Racial diversity, is it a blessing to an organization? Examining its organizational consequences in municipal police departments

Abstract

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.

Minority Representation and Order Maintenance Policing: Toward a Contingent View

“…While police officers are in some ways discretion‐wielding street‐level bureaucrats par excellence, their discretion can logically be expected to be less evident in some situations (e.g., making a violent crime arrest; intervening when a major property crime is in progress) because the seriousness of the situation leaves little room for street‐level judgment calls about whether officer intervention is warranted, whereas officers’ discretion with respect to less serious crimes or in noncriminal situations may be greater. Yet all too often studies of the consequences of black representation on the police force have looked at outcomes such as violent crime arrests (Stucky, ) or “clearance rates” for serious crimes (i.e., the share of those crimes “solved” by arresting, charging, and referring someone to the court system) (Hur, ). From a representative bureaucracy perspective, it is not at all clear that making more violent crime arrests or success in clearing serious crimes are distinctively salient policing issues for minority communities in U.S. cities.…”

Linguistic barriers and bridges: constructing social capital in ethnically diverse low-skill workplaces

“…Research indicates that the workplace is an important social space for the formation of social capital across racial and ethnic lines (Estlund, 2003), as well as for interethnic social trust and friendship formation (De Souza Briggs, 2007;Kokkonen et al, 2014aKokkonen et al, , 2014bMizrachi et al, 2007;Rydgren et al, 2013). However, other studies find that workplace ethnic diversity is associated with weaker social integration (Williams and O'Reilly, 1998), lower trust (Kramer, 2010), more conflicts (Jehn and Greer, 2013) and higher turnover (Hur, 2013). One likely explanation for this discrepancy may lie in such studies typically leaving the linguistic component out of the equation, linking ethnic diversity to social capital.…”

A typological approach to studying policing

“…Although this transformation has thus far been slow, pressures to diversify continue to persist, and questions regarding the effects and correlates of such diversification continue to emerge. For example, scholars have examined the effects of police diversification on a number of outcomes, including violence against police (Barrick et al 2014), homicides by police (Smith 2003), and departmental relations (Hur 2012). Scholars have also examined predictors of minority recruitment, including accreditation, recruitment practices, and community policing orientation (Schuck 2014), representation of minorities in public office and/or police leadership (Gustafson 2013), and salaries and recruiting budgets (Jordan et al 2009).…”