Race →
- 23 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
In Venture Capital, Birds of a Feather Lose Money Together
The more affinity there is between two VCs investing in a firm, the less likely the firm will succeed, according to research by Paul Gompers, Yuhai Xuan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 28 Apr 2014
- Research & Ideas
Football Stars Debate ‘The Social Capital of the Savvy Athlete’
NFL players Richard Sherman, Arian Foster, Larry Fitzgerald, and Domonique Foxworth discussed Twitter pros and cons on marketing and race relations at Harvard Business School. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Feb 2014
- Research & Ideas
Uncovering Racial Discrimination in the ‘Sharing Economy’
New research by Benjamin G. Edelman and Michael Luca shows how online marketplaces like Airbnb inadvertently fuel racial discrimination. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Feb 2014
- Research & Ideas
Racist Umpires and Monetary Ministers
Are baseball umpires racist? Are ministers motivated by money? Christopher Parsons teases important economic lessons from unlikely sources. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Jul 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Looking Up and Looking Out: Career Mobility Effects of Demographic Similarity among Professionals
While women and racial minorities have increasingly crossed the threshold into professional service organizations, the path to the top remains elusive. Why do inequalities persist? McGinn and Milkman study processes of cohesion, competition, and comparison by looking at career mobility in a single up-or-out professional service organization. Findings show that higher proportions of same-sex and same-race superiors enhanced the career mobility of junior professionals. On the flip side, however, higher proportions of same-sex or same-race peers increased the likelihood of women's and men's exit and generally decreased their chances of promotion. This research highlights how important it is to look at both cooperative and competitive effects of demographic similarity when trying to address the problem of persistent underrepresentation of women and minorities at the highest levels in organizations. Key concepts include: Social comparisons lead to measurable effects on individuals' careers, in turn shaping the demographic composition at the top of professional service organizations. Organizations should attend to the ways in which policies and practices invoke competition and comparison within demographic categories. Clustering same-race or same-sex junior employees to provide an increased sense of community may have the opposite effect of that desired, unless accompanied by senior professionals' active sponsorship of juniors across demographic lines. Attempts to design employment practices that are blind to the demographics of candidates are likely to succeed only if all candidates perceive and receive equal mentoring, sponsorship, and peer support regardless of their race and gender. Among peers, the potentially positive role for social cohesion could be compromised by minimal interaction in day-to-day work, while limited opportunities for choice assignments and promotion lend a distinctly competitive edge to the work environment. Junior professionals perceive that they are easily replaced by peers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Mar 2012
- Op-Ed
Finding the Right Jeremy Lin Storyline
New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin is confounding every stereotype we have about modern day basketball stars. Professor Lakshmi Ramarajan suggests that Lin's complex storylines can help us put our own prejudices in focus. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Feb 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Case Against Racial Colorblindness
Research by Harvard Business School's Michael I. Norton and colleagues shows that attempting to overcome prejudice by ignoring race is an ineffective strategy that—in many cases—only serves to perpetuate bias. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 31 Jan 2011
- Research & Ideas
Taking the Fear out of Diversity Policies
Workplace policies regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation often are borne of studies that focus on the problem of discrimination—rather than on the benefits of a diverse workforce. HBS professors Lakshmi Ramarajan and David Thomas argue that focusing on the benefits of a diverse organization will lead to workplace policies that embrace diversity, instead of grudgingly accepting it or dancing around it. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Oct 2010
- Research & Ideas
Will I Stay or Will I Go? How Gender and Race Affect Turnover at ‘Up-or-Out’ Organizations
Gender and racial inequalities continue to persist at "up-or-out" knowledge organizations, making it difficult for women and minorities to advance to senior levels, Kathleen McGinn says. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Oct 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Reversing the Queue: Performance, Legitimacy, and Minority Hiring
