Predicting employee attitudes to workplace diversity from personality, values, and cognitive ability

Workplace diversity has become an increasingly important topic for both organizational researchers and practitioners (for reviews, see Ashkanasy, Härtel, & Daus, 2002; Guillaume, Dawson, Woods, Sacramento, & West, 2013; Harrison & Klein, 2007; Jonsen, Maznevski, & Schneider, 2011). Female workforce participation continues to increase, and in many countries, the workforce is becoming more diverse across a range of dimensions including race, ethnicity, age, and inclusion of people with disability (Byars-Winston, Fouad, & Wen, 2015). Globalization and the resultant movement of labour across national boundaries has led to increasing interest amongst researchers and practitioners alike as to how to manage diversity (Ashkanasy et al., 2002; Singh, Winkel, & Selvarajan, 2013). There is also a growing awareness of the prevalence of overt and subtle forms of discrimination and the negative consequences that flow from this (Colella, Hebl, & King, 2017; Jones, Peddie, Gilrane, King, & Gray, 2016). Furthermore, legal obligations, ethical priorities, reputational concerns, and a desire to achieve the performance benefits of a diverse workforce (Ashkanasy et al., 2002; Jehn, Northcraft, & Neale, 1999) have motivated researchers to study, and organizations to implement, initiatives aimed at better fostering diversity and inclusion (Avery & McKay, 2006; Newman, Nielsen, Smyth, Hirst, & Kennedy, 2018; Pugh, Dietz, Brief, & Wiley, 2008; Sojo, Wood, Wood, & Wheeler, 2016). This movement has focused attention on methods of selection, training, and employee organization that might support a diverse workforce (Guillaume et al., 2014; Jehn et al., 1999; Pendry, Driscoll, & Field, 2007; Stratemeyer, Sojo, Wheeler, Rozenblat, Lee, Peter, & Wood, 2018; Strauss, Connerley, & Ammermann, 2003).