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How diversity in management boards affects employer attractiveness has yet to be fully clarified. This paper aims to contrast the two main theoretical rationales – similarity attraction and diversity attraction – and examines whether potential employees are more attracted to an organization with a homogenous board (in terms of gender and ethnicity) or to an organization with a diverse board.

Participants (N = 629) were simultaneously presented with two pictures of management boards, whereby the gender and ethnic composition of the boards were manipulated. Moreover, to examine whether social desirability influences the ratings of an organization’s attractiveness, survey anonymity was varied using an indirect questioning technique.

The findings supported the diversity attraction rationale: organizations with gender-balanced, multicultural boards were seen as more attractive than organizations with monolithic boards. However, this effect seemed to be influenced – at least partially – by social desirability.

Additional research is needed to examine the extents to which people care about the degree of similarity between themselves and a management board.

The findings illustrate board composition as an employer branding strategy. Specifically, the results indicate that an organization can benefit from a diverse management board when this information is communicated to applicants.

People’s attitudes toward organizations with diverse boards seem – in part – to be rooted in their motivation to comply with social norms.

Theoretical accounts (similarity attraction theory vs diversity attraction) lead to somewhat contradicting predictions, and the available empirical evidence was rather indirect and correlational. This study provides a controlled empirical investigation contrasting the two contradicting predictions.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Gender diversity is increasing in the workforce. The recruitment process is an important step in increasing women’s representation, as it is the entry point into the organization. Women and men have differing attitudes to the recruitment process – women are more interpersonally sensitive than men. It can be seen that recruiter competence and firm reputation affect the attraction to the organization depending on the gender of the applicant. Organizations need to be mindful of having competent recruiters and a positive firm reputation in order to increase applicant attraction and in particular increase applicant gender diversity.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Investigating diversity presents researchers with a paradox because extremely inconsistent and conflicting findings about the effects of diversity have emerged in this field of study. It has been argued that the theoretical frameworks used have contributed to the paradox. Different and contradictory effects concerning the influence of group diversity can be predicted using these frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to examine the application of the main theoretical frameworks in the context of researching diversity.

The focus of this paper is a critical examination of three theoretical frameworks in the field of diversity research – similarity‐attraction theory, social categorization theory and the information/decision‐making approach. These are commonly applied in researching diversity. The basic elements of each theory, its applications in diversity research and its strengths and limitations are considered.

The discussion suggests that the paradox in diversity research emerges from a research tradition that views the three frameworks as being best applied separately because each framework predicts different and even contradictory outcomes. These differences are a consequence of distinctive theoretical operations. In addition, the strengths and limitations associated with each theoretical framework suggest that they might be integrated and subsequently applied in specific settings according to their respective strengths and limitations.

In order to produce more consistent results in research on diversity, it is suggested that future researchers should not rely solely on a single theoretical framework to predict the effects of diversity. In particular, different theoretical frameworks may work well with certain types of diversity as well as certain levels of analysis.

The paper provides a framework for dissecting the diversity paradox and a foundation for designing fresh approaches that might produce findings that are more consistent.

Many organisations monitor statistics on the background of job applicants to inform diversity management, a practice known as equality monitoring (EM). The study examines perceptions of EM and employers that use it. Additionally, it aims to assess potentially salient group differences in attitudes towards EM, focussing on perceived history of employment discrimination, ethnicity, sex, and a comparison between the UK and Sweden – two countries which differ extensively in EM prevalence.

A cross-sectional self-report survey assessed attitudes toward EM, attraction to employers using it, pro-equality and diversity attitudes, perceived history of employment discrimination and background characteristics (e.g. ethnicity and sex), and compared a UK and Sweden sample (N = 925).

The results reveal positive perceptions of EM overall. Although no differences were observed between UK ethnic majority and minority respondents, White British men rate employers using EM as less attractive with increasing levels of perceived past discrimination. Women have more positive perceptions than men. Finally, the UK sample rated EM more positively than the Sweden sample.

Despite EM being widespread, the study is the first to investigate detailed perceptions of it, making group and country comparisons. Results support the use of EM in HRM but highlight the need for clear communication to avoid confusion with positive discrimination, which is perceived negatively in some majority group members, and to allay fears of data misuse. Recommendations are made for future implementation.

Several mechanisms exist to address the low levels of gender and race diversity in boardrooms, including mandatory quotas, voluntary targets and investor activism. Based on the similarity-attraction theory, the authors investigated whether nomination committees of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) could serve as an internal change mechanism to promote board gender and race diversity.

Panel data on the gender and race diversity of the nomination committees and boards of the 40 largest listed companies (the JSE Top 40) were analysed over the period 2011- 2016. Panel regressions were conducted to investigate four hypothesised associations.

More diverse boards had significantly more diverse nomination committees in terms of both gender and race. A significant positive association was furthermore reported between the race diversity of nomination committees and the appointment of new directors of colour. The latter finding could partly be attributed to legislation to enhance black representation in all spheres of the South African economy.

South Africa offers a unique socio-political setting in which to conduct board diversity research. In line with the similarity-attraction theory, it is shown that diverse nomination committees have an essential role in setting and achieving board gender and race diversity targets.

To increase the share of women in the top management of companies, legal gender quotas are increasingly being introduced worldwide. Their effect, however, especially on perceived diversity and employer attractiveness, remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a gender quota for a company’s executive board affects potential employees’ evaluation of that company as an employer. Drawing on signaling theory and the rationale of diversity attraction, the authors assumed that both the gender composition of a company’s board and the presence of a quota send signals regarding specific factors associated with diversity (i.e. perceived diversity climate, perceived internal motive for gender diversification and perceived competencies of board members). The authors postulated that these signals are perceived by job applicants and used to evaluate the attractiveness of the company as an employer.

