Definition

The diverse workplace culture/climate profile perspective reflects a statistical summary of employee perceptions of the workplace and its systems sorted by key demographic groups. This perspective often includes an analysis of the workplace in terms of employee satisfaction and commitment, perceptions of climate and culture, grievances and complaints, perceptions of leadership and management practices, and the like. This information is typically tracked to determine if the organization's workplace is inclusive with key diversity management processes and systems in place to sustain the diversity strategic change process.

Many organizations conduct attitude surveys, which reflect the degree to which employees feel satisfied with the organization, their jobs, their supervisors, their co-workers, and a host of other issues. From a diversity standpoint, data is sorted via cross-tab correlations to gauge diverse workforce perceptions. Employee job satisfaction is closely correlated with absenteeism and turnover, both of which are often linked to the rationale for conducting specific diversity initiatives. Some workplace attitude survey items focus on issues directly related to diversity, such as satisfaction with the ability of leaders, managers, and supervisors to operate in a multicultural environment.

Attitude survey data are usually linked to diversity initiative results when specific issues on the survey relate to diversity or a problem or issue is being assessed. For example, when a new pay plan is implemented for all employees, the annual attitude survey contained five questions directly tied to perceptions and attitudes influenced by the new plan as seen by various diverse groups. Or, if access...