Women, Minorities Feel Left Out at AOL Diversity Study Conducted at Dulles Firm
The study said workers fretted that a "cut-throat and extremely political" culture at AOL is undermining morale and blurring the line between work and private life.
(Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
By David A. Vise Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page E01
A report on diversity at America Online found that many women and minorities felt excluded from the white male "good old boy" network they believe dominates the company and makes it difficult to advance.
The study, commissioned by the company, said employees also fretted that a "cut-throat and extremely political" culture at AOL is undermining morale and blurring the line between work and life outside the office.
AOL had "no people of color" among senior executives in 2002, the report said. Among the 19 senior executives, there were 15 men, four women and no minorities, statistics confirmed by the company show.
"Employees expressed doubts regarding senior management's commitment to diversity, particularly whether senior leaders see the link between diversity and talent management," said a June 30 draft of the report, prepared by the consulting firm Catalyst Advisory Services.
AOL retained the firm last spring to conduct the study in response to complaints by employees about the treatment of women and minorities. To gain insights on the views of the thousands of workers at AOL, the consulting firm interviewed a sample of men and women holding jobs at different levels of the company as part of 13 focus groups and about 20 phone interviews and face-to-face meetings.
"AOL takes very seriously the need to foster and promote a diverse workforce," America Online spokesman Jim Whitney said yesterday. "We commissioned this study to gain an honest assessment of where we are and to inform actions we can take to make meaningful progress. We have a great deal of work to do to get to where we want to be, and we're completely committed to this."
During the Internet boom, technology companies often were criticized for failing to hire and promote women and minorities in large numbers. Many firms, including Microsoft Corp., argued that the pool of candidates from top engineering and science programs tended to be shallow and they have since poured money into minority student associations and other recruitment efforts.
The report on diversity at AOL comes as the once highflying company struggles to hold on to subscribers, who have been switching to faster Internet connections provided by cable and telephone firms. As the company has scaled back, the report said several respondents lamented the departure of several high-profile women.
"It was much more diverse a few years ago," one respondent told the consultant. "There were a number of people who came up the ranks. So it felt like they were moving up pretty well. It just does not seem like there are many now. It feels like a layer came in and everybody got pushed out."
The report backed up many of its findings by including comments from the diverse collection of workers it interviewed.
