T h e Ox f o r d H a n d b o o k o f

DI V E R SI T Y I N
ORG A N I Z AT ION S
 The Oxford Handbook of

DIVERSITY IN
ORGANIZATIONS
Edited by
REGINE BENDL, INGE BLEIJENBERGH,
ELINA HENTTONEN,
and
ALBERT J. MILLS

1
 3
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“For my husband, Anne Pier, who shows me that diverse backgrounds can be a continu-
ous source of dialogue and inspiration” – Inge Bleijenbergh

“To my daughters Sanni, Sonja and the Little one - may you experience life in all its
diversity” – Elina Henttonen

“In memory of my uncle Dave and for my Aunt Marion (Findlay), who together instilled
in me the values of care and consideration for humanity in all its diversity” – Albie
(Albert J. Mills)
 Contents

List of Illustrations xi
List of Contributors xiii

Introduction: Mapping the Field of Diversity in Organizations 1

Regine Bendl, Inge Bleijenbergh, Elina Henttonen,
and Albert J. Mills

PA RT I P LU R A L I SM S OF T H E OR I Z I N G ,
ORG A N I Z I N G , A N D M A NAG I N G DI V E R SI T Y
1. The Politics of Equality and Diversity: History, Society, and Biography 15
Geraldine Healy
2. Duelling Dualisms: A History of Diversity Management 39
Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan
3. Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality: What Do
They Bring to Diversity Management? 62
Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier
4. Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society 83
David Knights and Vedran Omanović
5. Reflections on Diversity and Inclusion Practices at
the Organizational, Group, and Individual Levels 109
Ruth Sessler Bernstein, Marcy Crary, Diana Bilimoria,
and Donna Maria Blancero
6. Reframing Diversity Management 127
Alex Faria
viii   Contents

PA RT I I E P I ST E M OL O G IC A L P LU R A L I T Y
7. Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies 153
Gavin Jack
8. A Postcolonial Deconstruction of Diversity Management
and Multiculturalism 175
Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen
9. Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management
Discourse: Theoretical and Empirical-Based Reflections 195
Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann
10. Ambiguous Diversities: Practices and Perceptions
of Diversity Management 218
Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just
11. Individuals, Teams, and Organizational Benefits of Managing
Diversity: An Evidence-Based Perspective 235
Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson
12. Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management:
Theoretical Perspectives on the Business Case 255
Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

PA RT I I I DI V E R SI T Y OF E M P I R IC A L M E T HOD S
13. Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes: What Can Be Learned
from Quantitative Survey Research? 281
Sandra Groeneveld
14. Challenges and Opportunities: Contextual Approaches to Diversity
Research and Practice 298
Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde
15. In Search of the ‘Real’: The Subversive Potential of Ethnography in
the Field of Diversity Management 317
Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux
16. Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity: Reflecting
on Power and Identity in Our Professional Practice 337
Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer
 Contents   ix

PA RT I V DI V E R SI T Y OF C ON T E X T S
A N D P R AC T IC E S
17. Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies through a Diversity
Management Frame 357
Mary Ann Danowitz
18. Global Diversity Management: Breaking the Local Impasse 370
Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatli, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin
19. Entrepreneurship and Diversity 388
Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers
20. Practices of Organizing and Managing Diversity in Emerging
Countries: Comparisons between India, Pakistan, and South Africa 408
Anita Bosch, Stella M. Nkomo, Nasima M. H. Carrim,
Rana Haq, Jawad Syed, and Faiza Ali

PA RT V I N T E R SE C T ION S OF DI V E R SI T Y
21. Intersectionality at the Intersection: Paradigms, Methods,
and Application—A Review 435
Danielle Mercer, Mariana Ines Paludi, Jean Helms Mills,
and Albert J. Mills
22. The Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations 454
Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb
23. People with Disabilities: Identity, Stigmatization, Accommodation,
and Intersection with Gender and Ageing in Effects
on Employment Outcomes 469
David C. Baldridge, Joy E. Beatty, Alison M. Konrad,
and Mark E. Moore
24. Of Race and Religion: Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim
Prejudice in the United States 499
Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir
25. Intersectionality, Social Identity Theory, and Explorations of
Hybridity: A Critical Review of Diverse Approaches to Diversity 518
Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa
x   Contents

PA RT V I W H E R E TO G O F ROM H E R E ?
26. Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical
Perspectives: The Validity of the Research Process 539
Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden
27. Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management
in Organizations 553
Yvonne Benschop, Charlotte Holgersson, Marieke van den
Brink, and Anna Wahl
28. From Here to There and Back Again: Transnational Perspectives
on Diversity in Organizations 575
Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

Index 603
 List of Illustrations

Figures

9.1 The heterosexual matrix: the normative entanglement

of ‘sex-gender-sexuality’ 197
14.1 Immigrant workplace experience in Canada 310
17.1 Diversity management elements 364

Tables

2.1 Dualistic map of workplace diversity 40

2.2 Dichotomizing equal opportunity and managing diversity 43
2.3 Dualistic tensions to dialectic transformations 55
5.1 Summary of practices at the organizational, group and individual
levels that cumulatively engender a diversity dividend 121
7.1 Overview of critiques of diversity management 157
9.1 Diversity management and queer approaches 201
9.2 Sex, gender and sexual orientation in the CoCs 207
12.1 2013 Canada’s best diversity employers 268
12.2 For-profit and non-profit companies selected for study 270
27.1 The 3D-model: dimensions for the design of diversity practices 555
27.2 Recommended combinations of the 3D-model for diversity training,
mentoring programmes, and diversity networks aiming at
transformative change 567
 List of Contributors

Faiza Ali is Senior Lecturer in Business Management at Liverpool John Moores

University, UK. Her research interests include gender and diversity in organizations,
international human resources management, and cross-cultural management issues.
In particular, she is interested in exploring gender equality issues in the workplace in
Muslim majority countries.
David C. Baldridge is Associate Professor of Management and Director of Off-campus
MBA programs at Oregon State University, US. His research interests include diversity
in organizations, workplace experiences of people with disabilities, accommodations,
and career success.
Joy E. Beatty is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University
of Michigan-Dearborn. Her diversity-related research has appeared in Academy of
Management Review, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Organizational
Dynamics, and Women in Management Review. Her research interests include disability,
chronic illness, and invisible stigma in the context of work.
Regine Bendl is Associate Professor, Vienna University of Economics and Business
(WU Vienna, Austria). Her research focuses on managing and organizing diver-
sity in organizations, intersectionality, subtexts, and queer perspectives in organi-
zational theories. Among her many publications are articles for Gender Work and
Organization, Journal of Management and Organization, British Journal of Management,
Gender in Management—An International Journal, European Journal of International
Management, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion—An International Journal. The
recipient of numerous awards, she is editor of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion—an
International Journal and of Diversitas—Zeitschrift für Managing Diversity and Diversity
Studies, Associate Editor of Gender, Work and Organization, and President of the
Austrian Society for Diversity.
Yvonne Benschop is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Institute for
Management Research, and affiliated with the Institute for Gender Studies at the
Radboud University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Her current research projects
include gender practices in networking, the role of power and resistance in organiza-
tional change towards gender equality, and gender and precarious academic careers
in Europe. Co-editor in chief of Organization, she is also associate editor for Gender,
Work and Organization and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals.
Among her publications in English are articles in Journal of Management Studies,
xiv   List of Contributors

Organization Studies, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of

Organizational Change Management, Sex Roles and Gender, Work and Organization.
Ruth Sessler Bernstein is a Professor at the University of Washington Tacoma,
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences faculty. She was formerly Visiting Professor at in the
area of management and nonprofit studies at the School of Business, Pacific Lutheran
University. She earned her PhD from Case Western Reserve University. Her publica-
tion and research interests focus primarily on diversity, intercultural interactions, and
inclusion within multicultural communities such as voluntary organizations and non-
profit boards and, secondly, on non-profit governance. Her research has been presented
at AOM, ARNOVA, and NASPA.
Diana Bilimoria is KeyBank Professor and Chair and Professor of Organizational
Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, Ohio, US. She has published several books including Women
in STEM Careers (2014), Gender Equity in Science and Engineering (2011) and Women
on Corporate Boards of Directors (2009). She has also published extensively in leading
journals, and has contributed to several edited volumes. She served as the chair of the
Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management, and
was the editor of the Journal of Management Education. She has received awards for her
scholarship, teaching, and professional service.
Donna Maria Blancero is an Associate Professor of Management at Bentley University.
She received her PhD from Cornell University’s ILR School. Her research focuses on
Latinos in the workplace, including issues of careers, psychological contracts, fair-
ness, and work–family balance. She currently teaches courses in managing diversity
and organizational behaviour. Her journal articles have appeared in the Journal of
Organizational Behavior, Cross Cultural Management, Industrial Relations, The Business
Journal of Hispanic Research, and Human Resource Management. She is the co-editor of
Hispanics at Work: A Collection of Research, Theory and Application (2010).
Inge Bleijenbergh is an Assistant Professor in Research Methods at the Nijmegen
School of Management at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She
specializes in participatory research strategies in the field of gender and diversity in
organizations. She has published in several international peer reviewed journals, and is
Associate Editor of Gender, Work and Organization.
Anita Bosch is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at the
University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the lead researcher of the Women in
the Workplace research programme at the Department of Industrial Psychology and
People Management, and is the editor for Africa of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion—An
International Journal. Anita is also the editor for the annual Women’s Report of the South
African Board for People Practices, an evidence-based publication aimed at people pro-
fessionals. She has published research on human resource management, identity and
workplace diversity in several journals.
 List of Contributors    xv

Marieke van den Brink is Associate Professor at the Institute for Management Research
at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Her main research interests are
gender and diversity in organizations, organizational learning, and talent management.
She is currently researching a large-scale case study on diversity, organizational learn-
ing, and change, and undertaking comparative research on gender and precarious work-
ers in European universities. Her work has been published in Journal of Management
Studies, Organization Studies, Organization, Human Relations, Gender, Work and
Organization and Social Science and Medicine.
Marta B. Calás is Professor of Organization Studies and International Management
in the Department of Management at the Isenberg School of Management, University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, US. Her publications have explored the epistemological
roots, the gendered features, and the transnational conditions of contemporary issues in
management and organizations. She is a recipient of the SAGE Award for her academic
leadership and the impact of her body of work in the area of gender and diversity. In
1994 Professor Calás co-founded the journal Organization, serving in an editor-in-chief
position for more than fifteen years.
Nasima M. H. Carrim is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Human Resource
Management at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her main academic interests
include gender in management, identity, culture, religion, and minorities in the work-
place. Her PhD research focused on the identity work of Indian women managers dur-
ing their upward mobility in corporate South Africa. She is currently researching the
challenges Indian males experience in reaching senior and top managerial positions.
Marcy Crary is an Associate Professor of Management at Bentley College. She has a
PhD in organizational behaviour from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her
current teaching, writing, and research interests include diversity dynamics and change
in organizational systems, intimacy at work, transitions in the ‘third phase’ of life, and
the emotional underworld of knowledge integration/creation. She has published in
Academy of Management Learning and Education, Human Relations, Organizational
Dynamics, and Journal of Management of Education.
Mary Ann Danowitz is a Professor of Higher Education Administration and Head of the
Department of Leadership, Policy and Adult and Higher Education at North Carolina
State University, US. Her research interests include gender, diversity, and equality in the
areas of leadership, governance, management, organization change, and careers, par-
ticularly regarding the higher education sector in the United States and Europe. Her two
most recent books are Women, Universities and Change (edited, 2007) and Diversity in
Organizations: Concepts and Practices (edited, 2012)
Kelly Dye has been teaching and training in the field of business management since 1998,
in various capacities, including one-day seminars, customized training, and master’s
level management courses. She is a Professor at the F. C. Manning School of Business
at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada, and currently teaches organizational
xvi   List of Contributors

behavior, gender and diversity in organizations, and change management. Key areas of
her research include gendered organizations, alleviating poverty through microfinance,
and the employment and economic outcomes of rural girls. Kelly Dye’s work has been
published internationally in various books, encyclopaedias, and journals.
Caroline Essers is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at VU University
Amsterdam and an Assistant Professor Strategic Human Resource Management at the
Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Management. Caroline’s research focuses at
the social dynamics of entrepreneurship, such as the identity constructions of (female
migrant) entrepreneurs and their networking. She uses diverse perspectives in her
research on entrepreneurship, such as postcolonial feminist theory and social construc-
tivist approaches like the narrative/life-story approach. Her work has been published in
Organization Studies, Organization, Human Relations, Gender, Work and Organization,
British Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, and
the European Journal of HRM. She is also an Associate Editor for Gender, Work and
Organization.
Alex Faria is a Professor of Management at Brazilian School of Public and Business
Administration at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (EBAPE/FGV). He is ex-Chair of the
Critical Management Studies Division of the Academy of Management, and his research
interests have a main focus on (de)colonial, historical, cultural, and international issues
in different subfields within management and organization studies.
Sandra L. Fielden is a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology in the Manchester
Business School at the University of Manchester, UK. She is well known globally for her
work as Editor of the Emerald journal Gender in Management: An International Journal,
and was awarded Editor of the Year 2002, 2005 and for Outstanding Service in 2010. She
has published five books and numerous chapters in the area of women’s entrepreneur-
ship and her current research interests include gender and ethnic entrepreneurship,
gender in management, coaching and mentoring, sexual harassment, and evaluation
studies.
Golnaz Golnaraghi , a diversity advocate, is passionate about gender and visible minor-
ity issues. After a fifteen-year marketing career with high-performing multinationals, in
2006 Golnaz pursued her passion to teach. Currently a Business Professor at Sheridan
College, Toronto, Canada, her research interests include diversity, identity, discourse,
and management education. She regularly presents at international conferences and in
2013 gave her first TEDx Talk titled From Silence to Voice: Embracing My Hybrid Identity,
exploring her personal immigrant experiences as a Muslim-Canadian woman. In
2012, she was a recipient of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Design
Excellence Awards.
Sandra Groeneveld is a Professor of Public Sector Management at the Institute of Public
Administration, Leiden University, Campus The Hague. She studies the structure and
management of public organizations, with a special focus on diversity-related issues.
 List of Contributors    xvii

She also teaches courses for bachelor’s, master’s and PhD students on research method-
ology. Her expertise covers quantitative research methods, especially survey research.
Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger holds a PhD in Computer Science and is Full Professor for
Gender and Diversity in Organizations. She is Head of the Department Management
at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). She was guest researcher
at several international research institutions. Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger has published
more than 300 articles, books, and book chapters on gender and diversity, organization
studies, and diversity management.
Rana Haq is Assistant Professor at the School of Commerce and Administration in the
Faculty of Management at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. She
teaches organizational behaviour and human resources management, both on campus
and online. Her research is primarily in the area of employment equity and manag-
ing diversity in the workplace, focusing particularly on Canada and India. Her work
has been published in contributed books and in journals including the International
Journal of Human Resource Management, Gender in Management: An International
Journal, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of International Migration and
Integration, and Entrepreneurial Practice Review.
Geraldine Healy is Professor of Employment Relations at Queen Mary University of
London, and her research interests lie in the interconnecting fields of employment rela-
tions, inequalities, and career. She has served on the editorial board of four journals,
is the author of articles in leading journals and is joint author of Gender and Union
Leadership (2013, with Gill Kirton), Ethnicity and Gender at Work (2008, with Harriet
Bradley), Diversity, Ethnicity, Migration and Work: International Perspectives (2011, with
Franklin Oikelome), co-editor of Equalities, Inequalites and Diversity (2010) and The
Future of Worker Representation (2004). She has undertaken a number of research pro-
jects (with funding from the ESRC, EOC, Leverhulme) and is currently (2014) under-
taking a project for the TUC titled The Challenges of Organising Atypical Workers.
Jeff Hearn is Professor of Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics,
Finland; Guest Research Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
based in Gender Studies, Örebro University, Sweden; Professor of Sociology, University
of Huddersfield, UK; and a UK Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences. He has
published in a wide range of journals and his latest books are: Rethinking Transnational
Men (edited with Marina Blagojević and Katherine Harrison, 2013) and Men of the
World: Genders, Globalizations, Transnational Times (2015). He is managing co-editor
of Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality book series, co-editor of
NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies, and associate editor of Gender,
Work and Organization. His research focuses on gender, sexuality, violence, organiza-
tions, and transnational processes.
Elina Henttonen works as an independent research and entrepreneur at Valtaamo
Ltd, studying and developing work life from the perspectives of diversity and
xviii   List of Contributors

meaningful work. Previously she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in

the Department of Management, Aalto University, Finland, and published her work in
refereed journals and scientific books.
Rosalie Hilde is a faculty member of Thompson Rivers University and College of
New Caledonia in British Columbia Canada. She earned her Doctorate of Business
Administration (D.B.A.) degree at Athabasca University, Alberta Canada and in that
summer won the best dissertation award of the Academy of Management (AoM)
Critical Management Studies (CMS) Division business conference. Her research inter-
ests include identity work, immigrants’ work experiences, qualitative research meth-
odology, and organizational behaviour. She is elected as Divisional Treasurer (2014–17)
and had served as a representative-at-large and webmaster for the AoM CMS division
between 2010 and 2013.
Roswitha Hofmann is a researcher, lecturer (WU Vienna and University of Applied
Sciences Wr. Neustadt/Austria), author, and scientific consultant. With a doctorate in
sociology, she was formerly Assistant Professor at the WU Vienna. Her main work-
ing areas are: gender- und diversity research with focus on gender identity, sexual
orientations/identities and age; diversities and diversity management under queer theo-
retical perspectives; sustainable organizational development and technical develop-
ments from a feminist point of view.
Charlotte Holgersson is researcher and teacher at the Department of Industrial
Economics and Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Her research
is located in the intersection between organization and management studies and gender
studies. She is interested in the empirical and theoretical exploration of gender ordering
in organizations, in particular issues of management, change, and sexuality. One of her
main empirical concerns over the years has been the perpetuation of men’s dominance
on top positions in organizations but she is also interested in processes of change. Several
of her research projects focus on gender equality and diversity practices in organizations.
She has recently published articles in Gender, Work and Organization and in Gender in
Management.
Gavin Jack is Professor of Management at Monash University, Australia. He has research
interests in international and cross-cultural management studies, and gender and diver-
sity in organizations. He is Past Chair of the Critical Management Studies Division
of the Academy of Management, and currently an Associate Editor of the journal
Organization. His work has appeared in journals including the Academy of Management
Review, Sociology, British Journal of Management, Management International Review,
Organization and Journal of Management Inquiry.
Laknath Jayasinghe is Lecturer in Media Marketing at Macquarie University, Australia.
He is a consumer researcher interested in brand and advertising consumption, con-
sumer identity value, family identity, and masculinity and sexuality. He holds a PhD in
marketing from Melbourne Business School and has written about issues of diversity
and masculine identity practice in consumer culture contexts.
 List of Contributors    xix

Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen is a doctoral candidate at the Oulu Business School,

University of Oulu, Finland. Her research interests include cultural diversity at the
workplace, postcolonialism, socio-cultural aspects of entrepreneurship and subjectivity
construction of entrepreneurs.
David Knights is Professor of Organization Studies at Lancaster University and the
Open University in the UK. His research interests can be divided into several areas each
of which have various degrees of overlap—organization studies, management control,
power, identity and resistance; gender and diversity studies; financial services consump-
tion, education and regulation; information communication technology; organizational
change and innovation; theory, knowledge, epistemology and methodology. He jointly
created and continues to edit Gender, Work and Organization and is on the boards of
several other journals.
Alison M. Konrad is Professor of Organizational Behaviour and holder of the Corus
Entertainment Chair in Women in Management at the Ivey Business School, Western
University. Her research interests include gender and diversity in organizations, work-
place experiences of people with disabilities, work–life interface accommodations, and
diversity management practices.
Jonna Louvrier is a postdoctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at
Stanford University. She obtained her PhD at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki
Finland. Her research interests include comparative studies on equality, gender equality,
and diversity management.
Danielle Mercer is a PhD Management Candidate and a Research Assistant at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax, NS, Canada. She completed both her Bachelor of
Commerce (B.Comm) and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degrees at
Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 2013, she was awarded the SSHRC Joseph
Armand-Bombardier CGS Scholarship for her doctoral dissertation work on leader-
ship and gender. Her specific interests relate to gender equality, leadership, and worker
well-being.
Jean Helms Mills is a Professor of Management at the Sobey School of Business, Saint
Mary’s University, Canada. She is an Associate Editor of Gender, Work and Organization
and serves on the editorial boards of several other journals. Her books include Making
Sense of Organizational Change (2003), Understanding Organizational Change (2009)
and the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Critical Management Studies.
Albert J. Mills is Professor of Management and Director of the PhD Program in the
Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He
is the author of nearly forty books and edited collections that focus largely on the gen-
dering of organization over time.
Ali Mir is a Professor of Management at William Paterson University. He has pub-
lished on a range of topics including the changing nature of work in late capitalism, the
xx   List of Contributors

international division of labour, knowledge transfer, postcolonialsm, secularism, radi-

cal poetry, and Indian cinema.
Raza Mir is a Professor of Management in the College of Business at William Paterson
University. His research mainly focuses on the transfer of knowledge across national
boundaries in multinational corporations, and issues relating to power and resistance
in organizations. He currently serves as the Chair of the Critical Management Studies
Division of the Academy of Management.
Mark E. Moore is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at East
Carolina University. His research interests include issues on disability, diversity, and
marketing.
Paul Mutsaers is an anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Tilburg
University (the Netherlands) and as a researcher for the Police Academy of the
Netherlands. His research can be described as a public anthropology of policing that
is explicitly concerned with the policing of migrants in the Netherlands. He works as a
co-editor for the online platform Anthropoliteia and has published in journals such as
the British Journal of Criminology, Critique of Anthropology and Anthropology of Work
Review. He is also a member of the Border Criminologies research group in Oxford.
Eddy S. Ng is F.C. Manning Chair in Economics and Business and Associate Professor
of Management at Dalhousie University. His research focuses on managing diversity for
organizational competitiveness, the changing nature of work and organizations, and
managing the millennial workforce. His work has been funded by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Council of Canada and Canadian Studies grants. He has served as
Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Theme Committee (D&ITC) of the Academy of
Management, as well as the Gender and Diversity in Organizations (GDO) Division of
the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. He is presently an Associate Editor
of Personnel Review.
Stella M. Nkomo is a Professor in the Department of Human Resource Management
at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her internationally recognized research on
race and gender and diversity in organizations has been published in several journals
and edited volumes. She is an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Management.
Professor Nkomo is the co-author of Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and
the Struggle for Professional Identity (2001) and Courageous Conversations: A Collection
of Interviews and Reflections on Responsible Leadership by South African Captains of
Industry (2011).
Sine Nørholm Just Sine is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business and
Politics, Copenhagen Business School. Sine works at the interdisciplinary nexus of the
social sciences and the humanities, studying rhetorical processes of meaning formation.
She is particularly interested in conceptualizing and studying diversity management
from a critical angle. This work ties up with broader theoretical and empirical interests
in the relationship between performativity and rhetorical agency.
 List of Contributors    xxi

Vedran Omanovic is Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Gothenburg

and his research interests are focused on organizational change, transformation, and the
notion of diversity in organizations. More specifically, Vedran seeks to understand how
the ideas of different organizational phenomena are socially produced and why they
are produced in particular ways. Vedran is also interested in understanding the ideas
of different organizational phenomena through the lenses of alternative theoretical and
methodological approaches. His recent publications have appeared in Scandinavian
Journal of Management (2013) and The Handbook of Gender Work and Organization
(2011).
Renate Ortlieb is Full Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of
Graz, Austria. Her research interests are in human resource strategies, especially with
a focus on migrant employees, gender and power relations in organizations, employee
absenteeism, and empirical research methods. Her publications have appeared in
the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society—Applied Statistics, Management Revue,
Schmalenbach Business Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management,
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Feminist Economics, and Group and Organization
Management.
Mustafa F. Özbilgin is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Brunel Business
School, London. He also holds two international positions: Co-Chaire Management et
Diversité at Université Paris Dauphine and Professor of Management at Koç University
in Istanbul. His research focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion at work from com-
parative and relational perspectives. Editor-in-chief of the European Management
Review, he has authored and edited twelve books and large number of papers in jour-
nals, including for the Academy of Management Review, British Journal of Management,
Journal of Vocational Behavior, International Journal of Human Resource Management,
Human Relations, Gender, Work and Organization, and Social Science and Medicine.
Banu Özkazanç-Pan received her PhD in Organization Studies from the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research and writing has focused on issues of iden-
tity formation under globalization, international entrepreneurs, and critical perspec-
tives in international management. Currently she is the Graduate Program Director for
the Organizations and Social Change track of the newly launched doctoral degree in
Business Administration as well as the professional development workshop co-chair
for the Critical Management Studies Division of the Academy of Management. She has
published in the Academy of Management Review, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion,
Scandinavian Journal of Management, and Qualitative Research in Organizations and
Management among others and contributed to six book chapters.
Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk is Senior Lecturer in Management at Middlesex University
Business School, UK. His research focus involves the field of equality, diversity, and
inclusion with a range of interests including gender, gender identity, and sexual ori-
entation. His previous research has appeared in journals such as the British Journal
of Management, Human Relations, and International Journal of Human Resource
xxii   List of Contributors

Management, and in edited volumes published by Cambridge University Press, Edward

Elgar, and Routledge.
Mariana Ines Paludi is a PhD candidate at the Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary`s
University, Canada and a Teaching and Research Assistant at Universidad Nacional
de General Sarmiento, Argentina. Her areas of research include critical management,
gender, culture, Latin America, postcolonialism. She teaches undergraduate courses in
organizational behaviour both in Canada and Argentina.
Janet Porter is Professor, Logistics at the Humber Institute of Technology and Learning
(Ontario, Canada). Her work focuses on organization, with particular attention paid to
gender, class, and resistance.
Glen Powell is a PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Sydney. His research is on
leadership development, identity, social inclusion, and diverse forms of capital. Before
commencing doctoral studies he was a community organizer with a non-partisan coali-
tion of unions, community and faith groups, working to build and mobilize grassroots
power for diverse communities.
Judith K. Pringle is Professor of Organisation Studies, coordinator of the Gender and
Diversity Research Group at Auckland University of Technology, and also adjunct pro-
fessor at the Centre for Work and Wellbeing, Griffith University. Her research focuses
on: workplace diversity, women’s experiences in organizations, bicultural research,
intersections of social identities (gender/ethnicity/sexuality/age), and reframing career
theory. She was co-editor of the Sage Handbook for Workplace Diversity (2006) and has
published numerous book chapters, and in scholarly journals such as Gender, Work
and Organization, British Journal of Management, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion,
International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of World Business, and
Career Development International.
Annette Risberg is an Associate Professor at the Department of Intercultural
Communication and Management, Copenhagen Business School, and earned her
PhD at Lund University. Annette is interested in the behavioural and human aspects of
organizations and has studied that in the context of diversity in organizations as well as
merger and acquisition integration. She is particularly interested in practices of diver-
sity work in organizations and to study this from a critical perspective.
Jacqueline H. Stephenson is an adjunct post-doctoral Research Associate with the
University of Leicester, UK. Her research interests include diversity, discrimination,
equality and fairness in employment.
Glenda Strachan is Professor, Department of Employment Relations and Human
Resources, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Australia. Her research focuses
on women and work, especially gender equity within organizations, in both contempo-
rary and historical settings. Her Australian Research Council grants have focused on
equal employment opportunity policies and practices and gender equity in university
 List of Contributors    xxiii

employment. She is co-editor of Managing Diversity in Australia: Theory and Practice

(2010) and the author of numerous book chapters and articles in scholarly journals such
as the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Women in Management Review, Equality,
Diversity and Inclusion, and Continuity and Change.
Jawad Syed is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Diversity Management at
the Business School, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. His main aca-
demic interests include gender, race and diversity in organizations, international
HRM and organizational knowledge. He has co-edited Managing Cultural Diversity in
Asia: A Research Companion (2010), and Managing Gender Diversity in Asia: A Research
Companion (2010). He has also edited a text book titled Human Resource Management
in a Global Context: A Critical Approach (2012).
Lucy Taksa is Professor of Management and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty
of Business and Economics at Macquarie University, Australia. She has published on
management and labour history; gendered workplace cultures in transport and finance;
migrant employment, diversity management, and identity. She is currently working on
an Australian Research Council funded project: ‘Affinities in Multicultural Australia’
and an industry funded project considering the socioeconomic and identity impacts of
living with lymphoedema. She is a member of the Australian Research Council College
of Experts, Associate Editor for the European Management Review, and the Economic
and Labour Relations Review Area Editor for Gender.
Ahu Tatli is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Her research
explores intersectionality of disadvantage and privilege at work; inequality and discrim-
ination in recruitment and employment; diversity management, agency and change in
organizations. She has widely published in edited collections, practitioner and policy
outlets and international peer-reviewed journals such as Academy of Management
Review, British Journal of Management, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences,
European Journal of Industrial Relations, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development,
International Business Review, Human Relations and International Journal of
Management Reviews.
Deirdre Tedmanson is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director for Social Sciences
in the School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy at the University of South
Australia, an Associate Researcher with the Hawke Research Institute, and a Research
Scholar with the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian
National University. Deirdre has published widely on a range of subjects including
Indigenous community and enterprise development, women’s empowerment, and
participatory action research. A major focus of Deirdre’s research is working in col-
laborative partnerships with people and organizations from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara
Yankunytjatjara Lands of central Australia.
Saadia Toor is Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of Staten Island, City
University of New York. She is the author of The State of Islam: Culture and Cold War
xxiv   List of Contributors

Politics in Pakistan. Her research focuses on issues, which lie at the intersection of politi-
cal economy, race, gender/sexuality, and nationalism.
Marja-Liisa Trux , born 1965, received her PhD from Helsinki School of Economics.
Her interdisciplinary career combines psyhology, cultural anthropology and organiza-
tion studies. She has worked with Keijo Räsänen at Aalto University as a member of
the practice theoretically oriented team of researcher-teachers. Her field experience
includes work with immigrant cleaners and high-tech professionals. She is currently
investigating work beyond wage labour, as an independent scholar.
Koen Van Laer works as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Business Economics at Hasselt
University, Belgium, where he is a member of SEIN, a research team whose research
focuses on identity, diversity, and inequality. His main research interests are ethnicity,
religion, and sexual orientation at work, the way ‘difference’ is managed and constructed
in organizations, and the way it influences workplace experiences and careers. His work
has appeared in books as well as in international organizations studies journals.
Anna Wahl is Professor (Chair) Gender, Organisation and Management at the Royal
Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. Previously she was Guest Professor at Tema
Genus, Linköping University (2012–14) and Department of Business Administration,
Karlstad University (2004–05). Her current research interests are the gendering of man-
agement in different contexts, work for change, and the impact of gender equality in
organizations. Her recent publications include book and journal articles, including in
NORA—Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research.
Patrizia Zanoni is Professor of Organization Studies at Hasselt University, Belgium.
Drawing from various bodies of critical theory, she investigates the discursive con-
struction of socio-demographic identities in workplaces, the role such identities play in
capital–labour relations, and organizational practices reducing inequality at work. Her
research has been published in various international organization studies journals and
in international educational journals. Since 2009 she has been leading SEIN—Identity,
Diversity & Inequality Research, a team researching diversity in the work sphere. She
is one of the co-founders of EqualDiv@Work, a transnational academic network of
researchers investigating topics related to diversity in organizations and work settings.
 Introdu c t i on
Mapping the Field of Diversity in Organizations

Regine Bendl, Inge Bleijenbergh, Elina

Henttonen, and Albert J. Mills

What is diversity and what does it have to do with organizations? This is a question we
aim to answer in this Handbook of Diversity in Organizations.
However, the answer is not going to be straightforward. In recent years diversity and
its management have become popular topics of discussion in all kinds of organizations.
Diversity management practices have spread around the globe focusing on the organ-
izing and management of inclusion and exclusion of different genders, sexualities, eth-
nicities, ages, classes and (dis)abilities, and many other identity categories. Different
organizations in different cultural contexts still make very different interpretations of
diversity and its meaning, and practice diversity and its management in various dif-
ferent ways. Some diversity management practices, although typically intended for
achieving inclusion, have also the potential to reproduce exclusion as well. Therefore,
practicing diversity management and dealing with diversity in organizations is never
without controversy.
Furthermore, and as we have learned as scholars of diversity and editors of this book,
it is not always easy to study diversity in organizations. There are a variety of theoreti-
cal, epistemological, methodological, and empirical perspectives to the phenomenon.
They all have differing agendas and ideas about why diversity is worth pursuing, how we
could best achieve inclusion, and in what contexts the management focus of diversity
(re)produces exclusion by (re)stereotyping or by establishing new norms and again oth-
ering processes. The question becomes even more complex when we add the multiple
organizational, institutional, and cultural contexts where diversity emerges.
There is nevertheless no need to get anxious about the complexity ahead of us. In the
heart of diversity of any kind is a celebration of pluralism, which embraces different
views and stands to the world. We believe that our duty as editors of this collection is to
2    Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, and Mills

embrace these different views and stands within diversity research and suggest fruitful
points of departure for developing our scholarship.
We aim to present what are the shared foundations of organizing, managing, and
studying diversities, but instead of trying to find one common lexicon for talking about
diversity in organizations we have made our duty in this book to embrace the diversity
in the diversity scholarship. We include a plurality of theoretical perspectives on organ-
izing and managing diversity in organizations ranging from positivist to constructivist
and critical approaches, including intersectional, postcolonial, and queer perspectives.
Methodologically, we highlight a broad range of empirical methods and approaches
from surveys to ethnography in studying diversity in organizations. With regard to con-
texts, we look at diversity from the global diversity management phenomenon to ‘local’
perspectives.
At the core of the book are multidisciplinary, intersectional, and critical analyses of
diversity, its organizing and management in organizations. The twenty-eight chapters
of this book, organized in six parts, address these issues from multiple theoretical and
methodological standpoints, and open up fresh perspectives to the diversity debate.
Editing a book on diversity has also made us very aware not only of the themes and
approaches represented in the book, but also of the social positioning of the contributors
of the chapters. The editorial team took their initiative for the book from the Standing
Working Group of Gender and Diversity in the European Group of Organization
Studies (EGOS), but we have consciously aimed at broadening the scope of the book
beyond the EGOS community. We have also continuously discussed how the selection
of authors, themes, and chapters will satisfy our effort to represent the field of diversity
studies in all its diversity.
At the end of the process we are extremely happy to host an excellent team of contrib-
uting authors, from very diverse backgrounds and in diverse phases of their careers. Our
geographically diverse team of contributors even made one of the reviewers of the book
proposal to comment that we do not have a convincing number of US-based authors in
the book. From the diversity perspective this was a very illuminating comment, espe-
cially given that US-based authors actually were the second most represented geograph-
ical group in the book after the European authors who represent seven countries of the
European Union, and thus, different European cultures.
As editors we have also considered our own position as diversity scholars. As four
white, western, middle-class academics we may not be the best representation of cul-
tural and social diversity. However, within this condition we have a little gender diver-
sity (three women and one man), rather more geographical diversity—from Finland to
Austria and from the Netherlands all the way to Canada (or the other way around, if you
prefer)—and also professional diversity when it comes to our professional age and expe-
riences. Does this matter? It always matters when it comes to diversity. While we use our
intellect our thoughts and directions are shaped by our embodied experiences, our own
varied sets of relationships and the context and time in which the book is being devel-
oped. Cognizant of these challenges, we have tried to move beyond our own boundaries
and mentalities in the choices of authors we approached and in the associated topics we
 Introduction   3

suggested. As an extra layer we tried to ensure that the diverse experiences of the authors
were taken into account so that we were not engaging in an unintended process of mar-
ginalization and privileging. Nonetheless, we were not completely successful in pull-
ing together our ideal foci and authors. Some scholars were just too busy to take on yet
another project, no matter how worthy. Others were kind enough to say yes when their
workload made their commitment quite unattainable. In the end, despite our various
limitations and challenges, we feel that we have brought together some of the very best
scholars in the field of diversity. We hope readers will agree with us.
As editors and contributors we found the process challenging in other ways. Each new
chapter that we received and reviewed for the book invariably made us think. Therefore,
before presenting the standard description of each chapter we provide reflections based
on the texts grouped in the six parts.

Part I: Pluralisms of Theorizing,

Organizing, and Managing Diversity

It may not be a great surprise for diversity scholars but plurality and multiplicity repre-
sent the basis for theorizing diversity and its organizing and managing in organizations.
In this context the saying ‘That context matters’ is not just a mere saying, context defines
how scholars of the field approach and address diversity in organizations. The authors
involved in this part of the book may have in common some starting points or parts of
theoretical frameworks for their perspectives on diversity in organizations (e.g. inclu-
sion, equality, anti-discrimination, intersectionality, or gender theories) and they may
refer to the same sources but what diversity issues they consider, how they address and
analyse phenomenons of diversity not only depends on their disciplinary approach but
also on their geographical location. In this sense, there is no ‘grand theory’ for Diversity
Studies, no common theoretical framework to address diversity in organizations and
also no one historical background to refer to. The selection of theoretical frameworks
generates the outcome of how diversity is perceived, managed, and organized fuelled
by local contexts and the choice of level of analysis (international, national, local, micro,
meso, macro). In other words, theoretical perspectives on diversity in organizations are
based on the phenomenon that they claim to explore: diversity which may also produce
incommensurable perspectives.
In this sense, Geraldine Healy argues that to explore the politics of equality and diver-
sity demands an interrelated approach bringing together three perspectives: history,
society, and biography. In Chapter 1, ‘The Politics of Equality and Diversity: History,
Society, and Biography’, she opens up a framework which serves to link these three per-
spectives with colonial history, voluntarism and regulation, and diversity careers. All in
all, the text shows that the historical and international nature of diversity is crucial in
understanding the complexity of the politics of diversity at all levels.
4    Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, and Mills

Next, in Chapter 2, ‘Duelling Dualisms: A History of Diversity Management’,

Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan present a history of diversity management
through the use of dichotomies that cross-cut the field. They trace the shift from the
normative reasoning to the business case, put diversity management in context, refer
to the change from ‘gender’ to other demographic diversity dimension, and argue
that diversity research in organizations needs multiple methodologies. Altogether
they observe a need to move beyond dualities and see a ‘fractured future’ of diverse
diversities.
In their Chapter 3, ‘Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality’, Jeff Hearn
and Jonna Louvrier link diversity, diversity management, and intersectionality. In their
discussion of the three different concepts they examine the relationship of diversity and
diversity management to various theorizations of intersectionality, specifically the rele-
vance of theories of intersectionality for understanding diversity. They come to the con-
clusion that the weakness of the term ‘diversity’ may function as an ideological signifier
and that the concept of intersectionality not only complicates but also demystifies the
ideological power of diversity and diversity management. Finally, Hearn and Louvrier
also remind us of the contexts in which not only social categories of ‘difference’ but also
research accounts are constructed.
David Knights and Vedran Omanovic examine a range of analytical frameworks,
epistemologies, and methodologies surrounding discourses of diversity in Chapter 4,
‘Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society’. Based on the results of an extant lit-
erature review introducing four different philosophical traditions as structural criteria
(positivism, interpretation, critical-discursive, and critical-dialectic), the authors sug-
gest that more radical and embodied approaches to diversity are needed to focus more
directly on the marginalized actors who are often identified as the subjects of diversity.
For the authors posthumanist feminism can provide such perspectives in diversity
research.
In ‘Reflections on Diversity and Inclusion Practices at the Organizational, Group, and
Individual Level’ the focus shifts from the societal and theoretical conceptual level of
diversity management to the level organization. Ruth Sessler Bernstein, Marcy Crary,
Diana Bilimoria, and Donna Maria Blancero provide reflections on the practices that are
being employed by organizations to diversify the workplace and maximize the potential
for a diversity dividend by practices of inclusion. In detail they present specific diversity
and inclusion practices which impact group cohesiveness and outcomes.
In ‘Reframing Diversity Management’, the last chapter of this part, Alex Faria
examines the concept of diversity management from a decolonial perspective. He
unveils the colonial side of diversity management in order to open a space for deco-
lonial possibilities which have been negated so far for reframing diversity manage-
ment. The basic argument is that diversity management is a controversial concept due
to its attachment to Eurocentric narratives of modernity/coloniality, which have been
transformed into ‘universal’ knowledge by mechanisms of knowledge management
inaugurated when European conquerors discovered and conquered America over five
centuries ago.
 Introduction   5

Part II: Epistemological Plurality

Examining diversity in organizations from a plurality of epistemological perspectives

may turn self-evident assumptions upside down and conceptualize diversity in organi-
zations outside existing frameworks, like our chapters from postcolonial and queer the-
ory perspective do. Other chapters aim to create clarity within existing frameworks of
diversity management for example by reviewing empirical and theoretical discussions
about the business case. A third position is embracing ambiguity in diversity manage-
ment rather than solving it, so allowing space for a context specific diversity practices.
In Chapter 7, ‘Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies’,
Gavin Jack argues for the need to underpin critical research on diversity in organiza-
tions by a postcolonial perspective. He argues that postcolonial theory is a potentially
powerful tool to support critical research, which is at present underdeployed. First he
recommends critical diversity scholars to engage with psychoanalytic and discursive
variants of postcolonial theory (Hook 2012), in order to generate understandings of
the psychological dimensions of (post)colonial subjectivities and the persistence of
racism in organizations. Second, he recommends critical diversity scholars to con-
sider the merits of ‘Southern Theory’ (Connell 2007) in order to move beyond the
noted Eurocentric limits of existing gender and diversity research.
Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen picks up the challenge to adopt a postcolonial perspec-
tive, using it to critically review the notion of multiculturalism that underlies the cur-
rent paradigm for diversity in Chapter 8, ‘A Postcolonial Deconstruction of Diversity
Management and Multiculturalism’. She shows how a multiculturalist discourse can
serve as an instrument of control deeply connected to broader institutionalized power
structures. Diversity research and practice based on multiculturalist discourse presents
diversity through simplistic and fixed categorizations of identity and culture, which
reinforces rather than addresses inequalities. Kaasila-Pakanen introduces the concept
of Third Space as an alternative approach for theorizing cultural diversity.
In Chapter 9, ‘Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse:
Theoretical and Empirically Based Reflections’, Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann
argue that diversity management theories and strategies often neglect issues of ‘sexual
orientation’ or ‘sexuality’, and so unwittingly reinforce patterns of exclusion in organiza-
tions. In their chapter, they highlight the transformative potential of queer theory for
supporting theory and practice of diversity management. Bendl and Hofmann present
queer-theoretical concepts and discuss how limited these have been used in research
on diversity management. On the basis of an investigation of Codes of Conduct from
twenty multinational corporations, they exemplify the reproduction of hetero- and cis-
normative patterns as well as opportunities for change. They conclude with recommen-
dations for diversity management research and practice from a queer perspective.
Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just approach diversity in organizations from the
highly original perspective of ambiguity in Chapter 10, ‘Ambiguous Diversities: Practices
6    Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, and Mills

and Perceptions of Diversity Management’. They begin from the assumption that ambi-
guity is an unavoidable and constitutive condition of organizational practices in general
and of diversity practices in particular. They suggest embracing the ambiguity of diversity
management to facilitate the cultural change that is needed if specific diversity initiatives
are to succeed. They explore three ambiguous forms that potentially enhance, but also hin-
der diversity in organizations: strategic ambiguity, contradiction, and ambivalence. They
conclude that the value of ambiguity for diversity management cannot be assigned a pri-
ori; it must be studied in and through managerial practices and employee perceptions.
In ‘Individuals, Teams, and Organizational Benefits of Managing Diversity: An
Evidence-Based Perspective’ (Chapter 11), Eddy Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson take a
neopositivist epistemological perspective, adopting an evidence-based approach to
integrate knowledge about the benefits of diversity at the individual, team, and organi-
zation levels. Ng and Stephenson suggest the positive effects of diversity on performance
at all levels, but only under the appropriate conditions. Equal employment opportunity
and affirmative action programmes appear helpful for increasing the employment of
women and minorities. At the team level, an understanding of group level processes and
dynamics is key to minimizing communication barriers, cohesion, and intragroup con-
flicts arising out of diversity. At the organizational level, firm strategy and leadership are
crucial for firms to capitalize on the benefits of employee diversity.
In Chapter 12, Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi also focus on the benefits of diversity
in organizations, but from a theoretical rather than an empirical perspective in their text
on ‘Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management: Theoretical Perspectives
on the Business Case’. They explore how the business case for diversity is situated within
the broader discourse of diversity management. Dye and Golnaraghi argue the business
case is related to the aim to attract and retain top talent, to address diverse customer
groups, to reduce costs, and enhance innovation and creativity. Despite the business
case being the most dominant discourse for underpinning diversity in organizations,
awareness about the impact of demographic, historical, social, institutional, and geo-
political contexts on our understandings of diversity in organizations is dangerously
absent from the business case discourse.

Part III: Diversity of Empirical

Methods

In diversity research we find a broad range of empirical methods from survey research
to ethnography. The four chapters in this third part of the book illustrate these differ-
ent methodological approaches to studying diversity. What is noteworthy is that each
methodological standpoint crafts unique questions and conceptualizations of diversity,
and offers unique potential in understanding both the field we study as well as our own
research practice. This methodological plurality is vital for increasing our understanding
of the complexity of diversity and its management. In Chapter 13, ‘Explaining Diversity
 Introduction   7

Management Outcomes: What Can Be Learned from Quantitative Survey Research?’,

Sandra Groeneveld provides an overview of the quantitative survey research in the field
of diversity management. She further discusses the contribution of survey research to
our knowledge of diversity management and its outcomes, as well as its advantages and
disadvantages in understanding diversity management phenomena. As a conclusion she
outlines a future research agenda for survey research on diversity management which
focuses on questions about when and why diversity management would lead to favour-
able outcomes. Following this, in Chapter 14, ‘Challenges and Opportunities: Contextual
Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice’, Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde show-
case textual analysis methodologies that provide situational and contextual interpreta-
tions of diversity and production of differences in organizations. They specifically focus
on two approaches of textual analysis: Helms Mills’ (2010) critical sensemaking and
Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory. These approaches tackle both linguistic and
non-linguistic dynamics of discrimination in the workplace by analysing how power
differences are subtly produced among and between social groups. This awareness of
power differences is then vital in challenging the status quo and creating strategies for
change. Next, Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux introduce us to the subversive poten-
tial of ethnography in the field of diversity management in Chapter 15, ‘In Search of the
“Real”: The Subversive Potential of Ethnography in the Field of Diversity Management’.
They compare two ethnographic case studies which include several years of participant
observation in two different organizational and national contexts in Finland and in the
Netherlands. They argue that in their academic quarrels many diversity scholars tend to
lose touch with reality in the workplace. Mutsaers and Trux counterweight mainstream
diversity rhetorics with what really happen in situ and what it means to people, in this
case the addressees of diversity management initiatives, and how they interpret and stra-
tegically deploy diversity discourses in their daily life. Finally, in Chapter 16, ‘Collecting
Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity: Reflecting on Power and Identity in Our
Professional Practice’, Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer draw from their personal
accounts as researchers of diversity in order to discuss the praxis of doing qualitative
diversity research. Reflecting on their histories and experiences as diversity scholars they
focus on the socialization to certain research norms and practices defining the status of
‘good academic’, identity dynamics, and dilemmas confronting researchers of diversity,
and the challenges in translating research findings into writing. By highlighting the com-
plex politics of reflexivity in diversity research the chapter concludes the section by chal-
lenging us to think and rethink our research practice.

Part IV: Diversity of Contexts

and Practices

This section of the book highlights studies of diversity and their outcomes in vari-
ous different national, cultural, and organizational contexts. The chapters deal with
8    Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, and Mills

how to address the context and its specific practices, and how to develop these prac-
tices towards more equal and inclusive direction. What we learn is that understand-
ing contextual dynamics is crucial not only in providing justified interpretations of
people’s lives but also for developing useful practical tools for increasing equality
and inclusion. Chapter 17, ‘Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies through
a Diversity Management Frame’, addresses diversity in the context of higher educa-
tion. Mary Ann Danowitz proposes a definition of diversity management for higher
education institutions, and further uses this definition as a framework for analysing
literature on the diversity management in higher education. She argues that higher
education diversity initiatives should be incorporated more fully into organizational
and managerial practices. Furthermore, diversity initiatives need to be implemented
with consideration of contextual factors, including the national context and the con-
nection between public institutions and educational policies. In Chapter 18, ‘Global
Diversity Management: Breaking the Local Impasse’, Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu
Tatli, and Mustafa Özbilgin address the problematic of implementing global diver-
sity management standards locally. They take the United Kingdom as the local con-
text for their analysis, and report findings from a study that focused on the use of
equality and diversity toolkits. Their empirical evidence emphasizes the importance
of specific, local contexts and context-sensitive tools when local diversity officers of
global companies progress their change agendas. More broadly, they argue for the
business case for diversity management, as the effectiveness of diversity management
hinges on securing the buy-in of businesses in this business-friendly, voluntaristic
diversity management context. Next, Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers intro-
duce us to contexts of entrepreneurial activity that challenge the Western, masculine
notions of entrepreurship in Chapter 19, ‘Entrepreneurship and Diversity’. They first
explore aspects of Indigenous entrepreneurship in Australia, and then experiences of
female Turkish entrepreneurs both in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands.
These diverse entrepreneurs from diverse contexts do entrepreneuring against the
grain by inventing and applying particular identity strategies. The chapter questions
the ethnocentrically biased and gendered foundations of entrepreneurial practices,
and reveals some of the diverse experiences of these entrepreneurial ‘others’. The
final chapter in this section, Chapter 20 by Anita Bosch, Stella Nkomo, Nasima MH
Carrim, Rana Haq, Jawad Syed, and Faiza Ali, describes and discusses practices of
organizing and managing diversity in three emerging countries: India, Pakistan, and
South Africa. In their chapter ‘Practices of Organizing and Managing Diversity in
Emerging Countries: Comparisons Between India, Pakistan, and South Africa’ they
compare the countries in terms of organizational diversity practices in relation to
each country’s definitions of diversity and equality, as well as major legislative frame-
works that protect the rights of diverse groups. This illustrates how organizations
within each country are responding macro-level legislative practices, whilst dealing
with country-specific realities. In addition to parallels in equality challenges in these
three countries all three of them also struggle with their uniquely nuanced sources of
diversity, and search for strategies towards achieving equality and inclusion.
 Introduction   9

Part V: Intersections of Diversity

In line with the exponential growth of interest in the concept of intersectionality we

received a considerable number of chapters focused upon intersections of diversity.
Danielle Mercer, Mariana Paludi, Jean Helms Mills, and Albert J. Mills argue in Chapter
21, ‘Intersectionality at the Intersection: Paradigms, Methods, and Application: A
Review’, that the notion of intersectionality is an increasingly popular term in use in
diversity studies, which is a potentially good thing, but that many of those studies utilize
the term as if it has universal meaning. However, they found no unified definition of
intersectionality and also very little sense of how such a perspective should be applied.
Indeed, it was not clear if intersectionality is a theoretical framework, a perspective, a
theory, a heuristic, or a method. Few studies involve applications of the term, which is a
major limitation if the term is to ultimately prove useful. The authors problematize the
notion of intersectionality and the challenges of utilizing an intersectional lens if the
attendant underlying ontological, methodological, and epistemological issues involved
are not taken into account.
Focusing more specifically on practice, other chapters in this section reinforce these
insights and reveal the challenges and the promise of studying age-ethnicity-class and of
studying disabilities. In Chapter 22, ‘The Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class
in Organizations’, Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb remind us that although
‘the social categories of age and ethnicity are well studied by diversity scholars, literature
on the combined effects of these dimensions for individuals and organizations’ is still
scarce, and especially in relation to class. Further, they point out that the very complexi-
ties of each ‘category’ are such that it makes it difficult to study them individually let
alone in interaction with other categories of difference. To deal with that issue they pro-
pose a method of study that initially identifies social groups based on age, ethnicity, or
class but here they warn against over-simplification and assumptions of homogeneity
across the identified group. They then propose that each identified group is, in turn,
examined in dyadic relationship to one other ‘category’ (e.g. age-class; class-ethnicity;
age-ethnicity). In the process, they state, research should closely examine ‘the mecha-
nisms by which organizational practices (re-)inforce or mitigate inequalities associated
with the intersections of age, ethnicity and class’.
In Chapter 23, ‘People with Disabilities: Identity, Stigmatization, Accommodation,
and Intersection with Gender and Ageing in Effects on Employment Outcomes’, David
Baldridge, Joy Beatty, Alison M. Konrad, and Mark E. Moore, in their focus on ‘disa-
bilities’ and (to a lessor extent) gender, look beyond structural solutions (which they
regard as important) to the link between discriminatory practices and sociological and
social-psychological dynamics. In the former case they draw on the concept of stigma
and stigmatization to examine how certain identity markers (i.e., disabled) become
seen as socially deficient. In the latter case they argue that in the process of stigmatiza-
tion at work it is not enough to focus on workplace practices but to visit the various
10    Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, and Mills

contributions of employers, organizational leaders, and team members in the creation

of such practices and the stigmatization of selected groups.
Context—especially historical context—is also to the forefront of Chapter 24 by Ali
Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir, ‘Of Race and Religion: Understanding Anti-Muslim
Prejudice in the United States’. Focusing particularly on the intersections of race and
religion, the authors contend that the dynamic spaces between history and practice need
to be explored to understand the various ways that discriminatory images of ‘the Other’
are created. As a timely exemplar they draw on current construction of ‘the Muslim’
in the United States to reveal the importance of understanding the complex interplay
of historic and contemporary relations in making sense of how certain ‘differences’
become co-joined or intersected.
In the final chapter in this section, ‘Intersectionality, Social Identity Theory, and
Explorations of Hybridity: A Critical Review of Diverse Approaches to Diversity’, Glen
Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa return us to the issue of the theorization of
intersectionality—proposing a fusion of social identity theory (SIT) and intersectional-
ity, arguing that these are two of the leading approaches to the issues of identity work
that are rarely considered together. Through a focus on the different disciplinary ori-
gins, epistemology, ontology, political, and ideological orientations, the authors reveal
important debates around the multiplicity and complexity of identity work and diver-
sity, in order to serve as a gateway to further dialogue.

