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Over the past decade, the U.S. workforce has become increasingly diverse. In response, scholars and practitioners have sought to uncover ways to leverage this increasing diversity to enhance business performance. To date, research evidence has failed to provide consistent support for the value of diversity to organizational effectiveness. Accordingly, scholars have shifted their attention to diversity management as a means to fully realize the potential benefits of diversity in organizations. The principal aim of this chapter is to review the current wisdom on the study of diversity climate in organizations. Defined as the extent that employees view an organization as utilizing fair personnel practices and socially integrating all personnel into the work environment, diversity climate has been proposed as a catalyst for unlocking the full value of diversity in organizations. During our review, we discuss the existent individual- and aggregate-level research, describe the theoretical foundations of such work, summarize the key research findings and themes gleaned from work in each domain, and note the limitations of diversity climate research. Finally, we highlight the domains of uncertainty regarding diversity climate research, and offer recommendations for future work that can enhance knowledge of diversity climate effects on organizational outcomes.

A surprisingly large proportion of the working population of the USA consists of individuals with felony convictions. Moreover, the issue of employability of these individuals is compounded for minorities. This paper aims to present two experimental studies investigating whether minorities with felony backgrounds have a more difficult time being selected for employment than identically situated white applicants. The authors ground the paper in realistic group conflict theory. Results indicate discrimination is more acute against minorities with felony backgrounds than whites with the same background and shed light on the mechanisms leading to this discrimination. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This paper involves two experimental studies involving working adults engaging with realistic survey situations using mTurk.

Results of both studies indicate discrimination is more acute against minorities with felony backgrounds than whites with the same background, and shed light on the mechanisms leading to this discrimination.

One limitation of the methodology is that the authors used fictional candidates and jobs. This may have led to understating the effects of discrimination on minorities because it allowed applicants to answer in socially desirable ways (e.g. absent of racial bias) without suffering any of the anticipated negative consequences of actually hiring individuals about whom they hold negative stereotypes.

This research has several important implications for practice. First, organizations should be keenly aware of the potential for subtle and unconscious bias to affect the job application process even among well-intentioned hiring managers. Second, as the bias is often triggered by threats, organizations should share with their employees the nature of the threat involved with former felons.

Organizations should deliberately address issues associated with the use of criminal background checks. For many organizations, a felony conviction in an applicant’s background automatically eliminates that person from employment. However, a substantial amount of the workforce now has a felony in their background. Indeed, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2012) has issued guidelines that detail important factors that organizations should consider on a case-by-case basis when considering employment for former felons. Organizations may consider updating any blanket exclusions regarding the hiring of ex-felons – not only because it makes good policy but also because it may help the organization hire the best people.

This research studies an important – and growing – societal problem related to the hiring of convicted felons, and the related issue of racial discrimination that affects black convicted felons particularly hard. There has been very little work in the management area on this topic. Moreover, there has been very little work in all areas that includes experimental methods. The use of such methods is particularly useful to eliminate confounds found in field data.

This paper focuses on two issues, firstly the extent to which the employment position of the main ethnic minority groups in England and Wales changed between 1991 and 2001 and secondly, a detailed examination of employment rates amongst ethnic groups in 2001. Relative to Whites, the employment position of most ethnic minority groups improved over the period, especially for males. Some of this improvement was due to enhanced levels of observable characteristics. However, the employment gap between Whites and some ethnic minority groups remains extremely large. Educational qualifications, religion and local deprivation are found to be important influences on employment for many minority groups. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of these findings.

Purpose and approach – This research explores gender and gender inequality in representation in state legislatures among African Americans, Hispanics, and white Americans. Using 10 states with the largest concentrations of African Americans in the population and 10 with the largest concentrations of Hispanics in 2003, a parity index was used to compare each race/sex group's share of each state's population with that group's share of seats in the state legislature. Parity ratios were also constructed for white women and white men in both sets of states.

Findings – White men dominate all the state legislatures surveyed here; white women are severely underrepresented as are Black women, Hispanic women, and Hispanic men. Black men are slightly but not greatly underrepresented in political office in these states. A consistent pattern is that the higher the representation of any group of males, the greater is the gap between women and men.

For Black and white women in both sets of states, having a high proportion of women who are college graduates, who are employed, and who work as managers or professionals and garner larger earnings increases their chances for election, but this pattern is not observed among Hispanic women.

Implications – These findings are significant because they bring together previously disparate insights from political science and sociology; highlight differences between women and men and among people from different ethnic groups; and reveal the importance of an intersectional approach for understanding the representation of diverse groups in political office.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how UK black professionals construct and negotiate ethnic/gender identities at work.

Separate semi‐structured focus groups for three females and four males are used.

Ethnicity, gender and their intersection play important roles in identity construction of black UK professionals, who frequently encounter identity‐challenging situations as they interact with explicit and implicit models of race and stereotyping. Males use agentic strategies to further their careers, drawing strength from “black men” identities. Women are less agentic, reframing challenging episodes to protect/restore their identity.

This study helps understanding of workplace experiences of UK black professionals beyond entry level. Several years after graduation, they still engage frequently in identity work, facing stereotyping and expectations based on intersecting gender and ethnic social categories. The paper shows how aspects of “black identity” provide a resource that supports career progress. Main limitation is small sample size.

People managing diverse professionals and HRM specialists need to recognize how much identity work (e.g. frequently countering stereotyping) has to be done by black professionals in cultures that do not value diversity. As they gain access to senior positions, this will be increasingly an issue for talent retention.