While there has been a steady rise in the number of black executives in corporate America, the fact remains that white males have a persistent advantage in terms of access to managerial positions. This paper sets out to find out how a company's performance influences the hiring of minorities into management positions, and whether the presence of minorities in senior management positions affects the racial composition of the subordinate management team. Research, which focused on the corporate structure of the National Football League, was conducted by Harvard Business School doctoral candidate Andrew Hill and professor David Thomas. Key concepts include: The higher a team's winning percentage prior to the hire, the more likely the team is to hire an African-American head coach. The lower a team's winning percentage in the prior season, the more African-American subordinate coaches are likely to be hired. A team with a black head coach hires about twenty-five percent more black subordinates than a team with a white head coach. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Oct 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
A Positive Approach to Studying Diversity in Organizations
Considering that the topic of workplace diversity often garners unhappy discussions of prejudice, isolation, and conflict, it's not surprising that many researchers avoid the topic altogether. Only 5 percent of articles published in management journals from 2000-2008 included race or gender in their keywords. In this paper, Harvard Business School professors Lakshmi Ramarajan and David Thomas propose a positive approach to studying diversity, with hopes that this will lead managers to feel more positive about adopting diversity policies in the workplace. Key concepts include: Most workplace policies governing issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation come out of traditional studies that focus on discrimination. Because these policies are borne of these traditional studies, they often yield negative consequences--such as a manager refraining from honest discourse for fear of a discrimination lawsuit. A positive approach to diversity research could lead to policies that feel more organically productive and less threatening to managers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Mar 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Will I Stay or Will I Go? Cooperative and Competitive Effects of Workgroup Sex and Race Composition on Turnover
Inequalities in the senior ranks by sex and race remain rampant in up-or-out knowledge organizations such as consulting firms, law firms, and universities. HBS professor Kathleen L. McGinn and Wharton School professor Katherine L. Milkman focus on patterns of voluntary and involuntary turnover over six years in one such organization to untangle the multiple ways in which social identity influences career mobility. Predicting that higher proportions of demographically similar supervisors will reduce the likelihood of subordinate turnover, while higher proportions of demographically similar peers will increase the likelihood of turnover, the researchers find evidence of the hypothesized effects. They suggest that integrating research about social cohesion and social comparison enhances understanding of racial and gender inequality within organizations and facilitates organizations' ability to reduce that inequality. Key concepts include: Senior sponsorship is vital for junior professionals in up-or-out organizations. To address the problem of persistent underrepresentation of women and minorities at the highest levels, knowledge organizations need to attend to the ways in which policies and practices invoke competition, rather than social cohesion, among demographically similar peers. Clustering same race or same sex junior employees to provide an increased sense of community may have the opposite effects of those desired unless accompanied by similar or greater increases in the diversity of senior professionals. Studies of organizational sex composition and career mobility need to consider effects at multiple levels. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Jan 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and US Ethnic Invention
The H-1B visa program governs most admissions of temporary immigrants into the U.S. for employment in patenting-related fields. This program has become a point of significant controversy in the public debate over immigration, with proponents and detractors at odds over how important H-1B admission levels are for U.S. technology advancement and whether native U.S. workers are being displaced by immigrants. In this study, Kerr and Lincoln quantify the impact of changes in H-1B admission levels on the pace and character of U.S. invention over the 1995-2006 period. Key concepts include: Immigrants represented 24 percent and 47 percent of the U.S.'s scientists and engineers (S&Es) with bachelors and doctorate educations in the 2000 Census, respectively. Immigrants have accounted for most of the net increase in U.S. S&Es since 1995. Because it governs the admissions of many S&E immigrants, the H-1B program plays an important role in U.S. innovation. Moreover, the policy shifts in this program have been relatively large compared to other policies concerning immigration or innovation. Fluctuations in H-1B admissions levels significantly influence the rate of Indian and Chinese patenting in cities and firms dependent upon the program relative to their peers. Most specifications find little impact on the invention rates of native U.S. workers, although a small crowding-in effect may exist. Most increases in U.S. innovation with higher H-1B admissions come through direct contributions of the immigrants themselves. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 12 Sep 2007
- Working Paper Summaries
The Ethnic Composition of U.S. Inventors
