This post is a part of the Blog's 2023 APA Conference coverage, showcasing the research of APA members across the country. The Society for Business panel will be taking place at the APA Central Conference from 2–4 p.m. on Saturday, February 25.
While “diversity” has an almost reflexively positive valence in most contexts, diversity in business merits careful analysis. Most major U.S. businesses are for-profit corporations that are obliged to produce a return for shareholders. Where does diversity fit in? May/must corporations promote diversity even if it harms the bottom line? Could promoting diversity ever be self-undermining, by tokenizing minorities or reinforcing existing power structures? And what, for that matter, is diversity in business? In which form, if any, does it merit institutional support?
As co-representatives for the Society for Business Ethics in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 meetings of the Central APA, Mihailis Diamantis (Iowa) and Gregory Robson (Iowa State, Notre Dame) have brought together business ethicists to examine “The Meaning and Value of Diversity in Business.” Diamantis is thanked for special help with this year’s panel. What follows is a brief preview of the talks. We hope that they will foster productive discussion and debate about the meaning and relevance of diversity for business.
In “The Vacuity of Diversity,” John Hasnas (Georgetown) will argue that in the business realm, diversity is interesting only when it is irrelevant. It has long been known and accepted that there is value in diversity of thought. The value of diversity becomes interesting only when it refers to demographic diversity. But then it is irrelevant to businesses, because Title VII of the Civil Rights Act makes it illegal to base any employment decisions on such considerations. Regardless of whether demographic diversity produces better performance, greater profitability, or any other social benefit, businesses cannot legally hire on the basis of applicant race, sex, or other protected demographic characteristics.
In “On Valuing Women,” Lauren Kaufmann (Virginia) will interrogate the epistemic assumptions underlying the business case for diversity, arguing that these assumptions have the potential to strengthen the organizational structures that have historically excluded and undervalued women in business. Kaufmann will present coauthored work on intersectionality, demonstrating that a genuine value theory of diversity requires first recognizing and dismantling structural barriers that perpetuate inequities instead of merely adding “diverse” bodies to the same organizational structure. This work aims to help managers identify and deconstruct structural barriers to women’s inclusion, offering a new path toward intersectional gender justice in the workplace.
In “Gender Bias in Performance Evaluations” (coauthored in the Journal of Economic Psychology), Albena Neschen (FOM University) will consider state-mandated gender quotas on corporate boards. The intention behind such quotas is to close the gender gap in economic participation and help promote women within organizations. A broader literature on affirmative action policies, such as quotas, indicates they may do more harm than good for their intended beneficiaries. Neschen will investigate whether quotas for women have direct negative effects on performance evaluations and hence reinforce existing gender bias. She will present the results of empirical and experimental research in Europe.
In “Mandating Diversity on the Board of Directors” (coauthored in the Journal of Business Ethics), Jessica Rixom (Nevada-Reno) will also discuss state-imposed gender diversity on corporate boards. She will present an experiment in which she investigated how state-imposed gender quotas affect investor perceptions of female board member tokenism. She will argue that quota mandates have the power to shift social expectations regarding female representation by increasing the critical mass needed to overcome perceptions of tokenism which in turn affects investment dollars. As a consequence, corporations must not only meet, but exceed, any quota mandate to capture the benefits with investors of a diverse board.
We hope that this panel at the Central APA will provide interesting forays into issues of corporate purpose, corporate virtue, and CSR. The meaning, nature, and value of diversity in business is widely studied, but far from fully understood. We aim to provoke a productive discussion for all! Disagreements from diverse perspectives welcome. Please join us to engage our panelists.
Mihailis Diamantis
Mihailis Diamantis is a professor of law and of philosophy at the University of Iowa. He researches corporate responsibility, social ontology, theory of criminal law, and experimental philosophy. He is also the inaugural chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Society of Business Ethics.
John Hasnas
John Hasnas is a professor of business at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business and a professor of law (by courtesy) at Georgetown University Law Center. He is also the executive director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics.
Lauren Kaufmann
Assistant Professor Lauren Kaufmann teaches Business Ethics in the MBA program at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. She uses normative and empirical methods in her research on business ethics, social impact, and impact investing. Prior to joining Darden, Lauren received her Ph.D. in Managerial Science and Applied Economics from the Ethics and Legal Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.
Albena Neschen
Dr. Albena Neschen is a professor of business ethics at the FOM University of Applied Science in Germany. Holding a degree in business administration she received her doctoral degree in Philosophy from the University of Cologne. In her dissertation she analyzes the relationship between economics and ethics in the light of the classical German philosophy. Her other research interests include the philosophical foundations of business ethics and aesthetics. She has also been involved in research related to behavioral ethics regarding gender equality.
Jessica Rixom
Dr. Jessica Rixom is an assistant professor of marketing at University of Nevada, Reno. Her research is focused on areas of ethical decision-making and policy, branding, and financial considerations/decision-making.
Gregory Robson
Gregory Robson is an assistant professor of philosophy at Iowa State University and a visiting assistant research professor in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. He teaches and writes in moral and political philosophy, including PPE (philosophy, politics, and economics) and business and technology ethics. He is now working on books on justice and on business ethics and recently co-edited Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (Routledge, 2023).
