This chapter discusses the importance of moving diversity management’s use of cultural competency in the delivery of public programs and public agency services from the conceptual and unconnected to a legitimate theoretical framework and model. Specifically, this chapter calls for a new kind of public agency service professional who possesses explicit cultural competency awareness, knowledge, and skills to work with racial/ethnic and cultural/linguistic groups in public administration and in the public agency service delivery process. The chapter concludes by noting the need for a cultural competency model that would integrate and transform cultural awareness and cultural knowledge about individuals and groups into culturally specific skills, practices, standards, and policies to increase the quality and effectiveness of public agency services and programs.
A New Kind of Public Service Professional: Possessing Cultural Competency, Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills
This chapter discusses the importance of moving diversity management’s use of cultural competency in the delivery of public programs and public agency services from the conceptual and unconnected to a legitimate theoretical framework and model. Specifically, this chapter calls for a new kind of public agency service professional who possesses explicit cultural competency awareness, knowledge, and skills to work with racial/ethnic and cultural/linguistic groups in public administration and in the public agency service delivery process. The chapter concludes by noting the need for a cultural competency model that would integrate and transform cultural awareness and cultural knowledge about individuals and groups into culturally specific skills, practices, standards, and policies to increase the quality and effectiveness of public agency services and programs.