Added benefits: How supporting women faculty in STEM improves everyone’s job satisfaction.

Abstract

Can gender-based diversity programs benefit everyone? We tested whether and how a broadening participation program intended to benefit women working within maledominated academic fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, may relate to job satisfaction for all who feel involved. Informed by self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2012), we designed and tested a gender-diversity program that supported women faculty's psychological need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence through their involvement in five activities embedded in three "ADVANCE Project TRACS" (Transformation through Relatedness Autonomy and Competence Support) initiatives. Longitudinal repeated measures collected over 3 years from men and women tenure track faculty across disciplines show that for everyone, involvement with the program predicted a significant positive change in psychological need satisfaction. This change was associated with positive changes in job satisfaction over time. Results demonstrate the success of this particular program, and suggest that diversity programs that target one group can have wide-spread positive impacts on all who feel involved.

Interventions to support autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs in organizations: A systematic review with recommendations for research and practice

“…Three of these studies used a training intervention delivered directly to employees (Jungert et al, 2018; Pedersen et al, 2018, 2019; Williams et al, 2016) whereas Stenling and Tafvelin (2016) only examined the leader sample. One study did not use a training intervention and instead embedded need supports into the work design of the organization (Smith et al, 2018).…”

“…At post‐intervention, seven of the 10 studies concluded that the interventions yielded beneficial outcomes (Deci et al, 1989; Hardré & Reeve, 2009; Jungert et al, 2018; Pedersen et al, 2018, 2019; Smith et al, 2018; Stenling & Tafvelin, 2016; Williams et al, 2016). Two studies concluded that interventions showed relatively mixed findings (Forner, 2019; Yong et al, 2019), and one study concluded that there were no changes post‐intervention (Tafvelin et al, 2019).…”

Psychosocial Security of Employees in the Work Environment in the Context of Diversity Management

“…: -focus on the integration of employees (point 1 in the table), -respect for diversity (on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, disability, origin, ethnicity, age, etc.) (points 2,3,4,5 in the table), (Smith and co., 2018), -offering flexible forms of work (point 6 in the table), -information and access to knowledge about diversity (point 7 in the table) (Kompa and Witkowska, 2018). It can be seen from the above statements that in the analyzed periods the vast majority of companies / institutions undertakes activities aimed at the integration of employees (corporate events, integration trips, etc.…”

Just UnDo It: Men Faculty Addressing Gender Inequities in Academia

“…The complex critical framework that undergirds the A&A Program directs explicit recognition of the harms of a gendered hierarchy for both men and women while simultaneously highlighting the benefits inherent in inclusive/diverse groups (Dailey-Hebert & Dennis, 2015;Kania & Kramer, 2013;Radford, 2008;Semetsky, 2008). This analysis reveals that men benefit from cultural and institutional changes that benefit women (J. L. Smith et al, 2017), and thereby provides a compelling path forward for addressing gender inequities.…”