Seminar – Employee resource groups: Member experiences and the role of allies

Professor Mary Zellmer-Bruhn, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Employee resource groups (ERGs) have emerged as an organisational initiative to enhance the work experiences of employees. ERGs are collections of employees who share a common identity defined by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or shared extra-organisational values or interests. Workplace diversity research has grown, but comparatively little attention has been given to ERGs, particularly at the individual level. We have more knowledge about exclusion mechanisms than understanding mechanisms that improve inclusion. As ERGs are an organisational practice meant to improve inclusivity for underrepresented or marginalised individuals, examining their impact offers a valuable opportunity to extend research on diversity practices. Furthermore, the lack of research on employee outcomes of ERGs means we have little understanding of when and whether this kind of diversity initiative provides intended consequences. Increasingly, researchers find that diversity initiatives can generate negative spillovers for the very people they are intended to support. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to advance an understanding of ERG member experiences and consider conditions under which experiences may be more or less beneficial, including potential differences between identity-groups and the role and impact allies play. Our research adds a more expansive view on employee experiences related to ERG membership, proposing that responses may not be the same across all minority identity groups. By focusing on race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation of minority employees, we hope to understand more about how these demographic characteristics influence membership experiences. Further, we contribute to the small but growing literature on allyship in diversity and inclusion by investigating the role of allies from the perspective of minority and female ERG members.

Speaker bio

Mary E. Zellmer-Bruhn is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Department Chair in the Work and Organizations Department, Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. She studies team knowledge management, learning, and effectiveness. Mary has conducted extensive research on team composition and formation as well as multilevel investigations to develop and extend theory on team context. She explores issues of culture, language, identity, and learning processes on team cognition and knowledge management. Mary also has a body of research on entrepreneurial teams including their formation and the effects of shared prior experience of founding team members on new venture performance. Most recently, Mary has been focusing on underrepresented groups including migrants, and how organisational and individual practices can improve or harm their workplace experiences. She is currently co-editing a special issue on migration for Organization Science. Her research has appeared in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Annals, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, World Business Journal, Management International Review. Mary is a Deputy Editor and Senior Editor of Organization Science. Mary teaches courses on managing teams, cross-cultural management, organisational behaviour, and organisational change. She has received the Carlson School Executive MBA Class of 2019 and Class of 2022 Curtis Cup Award in Teaching Excellence, the Carlson School’s Executive Education Outstanding Teacher Award, the Carlson School Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Carlson Outstanding Honor’s Faculty Teaching Award. Mary holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.