Mind the Gap: Traps to Achieving Diversity

Mind the Gap: Traps to Achieving Diversity

The January 2008 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology contains two important articles on diversity of which all practitioners should be aware.

The first article by Madeline Heilman and Tyler Okimoto deals with the bias against mothers. In a laboratory study, using MBA student volunteers, they presented information about hypothetical applicants for the position of Assistant Vice President (AVP) of Financial Affairs that was identical in all respects apart from their parental status. The researchers demonstrated that applicants for promotion who were described as either fathers or mothers obtained lower scores than non-parents for anticipated job commitment and anticipated achievement striving. In addition, mothers, but not fathers, received lower ratings for competence than other people and fewer passed through a screening process. The authors apply the term "the maternal wall" to their findings. They suggest that mothers are particularly associated with having stereotypically female attributes and to lack the stereotypically male attributes that are associated in peoples minds with success in the AVP position.

The finding of discrimination against parents, particularly mothers, is clearly extremely serious. Apart from anything else, it means that companies are not being open-minded to the actual talent of a huge number of people. Clearly, some companies are aware of this and are taking steps to overcome it. For example, the latest issue of People Management contains an item describing a "career comeback" scheme by UBS to help professionals re-enter the workforce after a career break, taken for whatever reason. The problem is that the Heilman and Okimoto study suggests steps need to be taken to counter bias against all parents, whether they have taken a career break or not.

The second article by Peter Hom and his co-researchers, deals with a consequence of prejudice which is the "corporate flight" of women and ethnic minorities. The researchers studied attrition statistics for nearly half a million employees based on the Attrition and Retention Consortium of mainly Fortune 500 corporations. These statistics show that the turnover of female professionals and managers is higher than that of their male counterparts and they suggest that this difference will work its way through the talent chain and "drastically shrink the female talent pool for advancement into executive posts". In turn, the lack of female role models at the top undermines the diversity climate and contributes to womens higher rates of quitting. The same vicious circle also applied to ethnic minorities who were shown to suffer slower career progress than white male executives.

Quite apart from arguments of social justice, we cannot afford to lose such a large proportion of the population from our talent pools as these articles suggest. If we are to benefit from the talent of everyone, it is vital to address the key issue of the diversity climate that encourages people to stay or leave. At the moment too many women and ethnic minorities are leaving because the climate suggests that employers are not wholly serious about embracing diversity.

How can Human Assets Help?

Attracting and engaging the full diversity of talented people and making them want to stay with you and give their best is perhaps the greatest challenge facing any organisation today. Organisations know the prizes and penalties of the talent war, yet few effectively address the turnover of groups that are diversity targets. At Human Assets, we have an expert understanding of how organisations can successfully engage diversity. We can work with you to audit all aspects of your diversity climate and put in place measures to ensure that you are a frontrunner in employing and promoting talented people, whatever their background and characteristics might be.

To find out more about the Human Assets approach to choosing and promoting diversity, please contact our consultants by email enquiries@humanassets.co.uk or telephone +44(0)20 7434 2122.

References

Hom, P. W., Roberson, L. and Ellis, A. D. Challenging Conventional Wisdom About Who Quits: Revelations From Corporate America. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2008, Vol 93, No 1, pps 1-34.

Heilman, M. E. and Okimoto, T. G. Motherhood: A Potential Source of Bias in Employment Decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2008, Vol 93, No 1, pps 189-198.

Phillips, L. UBS Helps Latent Talent Make Career Comeback. People Management, 7 February 2008, p 13.

Newsletter: March 2008