Ep 181. Quinetta Roberson: The Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
“Start with this question: Why do you care about diversity, equity, and inclusion?”
Quinetta Roberson
Professor Quinetta Roberson has over 20 years of experience teaching courses and workshops globally on leadership, talent management and diversity, and her research and teaching are informed by her background in finance, having worked as a financial analyst and small business development consultant. She’s also served as an expert witness in employment discrimination lawsuits and provides professional advice and guidance to for-profit and non-profit organizations. Quinetta earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Maryland and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in finance. Her research interests focus on developing organizational capability and enhancing effectiveness through the strategic management of people, particularly diverse work teams. To summarize some of her experiences and insights from working with organizations, she delivered a TED talk on The Science of Inclusion at the 2013 TEDxVillanova conference. She currently serves as President of the Academy of Management (AOM) for 2020-2021.
In this episode, Stew and Quinetta discuss the benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion (after parsing out important distinctions among these three terms, often referred to collectively as “DEI”) for teams and organizations with respect to productivity, retention, and the bottom line. Quinetta shares her research on equity and justice with teams and provides guidance for how to make DEI efforts succeed, starting with a clear sense of purpose as to the expected impact on organization performance.
Here then is an invitation, a challenge, for you, once you’ve listened to the conversation. Ask yourself this question: If you were to take a step toward a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment, why would you do it? How, in other words, would you want your team organization to benefit? And, how, by asking this, does your perspective change on what you might do to affect positive change? Write to Stew to let him know, at friedman@wharton.upenn.edu, or connect with him on LinkedIn. While you’re at it, share your thoughts with him on this episode and your ideas for people you’d like to hear on future shows.
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