Diversity washing: does authentic diverse representation speak louder than words?

Purpose Diversity washing (an inconsistency between how an organization discusses diversity and its actual diversity practices) is a growing concern in organizations today. This paper uses signaling theory and text analysis to examine how the authenticity and ratio of diversity signaling via social media posts influence the effects of organizational diversity on diversity external recognition. Design/methodology/approach Data on organizational demographic diversity at multiple levels (i.e. employee, manager and board) and over 6,000 diversity and inclusion-related social media posts were collected from the S&P 100 Index for the 2020 fiscal year. The Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software was utilized to assess the level of authenticity of the diversity-related social media posts. Diversity external recognition awards from 2021 were also documented. Findings There were no direct effects of diversity level on diversity external recognition. Manager-level diversity was positively associated with the level of authenticity of diversity-related social media posts. There was no evidence of an indirect effect of organizational diversity on diversity external recognition through the level of diversity of social media post authenticity. Surprisingly, the ratio of diversity-related social media posts negatively moderated the effect of employee-level and manager-level diversity on diversity external recognition. There was no evidence of the ratio of diversity-related social media posts moderating the effect of board-level gender diversity on diversity external recognition. Originality/value This paper provides recommendations for companies invested in improving and being recognized for their diversity and inclusion-related efforts.