At OFCCP, Deputy Director Joe N. Kennedy, a Dillard University alumnus, is the highest ranking Civil Service careerist, a Federal employee at the Senior Executive Service (SES) level. His is the second highest-ranking executive position at OFCCP. Administrators above him are political appointees, people subject to change with the Presidential Administration. His immediate supervisor Deputy Assistant Secretary Shirley J. Wilcher, an Administrative appointee, reports to an Assistant Secretary of Labor on the Clinton Administration staff. Assistant Secretary of Labor Dr. Bernard E. Anderson reports to the Secretary of Labor, who reports to President Clinton. Deputy Director Joe N. Kennedy is, therefore, three executives away from direct access to the President.

At the National Office, housed within the Department of Labor, 70 people report to Deputy Director Joe N. Kennedy through the management chain. Each senior executive head of the ten field offices (in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle) reports to him. The National Office controls a 59 million dollar budget and coordinates the activities of 740 careerists, OFCCP's ceiling. About 710 employees are on the rolls today.

Joe N. Kennedy became Deputy Director of OFCCP in March of 1995. As the highest ranking non-political appointee at OFCCP, Joe Kennedy maintains stability, OFCCP's and his, and succession. "When you're in this position," he says, "obviously one of the things you must think about is succession. I have to think about the development of the people who will follow me and about what's going to happen at later stages of my own career. Next year I'll have 30 years of service, and I'm 51 years old now. Presumably, I'll be working here for a number of years, and as Deputy Director I have to think about OFCCP's well-being--for the future. So one of the things that I have to be concerned about is the development of staff to take on responsibilities in the near term and in the future. I place extreme authority with subordinate staff and, as a part of their development, seek opportunities for executive training for managers and future managers. We have developed an internal training academy to address some of the program-related needs, and we take advantage of Departmental and government-wide training resources and schools, such as the Federal Executive Institute, and management programs developed in cooperation with colleges and universities. Last year I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a management training program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government."

Continuing personal development and the development of the OFCCP staff are not the only challenges. Already OFCCP has come under fire, during the last Congressional term, and even before that, because they resisted the movement by some, including forces within private industry to downplay affirmative action, replacing it with diversity. "The word diversity," he says, "clouds the issue of discrimination and affirmative action for those of us who work to distinguish 'quota programs' and affirmative action programs. Affirmative action as practiced by the OFCCP is not a quota program. We do not require contractors to hire unqualified people. OFCCP's program is about casting a wide net, expansively making sure that contractors have a pool of people from which to select the most qualified people. Affirmative action really shouldn't be difficult for people to understand. We really can't use the term diversity because the regulations, as they are structured, do not include the term. Diversity as used in the private sector and as depicted in media is cultural, and it may include every conceivable difference that one might imagine. If we ultimately include any differences, then the force of law that is designed to protect the most blatant and obvious discrimination against racial groups, females, the disabled, and covered veterans will be minimized. Diversity in the generic sense means accepting the differences of people within our culture, making sure that everyone respects the strengths inherent in the experiences of other people and using these strengths--which other people can bring to the table. Race differs from culture. Affirmative action grows out of racial discrimination that has been prevalent in our history. Because of a need to have a balance in achieving so-called diversity, OFCCP regulations provide for two principles to be adhered to. It requires non-discrimination first of all, and then it requires affirmative action."

Joe Kennedy insists that no one can talk about affirmative action unless he or she talks about discrimination: "Racial discrimination still exists and unless you eliminate racial discrimination, you can't talk about affirmative action initiatives because it embraces actions for overcoming barriers, eliminating barriers, and presenting the best possible environment for us to take advantage of all our skills and human resources. If discrimination persists, you can't talk about eliminating barriers. I think that it is important to distinguish between remedial action and affirmative action. Remedial action is the action taken to eliminate discrimination. Once discrimination is eliminated you then aggressively do things to ensure that the events that gave rise to that discrimination don't happen again. Effectively you do that through affirmative action, an action designed to make sure that the 'employment pot,' so to speak, includes everybody. Affirmative action is an effort to make sure that everybody has a chance to participate in employment pools; diversity is a result of affirmative action."

