Story at a glance
- Researchers used artificial intelligence-based language analysis to evaluate the diversity statement at each company on the Fortune 500 list.
- They found that 80 percent of companies had a business-case reason for their commitment, while messaging at 5 percent of the companies was driven by a fairness justification.
- The researchers then conducted five experiments asking LGBTQ professionals, female STEM-job seekers and Black students how business-case diversity statements contributed to their desire to work at a company, as well as how welcome they would feel.
Diversity messages focused on a company’s bottom line run the risk of alienating diverse potential employees, according to a new study.
Researchers used artificial intelligence-based language analysis to evaluate the diversity statement at each company on the Fortune 500 list. They found that 80 percent of companies had a business-case reason for their commitment, while messaging at 5 percent of the companies was driven by a fairness justification. The remaining companies on the list provided no diversity statement or no reason for their statements.
“These business-case justifications are extremely popular,” lead author Oriane Georgeac, a professor at the Yale School of Management, said in a news release. “But our findings suggest that they do more harm than good.”
The researchers then conducted five experiments asking LGBTQ professionals, female STEM-job seekers and Black students how business-case diversity statements contributed to their desire to work at a company as well as how welcome they would feel.
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They concluded that business-oriented diversity statements had a negative effect on both the groups’ desire to work at a particular company and their expected feeling of belonging when compared to diversity statements based on fairness.
“On the surface, this rhetoric may sound positive,” Georgeac said, referring to business-case justifications. “However, we argue that by uniquely tying specific social identities to specific workplace contributions, business-case justifications for diversity justify the fact that organizations may attend to individuals’ social identities when forming expectations about, and evaluating, their work.”
“In other words, business-case justifications confirm to women and underrepresented group members that they must worry about their social identities being a lens through which their contributions will be judged, Georgeac continued. “And this is threatening to these groups.”
The team said further research could focus on how business-case diversity statements affect other unrepresented groups and how a company’s public posture compares to how it operates internally.
The study was published in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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