How Can Diversity Management
Make a Difference?
Massachusetts' Commonwealth
Compact Initiative
Michael P. Johnson
Georgianna Meléndez
Department of Public Policy and
Public Affairs
Commonwealth Compact
McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies,
University of Massachusetts Boston
National Forum for Black Public Administrators
FORUM 2012,Virginia Beach, April 23, 2012
Presentation Summary
Commonwealth Compact is a unique
membership-driven diversity initiative
 Commonwealth Compact combines a
practitioner focus on best practices and
systems change and an academic
grounding in theory, data and analysis
 Evaluating the social benefits and costs of
programs like Commonwealth Compact
is difficult but essential
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Presentation Outline
Commonwealth Compact description
 Commonwealth Compact’s programs
 A ‘best practice’ model for diversity
initiatives
 A proposed research agenda for diversity
initiatives
 Policy and practice challenges for diversity
initiatives

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Commonwealth Compact is a
university’s response to structural
barriers

Boston has a longstanding reputation
for insularity,
structural racism and
an unwelcoming
atmosphere for
professionals of color
Stanley J. Forman, 1976, Boston Herald American
Pulitzer prize-winning photo taken
during anti-busing protests in Boston
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Commonwealth Compact is a
university’s response to structural
barriers (continued)

Commonwealth Compact’s mission: make the Boston
region, and Massachusetts, a premier destination for
professionals of color

Commonwealth Compact’s tools: membership driven
goals-setting, data collection and analysis, multiple
diversity management strategies, and information
technology
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Guiding principles
Diversity statement:
“Diversity is a broad concept with a much larger
goal of ensuring that all persons, regardless of race,
ethnicity, gender, physical and other disabilities,
sexual orientation, nativity, and religion are treated
equally and afforded opportunities for employment
and advancement.”
CC’s focus:
The intentional promotion of racial and ethnic
diversity in the Massachusetts workforce and
leadership.
(2010 Annual Report)
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Commonwealth Compact Pledge
Commonwealth Compact invites all organizations in
Massachusetts—corporations, non-profits, cultural
initiatives, educational institutions, and others—to join in
making a pledge.
The goal is to get employers to move beyond saying
diversity is important. The pledge asks them to prove it
and agree to be measured through regular benchmarking.
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The case for diversity

Business case – in a global marketplace, a company that
employs a diverse workforce is better able to understand the
demographics of the marketplace it serves and is thus better
equipped to thrive in that marketplace than a company that
has a more limited range of employee demographics

Academic case – bureaucratic representation theory states
that public organizations that reflect the demographics and
attitudes of the general public can participate in the policy
process; empirical studies demonstrate social benefits
associated with passive and active representation
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Commonwealth Compact’s
functions

Benchmarking

Collaborative/sector work

Awareness and education

Clearinghouse for diverse
professionals
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Commonwealth Compact is unique
Applied
Research
Commonwealth
Compact
Implementation
Membership
&
Advocacy
Only diversity initiative that combines member
commitments to diverse practices; outreach,
advocacy and technical support, and data-driven
benchmarking and applied research
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Why is Commonwealth Compact a
leader?

Requires employers to act

Participants commit to be measured, though
results

Assert in public, to participants, that
enlarging the candidate and employee pool
beyond the ‘usual suspects’ to the bestqualified mixed group can lead to better
outcomes for employees, organizations and
clients
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Benchmarks Reports


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125 Compact signers shared diversity data in 2010,
compared with 111 in 2009
Representation by people of color by sector in 2010 is
highest for health and not-for-profit and lowest for education
Management representation gap in 2010 between whites and
people of color is greatest for the for-profit sector, and next
greatest for the healthcare sector
CC signers report decreased board diversity efforts between
Years 1 and 2
CEO leadership for diversity, and management actions to
support diversity, and workforce diversity hiring efforts
generally decreased between Years 1 and 2
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Talent Network
The Mission of the Talent Network is to
increase the visibility of and access to
professionals of color in MA.
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Business School Collaborative
In their convening role, Commonwealth Compact
encourages employers within the same sector to
collaborate in their diversity efforts
9 prominent Business Schools work together to:



