This research examines how a misalignment between an organization's espoused values and its realized practices regarding diversity affects employees' commitment, organizational identification, and turnover intentions. Further, it investigates whether these relationships are mediated by perceived organizational authenticity. Using an experimental methodology, Study 1 tests the interaction between an organization's diversity management approach (espoused values) and its demographic representativeness (realized practices). In Studies 2 and 3, an intervention based on previous research involving hypocrisy and two-sided messaging is tested. In Study 4, an employee survey further supports the hypothesized mediation. These findings are relevant for any organization seeking to increase the effectiveness of its diversity management practices.

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Misalignment in diversity and inclusion (D&I) occurs when organisations make claims that they do not uphold through their practices. In the present study, we probed a leader oversight bias which may lead to ignorance of misalignment and, consequently, lower perceptions of organisational hypocrisy. Through an online experiment, we randomly allocated 198 participants to the role of either a leader or non-leader in a fictional organisation. T-tests showed that leaders perceived their organisation as less hypocritical than non-leaders. This effect was sequentially mediated by anticipated justice following exposure to a gender diversity statement, and perceived justice following exposure to organisational practices. Contrary to our predictions, gender did not moderate this effect. Our results demonstrate that leaders may perceive their organisations as more just and less hypocritical even when this may not be the case, because they attempt to confirm their prior, more favourable justice anticipations. This research calls for establishing better cross-hierarchical communication structures in organisations and for more effective management of leadership oversights.Future studies can examine this bias in field settings and isolate its driving mechanisms.

Affirmative action remains a contentious topic in both research and practice. While advocates suggest that such action is necessary to overcome demographic imbalances in the labor market, some research shows that these policies can prompt intergroup conflict that negates their value. While positive discrimination (i.e., recruiting or promoting solely based on a protected characteristic) remains illegal in the United Kingdom, organizations have increasingly begun adopting positive action measures (i.e., measures aimed at alleviating disadvantage or under-representation based on protected characteristics). However, there is little research looking at how these policies specifically affect employee attitudes or how different organizational justifications moderate these effects. This lack of research is even more notable in the UK context. In two experimental studies of UK professionals (N = 350) we find that perceived organizational justice explained the relationship between positive action and affective commitment / turnover intention. However, organizational justification had no effect on this relationship.

This research examines how a misalignment between an organization’s espoused values and its realized practices regarding diversity affects employees’ commitment, organizational identification, and turnover intentions. Further, it investigates whether these relationships are mediated by perceived organizational authenticity. Using an experimental methodology, Study 1 tests the interaction between an organization’s diversity management approach (espoused values) and its demographic representativeness (realized practices). In Studies 2 and 3, an intervention based on previous research involving hypocrisy and two-sided messaging is tested. In Study 4, an employee survey further supports the hypothesized mediation. These findings are relevant for any organization seeking to increase the effectiveness of its diversity management practices.