Workforce Diversity

• Date: 01 March 2013
• Author: Salomon A. Guajardo
• Published date: 01 March 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026013484573
• Subject Matter: Articles

Public Personnel Management

42(1) 27 –40

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026013484573

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Article

Workforce Diversity: An

Application of Diversity and

Integration Indices to Small

Agencies

Salomon A. Guajardo1

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, the research on workforce diversity has increased significantly.

Despite this increased research, little attention has been given to the application

of diversity and integration indices to departments with small workforces. Even

less attention has been given to inferences that are made based on the diversity or

integration scores that are obtained from the application of diversity indices. These

issues are important because human resources managers and administrators are

likely to modify or implement diversity policies or initiatives based on the diversity

scores they obtain. This article applies three diversity indices to departments with

small workforces and evaluates how data aggregation affects diversity scores and the

inferences made based on those scores.

Keywords

diversity, Lieberson index, minority integration

Since about 1967, the measurement and analysis of minority integration (i.e., diver-

sity) in public organizations has been a topic of significant interest and research to

political scientists, public managers and personnel administrators.1 With the increased

interest in minority integration2 and diversity3 in public organizations, researchers

have either developed or used various indices to quantify the degree to which govern-

mental agencies are integrated and subsequently diverse (Guajardo, 1999; Kellough,

1990; Meier, 1975; Nachmias & Rosenbloom, 1973; Starks, 2009). Despite the

1City University of New York, USA

Corresponding Author:

Salomon A. Guajardo, Department of Public Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City

University of New York, 445 W. 59th Street, Room 3536, New York, NY 10019, USA.

Email: sguajardo@jjay.cuny.edu

42110.1177/0091026013484573Public Personnel ManagementGuajardo

research-article2013