Diversity leadership and organizational transformation: performance indicators for health services organizations

Health services organizations can follow a five-part process to reposition themselves through diversity leadership. The first part of the process, discovery, refers to the emerging awareness of racial and ethnic diversity as a significant strategic issue; the second part, assessment, refers to systematic review of the organization's racial and ethnic diversity climate; the third part, exploration, denotes systematic training initiatives to improve the health services organization's ability to effectively manage diversity; the fourth part, transformation, refers to fundamental changes in organizational practices that result in a culture in which racial and ethnic diversity is valued; and the final part, revitalization, refers to renewal and expansion of racial and ethnic diversity initiatives to reward change agents and to include additional identity groups among the health services organization's diversity initiatives. This article presents a series of behaviorally based performance indicators for each of the five parts of the diversity leadership process. Healthcare executives are encouraged to assess their organization's strategic positioning against best demonstrated practices, as represented by the performance indicators. A method for analyzing organizational performance against the diversity leadership indicators is outlined as are suggestions for future research.