Business Resources for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Diversity in Organizations

The subject of diversity in organizations is a large one, and it encompasses  a wide range of smaller critical pieces.

Among them:

• Understanding the reasons and benefits of diversity in an organization
• Measuring and benchmarking diversity levels
• Creating the environment, policies and culture to create a diverse organization
• Examining recruitment and promotion policies
• Cultivating leadership and Board diversity

Below is a listing of our recommended resources covering all of these, and additional areas.

Books

The following books are available by searching the UR River Campus Libraries Research Page

Of course in addition to the above titles available directly from the University of Rochester, there are scores of other excellent books on workplace diversity. Below is a listing of additional highly regarded works—if you need to learn more about any of these, you can always do a search on Amazon or other book seller, read about the work—and if interested, simply request an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) on our Web site and we will do our best to get it for you.

Additional Titles

• #MeToo in the corporate world: Power, privilege, and the path forward
• Creating the Multicultural Organization by Taylor Cox
• Diversity and Identity in the Workplace: Connections and Perspectives by Florence Villesèche; Sara Louise Muhr; Lotte Holck
• Diversity in the workforce: Current issues and emerging trends
• Gender Diversity and Non-Binary Inclusion in the Workplace: The Essential Guide for Employers by Sarah Gibson; J. Fernandez
• Handbook of Workplace Diversity by Pushkala Prasad (Editor); Judith K. Pringle (Editor); Alison M. Konrad (Editor)
• Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace by Michalle E. Mor Barak
• Success Through Diversity by Carol Fulp

Databases, Journals, Newspapers and Articles, Government Agencies Data Sets and Other Resources

There are a wide range of resources that will help an organization understand the importance of a diverse workforce; and how to take steps to create one. Below is a listing of our recommended resources

UR Databases

For the topic of diversity in organizations, it is worth searching both the standard business databases as well as certain social science ones as well. Key business focused databases we recommend are:

• ProQuest ABI/Inform
• EBSCO Business Source Premier
• Dow Jones Factiva

All of the above provide business focused articles, conference reports, press releases and other business focused information on diversity in organizations. ABI/Inform and Business Source Premier are strongest for covering scholarly and trade publications; while Factiva focuses strictly on global trade and news items, that are directed to businesses directly and not scholarly or academic works

Here are three social science database that would also be worth searching:

• GenderWatch: Full text articles on women and women's issues from a variety of publications
• PsychInfo: Scholarly articles from the psychology discipline
• Soc Index: Identifies articles, books and other resources in sociology, anthropology, education, and other social sciences.
• Social Sciences Full Text. Identifies articles in sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, politics and law, many with links to full text.

Google Scholar

In addition to the UR databases, you are likely to find useful scholarly articles by searching Google Scholar.

              Suggested Search: effects of workplace diversity

 The above search will retrieve dozens of relevant scholarly works on the topic

Newspapers and Journals

All of the following publications either focus on, or regularly cover, matters related to diversity in the workplace.

Scholarly

• Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal
• Gender in Management
• Gender, Work and Organization
• Harvard Business Review
• Journal of Business Diversity
• Journal of Diversity Management

Trade Publications/On the Open Web

• Employee Benefit News
• Forbes
• HR Magazine
• Insights into Diversity
• Profiles in Diversity Journal
• Wall Street Journal NOTE: All UR students and faculty can obtain a full subscription to the digital edition of the Wall Street Journal.  Sign up for an individual account here

Articles

There are many hundreds if not thousands of articles discussing diversity in the workplace. To give you a sense of the scope of these and potentially a lead on one or more that may speak directly to what you are looking for, here are several to help get you thinking.

• Academy of Management Review | Special Topic Forum: Diversity at a Critical Juncture Disrupting Diversity in the Workplace
• A review of perceived diversity in teams: Does how members perceive their team's composition affect team processes and outcomes?
• Diversity in the workplace: A review, synthesis, and future research agenda
• Four Ways to Make Your Workplace Equitable for Trans People
• Inclusive workplaces: A review and model
• Reinvigorating research on gender in the workplace using a positive work and organizations perspective
• Team creativity/innovation in culturally diverse teams: A meta‐analysis
• Workforce diversity in strategic human resource management models: A critical review of the literature and implications for future research
• Why support for LGBTQ+ employees must extend beyond Pride Month

Government Agencies

There is a great deal of data on issues surrounding people of color, women, and other diverse populations available from several US government agencies. Here are several of your best bets.

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • See for instance: Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2018: 
• US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
  • See for instance these reports:
    • Basic Data and Overview on Employment
    • African-Americans in the American Workforce
    • American Indians and Alaskan Natives in the Workplace
    • Asian Americans in the American Workforce
    • Hispanics in the American Workforce
    • Women in the American Workforce
    • US Veterans Administration: Special Programs

CRS Reports | Keyword: Diversity

The Congressional Research Services (CRS) produces reports for members of Congress on a wide range of topics. You can filter on sub-topics such as “Banking and Finance”; “Workforce and Labor” and other business/employment related subjects

World Economic Forum: Global Gender Report

This year’s report, which includes a ranking of countries around the world in pay equity, representation on Corporate boards and much more. The Forum describes its mission in this project as follows:

“Gender parity has a fundamental bearing on whether or not economies and societies thrive. Developing and deploying one-half of the world’s available talent has a huge bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. The index’s rankings offer an effective means to benchmark progress. They are designed to create global awareness of the challenges that gender gaps pose, as well as the opportunities that emerge when action is taken to reduce them.”

