Workforce Diversity, Diversity Charters and Collective Turnover: Long-term Commitment Pays

Abstract

Modern workplaces are becoming increasingly demographically diverse. However, the influence of workforce diversity on organisational outcomes is not fully understood. In this work, we study how and why workforce gender and racial diversity impacts collective turnover at the organisational level, and whether participation in and experience with diversity charters moderate this link. We particularly argue that greater workforce gender and racial diversity leads to greater collective turnover because it prompts social categorisation and negative contagion in organisations. To mitigate these processes, organisations may participate in diversity charters, which are expected to provide support with managing workforce diversity and employee retention. We further argue that the influence of diversity charters follows a trajectory of maturity, so their benefits are magnified as an organisation's experience with them increases. Drawing on a panel of UK universities, we find strong evidence that greater workforce racial diversity is associated with higher levels of collective turnover, but only weaker evidence for the positive link between workforce gender diversity and collective turnover. We further find that diversity charters may attenuate this link, but simply participating in them is not sufficient: instead, organisations must develop experience with charters over time.

Citation

Chapman, G., Nasirov, S., & Özbilgin, M. (2022). Workforce Diversity, Diversity Charters and Collective Turnover: Long-term Commitment Pays. British Journal of Management, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12644

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 28, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Aug 1, 2022
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 19, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 2, 2024
• Journal: British Journal of Management
• Print ISSN: 1045-3172
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8551
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12644
• Keywords: workforce diversity; gender; race; diversity charters; collective turnover; social identity theory; higher education JEL CLASSIFICATION: I23; J15; J16; M14; M51; M54
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/9086567
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8551.12644