Employee resource groups as learning communities

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2016-0085
• Published date: 18 September 2018
• Date: 18 September 2018
• Pages: 634-648
• Author: Wendy M. Green
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Employee resource groups as

learning communities

Wendy M. Green

Department of Counseling, Administration, Supervision, and Adult Learning,

Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of employee resource groups (ERGs) in a

multi-national, for-profit corporation. The paper focuses on how ERGs facilitate learning.

Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative case study approach was used to examine six social

identity based ERGs in one multi-national for-profit organization headquartered in the USA.

Findings –The study found that ERGs facilitate learning and development activities in order to

support their membership. ERGs, operating as communities of practice, also engaged in informal

learning opportunities that were designed to shift perspectives of non-members and executive-level leaders in

the organization.

Originality/value –There is a growing body of literature on ERGs across organizations and higher

education that examine how these groups engage in activism, advocacy, recruitment, retention and education.

This study examines the processes by which these groups facilitate learning and development activities and

the benefits perceived by the membership. The paper provides value to human resources professionals and

others who are interested in how ERGs function as learning communities and outcomes the membership

perceive as most important.

Keywords Ethnic minorities, Workplace, Employee involvement, Education, Qualitative research,

Social groups

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

As the USA becomes increasing racially and ethnically diverse (United States Government

Census, 2011), organizations, institutions of higher education and government agencies have

adopted practices to effectively integrate diverse employee or student populations (Jain and

Lobo, 2012; Mazur, 2014). A similar focus on understanding and implementing effective

diversity practices is evident outside of the USA (e.g. McNulty et al., 2018; Ravazzani, 2016).

Increasingemployee diversity is essential to organizationaloperations as companiesrecognize

the need for employeeswho reflect their customer or clientbase (Lambert and Quintana, 2015;

Theodorakopoulos and Pawan, 2015).Employee diversity has been shownto positively affect

organizational performance (McMahon, 2010; Richard et al., 2007) and decrease potential

negative outcomes such as litigation(Newman and Lyon, 2009). Failureto implement effective

strategies to support under-represented employees may result in less productive and

innovative organizations (Ely et al., 2012; Meeussen et al., 2014; Tsui et al., 1992).

Simply increasing numerical diversity without effectively integrating and supporting

diverse populations may create an unsupportive climate that intensifies employee

dissatisfaction, higher rates of absenteeism and eventual job ter mination (Kaplan et al., 2011;

Tsui et al., 1992). Without the appropriate support, under-represented employees who continue

to experience interactions based on simplified views of their identity group and stereotypical

thinking may choose to leave the organization (Nishii, 2013). Therefore, effective integration

strategies that demonstrate an organization’s overall commitment to under-represented

employees are necessary to create an inclusive environment. One organizational inclusion

strategy is the creation andsupport of social identity based affinity groups, otherwise known

as employee resource groups (ERGs).

Social identity based affinity groups consist of individuals who share identity

characteristics. This study focuses on organizationally situated affinity groups based

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 7, 2018

pp. 634-648

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-11-2016-0085

Received 23 November 2016

Revised 6 July 2017

10 August 2017

22 January 2018

Accepted 8 February 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

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