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Recruit Faculty of color to Massachusetts
Conduct a national marketing campaign through their
own recruitment efforts
Set up a program to help place spouses of recruitees in
appropriate employment.
Share graduating Ph.D. talent with each other
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Business School Collaborative
Nine schools in the Collaborative are:
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Babson College
Bentley University
Boston University
Bridgewater State University
Northeastern University
Salem State University
Simmons College
University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Massachusetts Lowell
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Diversity Fellowship Program
A collaboration between:
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Human Resources
Office
 Commonwealth Compact
 College of Public and Community Service at UMass
Boston
The purpose is to encourage a diverse pool of future
graduates to consider careers in public administration.
Students are placed for one semester at a state agency
whose mission matches their personal passions.
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Higher Education Collaborative


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29 of the more than 100 Higher Education
institutions have become members of
Commonwealth Compact
20 of them have submitted benchmark data
They have come together to achieve
together what they could not individually
Their goal is to increase the number of
faculty, staff and administrators of color
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Merrimack Valley Commonwealth
Compact
Merrimack Valley employers felt that their
region had needs that were unique and
different from Boston
They have come together across sectors to
determine a regional approach to
attracting and retaining talent of color
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Commonwealth Compact best
practice recommendations
include…
Develop needs analysis
 Align diversity strategy to business strategy
 Gather data on employee and board representation,
promotion & retention, contracting
 Build and increase management commitment
 Increase employee awareness & understanding
 Conduct employee satisfaction surveys
 Establish a diversity review committee

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How can we do research on
diversity initiatives?
Are diversity management programs successful?
How can we know? At what points in time, and
for how long? In which sectors/industries? For
which stakeholders?
Academic literature is sparse
 Organizations may ‘accentuate the positive’
 ‘Point-in-time’ individual perceptions may not
correspond to long-term & group measures

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Social benefits: employee-focused
Increased job satisfaction
 Increased retention
 More rapid promotions, higher salary and
greater responsibility (possibly across
multiple employers)
 Greater organizational presence

◦ ‘Line’ and higher-level management positions
◦ Corporate boards
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Social benefits: organizationfocused
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Improved agency performance
Fewer lawsuits alleging, or widespread beliefs
of, systematic discrimination
Greater support for workplace affinity
groups
Increased transparency regarding diversity
practices and data
Greater responsiveness to pro-diversity
advocacy efforts
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Social benefits: client/customerfocused
Greater identification with and support
for agencies/providers
 Increased satisfaction with services/goods
provided
 Improved outcomes for individual or
groups of clients receiving services
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Social costs
‘Partiality’ in service provision could leave
some groups worse off even if other
groups are better off
 Increased resentment by white
employees

→Unwillingness to work together with
minority employees
→ Decreased performance

Opposition from shareholders/taxpayers
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Challenges to research on diversity
initiatives
Theory
◦ How do/can white women benefit from diversity
programs?
◦ How to address minorities who are not
‘historically underrepresented’ in certain sectors
or job classifications?
◦ Could attention to many ‘impacted’ groups dilute
the effectiveness of diversity initiatives?
Evidence
◦ Need better data for baseline measures
◦ Need rigorous studies to document outcomes
and measure social benefits/costs
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Conclusions

Commonwealth Compact has set a
standard for diversity initiatives
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Public commitment from stakeholders
Yearly measures of progress
Impacts in multiple sectors
Use of information technology to build
community
Opportunities for researchers and
practitioners to measure and compare
social impacts across sectors, groups
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Next Steps
Duplicate Commonwealth Compact in
other regions
 Academic research to document impacts
of diversity initiatives
 National clearinghouse of diversity
initiatives
 Cross-national comparisons
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Questions?
Contact information:
• Michael P. Johnson, [email protected]
• Georgianna Melendez, [email protected]
• McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies:
http://www.umb.edu/academics/mgs/
• Commonwealth Compact:
http://www.umb.edu/commonwealth_compact/
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