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STRIDE | Strategies & Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity & Excellence 1

STRATEGIES and TACTICS for

RECRUITING to

IMPROVE DIVERSITY and EXCELLENCE

at The University of Tennessee

STRIDE@UT

We are grateful for the support and inspiration we have received from

the STRIDE committee at the University of Michigan.

Many of their best ideas have been used and incorporated in this presentation.

stride.utk.edu

http://stride.utk.edu/


Purpose of STRIDE@UT

To revitalize our efforts to hire

and retain a diverse faculty by

using peer-to-peer instruction

about the academic research on

bias and diversity

Ralph Brockett

Chris Cherry

Tricia Stuth

Soren Sorensen

Rhonda Reger

Michael OlsonCamille HallPaul FrymierWanda CostenJudy Cornett

Roberto Benson Craig Barnes Lisa Yamagata-Lynch Jay Whelan

Sarah LoweBonnie Ownley

Stephanie Bohon


STRIDE study and instruction method

• Study diversity and bias issues based

on peer-reviewed academic research

papers and reviews

• NOT based on emotions, ideology,

politics, moral imperatives, etc.


Reading, Discussing, Reading, Discussing………..


What are the benefits of having a diverse faculty?

What are the problems in achieving a diverse faculty?

What can we improve our searches so we achieve a more

diverse faculty?

Key Questions


DIVERSITY: PROBLEMS & BENEFITS


SOCIAL DIVERSITY | Drawbacks

Social diversity in a group can cause:

• Discomfort

• Rougher interactions

• More concern about disrespect

• Lack of trust

• Less communication

So what is the upside?Phillips, K. W. (2014). How

Diversity Makes Us Smarter.

Scientific American, 311 (4), 43-

47.

problems


SOCIAL DIVERSITY | Informational Diversity

• Encourages the search for novel

information and perspectives, leading to

better decision making and problem

solving

• When problems are solved in diverse

groups, solutions tend to be better

formulated, explained in more detail,

addressed from more perspectives, and

work better in innovative environments.


Dezso, C. L., & Ross, D. G. (2009).

Does Female Representation in Top

Management Improve Firm

Performance? A Panel Data

Investigation. Robert H. Smith School

Research Paper No. RHS 06-104.

Available at SSRN:

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1088182

Research | Enhanced Company Performance

Study: Does women’s representation in top

management result in improved managerial task

performance and thus better firm performance?

Data: 15 years of panel data on the top

management teams of the S&P 1,500 firms

Result: Women’s representation in top

management improves firm performance but only

to the extent that a firm’s strategy is focused on

innovation

Table 4. Women’s Representation in Top Management & Measures of Firm Performance

Measure

Return on Assets Return on Equity

Women’s Representation -0.0043(0.0027)

-0.0059(0.0081)

Women’s Representation ×Innovation Intensity

0.1592***(0.0234)

0.2585***(0.0787)

***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, p< 0.10. Standard errors are reported under each coefficient in parentheses.


Kersley, R., & O’Sullivan, M. (2014, September). The

Credit Suisse Gender 3000: Women in Senior

Management, Credit Suisse Report.

Data: 28,000 senior managers in 3,000

companies worldwide

Result: Greater diversity in boards and

management is associated with

• Higher returns on equity

• Superior stock performance

• Higher dividends payout ratios

• Among CEOs, women are less

acquisitive than men

Research | Enhanced Company Performance IICredit Suisse


Loyd, D. L., Wang, C. S., Phillips, K. W., & Lount, R.

B. (2013). Social category diversity promotes

premeeting elaboration: The role of relationship

focus. Organization Science 24(3), 757-772.

Study: 186 people (Democrats and

Republicans) read a murder mystery,

and were asked to prepare for a

meeting with another participant by

writing an essay about who they

thought committed the murder.

They were told that the other participant

disagreed with them and that they

needed to reach consensus.

They were also told that the other

participant was from either the opposing

political party or the same party as

themselves.

Research | Diversity Triggers More Careful

Argumentation

Result: Democrats who were told that a

fellow Democrat disagreed with them

prepared less well for the discussion than

Democrats who were told that a

Republican disagreed with them.

Republicans showed the same pattern.

