Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Rollbacks on Trial: Examining DEI Rollback Effects on Employee Well-Being and Perceptions of Fairness

My study examined the impact of DEI program rollbacks on employee outcomes following Executive Order 14151 in January 2025. Using an anonymous Qualtrics survey administered through Prolific, 463 employed participants across multiple industries reported their perceptions of organizational DEI investment before and after January 2025, along with measures of well-being, work attitudes, and fairness perceptions. Results confirmed that employees perceived a significant decline in DEI investment post-2025. Furthermore, perceptions of DEI rollbacks are negatively correlated with perceived organizational support, work engagement, procedural justice, distributive justice, informational justice, welfare climate, and perceived institutional diversity support, while positively correlating with job insecurity and perceptions that one is working in a silence climate. Emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions showed no significant correlations with perceptions of DEI rollbacks. Additionally, race moderated the relationship between DEI rollbacks and work engagement, with Non-White employees experiencing a significantly stronger negative effect (i.e., stronger declines in work engagement as a function of perceived DEI rollbacks) than White employees. These findings suggest that DEI rollbacks may broadly harm employee well-being and disproportionately affect employees of color, specifically when it comes to work engagement.