The prevalence of diversity initiatives in organizations has prompted significant debate regarding whether they are necessary and effective. This paper provides a synthesis of classic and contemporary work on the effectiveness of diversity initiatives. We define diversity initiatives as practices used by organizations to improve the experiences and outcomes of marginalized social groups, and briefly review how both the labels used to refer to diversity initiatives and the underlying motives for adopting them have shifted over time. To understand their effectiveness, we review research on whether diversity initiatives work as intended, as well as whether they produce detrimental, unintended effects, including backfire (e.g., increased discrimination against target groups) and negative spillover (e.g., negative attitudes among non-target groups). Finally, we review research on strategies for increasing diversity initiative effectiveness that either increase the likelihood of intended consequences or decrease the likelihood of detrimental, unintended consequences. Our review indicates that although diversity initiatives are not necessarily effective, there is considerable evidence that they are useful for improving workplace outcomes for the groups they target when implemented in certain ways. We conclude with a discussion of avenues for future research aimed at improving diversity initiative effectiveness.

中文翻译：

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多元化举措：预期和意外影响


多元化倡议在组织中普遍存在，引发了关于它们是否必要和有效的重大辩论。本文综合了关于多元化倡议有效性的经典和现代工作。我们将多元化倡议定义为组织用来改善边缘化社会群体的体验和结果的做法，并简要回顾了过去用于指代多元化倡议的标签和采用这些倡议的潜在动机是如何随着时间的推移而变化的。为了了解其有效性，我们回顾了关于多元化举措是否按预期发挥作用的研究，以及它们是否会产生有害的、意想不到的影响，包括适得其反（例如，对目标群体的歧视增加）和负面溢出效应（例如，非目标群体的消极态度）。最后，我们回顾了关于提高多元化倡议有效性的策略的研究，这些策略要么增加预期后果的可能性，要么降低有害的、意外后果的可能性。我们的审查表明，尽管多元化举措不一定有效，但有大量证据表明，如果以某种方式实施，它们有助于改善其目标群体的工作场所成果。最后，我们讨论了旨在提高多元化倡议有效性的未来研究途径。