Lesson: When disagreement comes from

a socially different person, we are

prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us

into cognitive action in ways that

homogeneity simply does not.


Freeman, R. B., & Huang, W. (2014). Collaborating

with People Like Me: Ethnic Co-Authorship Within

the US. National Bureau of Economic Research,

Working Paper 19905.

Study: Examined ethnic identity of the authors of

1.5 million scientific papers written between

1985 and 2008 using Thomson Reuters's Web of

Science, a comprehensive database of

published research.

Research | Diversity Leads To Higher Citation Rates!!

Result: Papers written by diverse groups received

more citations and had higher impact factors than

papers written by people from the same ethnic

group.

Stronger papers were associated with a greater

number of author addresses; geographical diversity;

a larger number of references, and were a reflection

of more intellectual diversity.


Diversity| Workforce preparation

US Demographic Trends:

Fewer than 50% of newborns are non-Latino/a white

No clear ethnic or racial majority by 2050

College can prepare students for a diverse work environment:

College is often the first chance for students to meet and interact with

people from different ethnic, racial, or geographical backgrounds

Diversity

Workplace is increasingly diverse:

Employment of Latino/as and African-

Americans increasing rapidly

Many immigrants working in USA

World is flat:

More Americans working in environments,

locations, and countries, different from

where they grew up.


Carrell, S. E., Page, M. E., &

West, J. E. (2009). Sex and

science: How professor

gender perpetuates the

gender gap (No. w14959).

National Bureau of Economic

Research.

Research | Student Learning

Among women, high performing 1st year students performed better with teachers

who were women, but worse with teachers who were men.

Among men, high performing students did equally well with teachers of either

gender.

Women perform better

when their instructors are

women

Men’s performance does not vary by the sex of

their instructor


Diversity| Diversity increases diversity

Difficult to be the only minority:

Status as a minority is highlighted if you

are the only one

Critical mass:

Once a “critical mass” of minorities has

been reached, new minority faculty

are more likely to come

Diversity

Smith, D. G., Turner, C. S. V., Osei-Kofi, N., & Richards, S. (2004). Interrupting the

usual: Successful strategies for hiring diverse faculty. The Journal of Higher

Education, 75(2), 133-160.


Diversity| Diversity in diversity

Without exposure to people from other groups, prejudice and implicit

bias tend to exaggerate the perceived differences between groups.

“All professors are absent-minded”

“All African-Americans are great athletes”

Great variations within groups - often much larger than perceived

differences

Realizing these differences within other

groups will tend to reduce prejudice

and hostility

Diversity

Ostrom, T. M., & Sedikides, C. (1992). Out-group homogeneity effects in natural and

minimal groups. Psychological Bulletin, 112(3), 536.


Diversity | Overview of benefits

Informational DiversityWhen innovation or careful considerations are important, diverse groups and institutions perform

better.

Better workforce preparationA diverse faculty and student body will prepare our students better for the very diverse world they

will encounter during their life.

Diversity increases diversityNew minority faculty, staff and students are more likely to come to institutions with good track

records on diversity.

Diversity within diversityThere is great value in realizing through actual interactions that the diversity in perspectives and

capabilities within different diverse groups often are much larger than the differences.

Diversity


THE ISSUE


58%42%

All Faculty by Gender

Men

WomenUTK Office of Institutional Research and

Assessment, 2015-2016,

https://oira.utk.edu/

DIVERSITY | Gender Diversity at UTK (2015-2016)

Our Professional Home

41%59%

Non-Tenure Track

Men

Women

50%50%

Assistant Professor

Men

Women

58%42%

Associate Professor

Men

Women

78%

22%

Professor

Men

Women

25%

23%22%

30%

All Faculty by Rank

NTT

Assistant

Associate

Professor


Full-Time Instructional Faculty by Gender, University of Tennessee, 2015-16

020406080

100120140160

NU

MB

ER O

F FA

CU

LTY

COLLEGE

Women

UTK Office of Institutional Research and




DIVERSITY | Race Diversity at UTK (2015-2016)

1%0%10%4%

4%

81%

All Faculty by Race/Ethnicity

MultiracialAm. Indian/Alaskan NativeAsian/Pacific IslanderBlack/African AmericanHispanic

UTK Office of Institutional Research and




Kirkup, G., Zalevski, A.,

Maruyama, T., & Batool, I.

