Leaders as allies for equality, diversity, and inclusion: effective and ineffective approaches to allyship as a global diversity intervention

The march towards equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in organisations has been slow and long. The literature often turns to leadership support as an antecedent of effective EDI interventions. Allies are individuals who support EDI concerns. Allyship is often used to bring leaders (individuals) from privileged backgrounds to support the EDI concerns of those from less privileged, disadvantaged, and underrepresented backgrounds. Allyship is a process through which leaders support the EDI concerns of those who are demographically different from them. Allies are different from EDI supporters who promote EDI for their own immediate demographic community. In this chapter, we question how allyship could promote EDI in organisations. In particular, we distinguish between effective and ineffective approaches to allyship. Ineffective approaches to allyship suffer from individualism, saviour complex, single-category bias, verbalism/activism, and trust deficit. We argue that allyship may overcome its reported ineffectiveness by changing its fundamental assumptions. We propose that the effectiveness of allyship in promoting EDI could improve if allyship supports institutional change, adopts a supportive role, engages with intersectional solidarity, promotes co-design, and builds trust. We also argue that organisations must communicate their allyship for EDI concerns in line with the changing moral and social landscape.