From 2009 to 2012, Dan Rooney served as the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Ireland. Americans, though, may have known Mr. Rooney, who passed away in the late spring of 2017, as the lead owner and public face of the National Football League’s Pittsburgh Steelers, a position he inherited from his father.1 So the Rooney Rule is not about setting quotas for bringing Irish to America’s shores. It’s not about the Irish at all and it’s not about quotas, although casual observers may think the latter rings true.
Instead of quotas, the Rooney Rule is about process. To human resources professionals, the Rooney Rule mandates “a structured search,” one that begins with an analysis of the entity’s needs and then identifies and includes female and minority candidates for the position.2 The process rule mandates that the thirty-two teams in the National Football League (NFL) have as an objective an effort to increase the number of minorities serving as head coaches and general managers of NFL teams and organizations. But the rule does not require that in the end any at all be hired. Each team, though, must include a minority member on the short list of candidates for every open upper-level position. The teams must give those on that short list an in-person interview, or what students refer to as a “callback.” Neither will a telephone or drive-by live interview suffice: the call-back extended to the minority candidate must be plenary, in-depth, and at least as extensive as interviews the teams arrange for other finalists for the head coach or general manager position.
To the teams, the latter requirement constitutes a drawback created by compliance with the rule. In what is often a fast-paced, competitive hiring situation, the rule and the evolutions it requires slow down the search and hiring processes, sometimes considerably so. The advantage is that following the rule’s adoption, teams’ implementation immediately produced the result the rule was designed to achieve, namely, increasing the number of minority (primarily African American and Latino) coaches in professional football. Prior to the owners’ adoption of the rule, from 1992 to 2002, minorities filled seven of ninety-two head coaching vacancies, or 10 percent. In the decade following implementation of the rule, from 2003 to 2013, minorities filled seventeen of seventy-five head coaching vacancies, or 20 percent. In 2011, eight of the thirty-two NFL head coaches, or 25 percent, were minority persons.3
Due to its success, the Rooney Rule and its nearly immediate results are popular topics. The NFL has also extended the rule’s coverage so that teams would have to interview female candidates for administrative posts in their front offices.4 Former secretary of defense Carter Ash ordered that subordinates examine the rule, or an approximation of it, with a view to increasing the number of minorities holding more senior positions at the Department of Defense and in the armed services.5 Several of the prominent IT companies have adopted approximations of the Rooney Rule to increase the chances for women to move into senior positions. Notable among these has been Facebook, whose early hiring appeared misogynic until CEO Mark Zuckerberg had an epiphany of sorts.6 Last of all, at least one prominent scholar advocates widespread adoption of a Rooney Rule that “would obligate organizations to consider a woman as a finalist for an open leadership position.”7 This chapter explores the history of the Rooney Rule, its mechanics, and its use in information technology.
In 2002, 70 percent of the players in the NFL were African American, while only 6 percent of the head coaches were (two of thirty-two). In addition, while the cries for increasing diversity were loud, and teams were paying lip service to those calls, there was a plethora of window dressing. Teams “would release to the press that you [a minority person] were on their list of potential guys but you didn’t get an interview,” said Herman Edwards, New York Jets head coach from 2001 to 2005. “If you got one, it was over the phone.”8
The NFL owners ordered that member teams form a committee to study the problem, namely, the disconnect between the player population’s makeup and the lack of diversity among head coaches and general managers. The committee included one of the few minority persons in NFL front offices, Ozzie Newsome, former Cleveland Browns tight end and Baltimore Ravens vice president in charge of player personnel. A spark plug on the committee was Tampa Bay Buccaneers GM Rich McKay, son of famed University of Southern California football coach John McKay. Others included Baltimore Colts executive Bill Polian and Atlanta Falcons executive Ray Anderson. Dan Rooney chaired the committee. Mr. McKay reviewed the background for the committee’s handiwork: “We created a system that requires a process for hiring. . . . There were too many times in the past when the hiring was done based upon whom someone knew from the past or upon one recommendation. There was not enough process.”