Joe Kennedy is so specific about OFCCP and affirmative action that you might think that policy at OFCCP does not change. It does change. Affirmative action is the result of an executive order, which is an expression of the President. When President Johnson issued the executive order for affirmative action, the order contained the authority for the Department of Labor to promulgate and regulate that order. By allowing the Department of Labor to promulgate his executive order, President Johnson made it a requirement for those interested in contracting with the Federal Government. Policy implementation changes, so to speak, in terms of how vigorously the executive order is enforced, whether there is an aggressive approach to affirmative action or a moderate approach. Joe Kennedy credits the current policy implementation philosophy to the head of OFCCP, Deputy Assistant Secretary Shirley J. Wilcher. Under Shirley Wilcher OFCCP implementation philosophy has been aggressive. Shirley Wilcher has worked hard to restore the previous luster of OFCCP, restoration that hasn't been easy. Joe Kennedy explains the restoration: "Since my return to OFCCP what has evolved is a more definitive statement that OFCCP is returning its resources to, or dedicating its resources to, the identification of systemic discrimination. This is different from having the agency focus its resources on individual instances of discrimination. OFCCP with resources of approximately 700 people oversees more than 90 thousand supply and service contracts. Each supply and service contractor must develop an affirmative action plan in accordance with prescribed regulation." Joe Kennedy thinks that it is ineffective to focus on isolated instances of discrimination. "By identifying systemic discrimination, OFCCP spreads its resources and uses them more effectively because doing so identifies classes of victims that benefit from resolution including back pay or other forms of compensation." "When OFCCP rectifies or corrects a system, its potential impact on individuals is greater. That is where OFCCP's focus has been since Shirley Wilcher came on board as Deputy Assistant Secretary. Because of Shirley Wilcher, OFCCP enjoys a greater measure of success today than it did before her administration."

So what happens when OFCCP discovers discrimination or non-compliance? Joe Kennedy explains that "The consequence of non-compliance is sanctions that may include debarment. OFCCP prefers to avoid disqualification (debarment) of contractors from eligibility to contract. Its regulations are constructed such that they encourage negotiation, mediation, and conciliation to settlement that avoids contentious litigation. Disqualification is our ultimate tool, a very powerful tool because a contractor's ability to earn money can be seriously impacted by disqualification. When OFCCP officials find discrimination, they require restoration of benefits, privileges, and possible compensation for affected people. OFCCP seeks to have contractors stop the offending practices, to notify the affected people of the fact that they have been victims and protect them from retaliation, to take steps to restore losses, and to take measures preventing the discrimination from happening again." Joe Kennedy thinks that if contractors take preventive measures, a remedy is probably unnecessary because the contractor would already have analyzed its workforce and taken affirmative action.

Joe Kennedy graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana--in Biology. At Dillard, he was one of two students who scored high on the Federal Service Entrance Examination. He still networks with Claiborne Martin, the other student who scored high. The FSEE has since been ruled out as being discriminatory. "After I scored well on the exam, they asked me where I wanted to work. I had a choice of Milwaukee, Chicago, or Indianapolis. Not having spent any time north of Louisiana, I wanted to go the least far north for fear that the weather would be too cold. So I chose Fort Benjamin Harrison at Indianapolis. I took a job as an Industrialist Specialist, during the Vietnam War." Joe Kennedy monitored contractors producing goods and services for the government to determine their production capability. He developed monitoring processes to tract the progress of items from the point of contract to the point of inspection and delivery and to monitor any real or potential problems that might impede delivery. Because of his Biology degree, he thought that he would be working solely in pharmaceuticals and textiles. He ended up working in steel fabrication, metal exclusion, electronics, munitions, and automotive replacement parts. His professional development required him to adapt.

After working as an industrialist for three and a half years, he accepted an opportunity to get into the equal opportunity field, enforcing government EEO provisions. Making this career change was great, he says, "because I had worked with the NAACP Youth Council in New Orleans. My brother Feltus was caring enough to take me under his wings when he went to NAACP Youth Council meetings, and I developed an interest in Civil Rights, having witnessed the demonstrations and pickets of the downtown stores. In high school I helped with the voter registration campaigns. I never thought of equal opportunity work as a way for me to earn a living." The NAACP Youth Council under Dr. Raphael Cassimere, Jr., now Vice-Chairman for the South/West Region of the NAACP, was very active in Civil Rights. Dr. Cassimere remembers the Kennedys, Joe and Feltus, as collegians intensely active in the struggle for equal opportunities.

