We are excited to announce that this year’s Monica Belcourt HR Talks Series, hosted by the School of Human Resource Management at York University, will feature Dr. Sonia Kang from the University of Toronto. Dr. Kang will share her insights in an online talk, and everyone is welcome to attend.
We look forward to having you join us!
Dr. Sonia Kang holds the Canada Research Chair in Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and is a Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto, where she is also Academic Director at the Rotman School of Management’s Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE). Sonia’s research harnesses the power of behavioral insights and organizational design to disrupt systems, processes, and structures that block the path toward equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) for individuals, organizations, and society. Some of her recent research themes include EDI in STEM and medicine; using choice architecture to eliminate the gender gap in competition; and the decision to reveal or conceal race and gender cues when navigating the labor market. Sonia’s research is published widely in top-tier outlets and has won several awards for quality and impact. She was also the host of the popular podcast, For the Love of Work (fortheloveofwork.ca), a podcast that explores practical solutions to today’s workplaces challenges.
The Zoom link will be e-mailed the day before the event.
A Warm Welcome or A Cold Connotation? Linguistic Nuance in Diversity Language Impacts Perceived Organizational Sincerity and Anticipated Belonging
Kuan T. Su, Katherine A. DeCelles, & Sonia K. Kang
Many organizations attempt to signal an inclusive workplace via linguistic nuance in their recruitment materials. For instance, by stating that they “welcome” members of underrepresented groups. However, little is known about how this common practice shapes job seekers’ perceptions. We theorize that, while well-intentioned, welcoming language sends a counter-productive message to the very people it aims to attract. In Study 1, we first examine the prevalence of diversity recruitment language in 914 job postings in the U.S. and Canada (Study 1a) and 410 diversity statements from Fortune 500 companies (Study 1b). Our findings reveal that welcoming language is commonly used and more prevalent than belonging language. Next, across four pre-registered online experiments (N = 2,497) focusing on gender inclusion in STEM, we find that women are more likely to apply to jobs with belonging (vs. welcoming) language (Study 2a). In study 2b, we document a novel mechanism explaining why welcoming language decreases anticipated belonging: it is perceived as insincere, even when controlling for social identity threat. Study 3 shows that both men and women prefer belonging language to signal genuine inclusion. In Study 4, we find that women with stronger egalitarian orientation preferred jobs advertised with belonging language, whereas those with greater social dominance orientation are more inclined to accept jobs with welcoming language. Together, these findings suggest that, despite its positive intent, ubiquitous welcoming language may create sorting mechanisms that inadvertently reinforce existing barriers to diversity by appealing to job candidates who are more supportive of the status quo.