Case

McKinsey & Company: Delivering through Diversity (2018)

The report uses more than 1,000 companies in 12 countries and two performance measures (EBIT margin and economic-profit margin), and reports a statistically significant correlation between diversity in leadership and outperformance; the authors themselves call it a correlation. Caveat: correlation does not prove causation and reverse causality is possible; an independent study by Beraki and colleagues (2022) also tests only correlation, on listed companies.

Industry
Management consulting research
Frameworks applied
Where numbers go wrongChart critique and redesign
Clipboard with a glass checklist panel, icon for consulting

Frameworks applied

This case is read through the frameworks below.

  • Where numbers go wrongWhen a manager is handed a report or chart to base a decision on, what should they check in the data, its selection, presentation and interpretation before trusting it?
  • Chart critique and redesignWhen a manager receives a chart in a report ahead of a decision, how can they tell whether it is a reliable basis, and how should they ask for it to be redrawn?

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. Beraki, M.T. et al. (2022) ‘Exploring the correlation between diversity and financial performance: an empirical study’, International Journal of Business Performance Management, 23(1/2), pp. 206–223.doi:10.1504/IJBPM.2022.10042812Source page
  2. Hunt, V. et al. (2018) Delivering through diversity. McKinsey & Company.No DOImckinsey.comSource page
  3. Taris, T.W., Kessler, S.R. and Kelloway, E.K. (2021) ‘Strategies addressing the limitations of cross-sectional designs in occupational health psychology: what they are good for (and what not)’, Work & Stress, 35(1), pp. 1–5.doi:10.1080/02678373.2021.1888561Source page