(2010). Women and men in

science, engineering and

technology: the UK statistics

guide 2010.

The PIPELINE Metaphor

Data from

Great Britain:

% of women

in STEM

courses or

fields

Mid

dle

Sch

oo

l

Hig

h S

cho

ol

Un

der

grad

uat

e

Gra

du

ate

Post

do

c

Ass

ista

nt

Pro

f

Ass

oci

ate

Pro

f

Full

Pro

f


The Leaky Pipeline | Women

Kirkup, G., Zalevski, A.,

Maruyama, T., & Batool,

I. (2010). Women and

men in science,

engineering and

technology: the UK

statistics guide 2010.


Breakout Discussion

We have presented pros and cons of attaining a

diverse faculty composition.

How important do you think diversity

considerations should be for hiring and retention

decisions?


BIAS


BIAS | Historical Perspective


BIAS | Explicit vs. Implicit

EXPLICIT BIAS

• Intentional & obvious

• Leads to discrimination

IMPLICIT BIAS

• Unintentional & subtle

• Leads to discrimination


BIAS | Pervasive, Impactful

• Learned early from family, peers, media

• Learned without intention or awareness

• Culturally shared


BIAS | Characteristics

• Social categories are automatically and unintentionally

encoded

• Once categories are activated, bias can influences

perception without awareness:

• Can change based on experience/ exposure

• Can be reduced based on conscious considerations

Hugenberg, K., &

Bodenhausen, G. V. (2003).

Facing prejudice implicit

prejudice and the perception of

facial threat. Psychological

Science, 14(6), 640-643.


BIAS | When does bias affect judgments?

• When the situation is

ambiguous, stressful or

rushed.

• When you are not

motivated to think clearly.

• When you are unaware of effects of bias.

Awareness

+

Motivation

Bias

Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A.

(2014). The MODE model:

Attitude-behavior processes

as a function of motivation

and opportunity. Dual

process theories of the social

mind, 155-171.


• Implicit measures allow researchers access to biases without

having to ask directly.

• Implicit Association Test (IAT)

• 100’s of peer-reviewed studies demonstrate predictive validity

• Take the IAT free at https://implicit.Harvard.edu/implicit/.

Fazio, R. H., & Olson,

M. A. (2003). Implicit

measures in social

cognition research:

Their meaning and use.

Annual review of

psychology, 54(1), 297-

327.

BIAS | How Do We Know?


RESEARCH STUDIES


Major U.S. symphony orchestra audition data for 14,000

individuals showed that use of a screen, which concealed

gender, increased the probability by 25% that a woman

would advance from preliminary rounds (1970-1996).

Goldin, C., & Rouse, C.

(1997). Orchestrating

impartiality: The impact

of" blind" auditions on

female musicians (No.

w5903). National

bureau of economic

research.

Research | Blind Auditions


RESEARCH | Letters of Recommendation

Letters for women:

• Shorter

• More reference to personal life

• More “doubt raisers”

Letters for men:

• Longer

• More references to CV,

publications, patents, colleagues

Trix, F., & Psenka, C.

(2003). Exploring the

color of glass: Letters

of recommendation for

female and male

medical faculty.

Discourse & Society,

14(2), 191-220.


CASE STUDY | Simple Name Change

When identical resumes are submitted for a

position in Business:

• Applicants with African American sounding

names needed to send 50% more

resumes to get a callback than applicants

with white sounding names.

• White sounding names yielded as many

callbacks as an additional eight years of

experience for an African American

candidate.

Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S.

(2004). Are Emily and Greg more

employable than Lakisha and

Jamal? A field experiment on

labor market discrimination. The

American Economic Review,

94(4), 991-1013.


Jennifer

Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F.,

Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., &

Handelsman, J. (2012). Science

faculty’s subtle gender biases favor

male students. Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences,

109(41), 16474-16479.

RESEARCH | Lab Manager in STEM

Applicants with a recent Ph.D. applied for a Lab Manager position in a STEM department.

Biology, chemistry, and physics professors at major research universities evaluated the

candidates based on submitted resumes.

