MANAGING DIVERSITY: Grappling With Change in the Work Force. A SPECIAL REPORT : Latino Calls for a More Aggressive Stance on Bias

In 1970, when Fred S. Rodriguez founded a network for Southland Latinos working as personnel professionals, ethnics were more outspoken.

So Rodriguez called his group the Personnel Management Assn. of Aztlan-- Aztlan , the ancient Indian name for the Southwestern states an expansionist America seized from Mexico in the mid-19th Century.

Today, Latinos and other minorities in business favor a more button-down style and the group goes by its initials, PMAA. But Rodriguez, a mid-level manager at a Los Angeles aerospace company, says the refined approach has been no more successful than the nationalistic in opening the eyes of white executives to the aspirations of minorities.

For Latinos, “There are still definite barriers to breaking into senior management from middle management,” said Rodriguez, 52, who earned a college diploma and two master’s degrees at night while working days as a technician, engineer and, ultimately, equal employment manager. “We’ve been successful in bringing them in and moving them up to a certain position, but the lid is still there.”

Rodriguez has seen little evidence so far that Los Angeles-area companies recognize the demographic imperatives created by the explosion of ethnic diversity in the labor pool.

“The only time they consider the ethnic issue on a conscious basis is if the issue is raised in terms of affirmative action requirements, or if an outside agency has made inquiries into their employment patterns or a minority individual has made a complaint,” he said. “I’m not sure we’ve made any progress in educating the people in leadership positions about the changing nature of this work force.”

Educate Managers

Rodriguez is not a rabble rouser at his own job; he insists that his employer not be identified so that his comments are not interpreted as a jab at his bosses. Rather, he works through channels, advising young Latino engineers and personnel managers on career strategies. How militant, after all, can a member of the advisory committee of the Senate Republican Conference’s Task Force on Hispanic Affairs be?

For the most part, Rodriguez’s prescription for improving the job opportunities of minorities is measured.

Companies, he says, must educate white managers about the nature of the ethnic cultures in which their employees were raised. Top executives need opportunities to rub shoulders informally with aspiring minority managers. Career development programs must target minorities for strategic career planning.

But Rodriguez warns that such efforts will fall flat unless Latinos and other ethnics recapture some of the fighting spirit that produced, for one thing, a bond with the notion of Aztlan.

“There’s a lot more to be done,” he said, “and it will take a lot of aggressive action by the interested minorities to get it done.”