Data Sets

Some of the best open data sets  on diversity and the workplace are available from the U.S. government at its Data.Gov site which makes over 200,000 available to be searched and downloaded. You view available find data sets specifically related to diversity and the workforce by clicking here.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collects data in the Employer Information Report EEO-1 on gender and racial diversity in the workplace; see for instance 2018 Job Patterns For Minorities And Women In Private Industry (EEO-1)

Additional data sets from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can be obtained by searching the US government’s Data.gov, and clicking on this link

Videos and Podcasts

Ted Talk: How Diversity Makes Teams More Innovative

YouTube: There are scores of videos on diversity, equity and inclusion available on YouTube.  You  can browse scores of these by clicking here

Other Resources: Job Boards

The Top 20 Job Boards for Diversity Hiring | Breezy

Breezy is a producer of recruitment software and has compiled a list of the top 20 job boards geared for companies and HR departments that want to recruit and hire a diverse population

Job Search: Diversity & Inclusion in Business |Boston University Site:

Boston University libraries has curated a list of sites that focus on connecting, recruiting and hiring of employers with diverse job seekers.

Research Reports, Associations, Case Studies and Conferences

Research Reports

There are scores of high quality detailed studies and reports on the Web on diversity in the workforce. Below are a few samples, along with a strategy on how to surface many more.

• McKinsey: Diversity Matters
• Glassdoor: Diversity & Inclusion Study 2019
• Accenture: The Culture of Equality in the Workplace 2020
• McKinsey & Company: Women in the Workplace 2019

 TIP: A good way to find research reports on diversity in the workplace is to conduct a Google search and limit your results to PDFs  and include the words “report”, or “findings” or “survey”. Here is a recommended search:

              diversity workplace report OR findings OR survey filetype:pdf

              (View results of this Google search here: https://tinyurl.com/y63eof3f )

Associations

There are several national associations and private entities whose mission is to publish, educate and train organizations on how to create a more diverse workshop. Here are a few of the leaders:

Catalyst: Workplaces that Work for Women. Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to help build workplaces that work for women." It is a global nonprofit working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women.  Be sure to review its resources on Gender, Race and Ethnicity here;

Center for Employment Equity/UMass Amherst. "The Center for Employment Equity is committed to documenting progress, and when necessary regress, toward our shared national goals of equitable diverse workplaces. We will provide scientifically careful analyses and curated data to the community of citizens, employers, and policy makers concerned with promoting equitable workplaces."

Center for Talent Innovation. The Center develops innovative research to leverage talent across gender, generation, geography and culture. Its goal is to inspire and equip leaders to design diverse, inclusive workplaces where every person belongs.

The Conference Board. Search on “Diversity” to find reports, articles and studies on the intersection of diversity, inclusion and the workforce

Forte Foundation. This foundation’s mission is to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education, professional development, and a community of successful women.

IMDiversity IMDiversity.com is dedicated to providing career and self-development information to all minorities, specifically African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific

Lever | The Diversity and Inclusion Handbook. Lever is a San-Francisco based software company that provides recruiting software, applicant tracking system (ATS), and recruitment marketing tools. The Company’s CEO has written a detailed practical handbook on how to create a diverse organization.

Management Leadership for Tomorrow. Prepares talented, diverse individuals to get on the path to leadership with programs that span the career spectrum.

National Black MBA Association. The premier business organization serving black professionals.

National Diversity Council. The National Diversity Council establishes state and regional councils across the United States and takes a leadership role in promoting diversity and inclusion within our work places and communities.

Resources for Diversity at Work. This leading organization to promote workforce diversity describes its mission as follows “DiversityCentral.com, with its Cultural Diversity at Work Archive, seeks to educate its readers and assist their development of Cultural Intelligence.  

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). According to SHRM’s site, the organization “creates better workplaces where employers and employees thrive together.

The PhD Project/ The mission of this organization is to increase diversity of corporate America by increasing diversity of business school faculty.

White Men as Full Diversity Partners Built on premise that everyone needs to play a role in co-creating sustainable & inclusive work cultures. See the recent report on Inclusive Leadership in a Remote Working World and other timely reports and training materials and sessions.

Women on Boards The mission of 2020 Women on Board is to provide conclusive data and research that informs business leaders, investors, and the general public about the trends, statistics, and numbers of women on corporate boards.

Case Studies

Some companies publish a special report outlining their efforts to create an inclusive and diverse workforce. See for example, this one published in 2019 Kellogg and this one by Goldman Sachs.

