Perceived Diversity and Organizational Performance: A Review
This paper critically reviews Allen, Dawson, Wheatley, and White's (2008) study examining the relationship between perceived diversity and organizational performance across senior management, middle management, and non-managerial levels. The study relied on structured interviews with 391 employees at 130 southeastern U.S. organizations, using qualitative perception-based measures rather than statistical data. The review summarizes the study's three hypotheses, key findings, and acknowledged limitations, then offers a critical assessment of its methodological weaknesses — including a non-representative sample and exclusive reliance on employee perceptions. Competing research is cited to complicate the study's broadly positive conclusions about diversity and performance.
- Overview of the Study: Study purpose, claims, and three hypotheses
- Research Design and Data Collection: Interview methodology, sampling, and measurement instruments
- Key Findings by Managerial Level: Hypothesis results across senior, middle, and non-managerial tiers
- Implications and Interpretation: Authors' explanations of diversity's role at each level
- Limitations of the Study: Acknowledged methodological and sampling weaknesses
- Critical Assessment and Competing Research: Reviewer critique and conflicting studies on diversity outcomes
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What makes this paper effective
- The review moves logically from summary to critique, giving the reader a complete understanding of the study before evaluating it.
- The critical section draws on multiple competing studies to contextualize the limitations, rather than relying solely on the reviewer's personal opinion.
- Specific methodological concerns — sample composition, lack of operational definitions, geographic scope — are each identified and explained concisely.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates effective source critique: the writer accurately summarizes the study's design, hypotheses, and findings before systematically identifying methodological gaps. By contrasting the reviewed study with a range of conflicting research, the reviewer situates the work within a broader scholarly debate rather than treating it in isolation. This technique shows graduate-level engagement with the literature.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with the study's purpose and unique claims, then explains its methodology and data collection. The central sections report findings at each managerial level and interpret their implications. The final two sections first recount the authors' own acknowledged limitations, then layer on the reviewer's independent critique, ending with a summary of competing studies that challenge the original conclusions. This two-stage critical structure — the authors' self-critique followed by external critique — is a hallmark of strong academic reviewing.
Overview of the Study
In their article "Perceived Diversity and Organizational Performance," Allen, Dawson, Wheatley, and White report on their study investigating the relationships between perceived diversity and perceived organizational performance across all levels of workers in organizations of many kinds. They claim that their research is unique in that it takes into account employee perceptions of diversity and performance — qualitative measures as opposed to the statistical data collected by most other studies on the topic. The authors also state that their research stands apart because it focuses on entire organizations instead of sub-units or work teams and because it examines all levels of employee status, from senior management to middle management to non-managerial workers (Allen et al., 2008).
The study aimed at testing three hypotheses. The first was that perceived diversity at the senior management level will be positively related to perceived firm performance. The second asserted that perceived diversity in other managerial positions will be positively related to perceived firm performance. Similarly, the third hypothesis stated that perceived diversity in non-managerial positions will be positively related to perceived firm performance (Allen et al., 2008).
References
Allen, R.S., Dawson, G., Wheatley, K., & White, C.S. (2008). Perceived diversity and organizational performance. Employee Relations, 30(1), 20–33.
Bierema, L.L. (2010). Resisting HRD's resistance to diversity. Journal of European Industrial Training, 34(6), 565–576.
Carson, C.M., Mosley, D.C., & Boyar, S.L. (2004). Performance gains through diverse top management teams. Team Performance Management, 10(5/6), 121–126.
Driver, M. (2003). Diversity and learning in groups. The Learning Organization, 10(3), 149–166.
Haas, H. (2010). How can we explain mixed effects of diversity on team performance? A review with emphasis on context. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 29(5), 458–490.
Jehn, K.A., & Chatman, J.A. (2000). The influence of proportional and perceptual conflict composition on team performance. International Journal of Conflict Management, 11(1), 56–73.
Martin, C.A. (2005). Racial diversity in professional selling: An empirical investigation of the differences in the perceptions and performance of African-American and Caucasian salespeople. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 20(6), 285–296.
Smith, J.W., & Joseph, S.E. (2010). Workplace challenges in corporate America: Differences in black and white. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 29(8), 743–765.
Von Bergen, C.W., Soper, B., & Parnell, J.A. (2005). Workforce diversity and organisational performance. Equal Opportunities International, 24(3/4), 1–16.
Wang, Y., & Clift, B. (2009). Is there a "business case" for board diversity? Pacific Accounting Review, 21(2), 88–103.
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