Managerial Practice and Diversity Climate: The Roles of Workplace Voice, Centralization, and Teamwork

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Zhongnan Jiang,Leisha DeHart‐Davis,Erin L. Borry
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13494

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Zhongnan Jiang

Leisha DeHart-Davis

Erin L. Borry

Managerial Practice and Diversity Climate: The Roles of

Workplace Voice, Centralization, and Teamwork

Abstract: Diversity climate—shared employee perceptions of the extent to which an organization is inclusive and

fair—is of increasing interest to public administration scholars. While research has linked diversity climate to a range

of employee and organizational outcomes, less is known about how common managerial practices affect diversity

climate. This article addresses this gap by examining three such practices: workplace voice, centralized decision-

making, and teamwork. Each is theoretically expected to act upon both the inclusion and fairness dimensions of

diversity climate. We test these expectations using regression analysis of departmental-level data collected through

surveys of four North Carolina public organizations. The results suggest that workplace voice and teamwork enhance

diversity climate, while centralized decision-making diminishes it in workplaces with mostly white employees.

Practically speaking, the results imply that common management techniques that benefit public organizations also

foster positive diversity climates.

Evidence for Practice

• Employee perceptions of the extent to which an organization is fair and inclusive, known as diversity climate,

have been linked to a range of important organizational outcomes.

• Common managerial practices that produce organizational benefits also appear to strengthen diversity

climate, specifically workplace voice, decentralized decision-making, and teamwork.

• Public managers wishing to improve diversity climate should consider giving employees meaningful voice in

workplace decisions, pushing decisions downward, and fostering teamwork.

Social injustices toward women and people

of color persist today. The tragic murder of

George Floyd, along with bias and hate crimes

against Asian and Asian-American communities, has

foregrounded issues of police brutality and racially

motivated violence that people of color have long

borne. Meanwhile, the unprecedented coronavirus

disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic further exposed

and amplified social inequities against historically

disadvantaged groups (Gaynor and Wilson2020).

Accelerated by the renewed calls for social justice,

the US government has committed itself to fostering

a more representative and diversified public

workforce in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender, to

dismantle systemic social injustices (Alexander and

Stivers2020).

While workforce diversity is a necessary step toward

greater representation and social justice, diversity

alone cannot achieve these values. Rather, public

organizations need to create a positive diversity

climate for their employees, defined as a shared

perception of a fair and inclusive workplace (Mor

Barak et al.1998; Sabharwal2014). Despite an

increased interest in diversity climate among

public administration scholars, much of the public

administration research has focused on individual

perceptions of diversity management and diversity

climate, with little attention to diversity climate as a

group phenomenon. This knowledge gap is worthy

of exploration since a shared favorable perception

of fairness and inclusion within organizations is

required for achieving social justice and diversity

management goals (Dwertmann, Nishii, and Van

Knippenberg2016).

A parallel line of research in the general management

field supports that group-level diversity climate

conveys important normative information to

employees about the extent to which an organization

values and rewards diversity (Cox1994; Kossek

and Zonia1993; Thomas1990). Such information

provides clear orientation and guidelines for

employees regarding what behaviors are expected and

what behaviors are prohibited by the organization

(Cox1994). Therefore, a positive diversity climate

can prevent identity-based mistreatment behaviors

in workplace, thereby reducing discrepancies among

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 3, pp. 459–472. © 2022

The Authors. Public Administration

Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

on behalf of American Society for Public

Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13494.

Erin L. Borry is an associate professor in

the Department of Political Science and

Public Administration at the University

of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama.

Her research interests include rules and

red tape, organizational ethics, social

equity, and public administration in pop

culture. Her work has appeared in such

journals as

Public Administration Review

,

Public Management Review

,

International

Public Management Journal

, and

Public

Administration

.

Email: borry@uab.edu

Leisha DeHart-Davis is a Coates

Distinguished Term Professor of Public

Administration and Government at the

School of Government, University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

She studies public sector organizational

behavior.

Email: ldehart@email.unc.edu

Zhongnan Jiang is an assistant professor

in the School of Public Economics and

Administration at Shanghai University

of Finance and Economics, Shanghai.

She earned her PhD in Public Policy

and Management from the Ohio State

University. Her research focuses on

organizational behavior, diversity, and

social equity in public organizations. Her

work has appeared in such journals as

Public Management Review

,

International

Public Management Journal

, and

Public

Administration

.

Email: jiangzhongnan@shufe.edu.cn

Research Article:

Race and Gender

Symposium

[The copyright line for this

article was changed on

6April 2022 after original

online publication.]