Center for Positive Organizations (CPO) Faculty Affiliate Meg Warren shares her research surrounding what effective allies do differently and how certain character strengths and virtues can lay the groundwork for becoming an effective ally in “Research: What Effective Allies do Differently” for Harvard Business Review.
Her four-stage model of allyship development is comprised of nine key virtues that will enable allies to promote the well-being of co-workers from marginalized groups. By leveraging their virtues, allies have a clearer understanding why they support others and are able to maintain the support long term.
Meg Warren, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Management at Western Washington University.
Allyship is gaining popularity as a tool to combat discrimination. We developed and tested a novel allyship positive psychology intervention (PPI). Importantly, we examined observers’ perceptions of intervention effectiveness given that observers represent the majority in many settings. Study 1 (N = 787) tested an intervention that highlighted a female employee’s identity-related strengths following a discrimination episode. Compared to communicating an organization’s diversity policy or confronting the transgressor, highlighting the target’s identity-related strengths was rated higher in terms of inclusion and vitality engendered in the target. Mediation analyses indicated that highlighting strengths was perceived as boosting the target’s vitality by signaling the ally’s sincerity and prompting inclusion. In Study 2 (N = 802), amongst various types of identity-related strengths, highlighting the target’s psychological and intellectual capital was as effective as highlighting all types of identity-related strengths combined, due to perceived sincerity. Thus, this research offers a quick, actionable and non-confrontational allyship PPI.
As organizations take on grand challenges in gender equality, anti-racism, LGBTQ+ protections and workplace inclusion, many well-intentioned individuals from dominant groups (e.g., cisgender men, Caucasian, heterosexual) are stepping forward as allies toward underrepresented or marginalized group members (e.g., cisgender women, People of Color, LGBTQ+ identified employees). Past research and guidance assume an inevitable need for external motivation, reflected in the ‘business case’ for diversity and in top-down policies to drive equity and inclusion efforts. This qualitative study explored internal motivations in the form of morally motivated virtues of 25 peer-nominated exemplary allies serving in leadership positions. In-depth life/career story interviews were used to identify the virtues that supported their allyship journeys. Findings demonstrated that they tapped into several virtues that served distinct functions in a 4-stage allyship development process: Stage 1—Energizing psychological investment (compassion, fairness); Stage 2—Thinking through allyship-relevant complexities (intellectual humility, perspective-taking, wisdom); Stage 3—Initiating action (prudence, moral courage, honesty); Stage 4—Committing to allyship (perseverance, patience). We call this the ‘EThIC model of virtue-based allyship development.’ This study has implications for theory and research on a virtue-based approach to diversity, equity and inclusion.
POISED (Positive Organizational Inclusion Scholarship for Equity and Diversity) Research Spotlight
Meg Warren
Center for Positive Organizations (CPO) faculty affiliate Meg Warren visits the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast for an episode called “Do You Know How To Be A Good Ally?”
Warren joins host Michelle McQuaid to explore the latest research on how members of privileged groups can be better allies to members of marginalized groups at work. Warren also discusses why many workplace diversity and inclusion policies fail to make a positive difference and offers a more effective alternative.
“One of the biggest dangers comes when we do engage in some kind of diversity training. We do engage in some efforts. We allocate some of our own money and resources to it. Then we say, ‘OK, this is how much we’ve done and now we can check this box off,’ ” Warren says. “When we stop learning, that’s our biggest danger because, in this work, our intellectual humility, our commitment to growing as allies, these are our strongest assets. There’s a lot of work to be done and if we simply look at it as checking off a box, that’s optical allyship. That’s not real visible advocacy. That’s not going to make shifts in our system.”
Warren is an Associate Professor of Management at Western Washington University.
POISED
POISED — Positive Organizational Inclusion Scholarship for Equity and Diversity — is a new microcommunity that investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion through the lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship — paying special attention to positive states, qualities, relationships, and processes (such as dynamics that contribute to human strength, resilience, and flourishing) in organizations to surface new insights.
POISED is tackling vital questions such as how underrepresented minorities develop the capacity to thrive in the workplace rather than being derailed by discrimination, how leaders and allies partner in DEI efforts to help underrepresented minorities thrive, and how organizations that have stumbled in their efforts to support DEI can learn, grow, and flourish from their experiences. All are invited to learn more and join.
