Organizers (*), and presenters

Prof. Xiao-Ping Chen (*) Philip M. Condit Endowed Chair and Professor of Management, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, email: xpchen@uw.edu
Prof. Karin Sanders (*), Professor of HRM and Organisational Psychology, School of Management & Government, UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia, email: k.sanders@unsw.edu.au
Prof. Christine Chan (*) Professor, School of Management & Government, UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia, email: christine.chan1@unsw.edu.au
A/Prof. Weiting Zheng, Associate Professor Strategic Management, School of Management & Government, UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia, email: weiting.zheng@unsw.edu.au
Dr. Jimi Kim, Senior Lecturer, School of Management & Government, UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia, email: jimi.kim@unsw.edu.au
Dr. Jing Hu, Lecturer, School of Management & Government, UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia, email: jing.hu@unsw.edu.au

Goal of the workshop (i.e., learning objectives)

The goal of the workshop is to learn from senior and junior academics about the effectiveness of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) interventions, such as diverse (inclusive) recruitment, training, mentorship, female leadership programs and flexible work arrangement designed to reduce gender gaps in career success, increase representation of female professors, and enhance the feelings of inclusion and belongingness for women in academia. This involves learning from both:

a) senior academics in strategic management positions within business schools and universities about the use of DEI interventions and their (perceived) effectiveness, and
b) junior female academics about their views on DEI interventions used to promote their academic careers.

Content of the workshop

For decades, universities have struggled to increase the representation of female academics, especially those at higher levels. To address this challenge, research has largely focused on identifying barriers to career progression of women in academia. However, less is known about the effectiveness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) interventions designed to reduce gender gaps in career success, increase representation of female professors, and enhance the feelings of inclusion and belongingness for women in academia. In general, workplace interventions stem from the fields of organisational psychology and healthcare and can be classified as primary (i.e., those that aim to remove/reduce barriers to employees’ career progression), secondary (those that equip employees with effective coping skills to overcome the barriers), and tertiary (those that aim to mitigate the negative consequences of barriers). The effectiveness of these interventions therefore involves multiple outcomes at multiple levels of analysis. In addition, Nishii et al. (2008) showed that the understanding and attributions employees make about why a human resource (HR) practice (i.e., a DEI intervention) is implemented influences whether this practice has a positive or negative impact on employee outcomes. This explains why some DEI interventions can bring about unintended consequences (Leslie, 2019).

In general, senior management within business schools and universities lack information about the effectiveness of DEI interventions and therefore, they make poorly informed decisions about which intervention to implement. In addition, they lack the knowledge how best to communicate why certain interventions are selected (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004). In this workshop, we will discuss the (perceived) effectiveness of different DEI interventions in academia to increase the understanding of the effectiveness in terms of both intended and unintended consequences from a senior management and a female junior perspective.

Intended participants and admission criteria for the participants

There are no admission criteria for this workshop. The workshop is open for:

• Female junior academics to learn more about tools that can help them with their careers,
• Senior academics in strategic management positions, who want to support junior female academics, and
• All others who are interested in the topic.

The time requirement of the workshop

The workshop will take 90 minutes and will consist of

1. An introduction to the topic (5-10 min; chair Prof Xing-Ping Chen),
2. Five presentations (each 5-10 min) from two senior academics (Prof Christine Chan and Prof Karin Sanders) and three female junior academics (A/Prof Weiting Zheng, Dr. Jimi Kim and Dr. Jing Hu; 40 min),
3. Round tables discussions to share experiences (25-30 min), organizers and presenters act as round table facilitators.
4. Take away and messages to take home from every table (10-15 min)

There is no participant capacity limit.