collected data from federal subagencies. Such an
approach provides public administration scholars and practitioners with meaningful
insights into the dynamics of diverse work groups, which could help them effectively
manage the heterogeneous workforce in the federal government.
This study begins by reviewing the literature on work group diversity and its rela-
tionship with work behaviors based on the two competing diversity theories.
Subsequently, it describes theoretical arguments pertaining to the moderating role of
inclusive management in the relationships between diversity and work behaviors.
Following this, the study provides the statistical data analysis and results. The last sec-
tion discusses the contributions, limitations, and conclusions of this research.
Two Competing Theories of Diversity for Work
Behaviors
Different theoretical frameworks often lead scholars to apply plausible but contradic-
tory predictions of organizational consequences of diversity. Most notably, scholars
have primarily used two competing theories to explain why gender and race diversity
are related to various work-related outcomes (Choi & Rainey, 2010; Pitts & Towne,
2015; Williams & O’Reilly, 1998). In general, information/decision-making theory
predicts that diversity is beneficial to organizational functioning and outcomes,
whereas social categorization theory anticipates the opposite prediction. The follow-
ing sections address the major tenets of the two competing perspectives underlying the
dynamics of demographic diversity in the workplace.
Diversity and Innovative Behavior: Information/Decision-Making Theory
The crux of information/decision-making theory is that heterogeneous work groups
are more likely to have access to a broad range of information, knowledge, and per-
spectives than their homogeneous counterparts (Van Knippenberg, De Dreu, & Homan,
2004; Williams & O’Reilly, 1998). These informational differences reflect greater
resources and the decision-making capabilities of heterogeneous work groups that
Moon
221
enhance their performance (Cox & Blake, 1991). Specifically, the combination and
integration of various perspectives and unique ideas create productive forms of con-
flict, stimulating more comprehensive and innovative solutions to complex problems
within groups (Jehn, Chadwick, & Thatcher, 1997; Pelled, Eisenhardt, & Xin, 1999).
Conversely, because the lack of unique viewpoints and information possessed by
group members hampers the quality of debate on decision making, high levels of
demographic homogeneity result in decreased innovation and creativity (Williams &
O’Reilly, 1998). In support of this rationale, empirical findings have indicated that a
racially diverse workforce is positively associated with organizational...
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