Illustration by Lena Yokoyama
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While companies say they champion diversity, there are glaring disparities in diverse representation within managerial ranks. The authors examine the impact of various management practices on diverse representation in managerial roles and how often each management practice is utilized in organizations, shedding light on why organizations are not making greater progress toward diverse representation. Despite not working well for attaining diverse representation, diversity training is widely used in organizations. In contrast, formal mentoring programs and targeted recruitment are effective for increasing diverse representation but are underused. Indeed, the relationship between how often management practices are implemented in organizations and their effectiveness in attaining diverse representation is negative and strong. This article breaks down the practices organizations should utilize to achieve diverse representation, underscoring the need to shift toward practices that increase diverse representation in management.
Despite the U.S. population’s growing diversity, managerial roles are still predominantly held by white men. While the largest firms have been pledging to recruit and train Black workers for over 40 years, there has been little increase in Black representation in managerial roles during this timeframe. In a 2021 analysis, Black employees held only 7% of managerial roles despite comprising 14% of all employees. Women have difficulty attaining leadership roles despite evidence that “women are more likely than men to lead in a style that is effective.”