Resumes: Identical CVs and transcripts from men and women (except for first name)

John


Steinpreis, R. E., Anders,

K. A., & Ritzke, D. (1999).

The impact of gender on

the review of the curricula

vitae of job applicants and

tenure candidates: A

national empirical study.

Sex roles, 41(7-8), 509-

528.

RESEARCH | Psychology Faculty

Applicants for a tenure-track assistant professor

position in psychology

Evaluators: 238 psychology faculty

Materials: identical tenure-track job dossier from

men and women

Note: both male and female faculty showed bias

against female applicants

John

Jennifer


MacNell, L., Driscoll, A., & Hunt, A. N. (2015). What’s in a name: exposing gender bias in student ratings of teaching. Innovative Higher

Education, 40(4), 291-303.

Research | Gender Bias in Student Evaluations I

Issue:

Are instructors evaluated identically by students, regardless of gender?

Method:

72 students at a large, public university; randomly assigned to 4 different

online discussion groups in an intro sociology course.

Men and women were each assigned to instruct 2 groups. In the first,

students were told the correct gender of the instructor, in the other group they

were told the instructor was the opposite gender of the real instructor.

Both instructors had nearly identical credentials (as presented to students)

and interacted identically with all students in the 4 groups. All grading was highly

rubricked.

Examples


Research | Gender Bias in Student Evaluations II

Results:

Actual instructors were essentially rated identically

Perceived instructors were rated differently, with the instructors perceived

as men rated much higher than those perceived as women.

Examples

Implication:

Instructors who are

men often afforded an

automatic credibility

based on the students’

implicit biases.

MacNell, L., Driscoll, A., & Hunt, A. N. (2015). What’s in a name: exposing gender bias in student ratings of teaching. Innovative Higher

Education, 40(4), 291-303.


RESEARCH | Perceived Leadership

With single sex group seated at a table:

Observers most often identify the person at the

head of the table as the leader.

With mixed sex group seated at a table:

A women seated at the head of the table is

identified as the leader only half as often as a

man at the head of the table.Porter, N., & Geis, F. (1981).

Women and nonverbal leadership

cues: When seeing is not believing.

In Gender and nonverbal behavior

(pp. 39-61). Springer New York.


RESEARCH | Case after case ……

• Men more likely to be first authors on scientific papers

• Men more likely to be selected for prestigious invited talks than

women

• Men more likely to obtain research grants than women

• Mothers rated less competent and recommended for lower

salaries than non-mothers

• Fathers rated more competent and recommended for higher

salaries than non-fathers


Stereotype Threat

Inzlicht, M., & Schmader, T. (2012).

Stereotype threat: Theory, process,

and application. Oxford University

Press.

Stereotype threat is triggered

when one is in a situation in

which he/she could be seen or

judged in terms of widely held

negative group biases.

Many studies show that

stereotype threat:

– causes underperformance

– can be manipulated by

performance, motivation,

and career choices

– can be inadvertently

triggered even by the well-

intentioned

You perform as you are “expected” to perform


Shih, M. , Pittinsky, T. L. ,

Ambady, N. (1999).

Stereotype susceptibility:

Identity salience and shifts in

quantitative performance.

Psychological Science, 10,

80–83.

Math

Test

Perf

orm

ance Math Test Performance of

Asian American Women

• Questionnaire given before

test “primes” for a

particular identity

• Greater effect on those

who care the most

• Can be inadvertently

triggered even by the well-

intentioned

StereotypeThreat

Stereotype Lift

Stereotype Threat

You perform as you are “expected” to perform


Valian, V. (1999). Why so slow?: The advancement of women. MIT press.

Molehills to Mountains

Accumulation of effects ……

The effects shown in these case studies might

each seem minor ….

But the accumulated disadvantages can become

large …

Minor disadvantages can be consequential, as in

advancement to leadership positions …

“Mountains are molehills piled one on top of the

other” (Valian, 1998, page 4)

http://video.mit.edu/watch/why-so-slow-the-advancement-of-women-virginia-valian-6901/


Breakout Scenario: Hire The Best Candidate

Your department has a serious deficit of diversity and a strong

desire to improve its national ranking.

This year it has only one search with a final pool containing Peter

and Tamika. Both interviewed well, but Tamika did seem

uncertain when she was grilled about a technical point by Hugo,

a senior white professor. Furthermore, Peter has 4 published

articles, whereas Tamika has only 2.

