{"title":"Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs' emphasis on symbolism: Causes and consequences","authors":"Ariel Levi, Yitzhak Fried","doi":"10.1002/job.2834","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"SummaryIn this article, we attempt to explain why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have become so widespread and central to organizations today. We propose that organizations have responded to powerful societal forces that emphasize the importance of diversity. Because achieving diversity is often difficult, organizations often emphasize the symbolic aspects of diversity, including mission statements on diversity and the creation of units to promote the organization's DEI reputation. This emphasis on diversity symbolism has led to some unintended and negative consequences. A major consequence is that organizations become vulnerable to the charge that they are engaging in “window dressing.” This charge can lead organizations to respond by setting even more difficult‐to‐achieve goals. We cite illustrative examples in which stakeholders have called on organizations to actually achieve diversity, prompting a new round of diversity‐related goal‐setting sometimes accompanied by legally questionable human resource procedures (e.g., preferential hiring). Another negative consequence of diversity symbolism is that it incentivizes a focus on surface rather than deep dimensions of diversity. This displacement of deep by surface level diversity may cause organization to forgo the advantages potentially afforded by the former relative to the latter. We suggest that the tradeoffs inherent in DEI warrant caution and realism in program implementation.","PeriodicalId":48450,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Organizational Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2834","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
SummaryIn this article, we attempt to explain why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have become so widespread and central to organizations today. We propose that organizations have responded to powerful societal forces that emphasize the importance of diversity. Because achieving diversity is often difficult, organizations often emphasize the symbolic aspects of diversity, including mission statements on diversity and the creation of units to promote the organization's DEI reputation. This emphasis on diversity symbolism has led to some unintended and negative consequences. A major consequence is that organizations become vulnerable to the charge that they are engaging in “window dressing.” This charge can lead organizations to respond by setting even more difficult‐to‐achieve goals. We cite illustrative examples in which stakeholders have called on organizations to actually achieve diversity, prompting a new round of diversity‐related goal‐setting sometimes accompanied by legally questionable human resource procedures (e.g., preferential hiring). Another negative consequence of diversity symbolism is that it incentivizes a focus on surface rather than deep dimensions of diversity. This displacement of deep by surface level diversity may cause organization to forgo the advantages potentially afforded by the former relative to the latter. We suggest that the tradeoffs inherent in DEI warrant caution and realism in program implementation.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Organizational Behavior aims to publish empirical reports and theoretical reviews of research in the field of organizational behavior, wherever in the world that work is conducted. The journal will focus on research and theory in all topics associated with organizational behavior within and across individual, group and organizational levels of analysis, including: -At the individual level: personality, perception, beliefs, attitudes, values, motivation, career behavior, stress, emotions, judgment, and commitment. -At the group level: size, composition, structure, leadership, power, group affect, and politics. -At the organizational level: structure, change, goal-setting, creativity, and human resource management policies and practices. -Across levels: decision-making, performance, job satisfaction, turnover and absenteeism, diversity, careers and career development, equal opportunities, work-life balance, identification, organizational culture and climate, inter-organizational processes, and multi-national and cross-national issues. -Research methodologies in studies of organizational behavior.