POISED researcher Meg Warren shares advice on how to achieve overall happiness and career contentment in the WalletHub study “2021’s Happiest States in America.”
The study explores which states will most promote happiness as people transition back to normal life after the COVID-19 pandemic. It ranks the happiest states and zeroes in on depression, sleep, sports participation, suicide rate, work hours, unemployment, income growth, volunteer rate, divorce rate, and safety.
WalletHub also interviews a panel of experts, including Warren, to better understand the key ingredients of a happy life.
“When we think of moment-to-moment happiness, we may focus on maximizing positive emotions like excitement and having pleasurable experiences,” she says. “But when we look at what creates a happy life in the long term, the research shows that key ingredients include physical health, liking the work you do/your job, economic security, and living in a positive environment.”
Positive Organizations Consortium
Virtual Member Forum – Fall 2021
Positive Organizations Consortium
The Positive Organizations Consortium is a vibrant, leader-to-leader learning and networking community designed to create highly effective workplaces where people thrive. Established in 2014 at the Center for Positive Organizations, our members empower people and teams to reach their full potential through the science of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS).
We bring together leaders with world-class researchers who share a common vision that a thriving organization starts with thriving people. Leaders learn new skills and practices to transform their organizations through sustainable, positive change to cultivate purpose, compassion, resiliency, and high-performing teams.
We learn and grow together. We foster long-term personal connections. And we provide customized support and resources along the way.
About the Forum
In this virtual member forum, we will explore the science behind workplace personalization and how organizational and social contexts can impact an employee’s sense of fulfillment, well-being, growth, authenticity, and thriving.
Day one will feature an interactive workshop on personalization and employee experience with Michigan Ross’ Professor Dave Ulrich. On day two, members will hear from a panel of scholars and practitioners as they share strategies for creating organizations that can be personalized to meet employee needs.
Presenters
Dave Ulrich
Rensis Likert Professor, Michigan Ross, University of Michigan; Partner, The RBL Group
My colleagues and I had a hunch that the actions of individual male allies – even through simple acts such as highlighting the strengths of female colleagues or checking in on their well-being – might serve as a counterweight to the negative effects of everyday sexism. But not only that, we decided to study how that might impact men as well.
We recruited 101 pairs of male and female colleagues employed in male-dominated departments across 64 research universities in the United States and Canada. We asked department heads to distribute our survey to female faculty members, and we then invited the women who responded to nominate a male colleague they work with regularly to take a companion survey.
We asked the women to what extent the male colleague they nominated behaved as an ally, such as by taking public stances on issues facing women and standing up when he sees discrimination. We also asked women if they felt like the colleague appreciated them – which is seen as a sign of inclusion – and how enthusiastic they felt working with him.
We asked the men to what extent they thought they behaved as allies, such as by reading up on the unique experiences of women or confronting sexist colleagues. We also wanted to know the extent to which they felt their support for women helped them “do better things” with their lives and acquire new skills that help them become a “better family member.” All answers were reported on a scale.
More inclusion for women, more growth for men
Just under half of women rated their male colleague as a strong ally. We found that women who perceived their male colleagues as allies reported higher levels of inclusion than those who didn’t, which is also why they said they experienced greater enthusiasm in working with them.
In other words, having men as allies in male-dominated workplaces seems to help women feel like they belong, and this helps them function enthusiastically with their male colleagues on the job.
This pattern has important long-term implications. If women feel energized and included, they might be more likely to stay with their employer – rather than quit – and strive to change a sexist workplace.
Men who were more likely to act as allies to women reported proportionately higher levels of personal growth and were more likely to say they acquired skills that made them better husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. This tendency suggests the possibility that being a male ally creates positive ripple effects that extend beyond the workplace.
An important first step
Despite these promising results, our research has a few caveats.
Our study found men and women often have differing perceptions of who is an ally. For example, 37% of women whose male colleagues saw themselves as strong allies disagreed with that assessment. And just over half of the men who were perceived as strong allies by women didn’t see themselves that way.
Yet, men benefited from seeing themselves as allies whether or not their female colleagues agreed. And importantly, women gained from perceiving their male colleagues as allies, even when the latter didn’t view themselves that way.
Our findings are also limited given the small sample size. And we don’t know what the men who identified themselves as allies have actually done, if anything, to help women. But that may be somewhat beside the point.
