Public Administration and the Increased Need for Cultural Competencies in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This paper argues that public administration needs to reconsider how it conceptualizes and educates about social equity and social justice issues. The field needs to move away from an assimilationist to a different cultural model. Two significant demographic trends drive this need. First, the Census Bureau projects that by 2042 (or sooner) the United States will no longer have a majority racial/ethnic group. Second, the country's aging dominant cultural group is also rapidly retiring from the workforce and is being replaced by a labor force that is younger and more culturally diverse. Findings from research on the cultural attitudes of college-age people from different racial/ethnic groups are presented to show that younger people embrace this multicultural reality but continue to hold stereotypical views of different groups, pointing to the need for the field to develop cultural competencies among all racial/ethnic groups. The city of Seattle is identified as a public organization whose programs are especially sensitive to these changes.

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