Reading, Pennsylvania Police Union Files Suit to Remove Latino Officer: What Can Go Wrong Without a Chief Diversity Officer

On January 26, 2009, In Talent Management, By admin

Diversity Officers can learn a lot from a recent lawsuit.

A Reading, PA police union has filed suit against the city and it’s Police Civil Service Board. The lawsuit claims that the Police Civil Service Board ignored state civil service laws in hiring a Latino who was not on the required list of eligible officer candidates.

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 9’s suit is over the hiring of Officer Daniel Cedano-Erazo and it challenges the city’s authority to ignore state law to comply with a federal mandate.

Cedano-Erazo was hired in June as part of the city’s response to the settlement of a federal lawsuit that the Pennsylvania Statewide Latino Coalition filed in 2003.

The FOP wants Senior Judge Albert A. Stallone to revoke the hire and force the city to follow long-established rules to find a replacement. It claims those rules require the city to hire from among the top three candidates on the civil service list, which is ranked by test scores.

Cedano-Erazo, the suit claims, ranked 29th on the list that expired in 2006 and has not been on any list of eligible candidates since.

Cedano-Erazo has completed police academy training and was sworn in Dec. 23, the day after the FOP suit was filed. He is in field training.

The suit also names Mayor Tom McMahon and council President Vaughn D. Spencer as defendants.

Police Chief William M. Heim, who was looking at alternatives to get more Latinos on the force, has been under pressure from the city’s Police Diversity Board, which was established as part of the settlement of the coalition’s lawsuit. The diversity board has recommended creating a separate hiring list for police candidates who are bilingual.

Some city officials oppose the recommendation so Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, the federal judge the diversity board reports to, has appointed Senior District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. to serve as a mediator.

What can the diversity officer learn from this incident? First of all, responding to the federal civil rights suit requires more than compliance. You need to take care of all the stakeholders. This includes working with the police union in preparation for the changes.

The police union does not have to like the federal suit outcome, but they can start to consider how existing policies need to be reconsidered in the face of the federal mandate. Too often, the organization’s leadership put off talking to adversaries until a lawsuit has been settled. This protects against making hasty decisions at the cost of building relationships needed to address the outcome collaboratively. Both union representatives and the leaders of the organization with union members stereotype each other as uncooperative and self serving. This is where the diversity professional comes in.

Ongoing dialog between the parties with the goal of finding win-win solutions is the key. The diversity officer needs the competence and authority to mediate the dialog and keep it moving towards a solution in order to achieve the diversity recruitment goals.

Each party tends to see an all-or-nothing power battle when it comes to union negotiating on behalf of members. Diversity officers educate, motivate, tolerate, and communicate in their role. They educate the parties about changing demographics and the impact on doing business as usual. They show how preparing for the demographic changes in the present requires thinking differently. Toleration for resistance and disharmony while working towards workable solutions is a must. And listening until everyone feels heard is critical.

This report is based in part on an article by Don Spatz which appeared in the Reading Eagle News (12/31/2008 Last Update: 1/5/2009 7:14:00 PM).

 
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How Can Cultural Diversity Increase Innovation When It Decreases Civil Engagement?

On January 7, 2009, In Diversity Initiative, By admin

Experts boast the promise of cultural diversity for innovation and competitiveness in making their case for diversity in the workplace. Social scientists have argued that poverty, rather than cultural diversity, is responsible for civil unrest. However, a recent study questions both assumptions as well as popular social science theories about intercultural contact.

Differences make us stronger. At least this is what you hear from politicians, organizational leaders, and diversity champions. However, a recent study by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam and author of Bowling Alone (2000) has found that civic engagement decreases as American communities become more culturally diverse.1

By civic engagement he means things like voting, volunteerism, charitable giving, and neighborly trust. Neighbors in multicultural communities trust each other about half as much as those who live in culturally homogeneous neighborhoods, according to the study. A replication of the study in the Netherlands by Jaap Dronkers of the European University Institute (Italy) found similar results, especially for trusting neighbors.2

The studies come at a time when businesses, communities, and politicians are championing diversity. With demographic trends pushing western nations inexorably toward greater diversity, cultural diversity opponents have fuel for their argument. So, the challenges for diversity professionals and HR specialists are (1) responding critically to cultural diversity opponents when they use Putnam’s data and (2) managing the unsettling productivity challenges that Putnam’s research predicts.

Online diversity professional credential training adAddress both concerns by pointing out that cultural diversity has historically created challenges temporarily and leaders need to put structures into place to reduce tension. Communities that settled immigrants, such as the Irish, Italians, Germans, and most recently people from Muslim countries, did not escape tension. Apart from a few town hall meetings and funding social science studies of the problems, community leaders did little to manage the problems. These limited responses suggest that they were ill equipped to do more. In each case, tolerance and even intercultural marriages slowly replaced tension. A business organization cannot afford to wait until things settle down on their own. The diversity initiative led by an expert diversity officer offers the structures needed to increase civility in the interest of improving productivity.

Ground rules and a communication strategy determine the diversity initiative’s effectiveness. Make certain that there is alignment among the people in the organization about the how to treat one another along with effective policies, procedures, and training to support the ground rules. Getting the people in the organization in alignment relies considerably on a communications strategy that helps them understand their cultural differences and how to manage them in the service of productivity. Click on the link to check out the article Makes You Wanna Holler: The High Impact Cultural Diversity Initiative Communications Strategy to learn more.

It would be great to have an organization or community in which everyone is invited and people accepted the reality that cultural diversity poses challenges. However, human beings need time to get use to cultural differences. Unfortunately, it is unproductive and costly to allow people to get comfortable with each other at their own rate. The cultural diversity expert knows how to create a climate in which civility is expected in order to follow the ground rules and avoid behaviors that sever trust.

Author: Billy Vaughn, PhD

1. Putnam, R. D. (2000). BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY. New York: Simon & Schuster.

2. Putnam, R. D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. The 2006 Johan Skytte prize lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30(2), 137-174.

3. BRAM LANCEE AND JAAP DRONKERS (2008). Ethnic diversity in neighborhoods and individual trust of immigrants and natives: A replication of Putnam (2007) in a West-European country. European University Institute. Paper presented at the International Conference on Theoretical Perspectives on Social Cohesion and Social Capital, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Brussels, Palace of the Academy. May 15, 2008 http://www.eui.eu/Personal/Dronkers/English/trust.pdf

 
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