In the final faculty meeting Hugo says: “Diversity is important and

I fully support it, but we just simply have to hire the best

candidate independent of race or gender. So we should offer the

job to Peter.”

Based on this information, what would you do in that situation?


RECOMMENDATIONS

for

Recruitment


RECOMMENDATIONS | Active Recruitment

Recruiting begins before you have a position…

• Network directly with young scholars, including your own students.

• Foster connections with other institutions to identify and track promising

candidates.

• Widen the pool: actively pursue candidates thriving at lower-ranked

institutions.

• In general, go beyond the “usual” set of institutions you might consider

candidates from.

Bilimoria, D., & Liang, X. (2012). Gender equity in science and engineering:

Advancing change in higher education. Routledge.

recommendations


RECOMMENDATIONS | Search Options

Include language in advertisement

specifically expressing interest in

diverse candidates.

Define your search as broadly as

possible (open search).

Job description should include as

many areas as possible.

Consider using a single committee

for all open searches in your unit.

recommendations

Bilimoria, D., & Liang, X. (2012). Gender equity in science and engineering:

Advancing change in higher education. Routledge.


RECOMMENDATIONS | Evaluating Candidates

• Self-correction: be aware of the possibility of

your own implicit bias

• Level playing field: Be aware of the potential

different environments the candidates have

been in

• Discuss and define evaluation criteria in

advance (see next slide).

• Calibrate your evaluations by discussing 1-2

applications in detail before beginning the

review process

• Avoid global evaluations rankings.

• Consider alternatives to simple rank ordering

(create summaries)

• Slow down and be deliberate!

recommendations

Bilimoria, D., & Liang, X. (2012). Gender

equity in science and engineering: Advancing

change in higher education. Routledge.


RECOMMENDATIONS | Pre-define Evaluation

Criteria and Ground Rules

Identify and weight the criteria before

candidates visit:

• Global assessments of candidates are

more consistent with stereotypes.

• Avoid simple global assessments by

creating a matrix of evaluation criteria

• Consider allocating approximate

weights for the criteria, but avoid

simple numeric summation

• Avoid overweighting ‘liking’ or

personality fit, which favors candidate

consistency with implicit biases.

Zeleny, M., & Cochrane, J. L. (1973). Multiple criteria

decision making. University of South Carolina Press.

recommendations


RECOMMENDATIONS | Example of evaluation

matrix

recommendations


RECOMMENDATIONS | Host an Effective Visit

• Avoid illegal and discriminatory questions

• Use a standard protocol for each visit

• Ensure that all candidates meet a diverse set of

people, so that they are more likely to meet

someone like them, including graduate and

undergraduate students and staff.

• Be aware of the potential for triggering

stereotype threat.

• Distribute appropriate policy information to all

candidates before or during first visit on issues

like family friendly policies, partner hiring

options, quality of school systems in our area,

real estate information, restaurants etc.

Bilimoria, D., & Liang, X. (2012). Gender equity in

science and engineering: Advancing change in higher

education. Routledge.

Heilman, M. E. (1980). The impact of situational

factors on personnel decisions concerning women:

Varying the sex composition of the applicant pool.

Organizational Behavior and Human Performance,

26(3), 386-395.

Huffcutt, A. I., & Roth, P. L. (1998). Racial group

differences in employment interview evaluations.

Journal of applied Psychology, 83(2), 179-189.

recommendations


Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995).

Stereotype threat and the intellectual

test performance of African

Americans. Journal of personality

and social psychology, 69(5), 797-

811.

RECOMMENDATIONS | Avoid Stereotype Threat

Bias affects candidate

performance through

stereotype threat.

Show the department as it

is ………not how it was

recommendations


SUMMARY

• Diversity produces a better “product,” a

higher performing faculty, better work

environment for ALL employees, and

ultimately a better university.

• Most of us have internalized implicit

biases that can dominate the decision

making processes, such as hiring

decisions.

• Implicit biases tend to propagate the

status quo

We do not wish to lower the bar for

minorities, but instead

We wish to level the

playing field


And finally, ….

please remember ONE thing …..

Bias can be minimized with conscious awareness and careful deliberations

Bias

Bias


Thank You !

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