Download PDF Fall Bridge on Engineering a Diverse Future September 25, 2024 Volume 54 Issue 3 Guest edited by Wanda Sigur and Percy Pierre, this issue of The Bridge addresses the issues around sustaining a U.S. engineering workforce that builds on and integrates the talents and ideas of our diverse nation. Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through Mentorship and Allyship for Career Advancement and Retention of Women in STEMM Thursday, September 26, 2024 Author: Audrey J. Murrell and Samuel Allen The effectiveness of DEI efforts to impact the inclusion and advancement of women in STEMM fields rests on greater synergy between an organization’s stated goals and outcome-focused efforts, including mentorship and allyship. In an era and environment marked by persistent social inequalities, some organizations are upholding their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) through various efforts. These efforts are not just about recruitment, but about ongoing actions to ensure retention, advancement, and overall well-being across all aspects of diversity. This is especially true for women in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM) fields who remain underrepresented, particularly in senior-level positions. While public statements of commitments to DE&I are needed, the effectiveness of these efforts rests not only on a publicly stated commitment to recruit diverse individuals into the organization but also on ongoing actions to ensure retention, advancement, and well-being. These actions must be part of a long-term focus on transforming systems and cultures that perpetuate unequal organizational distributions of psychological, social, and material power. This long-term focus is crucial to ensure that An over-emphasis on sponsorship alone can send an unintended message that women are seen merely as a “resource” to the organization with the primary goal of producing tangible or measurable outcomes that benefit the organization and its reputation. Inconsistency between publicly stated diversity goals or objectives and their outcomes can even produce “backfire” that can block the achievement of stated DE&I goals (Leslie 2019) and generate skepticism among intended beneficiaries (Wilton et al. 2020). Burnett and Aguinis (2024) argue that DE&I backfire can take place when mixed results and/or negative unintended consequences occur. The inconsistencies often occur when stated goals and outcomes are either not realized (e.g., a lack of greater advancement of women or people of color into leadership roles) or create unintended outcomes that do not match the stated goals (e.g., women advanced to leadership only in high-risk positions). Thus, backfire refers to the negative consequences of diversity efforts that either fail to achieve the intended outcomes or achieve outcomes that create undesirable consequences (Leslie 2019). Backfire can also occur when diversity efforts unintentionally have a negative impact on those identified as beneficiaries (e.g., glass ceilings or glass cliffs for women in leadership). This is especially problematic for advancing women and people of color in non-traditional careers in STEMM fields that historically lack diversity, particularly in leadership and at senior levels (Fagan and Teasdale 2021). Among the various strategies and approaches to enhancing diversity within STEMM fields both in terms of access and advancement, many leaders and scholars advocate for the use of mentors and sponsors as necessary and beneficial for supporting as well as advancing the careers of women and underrepresented groups within STEMM (Dahlberg and Byars-Winston 2020). However, others argue that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored, which may benefit recruitment efforts but does not address ongoing barriers to career advancement, leadership development, and personal well-being (Griffeth et al. 2021). The Dual Importance of Mentorship and Sponsorship While people discuss or define mentorship and sponsorship in various ways, we rely on the work by Higgins and Kram (2001) for our definition. They advocate for a broader view of mentoring as developmental relationships or “mentoring functions” that can include both career and psychosocial functions or support. Their work identifies “sponsorship” as the class of developmental relationships focusing on strictly career-oriented functions, including providing support and/or advocacy for career advancement. Psychosocial support, the other dimension of Higgins and Kram’s (2001) conceptualization of mentoring, is how mentorship is most typically presented in research and includes functions such as advice, social support, counseling, acceptance, and validation. While the diverse nature of mentoring relationships has been acknowledged, much has been written and researched regarding the specific role that sponsorship plays in advancing the careers of women, especially in STEMM fields. For example, Hewlett (2013) argues that mentoring alone cannot create meaningful change for women and underrepresented groups. Meaningful change must include a significant focus on sponsorship. Others agree with Hewlett that having access to powerful and