Since the 1980s, companies have increasingly adopted diversity policies to improve the representation of women and racial minorities in the workplace. Today over 95% of companies with at least 1,000 employees have instituted programs to increase diversity and inclusion within their ranks.

Despite this, we know remarkably little about how people feel about these programs, and even less about why they feel the way they do. This is a major knowledge gap. Research shows that diversity programs are more effective when workers support them — and when done correctly, they offer great opportunities to improve workplace equity and, ultimately, firm performance. At their worst, however, they can stimulate resistance and actually create an even more challenging environment for underrepresented workers

To help companies take full advantage of these programs and close this knowledge gap, we conducted a study guided by the following three research questions:

• How supportive are workers of the diversity policies at their companies?
• How do policy characteristics impact levels of support?
• How do workers’ social attitudes impact levels of support?

Source - Read More at: hbr.org