If you’re in a DEI position, here’s a quick summary of the findings from the empirical literature focused on prorgrams/initiatives designed to diversify an organization. 🧵#DEI #diversityandinclusion #Sociology #SociologyIsPractical #PublicSociology
#UCSD #UCSDSociology
The first thing to understand is that how the problem is defined already entails a solution. There are three main ways in which the problem has been defined and thus three broad strategies for addressing it:
Approach 1
The problem: mangers in charge of hiring and promotion are biased/racist/sexist/classist.
The Solution: change their beliefs OR their behavior (i.e. make their views or their actions less biased, racist, etc)
Examples: diversity trainings, cultural sensitivity workshops, diversity performance evaluations, anonymous hiring processes.
Do they work: for the most part, nope.
Approach 2
The problem: people from minoritized social groups don’t have access to the resources and networks needed to gain access to an organization and climb the ladder in it.
The solution: Improve their social ties (we call this social capital in sociology).
Examples: networking or affinity groups, mentoring programs.
Do they work? For the most part, yes, especially mentoring programs.
Approach 3
The Problem: no one is held directly accountable for increasing diversity in an organization.
The Solution: hold someone directly accountable.
Examples: creating the position of diversity officer in the C-suite or at least as part of upper-level middle-management. And give them real power.
Do they work? Yes
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