influential sponsors in senior positions is important, especially for increasing and sustaining diversity for women and people of color (NASEM 2020). Sponsors have been shown to help women seek out opportunities for development and advancement in the organization while receiving advocacy from high-status and influential individuals (Hewlett 2013). Some also argue that sponsorship can uniquely increase the visibility of women seeking leadership roles (Bromley and Powell 2012; Mor Barak et al. 2022). Sponsorship can help women access important and high-profile opportunities or projects that develop key skills and place them on the radar when opportunities for advancement arise (Ayyala et al. 2019). Thus, connecting women to sponsors through organizational programming is seen as essential for advancing women in underrepresented areas in STEMM fields (Bilimoria and Singe 2019). While implementing programs focusing on sponsorship for women’s advancement in STEMM is important, we suggest that it represents only part of the necessary support and advocacy for women’s advancement and well-being. Any efforts involving sponsorship-focused programs must consider how they achieve synergy with key organizational goals, especially those focused on achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion. We suggest that an over-emphasis on sponsorship alone can send an unintended message that women are seen merely as a “resource” to the organization with the primary goal of producing tangible or measurable outcomes that benefit the organization and its reputation. While not true for all organizational DE&I efforts, too much attention to the “return on investment” of sponsorship can signal that the organization views the advancement of women via a purely transactional or what some refer to as a “resource mindset” that might be beneficial for the organization but can potentially send mixed signals to women both internally and externally (Ely and Thomas 2020; Millwater and Yarrow 1997). Tangible returns on an organization’s efforts to enhance women’s careers are important; however, a “resource mindset” can create a narrow singular focus on sponsorship only, which can be insufficient to support the full range of organizational goals, such as inclusion, belongingness, and the retention of women, especially at top levels within an organization (Blaique et al. 2023). We argue that organizations must be cautious about unintentionally shifting their focus toward a pure resource mindset and include other important factors such as belongingness, identity, and inclusion, which are often referred to as part of a value mindset. Acknowledging that mentoring must include a balance between both a resource and a value mindset is an important broadening of the meaning and impact of these significant developmental relationships. This should stimulate an expansion of mentoring outcomes beyond career advancement and include mentoring outcomes such as learning, growth, inclusion, belongingness, and innovation. With this expanded view of mentoring as the inclusion of both a resource and a value mindset, it is also necessary for organizations and their leadership to be clear in the purpose, focus, and desired outcomes of mentoring efforts. How leaders define the desired goals of mentoring in achieving DE&I objectives is important for both achieving those goals and signaling their commitment to stated DE&I goals to internal and external stakeholders. This is akin to what is referred to within the literature as “organization signaling,” which includes organizational messages and statements by leaders that, together with actions, indicate either a commitment or lack of commitment to stated goals (Westra 2021). Inconsistency between publicly stated goals and objectives can be viewed by those inside and outside of the organization as a signal for a lack of commitment or evidence of hypocrisy related to DE&I initiatives (Westra 2021). If women lack advancement into senior leadership roles yet the organization makes frequent statements about DE&I commitment, this can produce a negative signaling effect, which can have detrimental consequences for the future engagement and retention of women and other underrepresented groups. Importantly, leaders act as pivotal organizational signalers that can provide either confirming or discrediting evidence of the valued goals of the organization, including those focused on advancing women into leadership roles. Leaders who are seen as signalers not only send messages that impact the organization’s external reputation but also shape the organization’s internal culture, especially for people from underrepresented groups. If those messages are inconsistent with the organization’s actions, it can negatively impact individuals’ perceptions of the underlying meaning or rationale for the stated DE&I objectives and erode feelings of belonging, identity, and authenticity among individuals in the organization (Wilton et al. 2020). Persistent inconsistencies in stated goals versus actions can also produce backfire responses among key stakeholders that lessen the overall effectiveness of these important efforts (Burnette and Aguinis 2024). Effective use