Diversity is widely regarded as a positive in the workplace, but the homogeneity of many organizations can prevent diversity from truly emerging.  Research from Harvard Business School shows that this can undermine attempts to diversify organizations as even if women or people of color are hired, they may not stick around to truly make their diversity count.

For instance, the study found that when stretch assignments or important tasks were required, the selection for those jobs was mostly done by white men, which meant that the jobs mostly went to fellow white men.  In other words, while the senior managers wanted to be diverse in terms of their entry-level recruiting, the lack of developmental pathway undermined any attempts to truly diversify the business.

Equal opportunities

In other words, the provision of equal opportunities is not something that only applies to one’s recruitment, but also to how opportunities to thrive are metered out.  The situation is exacerbated by apparent cultures that frame our talents as fixed rather than malleable.  This then results in those who are deemed to have talent given all of the opportunities rather than using opportunities to develop talent.

That this talent identification is often subjective rather than objective can mean that those who don’t fit the stereotypical mold being frozen out.  This then becomes a vicious cycle that perpetuates the situation, not least because those people who are on the outside feel compelled to be perfect in everything they do, hiding failures and mistakes and avoiding any risks.

The best way to overcome this is to move away from a culture whereby people are assessed and instead focus on developing their capabilities, and of course, ensuring that those opportunities are fairly distributed.  The authors argue that such firms have a number of traits, including:

• The encouragement of psychological safety, and subsequently candor and risk-taking.
• Regular monitoring and recalibration of personal development.
• The provision of honest feedback to support in personal development.

“Cultivating a development culture would provide an amazing competitive advantage because such a culture is not easily replicated,” the researcher concludes. “Other firms can’t just jump on the bandwagon. They would have to do the hard work of culture change themselves.”