Women and ethnic minorities outnumber white males by a two-to-one margin in the U.S. workplace. Among executive ranks, however, women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented, according to the Academy of Management.

One alleged reason for the underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities is fellow non-white and female managers being "reluctant" to hire and promote members of their own groups. The Academy of Management conducted a study and found the opposite claim: Ethnic minorities and women are more likely to promote people than white males.

The report, conducted by University of Colorado's Professor David R. Hekman and University of Colorado-Boulder's Maw Der Foo and Wei Yang, noted ethnic minority and female leaders are penalized with worse performance ratings for engaging in "diversity-valuing behavior." Women and ethnic-minority leaders have better odds of their own corporate advancement if they engage in "very low level" diversity-valuing behavior. In addition, according to the study, if women and ethnic-minority leaders were to downplay their gender and race, they may be viewed as "worthy" of a promotion.

"More people believe in ghosts than believe in racism, and people in the upper ranks of management will not openly utter a bad word against diversity. Yet, executives who are women or ethnic minorities are penalized every day for doing what everyone says they ought to be doing -- helping other members of their groups fulfill their management potential," Hekman said. "It is a revealing sign that the supposed death of longstanding biases has been greatly exaggerated."

The study acknowledged two types of social behaviors could help or harm a person's promotion among the corporate ranks. The two social behaviors -- warmth and competence -- help influence how a leader is rated in terms of their overall performance. For women, the report noted they are more likely to have a higher standard of the warmth social behavior than men. Ethnic minorities are reportedly more competent than whites.

Despite the warmth or competent social behaviors, it can be used against women and ethnic minority employees. The authors stated women, although more likely to have warmth than men, will "tend to be viewed as less warm and receive lower performance ratings than their equally diversity-valuing male leader counterparts." As a result, women may be viewed as "cold and scheming" by their bosses.

To further prove the authors' study, a behavioral experiment was conducted with 395 university students viewing a presentation featuring a human resources manager. The university students were split into four groups, while the human resources manager, played by an actor or actress, presented photos and information about four candidates vying for a project manager position. The four candidates and four human resources managers included a while male, white female, a nonwhite male and a nonwhite female.

The white male human resources manager spoke for each of the four candidates, each to a different group of university students. The white female manager spoke for either the white male or white female candidate. The nonwhite male manager advocated for the white male or nonwhite male applicant. The nonwhite female manager spoke for either the white male or nonwhite female candidate.

While following a specific script, the four human resources managers stated the four candidates were equally qualified for the position but mentioned the importance of diversity within the organization and to do "the right thing" to promote it. The managers for the white male candidate also stated he "looks like a leader" and is someone "whom the team will respect."

The purpose of the behavioral experiment was to see the university students' responses to the presentations. The students, based on a survey, penalized the female and minority human resources managers for trying to promote diversity. The male human resources manager was not penalized. The students' response was exactly what the authors of the study recognized.

The study will be presented at the Academy of Management's annual meeting set in Philadelphia in early August.

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