The Chief Diversity Officer Role

This volume addresses the issue of who should be tasked to advance an institution's diversity agenda and coordinate its diversity initiatives and policies. Having established in a companion volume the parameters for an effective diversity strategy, Damon Williams addresses such questions as: Does the process need a chief diversity officer (CDO) to implement it? And, if it does, at what level of the organization should the position be established, and what resources and functions should it control? This book is the first to identify and define this new role. The book begins by delineating the evolution of the chief diversity officer role in the academy. Drawing on extensive qualitative and quantitative research on CDOs conducted for the purposes of this book, it describes how the scope and responsibilities are variously defined at the institutions where the position has been created, and offers insights into the complexities and challenges of the role. On the basis of this data and the literature on organizational design and change management, Damon Williams defines the requisite skills, knowledge and background to be effective, reviews the alternative organizational and governance structures under which CDOs operate, and in so doing presents his Chief Diversity Officer Development Framework as a basis for recruiting candidates, for structuring the position to succeed, and for providing prospective and incumbent CDOs with a realistic sense of the scope of the role. Rather than prescribing a specific model for designing the CDO role, this book provides the reader with the key dimensions that she or he must consider in developing, supporting, or undertaking this strategic diversity leadership role.