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Cited by 2,055Gender Diversity and InequalityCareer Development and DiversityNames, Identity, and Discrimination Research

Best Practices or Best Guesses? Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies

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Kalev, Alexandra, Dobbin, Frank, Kelly, Erin·2006·American Sociological Review
DOI 10.1177/000312240607100404
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Abstract

Employers have experimented with three broad approaches to promoting diversity. Some programs are designed to establish organizational responsibility for diversity, others to moderate managerial bias through training and feedback, and still others to reduce the social isolation of women and minority workers. These approaches find support in academic theories of how organizations achieve goals, how stereotyping shapes hiring and promotion, and how networks influence careers. This is the first systematic analysis of their efficacy. The analyses rely on federal data describing the workforces of 708 private sector establishments from 1971 to 2002, coupled with survey data on their employment practices. Efforts to moderate managerial bias through diversity training and diversity evaluations are least effective at increasing the share of white women, black women, and black men in management. Efforts to attack social isolation through mentoring and networking show modest effects. Efforts to establish responsibility for diversity lead to the broadest increases in managerial diversity. Moreover, organizations that establish responsibility see better effects from diversity training and evaluations, networking, and mentoring. Employers subject to federal affirmative action edicts, who typically assign responsibility for compliance to a manager, also see stronger effects from some programs. This work lays the foundation for an institutional theory of the remediation of workplace inequality.

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3 of the 155 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 28

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Authors
Kalev, A., Dobbin, F., & Kelly, E.
Affiliations
  • Tel Aviv University (IL)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
Corresponding author
Kalev, Alexandra
ORCID
Venue
American Sociological Review
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2006-08
Volume
71
Issue
4
Pages
589-617
ISSN
  • 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-8271
DOI
10.1177/000312240607100404
OpenAlex
W2143645464
Cited by
2,052
References
155
Citations by year
2026: 142 · 2025: 162 · 2024: 147 · 2023: 125 · 2022: 127 · 2021: 141 · 2020: 125 · 2019: 169 · 2018: 109 · 2017: 96 · 2016: 91 · 2015: 116 · 2014: 93 · 2013: 79 · 2012: 78
FWCI
88.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • American Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Diversity and Inequality
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
Keywords
workplace diversity, diversity training, mentoring, networking, managerial bias, women in management, minority managers, workplace inequality, institutional theory, employment practices

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