Publications

August 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Background Note

A Framework for Pursuing Diversity in the Workplace

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Michael Brookshire

Assesses the costs and benefits of pursuing diversity and pinpoints the primary barriers to creating diverse workplaces. It also proposes some options for advancing diversity in an organization. View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Diversity

November 2004
Case

IBM's Diversity Strategy: Bridging the Workplace and the Marketplace

By: David A. Thomas and Ayesha Kanji

Explores how IBM incorporated diversity into its business strategy, making the case that workforce diversity is critical to marketing its products and services to its customers. In the early 1990s, Ted Childs, vice-president of Workforce Diversity, proposed to CEO Lou... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Diversification; Business Strategy; Integration; Global Strategy; Organizations; Markets; Information Technology Industry; United States

July 1995
Teaching Note

Managing Conflict in a Diverse Workplace TN

By: Mary C. Gentile and James I. Cash Jr.

Teaching Note for (9-395-090). View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Conflict Management; Spoken Communication; Employees; Culture; Diversity

Article

The Mixed Effects of Online Diversity Training

By: Edward H. Chang, Katherine L. Milkman, Dena M. Gromet, Robert W. Rebele, Cade Massey, Angela L. Duckworth and Adam M. Grant

We present results from a large (n = 3,016) field experiment at a global organization testing whether a brief science-based online diversity training can change attitudes and behaviors toward women in the workplace. Our preregistered field experiment included an... View Details

Keywords: Diversity Training; Bias; Field Experiment; Training; Gender; Race; Prejudice and Bias

31 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Taking the Fear out of Diversity Policies

If you start a discussion about workplace diversity policies, don't be surprised if the hopeful topics of ethnic, racial, and gender heterogeneity lead to negative discussions about sexism, bigotry, and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2021
Article

Reflections: Voice and Silence in Workplace Conversations

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Tijs Besieux

We highlight conversations at work as an arena of change. Drawing on and extending the psychological safety literature, we offer a new framework to distinguish between productive and unproductive forms of both voice and silence. The framework’s four... View Details

Keywords: Conversation; Silence; Voice; Psychological Safety; Interpersonal Communication; Quality; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Find at Harvard

05 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

A Positive Approach to Studying Diversity in Organizations

Keywords: by Lakshmi Ramarajan & David Thomas

09 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Cultural Disharmony Undermines Workplace Creativity

In today's global work environment, it's a given that companies need culturally diverse teams to succeed. Both scientific studies and common sense tell us that having people with different viewpoints onboard increases the creativity that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Jan 2023
Book

Confront Workplace Inequity in 2023: Dig Deep, Build Bridges, Take Collective Action

Despite calls for making the workplace more equitable, women, particularly Black women, continue to get the short end of the stick at work. Only 6 percent of the top 3,000 companies in the US are led by a woman. In 2022, only two Black... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

September 2022
Article

Regulatory Spillover and Workplace Racial Inequality

By: Letian Zhang

This paper suggests that affirmative action bans in the U.S. public sector may influence racial inequality in the private sector. Since the 1990s, nine states have banned affirmative action practice in public universities and state governments. Though these bans have... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Regulation; Law; Organizational Norm; CEO; Affirmative Action; Organizations; Private Sector; Equality and Inequality; Diversity; Race; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Find at Harvard

23 Jul 2024
Cold Call Podcast

Transforming the Workplace for People with Disabilities

Keywords: Re: Lakshmi Ramarajan; Consulting

30 Sep 2019
Book

6 Steps to Building a Better Workplace for Black Employees

Gerdeman is senior writer at Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. [Image: PeopleImages] Related Reading Pro Basketball Coaches Display Racial Bias When Selecting Lineups Diversity Boosts Profits in Venture Capital Firms We May Have... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

13 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The Unlikely Upside of Mergers: More Diverse Management Teams

marginalized racial and ethnic groups were 54 percent less likely to be promoted than whites, and women were 36 percent less likely to be promoted than men, despite diversity efforts by advocates and government regulators. Bias-driven... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

25 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

We May Have Taken Too Much Credit for Easing Workplace Segregation

who co-wrote Firm Turnover and the Return of Racial Establishment Segregation with Stanford University Assistant Professor John-Paul Ferguson. “I’ve had people say, ‘How can this be the case? It can’t be true. My workplace is so much more... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Trouble at Basecamp: Managing Politics, Polarization, and Conflict in the Workplace (A)

By: Nour Kteily, Deepak Malhotra and David Lane

As founders of the software company Basecamp, Jason Fried and David H. Hansson were used to being the subjects of social media attention. Both maintained active and dedicated Twitter followings for their unique perspectives on management and life. But on April 26,... View Details

09 Sep 2024
HBS Case

McDonald’s and the Post #MeToo Rules of Sex in the Workplace

job and getting banned from serving as an executive or director at any other company for five years. This consensual workplace relationship—forbidden under the iconic fast-food chain’s fraternization policy because of potential conflicts... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Food & Beverage

September 2023
Article

(Not) Paying for Diversity: Repugnant Market Concerns Associated with Transactional Approaches to Diversity Recruitment

By: Summer R. Jackson

In a 20-month ethnographic study, I examine how a technology firm, ShopCo (a pseudonym), considered 13 different recruitment platforms to attract racial minority engineering candidates. I find that when choosing whether to adopt recruitment platforms focused on racial... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Recruitment; Race; Organizational Change and Adaptation