Strategic Responsiveness and the Minority Public Manager

Abstract

Representation of minority groups has become an increasingly vital feature of the public sector as a result of current population trends. The purpose of this article is to shed new light on the effect of public organizations on minority communities by addressing the following question: are minority public managers strategic in their responses to minority consumers of public services and the multiple dimensions of their organization's performance? Building upon current perspectives on representation and diversity, this article contributes to existing research by introducing a theory of strategic responsiveness. This theory addresses an important deficiency in existing studies by providing an account of how minority managers in local organizations respond to multiple performance disparities when they seek to maximize the performance of their organizations and the quality of service delivery to underrepresented communities. The findings suggest that when faced with multiple performance pressures, minority managers channel their representation through the area of performance that is linked to their organization's most salient performance objective. These findings have implications for our understanding of the relationship between diversity in public management and organizations' responsiveness to minority communities.