Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality

The changing demographics of Australian society and its workforce have propelled Australian Public Service (APS) organizations to proactively engage in diversity management (DM). Despite this growing imperative for DM in the APS, there has been little inquiry into the effectiveness of such programs....

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Main Authors: Soldan, Zhanna, Nankervis, Alan
Format: Journal Article
Published: International Public Management for Human Resources 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14649
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author Soldan, Zhanna
Nankervis, Alan
author_facet Soldan, Zhanna
Nankervis, Alan
author_sort Soldan, Zhanna
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The changing demographics of Australian society and its workforce have propelled Australian Public Service (APS) organizations to proactively engage in diversity management (DM). Despite this growing imperative for DM in the APS, there has been little inquiry into the effectiveness of such programs. The aim was to investigate how an APS agency was transforming its commitment to DM into action. The findings revealed that a significant gap exists between the rhetoric of what the DM policy seeks to achieve and the reality experienced by employees in the areas of targeted recruitment, employee retention, and employee development. The practical implications of findings for wider stakeholders responsible for designing and implementing DM are discussed and limitations are noted together with recommendations for future research.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-146492017-09-13T14:07:13Z Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality Soldan, Zhanna Nankervis, Alan federal government diversity EEO affirmative action workplace attitudes and behaviors The changing demographics of Australian society and its workforce have propelled Australian Public Service (APS) organizations to proactively engage in diversity management (DM). Despite this growing imperative for DM in the APS, there has been little inquiry into the effectiveness of such programs. The aim was to investigate how an APS agency was transforming its commitment to DM into action. The findings revealed that a significant gap exists between the rhetoric of what the DM policy seeks to achieve and the reality experienced by employees in the areas of targeted recruitment, employee retention, and employee development. The practical implications of findings for wider stakeholders responsible for designing and implementing DM are discussed and limitations are noted together with recommendations for future research. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14649 10.1177/0091026014533093 International Public Management for Human Resources restricted
spellingShingle federal government
diversity
EEO
affirmative action
workplace attitudes and behaviors
Soldan, Zhanna
Nankervis, Alan
Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality
title Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality
title_full Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality
title_fullStr Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality
title_full_unstemmed Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality
title_short Employee Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Diversity Management in the Australian Public Service: Rhetoric and Reality
title_sort employee perceptions of the effectiveness of diversity management in the australian public service: rhetoric and reality
topic federal government
diversity
EEO
affirmative action
workplace attitudes and behaviors
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/14649