Why diversity programs often fail
One of the key tactics of the Critical Social Justice and Race Theories movement is a type of "re-education," in which privileged groups are trained to see their inherent and systemic racism, classism, etc. so they will behave better and more justly in the future. While these programs are widespread, do they effect any change? Stephen Johnson explores in BigThink.
Diversity programs have become commonplace in the professional world, but do they actually work?Not really, according to an award-winning report in the Harvard Business Review written by Frank Dobbin, a professor of sociology at Harvard, and Alexandra Kalev, an associate professor at Tel Aviv University.
“It shouldn’t be surprising that most diversity programs aren’t increasing diversity,” wrote Dobbin and Kalev. “Despite a few new bells and whistles, courtesy of big data, companies are basically doubling down on the same approaches they’ve used since the 1960s—which often make things worse, not better.”
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that American companies with more than 100 employees barely increased their hiring of women and minorities between 1985 and 2014. According to the data, black men in managerial roles rose from 3 to 3.3 percent since 1985, while white women in management increased from 22 to 29 percent, a figure that's remained stagnant since 2000.
Diversity programs might also be creating a worse working environment for white men. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, researchers compared the job interview performance of white men at companies with and without stated diversity programs.
“Compared to white men interviewing at the company that did not mention diversity, white men interviewing for the pro-diversity company expected more unfair treatment and discrimination against whites. They also performed more poorly in the job interview, as judged by independent raters. And their cardiovascular responses during the interview revealed that they were more stressed.”
Analyzing three decades’ worth of data and interviewing hundreds of managers and executives, Dobbin and Kalev identified some key aspects of diversity programs that make them ineffective, or worse, counterproductive. And perhaps more importantly, their research sheds light on diversity approaches that actually seem to work.
Many programs are mandatory. According to Dobbin and Kalev's research, companies that used mandatory diversity training ultimately employed less employees of color over a 5-year analysis.
“Trainers tell us that people often respond to compulsory courses with anger and resistance—and many participants actually report more animosity toward other groups afterward.”
Three quarters of companies use negative language in their programs, sending the message of “Discriminate, and the company will pay the price.”
“...threats, or “negative incentives,” don’t win converts.”
Read the whole thing here.
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