{"id":3847,"date":"2025-07-08T15:57:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3847"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:36:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T12:36:39","slug":"diversity-words-vs-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/diversity-words-vs-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity Words vs. Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Plenty of leaders talk the talk about their belief in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but fewer actually walk the walk by setting specific objectives and investing sufficient resources to make significant improvements.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson<\/a> of Michigan State University said that for organizations to truly earn the boost to their reputation that investing in a DEI program is likely to deliver, they must demonstrate a commitment, beyond just issuing press releases or making public statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou often find that there are organizations that will express a commitment to DEI; you\u2019re rarely going to find an organization that says, \u2018We hate DEI; we\u2019re not going to anything related to DEI; it doesn\u2019t make sense for our organization,\u2019 although you will have organizations do so on occasion,\u201d Roberson said.<\/p>\n

For example, in June 2024, Tractor Supply Company issued a statement that the organization will \u201cno longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign\u2026stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns, eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment, and withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Tractor Supply Company pointed to customer feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, they\u2019re saying that those issues are not important to them anymore, so they\u2019ve decided what they think is important to their customer base and their other stakeholders,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cBut a lot of times you find organizations [whose leaders] hear about DEI and say, \u2018We should probably do it,\u2019 but they have limited knowledge of what that means for their part of the business and they don\u2019t really give it deep thought about how to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also don\u2019t think about the demonstration of commitment to DEI; they just say things like, \u2018We believe in an equitable workplace, and we believe in an inclusive workplace,\u2019 but then when it comes time to do it, they go and look to see what everybody else is doing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s this normative effect, where they say, \u2018We probably should have diversity training, employee resource groups, and some kind of outreach,\u2019 but they pick and choose from the menu of diversity practices without thinking about what the end state is and what they want their DEI program to look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s perfectly fine for an organization to say, \u2018We\u2019re not really trying to change things; we just want to look good,\u2019 because having a good reputation is an outcome that can be a driver of organizational action, but they also have to realize that if that\u2019s all they\u2019re doing and if people are unhappy or disengaged and they leave, or they\u2019re having trouble recruiting, they shouldn\u2019t be surprised, because they\u2019re literally just expressing a commitment to DEI; they\u2019re not demonstrating a commitment to it or trying to change their environment in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Plenty of leaders talk the talk about their belief in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but fewer actually walk the walk by setting specific objectives and investing sufficient resources to make significant improvements. Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson of Michigan State University said that for organizations to truly earn the boost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,60,72,74],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-social-responsibility","category-diversity","category-ethics","category-hr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDiversity Words vs. Action - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/diversity-words-vs-action\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Diversity Words vs. Action\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:57:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-23T12:36:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":501,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Doing-vs-Talk_DEI-diversity_cropped-scaled-1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY\",\"DIVERSITY\",\"ETHICS\",\"HR\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/diversity-words-vs-action\\\/\",\"name\":\"Diversity Words vs. Action - 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