Workforce Diversity: An Application of Diversity and Integration Indices to Small Agencies

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.