As recounted, the rule has had a number of imitators. New ones spring up from time to time. For example, in 2015 University of Texas chancellor William McRaven announced the adoption of a version of the Rooney Rule applicable to the hiring of University of Texas administrators. His reasoning, which could be equally applicable to the information technology industry as well as the NFL, was as follows:
The slide [the increasing racial gap between students and administrators] makes it very clear that we are not doing the job we ought to be doing in driving equal opportunity and fairness in our hiring and promotion processes. This is particularly disappointing because education is all about opportunity. Making sure our faculty and staff reflect the changing look of Texas is not just about fairness. We need faculty [and] administrators who understand the people they are serving, who come from the same kinds of places.9
In 2013 there were an extraordinary number of head coaching and general manager vacancies in the NFL, with fifteen openings on thirty-two teams. Despite the Rooney Rule, not a single team filled one of those openings with a minority person.10 One close observer concluded that “the NFL’s initiative to increase racial diversity in the coaching ranks appears to have stalled, . . . stuck at six or [fewer minority head coaches] for the past five years.”11
Early on, a few teams ignored the rule, at their peril. In 2003, for instance, the Detroit Lions hired former San Francisco head coach Steve Mariucci, without interviewing any minority candidates or interviewing anybody at all. The NFL promptly fined the Lions $200,000. Responses to the rule’s more recent shortcomings have been urgings that the NFL not only retain the rule but expand it to the hiring of offensive and defensive coordinators. As a result of expansion, the number of minority persons in the highest-ranked assistant coaching positions would increase. In turn, such a development would increase the number of credible minority candidates in the pool of candidates for head coaching slots.12
“Can the NFL do better? Absolutely. But the rule has made a positive impact.”13 Reacting to the nadir of 2013, Rich McKay, then GM of the Atlanta Falcons, said, “It was a surprise. I think it brings back the idea that we need to continue to work on career development.”14
Not surprisingly, the ubiquitous Reverend Jesse Jackson stepped in, taking an equally longer-term view: “The Rooney Rule is a first step, not a final step.”15
At its annual meeting in 2014, prompted by Jesse Jackson, who was in attendance, IT giant Microsoft announced that it “may consider adopting a Rooney Rule.” Apparently, however, Microsoft would consider adoption of the rule for board of director seats only.16 Openings on the board, of course, are relatively rare occurrences. Mandating that a diverse slate of candidates be considered for each such opening would represent only the tiniest part of any solution to the lack of diversity endemic in information technology.
Closer to the Rooney Rule mark are the Pinterest initiatives. Pinterest announced three prongs to its program. The first is to set goals and keep tabs on progress toward those goals (see chapter 18). “We think one reason it’s been so hard to get numbers to change is that companies have not set specific goals,” co-founder Evan Sharp opined.17 Pinterest set goals in three categories:
Second, those goals represent only a first portion of Pinterest’s version of a Rooney Rule. “In Pinterest’s version, the company commits to interviewing one . . . female candidate for every open leadership position.”19 Third, to be the point person on diversity issues, Pinterest hired Candice Morgan, a longtime Catalyst analyst, as diversity director. Yet another social networking company, Twitter, announced a plan to adopt initiatives in the diversity area, including possibly adoption of a Rooney Rule. “Little is known about how Twitter plans to address the lack of women or people of color at the social network.”20
Seemingly along Rooney Rule lines, Twitter then set and announced diversity goals for 2016:
Twitter was criticized for the vagueness of its description, and on other grounds as well. “Twitter was called out for announcing that it has hired a white guy to head up its diversity efforts.”22
In her book The Boy Kings, Katherine Losse notes that of the first fifty employees hired at Facebook, she was one of only two women.23 As Facebook grew, apparently its male-dominated atmosphere and demographics did not change. As of 2014, of ten thousand employees, 94 percent were white or Asian; 85 percent were male.24
Shortly before that time, however, an important event took place. On May 19, 2012, Facebook’s founder and controlling shareholder, Mark Zuckerberg, married another Harvard College graduate, Priscilla Chan.25 Ms. Chan, however, was not another run-of-the-mill Harvard graduate, if indeed there is such a thing. She is a two-fisted advocate for women’s rights, including in the workforce and in leadership positions. She took her new spouse to task for his blind eye toward diversity issues.
