Measuring Diversity in the Workplace: An Extended and Unified Framework

Abstract

Research on workplace diversity is proliferating. Inspired by Harrison and Klein’s (2007) conceptualization of diversity into three types of diversity—separation, disparity, and variety—and their associated framework of measures, diversity scholars have paid increasing attention to the measurement of their diversity construct. In this paper, we argue that the widely used measurement framework of Harrison and Klein suffers from important limitations— that is, the separation measures assume non-linear effects, the disparity measures do not take into account left-skewed attribute distributions, and the proposed variety measures can be used for categorical variables only. To solve these issues, we take a distance-based approach to the three types of diversity and provide a unifying, easy-to-use framework of measures, including measures for diversity constructs for which no adequate measures were available yet. Using simulated data of work units, we show how our proposed measures behave and how they relate to the measures proposed by Harrison and Klein. This manuscript concludes with an accessible decision tree, easily guiding diversity scholars in when and how to use the different diversity measures. Our hope is that our framework contributes to Harrison and Klein’s (2007) mission to improve the concept clarity, measurement, and empirical testing in the field of workplace diversity.