Unpacking the Complexities and Insidious Costs of Diversity Initiatives

Abstract

In response to increasing workplace diversity, organisations implement diversity initiatives - practices to improve marginalised groups’ experiences and outcomes in the workplace. Current research on diversity initiatives has produced mixed findings and even demonstrated insidious costs of widely used initiatives. This thesis begins to unpack several of these complexities. In Chapter 2, we focus on: (1) how diversity ideologies used in academic literature map on to real-world diversity statements, (2) whether there are differences between how companies and universities frame diversity statements, (3) how different subcomponents of diversity ideologies are perceived by the minoritised groups they are targeted at. In Chapter 4, we focus in on a widely used gender diversity initiative, lean in messages, and uncover the insidious costs they have for the women they target: (1) creating pressure for women to conform to masculine norms, (2) hurting their interest in working for organisations that use them.