Ultimately, even men’s mere signaling that they want to be good allies is an important first step toward a shift in the way many men have historically treated the women in their lives. We believe it also leads to more workplace equality.
When women perceive men as supportive colleagues, it makes them feel more integral to the workplace. This suggests a good starting point for men who want to be allies: find more ways to express that support at work.
POISED — Positive Organizational Inclusion Scholarship for Equity and Diversity — is a new microcommunity that investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion through the lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship — paying special attention to positive states, qualities, relationships, and processes (such as dynamics that contribute to human strength, resilience, and flourishing) in organizations to surface new insights.
POISED is tackling vital questions such as how underrepresented minorities develop the capacity to thrive in the workplace rather than being derailed by discrimination, how leaders and allies partner in DEI efforts to help underrepresented minorities thrive, and how organizations that have stumbled in their efforts to support DEI can learn, grow, and flourish from their experiences. All are invited to learn more and join.
Allyship is increasingly promoted as a tool to support gender diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, including in higher education institutions. Male allyship toward women can be a useful expression of men’s positive/caring masculinity, but little empirical research has examined if and how male allyship benefits men and women psychologically and socially. Using women’s other- and self-reports and men’s self-reports from 101 male-female colleague dyads in male-dominated departments, we tested a model involving men’s allyship, women’s inclusion and vitality, and men’s growth and work-family enrichment. As hypothesized, men’s growth mediated the link between their allyship and work-family enrichment, and women’s perceptions of men’s allyship predicted women’s vitality, both directly and through inclusion. However, men’s allyship was weakly associated with women’s perceptions of their allyship, and men’s benefits were unrelated to women’s inclusion or vitality. Findings highlight the importance of male allyship rooted in positive masculinity while underscoring disconnect between women’s and men’s experiences. The implications for promoting gender inclusion and diversity in male-dominated departments of higher education are discussed.
POISED (Positive Organizational Inclusion Scholarship for Equity and Diversity)
Research Spotlight
Meg Warren
POISED researcher Meg Warren contributes insights on allyship and diversity, equity, and inclusion in “The State of Wellbeing in Michigan Communities” report.
The Wellbeing Lab study provides an up-to-date snapshot of Michigan workplaces, families and communities, the impact of COVID-19, and allyship. Positive organizational scholar Michelle McQuaid led the study that incorporates research from 10 contributors, including Warren and Center for Positive Organizations Research Advisory Board member Mandy O’Neill. It is based on survey results from April 2021.
The study defines wellbeing as “the ability to feel good and function effectively as we navigate the inevitable highs and lows of life.” It is a multifaceted concept that relies on individual and community factors, the need for safety, the need for economic security, and the need for inclusion, the report says.
The study’s wellbeing results fall into four buckets: “consistently thriving,” “living well, despite struggles,” “not feeling bad, just getting by,” and “really struggling.” The study found that, in Michigan, 9.9 percent of people were consistently thriving, 41.7 percent were “living well, despite struggles,” 35.4 percent were “not feeling bad, just getting by,” and 13 percent were “really struggling.”
“Michiganders who were consistently thriving or living well, despite struggles reported higher levels of satisfaction with their lives, their families and their communities. Meanwhile, those who were not feeling bad, just getting by or really struggling reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction,” the report says. “Even when facing a global pandemic, a changing political and economic landscape, and numerous personal and professional challenges, it appears that it is possible to thrive despite struggle.”
A key finding of the report is that women and Asian respondents were more likely to be “really struggling” or “not feeling bad, just getting by.”
“Communities need to consider how they can support the wellbeing of those who are “not feeling bad, just getting by” or “really struggling,” the report urges. “This is particularly true for young adults, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), those with fewer economic resources, and those who are newer to the community.”
The study finds that the most valuable community supports are healthcare facilities, access to natural environments, mental health support, opportunities for connection, and wellbeing and information tools. Addressing inequalities was of particular importance for BIPOC community members.
The report also says making community members feel safe to talk about their feelings of struggle, anxiety, and stress — especially during uncertain and disruptive periods like the COVID-19 pandemic — can improve wellbeing.
Wellbeing at work is another crucial area the study examined. It found that 11.1 percent of Michigan workers were “consistently thriving,” 42.7 percent were “living well, despite struggles,” 33.2 percent were “not feeling bad, just getting by,” and 13.1 percent were “really struggling.” Black/African-American respondents were even more likely to be struggling, the report notes.
