Refocusing Graduate Public Affairs Education: A Need for Diversity Competencies in Human Resource Management

Abstract

It is generally agreed that diversity is a critical challenge for managers and that advancing organizational diversity is both an ethical and a pragmatic requirement for effective public administration. However, it may be argued that graduate public affairs education relating to human resource management (HRM) has not sufficiently attended to diversity topics and that public affairs graduate curricula in general have not evidenced sufficient inclusion of diversity themes. This essay indicates a need for curricular revision that includes diversity competencies. The research and corresponding analysis is presented in two parts, corresponding to two phases of research. The first addresses findings from graduate student surveys conducted over three years at the University of Vermont. The second concerns data collected from 41 NASPAA-accredited and 17 unaccredited NASPAA-member programs in public affairs. The results from the first phase suggest that graduate public affairs students need greater exposure to diversity themes and issues. The second phase results suggest that NASPAA-accredited programs are not much different from unaccredited member programs in incorporating diversity topics into curricular offerings or otherwise exhibiting a commitment to diversity. The essay ends with several recommendations for programs intending to develop or revise their public policy and administration curricula in order to better attend to diversity concerns.