This major research project explores the history and evolution of diversity management strategies, like Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) and its current evolution, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Born out of the American civil rights movement, the first phase of D&I emerged as a response to regulatory requirements for fair and equal opportunity in hiring practices. Since then, it has been widely embraced as a competitive advantage and the key ingredient to innovation. For half a century, organizations have been investing multi- billion dollars in D&I initiatives but still struggle to make meaningful and measurable progress towards racial equity.
This paper seeks to investigate how effective D&I strategies are and lessons learned from a half century of effort to diversify workforces and build inclusive workplaces. To answer this question, a literature review and jurisdiction scan on Canadian and American D&I efforts was completed to identify key trends and gaps, with a focus on the hiring and career advancement of Black employees. It also provides an overview of the legal, academic and corporate definition of D&I, in order to map out the initial and evolving goals of diversity, along with how it is implemented and evaluated to make the argument that D&I, when done right, is about culture change and organizational redesign.