Understanding the relationship between organizational attitudes about ethnic diversity, efforts to promote ethnic diversity, and organizational profit performance: Towards a predictive model

The purpose of this quantitative, explanatory correlational and regression study was to develop a predictive model of diversity's affect on profit performance by investigating metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia real estate brokerage professionals' attitudes about diversity, efforts to promote diversity, and the impact of these attitudes and efforts on consumer choice of real estate agents as reflected in the firm's profit performance. A self-constructed survey was sent to a random sample of metro Atlanta's real estate brokers and agents. Correlational analysis of the survey data revealed that respondents' attitudes toward diversity and efforts to promote diversity were positively correlated, respondents' attitudes toward diversity and the firms' percentage profits were not correlated, and respondents' efforts to promote diversity and the firms' percentage profits were not correlated. Causal models were developed using Ordinary Least Squares and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Two good fitting models were developed using SEM. The SEM models confirmed a relationship between attitudes about diversity and efforts to promote diversity. The models did not confirm a relationship between attitudes about diversity and profit performance or efforts to promote diversity and profit performance.