GEMExpert – Faculty diversity matters: What business students really value – News

A business school aiming to perform well in international rankings must demonstrate strong faculty diversity, as well as high teaching evaluations from students. But do students actually appreciate this diversity among their instructors? Three researchers, including two from Grenoble Ecole de Management, explore this question in a new article and outline what an “ideal” faculty might look like.

Interview with Yashar Bashirzadeh, Assistant Professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM)

Why focus on faculty diversity in business schools?

Yashar Bashirzadeh: Business schools operate under strong institutional pressure. For example, in the Financial Times Master in Management ranking, faculty diversity is encouraged and represents 10% of the final score. Conversely, in the Netherlands, there is now an effort to reduce the share of English-taught courses in higher education in favour of Dutch; diversity is declining. In the United States, diversity-related initiatives are being rolled back. The topic has become highly political.

What data did you use for your research?

Y.B.: We collected nine years of teaching evaluations submitted by nearly 20,000 students from a French business school, covering approximately 1,000 instructors. These data come from a double-blind process: students must submit their evaluation to receive their exam grade, and instructors must upload grades to access their own evaluations. In other words, neither side can influence the other out of a desire to “reward” or “punish.”

What are your main findings?

Y.B.: At first glance, students view faculty diversity as a positive. But once we dig deeper, the picture becomes more complex. For instance, there is gender solidarity: female students rate female instructors slightly higher, and male students do the same with male instructors. Another finding is that evaluations of male instructors decline as they age, whereas female instructors receive lower scores early in their careers, reach a peak around age 48, and then decline—though their scores remain higher than those of male colleagues late in their careers.

Are certain nationalities more appreciated than others?

Y.B.: No. What students value is “cultural distance”—the fact that instructors differ from them in terms of geographic background or cultural perspectives, such as attitudes toward social hierarchies or the importance placed on individuals versus groups. This difference is perceived as enriching the learning experience.

How do you explain these results?

Y.B.: Our study is observational; another study would be needed to understand the underlying mechanisms. However, our findings confirm that business schools are moving in the right direction by increasing the diversity of their faculty. They also highlight the importance of taking perspective when interpreting the lower evaluations of young female instructors. These women should not be penalized in their career progression—such as tenure, promotion, or increased responsibilities. On the contrary, they should be supported.

The Publication
Yashar Bashirzadeh, Luc Meunier, and Robert Mai, Do Business School Students Value Faculty Diversity? Insights From a Dyadic Analysis of Students’ Evaluations of Teaching, Academy of Management Learning & Education

Snapshot bio
Yashar Bashirzadeh is an Assistant Professor in the “Marketing Strategy and Innovation” research team at GEM. He works as an empirical modeler on industry-based research questions. His work focuses primarily on behavioral sciences. He uses field experiments and field data to study decision-making. More specifically, he conducts research on users of freemium games, services, and websites, as well as on students and alumni.

Robert Mai is a Professor in the “Consumer Behavior” research team at GEM. His research focuses on consumer and buyer behavior (including industrial buyers), with particular attention to sustainable innovations, healthcare, food-related decision-making, and international management and cross-cultural marketing.