Part VI: Where to Go From Here?

The former parts of this book give insights into the variety of theoretical-conceptual,
methodological, empirical, intersectional, and contextual perspectives of existing diver-
sity research in organizations. That wide range will not be limited in the projections of
the authors of this part. On the contrary, based on the knowledge created and bundled
in the former parts, future research on diversity in organization will, they argue, be even
more complex and, thus, maybe also more complicated. The chapters in this section rep-
resent relevant examples and provide further insights in the complexity of future diver-
sity research.
In Chapter 26, ‘Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical Perspectives: The
Validity of the Research Process’, Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra Fielden explore the
meaning of validity in research from critical perspective by discussing how meth-
odological decisions in different phases of the research process influence knowledge
creation. The authors offer perspectives which help to reveal organizational norms, in
particular hierarchical organized dichotomies, in order to make organizations more
inclusive.
On a more conceptual level, Yvonne Benschop, Charlotte Holgersson, Marieke
van den Brink, and Anna Wahl discuss ‘Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity
Management in Organizations’ in Chapter 27. In order to highlight the transformative
 Introduction   11

potential of diversity management practices, which in the context of this text refers to
changing inequalities, the authors present a model which provides dimensions for the
design of diversity practices. In particular, the authors focus on transformative potential
of diversity training, networks, mentoring, and coaching.
Finally, Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta Calás focus on the transnational perspective
of the research field diversity in organizations. In Chapter 28, ‘From Here to There and
Back Again: Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations’, the two authors
highlight the incommensurability of diversity literature and the transformation of the
subject diversity in organizations as it travelled beyond the original US-centred litera-
ture. By articulating four modes of diffusion (internationalizing diversity, provincial-
izing diversity, the simultaneity of diversity, and the formation of mobile subjectivities)
the authors open up the space for a post-identitiarian transnational understanding of
diversity in organizations which shows the complexity of field.
To sum up: we as editors, together with our contributors, went through an intensive
interdisciplinary cooperative and successful process of knowledge creation, produc-
tion, and sharing in the field of diversity in organizations. Therefore, we are spirited to
consider this Handbook as source for scholarly inspection, inspiration, and encourage-
ment to further engage in and broaden the research on diversity in organizations. From
a reader’s perspective, we will be rewarded for our editorial undertaking if the included
texts stimulate further intersectional equality-, inclusion-, and queering-oriented
research representing the different diversity dimensions, critical texts on the bounda-
ries of organizing and managing diversity and new methodological and methodical
perspectives highlighting the relational, contextual, and transformative as well as trans-
national perspectives of organizing and managing diversity in organizations—all based
on epistemological approaches which give voice to diversity and multiplicity and high-
light constant processes of othering and exclusion. Inherent in such diversity-oriented
research across levels and areas there may be not only interdisciplinary and multidis-
ciplinary as well as incommensurable perspectives but also the transgression of disci-
plinary boundaries and cross-disciplinarity. As such, this book may be a step towards
creating and developing a future research space for diversity in organizations which goes
beyond the traditional boundaries of the disciplines, is freed from mainstream discipli-
nary constraints, and supports research on transnational post-identitarian perspectives
which shape local diversity and influence diversity and its organizing and management
in organizations.
 Pa rt I

P LU R A L I SM S
OF T H E OR I Z I N G ,
ORG A N I Z I N G ,
A N D M A NAG I N G
DI V E R SI T Y
 Chapter 1

T he P olitics of E qua l i t y
and Dive rsi t y
History, Society, and Biography

Geraldine Healy

Introduction

This chapter discusses the underpinning politics guiding the processes and subjective
experiences of equality and diversity and its management in the workplace, and the
wider macro struggles for equality and social justice. Uncovering the politics of diversity
is no easy task because of the complex interconnections, contradictions, and multilayers
inherent in the nature of inequalities and diversity. The chapter offers a number of ideas
through which the analysis of the politics of diversity, and ultimately fairness, might be
approached.
The politics of diversity is informed by multidisciplinary perspectives, including
philosophical, sociological, economic, legal, historical, geographical, and, of course, the
work in employment relations and management studies, in which field this volume sits.
Moreover, history is a central aspect, as is the interrelationship between different levels
of analysis from macro and meso to the experience of the self. Thinking from a histori-
cally informed, multi-level approach owes much to sociological ideas where, drawing
on Layder (2005), the layering of social domains are seen as interconnected through
social relations of power and also stretched out over time and space (p. 274).
The politics of organizations (and of diversity) is imbued with ideological processes
(Edwards and Wacjman 2006). Such multiple ideological processes will be central to
our understanding of the politics of diversity and we do not in any way assume that an
emancipatory approach will characterize all diversity strategies and studies. Given the
multiple ideological processes that come into play, the diversity term has been used in
numerous ways, and any discussion of the management of diversity has to recognize
value differences ranging from managerial instrumentalism to forms of resistance and
16   Geraldine Healy

liberatory ideals. Moreover, the use of the diversity terms may be primarily descriptive
according to available statistics, defensive or even self-congratulatory in the light of the
same statistics. Thus the diversity project is always and inevitably political even when it
strives towards an unobtainable objectivity. The differences in the management of diver-
sity types were well spelt out by Kirton (2008) who argued that, despite its emancipatory
potential, the diversity concept had been appropriated by managerialists and the mana-
gerial language that infuses it.
In contrast to the managerialist approach, Iris Marion Young’s work provides
insightful philosophical underpinning to the term of diversity, although Young’s
preference is to explore ‘the politics of difference’ (1990). For her, a politics of dif-
ference argues, on the one hand, that equality as the participation and inclusion of
all groups sometimes requires different treatment for oppressed or disadvantaged
groups. Thus she argues that, to promote social justice, social policy should some-
times accord special treatment to groups (Young 1990: 158). Young is arguing for
emancipation through a politics of difference, a form of democratic cultural plural-
ism (Young 1990: 163). In this reading of diversity, the ‘good society’ does not elimi-
nate or transcend group difference, but ensures that there is equality among socially
and culturally differentiated groups, who mutually respect one another and affirm
one another in their differences. Much of this chapter is about the politics of the
struggle for the ‘good society’.
The politics of diversity are rooted in debates over forms of exclusion, inclusion,
and discrimination at different levels in a society. The debates tend to focus on those
aspects of diversity that are the subject of regulation, for example, ethnic origin,
religion, sex, ability, sexuality, and age (among others), but, whilst not always fore-
grounded in contemporary studies of diversity, exclusion based on class has been
common from time immemorial. The resulting inequalities and injustices shaped
societies and the distribution of resources and wealth. From early history to the pre-
sent day, a myriad of examples of exclusion may be found over centuries and across
national boundaries, through multiple eras of slavery, exclusion, and subjugation
based on the female sex, the outlawing of homosexuality, exclusion (legal and cul-
tural) of different religions, and with always the certainty of the subjugation of the
economically disadvantaged.
It is important therefore to ground the politics in the reality of societal effects of
inequalities in contemporary everyday life. One important and influential source is
The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone (Pickett and Wilkinson 2010).
The book highlights the ‘pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding
trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption’. It
shows that, for each of eleven different health and social problems: physical health,
mental health, drug abuse, education, imprisonment, obesity, social mobility, trust
and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies, and child well-being, outcomes
are significantly worse in more unequal rich countries. Despite this knowledge, what
is particularly concerning is that the gap between the rich and the poor is growing
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    17

in most developed countries. Neoliberal countries such as the United Kingdom and
the United States are notable due to their relatively high levels of income inequality
despite their overall wealth (Pickett and Wilkinson 2010). It is all the more concern-
ing that the real value of incomes in recent years is static or declining. The effect of
neoliberal policies begun in the 1980s and sustained through social democratic and
conservative governments has led to an intensification of work and heightening of
insecurity. Privatization and subcontracting have led to growing work intensification
and insecurity and declining incomes through contractual change, casualization, and
a reduction of employment protection. At the same time, near monopolies of large
contractors have placed accountability to shareholders above considerations of fair
wages and social justice. Such neoliberal policies have weakened the trade unions
through a more hostile organizing environment, management strategies of union
avoidance, and restructuring leading to decline in union membership (Heery and
Simms, 2010; Kirton and Healy 2013b).
Alongside these trends, despite decades of employment protection, it is noteworthy,
for example, that women’s access to power, whether it is in politics or as heads of large
private or public organizations remains significantly less than men’s (World Economic
Forum 2014). In no country in the world are women equal to men, the gap between men
and women’s pay remains wide, and women are more likely to be in poverty than men
(World Economic Forum 2014). Moreover, women and girls continue to be subject to
harassment in organizations. The more cut-throat economic context makes it harder
and harder for people with disabilities to get work and simultaneously get support from
the state and other bodies. At the same time, an ethnic penalty impacts negatively on
groups of black and minority ethnic (BME) groups regardless of human capital, so that
they too are underrepresented in positions with access to power, are more likely to be
unemployed and earning lower incomes (Heath and Cheung 2006), and be excluded
from networks of power. The intersection of these different strands is important, as
women and BME groups, for example, are heterogeneous: their experiences will differ
by their race, ethnicity, sex, sexuality, religion, ability, age, which tend to be covered by
legislative protection. Discrimination on the grounds of social class is one of the most
important markers of inequality yet is not outlawed in the same way as other strands of
inequality. Moreover, other intersections, often rooted in particular contexts, come into
play in understanding inequalities, for example, the significance of overseas qualifica-
tions (see Oikelome and Healy 2007, 2012; Healy and Oikelome 2011). Thus, intersec-
tionality is an important factor in the politics of diversity, alongside the asymmetrical
nature of power.
The background of power gaps shapes the politics of diversity, inequalities, inclu-
sions, and exclusions, and provides compelling evidence for an emancipatory
approach to the politics of diversity. In light of this, the chapter is organized around
four interconnected themes with the first theme of history, society, and biography inter-
relating horizontally and vertically with the remaining three themes: colonial history,
voluntarism and regulation, and diversity careers.
18   Geraldine Healy

History, Society, and Biography

The interrelationship of history, society, and biography, with the different strands of
inequality and their intersectionalities, affect and reflect the multi-levels of the politics
of diversity. This theme takes as its starting point the idea that history demands a socio-
logical imagination which enables us to ‘grasp history and biography and the relations
between the two within society’. Wright Mills’s classic work on the sociological imagina-
tion, first published in 1959, is very much in the tradition of a public sociology. For him,
‘no social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history and
their intersections within a society has completed its intellectual journey’ (ibid). Thus,
the sociological imagination lends itself well to understanding the politics of diversity,
and to separating out the individualism so strong in contemporary debates about fair-
ness and diversity from the underpinning collectivism inherent in systemic structures
of inequality. Mills sought to analytically separate the ‘personal troubles of the milieu’
from the ‘public issues of social structure’; in this way his work speaks to the individual-
ism that characterizes much diversity management (DM) thinking. His concerns were
not diversity but inequalities, and he had its own biographical agenda (Brewer 2004: 5).
Once Mills’s book was distanced from the immediate biographical agenda that occa-
sioned it, Brewer maintained that The Sociological Imagination could be approached
for the undoubted quality of its argument, and that its popularity has been fundamen-
tal to Mills’s capacity to transcend his time and place (Brewer 2004: 332). As was com-
mon with the academics of his day, the female pronoun was conspicuous by its absence.
Nevertheless, Mills’s work is insightful in the context of contemporary neoliberal poli-
cies and speaks to us with a refreshing relevance. He argued that rather than ‘an indiffer-
ence to the publics’, he was seeking to get away from the dominant neoliberal approach
of the US at that time, which, if anything, has intensified and globalized since 1959. He
was also mounting a powerful critique of the way that the sociology of the late fifties had
become dominated by abstracted empiricism and formalized grand theories.
Mills’s work has been influential with writers concerned with inequality and injustice.
Patricia Hill Collins (2000) sees the task and promise of the sociological imagination
to grasp the relations between history and biography in society resembling the holis-
tic epistemology required by black feminism, using one’s point of view to engage the
sociological imagination and empower the individual (2000: 308). For Collins, develop-
ing a black women’s standpoint to engage a collective black feminist imagination can
empower the group. Cooper also finds Mills’s (1959) sociological imagination concep-
tual framework valuable in his critical examination of the connection between the per-
sonal biographies of black athletes at predominantly white institutions and the historical
public issues facing black people in the US in order to discuss the athletes’ experiences
with racial discrimination/social isolation, academic neglect, economic deprivation,
and limited leadership opportunities (Cooper 2012: 261). Moreover, intersectional chal-
lenges have been raised by black feminists to build an emancipatory consciousness of
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    19

the domination of feminism by white (often middle-class) feminists and the neglect of
the interests of their black sisters (Crenshaw 1991; Hooks 2000; Collins 2004).
Thus, inherent in the sociological imagination is an emancipatory intent. Moreover,
this approach recognizes that the experiences of women, black people, lesbians and gays
are rooted in historical patriarchal, raced, and homophobic structures that are repro-
duced through generations and acted out in individual biographies. Thus, individuals’
choices are inevitably constrained. Nevertheless, the public issues flowing from soci-
etal structures characterize the collective work that is undertaken by emancipatory
campaigners. Women’s rights campaigners, for example, opposing women’s unequal
place in society, have worked through political parties, non-governmental organiza-
tions (NGOs), legislation, and policy development. Numerous international agencies
are working to promote women’s equality; for example, the World Bank has highlighted
empowering women as smart economics and vital to ending poverty and boosting
shared prosperity, and made this one of its Millennium Development Goals (World
Bank 2014). Thus gender equality has become part of the wider agenda for international
development.
Class is often a neglected theme in the diversity literature and almost totally ignored
in diversity practice. Yet as Acker (2006a) argues, ‘class’ is still a necessary category of
analysis (p. 39). Indeed, as she goes on to explain, ‘As economic inequality and severe
poverty deepen, as middle class families face increasing stress over time and money,1
while redistribution to the corporate rich increases its pace in US and most other
countries, any idea that class and capitalism are no longer relevant concepts must be
seen as a delusion’ (p. 40). Thus, for Acker, an historical-materialist analysis is still
useful for feminism, and the starting place must be the material conditions of life
and the relations involved in the production of those conditions in particular histori-
cal moments. Importantly, Acker includes class in her analysis of inequality regimes
(Acker 2006a, 2006b) that permeate diversity practices. For her, thinking about ‘the
social’ or society as human practice rather than as abstract structures, is necessary
for developing the idea that class is gendered and racialized, as she argues that race
and gender seem to disappear in structural class analysis. An intersectional sensibility
reminds us that equality and diversity are concerned with multiple forms of disad-
vantage and that these play out in different ways (Healy, Bradley, and Forson 2011).
While intersectional studies have been more likely to focus on gender and ethnicity
(McGuire 2000; Kamenou 2008; Healy, Bradley, and Forson 2011; Özbilgin et al. 2011)
other strands are important, including migration and place of qualification (Healy
and Oikelome 2011) and sexuality (Wright 2013), and underline the complexity of
intersectionality.
The complexity of intersectionality uncovers the connections and contradictions that
are at the heart of the interrelationship of personal biographies, history, and society.
Intersectional troubles form part of equality professionals’ challenges in their working

1
The US term ‘middle class’ is used to relate to ‘hard-working Americans’ and seems to be a
euphemism for the UK use of working class.
20   Geraldine Healy

lives, but the structures to support the resolution of such troubles are frequently missing
at the meso or macro level. Nevertheless, recognition of the relationship between biog-
raphy, history, and society was evident in the social justice orientation of equal opportu-
nities officers studied by Cockburn (1991) in the 1980s. Kirton, Greene, and Dean (2007)
studied diversity professionals in 2006 when the discursive turn to managing diver-
sity was firmly embedded. ‘Diversity professionals’ were defined as people tasked with
a role in developing and implementing diversity initiatives. Kirton et al. (2007) found
Meyerson and Scully’s concept of ‘tempered radicals’ useful in illuminating the expe-
riences and biographies of people occupying and utilizing a position of ambivalence
within organizations. Furthermore, they argue that, from this perspective, it is possible
to avoid assuming that diversity professionals are not progressive, simply because they
temper their radicalism (ibid 1993). The tempered radicals concept softens the binary
divide of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000) and of radicals and liberals
(Jewson and Mason 1986), and enables the uncovering of tensions that people in these
positions in organizations accept (both explicitly and implicitly) (Kirton, Greene, and
Dean 2007). Kirton and colleagues argue that understanding how and why diversity
professionals undertake their work may offer, by extension, some insight into the appro-
priateness, effectiveness, limitations, and constraints of diversity policies within organi-
zations (ibid 1992).
The costs and contestations inherent in the intersections of biography, history, and
society are evident in the work of diversity actors. Kirton and Greene (2009) demon-
strate that the costs experienced by the equality specialist of the 1980s (Cockburn 1991;
Lawrence 2000) were also experienced by the diversity professional of the twenty-first
century. The organizational politics within the wider context of structural mechanisms
play out in the focus and rhetoric of diversity, so that their study finds that there now
seems to be less of a place in diversity work for people whose primary affiliation lies with
pursuing a progressive agenda in the interests of disadvantaged groups. Importantly,
they reason that the emphasis on the business case for DM can be explained partly by
reference to the changed political climate in which diversity policymaking takes place
(2009: 173). Thus, at the meso level, the politics and history are instilled in the strategy,
actions, and discourse of key equality actors and the macroeconomic context.
The centrality of the contemporary nature of capitalism shapes much of the ‘choices’
made by actors on the diversity stage, but their agency is, to an extent, the outcome of
the dialectical relationship between self and circumstance. At the macro level, the rela-
tionship between the state and equality and diversity initiatives is complex. Max Weber
recognized the state, both national and local, as the focus of contestation, where dif-
ferent groups lobbied to get their interests represented (Weber 1978). This is not to say
that the state was neutral, nor that interests were equally represented, more that equality
and diversity outcomes represent the interplay of different interest groups and uneven
power relations. For example, in the US, feminist activists, especially lawyers, developed
a very powerful lobbying presence during the 1960s, and, as a result, the US took the
lead in anti-sexist legislation (Gelb and Palley 1982). In Australia, a group of feminist
activists were able to make their way into the state bureaucracy to become involved in
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    21

policymaking from the inside, earning the name of ‘femocrats’, while such moves were
slower to develop in Europe and the UK,2 where feminism took a more grassroots form.
Feminists in Britain had been campaigning for similar laws in Britain to the American
Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Equal Employment Opportunities Act of 1972 (interest-
ingly, these acts covered both sex and race discrimination). However, it is taken to be the
influence of the European Union (EU) that led the UK government to pass the Equal Pay
Act 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (and other progressive legislation), which
were later consolidated with later provisions into the Equality Act 2010. Improvements
in these Acts were driven by the 1997 Labour Government signature to the EU social
chapter.
Thus, it was only in a small window of recent UK history, and partly due to the
increased number of women, resulting from positive action strategies, within the UK
Parliament, that the 1997–2010 Labour Government took a more proactive lead in
positively espousing the notion of diversity and championing the causes of women,
ethnic minorities, disabled people, older people, and victims of other kinds of discrimi-
nation (religious minorities, gays, and lesbians) (Bradley and Healy 2008: 63). As the
European superstate evolved, feminists were also able to gain important positions as
advisers and commissioners within the EU bureaucracy, leading to the development of
stronger policies on gender equality. Scandinavian states, which prided themselves on
their egalitarian nature and place in the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index,
played an important role here. Borchorst and Siim (1987) took a more critical line on
this; they argued that, in Scandinavian countries, a kind of benevolent state paternal-
ism had developed, which freed women from dependency on men, but could trap them
into dependency on the state.3 Nevertheless, while these achievements are important,
they are not unproblematic: Scandinavian women also suffer from contradictions in
that equality of women’s participation in the Scandinavian labour market conceals their
relatively low representation in the hierarchies of organizations, including academia
(Seierstad and Healy 2012).
Thus, with respect to laws prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race and
ethnicity, key actors were important, but societal events were also crucial in bringing
about political change. The development of the race relations legislation in the UK, for
example, was, from its inception, bound up with fear and often hysteria over immigra-
tion and, crucially, the problems of order, rather than social justice concerns. The early
race relations laws were a direct result of the Nottingham and Notting Hill disturbances
(or ‘race riots’ or ‘uprisings’) in 1958, which abruptly brought to the fore the issue of
relations between white and black communities. This, and other agitations around the
impact of postwar immigration, led to what Brown (1992) describes as ‘the twin-plank
policy of keeping out further migrants but giving fair treatment to those already in
Britain’. Although in reality ‘giving fair treatment’ was partial, contingent, and ques-
tionable and has left an unhappy legacy, evident in the riots in Britain in 2013 and in

2
With the exception of Finland—see Tyska 1988 (and likely the former East Germany).
3
The above paragraph was mainly drawn from Bradley and Healy (2008: 61–2).
22   Geraldine Healy

Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 (see the section ‘Colonial History is Fundamental to our
Understanding of the Politics of Diversity’). In the intervening years, the debate about
immigration has ebbed and flowed, but in the second decade of the twenty-first century
immigration is central in the contemporary political debates, with strange allies of lib-
erals and business owners combining in their support for and recognition of migrants’
contribution.
Healy and Oikelome (2011) bring together the interrelationship of ‘personal troubles’
and ‘public issues’ in order to explore the experience of migrant workers, both highly
qualified and low paid, and show how the history and the politics of migration ensure
that migrant workers find themselves in particular, usually adverse, locations of the
labour market. Moreover, the intersection of the subjective and objective conditions
of migration and DM ensured the frequent reproduction of disadvantage, regardless
of ‘sophisticated policies’ designed to challenge such disadvantage. Thus, studies show
that even where migrant workers have security and legislative protection, they may still
experience disadvantage in multiple ways (Healy and Oikelome 2011). Conversely, many
migrant workers do not have economic security. Alberti, Holgate, and Tapia (2013) assert
that migrant workers are vulnerable to considerable exploitation and abuse, where their
jobs are precarious and they do not benefit from union protection. Moreover, the (albeit
limited) benefits of equality and diversity measures, such as adherence to legislation or
human resource management (HRM) good practice, are non-existent in the organiza-
tions within which many migrants work (Alberti, Holgate, and Tapia 2013).
The recent economic crises have brought the stalled progress on diversity and fairness
into sharp relief. It is the case that it is those who are most vulnerable, disadvantaged,
and oppressed who have experienced economic crises more sharply than those who are
more privileged. Women, black, lower socioeconomic groups, those in casualized work,
and migrants are most affected by the economic restructuring that is taking place glob-
ally. Moreover, public sector workers are also at the sharp end; again disproportionately
it is women and BME workers, some of whom may have been attracted to the public
sector by its espoused principles of fairness, who are affected by cut-backs. The focus on
the individual and the market in contemporary DM fails to take account of the public
issues of social structure. This therefore precludes an understanding of the reality and
context of DM. While proclamations of commitment to diversity are widespread in the
UK, there has been a subtle shift away from enabling public structures through legisla-
tion and a previous philosophy (however weak) of emancipation that has supported and
justified relatively progressive equality initiatives.
It is to historical influences that we now turn. In line with Edwards and Wajcman
(2006), we consider that historical continuities, as well as breaks, are central features
of the capitalist system and are part of the politics of diversity. History shows that
there are dominant continuities which affect the nature of diversity in organiza-
tions and whose influence may ebb and flow or may show a particular trajectory at
moments in time. To understand the politics of diversity, therefore, it is important to
understand the interrelationship of different histories, including colonial history, the
second theme.
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    23

Colonial History is Fundamental

to our Understanding of the Politics
of Diversity

History and colonial history demonstrate the importance of the politics of diversity in
research. Histories provide explanations and understandings of acceptance/rejection of
the status quo and how it is reinforced and challenged over time. The history of empire
and slavery continues to influence contemporary thinking and collective memories in
former empire-building countries.4 In Britain, the empire connections and contradic-
tions from history are manifested in both shame and pride. Gilroy (2004: 100) argues
that Britain’s ambivalence about its empire is especially evident in its reactions to the
fragments of brutal colonial history that emerge occasionally to unsettle the remem-
brance of the imperial project by undermining its moral legitimacy and damaging the
national self-esteem.
In many ways, the British national self-esteem was built on class, exclusion, and race.
Said’s influential exposure of damaging colonial dichotomies (1978) and his later study
of cultural imperialism (1993) revealed the deep and entrenched nature of colonial supe-
riority and established hierarchies in history, politics, and culture. Moreover, it is dif-
ficult to read Said without being reminded of the importance of de Beauvoir’s Second
Sex, where she recognized that oppression by hierarchy happened in other categories of
identity, such as race, class, and religion, but she claimed that it was nowhere more true
than with gender, in which men stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organ-
ize society into a patriarchy where women were always the ‘other’ (de Beauvoir 1949).
While contemporary writers on intersectionality may question de Beauvoir’s hierarchy
of oppression, the negative discourses revealed by her insights are used to justify not
only Western colonialism and gender oppression, but also what emerged as a Western
moral obligation ‘designed to civilize, improve and help those peoples who were “lagging
behind” in the March of History and Civilisation’ (Prasad 1993b: 12; italics in the origi-
nal, cited in Prasad 2006).
Thus the consequence in, for example, the British imperialist context, is that, as Healy
and Oikelome (2011) argued, the British national self-esteem was based on notions of
British superiority which rendered other nations, particularly those conquered in the

4 The chapter discusses how the long shadow of colonial history plays out in the current approaches to

the management of diversity. Yet, it is also the case that a country’s pre-colonial history may be relevant;
however, this is often ignored and sadly is outside the remit of this chapter. Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd
(2000) use the example of pre-colonial groups in New Zealand to remind us that the colonization of
US discourse in the study of the management of diversity may too be imbued with US colonialism in its
ethnocentrism and neglect of pre-colonial models of diversity. They assert that the politics of disregarded
groups is embedded in the domination of the US approach to diversity. Their study of Maori and Pakeha
women managers in New Zealand exposes the limitations of the US model of diversity (Jones, Pringle,
and Shepherd 2000).
24   Geraldine Healy

imperial project, inferior. Ipso facto, according to this logic not only was Britain supe-
rior, but therefore Britons were superior (and we would add here, the British male).
Discussion of empire and slavery is important because many of the contemporary
problems and difficulties facing settlers to Britain from former British colonies (and
elsewhere) lie in the still potent legacies of white British supremacy. Such notions were
not only the prerogative of those in positions of power; rather they were carefully con-
structed beliefs that formed part of the dominant ideologies that pervaded society.
Healy and Oikelome contend that British people’s own class subjugation was concealed
by their belief in the propaganda that the British were a people of innate superiority
regardless of class, a belief that belies the very real subjugation of the British working
class. Thus, a hierarchy of subjugation emerged, characterized by the empire’s divide and
rule philosophy (Healy and Oikelome 2011: 41), with the most impoverished seeking sol-
ace in the shining light of the British Empire, a light in which its citizens basked. When
the ‘light’ of empire faded, belief in supremacy, although diluted with the break-up and
loss of empire, was nevertheless handed down through the generations, sometimes in
diluted form, sometimes in unabridged supremacist versions (Healy and Oikelome
2011: 41). In the postcolonial era, we see, in different ways, how the resulting embedded
racism plays out in contemporary Britain. We turn again to Gilroy who well made the
connection between past history and contemporary racism:

Once the history of the Empire became a source of discomfort, shame and perplexity,
its complexities and ambiguities were readily set aside. Rather than work through
those feelings, that unsettling history was diminished, denied and if possible actively
forgotten. The resulting silence feeds an additional catastrophe: (that is) the error of
imagining that postcolonial people are only unwanted alien intruders without any
substantive, historical, political or cultural connections to the collective life of their
fellow subjects. (2004: 98)

The human cost of colonization, particularly in the form of slavery, is immense but little
attempt has been made to compensate the victims to this day. It is unsurprising, there-
fore, that the legacy of colonization is part of an ongoing dispute between Barbados and
other Caribbean islands and the UK with respect to reparations (Beckles 2013). Beckles
is concerned with building the moral case for reparations 5—as a just and necessary
response to historical crimes. The Caribbean Commission produced a ten-point plan
which ranged from a ‘full formal apology’ by European governments to more concrete
forms of reparation, including assistance for public health, education, and cultural
development. Caribbean countries’ demands ranged from the apology to aid equiva-
lent to Britain’s original compensation to West Indian slaveholders (just under £200
billion in today’s money). So while diversity laws seek to combat the contemporary

5 Professor Sir Hilary Beckles is Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of the West

Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. He is a distinguished university administrator, economic historian,
and specialist in higher education and development thinking and practice; and an internationally
reputed historian.
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    25

discrimination faced by the Caribbean migrants and their descendants in the UK, the
legacies of colonization and imperialism are key causal factors leading to the impeded
development of countries in the Caribbean and the migration of their citizens.
Prasad (2006) makes a powerful case for linking postcolonial theory and workplace
diversity. Drawing on Said, he sees the discourse of Orientalism as constructing an
elaborate architecture of hierarchical dichotomies by means of which the Occident
(the West) was conceptually manoeuvred into a position of ontological superiority
over the Orient (the non-West), resulting in a hierarchical system of colonist bina-
ries’ (p. 124). Prasad goes on to argue that promoting genuine workplace diversity
involves efforts aimed at destabilizing and subverting the hierarchical system of bina-
ries discursively produced in the course of Western (neo)colonial domination (p. 138).
However, he asserts that, since power and identity of the white privileged groups (and
in important ways, the identity of white groups in general) are deeply implicated in
this system of binaries, workplace diversity efforts frequently face strong opposition
from such groups (ibid).
To an extent, the postcolonial lessons for understanding the politics of diversity in the
global north lie in the complexity and hierarchy of the migration process for migrants
and their descendants, and in exploring the intersectional experiences of migrants’ own
lives in their homes, their workplaces, and organizations. Colonial history and its post-
colonial understandings become particularly important in the context of migration and
its link to the politics of diversity. It is evident that colonial history is played out in dif-
ferent geographical spaces. These spaces are crucial contexts through which the politics
of diversity is enacted and embodied and experienced. Moreover, spaces are not fixed
contexts in that, in different ways, the migrant lives both ‘here and there’ spatially and
emotionally.
Thus migration, past or present, is a central aspect of the politics of
diversity—shifting populations enable recipient countries to build their infra-
structures, develop, and grow. Yet migrants are seen in the conservative press and
in political discourse as a collective entity that create problems for so-called settled
communities. Even citizens with long years of settlement find their ability to achieve
acceptance as citizens (de facto rather than de jure) is often contingent on the col-
our of their skin. New migration hierarchies emerge. The negative perception of the
Irish migrant in the US (Roediger 1999) and UK (Delaney 2007) in the 1850s was
well charted and persisted in the UK through to the 1960s and 1970s, inflamed again
by the struggles for a united Ireland in the 1970s. But in the twenty-first century,
despite unevenness in public perception, the Irish migrants are more likely to be
highly educated than their mid-twentieth-century relatives, and tend to be viewed
more positively than their predecessors. Such transformation has, not on the whole,
happened to the descendants of slaves in the US nor to the Caribbean migrant in the
UK. Moreover, the EU enlargement has led to increased migration across Europe. In
the UK, building the historical and contemporary exclusionary outlook of the press
and many politicians, some migrants (e.g. Romanians in 2014) have been demonized
in the public discourse, to the point where they may even conceal their national
26   Geraldine Healy

identities in work and social settings (evidenced by 2014 work in progress by Doldor
and Atewologun6).
While it is true to say that there has been some significant progress in the US (Bell
2007) and the UK (CRE 2007), the gap between the minority and majority access to
privilege remains wide. As the former UK Commission on Racial Equality stated in its
valedictory publication, ‘a lot done, a lot more to do’ (CRE 2007). The queue-jumping of
acceptance by the majority controllers of power resources in the equality stakes tends
to ensure that, in certain contexts, visible ethnicity remains a negative marker of differ-
ence regardless of period of settlement or formal citizenship, ensuring equality of treat-
ment and outcome remains a struggle. Despite the evident changes in the US, reform
has been partial and patchy, and black Americans continue to be disadvantaged com-
pared to their white counterparts. Moreover, the residential segregation and its associ-
ated poverty are extreme and results in political disaffection. The 2014 uprisings/riots
in Ferguson, Missouri, was a sharp reminder of the fragility of race relations in the US.
This case well illustrates the interrelationship of history, society, and biography. Younge
(2014) reported in August 2014, that Ferguson, a mostly black town, was under curfew
following the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old black teenager, Michael Brown, by
the police as he walked down the street. Following the shooting and the resulting riots,
Ferguson, whose entire political power structure is white, including its highly milita-
rized police force, was effectively under occupation. At the end of the first day of curfew,
hundreds of police in riot gear swept through the streets, using tear gas, smoke canisters,
and rubber bullets against an increasingly agitated crowd. Distrust of the highly decen-
tralized police led to the governor deploying the National Guard. Younge concludes his
piece with the recognition that nobody wants more [killings of] Michael Browns but
that those two things—the violence of the state and the violence of the street—are con-
nected and reminds us of a quote from Martin Luther King, ‘A riot is the language of the
unheard.’ In the multiple newspaper articles around the time of the Ferguson riots (and
indeed previous riots in the US and the UK), a question is inevitable, and asked bluntly
by Stafford (2014), why is it nearly always black men that the police shoot? Stafford com-
mented that, in Ferguson and in so many other cases, we see the deaths of unarmed
black men as ‘accidents’; he went on, ‘until the day we all recognize them as casualties
of something much bigger, we will continue to see black men dead on the news’. As this
book goes to press in November 2014, riots again took place, following the lack of indict-
ment of the officer responsible for the shooting.
In the UK, the police are also distrusted by the black community with respect to the
police stop and search policy. The figures are stark: if you are a black person, you are at
least six times as likely to be stopped and searched by the police in England and Wales
as a white person. If you are Asian, you are around twice as likely to be stopped and
searched as a white person (Equality and Human Rights Commission 2014). There is
little doubt that the UK and London police have invested considerably in equality and

6
Academics in the Centre for Research in Equality, Queen Mary University of London.
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    27

diversity training and policies, but the stop and search figures have remained stubbornly
high. In addition, there are long-standing disputes about shooting ‘accidents’ in the
black community. It is now likely that the police will introduce a positive action pro-
gramme to ensure that the London Metropolitan Police is numerically representative of
its population.
Paradoxically, there have also been examples where the police refrained from dealing
with offenders from colonial backgrounds, apparently for fear of disrupting community
relations. The case of child abuse in the UK town of Rotherham demonstrated the patri-
archal disregard of teenage girls in danger and again demonstrated the intersection of
class and sex in the politics of diversity. In Rotherham, sexual and often violent abuse of
some 1400 female children was reported to the police over the period 1997 to 2013 but
was not acted upon. A report led by Professor Alexis Jay, commissioned by Rotherham
Council, detailed cases where children as young as 11 had been raped by a number of
different men, abducted, beaten, and trafficked to other towns and cities in the north
of England to continue the abuse. Jay found ‘children who had been doused in petrol
and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally
violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone’. Police failed to act
on the crimes and treated the victims with contempt, deeming them to be ‘undesirables’
not worthy of protection (Peachey 2014). The girls were from poor families or in local
authority ‘care’. These examples demonstrate that the well-meaning investment in diver-
sity initiatives by the police are so often superseded by the multilayered politics of diver-
sity, and those politics may be rooted in a contradictory understanding of the colonial
legacy but also of class.
Against this background, however well-meaning DM approaches are, they may
remain a drop in the ocean. Moreover, the depolitcization of diversity in an era of indi-
vidualism has also led to its sanitizing, so that the harsh realities of inequalities, racial
prejudice, and patriarchal practices are avoided in the bread-and-butter diversity dis-
courses of the business case, training, and policy development.

Voluntarism and Regulation

Scholars in the field of employment have long debated the relationship between vol-
untarism and regulation (Kahn Freund 1972), with a traditional preference for the
autonomy of employers and unions to organize their own affairs rather than the state
regulating on their behalf, and the state creating a ‘rough equilibrium between the social
forces of capital and organized labour’ (Deakin 1986: 231). Voluntarism extended from
the collective sphere to the individual level of labour relations (Deakin 1986: 232) and
Deakin argues that women and the low paid ultimately paid the price for voluntarism
(Deakin 1986: 242). Thus, voluntarism became increasingly associated with individual-
ism and the neoliberal agenda. Increasingly, the role of law through regulation was seen
as an important means to create a fairer workplace, although legal regulation continues
28   Geraldine Healy

to be contested in both the UK and the US, two of the most lightly regulated advanced
economies.
Nevertheless, regulation has been important for those whom the laws, policies, and
procedures governing equalities and diversity are ostensibly designed to protect. Equality
and diversity is not done for them, they too are critical agents for change as, in order
to achieve equality and fairness—in other words, legislative compliance—the aggrieved
need to challenge current practice. Such challenges are often through collectivist strate-
gies. Thus, despite the dominant discourse of the relentless march of individualism, col-
lectivism continues to play an important part in challenging inequalities (Healy, Bradley,
and Mukherjee 2004; Lucio and Perrett 2009; Perrett and Lucio 2009; Milkman 2011;
Alberti, Holgate, and Tapia 2013). The collectivist role is also about ensuring compliance
with equality and diversity legislation.
Nevertheless, a political analysis points to the denigration of rules (characterized as
‘red tape’ in the UK) that further weaken the fragile edifice of legal protection. Moreover,
there is a clear tendency to move away from the regulative underpinning, which pro-
vides the resources for inequalities to be challenged, with a shift in discourse and prac-
tice to voluntarism (and volunteers), localism, and deregulation.
The rise of individualism (and voluntarism) has been a dominant media and aca-
demic discourse, yet Bradley and Healy (2008) argue that much is at stake politically
in asserting or denying the rise of individualism and fall of collectivism. The debates,
whether rooted in industrial relations, industrial sociology, or economics, have been
characterized by a neglect of the link between collectivist values and the diversity project
in the ideal type of the individualistic nature of diversity in organizations. More nuanced
approaches recognize the continuing importance of collectivism, including the role of
unions (see for example: Healy et al., 2004; Kirton and Greene 2006; Bradley and Healy
2008; Greene and Kirton 2009; Özbilgin and Tatli 2011; Jonsen, Tatli, Özbilgin, and Bell,
2013; Kirton and Healy 2013b). The false binary drawn between equal opportunities
and DM enhances the belief in individualism (DM and the business case) as opposed
to collectivism (equal opportunities). Bradley and Healy (2008) showed that the equal
opportunities approach of the 1980s always used the business case in its rhetoric, and
that the collective and the individual were both part of an equal opportunities approach.
Thus, the stark differences espoused between equal opportunities and DM were never
entirely convincing. Nevertheless, there has been an important discursive shift with the
language of DM which, as Bradley and Healy (2008: 39) argued, built a sanitizing pro-
cess into the discourse and often the practice of DM. As Oswick and Noon state with
respect to the equal opportunities versus the diversity binary, ‘Only by breaking free
of the oppositional discursive patterns can the debate move on to anti-discrimination
solutions that attempt to blend together equality, diversity and inclusion’ (Oswick and
Noon 2014: 23).
Multiple ideological processes come into play in the multi-level relational struc-
tures shaping the politics of diversity (for example, Healy 1993; Greene and Kirton
2009; Healy and Oikelome 2011; Kirton and Healy 2013a). Diversity stakeholders
are key actors; Greene and Kirton (2009) highlighted the key role of, and differences
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    29

between, stakeholders in a range of UK organizations in both public and private sec-

tors. Özbilgin and Tatli’s (2011) study also reveals that the emphasis and discourse of DM
differs according to the different politics and positioning of institutions. Greene and
colleagues’ (2005) comparative study of UK and Danish trade union responses to DM
enabled a demonstration of the importance of context in understanding the same kind
of institutions, with Danish unions demonstrating enthusiasm for DM and UK unions,
scepticism. Thus, Greene and colleagues are pointing to the motivations for compliance
within the discourse of DM; however, in the case of the UK unions, such adherence to
the language of diversity does not alter the political lens through which unions assess
the problems of inequality. In this way, diversity and unions’ politics are operating at
different levels of analysis and are simultaneously contradictory and complementary, in
order to achieve the required ends.
Following on from the implications of the voluntarist and collective confrontations
in Ferguson, Missouri, and in London, the need for radical change is obvious, but will
it follow a voluntarist or regulatory approach? A key aspect of regulation is affirma-
tive action, the introduction of which remains contentious whether it is introduced
in a more or a less developed country. The case against affirmative action or posi-
tive discrimination may, on the surface, be seen as compelling particularly when it is
assumed that affirmative action may prevent the ‘best person’ from being appointed.
Noon (2010) confronts the four main objections to positive discrimination and provides
counter-arguments with respect to: (1) the failure to select the ‘best’ candidate; (2) the
undermining of meritocracy; (3) the negative impact on the beneficiaries; and (4) the
injustice of reverse discrimination. In doing so, he concludes that positive discrimina-
tion provides the necessary structural conditions in order for radical, transformative
change towards equality to take place.
Yet, while geographies are very different, we see both similarities and differences with
respect to the adoption and implementation of affirmative action. In the US, political
interventions sought to ensure that the enforcement of affirmative action was curtailed
(see Kelly and Dobbin 1998). In the UK, there has been strong resistance to introducing
affirmative action. Indeed, existing law on equality was weakened during the 2010–15
Coalition Government, when the pressure to deregulate intensified and the equal-
ity agenda further diluted.7 Yet Dickens warns that ‘state intervention is critical to an
equality agenda, because the market tends to produce discrimination, not equality’
(2006: 305).

7
Conley (2011) revealed the dilution of the public sector duty in the UK. The approach is not to
remove the institutional equality but to weaken the mechanisms for enforcement. While legislation
remains in place, the means of implementing that legislation is weakened (e.g. the enforcement arm,
EHRC). Moreover, the individual seeking redress under the law following unfair treatment is deterred
by the new costs of taking a case to the Employment Tribunal—there has been a fall of 79 per cent in
one year since new fees were introduced in 2013 (Jones 2014). Thus, the aim of reducing the number of
appellants to a tribunal has been achieved but at what cost when genuine claimants are priced out of the
social justice market?
30   Geraldine Healy

Despite the resistance to affirmative action in the most developed countries, affirma-
tive action is a key tool used globally to rectify past wrongdoings in developing coun-
tries, and there are often common issues within regions and between regions, and Africa
is no exception. Efforts to combat exclusion have taken place in Nigeria, South Africa,
and Namibia, all divided societies, using affirmative action programmes aimed at bridg-
ing the profound inequalities between different segments of their population (Mustapha
2007). Kauzya (2001) states that one of the most pervasive problematic issues in Africa
concerns the ethnic diversity of most of the continent’s countries and the problems
related to such diversity. In Western countries, the politics of diversity through legisla-
tion and policy tends to be played out more strongly in the public sector, and this is also
the case in African countries.
There is much to learn from studies in the global south while still recognizing a coun-
try’s unique context, the chapter therefore uses illustrations from one African coun-
try, Nigeria. This focus is mainly because most readers of this volume will already have
an understanding of diversity in the US, UK, and other Western countries, including
Scandinavia, whereas they are less likely to have engaged with the literature on diversity
in developing countries: in this case, Nigeria, which is the most populous and ethni-
cally diverse country in Africa (exceptions include: Healy and Oikelome 2007; Adeleye,
Atewologun, and Matanmi 2014)
Healy and Oikelome’s Diversity, Ethnicity, Migration and Work brought Nigeria to
the attention of Western diversity scholars by bringing north (UK and US) and south
(Nigeria) together, and it is from this work that this section draws (2011: 67–89). The
authors stated that Nigeria’s approach to ethnic diversity has been the consequence
of divisions between ethnic groups and the subsequent uneven distribution of politi-
cal, social, and economic resources. The Civil War (1967–70) in Nigeria had at its heart
economic, ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions, while its roots were in the colonial
settlement. Thus, the colonial legacy is crucial in unpacking contemporary politics of
diversity in Nigeria. To understand the complexity of ethnicity in Nigeria, some under-
standing of the size and importance of the country is essential. Nigeria is a country of
some 120 million people, divided into over 200 ethnic groups, who practise several reli-
gions and whose histories and cultures at times varied.8 In order to create a representa-
tive bureaucracy, the 1979 constitution (section 14(3)) introduced a system of quotas.

8 Colonial rule and the operations of the postcolonial state (from 1960) at times accentuated the

differences (Afigbo 1988). Afigbo (1988) demonstrated that the operations of the colonial state created
a dangerous myth of duality between north and south, as a result of which the postcolonial leadership
worked towards ‘balancing’ the interests of the two halves of Nigeria—and of the three dominant groups
(Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo). The Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Yoruba in the south-west, and the Igbo
in the south-east are each numerically and politically dominant in the three regions that governed the
country in the early period of independence. All other ethnic groups are perceived as minority groups.
Socioeconomic inequalities between, on the one hand, the Yoruba and Igbo, and, on the other, the
northern-based Hausa-Fulani are very sharp. Poverty is concentrated in three north-western states
and the north lags behind the south on indicators such as literacy, access to health facilities, electricity,
and water.
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    31

The scope and intent of the ‘federal character’ provision have generated heated debate.
Its advocates see it as the only safeguard against nepotism (Balogun 1987). Its critics
regard it as a smokescreen for ethnic favouritism, and argue that it erodes the stabil-
ity and quality of the service (Gboyega 1988; Oluwo 2001). A fuller assessment of the
Federal Character may be found in Mustapha (2007). While recognizing that the affirm-
ative action programme is inherently political, divisive, and does not tackle the wider
issues of education, health, and infrastructural disadvantage, Mustapha concludes that
affirmative action, properly done, can become a motor for wider social change by having
self-perpetuating positive effects on employment and economic growth, even when the
initial policy prop has been relaxed (Krislor 1974, Boston 1999 in Mustapha 2007).
Thus, politics imbue the Nigerian example, and the colonial legacy underpins the use
of affirmative action to remedy past injustices. Changing geography, we see clearly in the
Scandinavian example that it is in politics and in the boards of companies where women
are more strongly represented—the reason of course is that forms of affirmative action
have been instituted. While imperfect, and contested internationally, affirmative action
is one means that needs to be extended but not abandoned.

The Politics of Diversity Influences

Careers in the Academy

The fourth theme is perhaps a little indulgent; it discusses the society of which most
of the readers of this book are part, the academy. Returning to the sociological imagi-
nation, and the sociological academy of 1959, Mills was a key actor in writing his own
biography in relation to the sociological work of others. Thus, his critical approach was
not only from a sociological stance, but also from a personal assault against the domi-
nation of the work of sociologists (for example, Parsons). For Mills, the personal was
the political and those who practised, in his view, objective empiricism and clumsy
grand theory were to be admonished. This he did liberally and often personally (Brewer
2004). In return, the sociological establishment, on the publication of The Sociological
Imagination, spared him no mercy in their reviews, and the book was condemned on
intellectual grounds.
For contemporary scholars of equality and diversity, this story is noteworthy. While
most scholars do not enter the internecine warfare practised by Mills, they are still faced
with the personal prejudices encased in the biographies of their reviewers that shape the
society of their academic field. Thus, when feminist and/or anti-racist work is sent to
unsympathetic or even hostile reviewers, it may be disproportionately criticized in com-
parison to work that is deemed more important and relevant because it is in line with
the reviewers’ conceptual and political stance. The more scholars stray from the domi-
nant mainstreams, the harder they may find it to get published, particularly if they are
not part of influential networks. A number of studies in different disciplines show that
32   Geraldine Healy

women are systematically cited less than men (although there has been improvement
in the last two decades) (Jagsi et al. 2006, 2008; Maliniak, Powers, and Walter 2013;
Jenkins, 2014) and the numbers of female editors-in-chiefs of journals remains low
(Jagsi et al. 2008; Amrein et al. 2011). Moreover, in almost all academic fields, men cite
their own research papers more often than women do. Despite increased representa-
tion of women in academia, the gender gap in self-citation has widened over the last
fifty years (King et al. 2015). These studies are especially meaningful because citation
counts count. They are increasingly important, and contested, as a key measure of the
quality of research and impact. Or, as Smith and Lee (2014) contend with respect to the
neglect of queer theory in political science, ‘We should not underestimate the profes-
sional injustices that follow from intellectual injustices.’ Thus, the politics of diversity is
at the heart of the academy.
Mir, Mir, and Wong (2006) raise another issue. They argue that internationalization
of the workforces means that studies in workplace diversity will have to deal with what
they argue are new issues, that is, outsourcing, migration, international legal constraints,
refugees, and the unravelling of the dominant discourses of globalization (p. 169), issues
which tend to be critically discussed in the field of employment relations. Mir, Mir, and
Wong’s (2006) arguments are important and seek to widen the field of workplace and
diversity and DM. Such ‘new’ issues have traditionally been part of the employment
relations field, which underlines the importance of interdisciplinarity. In some ways,
Mir, Mir, and Wong’s (2006) assumption that workplace diversity is a ‘discipline’ is to
limit horizons; rather, workplace diversity is a field of study and, as such, reflects the
interdisciplinary field of employment relations.9
The debates in sociology resonate with the debates that academics are having in the
field of equalities and diversity. Burawoy (2005), in his call for a shift to a public sociol-
ogy, stated that ‘The original passion for social justice, economic equality, human rights,
sustainable environment, political freedom or simply a better world, that drew so many
of us to sociology, is [now] channelled into the pursuit of academic credentials. Thus
the politics of diversity enter not only the organization but the academy. This of course
begs the question if the route taken by the equality specialist is mirroring that of their
academic specialists. The equality specialist of the 1970s driven by principles of social
justice has been succeeded by the diversity specialist schooled in ‘the business case’
(Greene and Kirton 2009). Moreover, for the contemporary diversity specialists, their
routes through the organization may consider DM only one stopping place in their cor-
porate careers’ journeys (Greene and Kirton 2009). Thus, the more ‘neutral’ politics of
the contemporary diversity manager may well have rejected the collectivist project in
place of the career project of the self.
While, in academia, the increasing intensification of the struggles to build academic
credentials ensure that ‘publish or be damned’ is the institutional pressure, yet the

9 Industrial relations has always seen itself as a field of study (Edwards 2005) and, as such, has the

potential to draw widely on studies from different disciplines. This does not prevent a particular type of
work or method dominating, but it does at least open a field for the critical and thoughtful scholar.
 The Politics of Equality and Diversity    33

politics of diversity begs the questions: What do diversity scholars do with the knowl-
edge that they painstakingly uncover in the field of equality and diversity? How do they
seek to influence? While scholars may intellectually engage with the politics of injustice
in the diversity field, do they seek to engage with the politics of injustice in the public
sphere? Or are academics instead silenced by the regulative and credentialist environ-
ment in which they now work?
There are, of course, striking examples of activist academics. A number work with
trade unions or NGOs, seeing the data that they uncover as potential power resources
that can be mobilized and used to provide reports, presentations, discussions, and to
organize and build networks. At the same time, academics write for academic journals,
and it is against these publications that they will be measured in their academic careers.
Academics read, critique, and cite each other’s work, and round and round it goes, with
work often remaining within the rarefied world of academia. The promise of emancipa-
tion through involved research may be lost unless there is also public engagement with
such findings.

Conclusion

These four interrelated themes of history, society, and biography, colonial history, vol-
untarism and regulation, and diversity careers provide partial insight into the wide
and complex field of the politics of diversity. The chapter has shown that the politics
of equality and diversity are rooted in history, society, and biography, and their con-
nections and contradictions. How do we interpret this in the twenty-first century
when European empires have long disappeared? Despite the shift from empire to
Commonwealth and now the EU, and from European empires to American and soon
perhaps Chinese, and the rise of emerging economies such as the BRIC (Brazil, Russia,
India, and China) countries and the forecasted rise of the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia,
Nigeria, and Turkey) countries, the long shadows of empire are still evident in the
material and cultural effects that continue to play out, particularly through the pro-
cesses of contemporary patterns of migration and of racism. Thus, the historical and
international nature of diversity is crucial in understanding the complexity of the poli-
tics of diversity at all levels.
It is hard to disentangle the influence of colonialism from the contradictions inher-
ent in the contemporary nature of place and globalization. Mir, Mir, and Wong (2006)
capture the contradictions in the globalization/place discussion: first they argue that
national or regional identity is not an effective category to analyse global diversity;
second that globalization is not as easy to represent than monolithic categories, as one
person’s experience of the liberation associated with global consumption must necessar-
ily be contrasted with another subject’s experience of imperialism; and finally that the
category of economic class never ceases to be fundamental in the analysis of the relations
of production that bind human beings into economic and cultural networks (p. 168).
34   Geraldine Healy

Thus Mir, Mir, and Wong (2006) bring together well the interrelationship of history,
society, and biography, the connections and contradictions.
The chapter has warned of the dangers of reinforcing and deepening inequalities,
which are evident in the ideological promotion of the discourse of individualism and
voluntarism associated with aspects of instrumentality which work to deny the existence
of collectivism. The importance of collectivism in challenging inequalities is important,
whether formally constructed through collective bargaining, through (mainly left lean-
ing) political parties or through issue-based interest organizations (including targeted
groups) or collective challenges (including spontaneous uprisings). Moreover, collectiv-
ist values reflect Young’s (1990) argument for social policy to sometimes accord special
treatment for oppressed or disadvantaged groups.
By engaging with the politics of diversity and arguing for the interrelationship of
biography and history within society, the relevance of context, and the importance of
emancipatory principles to guide our research, and seeking to understand the poli-
tics that shape our own milieu as academics concerned with fairness, the chapter has
sought to widen the parameters within which diversity is often written and discussed.
Notwithstanding the rather dismal forces that often combine to ensure that we live in
an unfair and individualistic world, the complex nature of the politics of diversity, while
demonstrating hostile forces, importantly still enables progressive voices, through key
actors and institutions, to be heard. Moreover, the rich research that emanates from
equality and diversity scholars has the potential to shape public issues and debates and
thereby the politics of diversity.

