Abstract
The rapidly changing population demographics in the United States of America as well as civil rights gains in the last three decades have led to more integrated and diverse schools and classrooms. Empirical evidence provided by the available literature suggest that if the increasing diversity is not taken into consideration by the leaders, it can lead to adverse effects on social integration, communication, conflict in groups and overall organizational performance. The purpose of this study was to examine how the different diversity-management strategies adopted by the Florida public high school administrators influence organizational performance. Four research questions were developed. The different ways of diversity-management were categorized into four groups; namely non-compliant, compliant, reactive and proactive strategies. Data were collected by emailing a survey instrument to 200 Florida public high school administrators. Several descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze the data. The results from the inferential statistics did not show significant results. The directionality based on means, literature and results of the open-ended questions indicated that schools that engaged in either reactive or proactive diversity-management strategies experienced more positive organizational outcomes than those that adopted non-compliant or compliant diversity-management strategies. The responses of the open-ended questions and the literature indicated that schools that adopted reactive or proactive diversity-management strategies created room for the realization of the more positive effects of diversity. The lack of statistical significance in the inferential analysis, however, indicated that one cannot conclude that the type of diversity-management strategy is significant in influencing the outcome of school performance. Descriptors: Diversity-management, diversity-management strategies, school performance.