The influence of employee perceptions of organizational diversity practices on employee behavior

This authors examine how employees’ views on an organization’s ethical approach to diversity influence their behavior and their perceptions of their ethical virtue.

Introduction

In the past, organizations often prioritized diversity as a result of legal implications or due to perceived business advantages. Recently, there has been a shift. Now, organizations increasingly view diversity through an ethical lens; it is an organization’s ethical responsibility to treat its employees fairly and create a welcoming environment for everyone. 

This report delves into the inclusion and organizational ethics literature to explore the relationship between employees’ views of their organization’s approach to integrating and learning from diversity and two key employee outcomes: (1) organizational citizenship behavior and (2) interpersonal workplace deviance.

Tanja Rabl is a Chair of Human Resource Management, Leadership, and Organization at Technische Universität Kaiserslautern. María del Carmen Triana is the Cal Turner Center Chair, Professor of Management at Vanderbilt University. Seo-Young Byun is an Assistant Professor of Management at Ball State University. Laura Bosch is a Chair of Human Resource Management, Leadership, and Organization at Technische Universität Kaiserslautern.

Methods and Findings

The study was carried out in both the United States and Germany, which allowed  for a comparative analysis of diversity management perceptions across countries. The research took place over different periods, with the U.S. study conducted in 2014 and the German study in the first quarter of 2015. 

The study employed a two stage, online survey data collection method. In the first stage, employees responded to questions regarding their perceptions of: (1) an organizational integration and learning approach to diversity and (2) their personal value for diversity. During the second phase, which was conducted a month later, the same employees provided details on their perceptions of the organization’s ethical virtue (including how the organization treats employees and whether it fosters a supportive environment), their engagement in organizational citizenship behavior directed towards their company (e.g, attending optional events that help the organizational image) , and instances of interpersonal workplace deviance (actions such as harassment and bullying). To bolster the study’s reliability and reduce biases (e.g., social desirability bias where employees might report themselves in a more favorable light) that are commonly associated with survey-based research, a paired participant who knew the employee well also completed a similar survey where the employee is the focus (e.g., the survey asked the paired participant if the employee exhibited organizational citizenship behavior). By obtaining perspectives from someone other than the employee, the study aimed to gather a more objective view of the employee’s behaviors and attitudes, and help reduce confirmation bias.

Key insights of the report include: 

• Organizational Integration and Learning Approach to Diversity. Employees often see positive outcomes, like increased innovation and customer satisfaction,  when companies use strategies that embrace diversity and encourage learning, including fostering inclusion and utilizing diverse perspectives.
• Perceptions of Organizational Ethical Virtue. Employees tend to view their organization as more ethically virtuous when they believe it has a positive approach to diversity. Furthermore, employees that highly value diversity strongly associate an organization’s diversity approach with its ethical virtue. 
• Impact on Organizational Citizenship and Deviant Workplace Behavior. When a company’s ethical culture is shaped by good diversity management, it leads to an increase in  positive behavior from employees towards the organization, which in turn results in less harmful behaviors at work, such as bullying and harassment.  

Conclusions

The findings show that when employees view their company as both ethical and dedicated to diversity, it has a positive effect on their work behavior. They become more inclined to support the organization and less likely to participate in deviant workplace behaviors while at work. In addition, employees who personally place a high value on diversity respond even more positively to organizational diversity efforts.

Organizational Practices that Promote Racial Equity through Positive and Intentional Interactions

Definitions

• Diversity: “The representation, in one social system, of people with distinctly different group affiliations of cultural significance.”
• Inclusion: “The degree to which individuals feel a part of critical organizational processes such as access to information and resources, involvement in work groups, and ability to influence the decision-making process.”
• Equity: “The absence of systematic disparities … between groups with different levels of underlying social advantage/disadvantage—that is, wealth, power, or prestige.”
• Generative Interactions: The key to realizing true inclusion and equity is through generative interactions. These are diversity interactions that “generate social connection and the deeper understanding needed to facilitate equity at the organizational level.” Generative interactions push against the status quo and provide the opportunity to establish new social understandings that embrace diversity.

Introduction

Research has demonstrated that investments in diversity and inclusion efforts implemented by organizations throughout the United States have not effectively improved institutional racial equity or reduced staff and leader racial biases. This paper by Bernstein, Bulger, Salipante, and Weisinger identifies organizational practices that promote generative interactions and successfully advance institutional racial inclusion and equity. The authors argue that a particular set of ongoing implemented practices contribute to an organizational culture that supports these critical developments.

