Abstract for: A Model to Assist Leaders Increase Diversity in their Organizations

In this paper, we discuss how an exploratory System Dynamics model that was developed in an earlier study was validated, calibrated, and applied to a real organization. The model provided useful insights about what might need to change to reach a specific diversity goal in a specific amount of time. In our case study, we showed that diversity was fairly high in the organization and had been increasing in the past. However, based on projections into the future, it appeared the diversity growth may be expected to slow. We showed simply removing bias in hiring and promoting may not provide the desired level of diversity in a reasonable amount of time and that more affirmative action may need to be taken to reach a stretch goal. Several feedback loops could be added to the model in future work. This model could be expanded and potentially applied to a large organization. It could also be converted to an Agent-Based Simulation to be better applied to very small organizations.