A Field Experiment Testing Whether Accountability Reduces Racial Gaps in Performance Evaluations.

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Applied Psychology
• Human Resources Management

Background:

• Accountability is frequently proposed to mitigate workplace discrimination.
• Empirical evidence from field experiments on accountability's effectiveness in reducing discrimination is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally test if an accountability intervention reduces performance evaluation disparities between White and racial-minority employees in a real organizational setting.

Main Methods:

• A preregistered field experiment involving 3,266 managers rating 17,149 employees was conducted.
• The study measured performance evaluation gaps before and after the accountability intervention.
• A supplemental online experiment examined the effect of similar language in hypothetical scenarios.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant reduction in performance evaluation gaps between White and racial-minority employees was observed.
• Null effects were not attributable to insufficient statistical power or manager inattention.
• A supplemental experiment indicated that similar accountability language influenced decision-making in hypothetical contexts.

Conclusions:

• The field experiment found no evidence that the accountability intervention closed racial performance evaluation gaps.
• A discrepancy exists between findings in hypothetical settings and real organizational contexts.
• Additional field research and theoretical development are necessary to determine the conditions under which accountability interventions effectively promote diversity.