Racial and gender diversity in organizations has decreased over the last decades. Diversity could lead to positive outcomes, but it may also lead to negative outcomes. Organizations can utilize approaches to shape their culture. This article discusses diversity ideologies. Diversity ideologies refer to organizational practices that are explicitly summarized in a diversity mission statement. These statements communicate the organizational approach and norms around diversity. Diversity ideologies can also refer to employees' own beliefs about diversity. So, diversity ideologies can be contextual or individual.
There seem to be two broad types of diversity ideologies: the colorblindness approach and the multiculturalism approach. The former refers to that categorizing individuals by their social groups leads to prejudice and conflict. Therefore, ignoring social categories should reduce these consequences. However, opponents suggest that suppressing social categories is not possible, because humans have a natural tendency to categorize their environment to be able to process the large amount of information. Multiculturalism refers to that diversity should be emphasized rather than ignored. In this view, differences should also be valued and celebrated. When differences between groups are perceived in a positive way, this does not lead to prejudice. Group differences can also be meaningful and important. Opponents of the multiculturalism theory suggest that by emphasizing differences between groups, stereotypes can also be emphasized and racial segregation can be promoted.
There are also gender ideologies, called gender-blindness (colourblindness) and gender awareness (multiculturalism). Blindness refers to that differences between men and women should be ignored. Awareness refers to that differences between men and women should be recognized and celebrated.
It seems that awareness ideologies can help to change the status quo and enhance the position of the minority group. So, it is functional for the minority group. This is especially true for those who strongly identify with their group.
Racial minorities' responses to diversity ideologies
Studies on the impact of diversity ideologies on racial minorities focuses on three areas: 1) minority group members' preference for different ideologies; 2) the effects of dominant group members' ideology on minorities' responses and experiences, and; 3) the role of ideologies at the organizational level on minorities' perceptions and behaviors. Relevant findings are discussed.
It seems that members of minority groups prefer multiculturalism. This probably stems from their desire for their needs to be recognized. This is not only true for racial minorities, instead it applies to any group that holds minority. For example, White students at predominantly black colleges also endorse an awareness ideology. However, when they are part of a majority group, they endorse diversity blind ideologies. So, as the functionality of an ideology shifts, so do groups' preferences.
Multiculturalism can also lead to higher workplace satisfaction for minorities, because they feel more included. It can also reduce turnover intentions of minorities.
Studies show that racial minorities prefer multiculturalism. However, when minority groups are strongly underrepresented (when they make up to 5% of the company), they might endorse a colorblindness ideology.
Multiculturalism can also produce unintended side effects. For example, racial minorities might feel a "minority spotlight effect", which leads to that they experience heightened self-awareness, negative emotions and discomfort. It can also lead to an emphasis on sometimes problematic differences. For example, multiculturalism has been shown to increase race essentialism and lead to (positive) stereotyping of the racial minority group. This can lead to negative reactions.
Studies show that a gender-blind ideology may benefit women, because it may reduce sexism.
Empirical work on women's responses to diversity ideologies
Studies have shown that men and women perceive a gender-blind ideology as the most appropriate in the work domain. However, outside the context of the workplace, they prefer an awareness ideology. Gender-blindness can also produce negative side effects. For example, it has been shown that gender-blind ideologies lead both male and female decision makers to offer higher levels of bonus to men than to equally qualified women. Also, gender-blindness can exacerbate backlash for women who show more feminine behavior.
So, multiculturalism may benefit racial minorities and gender-blindness may benefit women. However, these ideologies both have negative and unintended side effects. Therefore, some scholars developed more nuanced ideological approaches to diversity. Some of them suggested a focus on "identity safety" rather than multiculturalism. According to identity safety, diversity can be a source of value and social groups can experience social contexts in similar ways, but barriers prevent them from doing so. Other scholars suggested a multiculturalism message that explicitly includes the majority group, with the goal to reduce the majority group's sense of exclusion. This is called the all-inclusive multiculturalism approach. Another strategy is to explicitly incorporate an equal opportunity, value-in-merit message to multiculturalism. This is called the multicultural meritocracy. This reduces negative effects of multiculturalism such as stereotype activation of minorities and sense of exclusion by the majority, while it retains the positive effects.
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