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COPYRIGHT 2003 Society for Human Resource Management
Employees whose companies claim a commitment to work-force diversity are often puzzled when they look up the ranks and see an array of cookie-cutter executives. While diversity programs typically focus on bringing difference through the door in the form of new hires, enthusiasm appears to evaporate when it's time to choose the next CEO or vice president.
"Those being positioned as future leaders tend to look and act an awful lot like people in those top positions," says Tom McKinnon, executive consultant with diversity consultants Novations/J. Howard & Associates in Boston. But this doesn't necessarily mean a company's diversity initiatives aren't effective or authentic. "It simply reflects an adherence to traditional methods of succession planning," he says.
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Many otherwise forward-thinking companies expect employees with leadership skills to naturally float to the upper levels of the organization and hover there, ready to be anointed. But in reality, says McKinnon, employees typically arrive there because the system rewards those who have secured the best opportunities and assignments along the way. And it's likely that those advantages came about because of the candidates' resemblance to those they hope to replace.
Call it the "Mini-Me" syndrome. Executives seem to feel more comfortable when critical organizational roles are filled by people who are similar to the incumbent. That resemblance is often manifest in age, education, leadership style, industry experience, career trajectory and, of course, race and gender.
"These attitudes are understandable," says Jason Richardson, CEO of Cutting Edge Information, a business intelligence and research firm in Durham, N.C. "It takes convincing evidence to persuade the...
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