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The present study, with a focus on ethnic and racial diversity, tested an implicit assumption of diversity studies that diversified workforces perform better and bring more benefits to organizations. Using data from 464 police departments of cities with more than 50,000 residents, this study found decreased crime control performance and increased employee turnover as workforces became more diversified. According to the findings in this study, managers are advised to consider introducing diversity management practices to reduce negative results of being diverse while protecting and increasing the benefits derived from diversity to make diversified workforces help enhance organizational productivity. Points for practitioners According to the findings in this study, managers are advised to consider introducing diversity management practices to reduce negative results of being racially diverse while protecting and increasing the benefits derived from racial diversity to make diversified workforces help enhance organizational productivity.

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To measure child well-being, we constructed composite indices with equal weights to component indicators for four domains such as health, safety, education, and economic well-being. The overall index was also constructed in the same way with equal weights to component domains. Based on the index scores (overall and four domains), North Carolina counties were ranked. In addition, urban and rural counties as well as four physiographic regions were also compared in terms of child well-being. According to the findings in the present study, urban counties generally provide better environments for child well-being although they are not statistically different in most domains of child well-being. Among four physiographic regions, the Inner Coastal region provides a significantly lower level of child well-being than the other regions in most domains, whereas the Blue Ridge and the Outer Coastal regions provide a generally higher level of child well-being than the Piedmont and the Outer Coastal Regions in most domains. These findings would not only help citizens make a more informed decision about where to live and where to raise their children, but also provide policy makers and implementers an idea about the strengths and weaknesses in their communities and what they should do to make their communities more attractive.

This paper seeks to investigate how seriously diversity issues are considered by municipal governments in North Carolina and to identify specific diversity management practices (DMPs) that are adopted more often by municipalities. It also aims to examine whether the adoption levels of DMPs are influenced by demographic and economic factors and the various backgrounds of city managers. Data about adopted DMPs and city managers' backgrounds were collected by surveying all municipalities in North Carolina with populations of at least 5,000 (response rate: 50 percent). An index was constructed to determine the adoption level of DMPs, and the cities were divided into four groups, based on their index scores (i.e. DMP scores). Analysis of variance and correlations were used to test the relationship between a number of factors and the index score. A number of DMPs were identified as being more popular among municipalities that took diversity and its related issues more seriously, and other DMPs as being less popular among cities that did not pay particular attention to diversity. It was also found that the adoption level of DMPs was significantly affected by population size, the heterogeneity of population, urbanization level, and city manager's age. The DMPs that were found suitable for each one of the four groups of cities can be used as a guide when cities in a particular group want to adopt more DMPs to support and encourage diversity at work. According to the findings, cities need to be more proactive in managing diversity by introducing appropriate DMPs when their demographics are changing substantially. This is one of the first studies to identify the more popular DMPs among municipalities with different attention levels toward diversity and its related issues. The study also contributes to the construction of a comprehensive diversity management model that explains how cities respond to changing demographics.