The Supermodular Architecture of Diversity

Abstract

Achieving and managing workplace diversity can be contentious work for employers. As Susan Sturm's recent article asserts, "[e]mployers face legal and political challenges both for failing to diversify their workplaces and for diversity efforts to overcome that failure." Both employers and employees find themselves in an ambiguous and highly reactive landscape that offers little structure within which to plan diversity initiatives. Sturm's thoughtful article, The Architecture of Inclusion, offers some much needed structure to institutional participants engaged in the practice of making inclusive environments. In this brief comment, we build on Sturm's work, offering a simple suggestion relating to the practical structure of diversity.