TIP You can find more examples by  going to Google, searching the target company's name; the word "diversity" and the special "filetype" command below to restrict your results to PDF documents

"company name" diversity filetype:.pdf

The leading source that aggregates collected business case studies on workforce diversity are the cases presented by Harvard Business Publishing.  To locate case studies from its site enter this URL:

>> https://hbsp.harvard.edu/search?N=4294930434&Nrpp=25&Ntt=diversity&action=refined <<

NOTE: Only professors, not students , may access these case studies. Please see the tab on “Best Resources” to learn more about options for accessing Harvard Business Publishing’s Case Studies

Finally, the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley's Center for Equity, Inclusion and Leadership has created a crowd-sourced populated Google Doc with a wide range of case studies. You can link to that resource, titled the Berkeley Haas EGAL Case Studies Compendium here

Conferences

Conferences provide the latest state of the art thinking in a field, and diversity conferences are no exception. For past conferences, you can often find PowerPoints and other records of previous presentations, along with names of experts in the field. 

Here are a few coming up (as of September 2020)

SHRM: Inclusion 2020 October 19-21 2020. Here 1,000+ DE&I leaders address today’s workplace culture and “go beyond traditional diversity and inclusion practices to enhanced DE&I implementations that create a lasting impact where all people thrive.”

National Black MBA Association: September 23-25 2020 NBMBA Conference and Career Fair

The Conference Board: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference: Nov 12, 13 and 16 2020. The Theme of this year’s conference is “Building Organizations Where Everyone Can Belong, Contribute and Succeed”

AACSB: Global Diversity and Inclusion Summit. The theme of this year’s conference will be Bridging Belonging and Societal Impact December 7-9 2020

D&I Global Forum: January 26-27 2021

And here is an already completed conference from 2020

National Diversity Conference 2020: April 2020. The theme of this  past year’s conference was “Inclusion: Maximizing Your Talent”

Diversity in the Workplace: Metrics, Measurements and Benchmarks

Two  fundamental ways to begin to learn about DEI in Organizations is to look at how to actually measure diversity in a workplace, and  benchmarkingone’s organization against others. Here are our top selected resources for both matters:

Metrics and Measurements

Books

The Diversity Scorecard, Edward E. Hubbard

Although an older book (2003), this work is well known and cited in the field of diversity organizational metrics. The Diversity Scorecard' is designed to provide step-by-step instructions, worksheets and examples to help diversity executives and managers analyze and track the impact of their diversity initiatives to mobilize the organization for strategic culture change.  [Note: As of 9/15/20, this Book is currently on order]

Associations

• Include-Empower.com. Meaningful Metrics for Diversity and Inclusion
• Workforce Diversity Network: Diversity Metrics, Measurement and Evaluation

Tools

• SurveyMonkey Tool: How to Measure Diversity and Inclusion for a Stronger Workplace

Journal Articles

• Cornell University, ILR School. What Diversity Metrics are Best Used t e Best Used to Track and and Improve Employee Diversity? 
• Institute of Development Studies: Defining and Measuring ‘Inclusion’ Within an Organisation
• MIT Sloan Management Review: Measure Culture in Leading Companies

Trade and Business Articles

• HR Technologist, May 2019 3 Diversity Metrics You Should be Tracking in 2019
• Forbes November 9 2017 How Can You Measure Diversity and Inclusion Results? Millennials Have an Idea

Benchmarking and Rankings

There are many types and varieties for measuring how companies can create and maintain a diverse workplace. We advise looking at each one’s individual criteria and methods to determine which one(s) fit your research needs. We also advise looking for measurements that are found in common among many rankings, as these are most likely to be considered the most acceptable and standard.

Here is a sampling of some of the best known of these diversity in workplace rankings. These resources can come from a wide range of providers: while some are traditional scholarly and trade publications, others were created by publishers of diversity publications as well as training and consulting organizations.

2020 Diversity Inc.: Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

An annual listing of the top 50 companies that hire, retain & promote women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ & veterans. Of particular value is the breakdown by industry, category, and type of diversity (eg. Corporate boards etc.). 

Best Workplaces for Diversity - Fortune Magazine

Annual list of U.S. companies doing the most to create inclusive cultures for minorities, LGBTQ, and women, employees who are Boomers or older, and people who have disabilities. In addition to diversity numbers, the ranking is based on surveys of employees, who rated the level of camaraderie they experience at work, the effectiveness of their leaders, and other factors that inspire trust in an employer.Be sure to review the methodology section as well.

Corporate Equality Index 2020

Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index is a major national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.

Latina Style 50

Lists the 50 best companies for Latinas to work for in the U. S. The report provides  an  analysis of corporate America’s efforts for promoting diversity and providing career advancement opportunities for Hispanic women. 

Refinitiv [Previously Thomson Reuters]: The 2019 Top 100 most diverse and inclusive organizations globally 

Companies are ranked by Refinitiv Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Index. The index ratings are informed by Refinitiv’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data, designed to measure the relative performance of more than 7,000 companies representing 70% of global market cap across 400+ ESG data points

Working Mother: Diversity and Inclusion Index

This index measures which organizations are using established DE&I best practices to create inclusive workplaces. For additional company rankings on inclusion and diversity, see:  https://www.workingmother.com/best-companies

PWC | Global Diversity & Inclusion Survey

A global survey conducted in 2018 that focuses on workplace Diversity & Inclusion programs