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 Chapter 2

Du elling Dua l i sms

A History of Diversity Management

Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

Introduction

This history of workplace diversity is one of many versions of history that could be
written (Mandelbaum 1967; Carr 1987). We use dualisms as a heuristic to tease out ten-
sions between apparent contradictory positions. Submerged in our discussion is the
chronological emergence of workplace diversity. It burst onto the equality scene from
the United States and, in the 1990s, quickly spread its influence into public and private
sector organizations. Into the 2000s, criticism was gathering against the dominance of
the US diversity discourse that did not mesh well with different country and legisla-
tive environments such as Denmark (Risberg and Søderberg 2008), Australia (Strachan,
Burgess, and Sullivan 2004), and New Zealand (Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd 2000),
which has led to the contemporary ‘country contexts’ perspective on workplace diver-
sity (Klarsfeld 2010; Klarsfeld et al. 2014). As the managing diversity (MD) discourse
was gathering strength, a thread of critique began questioning the displacement of
social justice concerns in MD (Liff 1997; Dickens 1999). These scholars criticized the
‘depoliticised and ahistoric conception of difference’ (Tatli 2011: 246) on which diversity
management (DM) was founded. This critique has intensified into the development of a
critical diversity studies (Zanoni et al. 2010).
The chronological development of workplace diversity has been riddled with
dichotomies which confine scholars to isolated camps. Binary oppositional constructs
lead to an emphasis on differences, with such divisions being counterproductive
(Özbilgin and Tatli 2008). We use an organizing structure represented by five bipolar
dimensions. In Table 2.1, the left-hand descriptor appeared historically prior to the
right-hand marker.
40    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

Table 2.1 Dualistic map of workplace diversity

Social justice/moral case Economic/business case
Practitioner initiatives Academic research
US diversity discourse Country context discourses
Gender issues ‘Other’ diversity dimensions
Quantitative focus Qualitative focus

While some of these categories have coexisted, others have competed for attention.
In the following discussion, we take each of these dimensions in turn, moving from left
to right.

Social Justice and the Business Case

Historically, labour markets have been characterized by inequality in ways we would

now describe as discrimination. Characteristics irrelevant to the job influenced judge-
ments of performance, for example, the employee’s sex, age, ethnicity, religion, caste,
disability, sexuality, and family status. Inequality has been experienced in different
ways across countries and has changed over time (Jain, Sloane, and Horwitz 2003;
Kennedy-Dubourdieu 2006). For example, unequal (less) pay for women compared
with men was a widespread phenomenon justified by a sex-based division of labour,
where men were the bread-winners of the family, and women were care-givers.
In the nineteenth century, women and minority groups based their struggles for
equality on arguments of social justice and the moral case (Cassell 1996), namely, on
the ethical and right thing to do. These arguments were central to the second-wave
feminist fight for equal opportunity (EO) within the labour force. However, it was the
post-Second World War international declarations which set the scene for changes that
shifted employment regulations from ones sanctioning inequality (discrimination) to
ones supporting equality. The Declaration of Human Rights 1948 included the right to
just and favourable conditions of work without any discrimination, equal pay for equal
work, and just and favourable remuneration, ensuring that the worker and their family
have an existence worthy of human dignity. From that time, United Nations (UN) and
International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions contained detailed recommen-
dations, notably the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination 1965 and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women 1979. These principles of equality in employment are
emphasized in the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles: Principle 6 states that ‘busi-
nesses should uphold the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and
occupation’. It defines discrimination in employment and occupations as ‘treating people
differently or less favourably because of characteristics that are not related to their merit
 Duelling Dualisms   41

or the inherent requirements of the job’, and recognizes indirect discrimination, which
‘often exists informally in attitudes and practices, which if unchallenged can perpetuate
in organizations’ (UN 2014).
Legislation in a number of countries (Klarsfeld 2010; Klarsfeld et al. 2014) covers spe-
cific groups in the labour market who have been discriminated against systematically
and historically, such as women and specific ethnic and caste groups. The most common
form of legislation prohibits discrimination on specified grounds such as sex and age,
and offers an individual complaint-based mechanism for redress. The macro human
rights framework (implemented through legislation) exists in conjunction with grass-
roots activism working for change. By its nature, this approach produces ad hoc, not
systematic, outcomes.
We describe in detail the complex transition from EO to MD, because the bridg-
ing links are crucial to the debates within diversity studies, particularly from British
Commonwealth countries with similar legal jurisdictions. We then describe the rise
of MD within the US context, a somewhat different historical and socio-political con-
text, with its more litigious environment and the Civil Rights movement, which played
a pivotal role in mobilizing equality arguments (Lillevik, Combs, and Wyrick 2010). As
MD was beginning to be discussed in the United Kingdom, Sonia Liff (1997: 11) asked
provocatively, ‘Has EO had its day? Or is MD a way of repackaging equal opportunity,
strengthening it or undermining it?’

Equal Opportunity
The cornerstone of EO was equality and the elimination of discrimination based on
social group membership (Liff and Wajcman 1996), the goal being that the representa-
tion of diverse social groups should reflect their proportion in the population (Jewson
and Mason 1986). By the time that MD burst onto the scene in the United States, EO was
theoretically developed with contrasting models that had evolved from industrial rela-
tions, anti-discrimination arguments, and legal challenges, together with social psycho-
logical theories of stereotyping and prejudice.
EO debates circled around two dichotomies: sameness and difference (Bacchi 1990;
Liff and Wajcman 1996) and the process–outcomes dilemma (Jewson and Mason 1986).
Discussions wrestled with the difficulty of arguing for sameness and difference between
the sexes based on a single principle, for they ‘are at the same time interdependent and
exclusive’ (Nentwich 2006: 502). Logically, women cannot argue to be treated the same
(as men) in the workplace and request special conditions, to cover pregnancy, for exam-
ple. Critics revealed the implicit standard of maleness in the sameness argument (Acker
1990, 2006; Liff and Wajcman 1996). MacKinnon’s (1987) insight that arguments need to
be based on equivalent value, rather than equality, has been largely ignored in workplace
applications.
Jewson and Mason (1986) developed probably the best-known EO theories: the lib-
eral and the radical approaches. The liberal approach was based on the principle of fair
42    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

procedures, emphasizing the means rather than the ends. Liberals conceive of talent and
ability as individual attributes and believe that the removal of barriers for the expression
of individual talent will enable people to fulfil their potential. Discrimination is a blemish
on the operation of a capitalist labour market. Consequently, liberal EO policies aimed to
remove unfair distortions to the operation of the labour market by institutional fair pro-
cedures. Intervention in the liberal approach was concerned with applying the rules and
processes consistently across all people. It led to the bureaucratization of decision-making,
with detailed policy and procedures fuelling critic’s cries of unnecessary red tape.
Outcomes were signalled through the proportion of social identity groups employed: an
indication that EO was present. Justice was seen to be done, and was documented.
In contrast, the ‘radical’ approach was based on the principle of a fair distribution of
rewards. Using positive discrimination, differential measures could be applied to dif-
ferent groups, principally through the use of quotas, as seen in some US states, South
Africa, and India (Jain, Sloane, and Horwitz 2003). Radical EO sought to intervene
directly in workplace practices, and it was ‘more concerned with the outcome of the
contest rather than with the rules of the game’ (Jewson and Mason 1986: 315).
The empirical case studies carried out by Jewson and Mason (1986) showed that while
EO concepts were distinct, practice was confused and conflated. The mixed practices
arose from intellectual confusion, misunderstandings, and deceptions generated from
power struggles among employee and management groups within workplaces. Further
empirical work usefully reconstructed these two approaches into the ‘short’ and ‘long’
agenda (Cockburn 1991), most organizations opting for short-term returns rather than
longer-term workplace changes. This expediency was replicated in later accounts of how
MD was being implemented (Thomas and Ely 1996).
With the rise of poststructuralism as an epistemological base, a third perspective
emerged, a ‘discourse approach’ (Jones 2004; Nentwich 2006). Jones and Nentwich
argued that ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ was a false dichotomy given the interdependence
of the concepts. However, the rejection of identity categories by poststructuralist scholars
led to abstract arguments and the links to legislation and policy interventions becoming
lost (Liff and Wajcman 1996). In many ways, EO theory had become too nuanced for
organizational implementation, with practice becoming fragmented and opportunistic.

The Rise of MD
In the United States, the ‘MD’ discourse arose from an amalgam of social movements, dis-
parate anti-discrimination legislation, and public policy initiatives (Prasad, Pringle, and
Konrad 2006). It is commonly connected to a report funded by US Department of Labor,
Workforce 2000 from independent researchers in the Hudson Institute (Johnston and
Packer 1987). The report considered global economic and labour trends, possible future
US economic cycles, demographic shifts, and their impact on work, and made six con-
sidered recommendations. Subsequent summaries of their findings have emphasized the
population demographic trends and implications for the future labour force. As Litvin
 Duelling Dualisms   43

(2006: 81) noted in her critique: ‘It would be difficult to overstate the influence of the demo-
graphic predictions attributed to Workforce 2000.’ The finding that attracted people’s atten-
tion was that white males would constitute a small minority (15 per cent) of new entrants to
the workforce by 2000. Ironically, attracting less attention was the fact that women (from
all ethnicities) would constitute 64 per cent of all new entrants. Alongside this frequently
stated statistic of white men, came a realization that the influx of women and minority
ethnic groups would constitute a major shift in the available workforce demographic
(Johnston and Packer 1987). An MD discourse was quickly taken up, especially by corpo-
rations, partly in response to the backlash against US affirmative action (AA) legislation.
Commonly overlooked in the diversity literature is the significance of the US political
context of the time. The conservative president Ronald Reagan (1981–89) implemented
‘Reaganomics’, a version of a neoliberal ideology that took hold in the United Kingdom
(through Margaret Thatcher’s government) and New Zealand (Kelsey 1995). Neoliberalism
is characterized by the rise of the individual as the social unit (Ryan, Ravenswood, and
Pringle 2014). Governments sympathetic to neoliberalism deregulated the economy,
reduced the tax rate, and reduced government spending. The ideology extended US cul-
tural tenets, but was resisted more in countries with a stronger social welfare structure,
such as the United Kingdom and Australia. The rise of a neoliberal ideology grew from the
same political roots as liberal EO, and radical approaches were eschewed.
The rise of the DM discourse saw a significant development in the history of work-
place equality. It provided an acceptable economic argument for employers, diminish-
ing the value of social or moral arguments. The existing and widely used business jargon
such as ‘added value’, ‘competitive advantage’, and ‘business benefits’ provided a conduit
to neutralize the more emotive persuasive language associated with EO (Jewson and
Mason 1986), transforming the argument for recruiting and managing a more diverse
labour force to an ostensibly rational business discourse based on the individual. Cassell
(1996: 58) summarized this in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2 Dichotomizing equal opportunity

and managing diversity
Equal opportunity Managing diversity

Externally initiated Internally initiated

Legally driven Business-needs driven
Quantitative focus Qualitative focus
Problem focused Opportunity focused
Assumes assimilation Assumes pluralism
Reactive Proactive
Race, gender, and disability All differences
Group-based Individual-based*

* Added by authors.
44    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

The shift from EO to MD ‘meant a shift from the ethical and legal case to business case
arguments’ (Tatli 2011: 242). The new argumentation diluted contentious power differ-
ences through legitimizing business language.

MD and the Business Case

While there was no agreement on what aspects of workplace diversity counted, diversity
was viewed as more inclusive than the named social identity groups targeted by EO ini-
tiatives. Diversity consists of visible and non-visible differences, which can include fac-
tors such as sex, age, background, race, disability, personality, and work style. An early
definition of diversity reflects this broad sweep:

Diversity includes everyone; it is not something that is defined by race or gender. It

extends to age, personal and corporate background, education, function, and per-
sonality. It includes lifestyle, sexual preference, geographic origin, tenure with the
organization . . . and management or nonmanagement. (Thomas 1991: 12)

In a stroke, the historical disadvantages carried by some social groups were erased, as
‘managing diversity is a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environ-
ment that works for all employees’ (Thomas 1991: 10), including ‘white males’ (Thomas
1991: 28). This view is founded on the premise that harnessing these differences will cre-
ate a productive environment in which everybody feels valued (Kandola and Fullerton
1994). The identified goal was ‘to manage diversity in such a way as to get from a diverse
work force the same productivity we once got from a homogenous work force’: diversity
could even ‘perhaps’ deliver a bonus in performance (Thomas 1990: 112).
The spread of MD ideas was swift and ‘by the late 1980s, equal employment opportu-
nity/affirmative action (EEO/AA) specialists were recasting EEO/AA measures as part
of DM and touting the competitive advantages offered by these practices’ (Kelly and
Dobbin 1998: 972). Lorbiecki and Jack (2000: 20–2) describe four overlapping phases in
the transmission of these ideas: first, demographic; second, political ‘when its inclusive
philosophy was seen as an attractive’ alternative to ‘ “affirmative action” policies’; and
third, economic, ‘which warned firms . . . that if they did not pay immediate attention
to managing diversity their organization’s performance or image would be put at risk’.
In the fourth phase, the literature turned more critical, as efforts to implement diversity
programmes met a variety of problems.
The business case for diversity is based on a view of economics which prioritizes the
immediate cost factors in an organization ahead of equity or social justice agendas, as
the economic business case explicitly ‘links investments in organizational diversity ini-
tiatives to productivity and diversification’ (Litvin 2006: 75). EO and AA recognize his-
toric and ongoing systemic discrimination in a particular society. In contrast, DM is
concerned with demographic representation and downplays the existence of systemic
discrimination.
 Duelling Dualisms   45

An overlooked implication of the business case is that it is persuasive only within a

given economic climate. Donaldson (1993) explored effects of the 1990 British recession
on EO developments, and concluded that positive initiatives for female staff were cut
when cost-cutting became the key business imperative. This means that organizational
policies are especially volatile during periods of economic change. By taking morality
out of the debate, the rights of marginalized workers are subordinated to economic initi-
atives. This approach compromises the legitimacy of diversity programmes and the con-
fidence that employees from diverse social groups have in the protection of their rights.
The shift from EO to MD and beyond continues in the scholarship. New terms are
coined and their meanings debated. Equality and diversity researchers have added the
concept of inclusion, which signifies a shift from the removal of obstacles to full par-
ticipation, to a perceived sense of organizational belonging. When employees perceive
that they are included, they believe they are connected to co-workers, have access to
information, and the ability to participate in and influence decision-making (Roberson
2006). Subsequently, in contemporary writings, diversity is often referred to as EDI,
equality, diversity, and inclusion (Özbilgin 2009).

Practitioners’ Activities versus

Academic Research

In the early days of MD, practitioners and academics-cum-consultants had a strong

impact, with claims based more on advocacy than academic research (Thomas 1990;
Copeland 1998). In the United States, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimina-
tion on the basis of race and, by 1967, sex; but ambiguity in compliance led to govern-
ment organizations and businesses hiring EO and AA specialists to design activities that
would ‘shield them from litigation’ (Kelly and Dobbin 1998: 960). With the 1980s back-
lash against AA, the changed political environment threatened EO/AA consultants’
professional lives: they needed to create a new way of ‘thinking and acting about their
professional services, namely, managing diversity’ (Litvin 2006: 82). Reagan’s federal
cuts emphasized efficiencies and the ‘goal of increasing profits by expanding diversity
in the workforce and the customer base’ (Kelly and Dobbin 1998: 961–2), building on a
business case for AA. By the 1970s, only 20 per cent of organizations had EEO/AA rules
(Kelly and Dobbin 1998: 964), but by 1997, 75 per cent of Fortune 500 companies in the
United States had DM programmes (Konrad 2003: 5).
What was the MD practice in organizations? Irrespective of the rhetoric there was
convergence between EO and MD initiatives. Some scholars asserted that the move to
MD did not mark a break with existing equality practices in organizations (Kelly and
Dobbin 1998: 978–9), while others (Wilson and Iles 1999: 31) painted MD as ‘the new
paradigm’. Common practices included commitment in mission statements, action
plans, career development for minority group members, diversity education, and
46    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

training of ‘difference’ (often lasting less than a day) (Kelly and Dobbin 1998). MD was
outcome-driven; it had to be easily translatable into practice and the promise of finan-
cial dividends was an important motivator for companies.
While the emphasis of MD is at the individual level, initiatives and training semi-
nars were, ironically, implemented at the group level (Strachan, French, and Burgess
2010a; Tatli 2011). Contemporary ways of MD at work have largely merged with human
resources (HR) activities, including sourcing diverse labour through recruiting, select-
ing, inducting; interacting at work with colleagues and clients at work-related social
events; organizing work such as full- and part-time casual, flexible hours, telecommut-
ing; and developing careers through promotion, mentoring, coaching, and networking
(O’Leary 2010). Efforts to gather supportive evidence for greater financial returns from
a higher performing diversity workforce have been mixed and weak (Tatli 2011).
The emphasis on practice led to a lack of theory in workplace diversity.
Academic-consultants initially filled the gap with what could be labelled applied man-
agement. Taylor Cox was an early mover with his Academy of Management Executive
work (Cox and Blake 1991) becoming a classic piece providing practitioners and aca-
demics with a six-point rationale for the merits of managing cultural diversity: costs
arising from higher absenteeism and turnover from employees from ‘minority’ identity
groups, HR acquisition, marketing alignment between employees and potential cus-
tomers, creativity from more diverse views, and problem-solving from heterogeneity
between group members. Each of these arguments attracted the search for confirmatory
research. Cox (1993) developed the field further by bringing together relevant concepts
of stereotyping, inter-group conflict, and institutional bias into a model that linked
these factors to the individual, group, and the organization as a whole.
Academics also filled the theory void by applying existing theory from social psy-
chology, such as social identity theory (Elmes and Connelley 1997) and concepts of
stigmatization and social prejudice (Nkomo and Cox 1996). In another much cited
Harvard Business Review article, academics Thomas and Ely (1996) argued for a
longer-term organizational change perspective, to try to dislodge the implicit assimila-
tion discourse of MD.
The implementation of the business case sought to leverage employee differences
to enhance business. Arguably, most attention focused on the rhetoric of good public
relations (Tremaine and Sayers 1994), with competitions in most Western countries
for being ‘the best diversity employer’. For many organizations, the by-line on recruit-
ment advertising reflected the shift from ‘we are EO employers’ to ‘making the most
of a diverse workforce’ (EEO Trust 1992, cited in Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd 2000:
267). A recent development has been companies signing up to a public intention doc-
ument. France was an early initiator (Klarsfeld 2010) with the development of The
Diversity Index in 2004, and was followed by Germany, Austria, and other European
countries with in the Europe Union developing the European Union (EU) Charter of
Fundamental Rights in 2009 (Danowitz and Claes 2012).
A strand of academic research has connected theory and practice by using research
subjects, such as diversity or equality practitioners (Özbilgin and Tatli 2008, 2011), and
 Duelling Dualisms   47

HR managers responsible for policy and implementation (Zanoni and Janssens 2003).
Collaboration between academics and practitioners has led to a range of diagnostic
equality and diversity toolkits (Özbilgin and Tatli 2008; Risberg, Beaugard and Sander
2012). Educational impacts have been curriculum development and the writing of text-
books (e.g. Bell 2008) often using descriptive case studies resulting from company–
academic collaborations. A critical base has come through the employment relations
route (Kirton and Greene 2005; Strachan, French, and Burgess 2010b), often combined
with a feminist critique (Gatrell and Swan 2008; Danowitz and Claes 2012). Academics
are advocating for reflexive action on the part of practitioners and actionable knowl-
edge as the outcome of academic research (Özbilgin and Tatli 2011). There is no doubt
that linking practitioners and academics will build stronger diversity studies.

Transition from ‘the’ Diversity

Discourse to Many Country Contexts

MD was initially seen as an US affair, with an emphasis on other countries learning les-
sons from the US experience (Kamenou and Syed 2012). MD is often taken as a universal
discourse equally applicable in any country, yet employment is mediated by the unique
national culture and legislation. While MD is voluntary and can be implemented in a
myriad of ways, it must be practised in conjunction with relevant national legislation,
such as anti-discrimination and industrial relations law. In the early diversity literature
these links to country-specific legislation (Klarsfeld 2010) were ignored.
The geographic spread of the MD discourse often appeared under the wings of multi-
national corporation policy, and a discourse of global DM has developed (Özbilgin and
Tatli 2008; Mor Barak 2014) with links to international human resource management
(HRM) and international business. The tendency to universalize DM through standard-
ized policies from head office was not necessarily well received. Head office HR man-
agers’ dictates for all employees to treat each other with ‘candor’ and ‘respect’ (Jones,
Pringle, and Shepherd 2000: 375) did not translate easily to the New Zealand branch,
for example, where it was received with scepticism and derision. It was resisted because
it unwittingly imposed a number of US cultural assumptions along with the ‘diversity’
message. Similarly, many EO practitioners in New Zealand government organizations
saw a US-based ‘diversity’ model as responding to a specifically US history of AA pro-
grammes (Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd 2000).
The relationship between global perspectives and implementation in local econo-
mies and non-US cultures is a dualism that produces uneasy tensions that are not yet
resolved. Context has come to be viewed as more than a backdrop, rather, ‘a complex
array of power relations, discursive practices and forms of knowledge that need to be
analysed’ (Ahonen et al. 2014: 264). As examples, a brief description of two English-
speaking countries is included. The resistance to the global diversity discourse in New
48    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

Zealand was due to special features in the domestic socio-political landscape that dif-
fered from the United States. In Australia, the diversity discourse was mapped onto
already strong equity legislation in large organizations. Although New Zealand and
Australia broadly share the same culture as well as being close geographic neighbours,
their equality–diversity discourses have diverged. A closer examination of the country-
specific factors helps to provide some understanding of how the importance of country
context has fragmented a dominant diversity discourse into many hues (Klarsfeld 2010,
2014).

The New Zealand Context

Debates around biculturalism have emerged as a major factor in the MD discourse in
Aotearoa New Zealand (Ryan, Ravenswood, and Pringle 2014). While indigenous Maori
constitute 15 per cent of the population, their political place far outweighs their numeric
status. Issues of equality and diversity are framed by the ideal of biculturalism, an equal
partnership between indigenous Maori and Pakeha (white Anglo colonizers) emanat-
ing from the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This cultural mix changed in the
late twentieth century, with significant immigration, particularly from Asia, the United
Kingdom, and latterly from Eastern Europe and South Africa. The growing presence of
multiple ethnicities from non-Anglo roots creates a drive to identify New Zealand as a
multicultural nation; however, this denigrates the place of Maori that is enshrined in
the bicultural treaty. Like most countries, contradictions exist in the EO legislation that
directs the equity actions of the public sector, with Maori designated as just another tar-
get group (along with women, ethnic groups, and people with disabilities) alongside the
bicultural discourse.
In the 1980s, New Zealand had one of few left-leaning governments in the world to
wholeheartedly embrace neoliberal approaches and policies (Ryan, Ravenswood, and
Pringle 2014). Consequently, the shift from ‘soft socialism’ and collective responsibility
to ‘almost unfettered liberalism’ (Humphries and Grice 1995: 23) has shaped policy-level
debates on how ‘fairness’ and ‘equity’ in employment outcomes can be achieved. New
Zealand’s approach has been through lenient regulation, with legislation ‘light’ on ref-
erences to equality (Ryan, Ravenswood, and Pringle 2014). Only the public sector has
legislation (State Sector Act 1988) which mandates EO programmes and the annual
reporting of initiatives.
A study of ninety public and private sector organizations was undertaken as the term
MD was being introduced (Pringle and Scowcroft 1996). It showed a high level of aware-
ness of MD (81 per cent), understood as the need to value differences between individu-
als and to manage that difference. Clear positive and negative differences were identified
for the effects of ethnicity and gender. Two-thirds of organizations had written policy
(mainly about EEO), but a quarter or less had any kind of practices. Initiatives were
modest and fragmented, with two-thirds having no initiatives relating to MD. The most
striking findings were the low priority given to gender and ethnic issues, ranked nine
 Duelling Dualisms   49

and ten out of a list of ten HRM priorities. The authors concluded that ‘there is a danger
that “managing diversity” may become imported rhetoric without local roots’ (Pringle
and Scowcroft 1996: 40).
Fifteen years later, Houkamau and Boxall (2011) conducted a telephone survey of
500 employees, and their perceptions of EEO and diversity in New Zealand organiza-
tions. Diversity was defined as ‘how people are different (in terms of gender, ethnicity,
age, sexuality and physical ability). DM is like EEO and includes all things that employ-
ers do to hire develop and retain workers from diverse groups’ (Houkamau and Boxall
2011: 446). As could be expected from the differential legislative environment across
sectors, there was wider use of formal diversity policies in the public sector. The strong-
est finding across two-thirds of the sample was the high level of no and don’t know
responses. The most common diversity initiatives were support for family-friendly
practices, people with disabilities, and practices relating to bullying or sexual harass-
ment (part of employer’s workplace responsibilities since 1991). There was a resounding
silence on issues of ethnicity, biculturalism, or assistance for new immigrants. The pub-
lic sector, with binding although weak legislation, had a stronger response than the pri-
vate sector, reinforcing UK findings (Özbilgin and Tatli 2008) that legislation is pivotal
to advance a social equity agenda. Even imperfect MD measures resulted in employees
being ‘more committed to their organisation, and more satisfied in their jobs and more
trusting of their employer’ (Houkamau and Boxall 2011: 440), leading the authors to
promote an ‘employee case’ for diversity.
Taken together, these studies demonstrate a lack of progress around knowledge of and
presence of diversity initiatives over almost two decades. The absence of HR functions
and specialists in smaller-sized organizations tends to create an environment of unman-
aged diversity (Jones 2004) that depends on informal personal relationships. Overall,
New Zealand empirical studies have found that rhetoric is stronger than implementation.

The Australian Context

Historically, Australia has a legacy of inequality in employment where the Indigenous
peoples, certain non-English speaking migrant groups, especially Asian and Pacific
Island workers, and women were barred from certain types of employment, and in many
cases paid less than white Anglo males. The forces moving Australia towards the goal of
equality in employment came largely in the 1960s and 1970s with the influx of women
into the labour market, the rise of women’s and community groups, plus national obli-
gations as Australia signed up to numerous international conventions supporting
equality. By the 1980s, the ideal of equality in employment was enshrined in legislation
and industrial decisions. In the twenty-first century, Australia has an extensive array
of anti-discrimination legislation which prohibits discrimination in employment on a
range of grounds (Strachan, French, and Burgess 2014).
In the 1980s, the federal government recognized that anti-discrimination legisla-
tion was insufficient to deliver employment equity and introduced another type of
50    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

legislation unique to Australia. The focus of the legislation was women. Beginning with
the Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunity for Women) Act 1986, continuing through
the Equal Opportunity in the Workplace Act 1999, to the Workplace Gender Equality
Act 2012, the broad approach has been to promote and improve gender equality (includ-
ing remuneration) in employment and in the workplace; to support employers to
remove barriers to the full and equal participation of women, and notably, to improve
the productivity and competitiveness of Australian business through the advancement
of gender equality in employment and in the workplace (WGEA Act 2012, section 2A).
Organizations with more than 100 employees have to produce regular reports on gen-
der equality, with a focus on organizational performance outcomes. In the public sec-
tor, similar legislation covered four groups recognized as suffering past and ongoing
disadvantage and discrimination at work. The Commonwealth (Federal) public service
goes further, mandating that plans must be in place ‘to eliminate employment-related
disadvantage’ on the basis of membership in one of the four target groups: being an
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, gender, race or ethnicity, and physical or mental
disability (Public Service and Merit Protection Commission 2001).
The legislation preserves an individual rather than collectivist focus, emphasizing the
merit principle as ‘competitive individualism is central to the process of appointment
and promotion’ (Thornton 1990: 246). The Acts have always excluded the use of quotas.
The legislation is thus characterized as using a liberal approach with its focus on pro-
cesses to achieve equality rather than outcomes (Thornton 1990). Studies about organi-
zational policies using the reports submitted and case studies have shown that there is
a wide variety in organizational policies and practice, ranging from little engagement
to extensive policies (Burgess, Henderson, and Strachan 2010; Strachan, French, and
Burgess 2010a). The focus of most of these policies is on flexibility at work and policies
related to combining work and family commitments, which serve to maintain wom-
en’s attachment to work but do less to progress their careers (French and Strachan 2007,
2009). There are gaps in this equity management system as the system does not cover
employees in small firms nor those on temporary labour contracts who constitute 24 per
cent of the labour force (ABS 2013; Strachan, French, and Burgess 2014: 23).
In the 1990s, the names of organizational programmes began to include the word
diversity. In the Australian Public Service, for instance, these programmes are titled
‘workplace diversity’: ‘Workplace diversity involves recognising the value of individual
differences and managing them in the workplace.’ However, ‘the concept of workplace
diversity includes the principle of equal employment opportunity (EEO). EEO poli-
cies address continued disadvantage experienced by particular groups of people in the
workplace, including women, Indigenous Australians, people with disabilities and
those who suffer disadvantage on the basis of race or ethnicity. These policies remain
an important foundation for workplace diversity policy’. (Public Service and Merit
Protection Commission 2001). It is difficult to see the differences between organiza-
tional programmes, based on whether they have equity or diversity in their titles. All
programmes are underpinned by Australia’s equity, anti-discrimination, and industrial
relations legislation, so implicitly must include both social justice and business cases.
 Duelling Dualisms   51

Within Australia, EO and diversity are imbued with gender issues, while in neigh-
bouring New Zealand the diversity discourse is more about ethnicity and the place(s) of
the Indigenous people. It is also significant that diversity in Australia is not an opposi-
tional EO versus diversity discourse. While combining EO and diversity creates tension
between these competing approaches (Tatli 2011), it also provides a place to consider
power—the cornerstone of an emerging critical diversity studies.

Gender versus the ‘Other’

Diversity Dimensions

The roots of workplace diversity lay buried deep in the Civil Rights movements of the
United States, but ‘[i]‌n most countries the gender equality debate prepared the ground-
work’ for diversity considerations (Özbilgin and Tatli 2008: 30). Questioning by women
in the Civil Rights movement led to the rise of the second-wave feminist movement,
firstly in the United States and quickly spreading to other Western countries. ‘Sisterhood
is powerful’ became the rallying cry; but the solidarity of the women’s cause became
quickly undone. The demands and efforts by feminists for a change in social roles and
for women’s equality (in relation to men) was critiqued by black feminists, firstly in the
United States and then elsewhere, and these voices were joined by indigenous women
(Pihama and Johnston 1994) and women of colour (Mohanty 1988). ‘Other’ social iden-
tities clamoured for attention, with feminist theory becoming multiple: categorized and
described in the now classic chapter by Calas and Smircich (1996) as Liberal feminism,
Radical feminism, Socialist feminism, Psychoanalytic feminist, Poststructural feminist,
and Transnational feminism. This fragmentation resulted from class analysis and cri-
tiques from the major identity groups of women: lesbian, African American, Hispanic
and indigenous, women with disabilities. Transnationalism arose when globalization
became coupled with critiques from women outside the first-world order (Calas and
Smircich 1996).
A gender mainstream discourse (Danowitz and Claes 2012) has dominated in Europe,
guided by EU directives. Gender is the normative benchmark for policy and action
which has been extended to diversity identities. It has been implemented most strongly
by public sector organizations, but has been modified by private sector organizations
as the ‘mainstreaming of diversity’ (Danowitz and Claes 2012). The legal, cultural, and
social context of each EU country shapes the ways in which companies approach DM
(Danowitz and Claes 2012). Recognition of, and attention to, the needs of people with
disabilities has seen recent advances in the United Kingdom and in EU, with other coun-
tries, such as Australia and New Zealand, following the trend.
In addition, a separatist approach has developed in New Zealand as contempo-
rary Maori claims against historical injustice have resulted in Tribunal judgements
which have provided substantial payments and the reclamation Maori mana (status/
52    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

dignity) in their struggle to actualize the bicultural partnership (Smith and Reid 2000).
Reparations and reallocation of land stewardship have given Maori (some) control and
have led to separate Maori education options (from kindergarten to postgraduate stud-
ies), and government support for independent Maori health providers.
One result of MD coming from the United States was its association with demo-
graphic markers (Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle 2006) which overlooked heterogeneity
within social identity groups (Konrad 2003) and left the diversity discourse open to
critiques of essentialism. As an example, the Gay Rights movement has given growing
legitimacy to diverse (LGBTI: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/sexual, intersex) sexual
identities. In many Western countries, the legality of same-sex relations first appeared
through anti-discrimination legislation that was then extended into human rights leg-
islation and, in a growing number of countries, marriage equality (Ryan, Ravenswood,
and Pringle 2014). The recognition of non-heterosexual identities is a result of long
and hard-fought grassroots campaigns, often with a local flavour. For example, in New
Zealand, the public sector union have adopted the acronym GLITTFAB, which signifies
‘gay, lesbian, intersex, transgender, takatapui (Maori), fa’afafine (Samoan), and bisex-
ual identities’ (Jones et al. 2012), in an attempt to break through the tyranny of the sex
dichotomy.
There has been a strong tendency for diversity studies to focus on separate demo-
graphic markers and to omit intersectional analyses (Healy 2009). Intersectionality is
the view that different identity axes interact and produce interrelated systems of oppres-
sion, inequality, and injustice (Louvrier 2013), and has become an area of scholarship in
its own right. While intersectionality first arose within critical race studies, it expanded
within women’s studies (special issue European Journal of Women’s Studies 2006) and
feminist sociology, and is spreading rapidly to other disciplines (special issue Gender in
Management 2014). This has clear implications for diversity studies, which has empha-
sized social identity markers such as gender and race. Joan Acker (1990) has worked
over decades to bring intersectional analyses to workplaces through her concept of an
inequality regime (Acker 2006) which spotlights gender, race, and class inequality. Her
scholarship primarily focuses within organizations (the meso level) and other schol-
ars have called for this type of analysis to be expanded into the macro and micro lay-
ers of the relations model (Syed and Özbilgin 2009).While this research is in the realm
of future developments, there is a constructive movement towards a place of Gender +
(Verloo 2013): gender plus other identities.

Quantitative versus Qualitative

Methodological Approaches

In the development of diversity studies, the discipline within which scholars were
trained influenced their methodologies. As early academic research on DM came from
 Duelling Dualisms   53

United States, it tended to emerge from a positivist paradigm, where hypotheses were
developed and diverse identities were conceptualized as additional independent vari-
ables of interest (Milliken and Martins 1996). There was also positivist research inves-
tigating which organizational interventions were more effective, a stand-out example
being careful empirical work studying the links between specific policy that was iden-
tity-conscious or identity-blind and measurable organizational outcomes (Konrad and
Linnehan 1995; French 2001), such as the proportion of women at various management
levels.
The acceptance of the quantitative focus in business studies research more broadly
gave some legitimacy for research in areas that may not have been easily accepted. For
example, Ragins, Cornwall, and Miller (2003) led research into the perception and
attitudes of gay and lesbian employees, using time-honoured regression analysis; they
found that the same or opposite sex of their supervisor had a significant effect on per-
ceived discrimination. While quantitative analyses produce results that may clearly
define group effects, the influences of the external environment and within group expe-
rience by individuals is more difficult to study and theorize.
Another major impact on (critical) diversity studies came from sociology scholars
who significantly theorized identity as socially constructed. The notion of ‘doing gen-
der’ (Butler 1999) has gained great traction in contemporary gendering of organizations
studies (Calas, Smircich, and Holvino 2014), assisted by poststructural theory and queer
theory. This scholarship was accompanied by the rise of qualitative research methodolo-
gies, such as ethnomethodology (West and Zimmerman 1987).
Qualitative enquiry began in the 1970s with the interpretive and critical para-
digms (Grant and Giddings 2002; Denzin and Lincoln 2005) central to developments.
Sensitivity to cross-group research owes much to feminist research methodology
(Olesen 2005)—giving participants space for their own voices; using open-ended ques-
tions; paying attention to decreasing power differences between the researcher and the
researched (Pringle, Wolfgramm, and Henry 2010). Reflexivity on the researcher’s role
and influence is especially salient when researching across different groups (Kamenou
and Syed 2012).
It was not until research from Europe and the United Kingdom on DM (e.g. Zanoni
and Janssens 2003) was published that the scholarly community gained deeper under-
standings of the experiences and reflections from individual managers and EO/diversity
officers charged with organizational change. Links between meso-level organizational
strategy and policy with the micro politics of everyday experiences are made possible
by methodologies such as narrative enquiry and critical discourse analysis (Zanoni and
Janssens 2003; Jones and Stablein 2006). Qualitative methodologies include ‘epistemo-
logical and ethical criticisms of traditional social science’ and business research (Denzin
and Lincoln 2005: x), making it possible for research to be undertaken that is linked
to an explicit social justice agenda. Hereupon, there appears recognizable synergy with
diversity studies. The emergence of qualitative methodologies that connect research to
political implications for social change provide the potential for diversity research to be
executed within both the social justice and business agendas.
54    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

Another difficulty in diversity research has been that of gaining access to businesses
(Louvrier 2013) willing to reveal their practices around inequality. Partly as a response,
research has sprung up analysing secondary data sources such as annual EO reports (French
and Strachan 2007, 2009) and corporate websites (Singh and Point 2006). Intention state-
ments provide more easily accessible data for researchers. When data sources, such as corpora-
tion’s codes of conduct (CoCs), are combined with clear theoretical positioning, such as queer
theory, then insightful arguments can be made (Bendl, Fleischmann, and Hofmann 2009).
Academic scholarship on workplace diversity has been criticized for being atheoreti-
cal (Pringle 2009). Diversity research has been extended by using theoretical perspec-
tives from other, usually sociological-based, disciplines. For example, researchers have
applied queer theory (Bendl, Fleischmann, and Hofmann 2009) and Bourdieu’s theory
of social practice to diversity studies (Özbilgin and Tatli 2011; Tatli 2011). A sign of the
mature development of a field, rather being practice-focused, is to provide clearer expo-
sition of the theoretical bases of the research.

Future Transformations: From

Dualisms to Diverse yet Inclusive
Diversity Studies

As MD emerged, critique swiftly followed from EO scholars concerned at the narrow

economic rationale accompanied by a severing of the link between morality, justice, and
employee identity group membership. Although Cassell and Biswas identified a ‘more
critical approach to managing diversity’ in 2000 (p. 271) it has been a long process, includ-
ing mutterings of discontent beyond the United States (Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd
2000), combined with exhortations to place power analysis at the centre of diversity stud-
ies (Prasad, Pringle, and Konrad 2006). Arguments around the place of corporate social
responsibility (CSR) has also put new pressures on diversity discourse, subsuming it into
a broader discourse of socially responsible DM (Syed and Kramar 2009).
Underpinning all these attempts is the relatively recent acknowledgement (histori-
cally) that discrimination, disadvantage, and inequality within labour markets and
organizations should be ‘corrected’ in some way, through the equality of opportunity, or
recognition of workplace diversity. It is not surprising that the resultant legislation, poli-
cies, and practices are complex and, at times, contested. Academic literature has tried to
tease out the variety of meanings and make sense of these complex issues and compli-
cated responses, as well as assess whether they have succeeded in reaching their goals.
This chapter is no different. We have tried to make certain issues clearer through using
the concept of dualisms in order to foreground specific issues.
Dichotomous thinking has dogged EO and diversity studies. Although we list the
dualisms in Table 2.1 and Table 2.2 as oppositional, we argue in this chapter that they
are more fruitfully conceptualized as complementary. Combining the dualistic poles is
 Duelling Dualisms   55

Table 2.3 Dualistic tensions to dialectic transformations

Dualistic tensions Dialectic transformations

Social justice/moral case Equality/diversity/inclusion

Economic/business case

Practitioner initiatives Reflective action and actionable knowledge

Academic theorising

US diversity discourse Local diversity management

Country context discourses

Gender issues Intersectional identities

‘Other’ diversity dimensions
Quantitative methodology Multiple methodologies
Qualitative methodology

Source: Arrows by Freepik.

indicated somewhat optimistically in Table 2.3 as ‘dialectic transformations’, for we look

forward to building on contributions made from each of the strands. Diversity research
can build beyond a dichotomous emphasis of either social justice or the business case to
scholarship and practice that considers equality/diversity/inclusion. The perception of
inclusion is an outcome for individuals within an organization and society.
Subsequent to the proliferation and dominance of the US diversity discourse,
researchers in other countries have brought attention to the crucial influences from
socio-political and historical contexts. International research has continued to dem-
onstrate how the influences in each country determine the power positioning of spe-
cific diversity groups and subsequent organizational initiatives. Each country context
provides a dynamic geopolitical space influenced by global shifts which impact differ-
ently in each nation, thus creating a glocal DM. Diversity studies is an applied research
area with a need for reciprocity between practitioners and academics. Practitioners will
reflect on their practice and build understanding in conjunction with the academic
development of theory by scholars who have a view to organizational application.
Demographic identities have expanded beyond the early concentration on gender
and race as we recognize that more groups have suffered discrimination and trun-
cated opportunities. This evolution of understanding has led to a stronger emphasis on
intra-group variations. Concomitantly, the rise of the intersectionality research para-
digm has brought a recognition that we all have and enact multiple identities, bringing
an understanding of complexities that will grow in future.
56    Judith K. Pringle and Glenda Strachan

While the distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches to research is impre-
cise and somewhat artificial, these approaches indicate different epistemological assump-
tions that some scholars refer to as positivist versus postpositivist methodologies (Prasad
2005). While imperfect, we have continued with Cassell’s terminology (1996) of quantita-
tive and qualitative approaches to signal a distinction which is immediately recognizable by
most researchers. As non-positivist methodologies grow and proliferate, we may be better
equipped to understand the complexity of more sophisticated diversity studies that take into
account intersecting identities, glocal influences, theory, and organizational applications.
Altogether, there is a need to move beyond the dualities used here as a heuristic device
aimed to develop the field. We argue that it is illogical to envisage a ‘grand theory’ for
diversity studies; rather, we see a ‘fractured future’ (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: 1115) of
diverse diversities. All the issues explored in this chapter are examples of how under-
standing of diversity in employment has developed. We have presented one (of many
possibilities) of telling the story of the changes and debates in this field. However these
stories are told, they attest to the continuing currency and vibrancy of the field.

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 Chapter 3

Theories of Di ffe re nc e ,
Diversit y, a nd
Intersect i ona l i t y
What Do They Bring to Diversity Management?

Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

Introduction

Diversity, diversity management (DM), and intersectionality are clearly intercon-

nected: they intersect. The question is how. This chapter overviews these concepts and
related researches, and seeks to contribute to understandings of interdisciplinary, rela-
tional, and intersectional approaches to diversity in organizations. It examines the rela-
tionship of diversity and DM to various theorizations of intersectionality, specifically
the relevance of theories of intersectionality for understanding diversity.
The notion of ‘diversity’ is now widely in use in organizational, management, and
analytical discourses, sometimes critically, often less so. Initially, academic interest
in diversity and DM was somewhat limited and atheoretical (Prasad and Mills 1997),
but nowadays diversity attracts numerous scholars studying the phenomenon from
various theoretical perspectives. There is an annual conference devoted to equal-
ity, diversity and inclusion, a dedicated journal with the same name, and many aca-
demic titles on diversity have been published in recent years. Diversity is the focus of
other institutional developments, for example, the Gender and Diversity Division at
the Academy of Management, the Standing Working Group on Gender and Diversity
at the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), and the Strategic Interest
Group on Gender, Race and Diversity in Organisations at the European Academy of
Management (EURAM). Diversity has also entered academic institutions, as diversity
chairs have been created in business schools and universities (see, for example, Bendl,
Hanappi-Egger, and Hofmann 2010). At the same time, the concept of intersectionality
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    63

(Davis 1981; Crenshaw 1989, 1991; Collins 1990; Meekosha and Pettman 1991; McCall
2005; Meekosha 2006) has been much far less developed in studies of organizations,
perhaps because it, in some ways, challenges any simple approach to, or prescription of,
promoting ‘diversity’.
The chapter is organized in three main parts. First, the broad arenas of difference,
diversity, and DM are introduced, as they have become established in organization
and management studies. Second, it considers the increasing complexity that can be
engaged with through the notion of intersectionality. The third section considers how
a broad view of different kinds of intersectionalities widens further understandings of
diversity/ies and DM in organizations and management. These various formulations
include external intersectionalities (formation, location, and form of organizations),
internal intersectionalities (internal structuring and processes of organizations), and
diversity and DM seen within intersectional contexts.

Difference, Diversity,
and Diversity Management

Difference
DM has been said to be all about differences, identities (Nkomo and Stewart 2006), and
categories (Anthias 2013). Indeed, different assumptions on difference and different
forms of social categorization often shape the way not only diversity and DM, but also
intersectionality, are understood. So, is difference something that ‘we’ have, prior to the
interaction with ‘our’ environment? And who exactly is this ‘we’? Where does our iden-
tity, or identities, come from? How do differences rest upon, or how are they invoked or
formed by, immediate social and broader societal categories, beyond the organizational
boundaries?
There are numerous answers to these questions. In a classic 1987 article, Barrett
(1987: 30) discusses:

[T]‌hree particular uses of the idea of difference. These are: (I) a sense of difference
effectively to register diversity of situation and experience between women; (II) dif-
ference as an understanding of the positional rather than absolute character of mean-
ing, particularly as developed in Derridean terms; and (III) modern psychoanalytic
accounts of sexual difference. These three uses of the concept of difference seem to
me to be quite distinct, although I should acknowledge here that the third category is
difficult to place in relation to the other two, and involves significant contradictions
and disagreements.

However, in general terms it is possible, as an initial statement and cutting across

these three usages, to distinguish between and contrast two main and broad
64    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

approaches: essentialist and constructionist. The essentialist perspective sees differ-

ences as inner characteristics of individuals. Differences and identities are rather stable
and fixed, and stem from biology, from socialization into a group, or from more fixed
structural categorization and positioning. The identity of a person may consist of sev-
eral dimensions of difference, but these are, or tend to be, coherent. The individual is
expected to be (relatively) unified and consistent in his or her differences. As differences
here are seen as internal to the person, differences precede action. Therefore, the dif-
ference of a person can be used as a prediction of his or her behaviour, or at least as an
explanation of it (Burr 1995). For instance, being a woman is often related to an expecta-
tion of being caring (or related to being a woman in some other way), and the act of tak-
ing care of an elderly person is seen as stemming from the gender identity of a woman,
rather than a process where the gender identity is formed and performed (Butler 1990).
From a constructionist position, differences look quite different. Differences are
not seen as internal to the individual but as constructed in interaction with others
and the wider social environment. Difference is produced, rather than existing by
itself. The production of difference takes place in the social context, where discourses
shape the way that people are categorized as different and/or similar. There, where
the essentialist approach sees differences as somehow neutral matters of fact, the
constructionist approach sees differences as intimately related to the power relation-
ships existing in society. Differences are not innocent, but reflect and perpetuate,
or, on the contrary, resist and challenge, the given social order. From this latter per-
spective, an individual does not have a unified identity; instead, each individual
has plural and fragmented identities, and may change identity from one situation
to another (Weedon 1987, 1996). There are numerous ways in which individuals can
identify; however, not all positions are available to everyone. Discourses of class,
gender, or ethnicity may tend to limit identities to specific groups or dimensions.
A constructionist approach does not deny that there may exist real differences
between people. A Finn may speak better Finnish than a non-Finn, or vice versa. But
the meaning of language skills, and the way that the language skill positions people,
is not pre-given and obvious. Other differences could rather be focused on, and other
patterns of similarity and difference could be put forward.
How do essentialist and constructionist approaches affect how DM is to be under-
stood? If one follows essentialist assumptions, differences exist prior to the organiza-
tion, and are at base unrelated to it. From a constructionist perspective, differences are
(also) constructed in the organization, for instance, in the organizing of the work. These
starting points give quite different bases for DM. Where an essentialist approach to DM
manages fixed, stable, and pre-existing differences, a constructionist approach acknowl-
edges that DM is also a site where differences are produced.
Having said this, there are many different versions of constructionism. According
to some constructionist approaches, such as those using positioning theory (Davies
and Harré 1990), individuals are free to choose the discourses that best suit them, and
can be regarded more as strategic users of discourses (on different approaches to con-
structionism, see Burr 1995). Other approaches, such as poststructuralist approaches,
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    65

hold that discourses define the ways in which individuals can come to understand
themselves, and also delimit the range of positions that are available at a given moment
or context (Weedon 1987, 1996). Individuals are never totally free from discourses, but
always produced by them. Researchers can position themselves in an intermediate
position in-between these two positions, emphasizing discursive agency or discur-
sive determination (Alvesson and Kärreman 2000; Bergström and Knights 2006),
and see that individuals understand themselves in ways that stem from interactions
between their agency and existing structures and discourses. Such a tension between
the free choice of individuals and the force of structures has a long history within the
social sciences, as seen in the agency-structure debate (Weber 1968; Giddens 1984;
Archer 1996).

