2023-06-10 10:00:00
«Diversity management often degenerates into an absurdity»
Are companies’ commitments to diversity and tolerance just image maintenance? A German scientist gives a devastating testimony to diversity management. However, there are also benevolent voices.
The workforce of companies should become more diverse and mixed: job applicants before the job interview.
Symbolfoto: Getty Images
Johanna L. Degen, a social psychologist at the European University in Flensburg, Germany, couldn’t believe the results of her own study. How was that possible?
Degen and her team interviewed 40 company bosses and HR managers on the topic of diversity management in companies – but not a single person interviewed, women and men, mentioned a successful example of diversity promotion. Supporting women’s careers and achieving ethnic, religious and social diversity in the workforce is the big trend in the business world. And diversity is a nice-sounding label that companies love to adorn themselves with.
“I thought we had made a mistake in the evaluation,” says study author Degen. But that was not the case: The consistently negative feedback on the implementation of diversity concepts in companies corresponded to reality.
The conclusion of Degen’s study, recently published in book form, is devastating: “Diversity management no longer creates equal opportunities in the world of work,” says the social psychologist. Although the goals of the concept are undoubtedly worth striving for, in practice diversity management “often has degenerated into an absurdity”.
“The label diversity is damaged”: Johanna L. Degen, social psychologist and study author.
Photo: PD
The interviewed managers and employees of German companies – listed as well as medium-sized and small companies – repeatedly give the same reasons why diversity efforts fail.
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Those responsible for diversity, who are supposed to enforce more diversity and justice, meet with rejection in their companies. On the one hand in the executive floors, because executives felt unfairly criticized. A typical boss statement: “I would like to hire various people, but we can’t find any suitable candidates.” On the other hand, the employees don’t really see themselves represented by diversity management: “They can’t help me anyway, they can’t force a manager to include me in his team,” is an opinion that is often expressed.
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Diversity measures are rarely subjected to a performance test, “they legitimize themselves about the rights of the disadvantaged, they have become an end in themselves», says Degen. As a rule, criticism is not dared – because nobody wants to be defamed as an opponent of equal opportunities and diversity. “No one in the company talks about it, but everyone knows it doesn’t work,” said one executive who was interviewed.
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Finally, diversity management leads to conflicts between the workforce groups. The bosses feel hampered in their recruitment decisions. The diversity officers, in turn, accuse the management of hiring the wrong people. And finally, those responsible for diversity often complain about the very group they should stand up for. “I want to promote women, but they don’t want to,” lamented one of the respondents.
Above all, diversity management creates various problems – this finding is also supported by a book that has just been published by the economist Bettina Al-Sadik-Lowinski. For “Alpha Male and Alpha Female” she conducted 28 in-depth interviews with 28 male executives from 11 nations. All of the men interviewed said they were in favor of more women in management positions, but in practice many of them would experience “that women lack career orientation,” said author Al-Sadik-Lowinski to the “Handelzeitung”.
This is also why it is easier for men to promote men than to support women in their careers. Bosses fear that if a promoted woman fails, failure will reflect on them. Al-Sadik-Lowinski’s conclusion on the topic of diversity: More mixed management teams would only come about if both sides moved, “women have to work on their career orientation, men have to open more doors”.
“The men have to open more doors”: economist Bettina Al-Sadik-Lowinski.
Photo: PD
Today, the goal of diversity management is undisputed: no longer just white men should have a career, but also women, migrants, single parents, gays and lesbians. In short: Just like society, the staff of companies and corporations is becoming more mixed, more diverse, just diverse. “Of course it would be desirable if structural disadvantages were eliminated in companies,” emphasizes social psychologist Degen, “but that will not change with the diversity management that is currently implemented in companies and institutions.”
Diversity consulting, on the other hand, is doing well and business is booming: in 2020, companies worldwide spent $7.5 billion on diversity and inclusion coaching, and by 2026 this amount will have doubled to $15 billion, according to the industry website Researchandmarks.com. The diversity lobby emphasizes that diversity and equal opportunities in the world of work are not only an ethical imperative, but also lead to tangible economic advantages. Multi-ethnic teams are more innovative and make wiser decisions than a homogeneous workforce, it is said.
And diversity increases the attractiveness of a company on the labor market – yes, it even increases profitability. Above all, the latter is a controversial claim: There are studies that prove the thesis of profitable diversity as well as others that want to refute it.
“It’s all about upgrading the image of a company.”
However, what do diversity managers actually do? They organize seminars on “racism and sexism in the workplace,” as Degen’s study shows. They ensure that job advertisements are inclusive and written in gender-appropriate language. And they travel to meetings and conventions to learn about the latest diversity trends. But that’s just not enough. “In doing so, they don’t resolve discrimination,” says Degen, “instead, a facade is painted, it’s all about upgrading the image of a company.”
Businessinsider.com recently came to a similar conclusion: “Diversity washing is the new green washing,” wrote the business platform. Expensive but mostly inconsequential diversity programs served as a PR message to investors, the media and woke customers.
Necessary function – damaged label
A vivid example of the discrepancy between public commitments to diversity and actual business practice is Amazon: on the one hand, the mail order company advertises its diversity programs, on the other hand it fights the unions, which are committed to better working conditions, especially for blacks.
“Carrying out a cultural change”: Gudrun Sander, adjunct professor at the University of St. Gallen.
Photo: PD
Gudrun Sander, adjunct professor at the University of St. Gallen, takes a more benevolent view of the situation on the diversity front. “Many companies are actually serious and want a more diverse workforce,” says the renowned specialist in diversity management. However, a successful implementation of noble intentions in business reality often fails because those responsible for diversity are not given sufficient resources and influence. A single diversity manager is in a losing position in a company from the outset. “Diversity management means making a cultural change – to implement such a process, you need entire teams with the appropriate decision-making powers,” says Sander.
“More imagination and commitment when recruiting”: Diversity expert and headhunter Marion Fengler-Veith.
Photo: PD
In fact, diversity remains just lip service if management and the board of directors don’t “push the topic and set an example”, as Marion Fengler-Veith, Switzerland boss and diversity expert at the international management agency Heidrick & Struggles, says. Diversity also includes a management culture in which the individual is valued and individual opinions are encouraged. The headhunter does not want to accept the complaint that the labor market itself is not diverse enough to build up diverse teams. “Then you have to show more imagination and commitment when recruiting.”
Diversity management does not have to be fundamentally doomed to failure, study author Johanna L. Degen is also convinced of that. “The label is damaged, but the function is very necessary.” In order to create more diversity and justice in the workplace, however, more is needed “than writing job advertisements with gender asterisks”.
Johanna L. Degen: Unmasking Diversity Management. The capitalist incorporation of subject, morality and resistance. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2022. 264 p., approx. 34 Fr.
Bettina Al-Sadik-Lowinski: Alpha Male and Alpha Female. International top managers on strategies for more gender diversity and mixed leadership. De Gruyter, Berlin 2023. 173 pages, approx. CHF 38.
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