of both sponsorship and mentorship to support DE&I efforts such as recruitment, retention, and advancement can and should signal the authenticity of an organization’s commitment to inclusive developmental efforts for women and people of color (Yin 2024). In order to address more than recruiting women into STEMM positions via sponsorship efforts, we suggest that equal attention be paid to retention and advancement goals by not only including traditional mentoring efforts but also including emerging forms of allyship as one part of the full range of development relationships within the organization and a signal of the organization’s commitment to realizing its DE&I objectives. Thus, organizational signaling should be seen as important in our ongoing efforts to advance women in STEMM. Signaling Support for Advancing Women in STEMM Organizational signaling is important for clarifying, advancing, and engaging both internal and external stakeholders. Some argue that leaders across all levels of the organization should serve the role of a “signaler” in their public statements. Their ongoing actions must be consistent with stated overall organizational goals and those focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Westra (2021) provides important contributions to the notion of consistency between public moral discourse and organizational goals, values, ethics, and valued outcomes. How organizations and their leadership engage in signaling, especially with key stakeholders, can impact key outcomes such as engagement, reputation, ethical behavior, and overall trust in leadership (Connelly et al. 2011). If organizations promote DE&I yet lack retention, meaningful advancement, and empowerment of women, it signals a break in the linkage between stated values and actions. Prior research has identified groups of factors that contribute to the “leaky pipeline” of women in STEMM fields, such as the existence of an unfriendly work environment, poor accommodation of family obligations, sexual harassment, disparities in pay, biased job duties and appointments, and varying approaches to evaluating work (Hill et al. 2010). Organizations can signal inclusion, well-being, and belongingness for women and people of color by focusing on a diverse range of developmental relationships that must also include allyship. Women’s underrepresentation in the workplace has also been attributed to biased selection processes favoring men in certain job roles and positions and subjective and arbitrary advancement opportunities (Begeny et al. 2020). Even though numerous findings and recommendations of studies on equal opportunities and unfair discrimination have been considered and improvements have been made in many organizations, some still argue that women’s working representation, especially in STEMM fields, has not yielded significant advancement for over 10 years (Fouad and Santana 2017). Thus, signaling in the context of DE&I is important, and stated commitments are an avenue through which organizations can signal their support for, perspective on, and actions surrounding important diversity-related issues. Without being embedded in the organization, external actors can only perceive an organization’s position on diversity issues through the signals it sends, making these statements an important communication method for an array of external and internal stakeholders, including potential employees, clients/customers, leaders, partners and investors/funders. For example, research shows that the presence of DE&I statements as signals of organizational culture and strategy can produce significant alterations in stock returns, particularly in the days immediately following the announcement of DE&I commitments for publicly held companies (Li et al. 2022). In addition, a demonstrated commitment to diversity-related issues results in higher perceived organizational support for diversity and inclusion, higher levels of organizational attachment, and firm-level revenue gains (Corrington et al. 2022). On the other hand, some studies have found that the widespread presence of diversity statements without demonstrated results undermines organizational attractiveness, especially in employees’ eyes among organizations that utilize the statements (Varty 2022). This is similar to findings showing that signaling a commitment to DE&I without supporting that commitment in both policy and practice leads to a phenomenon known as “diversity dishonesty,” a belief that an organization is falsely inflating its commitment to diversity-related issues through statements and signals (Wilton et al. 2020). We contend that developing a comprehensive set of developmental programs throughout the organization that are aligned with the organization’s stated DE&I goals should include a range of efforts that signal and actualize a commitment to these stated goals. Based on this perspective, this synergy should include a diverse portfolio of both mentorship and sponsorship programs. Including both can signal a commitment not only to advancement but to other key outcomes, such as perceptions of organizational support, feelings of belongingness, and the experience of psychological safety, especially