TY - JOUR
T1 - HAPPY TALK
T2 - IS COMMON DIVERSITY RHETORIC EFFECTIVE DIVERSITY RHETORIC?
AU - Leslie, Lisa M.
AU - Flynn, Elinor
AU - Foster-Gimbel, Olivia A.
AU - Manchester, Colleen Flaherty
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Academy of Management. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - Despite their prevalence, diversity initiatives do not necessarilymotivate employees to facilitate diversity goals.We advance understanding of diversity rhetoric-defined as how leaders talk about diversity and its effects-as a tool for motivating employees to foster diversity and inclusion. Prior work has investigated rhetoric that emphasizes diversity in organizations is necessarily beneficial (value-in-diversity rhetoric), which is puzzling given the reality that diversity can have positive or negative consequences.We introduce the construct of contingent-diversity rhetoric, which emphasizes that diversity is beneficial if its challenges are overcome, and thus captures the reality of diversity's effects. Drawing from the psychology of the self, we theorize that leaders use contingent-diversity rhetoric less commonly than value-in-diversity rhetoric, due to fear of appearing prejudiced. Drawing from the psychology of employee motivation, we theorize that contingent-diversity rhetoric results in more diversity effort among employees than value-in-diversity rhetoric does because contingent rhetoric increases perceptions that diversity goals are difficult to achieve. Four multimethod studies support the proposed descriptive-prescriptive paradox: contingent-diversity rhetoric is descriptively less common, but prescriptively more effective, than value-in-diversity rhetoric. Our research advances theory on fostering diversity and inclusion in organizations and suggests that leaders can increase employees' diversity effort by changing theway they talk about diversity.
AB - Despite their prevalence, diversity initiatives do not necessarilymotivate employees to facilitate diversity goals.We advance understanding of diversity rhetoric-defined as how leaders talk about diversity and its effects-as a tool for motivating employees to foster diversity and inclusion. Prior work has investigated rhetoric that emphasizes diversity in organizations is necessarily beneficial (value-in-diversity rhetoric), which is puzzling given the reality that diversity can have positive or negative consequences.We introduce the construct of contingent-diversity rhetoric, which emphasizes that diversity is beneficial if its challenges are overcome, and thus captures the reality of diversity's effects. Drawing from the psychology of the self, we theorize that leaders use contingent-diversity rhetoric less commonly than value-in-diversity rhetoric, due to fear of appearing prejudiced. Drawing from the psychology of employee motivation, we theorize that contingent-diversity rhetoric results in more diversity effort among employees than value-in-diversity rhetoric does because contingent rhetoric increases perceptions that diversity goals are difficult to achieve. Four multimethod studies support the proposed descriptive-prescriptive paradox: contingent-diversity rhetoric is descriptively less common, but prescriptively more effective, than value-in-diversity rhetoric. Our research advances theory on fostering diversity and inclusion in organizations and suggests that leaders can increase employees' diversity effort by changing theway they talk about diversity.
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U2 - 10.5465/amj.2021.1402
DO - 10.5465/amj.2021.1402
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85198915212
SN - 0001-4273
VL - 67
SP - 595
EP - 624
JO - Academy of Management Journal
JF - Academy of Management Journal
IS - 3
ER -