Despite all the rhetoric about the value of diversity, people of color and white women remain seriously underrepresented in many industries and in most companies’ senior ranks. One reason is that companies have tended to take an add-diversity-and-stir approach, while business continues as usual. Join Robin Ely, the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and founder/faculty chair of the HBS Gender Initiative, as she explains why companies have made so little progress, exposes flaws in the current “business case” for diversity, and outlines what a 21st century paradigm for reaping the full benefits of diversity could look like and how leaders can foster it.
Robin Ely, is the Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She conducts research on race and gender relations in organizations with a focus on leadership, identity, and organizational culture change. Examples of her past research include studies of men and masculinity on offshore oil platforms; the impact of racial diversity on retail bank performance; and how organizational narratives about gender, work, and family limit both men’s and women’s ability to thrive personally and professionally. Her work is published in academic journals, such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, and Academy of Management Review, and, for practitioners, in Harvard Business Review. Professor Ely is presently conducting research on organizational culture change aimed at reducing workplace inequality, strategies for women leaders to navigate gender stereotypes, and HBS alumni career and life decisions. She is founder and faculty chair of the HBS Gender Initiative whose mission is to catalyze and translate cutting-edge research to transform practice; enable leaders to drive change; and eradicate, gender, race, and other forms of inequality in business and society. She teaches MBA courses in leadership, diversity, and teams as well as doctoral courses in field research methods and executive education courses designed specifically for women leaders. She served for six years as senior associate dean for culture and community.
All Harvard students, faculty, and staff are welcome to join this event through Zoom