Diversity and Diversity Management

The term ‘diversity’ has been part of organizational and management literature for more
than twenty years. Defining the field of diversity is, however, still not easy (Nkomo and
Stewart 2006). Indeed, the field is characterized by ambiguities, contradictions, and
unclarities (Cox 1994). These stem, on the one hand, from the term ‘diversity’ itself,
which lacks a binary opposition, and, as with any concept, is ascribed meanings only in
context. On the other hand, even though diversity research has become more theoreti-
cally rigorous, fuzziness remain around uses of such terms as discourses, rhetorics, and
practices in relation to DM.
Different overviews of DM have brought a richness and variety to the field. Nkomo
and Stewart (2006) suggest a broad categorization into dominant or mainstream, and
critical, perspectives. The difference between these two relies on the way social identities
are understood—as essential properties of individuals or as socially constructed—and
in the belief versus scepticism of whether DM will lead to significant changes in organi-
zations. Bairoh (2007) suggests a broad threefold categorization of literatures into prac-
titioner/consultant, mainstream, and critical. Her inclusion of consultant literature is a
strength, as practitioner-focused diversity material is abundant, and indeed has been
described as an industry (Prasad and Mills 1997). Practitioner literature, which could be
said to vary in terms of its criticality, is also important in forming diversity practices in
organizational and management contexts.
One of the more comprehensive categorizations has been that of Prasad, Pringle, and
Konrad (2006), building on Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) paradigms, and distinguishing
positivist and non-positivist work. Within these two groups, they further distinguish
work with a low versus high power awareness. In non-positivist work, a distinction is
further made between research that considers identities as fixed versus fluid. This is a
useful and detailed classification which, in contrast to Nkomo and Stewart’s (2006) and
Bairoh’s (2007) classifications, sheds light on the great variety within both dominant and
critical streams. Thus, it is clear that DM, like diversity, is indeed diverse. So how do
these debates connect or not with those on intersectionality?
66    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

Intersectionality/ies: Some
Genealogies

From even this brief introductory overview, the notions of diversity and DM, as used
in organization and management studies, can be seen as having clear connections
with that of intersectionality, even if all three concepts have rather different histories,
located within different traditions, as we discuss further in this section. The term ‘inter-
sectionality’, and to some extent the broader range of kindred concepts noted below in
this section, have become very widely used in recent years (Davis 2008), and there are
now several excellent broad reviews of the state of knowledge on intersectionality (for
example, European Journal of Women’s Studies 2006; Lutz et al. 2011; Cho, Crenshaw, and
McCall 2013). However, we stress here that the broad notion of intersectionality, or more
precisely intersectional social relations, is not new. This is despite the fact that, in various
countries, regions, and epistemic communities, it has sometimes been asserted as some
kind of ‘new’ concept or perspective, as when the concept is rediscovered or picked up to
address some particular societal configuration or problematic, such as (im)migration or
the recognition of multiple and complex identities.
Approaches to intersectionality range from those based in one dominant social
division, such as class, with other divisions ‘added on’; to more double or triple power
framings of intersectionality (for example, class–gender–race); to more multiple mod-
els (including age, disability, sexuality), to multifactor models, to engagement with
intra-categorical and inter-categorical boundary constructions; to anti-categorical
approaches (McCall 2005).
Intersectional perspectives, and the complex social phenomena to which they refer,
go under many different names and labels, including interrelations of oppressions,
multiple oppressions, multiple social divisions, mutual constitution, multiple differ-
ences, hybridities, simultaneity, multiple oppressions, multiculturalisms, multiplicities,
postcolonialities, multiple intersecting social inequalities (Walby 2007), and indeed
‘diversity’, amongst many more. Some researchers use the concept of intersectional-
ity explicitly (Crenshaw 1989, 1991: Lutz et al. 2011); others discuss intersections under
other conceptual categorizations, such as differential consciousness (Sandoval 2000),
and inappropriate/d otherness (Minh-ha 1986/7; Haraway 1992). This partly reflects dif-
ferent disciplinary traditions, partly different societal contexts of those knowledges, and
partly, it might seem, lack of awareness or evasion of other earlier societal contexts or
traditions of knowledge.
Intersectionality can be understood, albeit very differently, within the full range of
epistemologies. It can also be seen as methodology, ontology, and as combinations of
methodology, ontology, and epistemology, including problematizing the separation
of those framings. Intersectionality can be directed mainly at the level of identity, or,
more generally, towards meso and macro structures and processes, whether organiza-
tional, societal, or transnational, or indeed may problematize those very distinctions.
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    67

Of special interest is in what times, places, and situations do intersectionalities, and

indeed which intersectionalities, appear most evident. Historically, intersectionality
can be said to have always been there, whether seen or not. ‘Friends, Romans and coun-
trymen’ can easily be analysed intersectionally. In one sense, the concept of intersec-
tionality can be understood as a reworking of some very persistent themes of modernist
social theory and specifically modernist sociology, such as the place of individuals and
groups in complex multidimensional societies. Indeed, such sociological theorizing
and empirical work has fed directly into intersectional thinking. The traditions of the
‘founding fathers’ of sociology—Marx, Weber, and Durkheim—prioritized: class, class
fractions and factions; multiple power relations; and industrialization and interde-
pendence of divisions of labour under organic solidarity, respectively. These different
traditions all feed into intersectional thinking. Most clearly, intersectional thinking is
pervasive in the action sociology of Weber, and his writing on the intersections of class,
status, party.
Intersectionality was, at least implicitly, spoken of in black feminism and the anti-
slavery movement of the nineteenth century, in terms of the intersections of race and
gender and class—and probably long before then too. In 1851 Sojourner Truth (Isabella
Baumfree) (1797–1883) delivered the famous ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ speech at the Women’s
Convention, Akron, Ohio (<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.
asp>), which can be understood as an impassioned plea for intersectional thought and
politics:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.
I think that ’twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking
about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking
about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and
lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into
carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?
Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns,
and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as
much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried
out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Moreover, the concept of intersectionality has a rich feminist and anti-racist history
(see, for example, Crenshaw 1989, 1991; Brah and Phoenix 2004; McCall 2005), and is
sometimes seen as one of the major contributions of feminist thought. In the elabora-
tions that followed so-called second-wave feminism of the 1960s (Rowbotham, Segal,
and Wainwright 1979), it was reaffirmed, though often under different names, especially
in calling attention to the intersections of gender, ‘race’ (or ethnicity), and class . . . the ‘big
three’ of class–gender–‘race’. Intersectional thinking is central to debates and analyses in
the politics and political movements of race, racism and anti-racism, anti-imperialism,
(neo-)Marxist feminism, (neo-)Marxist anti-racism, migration, and coalition politics
(Carastathis 2013). The Combahee River Collective, a black feminist lesbian collective
68    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

active from 1974 to 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts, is perhaps best known for developing
the collective statement, on interlocking oppressions, racism and identity:

As women, particularly [. . .] privileged white women, began to acquire class power

without divesting of their internalized sexism, divisions between women intensified.
When women of color critiqued the racism within the society as a whole and called
attention to the ways that racism had shaped and informed feminist theory and prac-
tice, many white women simply turned their backs on the vision of sisterhood, clos-
ing their minds and hearts. And that was equally true when it came to the issue of
classism among women. (hooks 2000: 16–17)

In 1981 Angela Davis published Women, Race and Class (also see Anthias and Yuval-
Davis 1983); in 1984 bell hooks wrote on black women and black men as potential allies
in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center; and in the same year Mary O’Brien drew
attention to the dangers of commatization (O’Brien 1984), critiquing lists of oppressions,
separated by commas. And in 1989 Fiona Williams brought such ideas to the centre of
critical debate on United Kingdom social policy, adding age, disability, and sexuality to
make the ‘big six’. More recently, more elaborate multidimensional analytical schemes
have been developed:

One of the most comprehensive attempts to include additional axes of social divi-
sions is that of Helma Lutz—although in her formulation they are not axes but rather
‘basic dualisms’; this is problematic and she herself considers it a ‘challenge to con-
sider the spaces in-between’ (Lutz, 2002: 13). Her list includes the following 14 ‘lines
of difference’: gender; sexuality; ‘race’/skin-colour; ethnicity; nation/state; class; cul-
ture; ability; age; sedentariness/origin; wealth; North–South; religion; stage of social
development. Lutz, however, sees this list as ‘by no means complete; other categories
have to be added or re-defined’ (Lutz 2002: 13). Indeed, the list is potentially bound-
less. (Yuval-Davis 2006: 202)

Such a list at times is framed slightly differently, for example, in terms of ‘able-bodiedness’
rather than ‘ability’, and ‘property ownership’ rather than ‘wealth’ (also see Lutz 2001,
2014). Recently, there have also been extensions of intersectional thinking into broader
environmental issues, such as animal studies (Twine 2010) and climate change (Kaijser
and Kronsell 2014). These approaches have further implications for widening debate on
diversity, DM, and organizational analysis.
Probably the most cited scholar on intersectionality is the black feminist law profes-
sor, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. She codified the concept, arguing that you cannot
understand black women’s oppression and discrimination by considering only gender
or only race/racialization: the two are intertwined, including when making legal claims.
Accordingly, she developed the metaphor of crossroads, that is, intersections of roads:

[A]‌n analogy to traffic in an intersection, coming and going in all four directions.
Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    69

it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by

cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them.
Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury
could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination [. . .] But it is not always
easy to reconstruct an accident: Sometimes the skid marks and the injuries simply
indicate that they occurred simultaneously, frustrating efforts to determine which
driver caused the harm. (Crenshaw 1989: 149)

Many other black feminists, for example, Patricia Hill Collins and Audre Lorde, have devel-
oped this field further. Debates on intersectionality can also be related to other debates
around gender, class, and race. For example, the 1980s were a period of revision of the con-
cept of patriarchy, and identification of multiple arenas, sites, structures, and historical
forms of patriarchy that may operate in uneven development or contradiction. Walby (1986,
1990) specified these patriarchal structures: capitalist work, the family, the state, violence,
sexuality, and culture; while Hearn (1987, 1992) specified reproduction of labour power, pro-
creation, regeneration/degeneration, violence, sexuality, ideology. More recently, the con-
cept of transnational patriarchies (transpatriarchies) (Hearn 2009) has been used.
A related set of theories around men and masculinities developed from the late 1970s,
alongside feminist auto-critiques of the concept of patriarchy. While much intersec-
tionalities debate has been directed towards recognition of differences, yet common-
alities, among women, and their intersections, questions of difference and intersection,
apply equally to men (Kimmel and Messner 1989/2009; Hearn and Collinson 2006).
Masculinities operate as intersections of gender and other social divisions (Connell
1995): hegemonic masculinity as intersections of gender, class, ethnicity, and sexual-
ity, legitimating patriarchy; subordinated masculinity as intersections of gender and
sexuality, for example, gay masculinities; marginalized masculinity as intersections of
class, ethnicity, and racialization, for example, black masculinities. Notions of plural,
multiple, or composite masculinities, such as black straight masculinity or white gay
masculinities (Hearn and Collinson 1994; Aboim 2010), are widely used. Jørgen Elm
Larsen and Ann-Dorte Christensen (2008: 56) argue ‘(t)he concept of intersectionality
complements the concept of hegemonic masculinities, in that it stresses the interaction
between gender, class and other differentiating categories, and at the same time articu-
lates different power structures and their reciprocating construction’.
Other inspirations for considering intersectionality have come from critical and fem-
inist disability movements and studies, notably the work of Helen Meekosha (2006) and
Ingunn Moser (2004) on interferences, and from studies on gender, sexuality, and other
intersections in and around work organizations (Hearn and Parkin 1993). On the lat-
ter point, it is very difficult to study gender and sexuality in and around organizations
without being aware of organizational position, hierarchy, work/labour, status, class,
occupation, profession, and management. These inevitably intersect with gender and
sexuality and much more.
Intersectionality also figures increasingly as a focus in policy development and policy
studies (Verloo 2013). This is not least through the work of the United Nations (UN) and the
70    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

European Union (EU), including the EU Anti-Discrimination Directives, even if they only
name six grounds for legal action on illegal discrimination—gender, ethnicity, disability,
age, religion/belief, sexual orientation—but not class, which is excluded on the grounds it
is not ‘justicable’ inequality (Walby, Armstrong, and Strid 2012). Intersectionality is open to
many uses and abuses (Lewis 2013; Pringle 2006; also see Lewis 2015).
Broader geographical, geopolitical, transnational, and translocal understandings of
intersectionality can also be developed. At a global and glocal level, the development
and impact of postcolonialism in theory and practice has been a great stimulus to inter-
sectional thinking, as, for example, in the work of Grewal and Kaplan (2002), Scattered
Hegemonies, McClintock (2003), Imperial Leather, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (2003),
Feminism without Borders (see Lewis 2013). Patil (2013) has recently brought together
debates on transnational feminism. Having said all this, there are certainly some neglected
intersectionalities to be acknowledged, or at least some social arenas where intersectional-
ity theory might be developed more fully. These include studies of ageing; disability and
lived embodiment; virtuality; and transnationality (Hearn 2011). Such neglected intersec-
tionalities are also a way of challenging the gender hegemony of men.

Intersections of Categories and Differences

It is clear that the term, intersectionality, has been used in many different ways—between
relatively fixed social categories, in the making of such categories, in their mutual con-
stitution, in transcending categories. In this respect, McCall’s (2005) clarification is
especially useful, distinguishing approaches that are:

• inter-categorical: adopting existing analytical, relatively fixed categories, with the

focus on relations between them;
• intra-categorical: using more provisional categories; acknowledges stable, even
durable, relationships that social categories represent at given point in time; also
maintains critical stance towards categories; focus on particular social groups at
neglected points of intersection—‘people whose identity crosses the boundaries of
traditionally constructed groups’;
• anti-categorical: categories not basic; deconstruction of categories.

In broad terms this framework moves from more modernist inter-categorical concep-
tions of intersectionality to more ambiguous intra-categorical conceptions, to post-
modernist/poststructuralist anti-categorical conceptions thereof.1 These distinctions by

1 Anthias (2013) has recently set out another framework for understanding social categories, and thus,

by implication, difference, in terms of different levels of abstraction: as social ontologies, in terms of

conceptions on how different realms of world are being organized; as providing criteria based on which
people can be categorized; and as concrete relations. She locates intersectionality at the level of concrete
relations, seen as embedded in both intersecting categorizations (and thus differences) that are distinct
between themselves, as well as wider societal processes.
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    71

McCall mirror, to some extent, earlier discussions of more essentialist and more con-
structionist approaches to difference. The relationship between different differences,
both substantive and conceptual, is thus a further aspect that differentiates more essen-
tialist and more constructionist approaches to difference. More essentialist approaches
to differences tend to highlight differences between groups and treat groups as relatively
internally homogeneous. Constructionist approaches tend to focus more on variations
within groups: not all women are alike, not all ethnic minorities are alike.
There are always several dimensions of difference that interact simultaneously and
position people in different ways (Holvino 2010). A person may, for instance, be a
woman, but she may also be white, educated, and heterosexual. These could be dimen-
sions of difference that are of relevance in a certain professional context, while in the
domestic context other dimensions could be more relevant. A DM programme based on
an underlying assumption that differences are discrete and groups are internally homo-
geneous is likely to develop very differently from one taking an intersectional approach.
DM has been criticized for treating differences as add-on categories, where individu-
als have difficulty fitting into specific groups, or can belong to all of the groups at the
same time (Litvin 1997). An intersectional approach to DM might suggest building on
the simultaneity of difference(s), seeking to avoid constructing generalizations about
groups such as women or ethnic minorities (Holvino 2010). While non-intersectional
programmes might treat women as a homogeneous group and promote gender equality
by taking only gender into account in staffing, an intersectional diversity programme
would highlight not only gender but also intersections with age, ethnicity, and other dif-
ferences and divisions.
Essentialist and constructionist approaches to difference also give different impor-
tance to context in relation to the meanings of difference. The role of language can be
seen as one aspect of context, but is also an important question of its own. As the essen-
tialist view sees differences exist within the individual, the related assumption is that we
do not need language in order for the difference to exist. Differences pre-exist language,
and language is only seen as a medium we use to express the differences. The construc-
tionist perspective radically differs from this point. According to the constructionist
view, differences are produced through language. Language provides individuals with a
way to structure their reality, and as there are a variety of languages available, reality can
be structured in many different ways. In this way, simple distinctions between essential-
ist and constructionist approaches to difference can be problematized, with both exist-
ing and framed within languages.
Moreover, as different languages have different repertoires of words, different lan-
guages allow for different constructions of reality. Not all languages have, for instance,
exactly corresponding words for ‘diversity’. What in English is called ‘diversity’ is in
French called ‘diversité’, in Finnish it is expressed by the term ‘monimuotoisuus’ (having
many forms), and in Swedish by ‘mångfald’ (multilayeredness). Even though the defini-
tions of these terms in the different languages to some extent overlap, some differences
can also be noted. While in English and French diversity is composed of many units
and it is the variety of the units together that creates diversity, in Finnish and Swedish
72    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

the terms also allow one to presuppose an ensemble having many sides or character-
istics. Thus, in Finnish and Swedish it is possible to fragment a specific unit into many
diverse parts on the basis of several criteria. However, it is not only the existence or
non-existence of a particular word that shapes the way reality is perceived in a given
language. Languages cannot be detached from their cultural contexts, and words within
different languages have different social and historical backgrounds.
An example of a deconstructive linguistic approach is Walgenbach and colleagues’
(2007) concept of interdependence. According to this, social categories are seen as
dependent on and determined by other categorizations that are themselves interde-
pendent. In this vein, Lorey (2008: 5) summarizes how:

Hornscheidt investigates how people are organized into different categories through
forms of naming, and thus how categories impose a hierarchical order [Hornscheidt
2007: 77]. In this perspective, categorizations are conceptualized not just as linguistic
constructions with materializing effects that extend as far as structural discrimina-
tion. Categories are at the same time a ‘structuring factor of knowledge’ [Hornscheidt
2007: 73].

Thus not only intersectionality is a contested approach and concept, but the very
coordinates that generally underpin the concept are also subject to deconstruction
(cf. McCall 2005).

The Implications of Intersectionality

for Diversity and Diversity
Management

What are the implications of these broad theorizations of intersectionality for organi-
zations and management? In this third main section we address two main implica-
tions: external intersectionalizing of organizations and management, and their internal
intersectionalizing; and the placing of studies of diversity and DM in an intersectional
context.

External and Internal Intersectionalizing

of Organizations and Management
In many cases, these questions of diversity and intersectionality are illuminated by
attention to historical and transnational issues, both contextualizing and embedded
in practice. There is a need to bring together, in analysis, the internal intersectional-
izing of organizations and the external intersectionalizing of organizations through
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    73

transnationalizations. This is even the case, indeed perhaps even more so, when mat-
ters of diversity, intersectionality, and transnationalizations remain unnamed and
unmarked. A move beyond national, societal cultural contexts has been prompted
by global(ized) and transnational researches over recent years, and the intersectional
effects of globalization. Transnationalizations constitute external intersectionalizations
of organizations, as in such transnational issues as: environmental questions, ‘Third
World’ development, war and armed conflict, finance capitalism, and information and
communication technologies. Obvious candidates for intersectional gendered analysis
are multinational enterprises (MNEs), and their organization and management within
transnationalizations (Hearn and Louvrier 2011).
Intersectional transnationalizations form the business environment of MNEs, recon-
structing their internal structures and processes. Concentrations of capital are increas-
ing, with gendered and intersectional forms and effects. At the same time, MNEs are
themselves vulnerable to huge risks, ranging from terrorism to financial crises and
computer hacking and viruses. MNEs operate at the intersections of global, national,
regional, and local traditions, and strategic international management, and are thus
subject to contradictory intersectional gendered pressures. There is immense scope
for far greater attention to such issues in the intersectional gendering of transnational
business-to-business activity, alliances, supply chains, financial dependencies, and
other inter-corporate relations—formal or informal, and often involving those at high
levels.
These transnational processes can be translated into various forms of intersectional
variation (Hearn, Metcalfe, and Piekkari 2012). At the institutional level, MNE head-
quarters may find it difficult to align less regulated forms of employment in developing
regions, such as Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with their internally stand-
ardized practices. A second form of variation is functional, for example, in how MNEs
have used changes in trade and financial agreements to move their production and ser-
vices around the globe. Much production, such as electronics, toys, and sports goods,
and business services, such as call centres, has become part of ‘global assembly lines’.
MNEs manage hidden production relationships in less developed countries through
subcontracting networks employing low-paid female workers. Yet, in such blue-collar
work contexts the business case for diversity is rarely made. Intersectional gendered
production networks are evolving as a result of major changes in international politi-
cal economy, themselves intersectionally gendered. In responding to and shaping these
conditions, MNEs have used different strategies, in effect intersectional gendered strate-
gies, in strategic management. In addition, there are intersections in local cultural and
religious patterns with global restructuring. Recruitment and appointment processes
can sometimes be contradictory processes, with local units sometimes resisting expa-
triate recruitment or standardization in methods, whatever corporate policies may say.
Research here can be assisted by attention to transnational cultural change and various
forms of deterritorialization and hybridity (Ong 1999; Hearn 2004, 2015).
DM is one means of managing external intersectionalizing within the internal inter-
sectionalizing of corporations. In terms of internal intersections, corporations and
74    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

many other organizations are themselves contexts of, and arenas and sites for, gendered
intersectional relations—hence the need for the specific recognition of the intersec-
tional gendered corporation (Hearn and Louvrier 2011). Most organizations can be seen
as doubly intersectionally gendered: first, public domains and the organizations within
them are dominantly valued, intersectionally gendered, over the private domains; and,
second, within organizations their structures and processes are themselves intersection-
ally gendered, perhaps most obviously in certain men’s usual domination through man-
agement and other mechanisms, including DM. In the case of MNEs and large business
corporations, organizations can be seen as triply gendered, with the global and trans-
national dimension adding further intersectional gendered dominations, across space,
place, cultures, interorganizational power relations, and virtual technologies.

Diversity and Diversity Management

within Intersectional Contexts
As the concept of DM has become a global trend and has ‘travelled’ or has been ‘trans-
lated’ from the United States to other parts of the Western world (Boxenbaum 2006;
Calás, Holgersson, and Smircich 2009), the importance of diverse contexts for under-
standing DM has been underlined (Prasad, Pringle, and Konrad 2006; Pringle 2009).
In recent years much progress has been made in the area, for instance, in the form of an
edited sixteen-country book on DM, diversity, and equality work (Klarsfeld 2010).
Empirical studies acknowledging the importance of national context have examined
several different aspects of context. However, most studies have tended to treat context
as a neutral given fact, focused on one or a few of the following aspects: national demo-
graphics (Glastra et al. 2000; Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd 2000; Risberg and Søderberg
2008; Omanovic 2009; Bendl, Hanappi-Egger, and Hofmann 2010); the institutional con-
text of legislation and policies related to equality and anti-discrimination (Klarsfeld 2009;
Bender, Klarsfeld, and Laufer 2010); labour market structures related to minority groups
(de los Reyes 2000; Glastra et al. 2000; Omanovic 2009; Cornet and Zanoni 2010), minor-
ity groups’ histories (Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd 2000; Booysen and Nkomo 2010); or
public policies at the time diversity is recognized in specific national contexts (Glastra
et al. 2000; Omanovic 2009). Less attention has been paid to how different aspects of
diverse national contexts intersect with and give meaning to diversity and DM.
Both similarities and differences can be found between different contexts. National
context intersects with the formulation of diversity: in particular, which differences
are given voice, and which are silenced. In some contexts, such as in Sweden and the
Netherlands (de los Reyes 2000; Glastra et al. 2000), diversity is mostly attached to eth-
nicity and immigrant status; in others, age is specifically focused on, such as in Austria
(along with ethnicity) (Bendl, Hanappi-Egger, and Hofmann 2010), or gender, such as
in Italy (Murgia and Poggio 2010). Diversity initiatives have been implemented locally,
with differences in the extent to which diversity has attracted organizational and pub-
lic authorities’ attention in different countries (see contributions in Klarsfeld 2010).
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    75

Differences between diversity dimensions, approaches to diversity, and implementation

of initiatives are also dependent on differences between organizations (Janssens and
Zanoni 2005), units within organizations (Kamp and Hagedorn-Rasmussen 2004), and
different parts of a given country (Cornet and Zanoni 2010).
When DM is adapted to new national contexts it is constructed in ways to correspond to
the existing practices of naming and non-naming. It can be seen as an empty category, filled
by, and used for, the purposes of corporate management. Indeed, DM is related to differ-
ent dimensions of difference in different countries. Management ideology crosses national
borders. DM can be seen as formulated in the crossing forces of international management
ideology, reinforced and spread by large international companies, and national concep-
tions of ‘us’ and ‘them’. It can thus be a way of managing internal intersectionality.
Not problematizing national context, and focusing on one aspect of context at a time,
thus ignoring the intersectionality of context, significantly delimits the way in which
diversity and DM are regarded in research. Kalonaityte (2006) has shown, by studying
diversity in Sweden within the context of postcoloniality, how discourses on diversity
illuminate the construction of Swedishness and non-Swedishness. Diversity studies
should indeed bring context into the analysis and be open to how discourses of diversity
construct knowledge about more than difference. Studying the meanings of diversity,
difference, and DM in Finland and France, Louvrier (2013) treated the socio-historical
contexts of Finland and France as discursive constructions, and examined how knowl-
edge about context was key to the construction of diversity and DM. She showed that
meanings of DM are constructed in discursive fields relating diversity to understand-
ings of society, organization, the individual, and the contextual nature of differences.
The complexities of the meanings of these are again difficult to understand without a
thorough understanding of the specificities of context.
Overall, discursive approaches to categorization, difference, diversity, and intersec-
tionality have highlighted the important assumptions that DM practices build upon, but
may have also increased uncertainty, perhaps even confusion, within the field: Namely,
what is the relationship between DM and discourse? Is DM a discourse? Or is diversity
best seen as rhetoric, metaphor, or theory (Kersten 2000; Kirby and Harter 2003; Zanoni
and Janssens 2003)? Does there exist a discourse of DM, or several such discourses
(Sinclair 2006; Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010)? Is there a managerial discourse
of diversity, contrasting to some other type of discourse of diversity? Or is diversity a
model (Barmes and Ashtiany 2003) or a platform for debating identity (Holvino and
Kamp 2009)? All these approaches are viable, and all have contributed to critical analy-
sis of the functioning of diversity in different contexts. Interestingly, the findings are
often very similar in terms of how diversity is understood, regardless of the defining of
diversity as discourse, metaphor, or something else.
The field of critical diversity research would, however, benefit from more rigorous
usage of terms and consistent usage within specific studies. The most common diver-
sity discourses discussed in the literature are the business discourse and the equality
discourse (see also Chapter 12, this volume). These discourses have long been seen
as separate oppositional discourses, identified through their different underlying
76    Jeff Hearn and Jonna Louvrier

arguments for diversity. Recently, the separation of these two discourses has, however,
been questioned, and it has been suggested that they may indeed intertwine (Tomlinson
and Schwabenland 2010). Diversity discourse should be looked at more broadly, not
just through arguments for or against diversity. Discursive studies should be open to
identifying the many knowledges diversity discourse produces, which certainly go well
beyond the business versus equality arguments for diversity.

Concluding Remarks

In addressing DM, the weakness of the term ‘diversity’ is that in some senses it can mean
almost anything to anyone; it can indeed function as an empty, often an ideological,
signifier. The concept of intersectionality is also open to many interpretations, ranging
from categorical to anti-categorical. Arguably, intersectionality complicates and to an
extent demystifies the ideological power of diversity and DM.
While stressing the importance and contribution of thinking on intersectionalities,
we do not seek to ignore or downplay single dimensions of difference. This is especially
so, as across different geographical spaces signifiers of difference have different mean-
ings, understandings, and legitimacies (Metcalfe 2010). A related challenge in research
on diversity and intersectionality is to maintain a focus on difference without neglecting
structured asymmetrical structural power relations (Hearn and Parkin 1993, 2001; Hearn
and Collinson 2006; Holvino 2010). In discussions of such matters of power, men and
masculinities are generally left unspoken; they are, in that sense, an ‘absent presence’, even
despite (perhaps because of) their dominance, especially at the highest levels, and within
management policy, practice, and discourse. In many organizations, particular groups of
men are the most powerful actors. The (transnational) capitalist class is in practice very
much a male (transnational) capitalist class (see Hearn, Blagojević, and Harrison 2013).
Finally, it is important to note that intersectionality is a very dynamic field, both
empirically and theoretically, somewhat in contrast to more static conceptualizations
of diversity and DM. Indeed, even broader understandings of intersectionality can be
developed to locate intersections and diversity/ies, for example, multiple varieties and
forms of intersections themselves. One example is presented as the policy position of the
Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality book series (<http://www.
routledge.com/books/series/raifsai/>), as ‘committed to the development of new femi-
nist and profeminist perspectives on changing gender relations, with special attention to:

• Intersections between gender and power differentials based on age, class, dis/
abilities, ethnicity, nationality, racialization, sexuality, violence, and other social
divisions.
• Intersections of societal dimensions and processes of continuity and change: cul-
ture, economy, generativity, polity, sexuality, science and technology.
• Embodiment: Intersections of discourse and materiality, and of sex and gender.
 Theories of Difference, Diversity, and Intersectionality    77

• Transdisciplinarity: intersections of humanities, social sciences, medical, technical

and natural sciences.
• Intersections of different branches of feminist theorizing, including: historical
materialist feminisms, postcolonial and anti-racist feminisms, radical feminisms,
sexual difference feminisms, queerfeminisms, cyberfeminisms, posthuman femi-
nisms, critical studies on men and masculinities.
• A critical analysis of the travelling of ideas, theories and concepts.
• A politics of location, reflexivity and transnational contextualizing that
reflects . . . diversity and transnational power relations.’

Each of these different developments and elaborations of intersectionality, as well as the

intersections between them, has further and broader implications still for how diversity
and DM are to be understood in theory and practice as multifaceted phenomena. Seen
thus, diversity and DM are themselves open to multiple, diverse, intersectional, and
often transnational understandings, rather than being a specific and separately identifi-
able field, with a single purpose or function.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the editors for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of this
chapter.

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 Chapter 4

Rethinking Di v e rsi t y
i n Organiz at i ons
and So c i et y

David Knights and Vedran Omanović

Introduction

Diversity is a term that has assumed pre-eminence over recent decades as a way of rep-
resenting populations that diverge through a wide variety of age-related, cultural, eth-
nic, racial, national, linguistic, religious, physical, and mental strengths or weaknesses,
gender and sexual identifications or positionings. The genesis of ‘diversity’ as a topic in
organizational studies has been traced to theory and practice in the United States that
recognized its appeal when contrasted with the negative focus of anti-discrimination
or affirmative action (AA) legislation (Nkomo and Cox 1996; Kelly and Dobbin 1998;
Omanović 2009). The US Civil Rights movement of the 1960s had led to equal employ-
ment opportunity (EEO) and AA programmes that, although forerunners, were read-
ily displaced by workplace diversity policies (e.g. Thomas 1990; Ashkanasy, Härtel, and
Daus 2002). While such AA programmes met with some success in addressing social
injustices resulting from the systematic advantaging or disadvantaging of people based
on their group identities (Powell 1993), they were limited by the coverage of the legisla-
tion, which tended to concentrate primarily on issues of sexual and racial inequalities.
Furthermore, certain political fashions of the day, such as the assimilation of immi-
grants in the United States (Janiewski 1995; Kurowski 2002) determined priorities. For a
considerable time, overt racial discrimination and exclusion from the political process
experienced by African Americans was given less attention (Janiewski 1995). Indeed,
it could be argued that diversity in the workplace was marginalized by politicians and
scholars because of the political priority of focusing on assimilation, ethnocentrism,
and nativism (Kurowski 2002).
84    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

A report related to diversity in the workplace by Johnston and Packer (1987) entitled
‘Workforce 2000: Work and Workers for the 21st Century’ used demographic statistics
to predict a significant increase in the employment of women and minorities and in
the median age of people in the workforce. This report stimulated researchers, as well
as practitioners, to begin examining the changing workplace demographics (e.g. Fine
1996; Litvin 2000, 2006). Diversity in the workplace thus became a major social and
political issue as well as a topic for research, especially within management and organi-
zation studies. This early discourse on diversity was clearly grounded in humanistic
(but also business-related) concerns to value cultural differences, while the AA approach
concentrates on assimilating racial minorities and women into the business world (see,
for instance, Powell 1993; Lynch 1997; Omanović 2006). As Powell (1993) states, organi-
zations that value cultural diversity attempt to reach qualitative changes by improving
interpersonal relationships and by minimizing latent racism and sexism. However,
many advocates also began to promote exclusively a business-related agenda and the
term diversity management (DM) or managing diversity began to assume significance
(e.g. Thomas 1990, 1991; Taylor 1995; Robinson and Dechant 1997). Governments, man-
agement practitioners, academics, and the media found that managing diversity pro-
vided a useful rhetoric for making the case for equal employment opportunity in the
workplace. Through its appeal to the ‘business case’ for diversity (see also Chapter 12,
this volume), it attracted practitioners who had disliked the legislative constraints on
their practices, and it appealed to a growing political backlash against AA and quotas as
ways of addressing discrimination. At last, here was a positive and possibly productive
way of subscribing to the liberal agenda for improving equity for diverse populations.
Soon DM and its linking of the issue to business efficiency, competitive advantage, and
commercial success became established practice, such that it began to eclipse all other
approaches to diversity (Noon 2007, 2010). As a result, ‘the motivation for social justice
has been lost in mainstream writings on diversity in organizations, as well as in some
critical work’ (Ahonen et al. 2014: 264).
In this chapter, our concern is to examine a range of analytical frameworks, episte-
mologies, and methodologies surrounding discourses of diversity for purposes of pro-
posing an alternative that would seek to avoid reproducing the very conditions that
make it possible to discriminate against the disadvantaged. We believe that the domi-
nant perspectives and methodologies of positivism and interpretivism have led research
along channels where diversity becomes a problem to manage rather than a resource
for stimulating political, social, and ethical changes reflective of the tradition of social
justice (Rhodes 2012). Even critical approaches have tended to reproduce linear, binary,
and disembodied representations of diversity that fail adequately to challenge the main-
stream DM theories and practices. In this climate, social justice arguments within
diversity discourses have lost favour in preference to a managerialist preoccupation
with making diversity ‘pay’ in terms of a ‘business case’; in short, limiting diversity prac-
tices to their potential to generate commercial benefits. As a way of seeking to stimulate
developments that might reverse this trend and restore interests in social justice, we have
conducted a literature survey of the various methodological and analytical frameworks
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    85

deployed in diversity in organizations research in order to search for alternatives that do

not reduce ideas about and interests in diversity to an object to be managed primarily as
a resource for enhancing efficiency and/or profitability. In searching for alternatives we
have consulted some of the posthumanist feminist literature (Grosz 1994; Ziarek 2001;
Diprose 2002) that promotes and celebrates difference as opposed to focusing primarily
on managing diversity.
In conducting our search of the literature, we found that it could broadly be classified
in relation to the epistemological and methodological frameworks that were adopted.
So, for example, although not always explicitly declared or reflected upon, we found that
there were three major frameworks through which most studies could be identified. The
most dominant framework was that of positivism, where there is a belief in the natural
scientific model of causal analysis of independent and dependent variables and where
social research is only slightly lower down the evolutionary chain of discovery and
achievement (Popper 1947). These researchers see no discontinuity between nature and
human life, whereas the second most dominant framework of interpretivism specifically
works from the hermeneutic assumption that human life is a continual and unending
process of seeking, interpreting, and often imposing meaning on the world (Douglas
1970). Because the subject and the ‘object’ (i.e. humans) of research in the social sphere
both construct and are constructed by (and through) interpretations, meaning cannot
simply be short-circuited through quantifying factors, categories, or variables as if these
representations were self-evident. Diversity in organizations is studied mostly through
one or other of these two research traditions, although there is a tendency for the posi-
tivist framework to be more dominant than interpretivism. A third framework through
which diversity in organizations is researched is the critical tradition(s), where not only
is the natural science model rejected but also the tendency for interpretivist research
to remain descriptive and apolitical. Critical research avoids imposing meaning so as
to construct variables that can be subjected to causal analysis but, unlike some of the
interpretivism, it refuses to remain politically neutral. Consequently, its moral focus to
reverse discriminatory practices on the grounds of social justice generally renders criti-
cal research unsympathetic to the concentration on the business case within DM. As
will be seen in the next section, there are several variants of each of these frameworks.
Through identifying alternative theories and methods in studying diversity in organi-
zations, we hope to be able to facilitate a reconstruction of social and institutional
arrangements. Instead of treating individuals or groups as ‘objects’ to be managed, we
seek to recognize and celebrate the differences that constitute their diversity. We rec-
ognize how some theorists who seek to stress and celebrate difference deny focusing
on group identity, let alone identities based on a category such as ethnicity or race (e.g.
Roberson and Park 2007; McKay 2008). This is because they fear giving an essential
status to something individuals might share in common at the expense of identifying
their differences. We eschew such extremes and therefore seek to advance embodied
understandings of difference and diversity that avoid undermining any kind of gener-
alization on the basis of gender, ethnicity, or other base for discrimination (Bordo 1990;
Nussbaum 1992; Hekman 1999). For a recognition and even celebration of difference
86    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

need not displace all sense of commonality between people, as it is possible both to share
certain aspects of life (e.g. gendered identity and practice) at one and the same time
as exhibiting differences with respect to a range of dimensions (e.g. age, class, history,
race, sexuality). Of course, it is also possible to share aspects of one or more of the latter
dimensions, such as race, while perhaps giving lesser emphasis to gender. Furthermore,
as intersectional theory argues (Crenshaw 1991; Styhre and Eriksson-Zetterquist 2008;
Bagilhole 2009), where, in combination, two or more of these dimensions intersect, the
potential discriminatory impact can be greater than the sum of its parts, and where sev-
eral dimensions intersect, it can be exponential. In the section on posthumanist femi-
nism, we go beyond the tendency of intersectional theorists to be largely preoccupied
with identities. The argument is that, although recognizing the multiplicity of overlap-
ping identities is an advance, intersectional theorists still subscribe to a view that iden-
tity work is liberating rather than an entrapment of modernism. We subscribe to this
latter view, which sees the preoccupation with identity as turning people in on them-
selves and reducing the ‘other’ to that which can simply confirm the self ’s own image of
itself (Levinas 1986; Knights 2006).
The chapter is organized as follows. First we provide some detail of how we conducted
the survey together with a brief rationale for the project. We then proceed to the survey,
examining positivist, interpretivist, and critical literatures in turn before discussing an
alternative posthumanist feminism.

Search Methodology

Our focus for analysis is empirical studies of diversity in organizations that have been
published, as journal articles, from the beginning of twenty-first century until the year
2013. We used the following databases to locate the articles: Science Direct, Scopus,
and Sci Topics. The most common key words of our search were: Managing Diversity,
Diversity in Organizations, Diversity and its Management. Our first search resulted in
some 250 articles. Many of these articles dealt with areas not relevant for our purposes,
such as medicine, the arts, and technology. Therefore, we refined our search, using the
following criteria: articles on ‘diversity in organizations’ and empirical articles. Our final
selection consisted of approximately 100 articles that were published within the set time
period. Around 40 per cent of these journal articles were the most recent publications—
published from the year 2007 to the year 2013. Apart from these newer publications on
diversity in organizations, we included as well a few studies (approximately ten) focus-
ing on diversity in organizations that were published before the year 2000—as a way of
contextualizing our own study. We also looked at a number of studies that, on examina-
tion, were rather peripheral to our main focus, so that in total we have consulted around
180 studies.
The results discussed in this chapter reflect our interpretation of the primary theo-
retical and methodological foci of these articles. Our interpretation is, in turn, based
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    87

on our previous readings and knowledge and ‘engagement’ with the reviewed literature.
Identifying the range of analytical frameworks and their epistemological and meth-
odological roots through a literature review is one conventional way of developing a
research field, as did Burrell and Morgan (1979) and Morgan (1980) in relation to organ-
ization studies. In the field of gender and organization, a number of authors have also
sought to classify the different approaches (see, for example, Acker 1990; Hartsock 1995;
Rantalaiho and Heiskanen 1997; Alvesson and Billing 1999; Calás and Smircich 2006).
More broadly, in the area of diversity at work, authors have identified different politi-
cal (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000) and paradigmatical (Nemetz and Christensen 1996;
Omanović 2011) standpoints within the research field. Drawing on Burrell and Morgan’s
work on paradigmatic differences, Nemetz and Christensen (1996) identify two oppos-
ing beliefs (underlying paradigms) about multiculturalism: one polarity is labelled the
sociology of regulation (or functionalism) and the other is described as the sociology
of radical change (radical structuralism). By setting these views in relation to DM, the
authors present two ways of action regarding potential (societal and organizational)
responses to difference. For example, the functionalist view seeks to induce change
through problem-solving and building consensus from within the boundaries of exist-
ing authority and control, while the structuralist view sees social change as possible only
by revolution, which shifts power from the oppressor to the oppressed. Lorbiecki and
Jack (2000) also reviewed the DM literature, but their focus is changes within the fields.
The results of their study is the identification of four overlapping turns—demographic,
political, economic, and critical—regarding the focus in the diversity in organizations
research. Finally, Omanović’s (2011) study investigates how diversity is being repre-
sented in the management and organization literature. In particular, the author focuses
on the identification and examination of researchers’ ontological and epistemological
assumptions—which results in four philosophical traditions in the literature: the posi-
tivist, the interpretative, the discursive, and the critical-dialectic. Our study builds on this
approach, but sees the discursive and the critical-dialectic as part of a critical tradition
that we seek to contribute to through developing a more embodied analysis of difference
within diversity. We also challenge some ‘critical research’ on diversity in organizations
by asking questions: In what way is ‘critical research’ on diversity in organizations trans-
formative? Does this research, as well as mainstream managerial approaches, stabilize
the conditions of possibility of disadvantage and discrimination? We turn now to the
material from our literature survey.

The Positivist Tradition(s)

Diversity in management research, following the positivist tradition(s), mostly docu-

ments the relationships between ‘diverse workforces’, their various characteristics/
dimensions (such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, and
national origin), and their effects. The themes of these articles are the following: goal
88    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

orientation (e.g. Pieterse, van Knippenberg, and Ginkel 2011); performance (e.g.
Richard 2000; Dwyer, Richard, and Chadwick 2003; Kidder et al. 2004; Shoobridge
2006; Roberson and Park 2007); projects (e.g. Bhadury, Mighty, and Damar 2000; Wang
et al. 2006); teams (e.g. Watsona, BarNir, and Pavur 2005); innovativeness (Kearney
and Gebert 2006); greater decision-making and problem-solving capability (e.g.
Cunningham 2011); organizational commitment (e.g. Kirby and Richard 2000); corpo-
rate social orientation (e.g. Smith et al. 2004); diversity as strategy (Thomas 2004); cul-
tural differences (Tung and Quaddus 2002); firm value (e.g. Johnston and Malina 2008);
and ‘successful buyer–seller relationships’ (e.g. Bush and Ingram 2011).
The ‘diversity’ definitions sometimes refer to other characteristics/dimensions than
those listed—such as ‘deep-level diversity’, which includes, for example, personality,
information, attitudes, and values (Phillips and Loyd 2006; Pieterse, van Knippenberg,
and Ginkel 2011); differences in business practices by foreign and local companies (Mohr
and Puck 2005); and differences amongst companies in different societal contexts, such
as Japan and South Korea (Magoshi and Chang 2009). The major research interests in
these studies are the potential (economic) benefits of certain characteristics/dimensions
of diversity for organizations and companies.
This stream of research, which is strongly social psychological in perspective, focuses
on concepts such as social identity and social categorizations that suggest that people
use predominantly cognitive categories to distinguish themselves and others like them
(e.g. Eckel and Grossman 2005; Sawyer, Houlette, and Yeagley 2006; Klein et al. 2011;
Østergaarda, Timmermans, and Kristinsson 2011). This research also draws on the simi-
larity/attraction concept, which argues that individuals are more attracted to people like
themselves (e.g. Shore et al. 2009; Pieterse, van Knippenberg, and Ginkel 2011) and the
uncertainty reduction concept (e.g. Bush and Ingram 2011) where individuals negatively
stereotype different or deviant others in order to reduce uncertainty about them (Bush
and Ingram 2011). The assumptions underlying much of this research is that people
cooperate better with those who are like themselves and, consequently, homogeneity in
work groups or teams is generally viewed as facilitating productivity more than hetero-
geneity. This conflates a tendency for people to feel more comfortable with others that
they know with a fear of difference, whereas familiarity may have no connection to dif-
ference and diversity.
The information/decision-making concept has also informed this stream of research.
However, unlike the similarity/attraction concept and the uncertainty reduction
concept—the mentioned differences amongst team members (e.g. nationalities, gen-
ders, and ages), in combination with an open diversity climate, are generally seen to
have positive effects for organizations. The assumption is that differences between
team members, for instance, in terms of knowledge, experiences, and perspectives lead
to better decisions (e.g. Shore et al. 2009; Pieterse, van Knippenberg, and Ginkel 2011),
and (if successfully managed) diverse workforces can have positive (economic) effects
for companies.
Other researchers of the positivist tradition view the effects of diverse workforces as
both positive and negative. For instance, Østergaarda, Timmermans, and Kristinsson
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    89

(2011) argue that employee diversity should generally have a positive effect on innova-
tion but may also generate conflict. In their study of the effects of gender diversity on
firm performance within the managerial ranks, Dwyer, Richard, and Chadwick (2003)
draw on contingency and configurational approaches in their hypothesis that heteroge-
neity is beneficial for unstructured, novel tasks but not for routine tasks. Supporting
these approaches, results from their research show that the effect of gender diversity at
the management level is conditional on the company´s strategic orientation, the organi-
zational culture, and/or their mutual interaction.
Finally, Pieterse, van Knippenberg, and Ginkel (2011) adopt the socially shared cog-
nition perspective in their study that focuses on ‘deep level diversity’ (e.g. differences
in personalities, attitudes, and values). They claim that the ‘mental representations’, or
understanding of the team and its tasks, tend to determine how team members inter-
act and perform their tasks. In other words, the team’s homogeneous or heterogeneous
composition is of less importance in conditioning the individual’s engagement than is
her/his mental representation of the task.
In literature within the positivist tradition, the goal of researchers is typically to
identify human differences (e.g. gender, age, race, and ethnicity) and behavioural dif-
ference (e.g. attitudes and values) using the following traditional organizational con-
cepts: management and leadership (e.g. Dwyer, Richard, and Chadwick 2003; Bogaert
and Vloeberghs 2005; Klein et al. 2011); project management (e.g. Bhadury, Mighty,
and Damar 2000; Wang et al. 2006); innovation (e.g. Auh and Bulent Menguc 2005;
Østergaarda, Timmermans, and Kristinsson 2011); teamwork (e.g. Sawyer, Houlette, and
Yeagley 2006; Pieterse, van Knippenberg, and Ginkel 2011; Luis 2012); team identity (e.g.
Eckel and Grossman 2005); strategy (e.g. Fink and Pastore 2003; Cunningham 2011);
communication (e.g. Dinsbach, Feij, and de Vries 2007); international joint ventures (e.g.
Mohr and Puck 2005); and organizational commitment (e.g. Magoshi and Chang 2009).
In this research, ‘diversity’ and specific or related concepts, such as diversity struc-
ture (e.g. Sawyer, Houlette, and Yeagley 2006), cultural diversity (e.g. Lauring 2009),
and diversity climate and international language management (Lauring and Selmer
2012) seem of interest mostly for corrective purposes in organizations. In other words,
if management make some adjustments in employee structure (or in the composition,
behaviour, and attitudes of teams and their members) and/or open the organizational
climate more to ‘diversity’, then positive (economic) effects are likely to occur.
There is also some positivist tradition research that focuses on human resource (HR)
management topics such as gender and age differences in recruitment (e.g. Pinar et al.
2011) and in (sales) training (e.g. Bush and Ingram 2011). Other studies focus on the
acquisition of human capital by creating a ‘diverse workforce’ (e.g. Auh and Bulent
Menguc 2005), and on different work arrangements that are more friendly/open to
diversity practices (e.g. Fink and Pastore 2003).
Much of the research examined so far indicates a strong functionalist/positivist orien-
tation where the belief is that social research can emulate natural science in identifying
quantifiable independent and dependent variables to produce causal analyses which can
be applied to develop practices to facilitate the orderly functioning of a healthy society.
90    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

In pursuit of these scientistic aims (Schroyer 1975),1 researchers invariably deploy survey
methods (e.g. questionnaires, scenarios, and experiments based on laboratory studies)
and samples of several hundred or even thousands of informants. In addition, where
researchers recognize the failure of survey data to reflect the meaning that respondents
attach to different issues, they deploy a combination of interviews, observations, and/or
secondary data (e.g. Härtel 2004; Roberson 2006; Süß and Kleiner 2007; Magoshi and
Chang 2009).
The majority of these positivist-oriented studies ask research questions that result
from the identification of gaps in the literature, a practice that has been heavily criticized
for its failure to challenge assumptions that underlie the existing approaches (Sandberg
and Alvesson 2011). One example is Dinsbach, Feij, and de Vries’s (2007) study of the
relationship between unequal treatment, content-related communication, and job atti-
tudes amongst ethnic minority and majority employees. Once the gaps are identified,
the researchers pose a number of hypotheses.2 They then test the hypotheses against
their empirical data. They construct their questionnaires according to certain theoreti-
cal framework(s)/perspective(s). For instance, Dinsbach, Feij, and de Vries (2007) are
inspired by organization socialization theories in which they identify various domains
(e.g. ‘role clarity’, ‘task mastery’, and ‘social integration’). They then use these domains
to measure some key variables (e.g. ‘the content-related communication’). The ques-
tionnaires are thus directly related to these domains and variables, while the alterna-
tive responses are often constructed as five-point scales (e.g. from 1/none/ to 5/a lot/).
In short, different dimensions of ‘diversity’ are objectified and then transformed into
operational and measurable variables.
The positivist researchers then analyse the results using different analytical tech-
niques, such as multiple, hierarchical, and logistical regression (e.g. Cunningham
2011; Pieterse, van Knippenberg, and Ginkel 2011); econometric (e.g. Østergaarda,
Timmermans, and Kristinsson 2011); or by using a mathematical equation (e.g. Auh and
Bulent Menguc 2005).
These studies present suggestions for future research that are informed by precisely
the same epistemology and methods as the researchers have used, but that can fill in the
gaps. For example, Dinsbach, Feij, and de Vries (2007) recommend that future studies
take a longitudinal design to determine the causal directions of the relationships iden-
tified in their own study. Such future research recommendations are also often moti-
vated by the ambition to generalize results relating to the larger sphere of how DM can
improve organizational performance.

1 This term is used to describe research that fails to recognize the ontological discontinuity between

natural and human phenomena (Douglas 1970) insofar as, with respect to the latter, interpretation
occurs not just among the researchers but also among the researched, and this renders causal analysis
problematic.
2 For instance: ‘Ethnic minority employees report less content-related communication and less

positive job attitudes than ethnic majority employees’ (Dinsbach, Feij, and de Vries 2007: 727).
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    91

While a majority of these studies are located in the United States (e.g. Mollica, 2003;
McKay, 2008), there are also a number of studies set in other locations: Härtel (2004)
in Australia; Dinsbach, Feij, and de Vries (2007) and Pieterse, van Knippenberg and
Ginkel (2011) in the Netherlands; Süß and Kleiner (2007, 2008) in Germany; Pinar and
colleagues (2011) in Turkey; Bogaert and Vloeberghs (2005) in Belgium; and Magoshi
and Chang (2009) in Japan and South Korea. Insofar as these researchers minimize the
importance of location, they typically neglect the geographical and historical context
of their research. DM is thus assumed to have universal application regardless of his-
torical time, geographical space, or local context. However, in some studies (e.g. Süß
and Kleiner 2007; Magoshi and Chang 2009; Pinar et al. 2011) practices are partly con-
textualized by descriptions of recent discussions regarding the development of DM in
the local situation in the studied contexts. For instance, unlike the starting point for
DM in the research from the United States (racial discrimination), the starting point for
DM in Germany (Süß and Kleiner 2007) and in Japan and South Korea (Magoshi and
Chang 2009) was the problem of equal employment opportunities for men and women.
Although this kind of contextualization helps to better understand the starting points
for DM in these specific societal contexts, these researchers have, somehow, a static view
of the selected contextual factors. For instance, in the Süß and Kleiner (2007) study,
there is no clear evidence of how the specific context of Germany influences the ideas
about, and the interests in, DM in the examined (210) companies and vice versa during
the particular time period. Thus, these societal and organizational contexts are treated
as stable or rather as facts—thus unchangeable over time.

The Interpretative Tradition(s)

There are several similarities between positivist and interpretative traditions, for both
are inclined to address the effects of diversity, such as its commercial benefits, more
than the conditions of life that make stereotyping possible and damaging to its vic-
tims. For example, Rao (2012) studied religious diversity and its impact in the Indian
workplace, while Shachaf ’s (2008) exploratory study focuses on the effects of cultural
diversity and information and communication technology (ICT) on virtual (or ad
hoc) teams.
A second similarity with the studies inspired by the positivist tradition(s) is that
research in the interpretative tradition(s) is also motivated by the identification of gaps
in the literature. Such gaps provide the starting points for the formulation(s) of research
questions. For instance, Shachaf (2008) motivates her research interest by the lack of
empirical findings that support the relationship between cultural diversity and effective-
ness. Freeman and Lindsay (2012) have also noted that little research addresses the expa-
triate experience of ethnic diversity in the host country. Therefore, to address this gap,
they studied how Australian expatriate managers interpret their experience of working
in an ethnically diverse workplace in Malaysia.
92    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

While not always explicit, the third similarity between these two traditions is that
they tend to be concerned with managerial problems and the organizational life of exec-
utives. These interpretative-oriented researchers also discuss the results of their studies
in terms of managerial implications such as managing (and valuing) workforce diversity
(Gilbert and Ivancevich 2000; Ivancevich and Gilbert 2000), preventing conflicts (Rao
2012), and increasing team cohesiveness (Shachaf 2008).
There are, however, several fundamental differences in research methodologies
between studies in the positivist tradition(s) and those in the interpretative tradition(s).
On the one hand, the important issue for some researchers in the positivist tradition(s)
is the measurement of the effects of diversity on organizational performance, whereas in
the interpretative tradition(s) many researchers are more concerned to understand the
meaning(s) of diversity. When the latter study diversity, they also draw on different con-
cepts. These concepts include the following: sense-making (e.g. how people make sense
of the business case for diversity; see Omanović 2002); managing (cultural) diversity
(e.g. Foster 2005; Foster and Harris 2005; Subeliani and Tsogas 2005); ethnic minor-
ity women’s experiences of stereotypes in predominantly white, Western organizations
(Kamenou, Watt, and Fearfull 2006); understanding teamwork across national and
organizational cultures (Gibson and Zellmer-Bruhn 2001), and a culture of diversity
in sport workplaces (Doherty et al. 2010); exploring hospital managers’ perceptions of
age as an employee attribute (Furunes and Mykletun 2007); focusing on understanding
the relationships between diversity and team effectiveness (Shachaf 2008); and interpret-
ing the expatriate managers’ experience of working in an ethnically diverse workplace
abroad (Freeman and Lindsay 2012).
Thus, unlike researchers in the positivist tradition(s), most researchers in the inter-
pretative tradition(s) are interested in documenting and studying how participants
perceive, understand, interpret, or make sense of diversity. These researchers usu-
ally take qualitative approaches, often inspired by ethnographic methods that involve
non-participant/participant observation techniques as well as the more conven-
tional ways of accessing empirical material through interviews (e.g. ‘semi-structured’,
‘in-depth’, and/or ‘open-ended’) and archival documentary materials.
For instance, Shachaf ’s (2008) study was based on forty-one interviews with global
virtual team members (sixteen face-to-face interviews and twenty-five telephone
interviews) conducted in a nine-month period, while Doherty and colleagues (2010)
conducted personal interviews with eleven employees in athletic departments. In this
research, the interviewees are sometimes selected by the so-called ‘snowballing’ tech-
nique. Furunes and Mykletun (2007), as an example, use this technique when they
asked those they interviewed for recommendations of other potential interviewees (see
also Chapter 26, this volume).
Some researchers also use interview protocols/guides with open-ended questions
based on their research questions and their literature review. The empirical data are then
often separated for analysis using various coding techniques. Such coding techniques are
used to identify central terms/categories and subcategories (e.g. Shachaf 2008), or to
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    93

eliminate statements ‘that seize the invariant constituents of the phenomenon’ (Freeman
and Lindsay 2012: 6).
Thus, the sampling in interpretative tradition(s) studies generally requires fewer
informants because, unlike the positivist tradition(s) studies, it makes no claim to be
representative of a population.3 Rather, it seeks to provide analytical or theoretical gen-
eralizations (Mayring 2007).

The Critical Tradition(s)

Unlike the positivist/functionalist traditions(s), and in part the interpretative

tradition(s), the critical tradition(s) are not as well represented in the diversity literature
for organizations. However, it is important to emphasize that the critical tradition(s)—
in particular, the discursive one—is becoming increasingly attractive to researchers in
this field (see Omanović 2011). We identified two critical perspectives that we label as
the (critical) discursive tradition and the critical-dialectic tradition. These two traditions,
although they have some points in common with the interpretative tradition(s)—for
example, the view that diversity is socially constructed—are still fundamentally differ-
ent from the interpretative tradition(s); for instance, in the design of research projects
and in the study of the idea of diversity. In addition, there are also differences between
studies inspired by the critical discursive tradition and those inspired by the critical dia-
lectic tradition.

