Published on: July 8, 2025 at 9:35 pm
Companies with more women in top leadership positions tend to exhibit more social responsibility, better employee engagement, and narrower gender pay gaps. But Academy of Management Scholar Carol Kulik of the University of South Australia said this is not because women are “better leaders” but because “a diverse group asks more questions, considers more stakeholders and generates more solutions.”
Kulik said there is extensive research on the effects that visible diversity can have on a group’s decision-making. For Kulik, this visibility could include “a woman in a group of men, a dark-skinned person in a group of whites, or an older person in a group of young people.”
“Those visible signs of diversity make the group think that there are probably also hidden and invisible forms of diversity that they should investigate,” Kulik said.
The visible forms of diversity can cause the group to think differently than before. According to Kulik, the leadership group “just ends up making better decisions.”
“I like to talk about that research because people who are interested in diversity sometimes worry that they’re not being assertive enough in a committee, that they’re not arguing their viewpoints strongly enough,” Kulik said.
Kulik asserted that increasing diversity transforms C-suites and boardrooms for the better.
“Diversity does the job just by being in the room, because it motivates these process changes that help the group make better choices,” she said.
Kulik concluded that diversity can help leadership expand their thinking: Diversity is not about who talks the most but about thinking differently because of it.
