Effects of Managerial Support and Rationale on Diversity Training Effectiveness

As a result of the increasingly diverse workforce and its potential for problems and benefits, many organizations have implemented diversity training in the workplace. Despite its widespread use, however, little is known about the factors that influence diversity training effectiveness. We experimentally examined two factors that might influence training effectiveness: managerial support and proactive versus reactive implementation. Managerial support refers to whether an organization’s management conveys to employees that the training is important. Although managerial support has been associated with training effectiveness (Rynes & Rosen, 1995), its effects have not been experimentally examined. Proactive versus reactive implementation refers to whether the training is implemented to promote an understanding of diversity or as a response to racism. The effect of management support appears to depend on the reason for training and gender. Management support resulted in less effective training when training was implemented proactively. Further among men, management support resulted in less effective training. This pattern of results suggests that management support may sometimes backfire—perhaps when participants believe they are viewed as part of the problem