Diversify Job Duties in Diversity Management

As a consumer and organizational psychologist, I’m interested in how characteristics of the employees of a retail store affect that store’s profitability. An article in the Spring 2012 Personnel Psychology journal reports that one significant factor is the degree of match between the racial/ethnic characteristics of the employees and those of the target customers.
     The article’s authors—from Temple University, Rutgers, Davidson College, and J.C. Penney Inc.—confirmed the notion that a greater match leads to better store results. The authors then go beyond this to skewer two misconceptions. Here is my adaptation of those attacks, using a broader base of research:

• It’s an error to believe that research has uniformly found substantial benefits when the racial/ethnic characteristics of the employees and target customers closely match. In truth, the research literature has yielded inconsistent answers to the question. The reason for inconsistent results is that the match doesn’t affect profitability directly, but does it indirectly by increasing customer satisfaction. If other factors disrupt customer satisfaction, the racial/ethnic match won’t help profitability.
• Some might think that the match is helpful only when there are many minority customers. Yes, it is most strong then, because minority shoppers are especially likely to have received inferior customer service in the past from salespeople who do not share the shopper’s racial/ethnic characteristics. When minority shoppers see minority employees, that’s a service clue. However, the match-advantage effect also holds true when there are few minority customers. On average, shoppers are more satisfied when dealing with salespeople they see as being like themselves.

     I also hold a certification, Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), granted by the Society for Human Resource Management, reflecting my interest in performance management of retail employees. I share the Temple, et al researchers concerns about a retailer using the findings of their study to aim to strictly match racial/ethnic characteristics of salespeople with those of the target consumer. A major difficulty in doing this is how it can limit the job opportunities of the salespeople to learn and excel in other retail functions, such as buying and bookkeeping. Another wrinkle is that if you’re hiring based on a race/ethnicity match, you risk violating equal employment opportunity laws.
     In your store’s implementation of diversity management, pay attention to hiring for retailing skills and developing competencies by diversifying job duties for all your employees. Competency initiatives surpass diversity initiatives when it comes to achieving profitability.

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