The (Critical) Discursive Tradition

Research adopting a discursive perspective has developed ever since the linguistic turn
in social science, where it was recognized that because interpretations of social reality
are always mediated through language, discursive practices need to be a central focus of
research. The critical discursive approach, however, generates three central arguments
against uncritical and apolitical approaches to discourse analysis in diversity research
(Zanoni et al. 2010: 13–14). First, that it has subscribed to a positivist and ‘fixed’ concep-
tion of identity that is readily represented and measured as something ‘objective’ and
an essential feature of the subject. Second, it has primarily drawn upon the discipline of
social psychology that privileges interpersonal interactions and, in so doing, neglects
institutional and organizational relations. Third, and partly as a result, it neglects a con-
ception of power/knowledge relations (Foucault 1980, 1982), and how these constitute

3
The absence of representativeness is set against a view that positivist claims are often exaggerated,
since, outside of large-scale surveys, rarely do they secure fully stratified random samples. In all research,
however, research access often determines the sample more than strict statistical procedures.
94    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

discourses and subjectivities that reflect and reproduce systems of inequality (Knights
and Kerfoot 2004).
The critical discursive approach began by challenging the tendency for DM to deflect
attention from the inequalities of power associated with different dimensions of diver-
sity (Zanoni et al. 2010: 9). Among other things, critical discursive research seeks to
interrogate these underlying assumptions to expose conflicting interests, contradic-
tions, and discrepancies in the narratives and discursive practices. Research has been
conducted across a wide range of countries and, of course, different cultures have an
impact on perceptions of, and interventions on, diversity. Jack and Lorbiecki (2007), for
example, discovered some major discrepancies between national identities and organi-
zational globalization strategies in relation to UK DM initiatives. Meriläinen and col-
leagues (2009) demonstrated the effects of the institutionalized societal discourse of
gender equality on ‘DM’ in Finland-based companies. In a case study of a Belgian com-
pany, Zanoni and Janssens (2004, 2007) critically examined diversity activities and the
extent to which employees participated in their control.
A central feature of all discursive approaches is the importance of language and com-
munication in constituting any phenomenon (Westwood and Linstead 2001; Ashcraft,
Kuhn, and Coreen 2009). Without such communications, inequality around diversity
would exist in a vacuum and intervention to modify or eradicate its negative effects
would be impossible, as Jack and Lorbiecki (2007) discovered when researching how
different forms of control and resistance to diversity initiatives were exercised in organi-
zations. Also it is important that organizations do not just become insular with regard to
exploiting the ‘business case’ but also provide alternative understandings, especially in
communicating their diversity initiatives to the wider society (Litvin 2006).
However, it is also the case that DM can often provide moral support at a distance
yet fail to address ‘some of the more contentious and uncomfortable aspects of work-
force diversity’ (Dick and Cassell 2002: 973) and especially power relations. In what she
calls ‘commodity diversity’, Swan (2010) demonstrated how a diversity poster generated
visual images that produce a racial ideology, thus reinforcing unequal power in organi-
zations. Her concern with the shift to discourse was how it can marginalize the examina-
tion of images that can be equally productive of organizational inequalities.
However, not all theorists referring to the critical discursive traditions are negative
about DM, even when the ‘business case’ is pre-eminent. For instance, in a study of the
Dutch police force, Boogaard and Roggeband (2010) found that an initiative introduc-
ing ‘multicultural skills’ for executive officers benefited ethnic minorities, because they
were often seen to be culturally in tune rather than requiring specific training. Also, gen-
der inequality was challenged when the force recognized the importance of good inter-
personal and communication skills within police work since these were deemed to be
less demanding for women. The authors did not reflect on the sense in which, although
advantaging specific minorities and women, these practices also reinforced stereotypes
that could, in other circumstances, backfire to generate or reinforce diversity inequali-
ties. In a similar vein, even though there were significant dilemmas that remained unre-
solved, Schwabenland (2010) found that, in the voluntary sector, the potential tensions
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    95

between moral issues and business rationales could be reconciled when utilitarian
objectives were achieved through diverse employees but within the context of a ‘com-
mitment to social justice’ (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010: 113).
While there has only been space to review a selection of the studies in the critical dis-
course tradition, it is clear that they offer a methodological approach different from both
non-discursive (the positivist and interpretative traditions) and discursive research on
diversity in organizations. This is equally the case with the critical dialectical tradition to
which we now turn.

The Critical Dialectical Tradition

Some parts of the critical tradition take their impetus from the philosophical discourse
of Hegel, with his dialectical view that the opposition of thesis (a positive assertion or
theory) and antithesis (the negation of the thesis) are resolved in a synthesis that com-
bines the most positive elements of both in a perfect reconciliation of historically obdu-
rate and unyielding conflicts. Hegel was somewhat opportunistic by declaring that his
society (Prussia in the 1830s) was the apotheosis of his dialectical theory of progress,
thus legitimizing and justifying the absolute rule of Frederick William III (Popper 1947).
Marx, on the other hand, reversed this argument. He emphasized instead that socie-
ties would not reach the perfect synthesis without a social revolution. Such revolution
would, according to Marx, lead first to a regime (communism) as oppressive as the capi-
talist order it overthrew, but that eventually a liberated form of society called social-
ism would prevail, so constituting the perfection Hegel was premature in accepting.
Given the conflict and opposition that inequality around diversity fosters and fabricates,
a dialectical approach would seem to provide an appropriate framework for diversity
research.
In organization studies, this perspective has been and continues to be used: with a
focus on the dynamics of processes of organizational change (Groleau, Demers, and
Engeström 2011), explaining how institutional contradictions create space for organi-
zational changes (Sharma, Lawrence, and Lowe 2010) and providing insight into role
change as processes by focusing both on institutional embeddedness and transforma-
tional agency (Burns and Baldvinsdottir 2005). Also from this perspective, the notion
of resistance and control is viewed as mutually constitutive and socially produced in
daily organizational life (Mumby 2005), in corporate culture as corporate hegemony
(Ogbor 2001), and in corporate–social enterprise collaborations as shaped processes
(Di Domenico, Tracey, and Haugh 2009). An ambition in the dialectical-inspired stud-
ies is to bring about alternative practices/praxes to existing structures of domination
(e.g. Barros 2010; Foster and Wiebe 2010).
The critical dialectical perspective has also been applied in studies on diversity and
its management (Omanović 2009, 2013). These studies build upon several of the men-
tioned discursive studies, while going beyond them at certain crucial points. Following
Benson’s (1977, 1983) application of dialectical reasoning for studying organizations,
96    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

Omanović (2009, 2013) sought to develop the analysis in relation to his research on
diversity and its management. Omanović’s (2009) examination of the social produc-
tion of ideas of diversity in two social-historical contexts (the United States and Sweden)
shows how diversity and its management are mediated by social-historical relationships
that reflect their ongoing construction, but are neither fixed realities nor immune to
human intervention and change.
In a more recent study, Omanović (2013) described how managers of diversity at a
large manufacturing company in Sweden prioritized some ideas on diversity and
ignored or marginalized others. This study focused on the dynamics in play by which
acceptable ideas on ‘diversity’ are socially produced and become normative in time.
However, such ideas can also be challenged because they are, as this study shows, pre-
liminary and changeable choices between ‘given’ and alternative (although suppressed)
ideas about, and interests in, diversity.
In order to examine ideas about and interests in diversity (and its management) as a
critical-dialectical and social-historical process, Omanović (2009, 2013) used an ethno-
graphic methodology in both studies. This methodology incorporates some elements of
a critical orientation in ethnography (see Thomas 1993), such as the focus on diversity
in terms of injustices (e.g. discrimination and marginalization) and domination (e.g.
particular sectional interests related to diversity). The data came from archival research,
in-depth (ethnographic) interviews, and detailed participant observations.
Thus, like the critical discursive tradition studies, from the critical dialectical tradi-
tion, diversity and its management are viewed and studied as socially constructed pro-
cesses that are far from neutral, since they have strong incitements towards a business
rather than a human rights rationale. Also, both of these critical perspectives point out
the importance of historically constructed relations of dominance and subordination
that have certain impacts on particular groups of people.
However, discursive studies (unlike the critical dialectical studies) often fall short
of understanding how production processes over particular interests are formed and
maintained, in and through organizational events unfolding over time. One explana-
tion for this is that discursive studies rely primarily on interviews and documents rather
than observations. As a result, despite challenging and focusing critically on manage-
rial discourses, these studies tend to leave unattended actual relational dynamics in the
workplace—dynamics that, through power/knowledge relations (Foucault 1980), tend
to reinforce rather than challenge inequalities and discriminations at work.
In contrast, critical dialectical research follows both historical and real-time activi-
ties and discourses by organizational participants. The focus is on organizational change
(e.g. focusing both on multiple power interests that shape the production of diversity
and alternative social ‘realties’) without presuppositions about how the process will
unfold. For instance, Omanović’s (2013) study follows the activities in a manufacturer’s
project of promoting diversity practices and policies during a three-year period. The
focus is on key participants’ ideas, (opposing) interests, and actions regarding ‘diversity’
in the project, as well as contradictions and some ideas and activities of other organiza-
tional members who are ‘touched’ by the diversity programme.
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    97

To sum up, the critical dialectical perspective, unlike the other perspectives discussed
above, offers an alternative view on ‘diversity in organizations’—by understanding
diversity as a socio-historical process, which is driven by contradictions. Identifying
alternative social ‘realities’ and exploring their potential to redefine the production of
diversity are important aspects of the dialectical perspective. From a critical dialectic
perspective, the criticism of existing social arrangements, the search for alternatives,
and the active mobilization of institutional agents are seen as potentially emancipatory
and transformative. However, the precise forms through which these different diversity
practices are produced cannot be predicted in advance.
Following the line of reasoning of the critical perspectives we have discussed, a par-
ticularly relevant area for a future research on diversity in organizations would be to
focus more directly on the marginalized actors who are often identified as the subjects
of diversity. How do these actors learn that social/business arrangements do not meet
their interests? When do they stop taking their reality for granted? What are the con-
sequences of such awareness? Do they mobilize other similarly situated actors to take
collective action for organizational change? In short, how can we bring about real eman-
cipatory/transformative organizational praxes? In pursuing such research it would be
of value to consider some more radical and embodied approaches to diversity that have
emanated from posthumanist feminism and philosophies of the body.

Discussing Posthumanist
Feminism as an Alternative

The methodological perspectives on diversity that we have examined so far either follow
a scientistic/positivist, a phenomenological/interpretivist, or a social constructionist/
discursive and dialectical approach(es). While there are other potential alternatives,
such as critical realism and postcolonial theory, space restricts us here to examining a
new wave of feminism and anti-racism. This draws on a philosophically grounded post-
humanist materialism that, through the philosophies of Deleuze (2005) and Deleuze
and Guattari (1988), for example, generates a discourse that attempts to transform
prevailing subjectivities (Grosz 1994, 2005). It seeks to transcend the limitations of
unilinear, disembodied, and dualistic thinking as reflected, to a greater or lesser degree,
in both the establishment and critical traditions of scientistic and humanistic theory.
Grosz rethinks the sense of what it is to be a human subject (subjectivity) through
re-theorizing the body in ways that depart from both the Cartesian mind–body dual-
ism and the Freudian conscious–unconscious mind binary. These binaries or dualisms
generally involve an understanding of humans in terms of a separation between their
minds or consciousness and their unconscious bodies, but also invariably a privileging
of rationality over embodied experience. It is associated with the domination of cogni-
tion over emotion that is reflective of white masculine control and mastery of the ‘other’
98    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

or that which is outside of the self (i.e. subordinates, women, non-white, alternative sex-
ualities, and the environment). This is a way of relating to the world that has been heav-
ily criticized by feminists (e.g. Game 1991; Clough 1992; Grosz 2005).
Also drawing on Deleuze and Guattari (1988) and Foucault (1977), in affirming the
body and embodied relations as necessary conditions for ethical relations, Braidotti
(2011) criticizes the way in which, within binary thinking, language dominates expe-
rience. This has produced a social constructivist discourse that is negative (Braidotti
2011: 122) insofar as it assumes that individuals crave social recognition (identity) to
overcome a ‘lack’ or sense of emptiness in their lives (Lacan 1977). This occurs because,
in having been separated from the mother, children miss the embodied security of nur-
turing and cannot replace this through the demands of the father, since these tend to be
cold, rational, and full of expectations of competitive performance and success. Chasing
the recognition of others through achievement, competitive success, and the accumula-
tion of those things that are valued in society (e.g. wealth, status, and power) can drive
us all to expend enormous energy and creativity. However, the project of securing an
identity can be self-defeating, because we cannot guarantee that others will confirm the
image we seek from them.
It has also been argued that identity politics and the preoccupation with securing the
self through social confirmations is heavily gendered, in the sense of being a rational
teleological project of subjects dominated by masculine discursive power that affects
both women and men as well as those outside conventional sexual identities (Knights
2015). Moreover, what is of particular importance for our purposes is that identity pol-
itics often leads to in-group/out-group stereotyping that easily slides into embittered
war-like relations, especially where identity is threatened by the mere presence of the
other (Ziarek 2001: 74).
One of the most important targets of posthumanist material methodologies is a
critique of binary thinking, particularly with regard to mind/body, rational/emo-
tion, gender, race, age, and ability binaries. While those concerned with diversity and
anti-discrimination have perhaps always attempted to be non-dualistic, often they have
slipped into treating different genders, races, and other discriminated targets in a binary
fashion, partly because of taking for granted white, masculine Western values, a prob-
lem frequently addressed by postcolonial theory (Mohanty 1995; Lewis and Mills 2003;
cf. Chibber 2013). To avoid this, posthumanist feminists have turned to a neglected
seventeenth-century philosopher—Spinoza. His monist methodological framework, by
definition, avoids any reification of dualistic distinctions and the elevation of one side
of a binary over its ‘other’ to develop a celebration of difference and an ethics of affect
(Gatens 1996, 1997; Gatens and Lloyd 1996) where difference is not merely respected at a
distance but reflects a bodily and ethical engagement.
There are a range of other theorists that draw on Levinas (1986) and Foucault (1977,
1997) to advance non-dualistic and ethical approaches to diversity (in organizations and
society) that are also political (McCallum 1996; Ziarek 2001), or generate an ethics of
generosity, responsibility, and resistance (Diprose 2002; Pullen and Rhodes 2010; 2014).
The value of this literature is that it gives diversity studies a new lease of life in putting
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    99

centre stage what has always been implicit—a concern with the body, and an embodied
ethics, which has been either neglected altogether or taken for granted in the theory and
practice of diversity.
These deliberations are important for diversity studies because invariably, especially
with respect to gender, it is discourses of masculinity that elevate cognitive conscious-
ness above the body, emotion, and the unconscious, the latter of which are deemed to
reflect the female sex and often racial minorities. These approaches believe less in a tech-
nical intervention in the form of specific methodologies so much as inviting students
and scholars of diversity to examine the epistemological and ontological assumptions of
their work and transforming them where they are dualistic and disembodied. It means
being more ‘open’ or ‘generous’ (Diprose 2002) to others who are different, rather than
seeking to define them in our own image or treating them instrumentally as a means to
our own pursuits. It is about transforming the subjectivity of ourselves as researchers so
as to give space to difference as an embodied and ethical relationship to the world. As
a result, we would be more self-reflexive in our engagements with others in everyday
life as well as in research, so as not to reproduce the very discriminations and stereo-
typed identities that our research aims to dissolve. For, in the absence of transforming
subjectivity to displace these binaries and to restore embodied ethicality, diversity in
organizations and society can only end up being mismanaged (Knights and Omanović
2013). Insofar as many of the approaches discussed in the positivist and interpretivist
sections are managerialist, they necessarily treat diversity as an object to be managed so
there is a binary between the manager and the managed. It is therefore important for us
to move beyond managing diversity and its entrapment within binary thinking, so as to
understand and engage with those who are different and do not automatically serve as a
mirror image of ourselves.
One implication of this kind of approach to diversity is that, instead of seeking to cap-
ture diversity as a set of objectivations ascribed to different subjects, we need to inter-
rogate the power relations and the various contexts through which this knowledge is
produced and look at how diverse subjects are constituted. Without this interrogation,
‘diversity research can only produce dislocated knowledge that is unaware of the condi-
tions of its own production’ (Ahonen et al. 2014: 8). Methodologically, this means chal-
lenging the stereotypes that research on diversity in organizations and its management
often reproduces through discourses of diversity. Instead, we can begin to treat diversity
as a discourse itself (Ahonen et al. 2014: 3), which can be critiqued insofar as it is a form
of governance designed to engineer and advance some mythical infinite human poten-
tial (Costea, Amiridis, and Crump 2012).
Traditional, and even some critical, understandings of diversity tend to take identity
for granted and are largely oblivious of the extent to which it is one of the most prevalent
conditions of the possibility of discrimination. It is so insofar as the pursuit of identity
ordinarily involves negation as a means of elevating the self over the ‘other’. This occurs
through treating the other person or object as an instrumental resource for securing the
self in a socially confirmed identity. That is to say, the other is of little more significance
than as a mirror for confirming the self (Knights 2015), and what does not do so must
100    David Knights and Vedran Omanović

be seen as deviant and treated as an object of discrimination. Consequently, the ‘other-

ness’ of the Other (Levinas 1991) has to be tamed, minimized, or controlled if it is to
fulfil its requirements of providing social confirmation of the self. It has to be reduced
to being the Same as the self—like me (Knights 2006, 2015). In terms of diversity, this
often takes the form of ‘othering’ as a way of undermining and stigmatizing those (e.g.
women, ethnic minorities, the young or the old, sexualities that deviate from hetero-
sexual normativity or homosociality, etc.) that appear to be outside and a challenge to
dominant white, masculine, heterosexual norms. In short, masculine logocentric or leg-
islative reason (Derrida 1982) reduces the ‘feminine’ to an absent or wholly subordinate
‘other’: the dividing practices stigmatize difference by elevating normalized over deviant
subjects and discourses (Foucault 1982), and seeking to secure or maintain a stable iden-
tity demonizes rather than celebrates difference (Knights and Kerfoot 2004).
The implications of this alternative approach to studying diversity at work is that we
seek to pursue a less disembodied methodology. Although some methodology texts are
more focused on reflexive research approaches, where embodied engagement might be
seen as a requirement, books such as Alvesson and Deetz’s (2000) Critical Management
Research, Alvesson and Sköldberg’s (2003) Reflexive Methodology, and Aull Davies’s
(2008) Reflexive Ethnography offer no significant mention of the body or embodiment.
Alvesson and Sköldberg’s (2003) sub-chapter on feminist methodology does discuss the
role of gendered experiences, feelings, and emotions in doing research and reflecting
about the research process, but no attention is given to the embodied and visceral aspects
of such experiences, feelings, and emotions. Aull Davies acknowledges the importance
of personal and cultural reflexivity and the need to reflect about socio-historical con-
text and disciplinary belonging. In arguing for a ‘continuing reflexive awareness’ (Aull
Davies 2008: 23), emphasis is on the fundamental reflexivity of research in general and
ethnographic research in particular. While acknowledging that the researcher’s pres-
ence affects the social reality it is claimed merely to describe, this is largely discussed in
cognitive terms. Consequently, the researcher and the researched remain disembodied
in such texts, and the rationale and implications of our alternative approach to diversity
is that this undermines the very objectives that are being sought in studying diversity
and difference.

Conclusion

In this chapter a diverse range of analytical frameworks and their epistemological and
methodological roots subscribed to by researchers of diversity have been examined crit-
ically and challenged in relation to the assumptions they frequently deploy explicitly or
implicitly. Our concern is that the research on diversity in organizations has prevailingly
been less concerned with disrupting than with reproducing the stereotypes that condi-
tion the possibility of treating diversity in organizations (and society) as a problem to be
managed. While it may be expected that mainstream managerial approaches would be
 Rethinking Diversity in Organizations and Society    101

less likely to challenge the ways in which diversity discourses actually produce knowl-
edge, we find that even some critical approaches can be equally as guilty of reproducing
the conditions of possibility of disadvantage and discrimination. Some of these critical
studies frequently fail to question the assumptions about subjectivity that render their
representations possible, and they tend to reproduce linear, disembodied, and dualis-
tic representations of diversity. For this reason, we turned to some alternative scholars
within posthumanist feminism, where there is an attempt to transcend the masculin-
ity of linear rational thinking with respect to diversity in organizations and society. We
concluded that what is needed is a fresh look at methodology, so as to develop embodied
methods that focus on the thinking, feeling, and acting body as prominently as on the
mind, cognition, and rationality when examining diversity practices and discourses.
This focus could help to develop an understanding even further of the contradictions
and tensions underlying representations of diversity so as to facilitate research with a
potential for advancing organizational transformations that undermine historical and
systematic disadvantage. Whether such change is likely depends, of course, also on the
researchers themselves, who may or may not subscribe to our critical politics of inter-
vention to be more open and may find it more comfortable to follow establishment tra-
ditions of research methodology, together with strategies that appeal to prevailingly
(rational) managerialist aims and objectives.

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 Chapter 5

Reflections on
Dive rsit y and I nc lu si on
Practices at t h e
Organiz ationa l , G rou p,
an d Individua l L ev e l s

Ruth Sessler Bernstein, Marcy Crary, Diana

Bilimoria, and Donna Maria Blancero

Introduction

With increasing globalization, immigration, and changing demographics, workplaces

are increasingly heterogeneous in nature. These changes are challenging organiza-
tions to harness the power of diversity by adopting practices of inclusion that improve
and sustain performance outcomes at the organizational, group, and individual
levels—creating a diversity dividend (Van Knippenberg and Haslam 2003), which we
define as the positive outcomes associated with harnessing and leveraging the social
identities and resources of diverse individuals and workgroups. In the present chapter,
we provide our reflections on the practices that are being employed by organizations to
diversify the workplace and maximize the potential for a diversity dividend by practices
of inclusion. We first briefly review empirical findings in the extant literature on the per-
formance outcomes of diverse workgroups. Next, we draw on our own research, as well
as extant literature, to discuss diversity and inclusion practices at the organizational,
group, and individual levels that engender a diversity dividend. Our discussion shows
that achieving beneficial outcomes from diversity is dependent on a variety of practices
of diversity and inclusion occurring at a multitude of levels—organizational, group, and
individual.
110    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

Workplace diversity in the United States has evolved from meeting quotas dictated by
federal law with regard to the current focus on inclusion, reducing tensions, and con-
tributing to organizational success. Unfortunately, diversity in the workplace remains an
enigma, sometimes supporting and sometimes undermining performance outcomes.
Therefore, diversity management (DM) remains an enduring issue within organi-
zational life. It concerns individual identity formation and group processes, as well
as efforts at the organizational level to become inclusive in order to enhance business
performance. Diversity has multiple interpretations, from simple demographic diver-
sity (sometimes referred to as numerical diversity or representative diversity based on
both ascribed (e.g. race, gender) and acquired (e.g. knowledge, skills) characteristics), to
meaningful, deep-level, intercultural interactions that enable individuals to learn from
one another and build intercultural skills (Stangor et al. 1992; Harrison, Price, and Bell
1998). Based on extant conceptualizations in the literature, inclusion refers to an individ-
ual’s or subgroup’s sense of efficacy, belonging, and value in a work system (cf. Roberson
2006; Bernstein and Bilimoria 2013).

Extant Findings on the Outcomes

of Diverse Workgroups

Despite substantial research assessing the effects of diversity on organizational and

group performance, these studies have produced inconsistent results (see Milliken
and Martins 1996; Horwitz and Horwitz 2007; Van Knippenberg and Schippers 2007;
Joshi and Roh 2009). Diverse groups have been shown to outperform homogeneous
groups in some studies (e.g. Cox, Lobel, and McLeod 1991), while in others homoge-
neous groups outperformed heterogeneous groups (e.g. Pelled 1996). The only thing
we know for sure is that we have limited understanding as to how, why, and when
diversity impacts outcomes (Van Knippenberg and Schippers 2007; Joshi, Liao, and
Roh 2011; Guillaume et al. 2013) or which DM practices are most effective (Guillaume
et al. 2013).
Horwitz and Horwitz’s (2007) meta-analysis determined that group bio-demographic
diversity had an adverse impact on group outcomes (e.g. Byrne 1971; Tajfel and Turner
1986), and that varying member characteristics such as age, ethnicity, and expertise
may be negatively associated with performance outcomes (Milliken and Martins 1996).
Horwitz and Horwitz (2007) concluded that simply increasing the amount of vis-
ible diversity in teams did not necessarily maximize the benefits of diversity in teams.
However, task-related diversity positively related to the quality and quantity of team
performance, suggesting that creating high-performing teams with members who have
task-relevant heterogeneity is much more important than focusing on bio-demographic
attributes. While this may make sense, our multicultural society demands the integra-
tion of demographically diverse groups.
 Practices at the Organizational, Group, and Individual Levels    111

Despite this vast amount of research, the inconsistency in the findings leads us
to agree with Roberson (2006: 234) that, ‘The management of diversity is more com-
plex than is currently articulated in both practitioner and scholarly research . . . there
is a critical difference between merely having diversity in an organization’s workforce
and developing the organizational capacity to leverage diversity as a resource . . .’ Thus,
achieving positive diversity performance outcomes is complex, and involves a multitude
of approaches at the organizational, group, and individual levels. Without concerted
effort and attention to the practices of inclusion, diversity may create negative perfor-
mance outcomes, and lead individuals to experience tension and discomfort when
interacting with diverse others (Crisp and Turner 2011). In the rest of this chapter, we
reflect on a number of effective inclusion practices that have been empirically shown
to improve organizational performance and achieve the diversity dividend. We begin
at the level of organizational practices, by discussing effective practices of diversity and
inclusion empirically observed in research studies we have conducted within samples
of universities and non-profit boards of trustees. Next, at the group level, drawing on
research conducted by us and that in other extant literature, we examine specific diver-
sity and inclusion practices which impact group cohesiveness and outcomes. Finally,
drawing on our own and extant research, we delve into the individual level and examine
individuals’ development of competence for engaging with and managing social iden-
tity dynamics in the workplace.

Reflections on Organization-Wide
Practices of Diversity, Equity,
and Inclusion

In this subsection, we review effective practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion at

the organizational level by drawing on recent efforts of faculty workforce diversifica-
tion among leading universities in the United States, supported by the National Science
Foundation’s (NSF’s) ADVANCE initiative. The ADVANCE institutional transformation
programme has been in place since 2001, and its goals are to catalyse the transforma-
tion of academic work environments in US higher education institutions in ways that
enhance the participation and advancement of women in science and engineering. In
a study of nineteen US universities that constituted the first two cohorts of ADVANCE
funding, Bilimoria and Liang (2012) identified two major clusters of practices aimed at
improving gender equity, diversity, and inclusion: (a) workforce diversification prac-
tices—initiatives to diversify the faculty workforce and enhance the career trajectories
of women and underrepresented minority faculty at every stage of the academic pipe-
line; and (b) organizational culture enhancement practices to improve extant institu-
tional systems, policies, and climate by enhancing equity and inclusion. We describe
each of these practices in more detail in the following paragraphs.
112    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

Embracing diversity is a central, defining characteristic that leads to the development

of attitudes and skills that help translate the organization’s values into effective practices,
leading to desirable outcomes (Groggins and Ryan 2013). In the case of the ADVANCE
universities, workforce diversification practices included three aspects: (a) practices to
increase the inflow of women and minority faculty into the pipeline, such as through
active search and recruitment, mentoring and training; (b) practices to equip women
and minority faculty to successfully progress in the academic pipeline, such as through
regular career development workshops; and (c) initiatives to improve the institutional
systems, structures, and practices related to key academic career transition points in the
pipeline. Examples of the latter included training and development interventions in the
institution’s extant recruitment, advancement, and retention decision processes, aimed
at informing the persons undertaking such decisions about their unconscious biases,
changing their approaches and attitudes towards diverse others, and making their ways
of operating more transparent, participative, and accountable. As Kulik and Roberson
(2008) indicated, training supervisors and decision makers is an important step in cre-
ating a culture that welcomes and supports diversity.
The second emphasis of ADVANCE institutional transformation focused on practices
that make the organizational culture more equitable and inclusive, in terms of creating
performance standards that apply to everyone, fostering high-quality relations, being
attentive to the meaning and significance of people’s diverse identities, and making all
employees feel valued and respected. The creation of a positive diversity climate, where
employees feel supported and the impediments to career advancement of diverse indi-
viduals are eliminated, may be facilitated by human resource (HR) policies that encour-
age open lines of communication among employees (Singh, Winkel, and Selvarajan
2013). The ADVANCE institutions undertook many initiatives to change their organi-
zational cultures and create positive diversity climates (cf. Guillaume et al. 2013). Four
initiatives most frequently used to improve the micro (departmental) climate across
ADVANCE universities were: faculty climate surveys and feedback, small funding
opportunities for departmental transformation, facilitated microclimate interven-
tions, and leadership development and climate awareness training of department chairs.
Faculty climate surveys were one of the most widely implemented strategies across
ADVANCE sites. The core climate variables that were investigated in the climate surveys
included treatment by colleagues/supervisors, recognition, respect, collegiality, expec-
tations, sense of being valued, fit, exclusion, spousal employment, childcare responsibil-
ities, job/career satisfaction, resource equity and access, service and teaching loads, and
time allocation. ADVANCE universities also focused on improving the macro institu-
tional (school/college and university) climate. These institutions worked on enhancing
overall school/college- and campus-wide awareness of gender equity and institutional
climate through establishing campus-wide advisory councils on women and minorities,
undertaking salary equity and laboratory space equity studies, bringing distinguished
senior women scholars on visits to campus, undertaking gender equity awareness train-
ing for non-faculty campus constituencies such as students, holding climate awareness
workshops for faculty and administrators through interactive theatre presentations,
 Practices at the Organizational, Group, and Individual Levels    113

instituting family-friendly and academic career flexibility policies, enacting childcare

initiatives, and targeting the increase of women in administrative (department chair
and dean) and faculty leadership (endowed chair) positions.
Two recent studies of American non-profit organizations (Bernstein and Davidson
2012; Buse, Bernstein, and Bilimoria 2014) examined the impact of specific organiza-
tional-level practices that demonstrate organizational commitment to diversity and inclu-
sion. These practices include diversity statements or policies, committees or taskforces
dedicated to diversity and inclusion, diversity training for board members, organiza-
tional efforts to recruit from communities of colour, and integration of diversity into the
organization’s core mission and values. Bernstein and Davidson (2012) determined that
the adoption of such diversity-focused practices had no direct impact on organizational
performance, but significantly influenced the adoption of inclusive behaviours by board
members, including reaching a consensus about the value and benefits of expanding the
diversity of the board and developing an inclusive culture and inclusive board dynam-
ics. Buse, Bernstein, and Bilimoria (2014) found that board inclusion practices (such
as valuing the contributions of diverse members in the board’s tasks, including diverse
members in developing the board’s most important policies, and ensuring diverse mem-
bers are influential in the board’s routine activities) partially mediated the relationship
between board gender and racial/ethnic diversity on the one hand, and the performance
of effective non-profit governance on the other.
In summary, results from NSF ADVANCE institutions (Bilimoria, Joy, and Liang
2008; Bilimoria and Liang 2012) as well as non-profit board studies (Bernstein and
Davidson 2012; Buse, Bernstein, and Bilimoria 2014) indicate that effective diversity and
inclusion practices at the organizational level include practices of workforce diversifica-
tion, practices that make the organizational culture more equitable and inclusive, and
practices that demonstrate the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Reflections on Group-Level Practices

of Diversity and Inclusion

The literature suggests that achieving positive performance outcomes from diversity
and inclusion is not going to occur without the adoption of deliberate practices. When
work groups foster environments that promote high-quality relationships and learn-
ing, diversity may be appreciated as a resource, not an impediment to the organization,
potentially enhancing performance (Ely, Padavic, and Thomas 2012). In this section
we reflect on a number of empirically derived practices that we recommend in order to
stimulate positive outcomes at the group level.
Shared purpose and common goals within groups enable members to build common
bonds, goals, and values with others in the group, consistent with Brint’s (2001) view
that community members’ common experiences enable the development of bonding
114    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

ties and concern for one another. Focus on a common purpose allows group mem-
bers to share attitudes, personal beliefs, and values associated with deep-level diversity
(Stangor et al. 1992). When individuals are motivated by the purpose of the group, mem-
bers develop a strong group social identity (Tajfel and Turner 1986), are less focused on
individualistic or personal benefits (Lembke and Wilson 1998), and are more willing to
change personal perspectives (Tajfel 1982). According to Gaertner and Dovidio (2000),
organizational purpose expands members’ identity beyond the self to the organization.
Bernstein and Salipante’s (2010) study of college students determined that students
who were members of voluntary or co-curricular groups with a strong organizational
purpose were more likely to experience deep-level, meaningful interactions that led to
them experiencing behavioural comfort (the felt ease, safety, and self-efficacy of inter-
acting appropriately with diverse others) when interacting with dissimilar students. The
strength of common mission, interests, and shared purpose of the organization enables
individuals to place a high priority on group performance and success, as opposed to
dwelling on differences within the group.
Inclusive welcoming practices, consistent with the concept of opportunity (Allport
1954), positively impacts members’ ability to meet and befriend diverse others.
Welcoming is one of the organizational practices identified by Bernstein and Salipante
(2011) in enabling diverse group members to achieve behavioural comfort. Welcoming
practices convey to all potential members that the group is accepting of diverse indi-
viduals. Welcoming practices vary depending on the type of group and age of the mem-
bers, but may include ice-breakers, time with other members, information sharing,
team building exercises, and so on. When effective, welcoming practices facilitate inclu-
sive socialization and fellowship, which promote organizational identity and a personal
sense of belonging.
Practices of optimal contact, interaction structuring and social integration refer to
deliberate actions that promote positive group member interactions. Rosenblatt,
Worthley, and MacNab (2013: 358) refer to Allport’s (1954) concept of optimal contact
as involving ‘a number of conditions, including equal status among participants, com-
mon goals, personalized contact, and support of the contact by authorities’. Optimal
contact practices may be translated in workplace environments as practices of mentor-
ing, coaching, and sponsoring; affinity or employee resource groups; dialogue groups;
and personal or professional training and development workshops. For example, core
groups at Digital Equipment Company (Walker and Hanson 1992), key identity groups
at Merck (Park 2008), identity group task forces at IBM Corporation (Thomas 2004) are
examples of organizations hosting and resourcing spaces for recognizing and honour-
ing diverse social identities.
Interaction structuring practices similarly focus on deliberately planning activities
and forums for positive interaction (Bernstein and Salipante 2011). One such method
is re-categorization, which occurs when in-group and out-group members realign
themselves as belonging to a common group with a superordinate goal (Gaertner and
Dovidio 2000). This change enables diverse individuals to maintain their original iden-
tities, while allowing an individual’s sense of self to be ‘based on symbolic attachment
 Practices at the Organizational, Group, and Individual Levels    115

to the group as a whole’ (Roccas and Brewer 2002: 89). Since socializing is the strongest
predictor of positive intercultural interactions (Saenz, Ngai, and Hurtado 2007), pur-
posefully engineering activities to maximize constructive social interactions among
members is beneficial. Other practices of interaction structuring include rotating com-
mittee assignments and leadership positions to maintain equal member status, adop-
tion of practices that encourage voice, participation in decision-making, and reduced
reliance on hierarchy, which contributes to a strong group identity and mutual respect
(Shore et al. 2011). When such practices are successful, hierarchy, subgroup homogene-
ity, and cliques are minimized.
Social integration practices (e.g. providing mentors for new members and planning
recreational social activities) enable diverse individuals to interact together; however,
these interactions must not only include contact time but be positive and meaningful as
well. Simply experiencing interactions with diverse others does not guarantee that the
interactions will not be negative, contributing to increased tension and distrust among
group members. Thoughtfully planned social integration, fellowship, or ‘fun’ practices
create the right kind of interactions for building closer relationships between group
members (Dumas, Phillips, and Rothbard 2013).
Both interaction structuring and social integration practices are predicated on the
premise that that group members often base their initial categorization of other group
members on stereotypes determined by surface-level biological characteristics (e.g.
Harrison et al. 2002). Harrison and colleagues (2002) pursue the idea that initial stereo-
types are later moderated with deeper-level knowledge of attitudinal, belief, and value
similarities, enabling interactions to transition from surface-level to deep-level diver-
sity. The element of time spent together is critical since ‘negative affective outcomes of
diversity in observable attributes [surface-level diversity] appear to decrease with the
amount of time that the group stays together’ (Harrison et al. 2002: 415–16). However,
poorly managed group tensions may simply increase with tenure (Watson, Johnson, and
Merritt 1998), contributing to negative group performance. Therefore, optimal contact,
interaction structuring, and social integration practices must be carefully designed and
evaluated over time so that they encourage learning about and from diverse others as
part of a multipronged effort to promote inclusion.
Practices fostering a sense of belonging or group acceptance constitute the next aspect
of effective diversity and inclusion practices. The desire to belong drives people to seek
frequent, positive interactions with others within a stable, long-term, and caring context
(Baumeister and Leary 1995). This results in people becoming attached to one another
through their common connections to social groups, balancing their sense of unique-
ness and belongingness (Shore et al. 2011). While no single practice may foster a sense of
belonging or group acceptance, workgroups enable all members to achieve ‘insider’ or
‘owner’ status, potentially by adopting resolution procedures; facilitating communica-
tion; providing opportunities for influence in decision-making; enabling access to the
information, resources, and networks necessary for effective job performance; affording
access to opportunities for advancement and career development; and providing free-
dom from stereotyping (e.g. Roberson 2006; Bilimoria, Joy, and Liang 2008). In a recent
116    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

study of non-profit boards, minority members perceived inclusion when the board as
a whole functioned without using insensitive or offensive comments or jokes, board
members shared power, communications were geared to all members, inclusivity was
discussed and acted upon, and minority members were treated equally (Bernstein and
Bilimoria 2013).
Recent research has also examined the optimal environmental conditions for work-
ing with identity dynamics in organizational life. Bodenhausen (2010: 12) noted that: ‘. . .
working environments need to be engineered in way that promote the recognition
and valuing of complex social identities, allowing for group members to experience
social self-verification within the group’. An important group condition in this regard
is psychological safety. Debebe (2011) describes the qualities of holding environments
or nurturing spaces for meaning-making and transformational growth in the context
of a women’s leadership development programme. Foldy, Rivard, and Buckley (2009)
describe the critical role of experiences of safety for learning in racially diverse groups.
High-quality relationships are associated with a sense of psychological safety (Carmeli,
Brueller, and Dutton 2009). When psychological safety is present in a workgroup,
diverse members are empowered to participate fully, bringing their different social
identities to the table. For example, Bernstein and Salipante’s (2010) qualitative exam-
ination of university students found that inside the psychologically safe environment
of a voluntary association (where they felt welcomed, shared goals, and participated in
interaction structuring practices) students were able to move beyond political correct-
ness and build friendships while simultaneously learning about each other. Outside of
the voluntary association, however, political correctness made the students fearful of
asking potentially sensitive questions that could be misinterpreted or cause embarrass-
ment to themselves or those with whom they were engaging.
In summary, the results of studies at the group level indicate the usefulness of cer-
tain group-level practices in achieving the diversity dividend: the practices of shared
purpose, inclusive welcoming, interaction structuring, social integration, and optimal
contact, fostering a sense of belonging or group acceptance, and psychological safety.

Reflections on the Development

of Individual-Level Diversity
Competence in the Workplace

In the preceding sections we have reflected on how organizations and groups can opti-
mize cross-identity differences to build more inclusive work environments. However,
organization-level and group-level practices will have little effect if individuals do not
have the capabilities to take advantage of them. The individual capacities and competen-
cies of organizational members are the underpinning of successful diverse and inclu-
sive workgroups and organizations. Thus, in this section we turn our attention to the
 Practices at the Organizational, Group, and Individual Levels    117

individual level, and consider how individuals develop their understandings about their
own and others’ social identities and learn how to navigate social identity issues in the
workplace.
Here we focus on social identities that are ascribed (e.g. gender, race, etc.) and used
in categorizing ourselves and others. We recognize that social identities are developed
and fashioned within the context of multiple self-identities, including those defined
through occupational, career, organizational roles, and so on in organizational settings.
We join with theorists and researchers who frame the management of social identities
in the workplace as a social construction process—for example, an active ongoing nego-
tiation project (e.g. Kreiner, Hollensbe, and Sheep 2006), ‘identity work’ (e.g. Kreiner,
Hollensbe, and Sheep 2009), ‘identity as problem and project’ (Alvesson, Ashcraft, and
Thomas 2008), or a self-navigational challenge (Roberts and Creary 2013). As Roberts
(2005: 685) notes, ‘In a diverse society, all organizational members must learn how to
effectively navigate their interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds
so that they can build credibility, form high-quality relationships, and generate high
performance outcomes with their constituents.’ The reality of our having multiple, inter-
secting identities that may be altered in their saliency across different contexts is part of
the complexity and challenge of managing our social identities in the workplace.
We are particularly interested in the challenge of how a single identity category can
dominate one’s sense of social identity. ‘A given identity [may] trump other potential
identities, remaining salient in most circumstances while other identities fall off the
radar screen . . . so only the dominant category retains the power to define the individ-
ual’s social identity . . . From the perceiver’s perspective, category dominance would be
reflected in routinely relying on the same category dimension(s) when construing and
reacting to others’ (Bodenhausen 2010: 5). Therefore, understanding how individuals
‘construct’ their own social identities and those of others becomes important for know-
ing how to support individuals’ development towards the management of the complex-
ity of identity issues that can arise in organizational settings. Questions that concern
us include: How do people learn to work with the complexity of the issues that present
themselves in a diverse workplace? How do individuals learn to understand and navi-
gate intergroup issues that arise from differences in social identity, the dynamics of
political correctness, stereotype, or identity threats/tensions/abrasions (cf. Petriglieri
2011) and learn to leverage diversity for optimal results in the organization?
Of particular interest are individuals’ orientations to learn about diverse social iden-
tities when they are in a majority group position—that is, when they are members of the
demographically typical group in the workplace. Engaging demographically typical
members of an organization, particularly leaders, can be a critical part of successful
organizational diversity change initiatives (e.g. Davidson 2011). For example, in their
study of barriers to the inclusion and advancement of women faculty in science and
engineering schools, Bilimoria, Joy, and Liang (2008) argue that it is essential to have
the participation of dominant group members in these university change initiatives.
These authors cite Dominquez (1992: 436) ‘It’s not women’s inabilities that prevent
their advancement, but rather their male managers’ or peers’ inabilities to deal with
118    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

someone who is different and may not fit the paradigm.’ Within the complexity of
our multiple, intersecting identities, it can be especially hard to be conscious of our
majority-based identities and how they shape our experiences, perspectives, and abil-
ities to effectively engage across different identities in work situations (Debebe and
Reinert 2014).
Organizational cultures can shape members’ identity consciousness and expe-
riences. In their research on diversity climate, Hofhuis, van der Zee, and Otten
(2012: 970) point out, ‘An organization characterized by low openness to and apprecia-
tion of diversity may stimulate in-group projection, meaning that majority members
may view the organization as synonymous with the majority’s cultural group. In this
situation, majority members may take their cultural background for granted, as they
are rarely confronted with it in the workplace.’ Learning as a dominant group member
to be effective in one’s cross-identity work relationships entails encountering moments
in which one feels the presence of diversity-related intrapersonal or interpersonal dis-
turbances such as identity abrasions (Ely, Meyerson and Davidson 2006), stereotype
threats (Roberson and Kulik 2007), or intergroup anxiety in responses to out-group
members (e.g. Plant and Devine 2003). Effective social identity engagement requires
learning how to move beyond positions of silence (Davidson and Proudford 2007) or
protective hesitations (Thomas 2001) when operating out of the salience of one’s domi-
nant identity in a workplace interaction.
In addition, an individual’s general orientation towards learning contributes to the
development of his or her diversity competence. Foldy, Rivard, and Buckley (2009)
argue that individuals who are able to engage with high, as compared with low, learn-
ing frames can help a group work more productively with the differences that sur-
face among its members: ‘. . . team members’ high learning frames are helpful here as
well: Members believe they can learn from others; they see differences of opinion as
something to actively debate and integrate. If members believe that their discomfort
with risky topics signals a learning opportunity, they are more likely to tolerate it. High
learning frames authorize reflection about one’s own point of view and curiosity about
others’ (Foldy, Rivard, and Buckley 2009: 33). Other individual-level factors may be
enablers or barriers to optimizing within/across identity work relationships (see Cox
1993). For example, Homan and colleagues (2008) found that openness to experience
was an individual difference variable that has important implications for the function-
ing of diverse teams. They cite Flynn’s (2005) research, showing that this factor had
significant impact on individuals’ receptivity to stereotype disconfirming information
and had positive effects on attitudes towards minority members.
Interest and motivation to become aware of one’s unconscious bias and privilege can
contribute to developing more effective cross-identity work relationships (e.g. McIntosh
1988). Extant research demonstrates how individuals’ unconscious bias impacts their
attitudes and behaviours towards different others, mirroring societal biases (Greenwald
et al. 2009). Buttner, Lowe, and Billings-Harris’s (2006) study of diversity activities in a
university found that awareness of racial privilege was associated with more support for
diversity in the leadership of the institution.
 Practices at the Organizational, Group, and Individual Levels    119

Attitudes towards institutional diversity efforts also affect how individuals build com-
petency with diversity and inclusion. Employees’ level of support for diversity work
in organizations may impact the effectiveness of institutional initiatives, for example
through their endorsements (Avery 2011) or through composition beliefs that favour a
group’s diversity (Van Knippenberg and Haslam 2003). In their research on who shows
interest in learning about diversity in organizational settings, Kulik and colleagues
(2007) found that individuals with high versus low competence levels around diversity
exhibited more interest in taking advantage of diversity training in the organization.
Beliefs about whether human attributes are fixed or changeable also contribute to
shaping individuals’ engagement with social identity differences at work. Molden and
Dweck (2006) have studied the effects of differing lay beliefs about personality in rela-
tion to assumptions about whether human attributes are fixed entities that are not sub-
ject to personal development or whether human attributes can develop and change
incrementally through a person’s efforts. They found that the meanings created by these
two different beliefs can have profound effects on social perception and social informa-
tion processing. In their experiments on the challenges of stereotype threat for student
performance, they found that, ‘Several other interventions or experimental manipula-
tions that have successfully alleviated the detrimental effects of stereotype threat also
appear to orient students away from an entity theory, with its emphasis on judgment
and toward an incremental theory, with its emphasis on learning’ (Molden and Dweck
2006: 195). In related work, Bodenhausen (2010: 5) cites studies that provide evidence
that ‘individuals who endorse essentialist beliefs in a general way tended to endorse ste-
reotypes about a number of different social groups’.
In their research on identifying and training cross-cultural management skills,
Mor, Morris, and Joh (2013) highlight the importance of cultural metacognition for
cross-cultural management skills—which can be seen to parallel skills needed to work
across race, ethnicity, gender, and other identity differences. The ability to think about
one’s thinking and be self-reflexive can underlie successful cross-cultural work relation-
ships. As Mor, Morris, and Joh (2013: 453) note, ‘Metacognitive strategies enable success-
ful intercultural collaborations.’ Chua, Morris, and Mor (2012: 116) propose from their
research findings that ‘. . . managers adept at thinking about their cultural assumptions
(cultural metacognition) are more likely than others to develop affect-based trust in
their relationships with people from different cultures, enabling creative collaboration’.
Research on different kinds of social identity development highlights the ability
of individuals to move through stages of awareness and knowledge related to different
social identities (for example, Cross 1971 on black identity; Helms 1990 on white iden-
tity; Carnes, Handlesman, and Sheridan 2005 on gender; or Wishik and Peirce 1995
on sexual orientation). What does research on stage theory tell us about what helps
individuals’ progress in their awareness, and what instigates movement towards the
capabilities of the higher stages? Progression in one’s understanding of social identi-
ties and experiences with diversity can be linked with opportunities for the develop-
ment of greater cognitive flexibility. Crisp and Turner (2011) explored the preconditions
and processes through which people cognitively adapt to the experience of social and
120    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

cultural diversity—in perceiving others who are multicultural and/or being multicul-
tural themselves. They argue that, ‘. . . positive psychological and behavioral outcomes
will be observed only when social and cultural diversity is experienced in a way that
challenges stereotypical expectations and that when this precondition is met, the expe-
rience has cognitive consequences that resonate across multiple domains’ (Crisp and
Turner 2011: 242). Based on an extensive review of research across multiple disciplines,
Crisp and Turner propose a model of cognitive adaptation that includes the following
‘positive’ progression through diversity experiences by an individual: (1) the diversity
experience takes a form that involves stereotypic inconsistencies; (2) the perceiver is
motivated and able to engage in elaborative processing to resolve the stereotypic incon-
sistencies; (3) the perceiver engages in a process of inconsistency resolution involving
stereotype suppression and generative thought; (4) their multiple diversity experiences
result in repeated engagement of the inconsistency resolution process; and (5) the per-
ceiver develops generalized cognitive flexibility characterized by spontaneous inhibi-
tion of stereotype-based knowledge and generative thought.
In summary, many factors influence the development of individual diversity and
inclusion competencies—what we have referred to as individual-level capacity build-
ing for the engagement and management of social identity dynamics in the workplace.
These include: individuals’ orientations to learn when they are working from a domi-
nant group position and their general learning orientation, their openness to experi-
ence, their interest and motivation to become aware of their own unconscious bias and
privilege, their attitudes towards institutional diversity work, their beliefs on whether
human attributes are fixed or changeable, their cultural metacognition, and their ability
to move through stages of awareness and knowledge related to different social identities.

Conclusion

Reaping the diversity dividend is catalysed by the organization’s, group’s, and indi-
vidual’s capacities to engage constructively and generatively with diverse others. On a
day-to-day basis, individuals frequently work in diverse groups, each with its unique
social identity dynamics. Interactions with diverse others must function in order to
promote, instead of hinder, desired individual, group, and organizational processes
and outcomes. In this chapter we have drawn on our own research and extant litera-
ture to discuss various practices of diversity and inclusion at the organizational, group,
and individual levels that have the potential to generate a diversity dividend—that is,
to generate positive outcomes from harnessing and leveraging the social identities and
resources of diverse individuals and workgroups. A summary of these diversity and
inclusion practices is provided in Table 5.1.
For analytic purposes, we have discussed the diversity and inclusion practices sepa-
rately at the organizational, group, and individual levels in this chapter. Clearly, however,
the practices within and across the different levels are interrelated and interdependent.
Table 5.1 Summary of practices at the organizational, group, and individual levels
that cumulatively engender a diversity dividend
Individual-Level
Organization-Level Practices Workgroup-Level Practices Competencies
• Workforce diversification • Shared purpose and common • Recognition of and
practices goals interest in engaging with
◦ Increasing the inflow of ◦ Expands members’ identity multiple, intersecting
diverse employees beyond the self to the identities in the
◦ Equipping diverse organization workplace
employees to succeed ◦ Increases likelihood of ◦ Ability to move
◦ Improving the institutional experiencing deep-level, through stages
systems, structures, and meaningful interactions of awareness and
practices related to key ◦ Enables individuals to place knowledge related
career transition points for a high priority on group to different social
diverse employees performance and success identities
• Practices that make the • Inclusive welcoming practices ◦ Develop awareness of
organization more equitable ◦ Conveys to potential members effect of one’s majority
and inclusive that the group is accepting vs minority group
◦ Creating performance of diverse individuals status in situation
standards that apply to ◦ Facilitates inclusive ◦ Willingness to engage
everyone socialization and fellowship vs back off when faced
◦ Providing equal access • Practices of optimal contact, with identity abrasions
to resources, networks, interaction structuring, and • General orientation
and opportunities for all social integration towards learning and
employees ◦ Adopt actions that promote openness to experience
◦ Creating a culture that is positive group member ◦ Beliefs that human
supportive of the meaning interactions attributes are
and significance of people’s ◦ Create equal status among changeable vs fixed
diverse identities participants • Cultural metacognition
• Practices that demonstrate ◦ Establishing practices which ◦ Interest and
organizational commitment promote social integration motivation to become
to diversity and inclusion • Practices fostering a sense of aware of one’s
◦ Diversity and inclusion belonging or group acceptance unconscious bias and
statements or policies ◦ The desire to belong drives privilege
◦ Committees or taskforces people to seek frequent, ◦ Reflection on one’s
dedicated to diversity and positive interactions with own and others’
inclusion others in a stable, long-term, assumptions and
◦ Diversity and inclusion and caring environment points of view
training initiatives ◦ Group enables members to • Interest in institutional
◦ Organizational efforts to find common connections diversity efforts
recruit from communities and achieve insider status
of colour • Practices ensuring psychological
◦ Integration of diversity safety
and inclusion into the ◦ Foster high-quality
organization’s core mission relationships among diverse
and values individuals
◦ Empower diverse members to
participate fully, bringing their
different social identities to
the table
122    Bernstein, Crary, Bilimoria, and Blancero

Various studies examining interventions to promote diversity and inclusion support

our conclusion that a dynamic portfolio of simultaneous, varied, and multi-level prac-
tices can cumulatively transform organizations to become more diverse, equitable, and
inclusive (Hogue and Lord 2007; Bilimoria and Liang 2012). Since ‘simplistic, ad hoc, or
piecemeal solutions cannot eradicate systematic, historical and widespread . . . under-
representation and inequities’ (Bilimoria and Liang 2012: 206), wide and deep change
is required at all levels—organizational, workgroup, and individual—to harvest the
full potential of diversity and reap the diversity dividend. Efforts are simultaneously
needed to transform organizational systems, structures, and cultures, improve work-
group norms and practices, and strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage and
manage social identity dynamics in the workplace. Through these multi-level efforts all
employees can fully participate, contribute, and develop, enabling their organizations to
achieve goals of effectiveness by reaping a diversity dividend.
Clearly, much needs to be done in order to more fully understand how to opti-
mize diversity in organizations and create an inclusive culture. The study of effective
practices at all system levels—organizational, group, and individual—can continue
to marry the knowledge of practitioners and academic researchers. It would be use-
ful to develop case studies of individuals who are perceived as ‘diversity competent’
or ‘behaviourally comfortable’ within cross-identity relationships, or case studies of
work groups and organizations that are experienced as inclusive, in order to further
our understanding of the key factors contributing to effective outcomes from diver-
sity. Additionally, more research is needed to advance our understanding of how
majority group members can contribute to optimizing the diversity dividend in their
work settings. An example of this is a recent study of how men engage in organiza-
tional gender initiatives to stimulate organizational change (Prime, Moss-Racusin, and
Foust-Cummings 2009). Finally, even though additional research is necessary, there is
still enough known that organizations can take proactive steps to increase inclusion.
The multi-level practices discussed in this chapter and summarized in Table 5.1 can be
employed to gain a diversity dividend.