This paper provides some rich understanding about identity construction of black male professionals, an under researched group. This paper extends the work on ethnic minority females, comparing them with male peers. It is shown that minority groups are not homogeneous, but may undergo different workplace experiences and adopt different strategies, drawing on various aspects of the generic “black identity”. This has implications for how organizational diversity is understood, managed and researched.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the implications of anticipated discrimination for women and racial minorities when they lose out on an opportunity for a promotion to a similarly qualified non-minority colleague.

A sample of 248 participants who were full-time working adults residing in the USA were randomly assigned to one of four versions of the scenario in which a coworker was either a White male, a White female, a Black male or a Black female coworker is offered a desired promotion. Participants reported on the extent to which they anticipated discrimination (i.e. expect discriminatory behaviors enacted toward them in the future) in the hypothetical workplace.

Women and racial minorities reported anticipated discrimination at greater levels than non-minorities when passed over for a promotion. The authors also found that intersectionally stigmatized, racial minority women reported the highest levels of anticipated discrimination.

The authors recommend transparent and honest communication about organizations’ decision-making processes that have career-related implications for underrepresented populations. Doing so may help alleviate concerns or perceptions that employees may have in regard to organizational practices being (intentionally or unintentionally) discriminatory.

While research has examined the psychological implications of receiving a promotion, substantially less work has focused on the characteristics of the promoted coworker or considered how those characteristics shape perceptions of anticipating discrimination.

This chapter examines whether the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents can be understood through several theories: Status Maximization Theory, the rule of hypodescent, or social identity theory. Status Maximization theory posits that mixed-race adolescents will attempt to identify as the highest racial status group they possibly can. The rule of hypodescent or hypodescent theory, also known as the one-drop rule, is a legacy of the Plantation-era South and prescribes that mixed-race individuals identify as their lowest status racial identity. Social identity theory posits that the higher frequency or quality of contacts with parents or individuals in mixed-race adolescents’ peer networks affect the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents. Also, social identity contends that a mixed-race adolescent's intergroup dynamic (measured here as a child's level of self-esteem, whether there is prejudice at school, and a child's self-concept) dictates how he or she will racially identify. Through analyses of mixed-race adolescents in the National Longitudinal Adolescent Health (Add Health), I find that Asian-white and American-Indian-white adolescents do not status maximize nor abide by hypodescent, while black-white adolescents do not status maximize but do adhere to hypodescent when forced to choose one race. There is no tendency for the frequency or quality of contact with parents, romantic partners, or school composition to affect racial identity, as predicted by social identity theory. Yet, several of the aforementioned social-psychological variables are found to influence the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents. Specifically, whether they felt positively about school, if they experienced prejudice, whether they had higher levels of self-esteem, and if they felt socially accepted by their peers. Another key finding from this research suggests that racial identification for Asian-white and American-Indian-white adolescents are both fluid and optional; this is not the case for black-white adolescents. I conclude by offering the implications of these findings for black-white multiracial individuals.

Although employee race has been an actively investigated area of scientific inquiry for decades, a thorough and informed understanding of the role of race in the organizational sciences has eluded us for a number of reasons. The relationship of race and stress in organizations is a prime example of this neglect and deficiency in our knowledge base, as little work has been done in this area. We attempt to address this limitation in the literature by proposing an inductively derived, review-centric framework that attempts to articulate the multiple intermediate linkages that explain the process dynamics taking place in the relationship between employee race and health and well-being in organizations. We argue that socialization processes, social networks, information and resource access, and mentoring contribute to distance and differences between racial minorities and nonminorities concerning control, reputation, performance, and political understanding and skill, which in turn, creates barriers to success, and increased stress and strain for racial minorities. The implications of this framework along with directions for future theory and research are discussed in this chapter.

The study examines whether age intersects with gender and race during the initial stage of the hiring process and affects access to vacancies outcomes and wage sorting.

In order to answer the research question, the study collects data from four simultaneous field experiments in England. The study compares the labour market outcomes of younger White British men with those of older White British men and women, and with those of older Black British men and women. The study concentrates on low-skilled vacancies in hospitality and sales in the private sector.

The results of this study indicate that older White British men and women, as well as older Black British men and women, experience occupational access constraints and are sorted into lower-paid jobs than younger White British men. The level of age discrimination is found to be higher for Black British men and women. In addition, Black British women experience the highest level of age discrimination. These patterns may well be in line with prejudices against racial minority groups and stereotypical sexist beliefs that the physical strengths and job performance of women decline earlier than those do for men.

If prejudices against older individuals are present, then anti-discrimination legislation may be the appropriate response, especially for racial minorities and women. Eliminating age discrimination in selection requires firms to adopt inclusive human resources (HR) policies at the earliest stages of the recruitment process.

This research presents for the first-time comparisons of access to vacancies and wage sorting between younger male racial majorities and older male racial majorities, older female racial majorities, older male racial minorities, and older female racial minorities. In addition, the driven mechanism of the assigned differences is explored. Because the study has attempted to minimise the negative employer stereotypes vis-à-vis older employees, with respect to the employees' motivation, productivity, and health, such prejudices against older individuals may be considered taste-based discrimination.

With the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination in employment with respect to the hiring, promotion and pay of minorities and women became illegal in the United States.¹ Yet, 40 years later, earnings differentials still persist between certain minorities and white non-Hispanics and between women and men. For example, although the ratio of black men's earnings to those of white men and of black women's to white women's have increased considerably over the past 50 years, the black–white ratio was still only 78% in 2003 among men and 87% among women (Fig. 1). Hispanic–white wage differentials are larger than the black–white differential among both men and women (Figs. 2 and 3). And despite a significant narrowing in the gender gap, the ratio of women's earnings to men's was about 76% in 2003 (Fig. 4).²