Overview

While you may be anxious to get right to the work of developing your diversity scorecard, it is important that you spend some time on this chapter because it essentially serves as the foundation for the rest of the book. When you begin developing a balanced diversity scorecard, your organization will rely on you not only for advice on the technical dimensions of this new process, but also on the broader subject of diversity performance measurement and diversity management. You can enhance your expert credibility within the organization by learning as much as possible about this subject. This is especially important if your current function is one that typically has not gotten involved in the diversity process and you only recently acquired responsibility for managing the diversity effort and direction for your business unit. Think of this chapter as a primer for the exciting work that lies ahead.

The diversity scorecard assists organizations in maximizing two key issues: (1) achieving effective diversity performance, and (2) implementing a comprehensive diversity strategy and measurement process. We begin the chapter by discussing diversity and performance measurement, especially our reliance on financial measures of performance despite their inherent limitations. From there we will discuss the notion of a balanced scorecard. Our balanced scorecard overview begins with a look back at how and when the scorecard was originally conceived and the genesis of the diversity scorecard. Next, you will be introduced to the theory underlying the diversity scorecard and the six perspectives of performance...