Dr. Jihae You is a new assistant professor of management at the University of Memphis and the incoming director of the Center for Workplace Diversity and Inclusion in the Fogelman College of Business and Administration. She was a panelist at the recent SHRM Memphis conference on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Below are her comments to questions posed to the panel
1) With the rise of Chief Diversity Officer positions and more fully staffed Inclusion teams are you seeing sustained progress?
Dr. You: As a researcher who studies DEI at the top, I know more and more firms are hiring a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) to ensure that DEI is at the forefront of their goals and missions. Not just firms like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Wal Mart, Zoom, but also educational institutions including many universities have stepped up to the plate and have hired CDOs to take DEI to the next level. It could be symbolic, which means some firms are just trying to look like they care about DEI. Of course, there are some firms that are trying to make more substantive changes. Overall, I think it is essential that firms give their CDOs real power so they can promote the value of DEI and make some actual changes throughout their organizations.
2) Our conference theme this year is evolving from Optics to Outcomes. What is one thing you have seen that has produced more equitable outcomes? What has been the impact of that one thing?
Dr. You: Powerful corporate constituencies—such as institutional investors (e.g., Blackrock, State Street, Vanguard), public pension funds (e.g., CalPERs and CalSTRS), some states (e.g., California, Illinois), and stock exchanges like NASDAQ—are pushing firms to increase diversity on their boards of directors. As a results, the proportion of women on US boards increased from a little over 10% to almost 30% for the past decade, which is an exciting change.
3) For years the consistent thought was that for Inclusion to really create outcomes must be tied to real strategy and approached as a strategic initiative. What can companies do to be more strategic with their initiatives?
Dr. You: Again, while some firms are still responding more symbolically to the external pressure for increased diversity, some firms are working hard to make more substantive change. Some problems and solutions I can think of are:
- Minorities often lack access to the networks and resources needed to enter a firm and climb the corporate ladder. Firms should provide minorities more opportunities and also help them improve their social networks and capital by providing systematic mentoring programs.
- Some managers in charge of hiring and promotion might be biased either consciously or unconsciously. Firms should try to address this issue by implementing various programs like diversity performance evaluations, diversity trainings, and cultural sensitivity workshops.
4) In closing what are you most optimistic about as we face the future of leading inclusively?
Dr. You: California passed board diversity law (Women on Boards, SB 826) in 2018, which required firms to include women on their boards of directors, but it got overturned just this year. However, even without such legally binding regulations, different parts of our society, such as powerful investors, stock exchange firms like Nasdaq, the media, and academics are pushing firms hard to increase diversity in their upper echelons. As a result, the number of women and people of color is increasing at the top of organizations. This is important because the diversity can trickle down to lower levels of organizations. These changes are not happening fast enough. Also, we should go beyond just increasing diversity and go more towards inclusion and belonging, by empowering the minorities at the top and below. Despite these remaining challenges, I think we’re heading in the right direction and I’m hopeful that we will be living in a much more diverse world where more people feel included and valued in 5-10 years from today.