Why Organizations Choose to Manage Diversity? Toward a Leadership-Based Theoretical Framework

Research suggests that equal employment opportunity (EEO) legislation and affirmative action programs (AAPs) have been only partially successful in promoting women and minorities in the workplace. Firms are voluntarily pursuing diversity management, but only when business objectives coincide with the needs of women and minorities. Thus, the question of what factors are needed to help women and minorities advance in the workplace merits further investigation. Although top executive support is believed to be crucial to managing diversity, few studies have linked CEO commitment to diversity outcomes. This article proposes a theoretical framework for linking CEO commitment to diversity practices. Specifically, CEO commitment is expected to mediate the relationships between the leader's demographic characteristics and personal factors—consisting of values, cognition, and leadership styles—and a firm's strategic orientation toward managing diversity. This article further argues that without CEO commitment, institutional and environmental factors (e.g., legislation) are limited in promoting workplace diversity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.