among members of underrepresented or minoritized groups. However, these latter outcomes are important and may not be supported by a singular focus on sponsorship alone. Building this diverse portfolio should include various developmental programs that include mentorship, sponsorship, and allyship as tools for achieving an organization’s DE&I goals and supporting learning, growth, inclusion, and innovation (Yin 2024). However, organizations have traditionally only focused on sponsorship and mentorship. Therefore, we make a case that organizations can signal inclusion, well-being, and belongingness for women and people of color by focusing on a diverse range of developmental relationships that must also include allyship. The Need for Inclusive Allyship To achieve this important goal, we make a case for the importance of allyship in efforts to attract, retain, and advance women in STEMM fields, especially at leadership levels of the organization, as a complement to ongoing sponsorship and mentorship efforts. Like Creary (2023), we employ a critical theory definition of allyship as relational tools that focus on actions and systems to challenge, transform, or redefine traditional power structures to remove barriers to access, opportunities, inclusion, and equal participation. Research and organizational practice adopting this critical theory perspective on allyship make DE&I goals by intentionally including marginalized and privileged group members as equal allies to acknowledge that anyone, regardless of their location in the power hierarchy, can challenge or collaborate to create change throughout the organization. We draw on both Creary’s (2023) and Dang and Joshi’s (2023) view of allyship as any actions by those within an organization (e.g., employees, co-workers, leaders, etc.) that challenge existing power structures and support others belonging to disadvantaged and/or underrepresented social groups. Allyship aims to promote equity and inclusion, especially for those disadvantaged, marginalized, or overlooked by traditional standards, perspectives, or evaluation methods. This means allyship fundamentally aligns with organizational diversity and inclusion’s explicit focus and goals (Creary 2023). While sometimes acknowledged to include sponsorship-related activities within the organization, allyship can have a broader reach that extends to engagement and advocacy efforts within the broader profession for women and members of diverse social groups. Allyship is purpose-driven, intentional, transformational, and uniquely tied to the specific work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Allyship involves a set of ongoing, action-oriented, beneficiary-centered relationships that are unique in that they challenge unequal power systems, unlike traditional approaches such as limiting access to development relationships through a singular focus on sponsorship (Bhattacharyya et al. 2024). Thus, enhancing and achieving DE&I goals and objectives for women in STEMM careers can be supported and enhanced by creating a diverse portfolio of developmental efforts that include sponsorship, mentorship, and allyship. It is also important to note that allyship is not always defined by the characteristics of the person engaged in these efforts (e.g., race, gender, social class, identity, etc.) but by the intended beneficiaries of necessary actions. This means that the diversity of those engaged in allyship is an important indication or signal of the range of support for DE&I efforts throughout the organization. For example, if the only allyship efforts are being made through women’s efforts to enhance DE&I within the organization, then some may question its commitment to its stated goals. Suppose those individuals who engage in allyship differ across demographics, characteristics, levels, or positions in the organization. This can serve as a strong and positive signal of an organizational culture that puts their stated DE&I goals and targeted outcomes into action. Making this distinction is important for meaningful synergy of specific actions or efforts with the organization’s DE&I strategy. For example, previous perspectives that characterize various types of mentoring-related efforts as part of DE&I efforts suggest they are purely transactional (i.e., prioritizing a rigidly defined set of short-term, strictly career-oriented goals) rather than developmental (i.e., prioritizing long-lasting relationships that emphasize personal development alongside career-related objectives), which can have limited impact for achieving organizational diversity and inclusion goals (Schenk et al. 2021). However, research on allyship can be seen as distinct from yet complementary to sponsorship in supporting the stated goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion within an organizational context without barriers of status, power, and rank within developmental relationships (Phillips et al. 2024). Thus, if we aim to create more opportunities to increase the representation and advancement of women in STEMM fields, then our efforts must include programs and actions that not only send a strong signal for diversity but also ensure the inclusion and