Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis extends research on the benefits and critical importance of diversity and proper diversity management in South African government departments, and was built on the premise that this research can provide benefits in assisting this government departments to make improvements in their diversity management and to harness the benefits of diversity. Participants in the study were the employees from the National Department Public Work's Cape Town Regional Office. The study also looks at diversity management studies conducted in Australia, Malaysia and Canada. The study involves an in-depth analysis of the literature on diversity management, which resulted in an untangling of the complexity of the subject . / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie werkstuk is om die voordele en kritiese belang van die bestuur van diverse werkgroepe binne die Suid Afrikaanse staatsdepartemente te ondersoek. Nieteenstaande die moontlike slaggate, moet die voordele van 'n diverse werksgroep en die belangrikheid om sodanige personeel effektief te bestuur nie deur werkgewers onderskat word nie. Die werknemers van die Nasionale Department Publieke Werke, Kaapstad gaan deel neern in die studie. Die studie sluit in persoonlike onderhoude. Die studie ondersoek ook bevindinge oor die bestuur van diversiteit in Australia, Malaysia en Kanada, Dit sluit ook in diepte ondersoek van literuur aangaande diverse bestuur.

This qualitative study of representative bureaucracy examines the extension and limitations of liberal democratic rights by connecting environmental and social history with policy, individual decision making, gender, race, and class in American history. It documents major cultural shifts in a homogeneous patriarchal organization, constraints, advancement, and the historical agency of women and minorities. "Creating a Multicultural Forest Service" identifies a relationship between natural and human resources and tells a story of expanding and contracting civil liberties that shifted over time from women and people of color to include the differently-abled and LGBT communities. It includes oral history as a key to uncovering individual decision points, relational networks, organizational activism, and human/nature relations to shape meaningful explanations of historical institutional change. With gender and race as primary categories, this inquiry forms a history that is critical to understanding federal bureaucratic efforts to meet workforce diversity goals in natural resource organizations.