{"id":5205,"date":"2025-06-02T17:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T17:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:48:17","slug":"going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Beyond Surface-level Diversity Key to Avoiding Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nick Keppler<\/a><\/p>\n

Spurred by the racial reckoning after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, many large, public-facing companies in the U.S. <\/a> implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs with the stated goal of addressing their own barriers to hiring of, and advancement for, historically disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n

Too often, these efforts are only aimed at what Academy of Management Scholar Herman Aguinis<\/a> of George Washington University calls \u201csurface-level diversity,\u201d the presence of people of different races, ethnicities, genders, and other classifications without a change in corporate culture led by executives who value varying perspectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeep-level diversity is when you have people around the table who bring different experiences and opinions and perspectives to the table, and organizational leaders listen to those diverse voices,\u201d Aguinis said, who has both researched <\/a> and consulted on institutional barriers that prevent the rise of \u201cstar performers\u201d from various backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurface-level diversity is when you look at someone\u2019s gender, skin color, or race or ethnicity, and that\u2019s what you call diversity,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s much easier to go for surface-level diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This gravitation towards superficial diversity often starts at the recruitment and interview stages. People in charge of hiring tend to like people with views and appearances similar to their own, said Aguinis, and they can slip into looking for candidates who have the same race, ethnicity, gender, and background as they do.<\/p>\n

To prevent bias from creeping into the recruitment and hiring processes, Aguinis recommends conducting structured interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a structured interview, you ask the same questions to all the candidates, and you actually score the answers with a scoring key you have created in advance,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have an unstructured interview, where you just chit-chat with a candidate, you\u2019re more likely to like them or not, based on how similar they are to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, you should never have just one interviewer because that person\u2019s biases are more likely to be undetected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aguinis added that the perception of a superficial quota system is one cause of a backlash that has led many companies to roll back or rebrand DEI efforts.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen companies use it\u2014the shortcut of surface-level diversity and just trying to use quotas or things like that\u2014that\u2019s when the diversity seems to be the opposite of what it tries to do: being exclusive instead of inclusive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Keppler Spurred by the racial reckoning after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, many large, public-facing companies in the U.S. implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs with the stated goal of addressing their own barriers to hiring of, and advancement for, historically disadvantaged groups. Too often, these efforts are only aimed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,72,73,74],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[840],"class_list":["post-5205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversity","category-ethics","category-gender","category-hr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoing Beyond Surface-level Diversity Key to Avoiding Bias - 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\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Keppler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Keppler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8aff6a6e3f22d0d813c97e6aab7149\"},\"headline\":\"Going Beyond Surface-level Diversity Key to Avoiding Bias\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-02T17:49:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:48:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":404,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/cat-diver-img.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"DIVERSITY\",\"ETHICS\",\"GENDER\",\"HR\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/going-beyond-surface-level-diversity-key-to-avoiding-bias\\\/\",\"name\":\"Going Beyond Surface-level Diversity Key to Avoiding Bias - 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