NSF Workshop on A Science of Broadening Participation

Disentangling Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations

Quinetta M. Roberson, Ph.D. Human Resource Studies, ILR Cornell University

Introduction

Consistent with labor predictions, the workforce of the 21st century can be characterized by greater diversity (Langdon,
McMenamin & Krolik, 2002)

To effectively manage such diversity, organizations have adopted different approaches

Targeted initiatives intended to increase and/or retain workforce diversity (Cox, 1993; Morrison, 1992) Broader initiatives to remove barriers to access and participation
(Wentling & Palma-Rivas, 2000)

Despite this move from diversity to inclusion, we have limited understanding of whether it represents a material change in organizational actions and outcomes (Linnehan & Konrad, 1999)

What Past Research Tells Us

Organizations can be categorized based on the level of structural and cultural inclusion and employees across varying group memberships (Cox, 1991)

Conditions: degree of acculturation, structural and information integration, lack of cultural bias, organizational identification, and intergroup conflict

Organizations can be categorized based on the degree to which diversity is considered as the varied knowledge and perspective that members of different identity groups bring and is incorporated into the organizations strategies, operations, and practices (Thomas & Ely, 1996; Ely & Thomas, 2001)

Paradigms: discrimination-and-fairness, access-and-legitimacy, and learning-and-effectiveness

What Past Research Tells Us

Diversity climates are employee perceptions of the organizational context related to women and minorities (Kossek &
Zonia, 1993; Mor Barak et al., 1998)

Personal value for diversity Personal comfort with diversity Organizational fairness Organizational inclusion

Inclusion is the degree to which an employee is accepted and treated as an insider by others in a work system (Pelled, Ledford &
Mohrman, 1999: 1014)

Degree of influence that employees have over decisions that affect them Degree to which employees are kept well-informed about the organizations strategies and goals Likelihood that employees will retain their jobs

Research Questions

What are the meanings of diversity and inclusion in organizations?

What are the indicators of inclusive organizations, and do these indicators parallel, of differ from, the indicators of diverse organizations?

Study 1

Sample HR/diversity officers of 51 large, publicly-traded organizations Procedures -- Email survey that contained four open-ended questions:

How would you define diversity? How would you define inclusion? What are the attributes of a diverse organization? What are the attributes of an inclusive organization?

Analyses -- Content analysis of definitions and attributes followed an inductive, grounded theory development process (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) Results

Definitions of diversity focused primarily on differences and the demographic composition of organizations, while definitions of inclusion focused on organizational objectives designed to increase the participation of all employees and to leverage diversity effects on the organization 30 attributes for diversity and inclusion

Study 2

Sample 186 diversity professionals Procedures

Questionnaire comprised of 27 attributes from literature review and Study 1 Respondents were asked to rate the extent to which each attribute describes diverse organizations and inclusive organizations (9-point scale ranging from not at all to completely)

Analyses Exploratory factor analysis with principal components and varimax rotation Results

All attributes may characterize inclusive organizations Attributes for diverse organizations may be separated into two factors 1) actual diversity and the integration of diversity management into organizational strategy; and 2) employee involvement in work systems as well as learning and growth outcomes that may stem from diversity; Factor structure explained 70.81% of the variance

Study 3

Sample 330 HR/OD professionals

Procedures

Questionnaire comprised of 42 items (21 attributes) from Study 2 Respondents were asked to rate the extent to which each attribute describes diverse organizations and inclusive organizations

Analyses

Confirmatory factor analysis via structural equations modeling Chi-square difference tests of alternative nested models

Results -- Five-factor model provided more suitable explanation of the

relationships: fair treatment, representation of diverse groups among stakeholders, top managements support for diversity, employee participation, and organizational outcomes

Discussion

Findings -- overlap in characteristics of diverse and inclusive organizations

Move from diversity to inclusion may primarily represent change in language rather than meaningful change in practices Concepts may represent two points on a continuum representing organizational attributes that facilitate movement from diverse to inclusive organizations

Limitations

Sample characteristics Potential biasing effects Discriminant and predictive validity

Conclusions

Conceptual distinction although attributes for diversity may be subset of inclusion attributes Management of diversity may be more complex than is currently articulated in both practitioner and scholarly research