$6.$ Problem$-$Solving Application Case$$White$,$ Male, and Asian: The Diversity Profile of Technology Companies Skip to question Problem$-$Solving Application Case$$White$,$ Male, and Asian: The Diversity Profile of Technology Companies Is setting diversity goals in hiring fair? This is an important question to explore, especially in industries dominated by a particular race, gender, or ethnic group. This activity is important because it shows how challenging managing diversity can be$,$ especially in industries like technology. The goal of this activity is to examine what it means to $$manage diversity,$$ and to explore which programs might actually decrease, rather than increase $($or at the very least balance$)$ workplace diversity. Read the case about the typical diversity profile of technology companies. Then, using the three$-$step problem$-$solving approach, answer the questions that follow. Managing diversity is a hot topic among technology companies, some of which have started to display transparency by publishing their diversity profiles. Google$$s diversity report reveals its workforce is $69\mathrm{.}1$ percent male and $30\mathrm{.}9$ percent female. Ethnicity data for Google$$s U$.$S$.$ workforce indicates $53\mathrm{.}1$ percent white, $36\mathrm{.}3$ percent Asian, $4\mathrm{.}2$ percent of two or more races, $3\mathrm{.}6$ percent Latinx, and $2\mathrm{.}5$ percent black$\mathrm{.}1$ This pattern is similar to Apple $(32$ percent female and $54$ percent white, and U$.$S$.$ ethnicity data showing $21$ percent Asian, $13$ percent Hispanic, $9$ percent black, $3$ percent of two or more races, and $1$ percent other$)2$ and Facebook $(36$ percent female, and U$.$S$.$ ethnicity data of $46\mathrm{.}6$ percent white, $41\mathrm{.}4$ percent Asian, $4\mathrm{.}9$ percent Hispanic, and $3\mathrm{.}5$ percent black$)\mathrm{.}3$ Executives within the technology industry have started to implement a variety of programs and policies to change the demographic profiles of their companies. For example, Pinterest established a $2018$ goal to have $25$ percent of new hires in engineering roles be female and $8$ percent from underrepresented ethnic groups$\mathrm{.}4$ Intel established a hiring goal of full representation of underrepresented minorities and women in its U$.$S$.$ workforce by $2020\mathrm{.}5$ Is setting diversity hiring goals fair? While companies that set them note the hiring goals are not meant to be quotas, some managers may perceive them that way. This would likely create feelings of reverse discrimination, fueling resistance to hiring diverse employees. What has led to the skewed demographics at technology companies? Some experts believe the root cause goes back to patterns and norms in elementary and high school, where girls are not encouraged to focus on the STEM subjects $($science$,$ technology, engineering, and math$).$ If this is true, female high$-$school students are not developing the proficiency that would help them major in STEM subjects in college. Further, a writer for Forbes concluded that an unconscious bias exists $$that science and math are typically $$male$$ fields while humaniti