{"id":8093,"date":"2025-12-08T15:24:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.aom.org\/?p=8093"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:24:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:24:53","slug":"traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional DEI Frameworks Will Be Reimagined in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

In 2026, organizations will move beyond traditional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks, according to Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson<\/a> of Michigan State University.<\/p>\n

In 2024 and 2025, many large companies reneged on their DEI commitments, and many others stayed silent about all three letters of the acronym. That is set to change in 2026 as companies\u2019 leaders reimagine their DEI initiatives to maximize their positive impact, but it\u2019s important that executives\u2019 DEI actions match their words.<\/p>\n

After experiencing backlash and fatigue, leaders are reframing inclusion as a measurable capability that improves decision quality, risk management, and innovation, Roberson said.<\/p>\n

She expects \u201cinclusive\u201d to give way to words like \u201ccollaborative,\u201d \u201crelational,\u201d or \u201chuman-centered,\u201d each providing a pathway to the same goals while reflecting a more practical approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emphasis will shift from demographic metrics and program implementation and\/or utilization to assessing access and decision quality, including who gets heard, who gets sponsored, and who receives stretch assignments that accelerate advancement,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cForward-thinking organizations will tie these indicators to business outcomes, such as innovation and market growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaders, in turn, will be evaluated on how well they foster environments where people feel empowered to contribute their ideas that strengthen decisions and outcomes and a sense of shared accountability for results,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, the next phase will be about turning values into practice, embedding fairness and belonging into the work and everyday business decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher In 2026, organizations will move beyond traditional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks, according to Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson of Michigan State University. In 2024 and 2025, many large companies reneged on their DEI commitments, and many others stayed silent about all three letters of the acronym. That is set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,26,60,72],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-8093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communicating","category-corporate-social-responsibility","category-diversity","category-ethics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTraditional DEI Frameworks Will Be Reimagined in 2026 - 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\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\/\" \/>\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=\"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\\\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Traditional DEI Frameworks Will Be Reimagined in 2026\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-08T15:24:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":244,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/DEI-diversity-training.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"COMMUNICATING\",\"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY\",\"DIVERSITY\",\"ETHICS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/traditional-dei-frameworks-will-be-reimagined-in-2026\\\/\",\"name\":\"Traditional DEI Frameworks Will Be Reimagined in 2026 - 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In 2024 and 2025, many large companies reneged on their DEI commitments, and many others stayed silent about all three letters of the acronym. That is set…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8093"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=8093"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}