In a scenario study, the authors manipulated the composition of the management board. That is, participants were presented an executive board that was either homogeneously male (Group 1) or had a female representation of 30% (Groups 2 and 3) or 50% (Group 4). The executive board in Groups 3 and 4 was subject to a statutory gender quota of 30%.

The results showed that a company with a gender-diverse board was perceived as more attractive by potential applicants than an all-male board. Also, a gender quota did not reduce a company’s employer attractiveness. The results suggest that potential applicants attach importance to board diversity but place less value on the causes that led to it.

Against the backdrop of the war for talent, this study contributes to a better understanding of the impact of gender quotas and factors influencing employer attractiveness. The study showed that when a gender quota is in place, applicants assume to a lesser extent that a company staffs its gender-diverse board of directors out of an inner conviction. Nonetheless, the presence of a gender quota does not significantly reduce the perceived diversity climate, nor does a quota have a negative impact on the employer attractiveness. Thus, using a quota as a means to increase gender diversity does not harm the ends.

The purpose of this paper is to address the still unresolved issue of explaining the mixed diversity effects on team performance found in empirical research. A special focus is on context factors that have remained systematically unexplored with regard to their potential moderating role.

This review thoroughly analyses 30 empirical studies on direct diversity‐performance effects. Information on team context is collected and compared according to diversity type and its relationship with performance. As meta‐analyses and narrative reviews provide contradicting evidence, empirical studies are evaluated in terms of regression results as well as correlation coefficients.

The comparison of regression and correlation results finds contradictions concerning the trend towards positive or negative relationships. Context factors with moderating potential are discovered for some of the tested diversity variables. Reported curvilinear relationships seem to be responsible for non‐significant outcomes of linear analyses.

This review is limited as it only includes studies on direct relationships of diversity and performance whereas work on the link of diversity and team processes is not considered. Empirical diversity studies in the future should include more detailed information on context factors, especially descriptive data of the sample population. New research in this field should furthermore test whether non‐linear relationships exist as they might be the cause for non‐significant linear relationships.

This paper provides valuable insights for researchers investigating the impact of diversity on team performance as it highlights the importance of descriptive context information and potential moderating variables.

The purpose of this paper is to extend earlier findings suggesting that affective diversity is always negative for group performance, by examining its influence on managerial decision performance in a more controlled environment.

In an attempt to mitigate some of the many methodological challenges associated with studies in “real-word” contexts, the authors chose to adopt a quasi-experimental research design involving teams of master of business administration students engaged in managerial decision making. This research design is consistent with previous research conducted in the area of affect and individual or group-level outcomes.

The results indicate that both positive and negative affective diversity are positively associated with managerial decision performance, although only the relationship with negative affective diversity is significant. Overall, these findings support the idea that affective diversity may constitute a strength in the context of managerial decision making. These results contrast with the findings of previous studies.

Further quantitative and qualitative investigation is recommended in order to clarify the contradictory results between the current study and previous research. Specifically, this investigation might concern the effect of contingency factors such as type of team (i.e. ad hoc vs long term), type of task and team-level self-regulation ability.

Since the seminal work of Barsade et al. (2000), no further studies have attempted to resolve some of the empirical questions emerging from preliminary research on affective diversity. The paper thus provides new insights into the effects of affective diversity.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the importance for nations of key institutional, economic, and societal factors for attracting skilled professionals from abroad. It examines the existing literature on international talent mobility and empirically tests the validity of nation branding as a strategy for attracting internationally mobile skilled professionals.

The authors use secondary data from the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Martin Prosperity Institute to test six hypotheses concerning factors that attract internationally mobile skilled professionals to a foreign country to live and work.

The study finds that conditions of employment, quality of life, good governance, and tolerance towards people of diverse backgrounds are key issues that need to be holistically emphasized in successful nation branding campaigns aimed at attracting highly skilled professionals from abroad.

The authors use strong secondary data to reduce common method bias in the results which show that “macro” factors sway internationally mobile skilled professionals to favor some countries over others. The authors contribute to the literature on international talent flows by conceptualizing nation branding as a framework through which a variety of push and pull factors can be examined to entice and attract internationally mobile skilled professionals to a particular host-country. The findings will apply to several different types of skilled professionals including self-initiated expatriates, self-initiated corporate expatriates, and third country nationals and local foreign hires.

The purpose of this paper is to test a model in which instructor’s attributes (i.e. personality, age) are specified as social stimuli. Drawing on a constructivist view of learning (Palincsar, 1998) and similarity-attraction paradigm (Byrne, 1971), the authors hypothesize that instructor’s attributes influence learners’ reactions and dictate key attributions for learning: instructor’s competence and goodwill. The authors place these attributions as antecedents of learning results.

In a quasi-experimental design, undergraduate business students (n=133) participated in a training program of managerial skills over a three-week period. Regression and path analyses were utilized in testing the hypothesized model.

Results provide partial support to the hypothesized model and suggest that learning is a social event wherein learners’ attributions play a key role. Results also indicate that learner-instructor similarity in personality is an important antecedent of learners’ social reactions. The authors discuss how instructor’s attributes become social stimuli.

The authors address why the instructor’s personality might be more consequential for learning than his/her demographic attributes. Also, the authors discuss why the manipulation of learners’ attributions might be considered an appropriate pedagogical strategy.

Scholars primarily considered learners’ traits (e.g. IQ) and educational practices (e.g. teaching style) in explaining learning results. This emphasis has neglected analysis of the social role of instructors. This study contributes by examining how instructors induce social reactions on learners with significant repercussions for learning.