A New Perspective on Fostering Organic Diversity Within Organizations

Abstract

In recent years, businesses have continually struggled to diversify their talent pools in an organic manner. This paper offers a new perspective on fostering organic diversity. Using data on club membership from one four-year liberal arts institution, different indices were created to rank each club in the sample according to the proximity of the demographic distribution of the club membership to that of the overall student population. This method identifies clubs whose activities have universal appeal and thus produce diversity organically. These findings have important implications for businesses seeking to improve workforce cohesion and meet their DEI recruitment objectives.