While this blog will be more focused on the promotion of diversity, this is just an example to show that effort in creating positive diversity programs must be well-thought out, and truly in the best interest of the people it was meant to help.

In a study conducted about organizational diversity, it was suggested that diversity structures can actually create a false sense of fairness and have negative implications for minorities and women.  Diversity programs are voluntary and not required by law, but many organizations promote diversity as part of their core values and mission.

When companies attempt to manage diversity, it usually comes from the human resource management groups.  The article states that, often, no one in this group has the proper training or background to successfully promote such a program.  The hypothesis for this study is that many diversity programs can create an illusion of fairness, and that the high-status group members perceptions will cause negative implications for those in the underrepresented groups.  The negative effect is that the high-status group members will be unable to see or detect when there is discrimination on underrepresented group.

There were several experiments with this study.  The first several focused on the presence v. absence of a diversity program and the illusion of fairness to high-status members. These first several studies looked at how the high-status members perceived the organization.  The last studies looked at the consequences of the illusions of fairness.  These studies tried to understand the cause for the illusion of fairness and how the high-status members can react negatively or harshly to the underrepresented groups.

The results of the study were not entirely conclusive, and the authors mention that not much is really known about whether these programs benefit certain groups.  The authors go on to say that the programs actually give people an "illusion of fairness that causes the majority group members to become less sensitive to recognizing discrimination and leads to more negativity toward minority groups" (Kaiser, Major, Jurcevic, Dover, Brady & Shapiro, 2012).

This study made me realize that much importance has been placed on understanding diversity in the workplace.  Many companies probably think that the efforts they make to organize such diversity structures will be appealing to employees; however, they don't consider the real nuts and bolts of being able to detect discrimination.  Most likely because of the high-status, or class, of individuals in powerful positions.  More research should be conducted to have a greater understanding of these issues.

Kaiser, C. R., Major, B., Jurcevic, I., Dover, T. L., Brady, L. M., & Shapiro, J. R. (2012,

November 19). Presumed Fair: Ironic Effects of Organizational Diversity Structures.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0030838