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 Chapter 6

Reframing Di v e rsi t y
Manageme nt

Alex Faria

Introduction

Diversity management (DM) is a concept that was created in the United States in the
first years of the post-Cold War neoliberal era by the field of management and organi-
zation studies (MOS) to tackle discrimination in employment and the workplace at a
time when state-based multiculturalism and corresponding affirmative action policies
were phasing out and postcolonial/decolonial initiatives and demands were growing
(Wallerstein 1998; Young 2003; Dussel 2012). Managing diversity within organizations
means acknowledging and valuing differences, such as race and gender, and moving
towards cultural pluralism from a cosmopolitan and pro-diversity perspective of glo-
balization (Robinson and Dechant 1997). Although (or perhaps because) it has been crit-
ically described as a politically correct concept (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000) which is good
for employers but not for employees (Wrench 2005), many researchers in MOS from
different parts of the world describe DM nowadays as a body of knowledge and prac-
tices which adds sustainable value by fostering inclusion and enhancing organizational
performance (Cooke and Saini 2010; Ferdman and Deane 2014). From a decolonial per-
spective, we face a rather curious situation: while few authors criticize the ethnocentric
stance of DM (e.g. von Bergen, Soper, and Foster 2002; Faist 2009; Holvino and Kamp
2009; Jonsen, Maznevski, and Schneider 2011; Metcalfe and Woodhams 2012), the con-
cept is being transformed into a type of global idea within MOS, in the non-Western
world in general (e.g. Howie 2007; Shen et al. 2009; Gotsis and Kortezi 2015) and, in
particular, in so-called emerging economies or markets (Horwitz and Budhwar 2015).
Unlike those who understand that decoloniality is a future-oriented project, this
chapter shows that the US-led concept of DM has appropriated in a particular way the
basic tenets of diversality or pluriversality that have been put forward by the decolonial
literature. Pluriversality is not Eurocentric relativism, but a decentred epistemology and
128   Alex Faria

cosmology enunciated by those who have been transformed into ‘different’ by colonial-
ity which proposes a ‘universal project of delinking from modern rationality and build-
ing other possible worlds’ (Mignolo 2007: 498). In other words, pluriversality is a way
‘to imagine a future that is not the future that those in Washington, or London, or Paris,
or Berlin would like the people of the world to have’ (Mignolo 2007: 498) through the
mobilization of ‘a network of local/global histories constructed from the perspective of
a politically enriched alterity’ (Escobar 2007: 183), which brings together all those who
have been contacted in various ways by modernity/coloniality and ‘emphasizes dialogue
as the route to adjudicate [the colonial] difference’ (Alcoff 2012: 66).
Analysis of the trajectory of globalization of the concept of DM shows that diversal-
ity has been appropriated and reworked in a particular way by Eurocentric universality
within the post-Cold War context of global coloniality. The resulting US-led ´global’
DM embodies a perspective of diversality informed by Eurocentric universalism—
that is, universal diversity—which is based on the selective inclusion of certain sub-
knowledges informed by diverse diversity(ies) and the classification of radical ones as a
kind of essentialist counter-knowledge. We posit that a major challenge for academics
and non-academics alike in different parts of the world – and particularly in so-called
emerging economies – is to foster the co-construction of diversality and diversity as
concepts not to be classified as essentialist counter-knowledge. Unlike those who enact
decoloniality as a future-oriented project we argue that decoloniality and diversality
have coexisted asymmetrically with coloniality and universality since the creation of
the colonial difference by Eurocentric universalism—that is, ‘the differential time-space
where a particular region becomes connected to the world-system of colonial domina-
tion’ (Moraña, Dussel, and Jáuregui 2008: 6). Accordingly, the reframing of DM requires
decolonizing the darker side of US-led global DM and highlighting both the bright side
of diversality (i.e., DM otherwise) and the complex dynamic involving the decolonial
design of diverse diversity(ies), the hegemonic US-led (Eurocentric) design of universal
diversity, and the ambivalent design put forward by emerging economies. Such refram-
ing of DM might evolve in parallel with the co-construction of a pluriversal rather than
US-led ‘global’ field of MOS and create better conditions of possibility for a world in
which many worlds and knowledges could coexist (Mignolo 2011a).

On Diversity, Management,
and Knowledge(s)

The concept of DM was created in the first years of the post-Cold War neoliberal era
in the United States, in tandem with the advance of the US-led neoliberal globalism,
the phasing out of state-based multiculturalism and corresponding affirmative action
policies, and the rise of postcolonial/decolonial initiatives and demands worldwide
(Wallerstein 1998; Young 2003; Dussel 2012). It is arguable that its creation by the field
 Reframing Diversity Management    129

of MOS in the United States was triggered by the advance of post-Reagan neoliberalism
and the corresponding interest of US large corporations in taking the lead in the man-
agement of an unprecedented degree of diversity of markets, workplaces, and cultures
or worlds (Thomas 1990).
Following a pioneering critical examination in the late 1990s (Prasad and Mills 1997),
other critical researchers pointed out in the early 2000s that DM was a politically correct
concept (Kersten 2000; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000) which overshadowed the enduring
tensions between ‘managers of diversity’ and the ‘diverse managed’ within organizations
and society at large (Blommaert and Verschueren 1998), and was good to employers but
not to employees (Wrench 2005). This US-led concept was exported worldwide with
considerable success from the mid-1990s, and then turned into a kind of global concept
within MOS and also in the non-Western world—in particular in so-called emerging
economies (Howie 2007; Shen et al. 2009; Gotsis and Kortezi 2015). The concept was
enacted in a particular way in the US as the post-Cold War order was allegedly moving
towards a clash of civilizations (Huntington 1993) rather than postcolonial cosmopoli-
tanism in a global scale (Giddens 1990).
DM was portrayed by critical management authors in the early 2000s as one of the
conditions of an era they describe as global colonialism (Banerjee and Linstead 2001).
In sharp contrast with the notion of global cosmopolitanism espoused by US-led lit-
eratures on globalization and MOS, Banerjee and Linstead argue that neoliberal glo-
balization is a broader colonial order which, instead of just imposing commonality,
homogeneity, and convergence around the world, mobilizes difference, diversity, and
divergence from a hegemonic perspective. They conclude that diversity of race, ethnic-
ities, and nationalities within such era of global colonialism/neoliberalism ‘has to be
“managed” for the market economy to function smoothly’ on a global scale (Banerjee
and Linstead 2001: 702).
Managing diversity within an era of global colonialism involves the mobilization of
several mechanisms of inclusion informed by a ‘revolutionary’ design of discriminatory
tolerance (Blommaert and Verschueren 1998). In other words, it involves a kind of ‘revo-
lutionary’ reworking of the Eurocentric design of DM which was inaugurated in the fif-
teenth century. It means departing from a sort of monolithic Eurocentric universalism
towards a sort of pro-diversity cosmopolitan Eurocentric universalism led by the United
States, the lonely superpower with a face of benign hegemon (i.e., an all-powerful state
whose power is experienced on a global scale not only through political-economy and
military intervention, but also through the realm of cultural ideas and practices).
Arguably, global colonialism enables and requires the sheer hegemon to develop
mechanisms of DM based on processes of exclusionary inclusion. This connects to a
number of diverse factors related to the evolving of neoliberalism that include: the deep-
ening of the crisis of the US-led Eurocentric neoliberal order (Duménil and Lévy 2012);
the spread of inequality in a global scale (Piketty 2014); the growing distance between
north and south and the haves and have nots (Banerjee, Carter, and Clegg 2009); the
rise and dissemination of decolonial ideas and practices (Escobar 2004); the ascension
(or resurgence) of China through a kind of neoliberal market-oriented socialism with
130   Alex Faria

Chinese characteristics and informed by peace-oriented foreign policies (Harvey 2007);

the ascension of so-called emerging economies and, correspondingly, of non-white lead-
ers within institutions of global governance created by the West (Hurrell 2007); the rise
of voices from peripheries within the US-led ‘global’ academy in general (Alatas 2006;
Mignolo 2011a) and within the US-led ‘global’ field of MOS in particular (Ibarra-Colado
2006; Tsui 2009; Mir and Mir 2013). In other words, global colonialism/neoliberalism
conveys a number of incentives and justifications for the hegemon to develop a kind of
‘global’ DM (i.e. DM supported and enlarged by ‘revolutionary’ mechanisms of inclu-
sion which are exclusionary).
Not surprisingly, the concept of global colonialism has been rather ignored by the
DM literature. Even less surprisingly, the concept of global coloniality put forward
by decolonial authors from Latin America has also been ignored by corresponding
debates. Informed by the colonial difference and by a historical perspective of longue
durée1—which does not take the post-Cold War global neoliberalism to be a sort of dis-
continuity—decolonial literature from Latin America responded to the US-led celebra-
tory accounts on globalization by arguing for the displacement of the long-standing
hegemony of Eurocentric universality by pluriversality or diversality. Unlike coloni-
alism, which is commonly understood as a specific political or cultural condition or
epoch involving nations and peoples, coloniality is conceived as a hegemonic ‘matrix
of knowledge, power, and being’ which has shaped the modern/colonial world system
(Maldonado-Torres 2012: 2). Coloniality survives colonialism in its diverse manifesta-
tions. It refers to long-standing and profound patterns of colonial power which define
culture, labour, racial, gender and intersubjective relations, and knowledge production
well beyond the strict limits of more typical colonial space-time settings. Coloniality has
been kept alive ‘in books, in the criteria for academic performance, in cultural patterns,
in common sense, in the self-image of peoples, in aspirations of self, and so many other
aspects of our modern experience . . . [in sum] we breathe coloniality all the time and
every day’ (Maldonado-Torres 2007: 243).
In response to the celebratory pro-diversity knowledge on globalization produced by
a growing number of knowers in/from the Euro-American world—who described it as
the ultimate stage of Eurocentric liberalism— led by the United States from a ‘revolu-
tionary’ perspective of cosmopolitanism (i.e. to be enjoyed by the entire postcolonial
and postmodern world)—decolonial accounts produced by ‘sub-knowers’ (especially
those who were included by the US-led ‘global’ academia) portrayed globalization as
the radicalization of the darker side of over five centuries of Eurocentrism. More spe-
cifically ‘sub-knowers’ from Latin America embraced a long trajectory of decolonial-
ity to describe globalization not as global colonialism/neoliberalism but as an era of

1 The longue durée is a term from the French Annales School of History and refers to a long period of

historical structuring of events that influence numerous aspects of ongoing events, for example, in this
case, the influence of European colonization of the Americas and the consequent structuring of various
societies as captured in the term Latin America.
 Reframing Diversity Management    131

coloniality on a global scale—that is, globalization is global coloniality (Mignolo 2000;

Escobar 2004; Grosfoguel 2007).
The aggressive expansion of US-led neoliberal capitalism towards the rest of the
world since the early 1970s (Stone and Kuznick 2012) led decolonial authors to already
define globalization in the early 1990s as racialism/imperialism in disguise (Dussel
1993; Quijano 1993). The corresponding sub-knowledge posits that this design of global
coloniality, which on the surface seems to be ‘revolutionary’ and informed by diversal-
ity or pluriversality, represents the radical universalization of the matrix of colonial-
ity of knowledge, power, and being which was inaugurated in the end of the fifteenth
century (Quijano 2007). In other words, globalization means the radicalization of the
longue durée of Eurocentric modernity/coloniality initiated in 1492 with the conquest
of America and establishment of a modern/colonial world-system based on racial, eco-
nomic, and epistemic segregations (Mignolo 2011b).
Decolonial authors also point out that such radicalization of over five centuries of
Eurocentric modernity may lead to either further radicalization or a potential transition
towards a non-Western world order informed by decolonial ideas and practices on a
global scale (Dussel 1997; Escobar 2004). In other words, they argue that such radical-
ism represents a major challenge, but also a major opportunity for the advance of deco-
loniality on a global scale—that is, towards ‘a deeply negotiated reality that encompasses
many heterogeneous cultural formations—and of course the many shades in between’
(Escobar 2007: 181).
What we are saying is that, from a decolonial perspective, DM is not a novel concept
created by the US-led field of MOS within an era of US-led neoliberal globalization or
global colonialism/neoliberalism as sharply pointed out by Banerjee and Linstead. DM
is an enduring body of practices and knowledges which has fostered the supremacy of
Eurocentrist modernity over the last five centuries of modernity/coloniality. As there is
no modernity without coloniality (Dussel 1994; Mignolo 2000; Quijano 2000), such rad-
ical universality of US-led Eurocentric modernity—that is, global coloniality—implies
both the advance of decolonial ‘DM’ (or DM otherwise) and the corresponding mobili-
zation of further and more powerful and inclusive mechanisms of DM on a global scale.
In other words, global coloniality involves the reworking of Eurocentric DM through its
radical universalization and systematic attempts to transform it into a kind of an hegem-
onic design of hyper-management of diversity/(de)coloniality.
Overall, such hegemonic design involves the radical mobilization of mechanisms
of subalternization of knowledges and practices (Spivak 1988) developed by peoples
and countries marked by the colonial difference. In more specific terms, it involves the
radicalization of mechanisms of co-optation and containment (through appropria-
tion, translation and detainment) of decolonial diversality and respective alternatives
to the longue durée of Eurocentric modernity. In sum, the advance of global coloniality
involves an unprecedented apparatus of DM and knowledge management dedicated
to the hyper-management not only of the corresponding advance of non-hegemonic
decolonial movements and knowledges on a global scale (Suárez-Krabbe 2013) but
in particular the ascension of a particular non-Western or de-Westernizing
132   Alex Faria

hegemonic order as a result of the rise of so-called emerging economies (Hurrell 2013;
Mignolo 2014).
Back in history the creation of the US-led concept of DM in the early post-Reagan
years has been accompanied by the creation of anti-essentialist radical knowledge and
policies in the United States, directed towards not only the rest of the world (Huntington
1993) but also emerging economies in general and China in particular (Layne 1993). In
accordance with such a body of warfare-oriented knowledge, decolonial sub-knowers
and the corresponding literature from Latin America have been classified as a serious
threat to cosmopolitanism—the so-called Hispanic challenge (Huntington 2004)—and
used as a resource of legitimation to the further universalization of the US-led concept
of DM and the mobilization of a complex apparatus of knowledge management with no
precedent within the longue durée of over five centuries of Eurocentric coloniality.
Decolonial authors describe coloniality as constitutive rather than derivative of
modernity; in other words, coloniality is the inseparable and darker side of Eurocentric
modernity. Decolonial authors add that one of the main features of the longue durée
of modernity/coloniality is the negation of the negation of the non-Western other
(Moraña, Dussel, and Jáuregui 2008). As pointed out by decolonial authors, such colo-
nial matrix of power, knowledge and being (Quijano, 2000) has become virtually invis-
ible to the distracted eyes created by modernity/coloniality. Even when the articulation
of the colonial matrix of power surfaces, ‘it is explained through the rhetoric of moder-
nity that the situation can be “corrected” with “development”, “democracy”, a “strong
economy”, etc.’ (Mignolo 2005: 11). Such systematic negation of negation explains, for
example, why modern critical theory overlooks the fact that coloniality (or different
manifestations of colonialism involving nations and peoples) is not a by-product of
Eurocentric modernity (Escobar 2007). Modern capitalism does not lead to colonial-
ism as a by-product, because without colonialism and corresponding racial distinction
between conquerors and conquered there would be no modern capitalism in the first
place (Dussel 1994; Quijano 2000, 2007). In other words, decolonial literature suggests
that the supremacy of Eurocentric modernity is informed by a kind of essentialism
which has been negated by Eurocentric academia and by the US-led ‘global’ academia.
Those processes of negation have been accompanied by a design of construction of
‘universal’ knowledge based on hegemonic mechanisms of exclusionary inclusion of
academics themselves. The acknowledgement of the negation of the subhuman other
within the US-led ‘global’ academia is becoming even harder to achieve—at the same
time, it is becoming even harder to sustain for and by an enlarging community of ‘free’
academics. In other words the evolving of the US-led ‘global’ academia involves a rather
complex interplay of both coloniality and decoloniality on a global scale.
In the past, such patterns of negation involved not only the extermination or segre-
gation of the ‘different’—that is, those who were classified as non-humans or subhu-
mans—but also the supposedly benevolent engagement of knowers with them. The
corresponding mechanisms of DM have become invisible to academics in particular,
and civil society in general, due to the prevalence of the idea that a major distinguish-
ing feature of the West is its capacity of creation and free dissemination of disinterested
 Reframing Diversity Management    133

and disembodied knowledge—that is, modern knowledge—informed by human-

ness and universality (Amin 2009). Nevertheless, it is the controversial engagement
of Eurocentric knowers with sub-knowledges and sub-knowers—across the colonial
difference through mechanisms of domination, seduction and exploitation—that has
permitted the creation and dissemination of supposedly disinterested and disembodied
‘universal’ knowledge by Eurocentric modernity, as illustrated by the contemporaneous
concept of DM. In the words of Grosfoguel (2011: 5):

[In] the same way as the European industrial revolution was achieved on the shoul-
ders of the coerced forms of labor in the periphery, the new identities, rights, laws,
and institutions of modernity such as nation-states, citizenship and democracy were
formed in a process of colonial interaction with, and domination/exploitation of,
non-Western people.

Such design of knowledge production and management through co-optation and con-
tainment, however, remains negated in the ‘global’ academia and overlooked in the
colonial world partially because of the hegemonic power of Eurocentrism and the vir-
tual impossibility of challenging the corresponding apparatus of knowledge manage-
ment still controlled by conquerors.
From a decolonial perspective DM is therefore as controversial and powerful as the
concept of development; the latter described by the decolonial literature as ‘multiscale
hegemonic process that . . . [as such] is constantly transformed and contested’ (Escobar
2008: 129–30). Both these ideas, with their focus on otherness, have been transformed
into organized bodies of knowledge in the United States, involving not only mechanisms
of co-optation and containment of sub-knowledges and sub-knowers (Maldonado-
Torres 2005; Saldívar 2011), but also an opposition to (even more) radical bodies of
knowledge and practices focused on otherness produced by conquerors. No wonder it
is fairly accepted nowadays by the US-led ‘global’ academia that DM is a major source
of sustainable development (Banks 2009). The concept of development is based on the
controversial Eurocentric idea that those who classify themselves as superiors have the
natural power and right to know and classify the others; the latter must move from such
a position of inferiority and backwardness towards the standard of civilization achieved
by the former—what decolonial authors call the ‘developmentalist fallacy’ (Dussel 1997).
Development was turned in the US into a powerful and seductive body of knowledge
and practices within the Cold War period—and still is (Escobar 2008)— for partially
challenging the Eurocentric darker side of modernity/coloniality; that is, it challenges
imposing an unjust world order in much the same way as European colonialism did. The
idea of development put forward in the United States opposed European theorists and
practitioners who defended the mobilization of war as the solution to eliminate part of
the ‘problematic’ growing population of the Third World (see Sauvy 1952). Accordingly,
it is arguable that development is a US-led ‘revolutionary’ concept which fostered the
engagement with sub-knowledges informed by diversality through mechanisms of co-
optation and containment mobilized by a powerful knowledge management apparatus.
134   Alex Faria

In response to the rather understandable and enduring negation of the negation by the
US-led ‘global’ academia contemporaneous development projects have been correctly
portrayed by decolonial authors from Latin America as ‘a “neo-colonial pact” between
international capital and national elites that has perpetuated relations of international
dependency and social inequality in the region’ (Moraña, Dussel, and Jáuregui 2008:
14). However, it is arguable that the US-led science of development conveys a ‘revolu-
tionary’ pro-diversity stance for opposing a powerful warfare-oriented body of knowl-
edge and practices (what might be called ‘darkest’ side of modernity/coloniality), which
stands for the elimination of the different through the mobilization of war. This partially
explains why the corresponding unjust and racist division of labour involving the First–
Third World in the production and diffusion of knowledge has been negated since then
within and around academic circles (Pletsch 1981; Escobar 2004).
Supported by centuries of Eurocentric universalism and backed by the fear that the
Third World would ‘naturally’ join the communist empire in a fatal war against Western
civilization (Stone and Kuznick 2012), the US-led field of development enabled First
World countries to classify themselves as developed rather than ‘colonial’ or ‘imperial’,
and Third World countries to classify themselves as underdeveloped rather than as eter-
nal barbarian enemies which should be partially eliminated by imperial modern states
through the mobilization of radical warfare-oriented knowledge and practices. Through
mechanisms of co-optation and containment of sub-knowledges informed by diver-
sality, this US-led body of knowledge, as a successful case of reworking of Eurocentric
DM, ‘enabled’ the subhuman ‘other’ to evolve from a position of backwardness or
underdevelopment towards the standards of modernization In practice, as enunciated
by decolonial sub-knowers, Western knowledge on development was also mobilized
to perpetrate and justify practices of both covert and overt violence against the ‘differ-
ent’ or ‘diverse’ (Fanon 1963). In response to those practices undertaken in the name of
progress, and as a result of the many ‘political and cultural struggles arising from the
promises [development] makes and rarely fulfils’ (Escobar 2008: 129), sub-knowledges
and practices informed by radical engagement with diversality or pluriversality gained
strength throughout Latin America—as philosophy of liberation, theology of lib-
eration, and dependence theories. Interestingly, this body of sub-knowledges, which
provided justification for elimination or violent conversion of Third World peoples
through the mobilization of warfare-oriented mechanisms of knowledge management
in name of national/international security (see Bilgin and Morton 2002), also provided
ground for the emergence of a kind of ‘new’ decolonial scholarship by Latin American
sub-knowers, published in English in the United States in the 1990s (Escobar 1995, 2004;
Moraña, Dussel, and Jáuregui 2008).
The US-led concept of DM has taken an even more inclusive and pro-diversity stance,
also in response to the extraordinary advance of postcolonial and decolonial initia-
tives and demands during the Cold War (Young 2003). To some extent, the critical and
decolonial literatures on development informed by diversality were incorporated and
rearticulated by this ‘new’ US-led concept, which opposed the reworking of post-Cold
War radical warfare-oriented theories and practices. In other words, the US-led concept
 Reframing Diversity Management    135

of DM is also a knowledge-based and ‘revolutionary’ artefact grounded on a hierarchi-

cal and racist rearticulation of Eurocentric ideas of sameness and otherness (Escobar
1991), whose main feature is the ‘legitimate’ mobilization of more inclusive US-led
mechanisms of co-optation and containment of decolonial sub-knowledges informed
by diversality. Decolonial analysis of the longue durée of Eurocentric modernity/
coloniality has shown that the use of force and warfare-oriented mechanisms is cru-
cially important, but not so effective as the use of knowledge-based mechanisms (Dussel
and Ibarra-Colado 2006; Mignolo 2011b). Selective engagement with sub-knowledges
and sub-knowers for the construction and justification of both more radical and more
inclusive bodies of Eurocentric knowledge has informed the mobilization of an increas-
ingly complex apparatus of knowledge management. Overall such apparatus informs
the growing effectiveness of both knowledge-based and warfare-oriented mechanisms
of global coloniality.
The reinforcement of knowledge-based mechanisms by the only superpower with
undisputable military power in the post-Cold War era has been instrumental in offset-
ting the mobilization of warfare-based mechanisms of global coloniality. More inclu-
sive knowledge-oriented mechanisms have provided further conditions for US-led
Eurocentric universality not only to co-opt and contain decolonial sub-knowledges, but
also to foster the advance of the decolonial literature (Escobar 2004; Mendieta 2009).
Arguably, the creation of the US-led concept of DM, and the rearticulation of corre-
sponding mechanisms of management of diversity within an area of global coloniality,
have been informed by decolonial advances during the Cold War period and the pro-
duction of decolonial literature from Latin America in the United States from the 1990s.
Back in history once again, the creation of specialized fields of knowledge on oth-
erness in the past—for instance, anthropology and area studies—involved the engage-
ment of knowers with sub-knowledges and sub-knowers and the classification of certain
sub-knowledges as radical. As a sort of third space—using in a particular way the post-
colonial terminology provided by Bhabha (1994)—those fields of knowledge required
the co-optation and containment of sub-knowledges and sub-knowers informed by
diversality. This design of knowledge management was formally inaugurated by the
Eurocentric modern state with the creation of Eurocentric social sciences in the nine-
teenth century (Wallerstein 1997). The creation of Eurocentric (or ethno-)social sci-
ences by the modern state and its diffusion towards other parts of Europe were marked
by asymmetrical encounters between the humanitas and the anthropos (or humans and
subhumans) in the colonial world and the mobilization of analogous mechanisms of
knowledge management in Southern Europe. Through co-optation and containment
social sciences managed to displace competing knowledges in Europe and forge its
hegemonic position throughout the continent (Santos 2009). Such engagement with
diversality informs the negation of the negation by the Eurocentric academy and the
classification of Eurocentric knowledge as ‘universal’ also by the conquered. For exam-
ple, the field of anthropology was formally created and presented and taken as a pro-
diversity advance within social sciences by both knowers and sub-knowers. In the
United States this complex dynamics involving coloniality and decoloniality presented
136   Alex Faria

itself as even more ‘revolutionary’ as social science was framed in the 1960s as an oppo-
sition to the warfare-oriented area studies (Bilgin and Morton 2002).
In other words, it is fairly true that the contemporaneous concept of DM and the field
of development studies are US-led bodies of knowledge informed by the broad idea that
‘others’ (classified as subhumans or non-humans by Eurocentric universal knowledge)
are inferiors. Nevertheless it is arguable that both are ‘revolutionary’ for opposing more
radical warfare-oriented bodies of knowledge which say that those others are a perma-
nent threat to the (Hegelian) historical path of humanity towards progress. Therefore,
a major issue not to be negated by the US-led ‘global’ academia is that decolonial sub-
knowledges classified as radical have been instrumental to the creation and justifica-
tion of those radical warfare-oriented bodies of knowledge and, correspondingly, to the
reinforcement of mechanisms of negation of the negation of the subhuman other within
and around the ‘global’ academia. Managing diversity involves not only the subalterni-
zation of sub-knowledges and voices (Spivak 1988), but also internal struggles involv-
ing opposite bodies of knowledge within the inner realms of the US-led Eurocentric
knowledge management apparatus. The marginal position of the work of Frantz Fanon
within US-led postcolonial theory literature (McLeod 2000), and the rise of academic
discourses of human rights in tandem with the deployment of neoliberal warfare-ori-
ented mechanisms in Latin America throughout the 1970s (Mignolo 2009), illustrate
such pattern of DM.
The radicalization of Eurocentric modernity within an era of global coloniality
has hence been marked by further engagement of the hegemon with a wider range of
sub-knowledges informed by diversality. Supposedly informed by ‘essentialism’ and
resentment against civilizing universalism and cosmopolitanism, sub-knowledges
classified as radical became instrumental to the co-optation and appropriation of
sub-knowledges informed by diversality, to the legitimation of warfare-oriented mecha-
nisms of coloniality, and to the justification of reinforcement of the knowledge manage-
ment apparatus controlled by the supremacy.
Such evolving of global coloniality and corresponding mechanisms of DM has been
marked by the reinforcement of radical warfare-oriented bodies of knowledge and more
aggressive appropriation of decolonial sub-knowledges. The next section, ‘Diversity,
Globalization, and Post-9/11’, shows that the dynamic involving coloniality and deco-
loniality which has informed the evolving of the US-led concept of globalization is cru-
cially important to the understanding of the trajectory of globalization of the US-led
concept of DM.

Diversity, Globalization, and Post-9/11

The creation of the US-led concept of DM has evolved in tandem with a complex process
of construction of a radical pro-diversity idea of globalization in the United States. The
emerging US-led globalization literature put together new global fields and universal
 Reframing Diversity Management    137

fields of knowledge which were turned in a controversial fashion into global sub-fields,
namely as global strategy, global economy, global management, and so on. Championed
by so-called globalization studies, this new body of knowledge was advertised and taken
by many as ‘revolutionary’ for embracing a worldview that challenged the dominant
warfare-oriented literature produced and carefully managed mainly by the field of inter-
national relations throughout the Cold War period. Such revolutionary ideas became
instrumental not only in disseminating on a global scale a pro-diversity understanding
of globalization, but also in managing the proliferation of sub-knowledges from periph-
eries in opposition to the inauguration of the unipolar world by the lonely superpower
(Gill and Mittelman 1997; Munck 2007; Mignolo and Escobar 2010). The dissemination
of such pro-diversity and cosmopolitan ideas of globalization by the lonely superpower
was also accompanied by controversial foreign policies which aimed to replace so-called
defensive internationalism with affirmative internationalism—that is, ‘no longer coor-
dination of the major capitalist powers under American dominance against a common
enemy, the negative task of the Cold War, but an affirmative ideal—the reconstruction of
the globe in the American image’ (Anderson 2002: 24).
The universalization of such pro-diversity globalization literature was accompanied
by ethnic-oriented military interventions aimed to manage diversity—in particular the
‘ethnic wars’ against the so-called ethnic state in Kosovo and Bosnia. It was also accom-
panied by attempts at military containment of the spread of alter-movements, which
were framed as counter-movements, in response to the increasing asymmetry between
First and Third Worlds, the rise of inequality on a global scale triggered by the massive
globalization of the US-led post-Reagan neoliberal order, and the emergence of corre-
sponding decolonial sub-knowledges on globalization informed by diversality (Escobar
2004). No wonder the decolonial literature defined globalization in the first years of the
post-Cold War period as the radicalization of the Eurocentric racist matrix of colonial-
ity of power, knowledge, and being, which was inaugurated in 1492 with the conquest
and discovery of the America rather than with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ulti-
mate triumph of Western liberalism (Quijano 1993).
In the United States the context was not very favourable towards the decolonial
accounts of globalization informed by diversality and enunciated by sub-knowers from
Latin America. At that time, state-based multiculturalism was portrayed in the United
States as responsible for the de-Westernization of the country, and a serious threat to
Western interests in general for its corrosive effects on US foreign policies and erosion
of American values and creeds from within (Huntington 1993). Multiculturalists in gen-
eral were described by radical warfare-oriented theorists of globalization as ‘ethnocen-
tric separatists who see little in the Western heritage other than Western crimes . . . Their
mood is one of divesting Americans of the sinful European inheritance and seeking
redemptive infusions from non-Western cultures’ (Schlesinger 1992: 66–7, 102).
The so-called thesis of the clash of civilizations was enunciated in 1993 by a prominent
Harvard scholar of the warfare-oriented tradition in development studies and interna-
tional relations. He portrayed the West as a major victim, rather than beneficiary, of
pro-diversity globalization. He then affirmed the post-Cold War period would replace
138   Alex Faria

the clash of ideologies championed by the United States and the Soviet Union with an
inevitable clash of civilizations on a global scale (Huntington 1993). In 1989, this same
author criticized the rise of pro-diversity globalization discourses in the United States
based on the thesis of the end of history and the general idea that the end of the Cold
War meant that bad things were coming to an end. Instead, he argued that ‘the end of the
Cold War does not mean the end of political, ideological, diplomatic, economic, tech-
nological, or even military rivalry among nations’ and then concluded that ‘to hope for
the benign end of history is human. To expect it to happen is unrealistic. To plan on it
happening is disastrous’ (Huntington 1989: 29). The resulting fear, shared by the rest of
the world, of the subordination of pro-diversity discourses to the construction of US
supremacy informed by warfare-oriented ideas within a supposedly hyper-anarchical
world—that is, marked, for instance, by the emergence of fundamentalism Islam, the
rise of East Asia, and the new geopolitical configuration of Russia and Eastern Europe
as major threats to the West—triggered the production and dissemination of alternative
sub-knowledge on globalization in Asia which also challenged the pro-diversity litera-
ture reproduced by the US-led ‘global’ academia in the making, as illustrated in the fol-
lowing passage:

In key Western capitals there is a deep sense of unease about the future. The con-
fidence that the West would remain a dominant force in the 21st century, as it
has for the past four or five centuries, is giving way to a sense of foreboding that
forces like the emergence of fundamentalist Islam, the rise of East Asia and the
collapse of Russia and Eastern Europe could pose real threats to the West. A siege
mentality is developing. Within these troubled walls, Samuel P. Huntington’s
essay ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ is bound to resonate. It will therefore come as a
great surprise to many Westerners to learn that the rest of the world fears the West
even more than the West fears it, especially the threat posed by a wounded West.
(Mahbubani 1993: 10)

In accordance with the US-led concept of DM informed by diversality in a particular

way, different perspectives on globalization could coexist within the hegemonic realm
of US-led globalization studies. Globalization views from the periphery were not elimi-
nated or rejected; rather, they were included and presented as sub-knowledges by the
‘non-global’ field of globalization studies (Mittelman 2000: 917) and corresponding
knowledge management apparatus. Those sub-knowledges reinforced the idea that, as
an explanatory phenomenon, globalization should be portrayed as not having a cen-
tre of power; in other words, globalization was portrayed as epiphenomenon beyond
the control of any powerful actor. Accordingly, the more radical bodies of US-led
warfare-oriented knowledge on globalization—informed, for instance, by the end of
history thesis (Fukuyama 1989) and by the clash of civilizations thesis (Huntington
1993)—were accompanied by the ascension of more malleable pro-diversity bodies of
knowledge in the United States, informed by the notion of ‘cultural globalization’ (e.g.
Jameson and Miyoshi 1998).
 Reframing Diversity Management    139

Through a systematic process of appropriation and transformation of certain ideas

into knowledge, and the corresponding mobilization of an unprecedented knowledge
management apparatus, globalization was turned into a new and complex phenome-
non of ultimate importance for individuals, societies, and the world, not only in eco-
nomic, but also in political and cultural terms (e.g. Giddens 1990; Hirst and Thompson
1999; Held and McGrew 2000). Informed by diversality in a particular way this US-led
globalization literature aimed to offset the negative connotations given to difference,
diversity, and otherness in the ‘past’. Diverse conceptualizations were fostered in order
to establish a hegemonic understanding of globalization informed by an apparently cos-
mopolitan pro-diversity design by the US-led ‘global’ academia. In practice, all nations
and peoples had to converge ‘on one narrative of progress, based on Western, liberal
democratic models and functionalist bureaucracies’ (Clegg and Carter 2008: 272).
Critical views on globalization were published in English and classified as
sub-knowledges. Informed by the thesis ‘of clash of civilizations, the sub-knowledges
which were classified as radical became instrumental in justifying the radical univer-
salization of the US-led field of globalization studies and the concept of DM. As in any
hegemonic design, such control was far from absolute. In response, intellectuals from
Asia and Africa delinked from Western counterparts and joined sub-knowers from
Latin America, who interpreted globalization as the radicalization of the Eurocentric
project and the most obvious signal of the crisis of five centuries of Eurocentrism
(Quijano 1993). Intellectuals in Asia framed the mismatch between pro-diversity glo-
balization discourses and US foreign policies as a clear sign that Eurocentric liberalism
was the next to collapse after the fall of Marxism (Umehara 1992). Globalization was
interpreted by other intellectuals in Africa as a violent era of marginalization of com-
munities without precedents that would lead the region to silent resistance and eventual
revolution (Cheru 1997). As warfare-oriented theories of globalization were reinforced
and justified, the US-led pro-diversity globalization literature became ‘a core dictum in
the prescriptions of management gurus, and a catch-phrase for journalists and politi-
cians of every stripe’ (Hirst and Thompson 1999: 1).
The darker face of DM and globalization studies resurged more overtly in the after-
math of the events of 9/11, with the corresponding revival of Huntingtonian racialism
(Hurrell 2013). In tandem with the rise of more radical bodies of knowledge and dis-
placement of the less radical ones, new mechanisms of knowledge management aimed
to deter sub-knowledges and respective ‘sub-knowers’, for global security motives,
have been added to the hegemonic mechanisms of co-optation and containment of
sub-knowledges which informed the trajectory of ‘globalization’ of US-led globaliza-
tion knowledge until the events of 9/11. The construction of the so-called ‘global’ social
sciences became a chief component of the global war on terror inaugurated by George
W. Bush (Shaw 2003), with corresponding implications within the US-led field of MOS
(Faria, Ibarra-Colado, and Guedes 2010; Guedes and Faria 2010). Globalization was
rearticulated in response to a growing number of anti-globalizers who announced its
obsolescence (Held and McGrew 2007) and transformed into an extremely powerful
northern theory which helped construct and disseminate a misleading ‘social world
140   Alex Faria

read through the metropole—[i.e.] not read through the metropole’s action on the rest
of the world’ (Connell 2011: 45). In response to such radicalization and the reinforce-
ment of mechanisms of negation of the negation within the ‘global’ academy, decolonial
authors pointed out knowledge as the most effective resource of decoloniality in a global
scale: ‘the most radical struggles in the twenty-first century will take place on the bat-
tlefield of knowledge and reasoning’ (Mignolo 2005: 100; see also Mignolo and Schiwy
2003).
Informed by the rise of radical warfare-oriented theories focused on other-
ness, some analysts classified sub-knowledges in general as counter-knowledge or
anti-West conspiracy theories. Although this post-9/11 literature does not equal such
counter-knowledge with terrorism and transnational violence, some authors agree that
the main characteristic of counter-knowledge produced in parts of the rest of the world
is to ‘hold extremist groups together and push them in a more extreme and sometimes
violent direction’ (Bartlett and Miller 2010: 5).
In contrast with academic and non-academic discourses informed by the pro-diver-
sity globalization literature affirming that we all live in a postmodern and postcolonial
world marked by the free flow of knowledge worldwide, those post-9/11 happenings
made clear the prevalence of the Eurocentric racial design of universality in the contem-
poraneity, as repeatedly denounced by sub-knowers from Latin America (e.g. Mignolo
2000; Escobar 2004; Ibarra-Colado 2006). With the shift of knowledge-based mecha-
nisms of global coloniality from market-oriented motives towards security-oriented
ones (Mignolo 2002), the events of 9/11 were described by the decolonial literature, in a
more radical tone, not as a threat to civilization but as ‘the first wake-up call and not only
for globalization but for cosmopolitanism as well’ (Mignolo 2011b: 15). The following
passage illustrates the essentialist feature attributed to US-led globalization by post-9/11
radical decolonial sub-knowledge:

With the conquest of the societies and the cultures which inhabit what today is called
Latin America, began the constitution of a new world order, culminating, five hun-
dred years later, in a global power covering the whole planet. This process implied a
violent concentration of the world’s resources under the control and for the benefit of
a small European minority and above all, of its ruling classes. Although occasionally
moderated when faced with the revolt of the dominated, this process has continued
ever since. But, now during the current crisis, such concentration is being realized
with a new impetus, in a way perhaps even more violent and on a much larger, global
scale. The ‘Western’ European dominators and their Euro-North American descend-
ants are still the principal beneficiaries, together with the non-European part of the
world not quite former European colonies, Japan mainly, and mainly their ruling
classes. The exploited and the dominated of Latin America and Africa are the main
victims. (Quijano 2007: 168)

In the name of global security, and with a tight control of the process of construction of
the ‘global’ social sciences, developed countries enlarged their right to know the ‘other’
and produce and disseminate universal knowledge. In other words, the Eurocentric
 Reframing Diversity Management    141

assumption that all societies, groups, or communities are ‘knowable in the same way
and from the same [i.e. metropolitan] point of view’ (Connell 2011: 44) was reinforced
and negated further rather than dismantled. This post-9/11 big picture has informed not
only the trajectory of radical universalization of the pro-diversity globalization litera-
ture but also the ‘globalization’ of the US-led concept of DM. As developing countries
and an increasing population of ‘suspicious’ inferiors around the world (also within the
United States and Europe) were forced to replace sub-knowledges with universal knowl-
edge proper, the decolonial literature rose on a global scale (e.g. Lionnet and Shih 2011;
Maldonado-Torres 2012; Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2013). Decoloniality presented itself neither
as relevant only to Latin America nor as an abstract anti-West universal to be imposed
worldwide, but as an epistemic option informed by diversality which might become
universal by connecting ‘similar colonial experiences in different colonial histories,
whether in the rest of the Americas, in Asia, or in Africa’ (Mignolo 2002: 246).
In parallel, China has led the controversial path towards the constitution of a
non-Western (Ikenberry 2011) or de-Westernized world order (Mignolo 2011a) through
its growing participation, along with other emerging economies, with Western insti-
tutions of global governance (Hurrell 2013), development projects in Africa and Latin
America (Mignolo 2014), and also the US-led global social sciences in the making
(Alatas 2006). This was accompanied by the ascension of the Chinese threat literature in
the United States and the corresponding reinforcement of foreign policies based on the
peaceful rise framework by China (and other emerging economies). With the resurgence
of Huntingtonian racialism, the fear that so-called emerging economies—in particular
China—would inevitably lead the world to a situation of non-peaceful developments
was institutionalized within the US-led field of globalization studies (Mearsheimer
2006). The literature on Islamophobia as a form of cultural and epistemic racism also
saw a rise (Grosfoguel 2012).
In parallel to the growing participation of Chinese scholars and institutions in the
construction of the US-led global field of MOS (e.g. Tsui 2009), decolonial sub-knowers
from Latin America followed a radical path by portraying the field as ‘one of the most
important forms of epistemic coloniality of the last 150 years . . . a strategic knowledge
aimed at the maintenance and reproduction of the colonial difference in the context
of globalization, legitimating to some extent the corporate domination of the world
economy’ (Ibarra-Colado 2006: 468), and pointing out the growing number of (neo-)
imperial interventions in Latin America and Africa disguised as management and
organization affairs (see Cooke and Faria 2013).
Interestingly, the rise of radical decolonial accounts has also been accompanied not
only by the reinforcement of warfare-oriented knowledge and practices, but also by a
growing number of victims of US-led eurocentrism in the United States and Europe,
and an increasing number of peripheral voices from within the US-led ‘global’ aca-
demia, who stand for the decolonization of the world in general and of knowledge in
particular—in particular the field of MOS..
This rather complex and ambivalent picture is illustrated by the literature, which por-
trayed the advances of buen vivir (i.e. living well) in Ecuador and Bolivia as a concrete
142   Alex Faria

alternative to development interventions in the region and to the radicalization of

global coloniality (Walsh 2010; Mignolo 2014). In response to the increasing importance
of warfare-oriented knowledge focused on the advance of decoloniality in general and
of emerging economies in particular buen vivir was also celebrated by decolonial MOS
sub-authors from emerging economies as a kind of DM otherwise (e.g. Ibarra-Colado
2010; Misoczky 2011; Cooke and Faria 2013). Buen vivir became a focus for heated and
unjustified criticism within academic and non-academic circles in the US-led fields of
development studies and globalization studies: whereas warfare-oriented radical bod-
ies of knowledge classified it as a global threat (Huntington 2004; see also Borón 2013),
authors and experts in sustainable development, together with local elites, appropri-
ated it (Walsh 2010) and took a less radical stance by classifying buen vivir ‘as a mys-
tical return to an indigenous past, lacking any practical strategy’ (Gudynas 2011: 445).
In other words, the different versions of buen vivir practised in the Andean regions of
Latin America—accompanied by controversies and debates (see Walsh 2010; Escobar
2012; Quijano 2012; Borón 2013; Vanhulst and Beling 2014)—was addressed by decolo-
nial sub-knowledge from an anti-development perspective which was appropriated by
colonial mechanisms of co-optation and containment of sub-knowledges. In the end,
such radical response helped reinforce the trajectories of ‘globalization’ of US-led ‘revo-
lutionary’ conceptualizations of development, globalization and DM from a perspective
of universal diversity rather than decolonial diversity.
The ambivalent support provided by Chinese institutions and organizations to buen
vivir in Latin America, as part of foreign policies in the region informed by the peaceful
rise framework (Foot 2006), and the controversial appropriation of buen vivir by sus-
tainable development theories and local elites in Ecuador and Bolivia, have been accom-
panied by more radical arguments from decolonial sub-authors (e.g. Quijano 2012) who
extended the debates in Latin America on whether or not emerging economies could
be taken as part of the decolonial turn informed by diversality (Mignolo 2011a; Borón
2013). These radical accounts became instrumental for warfare-oriented knowers to
claim once again that decolonial sub-knowledges and sub-knowers are informed by
essentialism, barbarism, or anti-cosmopolitanism.
The engagement of Chinese organizations with the concept of DM and buen vivir to
differentiate from US-led ‘global’ development and management frameworks and jus-
tify its development interventions in Africa and Latin America—as perhaps a sort of
Eurocentric DM or neocolonialism with Chinese characteristics—was accompanied
by many criticisms from the growing US-led China threat literature (Alden and Large
2011). Those debates informed by different appropriations of diversality have been rather
ignored but had an indirect influence on the literature in Latin America with different
interpretations of DM put forward by MOS authors from emerging economies from
Latin America (e.g. Alves and Galeão-Silva 2004; Romero 2004; Pereira and Hanashiro
2010; Jabbour et al. 2011).
It is arguable hence that the trajectory of ‘globalization’ of the US-led concept of DM
has been informed by the complex interplay of global coloniality and decoloniality
 Reframing Diversity Management    143

at large but not managed as such by the proponents of decolonial diversality and DM
otherwise. This complex picture gives support to our argument that the decolonial
reframing of DM in and from emerging economies requires specific efforts in the co-
construction, together with the proponents of a US-led global field of MOS, the concept
of diversality and, therefore, of a pluriversal field of MOS.
The tacit and ambivalent engagement of China with the global war on terror when
US unilateralism was formally inaugurated in the post-9/11 period (Foot 2006) illus-
trates the chief importance for emerging economies to engage and manage with
diligent care the complex interplay involving global coloniality and decoloniality
at large. Hence, a first major challenge for reframing DM is to highlight the bright
side of decolonial diversality and its radical opposition to warfare-oriented knowl-
edge and practices. This would enable academics of the US-led ‘global’ academy and
a growing number of victims of global coloniality to enact the chief importance of
decolonial diversality in the creation of US-led ‘revolutionary’ concepts as globali-
zation, development and DM itself and the respective trajectories of ‘globalization’.
A second major challenge is to investigate, particularly (but not only) in emerging
economies, mecha­nisms of knowledge management based on co-optation and con-
tainment of diver­sality which inform the US-led ‘global’ concept of DM.
Such decolonial reframing of DM requires academics and non-academics to engage
the growing population of victims of US-led global coloniality and to prioritize the care-
ful management—for instance, by embracing the peaceful rise framework mobilized
by China in recent decades—the complex dynamics involving the decolonial design
of diverse diversity(ies), the US-led (Eurocentric) design of universal diversity, and the
ambivalent designs put forward by emerging economies.

Final Considerations

DM is a Eurocentric constitutive component of modernity/coloniality informed by

decolonial diversality, which was reworked in the United States in the early 1990s
within an era of global coloniality. The US-led concept of DM embodies a ’revolu-
tionary’ rearticulation of the Eurocentric design of universality—which in the past
has been one of the major tools for both extermination and effective conversion of
inferiors and natives towards Eurocentric standards of universal modernity and
civilization through different mechanisms of knowledge management and selective
engagement with diversality and diverse diversity(ies)—from a ‘revolutionary’ per-
spective marked by the opposition to radical warfare-oriented knowledges and prac-
tices focused on otherness. Its creation and ‘globalization’ over recent decades have
been supported by complex mechanisms of hyper-management of diversity which
involve appropriation, co-optation, and containment of decolonial sub-knowledges
and sub-knowers.
144   Alex Faria

This chapter argues that the trajectory of ‘globalization’ of the US-led concept of DM
has been informed by both the deepening and widening of global coloniality and the
corresponding advance of a non-Western or de-Westernized world order, and also of
decolonial sub-knowledges and practices in a global scale. This picture illustrates the
complex dynamics involving the decolonial design of diverse diversity(ies), the US-led
(Eurocentric) design of universal diversity, and the ambivalent designs put forward by
emerging economies. In other words, such US-led ‘global’ DM embodies a complex
and asymmetric interplay of different understandings, appropriations, and reworkings
of universality, diversality, and diversity that should be further examined by the field
of MOS.
The decolonial reframing of DM is needed, as illustrated by our analysis of the
ambivalent trajectory of ‘globalization’ of this US-led concept over recent decades.
Such decolonial reframing requires our engagement with the peaceful rise frame-
work for the co-construction of concepts of diversity and diversality not to be classi-
fied as essential­ist anti-cosmopolitan counter-knowledge by the US-led hegemonic
apparatus of knowledge management. Highlighting the bright side of decolonial
diversality and promoting the engagement of so-called emerging economies in
investigations and the management of the complex interplay of global coloniality
and decoloniality at large are major chal­lenges for an enlarging community of aca-
demics and non-academics who wish to foster a pluriversal field of MOS which is in
the making.

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 Pa rt I I

E P I ST E M OL O G IC A L
P LU R A L I T Y
 Chapter 7

Advancing P ostc ol onia l

Approaches in C ri t i c a l
Diversit y St u di e s

Gavin Jack

Introduction

Since the mid-1990s there has been significant growth in the volume of research con-
ducted about diversity management (DM) (Oswick and Noon 2014). This corpus of
research includes critical diversity studies, a growing number of conceptual essays,
empirical studies, special issues (for instance, Calás, Holgersson, and Smircich 2009;
Miller, Mills, and Helms Mills 2009; Zanoni et al. 2010; Metcalfe and Woodhams 2012),
research monographs, and edited collections that collectively question the underly-
ing assumptions, and social and organizational effects, of DM. Now a well-established
area of critical management thinking, there seems to be ‘something in the air’ (Calás,
Holgersson, and Smircich 2009: 351) amongst scholars that the field of critical diversity
studies needs to ‘move on’. Whether that ‘something’ is hope and excitement, or exas-
peration and disenchantment, is hard to grasp with any great precision. That said, there
are recent calls by leading scholars to ‘revitalize the field’ (Ahonen et al. 2013: 263), and
to ‘reimagine’ wider (orthodox and critical) gender and diversity scholarship beyond
its dominant ‘western epistemological frames’ (Metcalfe and Woodhams 2012: 123–4).
According to Zanoni and colleagues (2010: 10): ‘After a decade of critical diversity stud-
ies, it is time, we believe, for the critical diversity community to take stock of the new
theoretical insights that have emerged and to initiate a new conversation on where our
work should go from here.’
Postcolonial theory is a potentially powerful tool for critical analyses of workplace
diversity—given its focus on culture, difference, power, and racial inequality—and
is now an important frame for critical organizational analysis. It is a vast terrain of
scholarly work, with no single epistemological, political, or ethical perspective on the
154   Gavin Jack

historical analysis of the colonial encounter, or on the critique of new and continuing
forms of neocolonialism and imperialism in contemporary workplaces. Yet, with a few
notable and insightful exceptions (Prasad 2006; Kalonaityte 2010), postcolonial theory
is underdeployed and selectively represented in critical scholarship on workplace diver-
sity despite calls for its use (Prasad, Pringle, and Konrad 2006). As such, there is signifi-
cant opportunity to respond to Zanoni and colleagues’ call for a ‘new conversation’ in
critical diversity scholarship through a broader and deeper engagement with postcolo-
nial theory.
To facilitate a new conversation, this chapter is organized into three key sections, fol-
lowing the introduction. The first section situates critical diversity studies within the
broader historical emergence of DM theory and practice. It selectively outlines key criti-
cisms of the practitioner-driven, US-originated discourse of managing diversity, and its
export and appropriation. The second section provides a brief synopsis of postcoloni-
alism and core concepts, as well as the very small number of existing critical studies
of workplace diversity that draw upon it. The third section recommends two scholarly
texts that provide significant food for thought with regard to future conversations about
the development of postcolonial perspectives for critical diversity studies. These texts
encourage researchers to engage more closely with psychoanalytic and discursive var-
iants of postcolonial theory (especially as they pertain to the study of racism) (Hook
2012), and to consider how the genre of ‘Southern Theory’ (Connell 2007) could be used
to reconfigure the Eurocentrism of the global social sciences (mainstream and critical
diversity studies included).

