Moving Beyond Inclusive Excellence: Operationalizing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Through Organizational Alignment in Higher Education

Abstract

When it comes to the implementation of diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) behaviors, institutions of higher education are misaligned in their understanding and operation of what the work entails. In an effort to emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the larger Organizational Development process (OD), many institutions of higher education wind up focusing most, if not all, of their energy into areas of the work that does not allow for sustainable action. The ensuing research explores the relationship between strategic plans for diversity and inclusion (SPFDI) and the ways in which they are impacted by organizational design – specifically the Inclusive Excellence model. In addition to the SPFDI, I will explore two different action items, Diversity Focused Programming (DFP) and Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance (EEOC) as cooperating elements used to implement DEI. Both action items will be examined through the lens of Inclusive Excellence (IE) as they pertain to sustaining the behavior of diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutions of higher education. Where elements of the information pertaining to this particular study are extremely scarce in both research and practice in higher education, I use a multidimensional approach in order to compile the necessary data to support my study. A multidimensional approach is a research method that involves the examination of multiple fields of study in order to analyze and make a case for another. In this case, I review organizational behavior and organizational design as subsets of organizational development, as well as the hybrid Inclusive Excellence and strategic planning models, corporate diversity programming models, and federal/state equal employment requirements in order to answer how organizational design effects the behavior of diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutions of higher education. As a result, this multidimensional study was supported by using a mixed-methods approach to analyze the data I gathered from the study. I used a quantitative approach to showcase the amount of institutional strategic plans that were impacted by the Inclusive Excellence model and I used a qualitative approach to explain and highlight the challenges and successes the model itself has had on various institutions of higher education. Together, this study examines the ways in which a series of colleges or universities that have adopted the Inclusive Excellence model interpret diversity, equity, and inclusion based on their understandings of the definitions. The chief aim of this study was to discover how the Inclusive Excellence model, as an organizational design, defines, implements, and sustains behaviors of diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutions of higher education. This study applies organizational design and behavior as subsects of the larger organizational development process in order to illustrate their relationships with the Inclusive Excellence model (IE) and strategic plans for diversity and inclusion (SPFDIs).