Successful minority employees can create a false sense of diversity

By Kevin Manne

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Highly successful women and racial minorities help to challenge stereotypes and serve as role models for members of their social groups, but seeing them in prominent roles can also create the illusion that organizations are more diverse than they really are, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the study found this happens because those leaders stand out and are easy to remember, which can lead people to overestimate organizational diversity — and may even reduce support for additional diversity efforts. 

“People not only perceive more diversity when exposed to organizations that employ successful women and racial minority workers, but they also consistently overestimate their prevalence,” says study co-author Daniela Goya-Tocchetto, PhD, assistant professor of organization and human resources in the UB School of Management. “And, since working to advance diversity requires acknowledging the existence of a problem in the first place, people are less likely to support such efforts when they believe diversity is already high.” 

To understand how people think about diversity at work, the researchers analyzed more than 2,300 participant responses across multiple studies combined with real-world organizational data, including information on S&P 500 company leadership and boards, workplace salary distributions and gender pay gap data from more than 10,000 U.K. organizations. The results were then analyzed using statistical methods to compare perceived versus actual diversity and assess effects on attitudes toward diversity initiatives.

The researchers say that organizations should be aware of the perception bias their findings reveal and take steps to communicate the actual state of diversity at their firms by sharing accurate diversity data. It also is critical to recognize that a few visible leaders do not necessarily represent broader workforce diversity, and to continue supporting diversity efforts even when successful minority role models are present.

“The presence of counter-stereotypically successful women and racial minority employees in organizations has clear positive effects, but perceptions of diversity often differ from objective reality,” says Goya-Tocchetto. “Those perceptions can shape support for diversity initiatives, so organizations should be careful not to rely on symbolic representation alone when communicating progress on diversity.”

Goya-Tocchetto collaborated on the study with Shai Davidai, PhD, former assistant professor of business at the Columbia Business School; and M. Asher Lawson, PhD, assistant professor of decision sciences and The Patrick and Valentine Firmenich Fellow for Business and Society at INSEAD.