A Brief Survey of Critical

Diversity Studies

According to Zanoni and colleagues (2010: 9), critical diversity studies ‘emerged in
the mid-1990s as a reaction to the re-appropriation of equal opportunities by business
through the notion of diversity’. To understand the key themes of critical diversity stud-
ies, therefore, one needs to historicize them in the dominant narrative about the emer-
gence and spread of the managing diversity perspective and the associated business case
framework. Whilst critical diversity studies can be read as a response to the rise of DM,
Zanoni and colleagues’ (2010) review essay also clarifies the fact that understanding this
scholarly subfield requires locating it as part of the broader multidisciplinary and mul-
tiparadigmatic terrain of gender and diversity research (Metcalfe and Woodhams 2012).
That is to say, DM, and critical studies of it, are just one manifestation of gender and
diversity research. Bearing this in mind, this section is structured using Kalonaityte’s
(2010) schematization of contemporary research on workplace diversity into two major
areas: (mainstream and critical) research on the business case for diversity in respect of
its implementation and internationalization; research ‘beyond’ the business case.
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    155

The Implementation and Internationalization

of the Business Case for Diversity
According to the dominant and familiar historical narrative (see, notably, Kelly and
Dobbin 1998, for one of the earliest accounts of this narrative; see also Sinclair 2000;
Omanović 2009), DM emerged as a discourse and set of human resource (HR) prac-
tices in late 1980s/early 1990s corporate America, spearheaded by leading practition-
ers, key practitioner/trade articles, and management consulting frameworks (Thomas
1990; Cox and Blake 1991; Cox 1993; Gardenswartz and Rowe 1993; Thomas and Ely 1996;
Robinson and Dechant 1997; Dass and Parker 1999). Its rise is typically portrayed as the
other side of the coin of the decreasing popularity of affirmative action (AA) approaches
to tackling issues of underrepresentation and discrimination in the workplace. Holvino
and Kamp (2009: 396), for instance, described how DM was distinctively ‘presented as
an alternative to its prior AA and EEO [equal employment opportunity] legal and moral
predecessors, steeped in rationales of competitive advantage, human resource utiliza-
tion, and the “business imperative” to enhance global productivity and profitability’.
This putative shift from AA/EEO to DM in the US was predicated on a number of inter-
secting contextual factors, including:

• Demographic change. The Workplace 2000 Report (Johnston and Packer 1987) pre-
dicted, fallaciously as it turned out (Edelman, Fuller, and Mara-Drita 2001), that ‘by
2000 only 15% of new entrants to the US workforce would be US-born white males’
(Oswick and Noon 2014: 24).
• The politicization of AA/EEO. According to Kelly and Dobbin (1998), AA was
increasingly conceived as an overtly political, exclusionary, costly, and unpopu-
lar activity during the Reagan-era 1980s in elite government and corporate cir-
cles, weakened by poor legal enforcement and judicial support. Valuing and
then managing diversity, by contrast, was hailed as a distinctive, more inclusive,
future-oriented, and voluntarist management discourse, which ‘both stated and
implied . . . that the equal opportunity approach is backwards, less developed, not
adapted to current organizational needs and unfairly selective in those it assists’
(Oswick and Noon 2014: 25). DM was a less controversial pill for large corporates to
swallow than AA (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000).

The management/managerialist element noted above is crucial, as it appealed to the idea

that differences could be managed, and the (financial) contribution to the firm’s bottom
line measured through the rubric of the business case. Managing cognitive or demo-
graphic diversity—whether of individuals or teams—promised significant organizational
dividends, and triggered a surge of predominantly positivist and social psychological (as
well as cognitive) academic research into the dynamics affecting the relationship between
chosen types/dimensions of diversity, process-, or performance-related outcomes, and
the role of a battery of mediating and moderating variables (see, for instance, Jehn,
156   Gavin Jack

Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Pelled, Eisenhardt, and Xin 1999; Richard 2000; Benschop
2001). Crucially, the basis for conceiving human differences also (putatively; see Liff
1997) shifted with practitioner interest in diversity from the social group (typical in AA/
EEO practice) to an array of individual demographic and non-demographic differences.
Difference was now a manageable commodity and researchable artefact. After its incep-
tion in the US, DM spread and gained popularity with practitioners and scholars across
several parts of the globe, notably the UK, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe.
Research on the internationalization of DM has underscored—not surprisingly—that its
US underpinnings are not cross-nationally applicable (see, for instance, Jones, Pringle,
and Shepherd 2000; Boxenbaum 2006; Risberg and Søderberg 2008). What counts as a
diverse workforce, and on what basis, then, differs from one (national) context to another,
in accordance with demographic and historical specificities (e.g. connected with patterns
of migration, and histories of colonialism/imperialism).
Critical diversity studies emerged as a response to a variety of different concerns
regarding the intentions, assumptions, and effects of this new ‘diversity discourse’
(Sinclair 2006), in particular its business case element and managerialist ideology,
the reification of difference by researchers and practitioners, and its contextually
specific meanings. Wrench (2007) provides a comprehensive review of the different
forms of critique that developed. He labels these non-fundamental, equal opportuni-
ties, and fundamental critiques (see Table 7.1), according to their underlying para-
digm and/or constituent political position. Non-fundamental critiques inspect some
of the ‘origins, philosophy or claims’ (Wrench 2007: 88) of DM, but do not funda-
mentally undermine the notion that it has intrinsic value for organizations. That is
to say, they ‘do not lead to the implication that diversity management is intrinsically
wrong—only that bad diversity management is wrong’ (Wrench 2007: 95; italics in
original).
Equal opportunities critiques point to the costs of adopting DM approaches (e.g.
the undermining of the moral imperative to tackle workplace discrimination) rather
than AA/EEO approaches to employment equity, with Wrench (2007: 101) noting that,
‘The diversity approach has been criticised for allowing people to choose the parts of
the diversity mix that they like, and under-emphasizing or disguising what they don’t
like.’ Scholars have cautioned against a key element of the dominant narrative—that DM
and its focus on the individual represents a new and distinctive approach to workplace
diversity and anti-discrimination that has eclipsed EEO approaches. As Oswick and
Noon (2014: 27) suggest, ‘at organizational level (sic) this [DM] often amounted to little
more than repackaged EO/AA practices’ (see also Kirton and Greene 2005; Tomlinson
and Schwabenland 2010; Tatli 2011).
Wrench’s final category covers fundamental critiques (from both the left and the
right of the political spectrum) which ‘question the whole basis and existence of diver-
sity management’ (2007: 103). Fundamental critiques from the right argue that it is a
mutation of identity politics, still in the tradition of EEO (despite appearances) and
overreaching social engineering that represents ‘a threat to the values of the generic
liberalism enshrined in modern American law and culture’ (Lynch 1997, quoted in
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    157

Table 7.1 Overview of critiques of diversity management

Type of critique Example of criticism

Non-fundamental DM serves sectional interests.

The benefits of DM are overstated and overgeneralized.
Professional practice and implementation of DM initiatives are
characteristically poor.
Equal opportunities DM undermines trade union and legal approaches to tackling discrimination
and racism: it replaces the moral imperative of fairness and justice with
the business case and thus depoliticizes difference.
DM is a soft option that fails to tackle enduring organizational problems,
notably racism.
Fundamental DM is an exercise in reification and trades on essentializing, a priori,
immutable, reductionist, and one-dimensional views of (ethnic and
cultural) difference.
Criticism from the left: DM overlooks the structural relations that create
racial inequality; discrimination and racism persist despite DM;
DM accommodates the dominant group and obscures inequity whilst
promulgating a rhetoric of equality.
• DM thus naturalizes a new type of management control that
obfuscates its own complicity in organizational practices of inclusion
and exclusion
• ‘For many of its critics, DM has served to eliminate discussions of
power and systemic oppression, along with associated concepts
such as hierarchy, privilege, equity, discrimination and organizational
justice’ (Holvino and Kamp 2009: 396)
Criticism from the right: DM is unnecessary social engineering that curtails
individual freedoms

Source: Adapted from Wrench (2007).

Wrench 2007: 107). From the left, fundamental critiques cover a wider variety of
criticisms, and form the foundation for what I would loosely call ‘first-wave’ criti-
cal diversity studies (see, for instance, Humphries and Grice 1995; Cavanaugh 1997;
Linnehan and Konrad 1999; Litvin 1997; Prasad and Mills 1997; Dickens 1999; Kersten
2000; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Sinclair 2000. For more recent critical diversity stud-
ies see, for instance, Hoobler 2005; Janssens and Zanoni 2005; Ahmed and Swan 2006;
Jones and Stablein 2006; Noon 2007; Metcalfe and Woodhams 2008; Perriton 2009;
Swan 2010; Zanoni 2010; Özbilgin and Tatli 2011). Zanoni and colleagues’ (2010)
critical reflections on DM, and specifically dominant social psychological research
approaches, synthesize three criticisms: a ‘positivistic ontology of identity’ (Zanoni
et al. 2010: 13) which has the effect of ‘naturalizing identities into objective entities,
rather than acknowledging their socially constructed nature’ (Zanoni et al. 2010: 13);
underappreciating the role of context (specifically societal and organizational con-
texts) in moulding what diversity means; and, an ‘inadequate theorization of power’
158   Gavin Jack

(Zanoni et al. 2010: 14). Elaborating the latter point, they explain (Zanoni et al. 2010:
14) that:

The micro-lens of social psychology leads to an explanation of identity-based power

inequality exclusively as the result of individual discriminatory acts originating in
universal cognitive processes [. . .]. Such acts are disembedded from the greater con-
text of historically determined, structurally unequal access to and distribution of
resources between socio-demographic groups.

This first wave of critical diversity studies, then, is largely focused on critiques of the busi-
ness case, and the production of analyses (often using variants of discourse analysis; see,
for instance, Litvin 1997; Kirby and Harter 2003; Ahmed 2007; Ostendorp and Steyaert
2009; Christiansen and Just 2012) that illuminate the power dynamics and effects of diver-
sity discourse. However, Zanoni and colleagues’ (2010) review also notes a number of
diversity studies beyond the business case, connecting DM to broader gender and diver-
sity research which precedes, exists alongside, and informs critical diversity scholarship.

Research Beyond the Business Case: Towards

Second-Wave Critique?
Two recent review articles demonstrate the vast scope of gender and diversity research,
and the intersection with critical diversity studies. With regard to the former, Metcalfe
and Woodhams (2012) make it clear that DM research sits alongside a number of schol-
arly interests in diversity, many of which have a longer lineage. They describe current gen-
der and diversity research as comprising studies of: women in management; gender and
organization theory; social constructionism/critical management studies/intersection-
ality; critical men’s studies; and critical race studies. Zanoni and colleagues’ (2010) syn-
thesis of key streams of critical diversity studies illuminates cross-over with the broader
terrain described by Metcalfe and Woodhams. They summarize these streams as:

• Discourse studies of the construction of identities and differences, and of

socio-demographic groups.
• ‘Agent-centred’ perspectives on minority group members’ own identity work and
construction of positive professional identities in workplace settings, and modes of
resistance to inequality.
• Studies of men and masculinities, and whiteness in organizations.
• Intersectionality studies, and their origin in black feminist scholarship.
• Renewal of a critical sociological lens on socio-demographic group research. For
instance, they cite Acker’s (2006) work on inequality regimes and Essed’s (1991)
notion of micropractices of everyday racism as good exemplars.
• Studies of diversity in specific geographical, cultural, or historical contexts, includ-
ing that of globalization.
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    159

Despite expansion in the interests of the broader terrain of gender and diversity research,
and the concomitant growth of critical work on DM, recent reviews suggest that critical
diversity studies is in need of reinvigoration. Perhaps what is needed, then, is a ‘second
wave’ of critique to address the concerns of these recent reviews. Ahonen and colleagues
(2013: 278), for example, propose that the field needs to develop better understandings
of ‘how context matters in terms of power’. Metcalfe and Woodhams (2012) articulate
a further challenge for the broader field of gender and diversity research: to tackle its
Eurocentrism and to enable a greater plurality of voices to be heard in research. This
latter point is significant in light of Zanoni and colleagues’ (2010: 17) view that ‘much
remains to be done to come to grips with the dynamics of power and diversity in organi-
zations operating within a globalized world’. They call for a ‘new conversation on where
our work should go from here’ (Zanoni et al. 2010: 10) and suggest a future agenda for
critical diversity studies comprising: more empirical work; studies of those labelled
‘diverse’; research, especially in discourse studies, that goes beyond textual representa-
tion, and considers the visual domain; linking (diversity) discourses with social prac-
tices; searching for new emancipatory forms of organizing. I would add to this agenda
the need for further development of the theoretical base for critical diversity studies
and, in this respect, deeper engagement with postcolonialism.

Postcolonial Theory and Diversity

Management

This section presents a brief synopsis of postcolonialism and some of its core analytic
concepts, and outlines the key insights of the very small number of existing postcolonial
pieces on workplace diversity.

Postcolonialism
It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide an exhaustive review of a complex body
of scholarship like postcolonialism: it is not a homogenous area of enquiry, with a sin-
gular mode of theoretical and political analysis. Instead, it is contested scholarly ter-
rain that spans multiple disciplines, with different and competing analytical variants
connected to poststructuralist, psychoanalytical, historical materialist, and feminist
theory, amongst others (for good introductions, see Moore-Gilbert 1997; Young 2001).
For the purposes of this chapter, I am guided by a useful umbrella definition by Prasad
(2006: 123), who describes postcolonialism as:

[A]‌
n attempt—from an intellectual perspective that insists upon, among
other things, a persistent interrogation of Eurocentrism—to take stock of the
160   Gavin Jack

consequences of the fateful colonial encounter between the West and the non-West
and, in so doing, ‘to investigate the complex and deeply fraught dynamics of mod-
ern Western colonialism and anti-colonial resistance, and the ongoing significance
of the colonial encounter for people’s lives both in the West and the non-West’.

Postcolonial writers recognize the formal imperial expansion of a number of European

nations—and the brutal violence, racism, and dispossession of land often associated
with it—as constitutive of Western modernities.1 Though primarily pursued to build an
economic system in which colonies would provide factors of production and markets
for finished goods for industrializing Western Europe (Young 2001), colonization was
also an important exercise in cultural imperialism (Said 1993). That is to say, it was also
a matter of: ‘[. . .] the desire for, and belief in, European cultural dominance—a belief in
a superior right to exploit the world’s resources [. . .]. Ultimately [. . .] it was the control
of the means of representation rather than the means of production that confirmed the
hegemony of the European powers in their respective empires’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and
Tiffin 2000: 127).
Postcolonial theory is thus centrally concerned with issues of culture, knowledge,
power, and representation, and understanding how cultural and racial difference and
inequality are produced and experienced. Colonizers were in the business of ‘civilising
the natives’, of inculcating modernity, order, and progress, and ‘cleansing’ the natives of
their cultural impurities (McClintock 1995). Cultural imperialism was propagated by a
belief that it was a colonizer’s moral duty to carry out these tasks, since it was he (sic) who
possessed superior knowledge and cultural traditions. A linear teleology of progress
underpins this ideological artifice, where the West stands as the vanguard of history
replacing the histories and subjectivities of others trapped in tradition (Chakrabarty
2000). Naming and challenging this problem of Eurocentrism—the assumption of the
superiority of ‘European’ civilization and the positing of a universalizing, yet ultimately
parochial, ‘European’ history as the centre against which all other histories are artic-
ulated and judged—is a key task of postcolonial scholars. The adjective ‘European’ is
in quote marks to acknowledge that the Europe in Eurocentrism refers not so much to
the geographical entity. Rather, Mufti’s (2005: 474; italics in the original) definition of
Eurocentrism clarifies that:

The modes of cultural authority that the idea of Europe regulates are Western in an
encompassing sense, underwriting narratives of American universalism as well as
those of a uniquely Europe polity and culture in the geographically specific sense. It
is the social and cultural force of this idea of Europe in intellectual life, as in the phe-
nomenal world of global power relations [. . .].

1
There is no singular form of colonization; different imperial powers pursued their colonial
ambitions in different ways depending on location. Colonization is typically defined as the physical
occupation by a foreign power of domestic land; it is one, amongst many, examples of how imperial
power can be exerted (Young 2001).
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    161

Postcolonial organizational scholars have pursued keenly the analysis of Eurocentrism at

work both within scholarly disciplines (for instance, comparative and international man-
agement; see Jack and Westwood 2009), and in business and organizational practices,
such as the transfer of management knowledge from Western to non-Western corporate
settings (Frenkel 2008; Mir and Mir 2009). Broadly speaking, scholars have used postco-
lonial modes of analysis (usually informed by the work of Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, or
both) to identify, in contemporary business practice and research, examples of cultural
imperialism underpinned by assumptions of the superiority of Western modes of man-
agement and organization, and the concomitant denigration or marginalization of non-
Western/Indigenous knowledge systems (Prasad 2003, 2012; Özkazanç-Pan 2008).
Edward Said’s (1978) Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient is considered a
foundational text for postcolonial theory and analysis. It presents an analysis of how
(mainly nineteenth-century—although Orientalism can be viewed in much earlier cul-
tural artefacts—) Western scholars and others (including travel writers, artists, cura-
tors, administrators, philologists, historians) constructed their object of study—the
Orient (referring to the Middle East and North Africa)—through a series of classifica-
tions, categories, and visual imagery. For Said (indebted to Foucault and to Gramsci),
Orientalism is not a set of methods for neutrally and accurately describing the contours
of a pre-existing reality called ‘the Orient’; rather, it is an exercise in othering and a dis-
cursive formation that simultaneously produces and naturalizes knowledge of the Self
and the Other (the Occident and the Orient), whilst erasing the ideological practices
that make this possible in the first place. Central to Said’s colonial discourse analysis
(as it would become named) is an exposition of the hierarchical system of colonialist
binaries (e.g. that positions the West as active, civilized, developed, masculine, scien-
tific, and thus superior, vis-à-vis the non-West as passive, primitive/savage, backward,
feminine, superstitious, and thus inferior (Prasad 1997)) that generate colonial subjec-
tivities through which both the colonizer and the colonized would be hailed to know
themselves. As Brantlinger (1985) points out, these binaries often circulated via colo-
nial myths (e.g. the myth of the ‘lazy native’ (Alatas 1977)) that both projected European
fears and (gendered and sexualized) desires onto the Other, and ‘blam[ed] the victim’
(Brantlinger 1985: 198) for their own colonization.
A key criticism (amongst others; see Young 2001) of Said’s text is that it lacks appro-
priate acknowledgement of the multiple forms of resistance to colonization and cul-
tural imperialism, and the unsettled nature of colonial subjectivities. On the one hand,
anti-colonialist scholarship (notably associated with Marxist perspectives) draws atten-
tion to the multiplicity of armed and violent as well as pacifist struggles against impe-
rial forces in a variety of locations (Young 2001). On the other hand, psychological and
notably psychoanalytic accounts (for instance, in the early anti-colonialist writings of
Frantz Fanon (1952/86), or Jean-Paul Sartre (which combined Marxism with phenom-
enology), or the later Lacanian-inspired work of Homi Bhabha) have noted the com-
plex psychological dynamics and ambivalences of the colonial encounter, which mean
that colonial subjectivities can never be fixed, secure, or fully finished. Prakash (1999)
162   Gavin Jack

describes the encounter as a tension zone in which colonial discourses led a discordant
life of dominance associated with paradox and subterfuge, and in which the intersubjec-
tive and interdependent qualities of the colonizer–colonized relationship are masked.
Through scholars’ subsequent use of Said and Bhabha, Foucauldian ideas on discourse
and the disciplinary subject (and associated concepts of knowledge, governmentality,
and biopolitics) and Lacanian ideas on identification and the psychoanalytic subject
(and associated concepts of desire, fantasy, and hybridity) have become sedimented in
postcolonial theory (amongst others, of course).
Despite the prefix post- (in postcolonialism),2 Orientalist binaries, colonial myths,
and other forms of racism, violence, and oppression associated with colonialism con-
tinue to exist (even since the formal independence of many formerly colonized coun-
tries); it is sometimes referred to under the banner of neocolonialism (Young 2001). It
is these legacies of colonization (notably the perpetuation of Eurocentrism and colonial
subjectivities), as well as new modes of economic and cultural imperialism, that have
spurred the interests of postcolonial organizational scholars in recent years. However,
organizational scholars have been selective in borrowing from the complex terrain of
postcolonial theory in the parent disciplines in the humanities. For instance, in the edi-
torial essay to a recent special issue on postcolonial organizational analysis, we noted
inter alia the relative lack of analysis of the continuing psychological impact and affec-
tive nature of neocolonial relations, and discussion of the relationship between post-
colonial theory and Indigenous knowledge systems (Jack et al. 2011). To that list of
underexplored issues, we should add workplace diversity.

Postcolonial Perspectives on Workplace Diversity

In critical diversity studies, there are very few extended engagements with postcoloni-
alism and its implications, even though it has been noted as an important theoretical
resource in workplace diversity research (Prasad, Pringle, and Konrad 2006). The few
treatments that do exist are reflective of the dominant reception of postcolonialism in
organizational research, insofar as they are concerned (conceptually and/or empiri-
cally) with themes of cultural and racial difference, Eurocentrism and ambivalence, and
the continuing production of colonial binaries in managing workplace diversity.
The most extended conceptual analysis of DM from a postcolonial perspective is a
chapter by Anshuman Prasad (2006) in the Handbook of Workplace Diversity. In it, he

2
Early debate in the field focused on whether the prefix (post-) should be used at all in relation to
colonialism, and what difference adding a hyphen would make to the word post-/colonialism. On the
one hand, scholars agree that, despite formal independence, old structures and practices of colonialism
continue and mutate (and can be referred as ‘neocolonialism’). As for the hyphen, it is sometimes used
by writers who wish to denote ‘postcolonial’ in purely temporal terms; in other words, to refer to the time
period after formal independence, but certainly not to imply that colonial forms would simultaneously
disappear overnight.
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    163

argues that postcolonialism and its focus on ‘analyses of social and cultural marginality’
is pertinent to diversity scholars ‘because the project of workplace diversity is linked
to ameliorating the condition of those on the margins of the organization’ (Prasad
2006: 125). In the contexts of the US and Europe (to which Prasad broadly refers in his
chapter),3 this link reflects the manner in which ‘workplace diversity initiatives often
tend to be viewed as organizational reform projects that would empower marginal-
ized groups, and bring them to a position of equality with the white privileged groups’
(Prasad 2006: 135; italics in the original). Drawing upon Said’s hierarchy of colonial
binaries (1978), and Bhabha’s concepts of ambivalence and the colonial stereotype
(1983), Prasad offers a critical interpretation of this ‘positive’ view of diversity initiatives
(though he does not negate the potential for initiatives to have some beneficial results
for marginalized groups).
In short, he argues that diversity initiatives are, despite appearances, designed to sus-
tain (rather than dismantle) the (racial) binaries that enable the reproduction of hier-
archical relations of privilege and subordination. The complex manner in which the
management of workplace diversity operates to generate such a conservative outcome
is, according to Prasad (2006: 136), ‘traceable, in part, to the continuing imprint of such
colonialist schizophrenia’. On the one hand, such ‘schizophrenia’ is manifest in contra-
dictory beliefs and attitudes, for example, surrounding the ‘Latinization’ of US society,
where ‘Latin people are seen by (neo-)colonial discourse as being weak, lazy and shift-
less but, at the same time, also as capable of swamping the Anglo culture of America and
sapping its cultural strength’ (Prasad 2006: 136; italics in the original). Such ambivalent
beliefs, and associated emotions including fear and/or loathing, prompt a dominant
group response of discursive ‘repair and maintenance work’ (Prasad 2006: 136), in which
linguistic tropes are used to propagate and normalize difference. Colonization—and
the advantages that dominant groups extract from it—requires ongoing maintenance
(especially in contexts of demographic and social change), and this is effected through
the promulgation of group differences based on binary oppositions which ensure ‘con-
tinued access to groups of people (e.g. cultures, subcultures, etc.) that may be seen in
need of help’ (Prasad 2006: 135). To quote Prasad:

[I]‌t would appear to be in the interest of the white privileged groups that diversity
initiatives designed to help marginalized groups be also designed, wittingly or unwit-
tingly, to fail (and/or to discursively produce ‘new’ marginal groups in continuing
need of help) and, in so doing, leave the hierarchical force of the said system of bina-
ries relatively intact. [. . .] As a corollary to this, we might also expect that, in general,
diversity initiatives would be unlikely to include elements that could seriously dis-
turb the stability of the binaries in question. (Prasad 2006: 135)

3 Note that Prasad is looking at diversity in terms of social groups and social justice primarily with

regard to the US context. He does not make claims to cover non-US contexts, and there is little mention
of the individualism that is often associated with US DM discourse.
164   Gavin Jack

Prasad draws out two implications for critical diversity researchers. First, research
on failed diversity initiatives needs to explore how failure was designed into the pro-
gramme in the first place; second, research on the value of diversity initiatives needs to
explore the extent to which they ‘destabilize the binaries under consideration’ (Prasad
2006: 136).
In this latter regard, a study from Sweden by Kalonaityte (2010) offers empirical
insights into how ‘organisations contribute to the creation and maintenance of disad-
vantaged identity categories through organizing’ (Kalonaityte 2010: 34). The setting for
this study is a municipal adult education school which has an active pro-DM framework
with respect to its employees and students, most of whom are immigrants to Sweden. In
this case study, therefore, DM refers to ethnic diversity, and the integration (or other-
wise) of immigrants into the organization. Kalonaityte conceptualizes DM in terms of
organizational ‘identity work’ and ‘internal border control’ (referring to the processes
and practices that dominant groups use to police boundaries, exclude minority groups,
and thus maintain hierarchies). Her work echoes and extends Prasad’s concerns with
empirical evidence (generated via interviews, observation, and documentary evidence)
and a more fully fleshed Bhabhaian postcolonial perspective.
In terms of the latter, she combines Bhabha’s writing on ambivalence, with his ideas
on nation and narration (1990, 1994), notably the distinction he draws between the ped-
agogical and the performative elements of narrative. She uses this writing on ‘national
culture’, since the identity work going on in the empirical setting pertains precisely to
the role of diversity initiatives in reproducing a particular version of Swedish national
identity. The pedagogical are the ‘preferred’ elements of a nation’s narrative, typically
treated as static representations of a kind of national essence. The performative points
to the daily lived realities of the nation, and the various deviations or inconsistencies
that problematize the notion of a ‘culturally pure’ national identity. The constant unset-
tling of the pedagogical by the performative has consequences for social action: it leads
to the search for ever new forms of boundary maintenance and new ‘national symbols
to maintain the hierarchical relation between cultures’ (Kalonaityte 2010: 39). As such:

The concept of ambivalence puts the spotlight on the discursive crisis in the assum-
edly stable collective cultural identity [. . .]. In other words, ambivalence needs to
be treated as a record of the ongoing resistance to the dominant cultural impera-
tives and as a pointer in how oppressive discourses can be dismantled. (Kalonaityte
2010: 39)

The task for the organizational analyst is to identify the living tensions and inconsist-
encies between these elements in relation to diversity initiatives, and to conceive of
them as forms of resistance to the ongoing maintenance of racial hierarchies in organ-
izational settings. Through her interview data, for instance, Kalonaityte gives exam-
ples of how one dominant (white) racial group employee in the school reached for an
essentialist idea of Swedish national culture (based around certain ‘core values’ such
as equality and responsibility) to simultaneously construct a privileged self-identity
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    165

and a culturally inferior, non-Swedish immigrant identity. This was a common pat-
tern across the employee interviews, but so too were a number of contradictions in
these self-representations. For example, one interview demonstrated inconsistency
in the expression of democracy as a cultural value that underpins a putatively supe-
rior Swedish cultural identity (which immigrants are, per force, imagined to lack).
Whilst democracy may be valued in rhetoric, Kalonaityte’s study illustrates how it
was curtailed in an everyday classroom context (of mainly adult immigrant students)
by silencing alternative points of view during class discussion. For this author: ‘The
contribution of the postcolonial lens in the study of workplace diversity lies in the
conceptual space it provides for rendering visible, and legitimizing, non-traditional
forms of resistance to hierarchical differentiation of cultural identities’ (Kalonaityte
2010: 31).
While the works of Prasad and Kalonaityte represent postcolonial analyses specifi-
cally of workplace diversity (where organizations can be viewed as ‘containers’ of diverse
members), there are two scholarly pieces from the broader domain of gender and diver-
sity research which merit mention. Both recommend and use (in different ways) post-
colonial perspectives—and, more specifically, postcolonial feminist perspectives—to
provoke researchers to become more reflexive about their underlying cultural and episte-
mological perspectives in the context of ‘global’ management research. In their editorial
introduction to a special issue on new directions in gender, diversity, and organization
theorizing, for instance, Metcalfe and Woodhams (2012: 124) argue that the field is con-
strained by its dominant ‘western epistemological assumptions’ and that these ‘western
perspectives of gender and diversity theorizing are limited when evaluating contempo-
rary, global, social and organizational change’. They call for a reimagination of gender
and diversity research, one specifically attuned to a number of intersecting themes con-
nected to globalization and global social capital, ‘so as to challenge western ideologies
and create space for envisioning new trajectories of gender, diversity, organization and
management development’ (Metcalfe and Woodhams 2012: 130).
This involves two key elements. First, greater dialogue with global stakehold-
ers, between theories and theorists located in the global north and the global south,
and ‘giving voice’ (sic) to scholars from Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Second, developing a theoretical model that draws on three areas of interdisciplinary
enquiry to address social justice issues on a global scale. The three areas are: post-
colonialism, gender and development; geography and place; transnationalism and
global movements. As for Özkazanç-Pan (2012), she illuminates how researchers con-
ducting fieldwork in international (management) settings can use the postcolonial
feminist concepts of subalternity, reflexivity, and representation to address the risk
of reproducing and reinscribing inappropriate and imperious Western assumptions
and research approaches. She encourages researchers to ask themselves: ‘For whom
do “we” produce knowledge? and what are the consequences of such claims of knowl-
edge?’ (Özkazanç-Pan 2012: 582).
In sum, postcolonialism is a well-established, theoretically diverse, and politically
contested multidisciplinary field of study in the humanities and social sciences, but it
166   Gavin Jack

has yet to be fully engaged as a framework for critical diversity studies. As such, there are
many opportunities to advance postcolonial perspectives in critical diversity studies. But
how should we go about this task?

Advancing Postcolonial Perspectives

in Critical Diversity Studies

A common strategy for making suggestions about how a scholarly field should broach its
future is to generate a manifesto of new topics, methodological approaches, and research
settings, or return to familiar ones with fresh eyes. I would like offer a different approach.
Rather than detail a future agenda for postcolonialism and critical diversity studies, I will
instead recommend two texts that offer fresh and multidisciplinary perspectives on post-
colonial thinking. Insights contained in these texts carry implications for recommended
future objects of diversity research, as well as for diversity researchers themselves.
South African psychoanalyst Derek Hook’s (2012) book, A Critical Psychology of the
Postcolonial: The Mind of Apartheid, begins with excerpts from the Apartheid Archive
Project. These excerpts bear witness to the manner in which privileged white represen-
tations constitute the black Other as an object of both disgust and desire, of hate and
admiration, of intense bodily repugnance and repressed sexual desire. Hook refers to
such (strongly) ambivalent and visceral responses to, and imaginaries of, the Other as
‘extra-discursive’ components of racism, with two significant implications for postcolo-
nial analysis in his home discipline of psychology. First, discourse analytical approaches
(e.g. Wetherell and Potter 1992; LeCouteur and Augoustinos 2001) (a popular alternative
to standard cognitive or social psychological perspectives) offer necessary but incom-
plete insights into the nature of racism. Second, an alternative theory needs to attend
to multiple analytical domains. Specifically, it needs to recognize and explain the rela-
tionship between the psychological/subjective/unconscious and the social/structural/
ideological, all domains in which (ambivalent and incomplete) racial subjectivities are
produced and experienced. Based on these parameters, Hook draws upon psychoana-
lytic, anti-colonial, and postcolonial writings to generate what he calls a ‘psychopoliti-
cal’ theory of (post)colonial racism with respect to apartheid (and post-apartheid) South
Africa. He describes his approach thus, because he considers it ‘a form of critique in
which we not only place the psychological within the register of the political, but [. . .]
in which the political is also [. . .] approached through the register of the psychological’
(Hook 2012: 40).
The careful complexity of Hook’s theory cannot be adequately represented in this
short section. However, my own reading of what is distinctive and thus singularly
valuable to critical diversity work about his psychopolitical theory is that it draws
from inter alia and pushes beyond Bhabha’s and Fanon’s (a central figure in Hook’s
thought) explanation of the paranoid-schizophrenic generative structure of colonial
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    167

subjectivation.4 His theory of colonial racism—and thus a novel critical perspective

on workplace diversity and racial discrimination—is that it is generated by disavowing
the incommensurabilities that are attendant to ego–bodily relations and three different
registers of colonial experience (the corporeal, the psychical, the symbolic).
Beyond this singular theory, Hook’s book provides considerable food for thought for
critical diversity scholars. It reminds us that the continuing legacies and mutating forms
of colonialism and cultural imperialism are a present, yet often hidden and unacknowl-
edged, reality in many organizations, especially those located in formerly colonized
locations, or for organizational members from such locations working in (formerly
colonial/imperial) metropolitan contexts. As Frosch notes in his introduction to Hook’s
text: ‘colonialism forges patterns of social and psychological practice that persist into
the “post” era, often as hidden chains still binding colonized and colonizers to their
past’ (Hook 2012: ix). Frosch thus reminds us that colonialism is not solely discernible
in observable artefacts like written and spoken texts that are ripe for discourse analy-
sis, but also requires other analytical methods to bear witness to experiences beyond
the domain of representation. As such, it is vital that critical diversity and postcolonial
scholars remind themselves of the importance of colonial psychology (and associated
research methods), and the operations of the unconscious in structuring workplace
diversity, alongside continuing scholarly interests in discourse analyses. There is a
potential danger that we might lose sight of this domain, given the recommendations
for more organizational-level/structural analysis in diversity research (Zanoni et al.
2010), or deeper engagement with Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and biopoli-
tics (Ahonen et al. 2013). Working with Hook’s psychopolitical approach also offers a
means of responding to the selective attention of postcolonial organizational analysts as
regards the affective domain of colonization.
Furthermore, Hook’s treatment of a number of psychoanalytic anti- and postcolonial
thinkers—whose works (notably Fanon’s) are yet to be fully embraced in organizational
analysis—offers a rich resource for extending Prasad’s and Kalonaityte’s work with and
beyond that of Homi Bhabha. On the one hand, Hook’s discussion of Bhabha’s essay on
the colonial stereotype (e.g. with notable reference to the concepts of fetish, condensa-
tion, replacement) and his close and critical reading of Fanon (e.g. with notable reference
to the concepts of divided colonial subjectivities, trauma, libidinal economy, paranoid-
schizophrenia) should enable future researchers to generate even more finessed expla-
nations of the ‘designed failure’ (as noted by Prasad) and the empirical ‘contradictions’
of and resistances to (as noted by Kalonaityte) diversity initiatives. Hook’s discussions
thus aid a postcolonial interpretation of the constant disappointments and mixed results
(Bell and Berry 2007) associated with voluntary DM initiatives (and perhaps therefore
the shift away from diversity to inclusion discourse noted by Oswick and Noon 2014),
and the persistent presence of racism in organizations, despite legal measures.

4
With the notable assistance of Kristeva’s (1982) concept of the abject, Žižek’s (1993) work on ideology
and political fantasy, Biko’s (1978) political work in the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa,
and Manganyi’s (1981) phenomenological work on ego–body relations.
168   Gavin Jack

Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell’s (2007) book Southern Theory: The Global
Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science is a second text that can spark provocative con-
versations about the possibilities of decolonizing (mainstream and critical) workplace
diversity research, generating greater epistemic diversity (as recommended by Metcalfe
and Woodhams 2012) in the field, and learning from Indigenous knowledge systems.
This is certainly not the only text of relevance to these concerns; indeed, there are ongo-
ing conversations within postcolonial organizational analysis (notably, for instance, on
the implications of the Latin American decolonial paradigm for postcolonial research
(Faria et al. 2013)) and Indigenous social science research methods (Smith 1999; Denzin,
Lincoln, and Smith 2008) that should also be drawn upon to a greater extent in critical
diversity studies. However, Connell’s text is distinctive; to engage with Connell, first of
all, is to participate in an ambitious and challenging discussion about ‘a new path for
social theory that will help social science to serve democratic purposes on a world scale’
(2007: vii). The point of departure for this call to a new path is her view that:

[S]‌ocial science is, at best, ambiguously democratic. Its dominant genres picture the
world as it is seen by men, by capitalists, by the educated and affluent. Most impor-
tant, they picture the world as seen from the rich capital-exporting countries of
Europe and America—the global metropole. (Connell 2007: vii)

Her book demonstrates how this dominant ‘world-picturing’ of social science from
the global north has produced a core-periphery system, and an associated inequality
in the global division of intellectual labour between (crudely put) theory production in
the global north and data collection elsewhere. Connell offers a number of suggestions
to reconfigure this status quo, and a discussion of the epistemological, institutional,
and practical challenges involved. Her primary recommendation is for social science
researchers—especially those located in the global north—to recognize, read, and learn
from the genre of (what she calls) ‘Southern Theory’ (i.e. theoretical and empirical
knowledge about social experience produced in semi-peripheral and peripheral loca-
tions of the contemporary world system) and thus to ‘re-picture’ global social science
from the starting point of the global majority world (i.e. the ‘two-thirds world’ (Esteva
and Prakash 1998), whose perspectives are marginalized through the export and adop-
tion of mainstream/northern social theory). To do so is to acknowledge that: ‘colonised
and peripheral societies produce social thought about the modern world which has as
much intellectual power as metropolitan social thought, and more political relevance’
(Connell 2007: xii; italics in the original).
To illustrate the rich theoretical and empirical insights into the (neocolonial) mod-
ern world of ‘Southern Theory’, she outlines and discusses a number of authors and
anti-colonial/postcolonial texts located in countries, regions, and continents (includ-
ing postcolonial Africa, modernizing Iran, Latin America, India) that have experienced
colonization or foreign imperialism, and where the resultant economic and cultural
dependency has been challenged. As well as the substantive insights into the struggles
and complexities of relations of dependency, she draws out lessons from these texts about
Advancing Postcolonial Approaches in Critical Diversity Studies    169

the conditions of possibility (enablers and constraints) for (re)asserting Indigenous

knowledges as forms of intellectual and political resistance, and for the development of
autonomous indigenous intellectual disciplines. Whilst endorsing the importance of the
latter, she recognizes a logical impossibility: academic disciplines in postcolonial periph-
eral locations, and local knowledge systems, are already cultural hybrids and translated
objects, precisely because of the colonial encounter, not culturally ‘pure’ systems of
knowledge waiting to be resurrected or developed. To recognize these relational condi-
tions of knowledge, and their epistemological complexities, is the starting point for con-
versations between theories and theorists in the global north and south, and for ‘giving
voice’ (sic) to scholars on the periphery of the system (cf. Metcalfe and Woodhams 2012).
That said, there are simpler, practical steps (recommended by Connell) that critical
diversity researchers located in core, semi-, and peripheral locations can take to gen-
erate new conversations, including: practices of connection (travel, publication, and
network formation), especially between scholars located in the global south; collective
learning and ‘re-tooling’ scholars (especially early career scholars) in the centre (e.g. set-
ting readings from multiple locations, or encouraging students to learn the languages in
which those different readings were originally written); self-reflection (e.g. considering
what material interests shape our scholarly interests, and the role of performance man-
agement discourse and incentives in driving our research).
Despite the many insightful and provocative elements of Connell’s argument, it could
be extended further by drawing clearer lines to existing work on Indigenous research
paradigms and methodologies. Social scientific methodology and research design issues
are not addressed in much detail in Connell. Bagele Chilisa’s (2012) Indigenous Research
Methodologies, written for students, offers an excellent introduction into ‘the meaning
of postcolonial indigenous research methodologies and philosophies’ (Chilisa 2012: 97).
She outlines two distinct but interconnected ways of conceiving such methodologies: as
‘the indigenization of conventional research and [as] a relational indigenous research
paradigm’. She defines the former approach in the following way:

An indigenization process challenges researchers to invoke indigenous knowledge

to inform ways in which concepts and new theoretical frameworks for research stud-
ies are defined, new tools of collecting data developed, and the literature base broad-
ened, so that we depend not only on written texts but also on the largely unwritten
texts of the formerly colonized and historically oppressed peoples. (Chilisa 2012: 101)

Whilst her book goes on to articulate how this might be accomplished, it is also clear
that this is an approach not without its problems, both epistemological and politi-
cal. In the latter regard, simply ‘inserting an indigenous perspective into one of the
major research paradigms may not be effective because it is hard to remove the
underlying epistemology and ontology on which the paradigms are built’ (Chilisa
2012: 108). Politically, such an approach could be viewed as assimilationist in
effect, integrating or subsuming a marginalized knowledge system into a domi-
nant one, and/or as denying the irreducible difference of alternative belief systems.
170   Gavin Jack

The second approach—respecting and learning about relational indigenous postco-

lonial paradigms—emphasizes both the relational and intersubjective ontologies of
chosen indigenous belief systems and the development of methodological approaches
framed by indigenous terms of reference. Whilst relational ontologies challenge a
number of fundamental assumptions about the nature of human relations in workplace
diversity research, together with indigenous methodologies, they offer radically differ-
ent paradigms for the pursuit of critical diversity studies.

Conclusion

This chapter set out to ignite interest in postcolonial analyses in critical diversity stud-
ies as a way of responding to recent calls for new conversations in the field regarding
‘where to next’. Following selective reviews of critical diversity studies, postcolonial-
ism, and critical diversity studies based on postcolonial thinking, the final section of
‘Advancing Postcolonial Perspectives in Critical Diversity Studies’ recommended two
texts which provide multiple avenues for provoking postcolonial conversations of dis-
tinctive relevance to workplace diversity research. To conclude this chapter, two key rec-
ommendations can be drawn. First, critical diversity scholars might undertake a closer
engagement with psychoanalytic and discursive variants of postcolonial theory (Hook
2012) to generate complex understandings of the psychological dimensions of (post)
colonial subjectivities and the persistence of racism in organizations. Second, scholars
might also consider the merits of ‘Southern Theory’ (Connell 2007) (and Indigenous
research paradigms) in order to move beyond the noted Eurocentric limits of existing
gender and diversity research.

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 Chapter 8

A P ostc ol onia l
Dec onstru c t i on of
Diversit y Ma nag e me nt
and M u lticu lt u ra l i sm

Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

Introduction

In this chapter, I offer an analysis of multiculturalism in diversity management (DM)

research. I consider DM research as a practice that relies on an underlying multicultur-
alist discourse, and I highlight the problematic nature of this connection. Within studies
of cultural diversity, the deep complexity of multiculturalism is rarely articulated. I sug-
gest that the postcolonial integration of the two perspectives, multiculturalism and DM,
has important implications for theory building and research on workplace diversity.
Appropriating Saidian critique and Bhabha’s conceptual resources, this chapter demon-
strates how postcolonial insights can be used to deconstruct the ontological and episte-
mological character of DM and to create new key concepts for understanding workplace
diversity.
Although the introduction of postcolonialism as a theoretical location for interrogat-
ing management and organization studies (MOS) is often traced back to Prasad’s (1997)
well-known analysis of the diversity industry (Jack et al. 2011), the scarceness of diversity
research informed by postcolonial thought underscores the idea that the full potential of
postcolonial theory has not yet been explored within diversity scholarship itself. Apart
from Prasad’s (1997, 2006) and Prasad and Prasad’s (2002) influential works, few stud-
ies have specifically addressed diversity issues through the postcolonial lens, the most
recent examples being the studies of Schwabenland and Tomlinson (2008), Kalonaityte
(2010), and Leonard (2010). According to Prasad (2006: 125), postcolonial insights are
176   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

useful for diversity researchers because the colonial encounter has significantly shaped
Western perceptions of its ‘others’ (other races, ethnicities, and cultures). Helping to
think how hierarchies have been articulated and negotiated, postcolonialism has come
to touch on the social differentiations that constitute the modernity of everyday life, not
just the specific classes, peoples, or regions to which colonial discourses are most obvi-
ously tied (Bhabha 1995). Therefore, it can be used as a framework to explore power rela-
tions in wider contexts, as in this chapter.
Using Said’s (1978) idea of fixed cultural essence and representations, in this chapter
I develop a particular argument to describe how the current multicultural approach
of DM is saturated with neocolonial assumptions of individual’s and culture’s natural
positions as stable parts of a society. The tendency to oversimplify culture and to see
representations of difference through binary lenses as mirroring some sort of authen-
tic cultural character that sets one apart from the other is criticized. What I suggest is
that, through the celebrated discourse of multiculturalism, managing cultural diver-
sity comes to intervene in the reproduction of inequalities and the established social
order in organizations. The main argument is that, based on multiculturalism, organi-
zational diversity becomes represented through simplistic, historically bounded,
and fixed categorizations of identity and culture that reinforce cultural and racial
otherness.
To go beyond mere critique and offer a way forward, I introduce Bhabha’s (1994,
2007) notion of the third space as an attempt to rethink the concepts of culture and cul-
tural identities within DM. Through the non-essentialist starting point that the con-
cept of the third space offers, I sketch an alternative approach to the largely US-based
research tradition that derives from a business-oriented social psychological paradigm
of diversity research. I demonstrate how, through the outlined third space, there is a new
way to theorize culture and the individual’s relation to it, provided that we are able to
tolerate the passing of a social value system based on grand oppositions (Bhabha 1996).
This requires a form of cultural value recognized by cultural difference, not by cultural
diversity. What is emphasized is that culture cannot be represented by single definitions
because it is constantly in the process of ‘becoming’—being negotiated, (re)interpreted,
and challenged by the agency produced in language and interaction through the hybrid
third space.
Proposing a postcolonial understanding of the construction of subjectivity, oth-
erness, and the experience of culture in agency, the analysis I present contributes to
the research stream of critically informed diversity studies and the emergent discus-
sions on negotiated and flux notions of culture within diversity scholarship. In critical
diversity scholarship, the controversial and even oppressive nature of the concept of
DM has been articulated on many occasions since the 1990s (e.g. Nkomo and Cox
1996; Litvin 1997; Prasad and Mills 1997; Blommaert and Verschueren 1998) and
the early 2000s (e.g. Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Lorbiecki 2001; Zanoni and Janssens
2004, 2007; Litvin 2006; Prasad 2006). These interventions have led to a serious ques-
tioning of ‘diversity’ and its ‘management’, through which a need to move beyond
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    177

the current articulations of the dilemmas surrounding the theme has been empha-
sized by Calás, Holgersson, and Smircich (2009). The publication of special issues
(see Calás, Holgersson, and Smircich 2009) dedicated to critically informed diver-
sity research in journals such as Gender in Management (vol. 23/2008), Scandinavian
Journal of Management (vol. 25/2009), Gender, Work and Organization (vol. 17/2010),
and Organization (vol. 17/2010), serves as an accurate example of the fervency with
which controversies related to diversity have been explored in recent organizational
scholarship.
While exploring various questions of diversity in organizations, the critical
research tradition has produced a comprehensive mapping of: the US-based origins
of the concept of diversity (e.g. Risberg and Søderberg 2008; Holvino and Kamp 2009;
Omanovic 2009); the traditional conceptualization of diversity within the mainstream
literature (e.g. Litvin 1997; Konrad 2003; Zanoni and Janssens 2004; Janssens and
Zanoni 2014); the juxtaposition of the managerial business rationale and social justice
approaches to diversity (e.g. Holvino and Kamp 2009; Tomlinson and Schwabenland
2010); the evolution of the concept over the past two decades (e.g. Lorbiecki and Jack
2000); and the transformation and the mobility of the complex global phenomenon
to local contexts (e.g. Risberg and Søderberg 2008; Klarsfeld 2009; Lauring 2009;
Omanovic 2009; Ostendorp and Steyaert 2009). As this recent research interest
proves, the critical research stream of organizational diversity is currently well estab-
lished, but the discourse has not yet come to include issues of multiculturalism.
In many countries, societal debates on diversity have been going on for some time
now under the label of the ‘rise and fall of multiculturalism’, and the need for alterna-
tive and more sustainable ways to accommodate diversity has been identified (Kymlicka
2010). Given that it has been the same state-sponsored concept of multiculturalism, aim-
ing at preserving different cultures without interfering with the smooth functioning of
society, that has formed the basis for corporate multiculturalism and diversity (Banerjee
and Linstead 2001: 702), it is no surprise that the concepts have also been confronted by
severe challenges at the organizational level. According to Prasad, Pringle, and Konrad
(2006), cultural pluralism, a built-in feature of multiculturalism, has been shown to lead
to struggles over cultural spaces in organizations as well as in societies. From the point
of view of this chapter, the concept of multiculturalism, and cultural diversity itself, can
be seen as problematic, because it merely means recognizing pre-given cultural con-
tents and customs and representing the rhetoric of a separation of totalized cultures that
remain untouched by the interrelations of their historical locations, guarding the myth
of a unique collective identity (Bhabha 2007: 50). In light of this interpretation, a new
form of understanding, if not a dismissal, of the concepts of multiculturalism and diver-
sity is needed. Before engaging in the presented agenda of the chapter, I provide a short
description of the connection between DM and multiculturalism, because this is neces-
sary for providing the context out of which my argument emerges. I also give a brief
account of the identified connection and its relation to critical diversity studies and to
the aims of this chapter.
178   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

Diversity Management
as Multiculturalist Discourse

Despite the obvious resemblance of the connotations associated with the terms ‘diver-
sity’ and ‘multiculturalism’, DM and multiculturalism have not been extensively linked
(exceptions being Banerjee and Linstead 2001; Shimoni and Bergmann 2006; Nkomo
and Hoobler 2014). Although without explicit connection, since the late 1980s, multi-
culturalism and DM have merged together as integrated paradigms of workplace diver-
sity research. Whereas the term multiculturalism has been more frequently applied in
sociology and public policy, given the same pressure exerted by major demographic
changes, the management literature came to adopt the slightly broader term of diver-
sity (Nkomo and Hoobler 2014). Cox and Blake’s (1991) highly influential (see citation
index of Oswick and Noon 2014: 33) publication on managing cultural diversity, which
provides a clear connection between effective DM and the creation of a multicultural
organization for achieving competitive advantage (see also Cox 1991), stands as an
example of, and an incentive for, the complementary development of these discourses.
Also exemplary of the research that relies on the business rationale behind diversity,
Cox and Blake (1991: 52) state that ‘Organizations wishing to maximize the benefits
and minimize the drawbacks of diversity . . . must create “multicultural” organizations.’
Furthermore, the text establishes a connection between national competitiveness and
multiculturalism (Cox and Blake 1991: 50), bringing together the societal and corporate
discourses of multiculturalism.
Omanovic (2009) states that, in past decades, the concept of DM has been advo-
cated especially by US-based scholars (e.g. Thomas 1990, 1991; Cox 1994; Thomas and
Ely 1996). In the context of the global economy, this approach has proposed manag-
ing diversity as a company initiative motivated by economic imperatives of productiv-
ity, competitive advantage, and profitability (e.g. Risberg and Søderberg 2008; Holvino
and Kamp 2009; Lauring 2009; Omanovic 2009). For Banerjee and Linstead (2001),
this traditional business case for diversity functions as an example of how diversity, in
terms of race, ethnicities, and nationalities, has been reduced to something that must be
‘managed’ for the sake of pursuing the market opportunity. This emphasis on the eco-
nomic benefit of DM has guided its development into a somewhat rigid, essentialist, and
procedure-driven issue (Ghorashi and Sabelis 2013), affecting the way cultural diversity
and its implications for organizations became understood through multiculturalism.
Thus, a particular connection can be found between the business-oriented social
psychological paradigms of diversity and multiculturalism that are now discussed as
interlocking discourses. The reductionist view of cultural diversity that this chapter
challenges has its basis in this research tradition, which understands multiculturalism
as consisting of fixed, observable, and measurable categories. Despite its important
and still effective role in the development of workplace diversity research, it has been
observed that this research tradition has resulted in a limited understanding of diversity
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    179

and the processes leading to inequalities (Zanoni et al. 2010). Nkomo and Hoobler’s
(2014) findings, which indicate that diversity research from the present era exhibits
strong inertia (particularly in its epistemology, which seems to lag behind recent onto-
logical developments of the field), support the continuing influence of the business case
and the multiculturalist approach to diversity. Nkomo and Hoobler (2014: 254) suggest
that even when the terminology may be new, for example, inclusion instead of equal
opportunity (EO) or DM (as in Shore et al. 2011, see also Oswick and Noon 2014), the
focus on the business case and firm practices has remained the same—research contin-
ues to focus on trying to link the presence of persons with certain demographic char-
acteristics to performance, and answering the question of how persons from various
racioethnic groups can best work together towards efficiency and productivity.
With specific regard to the study of cultural, racial, or ethnic diversity in organizations,
in addition to Cox and Blake (1991), other foundational works in the described tradi-
tion include the studies of Gomez-Mejia and Palich (1997), Richard (2000), and Richard
and colleagues (2004). In Oswick and Noon’s (2014) extensive bibliometric analysis of
management publications on diversity, equality, and inclusion over a forty-year period,
from 1970 to 2010, all these studies are ranked within the top twenty of the most popular
works on diversity. The distinct and lasting popularity of the four studies mentioned,
which are pinpointed with the amount of total citations, the average citations per year,
and the patterns of citation (Oswick and Noon 2014), can be seen as indicative of the col-
lective research interest in the field of cultural diversity. As exemplified in the works of
Cox and Blake (1991), Gomez-Mejia and Palich (1997), Richard (2000), and Richard and
colleagues (2004), the continuous meta-level trend of academic interest in the study of
cultural diversity through multiculturalism has been in: (1) emphasizing cross-cultural
differences through cross-national comparisons and ethnic group differences through
intra-national comparisons; (2) using particular surface level or observable characteris-
tics to identify cultural diversity; (3) and then tautologically using these characteristics
as a proxy for persons’ perspectives, belief systems, networks, and affiliations.
The research tradition that derives from the four studies has made significant contri-
butions to the way culture and cultural identities have become understood within the
field. The nature of this tradition has evoked a very narrow understanding of culture
as a stable coherent entity often tied to a place with an essential connection to people’s
identities in that location. Based on the identified connection with the business case for
diversity, the language of multiculturalism, by necessity, has been coloured by cultural
categorizations, generalizations, and distances—because diversity needed to be deter-
mined by the used measurement scales to provide the objective evidence of its effects on
the bottom-line performance of the company (e.g. Richard 2000).
In the critical diversity literature, particular attention has been paid to express-
ing the paradigmatic pitfalls of the dominant research practice described—a practice
that derives from a positivist ontology of naturalized and fixed identities and that has
largely ignored the role of specific contexts and theorizations of power in addressing
diversity (Zanoni et al. 2010: 13–14). For this chapter, being rooted in this tradition of
critical diversity scholarship means understanding diversity and difference as culturally,
180   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

socially, and historically (re)produced phenomena that, therefore, need to be examined

within specific socio-political and geographic regions as well as within specific organi-
zational contexts and processes that reflect and enact structural power relations (e.g.
Metcalfe and Woodhams 2008; Zanoni et al. 2010; Janssens and Zanoni 2014). However,
to establish the interconnection between the multiculturalist paradigm and its implica-
tions for managing diversity, I address multiculturalism by concentrating specifically
on the inescapable, underlying essential assumptions embedded in the notion at the
conceptual level, prior to its local interpretations and enactments in social contexts. It
should be noted that, for the purposes of this chapter, this approach has been inten-
tional, and the chapter recognizes that the interconnection and its implications take var-
ious forms of operation that depend on organizational and national contexts.
In critical diversity research, the idea of discursive, emergent, and relational identi-
ties is firmly accepted. Drawing on different theoretical positions, many recent studies
(e.g. Jack and Lorbiecki 2007; Bendl, Fleischmann, and Walenta 2008; Boogaard and
Roggeband 2010; Essers, Benschop, and Doorewaard 2010; Holvino 2010; Kalonaityte
2010; Leonard 2010; Tomlinson 2010; Van Laer and Janssens 2014) have approached
organizational diversity and difference from a perspective that acknowledges the mul-
tiple and shifting nature of identities and denies the existence of a fully constituted,
distinct identity, an authentic self. Identities are recognized not as matters of ‘having’
but instead as discursive processes of ‘becoming’ (Zanoni et al. 2010). By adopting the
underlying ontology, it should be clear that a similar understanding of culture not as
‘being’ but as something diffuse, heterogeneous, and negotiated, infused with contes-
tation and power relations (Jack et al. 2008: 875), would be adopted. Yet, to be able to
discuss, in terms of ‘multicultural’, whether in a critical vein or not, the concept of mul-
ticulturalism itself, determines the use of an essentializing vocabulary that unavoidably
fixes cultural positions. As elaborated, this is mainly due to the historical baggage of
the research tradition that the term has come to carry. Having identified this discon-
tinuation, and hoping to break the scholarly silence on the fluid notions of culture in
the discussions of organizational diversity, I concentrate on analysing the organizational
implications of this omission.