Joe Kennedy began his formal Civil Rights work as an Equal Opportunity Specialist trainee and later as journey specialist, conducting investigations and compliance reviews in areas around Chicago and Indianapolis. After seven years conducting investigations and reviews, he was selected for a position that involved investigative process, training, budgeting, and performing and managing quality audits for the cases investigated. "I was chosen," he thinks, "because I had reasonable success as an Equal Opportunity investigator. However, I had to learn to be a manager. One of the things the Department of Defense did for me, as one of the new employees, was to send me to military schools. Most of the senior guys who had been with the government a long time didn't want to go to school, didn't want to go to training. They sent me to school so often that I thought that they were trying to get me to quit, but I always went." These schools were blessings in disguise because they gave Joe Kennedy many of the skills that he now uses as Deputy Director. The military schools were often run by area colleges and universities. At the military schools he came in contact with a lot of different people, with a lot of different skills, and a lot of different abilities. Very early in his career, Joe Kennedy learned a lot of the management principles very important for moving up through the government.

Joe Kennedy's first management position involved the development of manuals and procedures, and conducting internal audits of the investigators' work. He subsequently went into operations management supervising what was at the time the largest compliance unit in the country, the Chicago District Office in the Department of Defense. At that time, each agency in the Defense Department, Agriculture Department, and HEW had its own contract compliance programs. OFCCP, as we know it today, did not exist: Then it did quality evaluations and promulgated regulations. The agencies themselves enforced the programs. In 1978 contractor compliance units within the various agencies were consolidated under OFCCP. He transferred into the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

From there he transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, a spin-off of HEW, as a Regional Director of their Civil Rights Program. As preparation for the higher responsibility, he attended many different management programs and seminars for advancing managers, including the Federal Executive Institute. This preparation was important, because, he says, "managing in the government presents a unique challenge apart from the standard management studies that many collegians get in business schools." So he went to HHS and worked as Regional Director for the better part of 12 years, with assignments in Atlanta, San Francisco, and New York. Ultimately they pulled him into the National Office to develop training programs and internal procedures. In March of 1995 he accepted his current assignment in OFCCP.

According to Joe Kennedy, the key to any collegian's advancement, particularly in the Federal sector, is the willingness to accept the challenges, not being afraid to step out and try things that are different. "I think that a lot of people think that you get rewarded in the Government for doing things consistently and not making waves, but I find that the opposite is true," he says to collegians. "People who succeed are those willing to do things differently while being mindful of the mission of the organization and the vision created by the people they work for. If you can satisfy this vision while being creative within the limits of the authority delegated, you can go a long way."

But one of the essentials that cannot be taught, Joe advises collegians, is human dynamics, how to interact with people. He says that to advance, you must have a sense of knowing how to interact, how to bring people together and to build alliances. Joe Kennedy credits his education at Dillard for preparing him to work with people and to write well. "Remember the old blue books?" he asked. "At Dillard even though I was a Biology major I had to respond in the blue book. We had a lot of project assignments in which students had to work with each other. The ability to communicate is fundamental to managerial success and to be generally successful, and I don't care what endeavor you go into."

For collegians about to enter the job market, Joe Kennedy asks them to be aware of things past and of things present: "Some people may think that nothing much has changed over the past thirty years. Some collegians particularly do not seem to know or understand that the sacrifices that have been made for a number of years were based upon a level of activism that elevated us to another step, and that what has become acceptable behavior in the corporate structure has evolved over time and sacrifice. Recently we are beginning to hear about a return to the days of yesteryear--Texaco, for instance. There are those confident that nobody cares anymore, but they have been hearing the wrong message in the media; they think that the level of enforcement is going down because of government downsizing. In fact the level of enforcement at OFCCP is greater. Still, collegians must become activists in the sense of letting people know that there are still areas of pain out there, that there needs to be vigilance on the part of government, and that our government has to be responsible, particularly when nobody complains. No collegian should believe that there is no longer a problem."

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