Date of Award

Fall 12-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

School of Public Service

Program/Concentration

Public Administration and Policy

Committee Director

John Lombard

Committee Member

Adam Eckerd

Committee Member

Angela Eckhoff

Abstract

Creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DE&I) workforce produces beneficial organizational outcomes, such as decreased turnover, improved creativity and innovation, and improved organizational performance (Diaz-Garcia et al., 2013; Gomez & Bernet, 2019; McLeod et al., 1996; Singh & Selvarjan, 2013). While the private sector has placed much emphasis on improving DE&I in their hiring practices, whether the federal government has achieved comparable outcomes remains unclear. Guided by the punctuated equilibrium theory (PET), this dissertation examines the impact of Executive Order 13583 on both change in workforce composition, and employee sentiment towards diversity policies and programs.

Using a multi-level, multi-method, quantitative analysis, this study integrates macro, meso, and micro-level analyses. At the macro-level, the interrupted time-series found no immediate impact of EO 13583 on workforce composition. At the meso-level, a panel data analysis revealed a 2.1% increase in workforce diversity across agencies. At the micro-level, using FEVS survey data, an ordered logistic regression demonstrated that federal workers had substantially more positive sentiment towards diversity policies and programs after EO 13583, with job satisfaction and management level as the largest predictors. Ultimately these findings demonstrate EO 13583 enabled only marginal changes to workforce composition, but did have robust impacts on employee sentiment towards DE&I initiatives.

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DOI

10.25777/z6q0-4452

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