The Elusiveness of Merit-Based Hiring
DEI critics advocate for nominally “meritocratic” approaches, but there are more rigorous ways to surface the best candidates for jobs or promotions.
Kyle BrinkAugust 04, 2026Reading Time: 8 min
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Frontiers
An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management.
Summary:
Critics of diversity initiatives often present them as antithetical to hiring based on merit, but the two objectives are not at odds. ...
Listen to “The Elusiveness of Merit-Based Hiring” (12:21)
Since early 2025, organizations seeking to curry favor with the current U.S. administration have disavowed earlier commitments to workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and proclaimed that their hiring practices are therefore meritocratic. But framing DEI and merit as antithetical dichotomies, as various executive orders have done, does not mean that abandoning the former results in the latter.
Good DEI practice is designed to broaden...
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