The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics had its fourth seminar of the semester on October 7th 2014. Frank Dobbin, professor of Sociology at Harvard, presented the project he is currently working on with Alexandra Kalev, which involves developing an evidence-based approach to diversity management, studying the effects of corporate-diversity programs on actual diversity, and studying the effects of workforce diversity on corporate performance. He then used social science theories as a framework for understanding the patterns revealed in his research about how different management practices affect diversity in the work place.
Dobbin began the seminar by explaining the study that he is currently conducting on university faculty diversity. It takes a look at how the policies in place at universities may be affecting the level of diversity represented in the faculty at these universities. This study is based on the observation that while universities did a good job of diversifying the student body in the 1960s and 1970s, diversity at the faculty level has failed to catch up. In the late 1970s it was assumed that as more traditionally underrepresented groups graduated from college, the amount of minority groups represented in faculty would naturally increase as well. This change only occurred on a very small scale, especially at the level of senior faculty among women, African Americans, and Hispanics. The study tracks people’s careers every two years as well as their universities’ policies to see how those policies may have affected their success. Dobbin and Kalev’s ultimate goal is to create a rubric or set of practices that universities or businesses can follow in order to increase representation of underrepresented groups at the top levels of their company or university.
As it is still relatively early in the year and they are still in the process of collecting and analyzing data on the topic of faculty diversity, Dobbin provided us with some background information in the form of a corporate study on how management practices affect diversity in the work place. He began this discussion with mentoring and diversity taskforces and how self-perception theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and contact theory explaining the positive trends seen with these programs. As these types of programs bring people of different race, gender, and ethnicities together and get managers working towards diversity, they reduce bias and change the managers’ self-perception and so increase diversity throughout the company.
Dobbin then transitioned to Network Programs, which although popular and often well funded, generally have negative effects as unlike mentoring programs they actually increase segregation within the company. Management training and recruitment to management training only saw positive effects for white women and Asian men. Discretion-control reforms such as job tests, performance evaluations, and grievance procedures all detrimentally affected diversity and Dobbin explained this trend through self-control theory and job-autonomy theory. Basically, people like to be in control of what they do. When they feel that they are being forced into doing something then they rebel. Therefore practices such as job tests, performance evaluations, and grievance procedures that try to get managers to act against their biases by controlling their discretion usually backfire and lead to decreases in diversity.
Diversity trainings and diversity evaluations, which are the most popular programs used by companies, had little to no effect on diversity. Dobbin proposed that this could be due to the labeling theory of deviance. These trainings and evaluations often make people feel like they have been labeled as discriminatory and so they live up to the label that has been placed on them. Internalization theory explains why the study showed negative effects for mandatory trainings but positive effects for voluntary trainings. Mandatory training makes it feel like some external regulation is forcing this on you. Accountability theory explains the positive effects of just having a diversity manager. It makes people feel that they will be held accountable for the decisions that they make, especially in terms of hiring or promotions. Finally, normalization of work-life balance, such as having work-family workshops, parental leave policies, and childcare assistance, had positive effects on diversity just by conveying the message that it is ok and normal to have the issue of balancing work and life outside of work.
A disconcerting fact is that the programs that are generally most popular are also the programs that have little to no effect on diversity or are actually detrimental to diversity. The observation was made that this could be due to recommendations from lawyers as policies like grievance procedures and performance evaluations, although unhelpful in promoting diversity, are the most effective ways of protecting yourself from lawsuits in courts.
- Summary composed by Lianna Llewellyn