The contributions of immigrants to U.S. technology formation are staggering. While the foreign-born account for just over 10 percent of the U.S. working population, they represent 25 percent of the U.S. science and engineering workforce and nearly 50 percent of those with doctorates. Even looking within the Ph.D. level, ethnic researchers make an exceptional contribution to science as measured by Nobel Prizes, election to the National Academy of Sciences, patent citation counts, and so on. The magnitude of these ethnic contributions raises many research and policy questions: 4 examples are debates regarding the appropriate quota for H1-B temporary visas, the possible crowding out of native students from the science and engineering fields, the brain-drain or brain-circulation effect on sending countries, and the future prospects for U.S. technology leadership. This paper describes a new approach for quantifying the ethnic composition of U.S. inventors with previously unavailable detail. Key concepts include: Ethnic scientists and engineers are an important and growing contributor to U.S. technology development. The rapidly increasing ethnic contribution in high-tech sectors is due to the strong growth of the Chinese and Indian ethnicities. Shifts in the concentration of ethnic inventors appear to facilitate changes in the geographic composition of U.S. innovation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Jul 2007
- Working Paper Summaries
The Persuasive Appeal of Stigma
Are minority groups more persuasive when their conversations with majority groups are conducted face-to-face? Interracial interactions are among the most perilous social occasions in contemporary America, full of opportunities for things to go awry. People in stigmatized groups, for instance, may worry that members of majority groups hold prejudiced attitudes that can lead to discriminatory or offensive behavior. Members of majority groups, for their part, may fear coming across as biased or racist. While psychology has traditionally explored the damaging effects of such interactions on social exchange, new findings contribute to the growing recognition that stigma may be a two-sided construct, marked with a host of costs but occasional benefits. This study demonstrates the persuasive power of stigmatized individuals and shows how self-presentational concerns may change attitudes. Key concepts include: During face-to-face interactions, stigmatized minorities may sometimes have an edge in persuading majority group members. The stigma of being labeled racist may in some situations be potent enough to promote an ironic power reversal. While whites may assume the more solicitous role typically associated with stigmatized minorities, it is important to add that the discomfort that accompanies such efforts may simply pose yet another problem for members of stigmatized groups to manage. This research underscores the need to examine social interactions around stigma in real-world contexts, from organizations to interpersonal relationships. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 Jun 2007
- Research & Ideas
HBS Cases: Beauty Entrepreneur Madam Walker
She may have been the first self-made African American millionaire. Born of emancipated slaves, Madam C.J. Walker traveled from the cotton fields to business fame as a purveyor of hair-care products that offered beauty and dignity. Harvard Business School's Nancy F. Koehn and Katherine Miller explain what motivated her triumph. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Aug 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Unfinished Business: The Impact of Race on Understanding Mentoring Relationships
Race is a critical component of relationships in organizations, particularly in the United States and, due to shifting demographics, particularly for the future. As a socially embedded phenomenon, race also provides a lens for research on mentoring. This paper discusses why race and mentoring are important, how race has been studied or omitted in research to date, and what is known about the intersection of mentoring and race in organizations. The authors then discuss their own model, which aims to guide future research. Key concepts include: There is an opportunity in the twenty-first century to show how mentoring helps to create access and inclusion that goes beyond the color line. The strength of individuals' racial group identity, work group composition, and organizational culture all matter to the specific nature of mentoring or developmental relationships. Important dimensions of these relationships include the strength of social ties, formality, content, complexity, and trust. The study of race and mentoring remains unfinished business for organizational scholars, managers, and practitioners. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Sep 2004
- Research & Ideas
IBM Finds Profit in Diversity
Former CEO Lou Gerstner established a diversity initiative that embraced differences instead of ignoring them. In this Harvard Business Review excerpt, professor David A. Thomas describes why IBM made diversity a cornerstone strategy. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Jun 2004
- Research & Ideas
Racial Diversity Pays Off
Diversity has been a buzzword in organizations for at least fifteen years. How much is really known about its effects on performance? HBS professors Robin Ely and David Thomas investigate. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Airbnb Hosts Discriminate Against African-American Guests
Experimental research by Ben Edelman, Michael Luca, and Daniel Svirsky revealed widespread discrimination against African-American guests on Airbnb. Now the researchers have created an online tool to mitigate it. Open for comment; 0 Comments.