Methods and Findings

The authors conducted an extensive literature review, from which they synthesized key thematic findings and recommendations. Bernstein, Bulger, Salipante, and Weisinger identified three main factors that curtail diversity and inclusion efforts – self-segregation, communication apprehension, and stereotyping and stigmatizing. As they indicate, “these dynamics pose a major challenge for organizations. They imply that publicized or otherwise known attempts to increase diversity can engender negative stereotyping of underrepresented groups, even by the groups’ members themselves.” Accordingly, the authors proposed three organizational mitigation strategies:

• Self-Segregation
  • Even if an organization is racially diverse, research indicates individuals tend to socialize within racially homogenous groups.
  • Mitigation: When organizations facilitate intentional interracial interactions between individuals they create more interethnic friendships are more likely to form as well as individual staff racial openness.
• Communication Apprehension
  • Staff can feel uncomfortable engaging in cross-cultural communication.
  • Mitigation: Organizations can provide opportunities for people to improve their cross-cultural communication skills. The authors recommend “adaptive cognitive processing,” which involves repetitive (and sometimes uncomfortable) reactions to cross-cultural stressors in an effort to suppress stereotypes.
• Stereotyping and Stigmatizing
  • Racialized group benefiting from affirmative action programs can be stigmatized by white people in power who feel threatened. This contributes to negative stereotypes about Black, Indigenous and staff of color’s performance and personalities.
  • Mitigation: Studies have shown positive outcomes related to cross-racial and cross-gender collaboration efforts, including  relational processes that restructure interactions from segregated to collaborative, create better stereotype awareness,  lower social group boundaries, and increase positive assessments of the capabilities of racially marginalized groups.

Additionally, the study details the set of organizational conditions that stimulate ongoing willingness, ability, and comfort for employees to interact across racial lines. These three conditions are:

• Contact Theory: (Repeated) interaction between racial/ethnic groups, especially with shared goals and cooperation result in reduced prejudices and more equal social status. 
• Avoiding Unfavorable Conditions: Interaction between individuals of different racialized groups should not feel forced.
• Common Ingroup Identity: Group biases are reduced when individuals can relate to one another based on a commonality other than their primary social identity. This common ingroup identity transcends (but still recognizes) the differences among members of the ingroup.

Conclusions

The theory of generative interactions outlined in this study emphasizes that diversity and inclusion efforts do not only matter at the individual level, but are critical for organizational efforts for achieving inclusion. Organizations that maintain a culture of social exclusion, even unwittingly,  will maintain racialized stereotype and prevent equitable organizational culture, and also failSustained interactions, grounded in positive reinforced racial identity awareness, allow for cognitive and skill adaptation that individuals, especially who are white and in dominant racialized groups,  need to eliminate their prejudices and be more effective in the workplace.

Diversity Impacts the Governance Performance of a Nonprofit’s Board

Introduction

By 2039, a majority of the U.S. workforce will identify as members of nonwhite race-based minoritized groups. Yet, despite this growing workplace diversity, these demographic shifts have not yet been reflected in the makeup of either for-profit or nonprofit boards. One study in 2013 found that across all Fortune 500 companies, board members were 73% white men, 13% white women, 10% men of color, and just 3% women of color. This disparity in representation was also prevalent among nonprofits, where 82% of board members identified as white as of 2012, and a majority also identified as men. 

Ensuring board diversity is critical to meeting the needs of diverse communities and customer segments, promoting an organizational culture of inquiry, and challenging inequities in American society. Therefore, more research is needed on the absence of diversity on nonprofit boards and how diversity policies and practices impact a board’s performance. The authors of this article add to the literature in this space by assessing how and when the performance of a board is impacted by the diversity of its members. Specifically, they study the impact of board diversity on internal governance practices like understanding the organization and the board’s roles and responsibilities, and external governance practices including fundraising, engaging with the community, and recruiting new members.

Kathleen Buse is an adjunct professor at Weatherhead School of Management. Ruth Sessler Bernstein is an Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Management at Pepperdine University. Diana Bilimoria is the KeyBank Professor and Chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University.

Methods and Findings

To assess the impact of diversity on a nonprofit board’s governance performance, the authors drew on data from Boardsource, an organization focused on improving organizational effectiveness by strengthening the capacity of boards. Specifically, they collected survey responses from 1,456 nonprofit chief executive officers about their board’s structure and demographics, organizational characteristics, diversity and inclusion policies, meeting practices, compliance with governance roles and responsibilities, and collaborative leadership practices. The authors also drew on the survey data to calculate a measure of relative diversity of each board, with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, and age.

The authors tested the following eight hypotheses:

• That gender, age, and racial diversity positively and directly impact (1) internal governance practices and (2) external governance practices;
• That (3) board diversity practices and (4) board inclusion behaviors positively and directly impact the internal and external governance practices of a board;
• That board diversity practices positively influence the relationship between race, age, and gender and a board’s (5) internal governance practices and (6) external governance practices;
• That board inclusion behaviors positively influence the relationship between race, age, and gender and a board’s (7) internal governance practices and (8) external governance practices. 

The authors found mixed results for these hypotheses. Gender diversity, the presence of diversity policies and practices, and board inclusion behaviors all had significant positive effects on internal and external governance practices. 

