Social Psychological Intervention to Increase Gender Diversity in Tech Companies

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。首席研究员将在西雅图华盛顿大学进行博士后研究，包括开展一个研究项目和实施一个专业发展计划。这项研究的重点是工作场所的微观包容——也就是说，包括女性在内的其他人对她们的尊重，以及她们对共同工作目标的贡献，以及这种微观包容是否能增强女性的适应感，并改善她们工作的STEM公司的成果。这项研究为包容性在工作中的作用提供了一个新的框架。包容性不仅仅是充分代表或制定包容性政策。它还意味着能够贡献技能和专业知识，并得到允许这些贡献的待遇。这项研究将为一种新的干预和策略提供基础，这些干预和策略专注于日常的小行为，以改善员工和公司的成果。在此过程中，该项目有望揭示公司如何对有兴趣加入和留在STEM劳动力队伍的更广泛、更多样化的申请人更具吸引力。这个研究项目有三个目的。第一个目的是测试微观包容是否能改善STEM公司中女性（包括有色人种）的组织成果，并表明这是由契合感介导的。在相关调查设计中，研究者将评估来自现实世界公司的员工经历管理者微观包容的频率，并测试这种经历是否与员工的工作满意度、动机、公司信任和离职意图相关。第二个目的是将微内含物与其他阳性处理区分开来。在在线实验设计中，研究者将操纵参与者是否接受微包容或其他形式的积极治疗（例如，被邀请参加团队欢乐时光），并评估他们的适应感和组织结果。第三个目的是评估随机对照试验视频干预是否可以增加管理者在团队中使用微观包容。这项工作将展示一种新的人际关系策略（即微包容），公司可以立即开始使用它来补充他们的多样性和包容性努力。此外，这项工作可能会为如何开始创造公司文化变革提供见解。如果微观包容被证明可以改善公司的结果，并且干预成功地改变了管理者的行为，那么未来的干预可能会建立、传达和加强微观包容的规范，以增加工作中的性别多样性。该项目响应STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划，旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The principal investigator will conduct a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Washington Seattle that includes conducting a research project and implementing a professional development plan. The research focuses on micro inclusions in the workplace - that is, respectful treatment from others that include women and their contributions to shared work goals, and whether such micro inclusions can increase women’s sense of fit and improve outcomes in the STEM companies where they work. This research offers a novel framework of what inclusion can be at work. Inclusion is not only being well represented or having inclusive policies. It also means being able to contribute skills and expertise and being treated in ways that allow those contributions. The study will provide the foundation for a new class of interventions and strategies that focus on small everyday behaviors to improve employee and company outcomes. In doing so, the project holds promise to shed light on how companies can become more attractive to a wider and more diverse population of applicants interested in joining and staying in the STEM workforce.The research project has three aims. The first aim is to test whether micro inclusions improve organizational outcomes for women, including those of color, in STEM companies, and show that this is mediated by sense of fit. In a correlation survey design, the investigator will assess how often employees from real-world companies experience micro inclusions from their managers and test whether such experiences are correlated with employee job satisfaction, motivation, company trust, and turnover intentions. The second aim is to distinguish micro inclusions from other positive treatments. In online experimental designs, the investigator will manipulate whether participants receive a micro inclusion or other forms of positive treatments (e.g., being invited to a team happy hour) and assess their sense of fit and organizational outcomes. The third aim assesses whether a randomized control trial video intervention can increase managers’ use of micro inclusions with their team. This work will demonstrate a novel interpersonal strategy (i.e., micro inclusions) that companies can immediately begin to use to supplement their diversity and inclusion efforts. Additionally, this work may offer insights on how to begin to create company culture change. If micro inclusions are shown to improve company outcomes, and the intervention successfully changes managers’ behaviors, future interventions might establish, convey, and reinforce norms of micro inclusions to increase gender diversity at work. The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.