Diversity Awareness Training Sanchez

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Diversity Awareness TrainingSanchez Medkik

• Hypothesis
• Nature of quasi-experimental design
• Measures used their validity
• Tests of Hypotheses
• Alternative explanations for results
• Learning Points

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Hypothesis
Diversity Awareness Training
Cultural Awareness
Differential Treatment of Culturally Different
Individuals
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Method

• Participants
• 125 supervisors/mgrs in a county government
• 125 Raters of supervisors/mg above
• Are no raters evaluating two supervisors?

Condition Number of Participants
Diversity Training 69
Control 56
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Method

• Design
• No random assignment to conditions
• Participants in experimental group were chosen
  bec..
• they were one of 4 employees with the longest
  tenure in each of their departments
• had not received diversity awareness training
• Participants in control group were matched on
  tenure with those in the experimental group
• Control group Ps would have been eligible for
  training
• Did Ps in control group receive training before?

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Measures

• Pre-training performance ratings
• Relevant to training dimensions (e.g., Coworker
  contact, communication skills)
• Extracted for the year immediately before
  training
• 5-point rating scales ( of items not specified)
• Anchors used poor to excellent
• Issues
• Reliability not given

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Method

• Matched control and experimental groups on
  tenure
• Control variables
• Pre-training performance rating
• Demographics
• Gender, ethnicity, tenure, educational level
• Demographics of coworkers who rated Ps in control
  experimental groups
• Gender ethnicity

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Establishing equivalence

• Tested for mean differences between experimental
  and control group on
• Matching and Control variables
• Do not present appropriate statistical test
  results for means but present sds
• Present means for categorical variables(!)
• Present correlational information

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Means on Demographic Var
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Means on Continuous Control Variables
Pre-training Performance Control Experimental
Coworker contact 4.14 4.10
Communication 4.17 4.12
Diversity training is not significantly
correlated with any of these variables
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Training Outcome Measures

• Trainee reactions
• 6-items
• 5-point Likert rating scales
• Reliability.98
• Completed immediately after training
• Only completed by experimental group
• Usefulness of mean data

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Training Outcome Measures

• Cultural Awareness
• Correctly pair nine-terms with their meanings
• Completed 1 year after training
• Previously developed scale called CAI
• Reliability.75

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Training Outcome Measures

• Differential Treatment Ratings
• Coworkers ratings of how Ps treated those who
  were culturally different from Ps
• 1 year after training
• Previously developed discrimination scale
• 10 items rated on 5 point scale
• Reliability.98

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Means on Outcome Variables
Variable Control Experimental
Cultural Awareness 5.66 6.24
Differential Treatment 1.26 1.44
Diversity training is not significantly
correlated with any of these variables
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Validity of Rater Sample

• No differences between participant and rater
  sample on
• Proportions of men women
• Proportions of Whites VMs
• Correlation b/w post-training measures and
  performance ratings, between supervisor and peer
  performance ratings
• Did raters know whether target was in the
  experimental vs. control group?
• Higher expectations

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Preliminary Analyses

• Significant correlations between (control)
  demographic variables
• Tenure Educational level -.26
• Ethnicity and Educational Level -.26
• Gender Ethnicity -.39
• Coding issues?
• 1male, 0female
• 1White, 0VM
• 1less than 5 years, 521 years or more tenure
• Educational level coding not provided

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Preliminary Analyses

• Significant correlations between pre-training
  performance demographic variables
• Coworker Contact Communication.50
• Coworker contact gender-.24
• Communication gender-.22
• Communication education.25
• Coding 1male, 0female

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Validity of Outcome Variable

• Trainee reactions not related to any variable
• Usefulness of trainee reactions
• Statistical Power issues

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Validity of Outcome Variable

• Significant correlations with b/w Cultural
  awareness control variable
• Coworker contact performance .27
• Criterion validity of outcome variable
• Ethnicity.30 1White, 0VM
• Education level.50

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Validity of Outcome Variable

• Significant correlations between Differential
  treatment control variables
• Gender.20 (1male, 0female)
• Rater ethnicity.30 (1White, 0VM OR 1VM
  0White)
• But no correlation b/w DT pre-training
  performance rating
• Implications for
• Using type of raters
• Criterion validity of differential treatment
  ratings
• Do supervisors have opportunity to notice
  differential treatment?

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Hypothesis Testing

• Regression analyses to test for mediation effects
  requires
• Independent and dependent variable to be related
• Mediator variable to be related to both
  independent dependent variables
• Criteria not met for
• IVTraining
• MediatorCultural Awareness
• DVDifferential treatment
• BUT.forging ahead!

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Hypothesis Testing of fake data?
Step Predictor R2 ?R2 ß
1 Participant Ethnicity 13 13 -17
Rater Ethnicity 25
2 Training 19 06 25
3 Training 19 0 25
Cultural Awareness 12
3e Rater Ethnicity x Training 26 07 44
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Graph of Interaction
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Discussion

• Lack of support for hypotheses
• Diversity training did not have any effect on
  social perception biases
• Educational level participant ethnicity
  predicted cultural awareness
• Trainee reactions were positive(!)
• Uselessness of these types of measures

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Alternative Explanations

• Diffusion of treatment among controls
• Not supported by higher differential treatment
  ratings given to trained participants
• Selection bias
• Lack of differences on control variables
  including pre-training performance ratings
• Trainees held to higher standard by non-white
  raters

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Alternative Explanations

• Qualitative analyses of interviews with non-white
  raters of trainees
• Possible backlash due to
• Lack of information re purpose of training
• Timing of post-test need for post-training
  support
• Pre-training beliefs feelings
• Usefulness of non-white raters who interact
  w/diversity trainee

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Learning Points from Article

• Writing up unexpected results
• Presentation of statistical results
• Means vs. frequencies depends on type of variable
• Double check statistical results
• Discrepancy between correlational and regression
  tables
• Analyses should also be guided by hypotheses