Responding to a wake-up call - An examination of federal agency diversity management programs

This article reports the results of a survey administered to 160 federal agencies and subagencies to gauge the extent to which they have developed diversity management programs. Many agencies report that they have implemented numerous programmatic elements recommended by the growing body of literature on diversity in the workplace. In contrast, other agencies indicate that they have very limited programs or that they have simply repackaged their traditional equal employment opportunity and affirmative action initiatives. A primary determinant of the level of development of agency or subagency diversity programs is support from the head of each organization.