Contrastingly, racial and ethnic diversity was found to have a negative relationship with both internal and external governance practices. However, this negative relationship was partially mediated by diversity policies and inclusion behavior, such that racial diversity had a positive influence on board performance when diversity policies and inclusion behaviors increased. Age diversity was found to positively impact diversity policies and practices, but did not have a significant relationship with governance performance.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that racial, ethnic, gender, and age diversity on a nonprofit’s board affects its governance performance. This study also provides evidence that diversity policies and practices and inclusion behaviors also have a positive impact on board performance. Finally, it also sheds light on an important nuance regarding the relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and board performance. Specifically, racial and ethnic diversity appears to have a negative relationship with governance performance, but that impact becomes positive when diversity policies and inclusive behaviors are present.  

The authors conclude that organizational leaders must draw on research related to governance effectiveness to materially improve their governing board’s performance. This study also specifically indicates that efforts to enhance board diversity must be paired with meaningful diversity policies and practices and inclusive behaviors to maximize performance improvements. 

This work may be expanded on through further investigation of other relevant factors that may impact nonprofit board effectiveness. Additionally, future research could investigate the role of diversity in other types of organizations like local government bodies or private sector boards.

The Effect of Community and Organization Diversity Climate on Employee Retention

Introduction

“Organizational diversity climate” describes the degree to which an organization’s racially and ethnically diverse members are treated equitably and inclusively. “Community diversity climate” expands this perception of collective equity and inclusion to a geographical area where the individual primarily resides (i.e., town, city). Existing research on organizational ethics and diversity climates has historically not considered the influence of community diversity climate on employee attitudes and behaviors. In this study, Singh and Selvarajan examine the effect of employee perceptions of community diversity climate, organizational diversity climate, and individual racial affiliation on employee intent to stay at an organization.

The authors investigate how diversity climates within the formal organization and broader community might impact employee retention through the lens of spillover and compensation theories. Spillover theory proposes that experiences in one part of our life influences individual behaviors in other parts of our. In comparison, compensation theory indicates that when individuals find something of value to be lacking or unattainable in one domain of their life, they turn to other domains of their life to fulfill that need. This study also examines the role of individual racial affiliations in employee intent to stay. By assessing the interactions between the diversity climate within an employee’s organization and community as well as individual racial affiliations, this study advances the existing management and community psychology literature that has traditionally evaluated these variables independently of one another.

Dr. Barjinder Singh is an Associate Professor of Management at Elon University focusing on organizational behavior, human resource management, and business ethics. Dr. Rajan Selvarajan is an Associate Professor of Management at California State University-East Bay researching  human resource management, employee engagement, and diversity in organizations.

Methods and Findings

The authors distributed an electronic survey to 500 employees at a mid-sized organization in the American Midwest and received responses from 165 employees. One hundred (61%) of these respondents were white while the remaining 65 belonged to racial minority groups. The average respondent age was 41 years, and the average tenure was 8.6 years. The majority of the respondents were male (72%) and married (66%). In the quantitative analyses, Singh and Selvarajan control for employee tenure, which is associated with intended retention. 

The study examined the following metrics: 

• Organizational diversity climate was assessed by asking survey respondents to use a four-item scale to react to statements such as “I trust this organization to treat me fairly” and “This organization maintains a diversity friendly work environment.”

• Employee intent to stay was quantified through a three-item scale that assessed individual intentions to stay with their current employer using statements such as ‘‘Under no circumstances I would voluntarily leave this organization,’’ and ‘‘I plan to stay in this organization for as long as possible.’’

• Community diversity climate was measured along a five-item community diversity climate index (CDI) that asked respondents to react to the following questions: ‘‘My community welcomes people of different races and ethnicities,’’ and ‘‘People of different races and ethnicities would want to move to my community.’’

The study found a positive relationship between a supportive organizational diversity climate and employee intent to stay, which the authors considered a proxy for retention. The authors also found a supportive organizational diversity climate was more positively related to intent to stay among individuals who perceive equity and inclusion challenges in their broader geographical area, therefore supporting the compensation theory. Contrastingly, employee intent to stay with their organization was not strong for those who perceived supportive equity and inclusion climates in their geographical area, contradicting spillover theory. Finally, the study also found that the relationship between an employee’s intent to stay and whether racially and ethnically diverse members are treated equitably and inclusively at their employer was stronger for minority employees, especially for those in adverse community diversity climates.

Conclusions

This research underscores the importance of organizational diversity climate for promoting retention among both white and non-white employees. Although the study did not find evidence supporting spillover effects of positive community diversity climate for employee intent to stay, it did indicate potential for supportive organizational climates to mitigate challenges associated with adverse community diversity climates. The study also calls attention to differences in the effects of organizational and community diversity climates based on individual racial affiliations.

The authors acknowledge that this study is limited to the lens of race and ethnicity, and propose that studying alternative forms of diversity could unveil new information about the relationship between organizational and community culture and work related attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, because the study exclusively utilized an electronic survey, common-method bias could have resulted in skewed results. To counter this possibility, the authors suggest that future researchers collect data from multiple sources. Finally, the cross-sectional design of the study prevented analysis of long-term effects, which could be addressed through future longitudinal studies.