3 Expert Insights

This is a fascinating inquiry. You ask "whether it would corrode team performance, to bring factors other than merit, to performance evaluation". Why would anyone be promoted into any position and especially one of management if they didn't merit that position based on their knowledge and skills?

I have definitely seen this addressed in an organization equivalent to yours. In fact, it was a purposeful attempt to always be looking out to identify the next round of leaders.  Initially candidates were identified for the attitudes, work-ethic and learned skills that they were currently demonstrating. Often, if not quite ready for the promotion into entry level management, they were assigned a mentor to work with them on identified skills ... always with the expectation that they were being groomed for their next position.

Although you didn't say this, it appears that someone being of a minority group is a reason that they haven't been considered.

I would suggest that to the extent the senior staff becomes blind to difference in areas of nationality, color or any other differentiating trait,  you will be likely and find it quite easy to become the more diverse management organization that your CIO desires to create.

The benefit from diversity tends to come through innovation. When there is input from people with different perspectives there is a greater chance of new ideas that can lead to valued innovations. Of course along with diverse perspectives there must also be constructive dialogue where those different ideas have a chance to be heard and "chewed on" rather than prematurely dismissed.

I am a big fan of Martin Luther King's notion of a color-blind society. Everybody is unique. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. It would seem to be in everyone's interest to identify their particular strengths and promote their individualized development in a way that builds on those strengths. There should be no need to move away from a meritocracy, but there may need to be some introspection on how merit is appraised.

The company can take a candid look at whether they have clearly defined competency models for each level of management.  Very often performance track record becomes the over-riding source of promotion decisions.  The competency model should address not only the functional knowledge for the particular management position but also the cognitive, interpersonal, leadership and behavioral attributes for success.  Once the competency models are agreed upon then a real assessment of individual and collective talent and development potential can be conducted, preferably including some objective data from tools such as management assessment processes.

Based on what was described it is highly likely that the "majority group" has historically "promoted in their own image" which speaks to a more complex organizational issue that needs to be addressed.