Facebook renamed the Rooney Rule initiative that it adopted “a diverse slate approach,” a more descriptive label for the program.26 Facebook released its first annual diversity report at the end of 2014, establishing baselines for evaluation of subsequent efforts. The second report, however, showed basically the same demographics as the first, which critics had panned, perhaps unfairly, or at least precipitously, as “pathetic” and “dismal.”27 Facebook pledged to continue its efforts and the program. “Essentially, what something we call a diversity-based approach does is build muscle in people,” said Maxine Williams, Facebook’s global head of diversity. “It builds the habit of looking longer, looking harder.”
Much like crews of ships at anchor in the fog, the information technology industry and some of the companies within it have had a vague notion that something is out there, namely, that they should be undertaking efforts to introduce diversity into their hiring and promotion. To galvanize them to further action, in 2015 the White House invited representatives of leading information technology companies to a summit on the subject of diversity in hiring. Fourteen firms attended. Seven of the fourteen firms, including Intel, Xerox, and Amazon, followed Facebook’s lead in implementing a Rooney Rule, or stated that as firms they intended to do so.28
The other seven firms attending the White House summit have not let grass grow under their feet. They have adopted approaches to diversity different from or in addition to the Rooney Rule, or diverse slate, approach. For instance, Google has embedded software engineers at traditionally black colleges and universities, including Howard University, Hampton University, Fisk University, and Spelman and Morehouse Colleges.29
In its public disclosures, Intel devoted an entire brochure to its myriad efforts, pledging $300 million in aid of those programs. Intel “set an ambitious goal to reach full representation of women and underrepresented minorities in our U.S. workforce by 2020.”30 Representative Intel efforts include $4 million for scholarships for Latinos in tech studies; $5 million to Oakland, California, public schools to enhance computer-based and information technology laboratories and programs; and $5 million to Georgia Tech University for similar labs and programs. In addition, Intel has implemented its version of the Rooney Rule and hired a full-time chief diversity officer.31 “More than nearly any other company in Silicon Valley, Intel appears to be making a genuine effort to improve.”32
Among the various programs in existence, including, for instance, pledge and certificate programs, quota laws, mentorship/sponsorship programs, comply or explain requirements, disclosure regimes, and so on, the diverse slate approach seems to offer the best fit for information technology. There are several reasons for this. One is that the diverse slate approach is benevolent: it tends to produce some or much of the quantity desired without imposing mandatory regulations or commands, likely to “get backs up.” Second, as the longer-term picture emerging from the National Football League demonstrates, it is not perfect, but there is a track record and improvements in diversity have resulted, at least in the NFL, since its adoption of the rule. Third, the Rooney Rule approach seems to have won the most acceptances of any of the alternatives out there, at least by the larger players in the industry.
On the other hand, universal imposition of a Rooney Rule would also bring about perceived disadvantages. In effect, the Rooney Rule is a comply or explain rule (chapter 11) with consequences (sanctions by the NFL) following an inadequate explanation or no explanation for noncompliance, that is, a “hard” comply or explain regulation. In an industry as diverse and widespread as information technology, there is no master or supervising body like the league commissioner’s office in the NFL. The discipline of a Rooney Rule would at best be self-imposed. Violations of the rule or failure to abide by it in the first place could be shrugged off or minimized. No consequence would follow. At best, a Rooney Rule for IT would be a soft rather than hard comply or explain requirement.
Another disadvantage, for smaller firms at least, is that competition for the qualified individuals would increase, perhaps dramatically. In that milieu, smaller firms might become convinced that they would come off as second or third best in the competition, and they would not be wrong in reaching those conclusions. So the most that might be said of a Rooney Rule is that it is a good tool for information technology firms to increase prospects for enhancing diversity in hiring and promotion—but also that a Rooney Rule may not be the best approach for everybody.