sense of belongingness throughout the organization and especially across all levels. One of the most frequent tools used to support the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in STEMM involves a range of mentoring programs and initiatives (NASEM 2019). However, while mentoring and sponsorship can both demonstrate benefits for individual development and support diversity efforts, their effectiveness can be reduced by embedded organizational structures and hierarchies, making these efforts instrumental rather than developmental. In addition, the complicated nature of hierarchical mentoring relationships can often occur when organizations focus exclusively on sponsorship, especially within the context of DE&I efforts. Rather than arguing that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored, we should work toward a future where women can access a diverse portfolio of mentors, sponsors, and allies. Instead of using one-time mentoring efforts to signal an organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, we suggest focusing on the distinction between a resource versus a value mindset as part of designing and delivering effective mentoring efforts (Yin 2024). Developing a strong culture that includes allyship as part of other mentoring efforts is necessary for creating this mindset throughout the organization toward the advancement and well-being of women at all levels and functions. It will also send a strong external signal about the authenticity and legitimacy of organizational goals focused on DE&I, especially for women underrepresented in STEMM fields. Developing mentoring efforts that include allyship is especially important because it can impact traditional organizational outcomes (e.g., efficiency, effectiveness, profitability) and broader outcomes such as retention, citizenship, innovation, and belongingness (Douglass 2024). Taking the lessons learned from research on allyship and including them within any efforts to advance women in STEMM is an important step toward enhancing the effectiveness of ongoing DE&I efforts. For example, Murrell, Blake-Beard, and Porter (2021) utilized peer mentoring to support the advancement and well-being of a group of African American leaders. Their findings show that these peer mentoring relationships often took the form of advocacy, empathic acknowledgment, and validation, which can be considered a form of peer allyship. In addition, they noted that these peer mentoring encounters often included identity work among these African American leaders, which are also examples of allyship that provide unique types of support and validation often absent within traditional hierarchical mentoring. A Call for Greater Synergy The effectiveness of DE&I efforts to impact the inclusion and advancement of women in STEMM fields rests on greater synergy between stated goals and outcome-focused efforts within the organization. Early work by Nadler and Tushman (1980) argued that in order to function effectively, organizations’ key performance components—tasks, people, and structure—need to fit together logically and cohesively, even when the external environment may not be aligned with these objectives. This remains true given the complexity of today’s organizations regarding mission, structure, culture, and impact and the ongoing societal debates over the mission, need, and impact of organizational DE&I efforts. The need for greater synergy as related to DE&I goals and outcomes is significant in today’s complex environment, as lack of synergy can be a negative signal of organizational accountability, effectiveness, and overall commitment to stated goals such as DE&I (Bromley and Powell 2012). Existing research shows that mentoring matters for effective employee and leadership development and for enhancing DE&I efforts. However, lack of synergy of mentoring efforts within the organization’s portfolio of DE&I initiatives can limit mentoring’s impact as a strategic tool for supporting women and people of color while building an inclusive culture throughout the organization (Ferdman et al. 2021). Developing a mentoring mindset must be a critical part of an organizational DE&I effort. Instead of one-shot programs or overemphasizing sponsorship efforts as the only solution, developing a comprehensive mentoring portfolio of programs, structures, and outcome metrics that align mentoring with DE&I is essential for achieving both short-term and long-term goals. While allyship may exist and support the advancement of women in STEMM fields, this does not always mean that institutional barriers and ongoing complexities due to power dynamics, embedded structures, and resistant cultures will be erased. In fact, Creary (2023) cautions that, sometimes, organizational allyship initiatives can trigger anxiety among leaders within organizations due to the increased emphasis on disrupting the existing power structure and dynamics within the organization. This may lead to an unconscious or conscious effort to restrict and ultimately prevent the effectiveness of ongoing efforts of allyship to reduce barriers and create meaningful organizational change. 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