“As circumstances in American workplaces have changed over the past year due to the COVID pandemic, the number of workers who reported they were consistently thriving has continued to decline,” The researchers write. “While Michigan has a healthy percentage of workers living well, despite struggles, there is also the highest percentage we’ve seen in all our studies of workers really struggling, which is likely to be impacting wellbeing and performance in workplaces.”
The researchers note that a number of factors can influence employee wellbeing, including work environment; autonomy; mindset; economic security; compassionate, possibility-seeking leadership; and allyship.
Allyship, in particular, is an area of opportunity. The report found that 57 percent of employed Michiganders reported high intentions to be workplace allies, but only 39 percent reported being effective allies. The report suggests that organizations can bridge this gap through training.
“With the help of Dr. Meg Warren our data shows that wellbeing is associated with higher allyship at work. People who were consistently thriving or living well, despite struggles were more likely to report that they could recognize situations when they should step up to be an ally, relative to those not feeling bad, just getting by and especially those really struggling,” the report states. “In contrast, people who were not feeling bad, just getting by and those really struggling were more likely to feel like a ‘fake’ when it came to being an ally. This suggests that stresses and struggles – which have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic – may compromise one’s capacity to recognize allyship opportunities.”
The report closes by laying out a roadmap for how readers can help their communities and workplaces thrive.
POISED — Positive Organizational Inclusion Scholarship for Equity and Diversity — is a new microcommunity that investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion through the lens of Positive Organizational Scholarship — paying special attention to positive states, qualities, relationships, and processes (such as dynamics that contribute to human strength, resilience, and flourishing) in organizations to surface new insights.
POISED is tackling vital questions such as how underrepresented minorities develop the capacity to thrive in the workplace rather than being derailed by discrimination, how leaders and allies partner in DEI efforts to help underrepresented minorities thrive, and how organizations that have stumbled in their efforts to support DEI can learn, grow, and flourish from their experiences. All are invited to learn more and join.
Closed captioning and a sidebar transcript are available for this video. To access those features, open the video fully in YouTube and navigate to the buttons highlighted in yellow in the image at right.
Resources
Download a PDF of resources compiled by the presenters, includes articles, books, researcher opportunities, web resources, and more.
About the event
What will it take to build an antiracist organization? In this follow-up virtual event to “Race, Equity, and Justice: A Call to Action,” we will address what skills and actions are necessary for workplaces to advance beyond statements to being antiracist organizations that dismantle systemic racism and rebuild equitable structures in their place.
Join us for a hard, powerful, and action-oriented conversation that connects our individual behaviors to organizational practices that build internal capacity for change. We’ll engage with experts to learn how organizations normalize whiteness through constraining the authenticity of non-White employees and how to develop skills as allies to build effective alliances that oppose racism and sustain change. Leave with actionable strategies for working across differences to build antiracist structures that allow all members to thrive.
This virtual panel event is presented by the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC) Division of the Academy of Management.
The Center for Positive Organizations stands united with other organizations around the world who call for fundamental transformation that eradicates systemic, institutional racism, discrimination, brutality, poverty, and violence. See our full statement here.
What will it take to build an antiracist organization? In this follow-up virtual event to “Race, Equity, and Justice: A Call to Action,” we will address what skills and actions are necessary for workplaces to advance beyond statements to being antiracist organizations that dismantle systemic racism and rebuild equitable structures in their place.
Join us for a hard, powerful, and action-oriented conversation that connects our individual behaviors to organizational practices that build internal capacity for change. We’ll engage with experts to learn how organizations normalize whiteness through constraining the authenticity of non-White employees and how to develop skills as allies to build effective alliances that oppose racism and sustain change. Leave with actionable strategies for working across differences to build antiracist structures that allow all members to thrive.
Closed captioning and a sidebar transcript are available for this video. To access those features, open the video fully in YouTube and navigate to the buttons highlighted in yellow in the image below.
Resources
Download a PDF of resources compiled by the presenters, includes articles, books, researcher opportunities, web resources, and more.
This virtual panel event is presented by the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the Managerial and Organizational Cognition (MOC) Division of the Academy of Management.
The Center for Positive Organizations stands united with other organizations around the world who call for fundamental transformation that eradicates systemic, institutional racism, discrimination, brutality, poverty, and violence. See our full statement here.
