Professional practices within government such as hiring, budgeting or policy development often reflect or are affected by particular social and cultural values that are not shared by, and may even be in conflict with, those of members of the designated groups. This can create an unworkable situation for them. This, in turn, puts pressure on the person to conform to the existing culture even though it may conflict with his or her views and experiences. This scenario exposes a weakness in the numbers-based approach. Simple employment in the Public Service does not guarantee full participation in the professional practices that make its wheels turn.
Full participation requires that the practices be supported by a culture of inclusiveness.
The roundtable discussions contained strong endorsements of this view. Participants certainly did not want to dispense with employment equity-type programs. But they were clear in their view that existing approaches have not done enough. Now that diversity has been considered in the context of employment equity, let s consider it in isolation as a goal worthy in itself. Some of the rationale for diversity rests on the same principles as the case for employment equity.