Postcolonial Critique of Diversity

Management and Multiculturalism

My theoretical argumentation builds on the assumption that the current diversity

discourse, in its devotion to the idea of multiculturalism, is still based on essentialist
ontological assumptions (Litvin 1997) that echo representationalist and universalizing
categorizations and the desire to ‘know the other’ raised in the analysis of colonial dis-
course (Said 1978). In his analysis, Said (1978) highlights the role of power relations in
constructing postcolonial subjectivity, in which the notion of the Other is inseparable
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    181

from the Self. Said’s paradigmatic work Orientalism (1978) examines how non-Western
otherness is constructed through a set of representations that are commonly circulated
within the written work of the Western intellectual, aesthetic, scholarly, and cultural tra-
dition. These texts, and the accompanying categories, classifications, and images that
were utilized in producing accounts of the West’s others, are addressed as ontological
assumptions, epistemological practices, and cultural constructions that serve to create
the texts’ object of study, not as neutral descriptions of reality as they most often became
understood to be (Jack and Westwood 2009: 21–2). In his exploration, Said (1978)
emphasizes the questionability of objective and non-political (Western) knowledge in
general and, in particular, in the case of producing a veridical discourse of the Orient/
Other. In Said’s analysis, the discourse of Orientalism and the cultural dominance of
the West are tightly intertwined with Euro-Atlantic material and political interests, and
the maintenance of asymmetrical power relations between the Orient and Occident, the
non-West and West.
According to Said (1978: 7), the discourse of Orientalism constantly reifies the
asymmetry of power by means of its strategy of positional superiority, ‘which puts the
Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orient without ever losing
him the relative upper hand’. Said (1978: 2) describes how the distinction between the
Occident and the Orient is seen as an ontological and epistemological difference that
relies on the idea of essential and fixed identities. Throughout Said’s analysis, examples
are given of the binary opposites and historical generalizations that were used to justify
the colonial dominance of the non-West. Prasad (1997) has done an extensive listing
of these colonial binaries (e.g. civilized/primitive, masculine/feminine, scientific/super-
stitious, nation/tribe, developed/backward) through which the non-West became por-
trayed around the theme of inferiority with fixed essence.
It is important to note that Said’s interpretation of the constructed binaries con-
cerns not only the Other but also the self-image of the West itself. Orientalism has been
described as a process of othering in which the construction of the self is dialectically
achieved through the simultaneous construction of the Other (Jack and Westwood
2009: 22). The mutually constitutive role that representations play can be understood
through the circularity that surrounds the concept of difference as something that medi-
ates between the binaries and, in doing so, holds apart while holding together (Kwek
2003: 126). As Prasad (1997: 289) asserts, the colonial discourse, therefore, not only natu-
ralized or essentialized the subjectivities of the colonized but also of the colonizers—‘the
Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, per-
sonality, experience’ (Said 1978: 1–2). Jack and Westwood (2009: 22) explain how, in the
process of naturalization, the ideological practices required to produce the representa-
tions of the Other are erased and the knowledge of the Other that is produced is made
to appear as a form of truth. Hall (1997: 245) understands naturalization as a represen-
tational strategy designed to stop the inevitable ‘slide’ of meaning and secure so-called
discursive closure to fix difference, to secure it in its place.
It is exactly this attempt to fix difference, to ‘contain everyone in their place, eas-
ily identifiable, and attached to the specificity’ (Calás, Holgersson, and Smircich
182   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

2009: 351) for which I see the discourse of multiculturalism, and cultural diversity, as
responsible. Enabling the objectification, reduction, and displacement of ideas and
understandings, the feature of containment, which is inherent in the mutually defining
role of representations, creates the precise borders that include/exclude one from the
other (Kwek 2003: 126). Containment is inseparably linked to the essentializing logic of
representations and Orientalist processes of othering. Building on the established con-
nection between Western management discourses and colonialism, and especially the
way that the binaries have been used to construct the static historicity and dichotomy of
subjectivities, it can be stated that culture has been reified as a fixity of ideas and values
that simply exist (Kwek 2003) and define the behaviour of people within certain national
or ethnic borders. Therefore, I suggest that the discourse of multiculturalism, acknowl-
edging and advancing the idea of separate and pure cultures, is yet another legacy of the
colonial mindset.
To illustrate the connections between the representationalist and universalizing ten-
dencies of DM and multiculturalism, we need to pay attention to the location of the
emergence of these discourses and to their way of confronting difference. As identified,
DM was established mainly as a result of US-based economic concerns for produc-
tivity, competitive advantage, and profitability in the name of national and corporate
competitiveness. The business rhetoric was soon adopted by international companies
(Van Dijk, Van Engen, and Paauwe 2012), through which the discourse spread to other
Western countries where it was seen as somewhat universal, until the critical problem-
atizations of this development (see, e.g., Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd 2000; Metcalfe
and Woodhams 2008; Calás, Holgersson, and Smircich 2009; Holvino and Kamp 2009;
Calás et al. 2010). The universalizing tendency of management discourses in general
has been brought forward and linked to the position of the West’s strength and the
politicization of knowledge by postcolonial organizational scholars (e.g. Kwek 2003;
Ibarra-Colado 2006; Westwood 2006; Nkomo 2011). Regarding this tendency, the dis-
course of diversity makes no exception. As Said (1978) has elaborated with regard to the
concept of positional superiority, colonial discourse strongly advocated the superiority
of Western thoughts and practices (cultural, scientific, and other) that were universal-
ized as a common norm against which others became compared. Thus, despite the fact
that DM can be quite precisely located in a particular geographical, historical, and ideo-
logical context (e.g. Risberg and Søderberg 2008; Holvino and Kamp 2009; Omanovic
2009), in its devotion to universal applicability a resemblance to colonial discourse can
be observed.
It should be emphasized that DM research, due to its origins, is based on a practice of
comparison, on a deviation from the (Western) norm (see also Zanoni et al. 2010: 13). As
a specifically Western discourse, DM can be seen to be effective in controlling its oth-
ers to gain various types of information—information deriving from diversity, which,
as a matter of course, has meant deviation—to support the management decisions to
increase corporate financial performance (Richard 2000). Drawing on Calás (1992),
Zanoni and colleagues (2010) have noted that, in the act of comparison, the other is
constructed as the object of study and discursively constituted as marginal. Thus, the
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    183

comparative nature of DM and multiculturalism contributes to the creation of its others,

silencing the others, and more broadly, politics of knowledge (Said 1978) through the
representational strategies by which the comparison is made possible.
The representational nature of DM research is observable in its way of confronting
difference through categorizations that rely on essential identities (e.g. Litvin 1997, 2002;
Zanoni and Janssens 2004; Zanoni et al. 2010; Ghorashi and Sabelis 2013). I argue that
the essentialist perception of difference present in the studies that derive from the posi-
tivist social psychological approach to diversity can be seen to derive from similar repre-
sentational practices used in colonial discourse, where the difference of the West’s others
became reduced to a set of fixed historical generalizations (Said 1978). As exemplified
in the beginning of the chapter through the foundational works on cultural diversity
in organizations, the common practice of utilizing particular fixed characteristics to
identify diversity and then applying these reduced characteristics as a group essence,
explanatory variables for the study in question, is an illustration of this tendency. In
addition, the representational practices apparent in DM connect to the field’s univer-
salizing impulse that is made possible through homogenizing difference (Westwood
2006). Westwood (2006: 96–7) has offered an explanation of how Western practice,
while claiming to examine and report on difference, actually avoids and reduces it into
sameness by subjugating encountered differences to the West’s pre-existing codes and
categories, that is, stereotypes. Additionally, Kwek (2003: 135) has criticized the way
representations subjugate, homogenize, and essentialize difference simply because it
threatens boundaries. According to Prasad (1997: 294), in the discourse of colonialism,
reducing the difference of the Other into a sameness was an attempt to reduce the threat
of the Other by constituting it in terms of images that were already familiar to the colo-
nizing consciousness (see also Kwek 2003; Westwood 2006).
To clarify, I see the discourses of diversity and multiculturalism intertwined in the
process of producing otherness and stereotypes through the way their theories cat-
egorize difference by means of essentialized identities tied to a stable cultural heritage.
With the stagnant cultural essence, an idea deriving from 1950s cultural anthropology
(e.g. Bjerregaard et al. 2009), positivist and functionalist approaches have persisted up
to this day in the research on organizational diversity (e.g. Nkomo and Hoobler 2014;
Oswick and Noon 2014). Through these approaches, the multiculturalist diversity dis-
course supports a language based on binary categorizations that were created in colonial
representations. In specific relation to the study of cultural diversity, the use of cultural
dimensioning and measurements of cultural distances (e.g. Hofstede 1980, 1991) illus-
trate the linkage between colonial representational strategies and stereotyping that is
present in the research practice of the field. Gomez-Mejia and Palich’s (1997) study, in
which, typical of the tradition, cultural polarity is expected to be the prevailing condi-
tion between universalized categories of difference (West and East/North and South),
stands as an early archetype of this tendency within the business paradigm.
One of the drawbacks of the current discourse of multiculturalism—questions of
inclusion are largely overshadowed by the question of recognizing difference and man-
aging it—follows from the expectation of fixed binary differences between cultures.
184   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

With its representational and ethnocentric practice, the idea of multiculturalism has
proven to be excellent at containing everyone in their place and facilitating the repro-
duction of dominant categories that reify the global hierarchy within approaches to
diversity in organizations. It has been demonstrated that there is a considerable gap
between the ideal of multiculturalism and the actual ideology of cultural pluralism that
often ends up reinforcing the stereotypes and the marginalizing tendencies it is designed
to counteract (Huggan 2001). In this analysis, I have aimed to illustrate how this actu-
ally happens by showing how, despite the celebratory rhetoric of multiculturalism with
its mosaics, rainbows, and quilts (Prasad and Mills 1997), the discourse can be highly
effective in circulating stereotypical views of different cultures and their members. Thus,
the analysis offers one explanation for the counterproductivity of classical DM practices
that build on the social psychological research paradigm, which aims to correct indi-
viduals’ stereotypes and prejudices (e.g. Janssens and Zanoni 2014).
Having said that, the explanation is incomplete without clarifying that I regard the
stereotypes and prejudices encountered in organizations not as the problem but as the
easily detected consequence of the actual problem—the emphasis that multicultural-
ism and its static view of culture place on cultural purity and historic heritage (Bhabha
2007). Prasad (1997: 304) has emphasized how discourses saturate us—they provide
us the everyday language, the idioms, and the vocabulary for speaking and thinking.
As postcolonialism suggests, the West’s language, idioms, and vocabulary for address-
ing difference are deeply rooted in the colonial encounter. The way that everything
non-Western (people, civilizations, cultures) became conceptualized as not just some-
thing different from but less than the Western ideal (e.g. Said 1978; Prasad 1997, 2006;
Jack and Westwood 2009) has affected the way otherness is perceived. Thus, genuinely
valuing differences and working towards the equalization of organizational power rela-
tions can only begin when we relinquish our ideas not only of authentic selves, but also
of the authenticity of cultures and constructed cultural polarities.

From Multiculturalism to Cultural

Difference through the Third Space

The idea of the border between self and other is pivotal in postcolonial studies (Ashcroft,
Griffiths, and Tiffin 2007), in terms of its totalizing and essentializing nature. To go
beyond the essentialism present in the dominant multicultural approach in diversity
studies, I am taking advantage of how borders can also be seen as liminal and ambivalent
spaces that challenge the fixities and binary systems from within the spatial boundary
itself (Bhabha 2007). Similarly, within the critical DM discourse, Bendl, Fleischmann,
and Walenta (2008) have proposed how dimensions or categories seen as permanent
and static can be opposed by the constitutive dynamics that define them. The impli-
cation is that borders can actually function as inclusive as much as exclusive factors
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    185

between individuals and cultures within organizations, which opens up a space for the
shattering of the foundations of the hierarchical power positions of self and other as the
fundamental entities of organizational life, as identified by Ghorashi and Sabelis (2013).
For Barth (1982: 15), border-construction processes function as cultural markers
between groups, and it is the boundary itself that defines the group, not the actual cul-
ture that it encloses. Bhabha (2007: 50) has also drawn attention to the frequent way
in which the emergence of problems in cultural interaction are only recognized at the
significatory boundaries of cultures, where meanings and values are (mis)read. For
Bhabha, culture only emerges as problematic when there is a loss of meaning in the con-
testation and articulation of everyday life between group (class, gender, race, nation)
boundaries—yet, the limit of culture is rarely theorized as a problem of the enuncia-
tion of cultural difference. Theorizing multiculturalism more closely from the liminal
and ambivalent spaces of boundary-crossings, an implicit shift of focus from cultural
diversity to cultural difference occurs. The shift is enforced because the Bhabhaian view
(2007: 49–50) conceptualizes cultural diversity as an epistemological object, an object
of empirical knowledge that represents culture through the language of universality and
social generalization, whereas cultural difference can be seen as a process of significa-
tion through which statements on culture form culture as knowledgeable and differ-
ential, bringing cultural authority into existence only at the ambivalent moment of its
enunciation.
Instead of holding on to the exoticism of multiculturalism or the diversity of cultures,
I emphasize respecting cultural difference, which restores the ontological principles
of this chapter to the indeterminacy of meanings constructed through difference and
deferral. Through the examination of cultural difference, the Bhabhaian perspective
brings into focus the ambivalence of cultural authority, the attempt to dominate in the
name of a cultural supremacy even though it is produced only at the moment of dif-
ferentiation (Bhabha 2007: 51). Thus, the concept of cultural difference underscores the
ambivalence of cultural authority, weakening ‘the homogenizing effects of cultural sym-
bols and icons by questioning our sense of the authority of cultural synthesis in general’
(Bhabha 2007: 52). In Bhabha’s approach, the ambivalence of colonial discourse appears
in the cultural interpretation itself, in which the production of meaning occurs through
a hybrid third space: because the interpretation is never simply an act of communica-
tion between the I and You present in the statement, the production of meaning requires
that these two places are mobilized through an unconscious relation that the third space
introduces (Bhabha 2007: 53). It is the third space of enunciation that, therefore, chal-
lenges the structure of meaning and reference, destroying the form of representation
through which culture is seen as a unifying force authenticated and kept alive by the
shared history and national tradition of the people (Bhabha 2007: 54).
Leaning on the presented understanding of culture and the formation of the third
space interrogates the traditional concept of culture advocated by multiculturalism.
Culture and its relation to the homogenizing historical past as the main source of one’s
cultural identity, as ‘being’ something, is clearly incompatible with these ideas, which
focus on the processes produced in the articulation of cultural differences and the need
186   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

to think beyond narratives of originary subjectivities. Through conceptualizations of

the third space, we have the opportunity to understand why hierarchical claims of the
inherent originality or purity of cultures are untenable, as we come to acknowledge that
all cultural statements and systems are contracted in this ambivalent space of enuncia-
tion (Bhabha 2007: 55). The fluctuation and fragmentation of cultural meanings and
symbols is ensured by the third space, which constitutes the discursive conditions for
articulating cultural differences, demonstrating ‘that even the same signs can be appro-
priated, translated, rehistoricized and read anew’ (Bhabha 2007: 55).
Acknowledging the ‘newness’ and unknown present in the third space triggers a clari-
fication of the problematic analytical logic of multiculturalism in diversity scholarship
that enforces hegemonic social structures based on the clear-cut division between self
and other, and the fixed assumptions of the representatives of different cultural groups.
Achieving an alternative starting point for theorizing cultural diversity in organizations
requires an approach that is willing to accept and engage in the unknown present in
cultural interaction and organizational structures that allow the legitimacy of hybrid
(cultural) subject positions to exist and develop through the interaction of individuals
in the in-between spaces of different discursive fields. This highlights the theorizations
of the transverse linkages and interrelations of the subject positions available for indi-
viduals to identify themselves with, to shatter the one-dimensional power relations and
dominant patterns of othering. Foundational prerequisites for this type of approach can
be found in the third space, thus leading us to see the concept of liminality as the main
tool for challenging organizational boundaries by rethinking them as in-between spaces
that function as the conditions of existence for altering the fixed subject positions of the
organizational actors of today.
As noted earlier in this section, Bhabha’s (2007: 56) view on the subjectivities
formed in the in-between spaces of difference—where it is neither the one nor the
other that carries the meaning of culture but rather the area of ‘inter’, of translation and
negotiation—reminds us of poststructuralist understanding of meanings, which are
always deferred (e.g. Hall 1993; Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 2007). Elaborating the
idea of deferral, Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin (2007) note that, in the third space, as a
space of hybridity itself, cultural meanings and identities always contain the traces of
other meanings and identities. The third space can therefore be compared to this space
of deferral and endless possibilities for interpretation, which proves that cultural differ-
ence should never be treated as simple and static, but rather as an ever-changing, ambiv-
alent process of interpretation (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin 2007: 53). For Bhabha
(2007: 56), it is the fragmented space of enunciation that holds the potential to under-
stand culture free from the essentializing logic of multiculturalism, which turns our
attention to our willingness to acknowledge this instability and the unknown present in
the production of hybrid cultural meanings.
The presented indeterminacy of hybrid and ambivalent cultures erodes the ground
under the current multicultural paradigm of DM. As stated, identities can be under-
stood as processes of ‘becoming’, as multiple and shifting, not as something that already
exists, but instead as something that belongs to the future as much as to the past (Hall
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    187

1993: 225). According to Bhabha (2007: 10), this same newness is always present in the
borderline work of culture where the encountered new is not part of the continuum
of the past and present, simply repeating the already known and articulated past, but
instead is the product of a cultural translation that recreates the past as an unpredictable
liminal space that both initiates and temporarily pauses the act of the present. Thus, it
should be noted that the newness created in cultural encounters, as it is understood here,
is not a merger or a combination of the old perspectives but rather something totally
new, produced in the moment. In the field of management, culture is rarely conceptual-
ized as an ongoing process of interpretation, although the similar logic behind how cul-
ture and identities could both be understood as processes of the future and ‘becoming’
is apparent.
Why are these presented conceptualizations of culture, cultural meanings, and subjec-
tivity and otherness meaningful for DM? According to Shimoni and Bergmann (2006),
those researchers, practitioners, and organizations that base their work on coherent
definitions of culture presented by the multicultural approach are unable to recognize
the instances of cultural interpretation and hybridization, resulting in an insufficient
ability to understand and work with cultures. Bhabha (2007) suggests that the process
of hybridization destabilizes the difference and binary division of identities and cultures
in liminal spaces, thereby overturning the current homogenizing cultural order and
focusing our attention on the actual cultural encounter and its interpretation, which has
the potential to bring out the complexity of cultural meanings in organizations with-
out essentializing or estranging them from the context in which they were produced.
Therefore, this alternative way of theorizing cultural positions enables an opportunity
to engage in cultural interaction from an approach that can offer more realistic explana-
tions of how cultural meanings come to guide the decisions and sense-making of organ-
izational actors and, consequently, organizational thinking and processes.

Towards a Reconstructed Research

Practice of Diversity

In the presented analysis, I have exposed the complexities of theorizing DM and its spe-
cific relation to multiculturalism through the postcolonial lens. I have made explicit the
problematic relationship between representations, the presumptions of difference, and
locating cultural identities in geopolitical places, compelling a reconsideration of the
ontological and epistemological premises of DM. I used the concept of subjectivity as
an entrance point to explain exclusion, inequalities, and institutionalized power rela-
tions in organizations. As shown in the previous section, in Bhabha’s perspective, sub-
jects are formed in-between the sum of the parts of difference (Bhabha 2007: 2). These
parts of difference, such as race, gender, or class, affect the way otherness is perceived
in encountering difference in organizations because, in that process, one must face the
188   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

ambivalence of his or her own identifications. The ambivalence in the structure of iden-
tification is to be found in the in-between, ‘where the shadow of the other falls upon the
self ’, creating the categories of cultural difference that we enunciate (Bhabha 2007: 85).
Thus, it is to be emphasized that, although subjectivity is constructed in relation to the
Other, neither one can exist as pure, free from the shadow of its oppositional counter-
part. The interplay between the two is never total because they are both present in one
another, which challenges all claims of fixed polarities and originary pasts and, there-
fore, the basic principles of multiculturalism.
From theorizations of the third space, it is possible to go beyond the dominant dis-
courses of othering in addressing cultural difference in organizations, but because the
acceptance of the unstable and unknown aspects of cultural production actually poses
a threat to one’s comfortable and stabilized worldview and sense of self, it becomes a
matter of whether we are willing to encounter the other in ourselves and rethink our
own position within the play of power. Janssens and Zanoni (2014: 327) have stated that
organizations tend to copy social structures, including unequal categorical relations,
from other locations, such as broader societal discourses, because they are familiar and
thus decrease individuals’ transaction costs of learning them. As no organization is an
island (Holvino and Kamp 2009), the prominent neocolonial societal discourses that
strongly dictate the construction of otherness and subjectivity through binaries and bor-
ders are firmly intertwined with organizational discourses that encourage the majority
of organizational actors to protect the so-called purity of their cultural identities. This
subsequently works to prevent members of certain cultural groups from achieving ‘full
subjectivity’ (concept of Zanoni and Janssens 2004; Janssens and Zanoni 2014).
I should note that I do not use theorizations of the third space to propose a starting
point where one would intentionally try to create this liminal space for better under-
standing other perspectives or position oneself ‘in someone else’s shoes’. Instead, my
intention has been to give a description of the alteration of cultural positions and mean-
ings that occurs in interaction. The presented perspective, starting from the premises of
cultural difference, brings us to the third space, which can be understood as creating a
bridge between seeming opposites and enabling encounters between individuals—not
representatives of certain groups—who are free from preset cultural interpretations,
thus producing cultural (subject) positions outside the normalizing order of mul-
ticulturalism and, therefore, opening equal access to full subjectivity for all members
of organizations. With the approach’s ability to question fixed cultural positions and
revise the hegemonic discourses that we enact, the development of more inclusive
forms of organizing is possible, with the emphasis on the agency of an individual in
an in-the-moment interaction in which cultural hierarchies and social norms can be
challenged through the continuous (re)production of our own subjectivity and cultural
meanings.
Three reasons can be identified that summarize the value of the postcolonial perspec-
tive in advancing the theoretical development of cultural difference in organizations.
First, the presented perspective reveals the multiculturalist agenda as affirming Western
hegemony and capitalist interests in the way it implicitly affects the social order in
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    189

organizations. Second, the perspective criticizes the essentialist and fixed notions of cul-
ture and cultural identities most often conceptualized through the reductionist dimen-
sions that are most familiar to us. Third, it emphasizes flux cultural meanings produced
in the moment. Thus, these postcolonial insights open up new avenues for analysing
cultural difference, through which hierarchical social structures can be challenged and
all members of organizations, regardless of their cultural, ethnic, or racial background,
can be acknowledged through their individuality as full subjects.
The presented approach, which focuses on expanding our understanding of culture
and cultural identities in organizational settings, calls for a change in the way that cul-
tural difference is articulated in diversity scholarship. As the main implication of the
presented analysis for advancing the study of cultural diversity in organizations, I sug-
gest that future research should concentrate on giving voice to organizational actors
as individuals, not as representatives of categories produced by the normalizing force
of dominant discourses. To change the way that culture and cultural identities have
become conceptualized through the multiculturalist approach, the unheard stories of
individuals in the liminal spaces of multiple subject positions across the levels of organi-
zations should be brought forward to elucidate the processes of forming hybrid cultural
identities and culture in agency. It is seldom that these stories find their way in through
the dominant multiculturalist paradigm of diversity studies, and, consequently, the
complexity of cultures and subjectivity formations is downplayed.
The proposed research direction would enable bringing in the excluded others as
employees, full subjects, in DM, which is seen as a key condition for equality (Janssens
and Zanoni 2014: 12). Highlighting the downside of considering others as members
of cultural groups and then associating certain characteristics to the entire group,
Ghorashi and Sabelis (2013: 81) note that this ‘prevents us from looking at individuals in
their context, from accepting different interpretations of culture, from cultures chang-
ing over time, and most importantly, from questioning our own repertoires with regard
to cultural exchange’, which leads to a reinforcement of the hidden hierarchies inher-
ent in categorizations. Thus, the objectives of giving voice to the suggested alternative
stories of organizational actors are: (1) to facilitate a change from the multiculturalist
paradigm that (re)produces organizational inequalities to transform the understand-
ing of social relations based on binaries; and (2) to bring focus to the interaction taking
place in cultural encounters, rather than having it on the generalized representations of
the other.
Based on this chapter’s analysis, I suggest, most simply, that there is a need to shift
the focus of the research on cultural difference in organizations away from the equa-
tion of culture with physical place or origin and from pre-given fixed categories of
nation, race, and ethnicity, to multiple subject positions produced in language and
interaction. It is to be noted that producing cultural meanings in the third space and
questioning organizational boundaries from within the very premises of their exist-
ence can be understood on many levels of analysis, not just on the individual level. The
meaning of group, organizational, and societal levels is important for avoiding the way
in which the social psychological paradigm of diversity research explains unsuccessful
190   Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen

diversity initiatives by concentrating on individual cognition (Zanoni et al. 2010;

Janssens and Zanoni 2014) and, as frequently suggested within critical diversity schol-
arship, for avoiding the interpretation that individual-level changes alone could change
the institutionalized mechanisms of exclusion without the alteration of broader sys-
temic structures.
Reflecting on the third space approach, which offers an option for rejecting the insti-
tutionalized categorical identity positions offered by neocolonial discourse, I suggest
that the understanding of cultural difference and inequalities in organizations will be
further enhanced by perspectives that: (1) focus on identifying other (than multicultur-
alism) institutionalized practices within DM research that create and reify asymmetri-
cal power relations between different cultural groups in organizations; (2) explain how
these identified practices are reinforced by consequential organizational processes; and
(3) explicate the multiple connections of these organizational processes and dynam-
ics to the broader contemporary societal contexts dictated by globalized capitalism. Of
course, if one wished to be more optimistic in mapping the future directions of research
on cultural difference in organizations (cf. Holvino and Kamp 2009), one could start
from the reversed themes of the presented directions by: (1) focusing on identifying and
providing an outline of those practices of diversity research that are seen to advocate
cultural equality in organizations; (2) explaining the organizational processes that help
to foster those practices; and (3) explicating the multiple connections of those organi-
zational processes and dynamics that can also be seen to generate and foster empower-
ment and emancipation in the broader context of globalized capitalism.

Concluding Remarks

I would like to conclude this chapter by recalling that all research on cultural difference
is necessarily saturated with cultural assumptions. I have written this chapter from the
location of a Finnish business school, as a woman who was born, and has lived and
been educated mostly in Finland. Therefore, the institutional and societal contexts of
my location should be considered as conditions that have enabled and influenced the
produced text and the nature of the presented viewpoints. Writing from this position,
I have argued that the controversies that have risen from the traditional way of manag-
ing diversity become less surprising when we unravel the conceptual foundations of
the concept of multiculturalism behind the dominant research paradigm. In contrast
to its formal ambition, the celebration of the concept of multiculturalism can be seen to
uphold and create the segregation of the privileged and the disempowered, people who
are set apart by fixed cultural positions and fictional representations in organizational
contexts. Accordingly, if we do not relinquish the categorizing and hierarchical struc-
tures the current understanding of multiculturalism leans towards, it is probable that
cultural relations will continue to be a source of organizational controversy well into
the future.
 Diversity Management and Multiculturalism    191

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Inge Bleijenbergh and Albert J. Mills for their valuable com-
ments on earlier versions of this chapter, as well as the Eudaimonia Research Center
(University of Oulu) for funding this research. The main ideas of this chapter were
first presented at the 30th EGOS Conference, Rotterdam, July 2014. I would also like to
acknowledge the conference audience, whose questions and comments helped me to
develop the thoughts presented here.

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 Chapter 9

Queer Perspe c t i v e s
F uelling Di v e rsi t y
Management Di s c ou rse
Theoretical and Empirical-Based Reflections

Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

Introduction

Diversity and diversity management (DM) have become more central to organization
studies. Scholarly research presents the pros and cons of DM (Metcalfe and Woodhams
2008; Zanoni et al. 2010) and various studies highlight the importance of unveiling
hegemonic patterns in organizations with regard to different diversity categories (e.g.,
‘gender’,1 ‘sexual orientation’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘age’, ‘religion’, ‘disability’) (Konrad, Prasad, and
Pringle 2006). However, as demonstrated by the extant scholarly literature on the (re-)
production of diversity categories in organizational contexts, not all diversity catego-
ries have received the same attention in the past. DM discourse shows that theoreti-
cal concepts and strategies often neglect issues of ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘sexuality’,2 and
unwittingly reinforce patterns of exclusion in organizational practice, although ‘sexual-
ity’ has been on the organizational discourse research agenda for over twenty-five years
(Hearn et al. 1989; Martin and Collison 2000; Brewis, Tyler, and Mills 2014; Colgan
and Rumens 2015). From our point of view, at least two reasons exist for this phenom-
enon: first, organizations are often still considered to be sexless and gender-neutral.
As a consequence, ‘sexual orientation’—despite being part of the anti-discrimination

1 The use of quotation marks signals that these categories are considered to be social constructions

and therefore not naturally given and fixed.

2 In this chapter, the term ‘diversity management discourse’ subsumes DM research and practices,

though excludes the discussion of discourse theories.

196    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

legislation in many countries—is deemed to be a mere ‘private matter’ and not a cate-
gory of social stratification which impacts employees, organizational culture, processes,
and structures. Second, DM practices suffer from the general problem of categorical
diversity approaches, which mask the fluidity, intersectionality, and the connected-
ness of (legally) fixed diversity categories such as ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexual orientation’.
The aim of this chapter is to consider the diversity category ‘sexual orientation’ within a
broader theoretical framework, by highlighting the constitutive connectedness between
‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’. We will use queer theoretical concepts to give insight into
the normative intersections of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ and, thus, heteronormative
phenomena in DM discourse. This will allow a serious engagement with ‘sexual orienta-
tion’, and, in particular, heterosexuality as a social institution in DM discourse. In other
words, this chapter highlights the interventional and transformative potential of queer
theory as an approach to DM discourse. For this purpose, we first present core queer-
theoretical concepts, followed by a literature overview on the treatment of such concepts
in DM research. Next, we exemplify this discussion with an exploration of multinational
corporations (MNCs) and their codes of conduct (CoCs), identifying the reproduction
of hetero- and cisnormative patterns as well as opportunities for change. Finally, we
conclude with recommendations for DM research and practice.

Queer Theory as a Multifaceted

Theoretical Concept

The term queer theory serves to describe a growing body of theoretical and political con-
cepts,3 which are connected in terms of their radical critique of essentialist and dualistic
constructions of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. This includes the exploration of hetero- and cisnor-
mativities, and thus the idea of fixed ‘gender identities’, ‘sexual identities’, and ‘sexual
orientations’. Scholars of queer theory are also concerned with materialities (not only of
the bodies), and the normalizing power of capitalism and its particular mode of neo-
liberalism (Binnie 2010). Queer theory owes this focus to the experience of people who
were excluded from society and also from liberation movements, such as lesbian and gay
communities due to their ‘sexual orientation’, their ‘gender identity’, and/or their ‘sexual
identity’. As a consequence, queer theory is deeply rooted in social movements like the
Stonewall movement (Duberman 1994), the Women of Color movement (Crenshaw
1991) and the ‘AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power’ movement (ACT UP) (Jagose 1997;
Hall and Jagose 2013: xvi) in the USA during the 1970s and 1980s. Currently, it highlights
the multifaceted theoretical work behind diverse political endeavours all over the world
in fighting forms of societal, social, and economic exclusion that are grounded in the

3
Teresa de Lauretis coined the term for a conference in 1990 and used it in her publication: de
Lauretis (1991).
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    197

normative intersection of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’, and in single-issue identity poli-
tics. Its academic roots are strongly connected with Gayle S. Rubin (1975, 1984), Michel
Foucault (1979), Adrienne Rich (1980), Judith Butler (1990, 1993), Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
(1991), Michael Warner (1993), Judith/Jack Haberstam (1998), Lisa Duggan (2003), and
Sara Ahmed (2006)—to name only a few scholars. Queer theoretical concepts that are
addressed in this chapter are the heterosexual matrix (Butler 1990), performativity
(Butler 1990), heteronormativity (Warner 1993), homonormativity (Duggan 2003), and
cisnormativity (Bauer et al. 2009). We use these concepts to show how ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and
‘sexuality’ are regulated in organizations by practices of DM under neoliberal conditions.
Queer scholarship and activism is multifaceted, but there is some common
ground: queer thinkers start from the premise that dual categorizations like ‘sex’ (man/
women), ‘gender’ (male/female), and ‘sexuality’ (heterosexuality/homosexuality) are
results of social and cultural processes and not ‘naturally’ given characteristics of human
beings. From a queer point of view, the hegemonic perspective of a dualistic sex/gender
system (Rubin 1984) and ‘heterosexuality’ as the norm in terms of desire, is a positing
which is constitutive for identity formations as well as for societal power relations and
institutions (Lorber 1995). The heterosexual matrix (see Figure 9.1) describes this spe-
cific but normative relationship between ‘sex’ (female/male), ‘gender’ (feminine/mascu-
line), and ‘heterosexuality’ as the norm which keeps hierarchical gender relations stable
and obstructs the chance of unequal societal, social, and organizational structures and
processes (Hofmann 2014).

SEX
Dichotomy
male/female

Heterosexual
Matrix

GENDER SEXUALITY
Dichotomy Heterosexuality
masculinity/femininity as the norm

Figure 9.1 The heterosexual matrix: the normative entanglement of ‘sex–gender–sexuality’

(own figure).
198    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

In addition, the heterosexual matrix is built on the construction of cisgender. This

term denotes ‘individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at
birth, their bodies, and their personal identity’ (Schilt and Westbrook 2009).
Hence, from a queer theoretical perspective the heterosexual matrix has to be con-
sidered as a power structure which not only shapes identities—by socially valuing and
rewarding personal adjustments to the norm—but also the social and economic struc-
tures of societies, their institutions (e.g. laws, relationships, rules of social appreciation,
etc.), and, last but not least, organizations. It constitutes and reinforces organizational
structures, processes, and cultures in which a normative relation between ‘heterosexu-
ality’ and ‘cisgender’ is reproduced. This leads to multiple exclusions of those who do not
accept gendered expectations or fixed identities, who present their ‘sexual’ and ‘gender
identities’ or ‘sexual orientations’ in a fluid and non-normative way, whether these peo-
ple define themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual (Jackson 2006), cissexual,
intersexual, transsexual, transgender, or in any other way.
From a scholarly perspective, the heterosexual matrix opens up the possibility of
exposing the heteronormative culture of organizations:

By heteronormativity we mean the institutions, structures of understanding and

practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem not only coherent—that is,
organized as a sexuality—but also privileged. Its coherence is always provisional,
and its privilege can take several (sometimes contradictory) forms: unmarked, as the
basic idiom of the personal and the social; or marked as a natural state; or projected
as an ideal or moral accomplishment. It consists less of norms that could be sum-
marized as a body of doctrine than of a sense of rightness produced in contradic-
tory manifestations—often unconscious, immanent to practice or to institutions.
(Berlant and Warner 1998: 548; my italics).

This heteronormative power structure is continuously stabilized by reiterated acts

which fulfil the norm and the connected expectations (Pringle 2008). Through these
acts of reiteration, the heteronormative power structure historically became a quasi-
‘natural’ phenomena—a part of the ‘human condition’ which is hard to question.
Butler describes these acts of reiteration as gender performativity (Butler 1990), which
coin societal discourses on ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’. Butler and other scholars (e.g.
Diedrich et al. 2013) also point to the fact that alternative forms of gender performance
and expression can disturb and alter discourses and social realities as well as variances in
the reiterative acts.
Queer theory and queer political practices aim to foster the analysis of normative
structures and non-normative gender expression in order to transgress and transform
the existing power structures related to ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’. Queer scholars
have often been criticized for their fixation on the ‘sex-gender-sexuality-relation’, but
in the last decade they have broadened these perspectives, and apply queer approaches
to examine aspects of other exploitative relations such as classism or racism (see also
Halberstam et al. 2005; Kulpa and Mizielińska 2011; Mesquita et al. 2013). Researchers
are also engaged with cultural aspects of exploitative relations, as Sharma (2009: 5) indi-
cates, for example: ‘I understand heteronormativity to refer to those norms related to
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    199

gender and sexuality which keep in place patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality
as well as other systems and ideologies related to power such religious fundamentalism,
casteism, the class system and so on.’ Such a perspective makes the queer concept appli-
cable to other dual and hierarchical (= binary) orders.
This work is important for the development of differentiated DM and organizational
discourses, as it allows a shift from the individual perspective to exploitative relation-
ships in the global markets of organizations. Therefore, the growing body of queer
theoretical work dealing with the exploitative, commodifying, and regulating impact
of economic neoliberalism on ‘gender’ and ‘sexual identities’ is of similar importance
to a radical reflection of DM discourse. Furthermore, the self-reflection of queer poli-
tics, which is often accused of fuelling a neoliberal system and culture (Winnubst 2012),
should also be included here. In this context, Duggan (2003) identified homonormativ-
ity as one effect of heteronormativity. Homonormativity describes the assimilation of
heteronormative (institutional and material) ideals and values into individual identities
of socially stigmatized people such as lesbians and gays, as well as non-heteronormative
heterosexuals (Duggan 2003). Duggan points out that lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or trans,
by best mimicking heteronormative and (economic) performance standards through
‘self-techniques’ (Foucault 2010), are trapped by the desire of recognition and the corre-
sponding promise of equal rights. Ironically, this promise has a stabilizing character for
the hierarchical heteronormative power structure and will, therefore, never be kept. In
addition, those individuals who are unable or unwilling to meet the related heteronor-
mative and performative expectations, and thus do not become ‘normalized’, stay at the
bottom of this hierarchy and remain excluded.
To sum up, the application of queer theoretical concepts raises issues and questions
concerning modes of categorization and normalization, as well as the reiteration of gen-
der dichotomies in organizations, processes of de/stabilization of the heteronormative
matrix, and self-techniques in a neoliberal context. From a queer perspective, destabi-
lizing heteronormative socio-political, working, and life conditions would open new
possibilities for the emergence of more inclusive societies, with organizational and DM
discourse where the term ‘inclusion’ describes organizational practices which interrupt
hetero- and cisnormativity.
This short overview highlights the main potential of queer theory for organizational
discourse in general and DM discourse in particular. The next section gives an insight
into the present application of queer theoretical concepts in DM research.

Application of Queer Theory

in Diversity Management Research

Queer theoretical thinking has not only been adopted in feminist studies, cultural
studies, sociology, and political science, but also in organization studies (e.g. Parker
2001, 2002; Linstead and Pullen 2006; Schilt and Connell 2007; Thanem 2011).
200    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

With regard to the DM discourse, our literature review shows that the studies carried
out in this area are limited in number,4 and divided into two subject areas.5 Texts on the
micro level address the individual experiences and identity of sexual minorities within
organizations. Texts on the meso level focus on how organizations are dealing with
‘sexual orientation’ and ‘sexual identities’, though a DM perspective is often lacking. On
the other hand, the latter scrutinize DM practices explicitly, by not only focusing on
the diversity categories of ‘gender’ and ‘sexual orientation’, but on other diversity cat-
egories as well. Table 9.1 shows how the selected texts adopted queer theoretical aspects
in terms of these two levels, including which research methods were used and which
perspectives the texts offer for the exploration of CoCs later in this chapter. We have
excluded those texts from the table which cite texts on queer theory but do not apply
queer theory at all (for example, Bell and Hartmann 2007; Neal 2010; Mkono 2010;
Christiansen and Just 2012).

Application on the Micro Level

These texts refer to specific queer concepts: Lewis (2009) explicitly mentions ‘het-
eronormative power structures’ in her empirical work on lesbian police officers.
Bowring and Brewis (2009) embed their work in Butler’s concept of the heterosexual
matrix for their investigation on how lesbians and gays manage their non-hegemonic
identity within organizations. According to their research results, power effects are
obvious when lesbians and gays do not fulfil expectations concerning appearance or
relationships. Ward and Winstanley (2003) examine the role of silence in the crea-
tion of social identities in organizations. For this, they combine the concept of the
power–knowledge regime of ‘compulsive heterosexuality’ (see Butler 1990; Seidman
1997) with a discursive method, following Foucault’s work on discourses on sexuality
(Foucault 1979). Common to these three texts is the use of queer theoretical insights
on heteronormative power relations in context with lesbian and gay identity. Creed
and Scully (2000) go a step further, referring to queer theory when highlighting
the multiplicity and ambiguity of LGBT identities. In fact, for all these texts, queer

4 The literature review was conducted by searching in the ABI/Inform literature database for reviewed

journal articles with the following keywords in title or abstract: queer theory and diversity, management
and queer theory, managing diversity and queer, managing diversity and queer theory. Fifteen articles
were considered as being relevant for the discussed topic, all of which deal with queer theory and
(diversity) management. Thus, this body of literature gives an insight into how queer theory is applied
within organization studies in general, and DM discourse in particular.
5 Due to the queer critique of the imagination of fixed identities and of the exclusive character of

identity politics, research focusing on single identity groups such as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or trans
(LGBT) has not been addressed in the literature review. Nevertheless, from the authors’ point of view,
it is not a question of either queer or LGBT studies: the growing body of LGBT research is of enormous
importance in terms of socio-political and organizational transformations.
Table 9.1 Diversity management and queer approaches
Queer concepts applied but Queer concepts applied
reproducing existing identity for dissolving identity Methods applied in Aspects relevant for empirical analysis
categories categories the included texts of CoC

Micro level Lewis (2009) Sardy (2001) • Qualitative interviews • Power effects of the heterosexual matrix
(individual) Bowring and Brewis (2009) • Narrative interviews • Multifaceted nature of silence
Ward and Winstanley (2003) • Semi-structured interviews • Intragroup diversity among LGBT/multiple
Creed and Scully (2009) • Partial observation identities
• Auto-ethnography • Questioning fixed identities—using
• Focus groups lesbian and gay only as self-identification
• Discourse analysis not as group identification
Meso level Chapman and Gedro (2009) Lee, Learmonth, and • In-depth interviews • Suggestions how to contribute to new
(organizational Harding (2008) • Case studies knowledge on LGBT in HRD
discourse) Parker (2001) • Qualitative interviews • Mode of analysis—diverse reading
Parker (2002) • Text/film analysis strategies, multiple interpretative stances
Tyler and Cohen (2008) • Focus on gender performativity and the
desire of recognition in the workplace
Meso level (DM Bendl, Fleischmann, and • Deconstruction • Linkage between diversity management
discourse) Walenta (2008) and queer approaches
Bendl, Fleischmann, and • Heterosexuality as unmarked norm
Hofmann (2009) • Critical questioning of DM discourse
Just and Christiansen (2012) • DM as performance
• Deferral of discourse in order to dissolve
identity categories
202    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

theoretical concepts are explicitly constitutive in highlighting the power effects of het-
eronormativity for certain identity groups. But all these texts remain in the reproduc-
tion of the binaries of heterosexuality and homosexuality.
In contrast to these texts, Sardy (2001) refers to queer theoretical concepts by reject-
ing the term ‘homosexual’ as essentialistic. In his analysis of the experiences of queer
people in an urban organization (Las Vegas) he refers to people who ‘disagree with the
manner in which heterosexuality is constructed’ (Sardy 2001: 182). In fact, the author
points to the potential of queer theory for challenging identity constructions and binary
oppositions, and for uncovering heteronormative practices.

Application on the Meso Level: Organizational Discourse

In their reflections on queering in the human resource development (HRD) curricu-
lum, Chapmans and Gedro (2009) use queer theory as a critical method of question-
ing normality and identity in organizations, but still assert the idea of fixed identities
such as lesbians and gays. Other texts take a more radical approach: in their research on
public administration, Lee and colleagues (2008: 149) understand queer theory ‘as a set
of political/politicized practices and positions which resist normative knowledge and
identity [. . .]’, which has emancipatory and explanatory power. In their case study, they
explicitly use queer theory to identify norms that govern identities, highlighting that
which is either allowable or unspeakable within those norms. In his conceptual texts,
Parker (2001, 2002) connects queer theory with managing and organizing. Based on
Butler and Sedgwick, he addresses management as a form of performance—a form of
doing. Similar to Parker, Tyler, and Cohen (2008: 113) focus on ‘the organizational per-
formance and management of gender in accordance with the terms of the heterosexual
matrix’. By analysing the BBC comedy series The Office as a popular cultural text, the
authors highlight the critical insights and some of the limitations of queer theory. Tyler
and Cohen (2008: 114) embed their work explicitly in Butler’s work on performativity, in
particular the heterosexual matrix as ‘an ontological-epistemic schema that frames par-
ticular (binary and hierarchical) configurations of the relationship between sex, gender
and desire as normative [. . .]’ in organizations and their management. They therefore
present queer theory as a ‘mode of critique’ that disrupts and disturbs doings, and invites
a critical reflection of the relationship between management, normative masculinity,
and the desire for recognition, which constitutes ‘viable subjectivity’ in organizations.

Application on the Meso Level: Diversity

Management Discourse
Some texts apply queer theory to interrogate DM discourse. For example, Bendl,
Fleischmann, and Walenta (2008) explain how queering is especially well suited for
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    203

unpacking DM discourses’ implicit assumptions about identity constructions. In

order to show queer theory’s potential for questioning heteronormative and hierar-
chical structures, the authors refer to the heterosexual matrix, performativity, and
heteronormativity. For the authors, queer theory allows: (1) the conceptualization
of heterosexuality as an unmarked norm that governs social practices; (2) the ques-
tioning of essentialist notions and fixed identities; and (3) the dismantling of invis-
ibilities or representations which neither refer to term A (the norm) nor term not-A
(the other). In the same vein as Parker (2001, 2002), they suggest the following key
approaches: to examine more deeply the term ‘diversity manager’, to de- and recon-
struct DM practices, and to interrogate DM discourse in these terms. Furthermore,
Bendl, Fleischmann, and Hofmann (2009) present a deconstructive three-step anal-
ysis for reading the CoCs of multinational companies. This is based on the hetero-
sexual matrix and heteronormativity, in order to assess the assumption that—even
for organizations in which DM procedures have been implemented—stereotyping
and exclusion by categorization and heteronormativity are discursively kept in place.
First by defining marked and unmarked terms, then by unveiling binaries (hierar-
chy and duality), and, finally, by shifting the dual, hierarchical, and heteronorma-
tive limits, the authors demonstrate that queer approaches support the disclosure
of unmarked heteronormative constructions of DM strategies, and thus expose the
reproduction of heteronormativity and hegemonic managerial elites in multina-
tional companies.
To sum up, this insight into the literature on the micro and meso level shows that
queer theory is often applied as a method of critique, addressing power relations and
their discriminatory effects on certain identity groups, such as lesbians and gays.
However, its full potential—in terms of questioning and deconstructing the heterosex-
ual matrix and the idea of fixed identities—is rarely applied. Therefore, the listed aspects
must be considered in order to draw upon the full potential of queering in the empirical
analysis of CoCs in the section ‘A Queer-Theoretical Analysis of Codes of Conduct’:

• the relational connection between ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’;

• modes of categorizations (fixed identities) and references to intragroup diversity/
multiple identities;
• manifestations of the heterosexual matrix/hetero- and cisnormativity;
• potential power effects of the heterosexual matrix;
• modes of silencing of non-normative existences; and
• deferral of discourses.

With our analysis of CoCs—which serves as an example for the ‘critical tradition of
diversity management discourse’ (see Chapter 4, this volume)—we apply a queer per-
spective in the interrogation of underlying heteronormative assumptions in CoCs
to expose conflicting interests, contradictions, and discrepancies in the discursive
practices of DM.
204    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

A Queer-Theoretical Analysis
of Codes of Conduct

The following analysis of CoCs from twenty European and US-based globally acting
corporations sets out to explore whether CoCs reproduce hetero-/cis- and homonor-
mative patterns, despite the fact that a DM policy exists in these corporations. It focuses
on possible hetero- and cisnormative relations in the reproduction of notions of ‘sex’,
‘gender’, and ‘sexual orientation’, as well as on any signs of transgression.
The CoCs of MNCs often incorporate the corporations’ DM policies, and thus reflect
DM as one of the corporation’s practices (see, for example, Mor Barak 2011) related to
corporate governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives (CSR initiatives).
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines CoCs
as ‘commitments voluntarily made by companies, associations or other entities, which
put forth standards and principles for the conduct of business activities in the market-
place’ (OECD 2001: 3). Analyses show that CoCs reflect the diversity of organizations,
which differ, for example, in terms of size, regional and cultural affiliation, (business)
sector and history of leadership (Gilman 2005). On the one hand, CoCs are very diverse
in their content and the variety of issues included, which are not only of concern to the
general public (such as consumer protection, environmental issues, and standards of
labour), but also to stakeholders and shareholders (e.g. internal control and risk of lia-
bility, and insurance of compliance with the law). On the other hand, CoCs differ in
their degree of detail and transparency concerning the information provided on cer-
tain elements of the document, but their economic motivations are mostly clear (e.g.
compete successfully, be a trustworthy supplier with good reputation, etc.) (see Pelfrey
and Peacock 1991; Farrell and Farrell 1998; OECD 2001). For at least two reasons, CoCs
are of interest to the DM discourse. First, as an artefact they are mirroring the discur-
sive practices, power structure, and culture of an organization (see Bendl, Fleischmann,
and Hofmann 2009: 629) and, second, by functioning as a set of standards and prin-
ciples which summarize values and set out rules to guide present and future actions,
CoCs influence individual decisions and behaviours (Farrell and Farrell 1998). As such,
CoCs produce their own meaning of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, ‘gender identities’, ‘sexual orientation’,
and ‘sexual identities’, which they establish as relevant not only for individuals’ actions
and behaviours but also for organizational structures, processes, and cultures, as well as
identities. In other words, CoCs generate power processes of normalization within the
organization which are fuelled by the norms that they inhabit.
For this analysis, the CoCs of the following US- and European-based corporations
have been included: ArcelorMittal, Continental, Daimler, Delhaize Group, Deutsche
Bank, Deutsche Post, GDF Suez, Siemens, Unilever, Veolia (all European-based), and
Coca-Cola Company, Chevron, General Electric, Google, Exxon, Microsoft, IBM,
Johnson & Johnson, P&G, and Walmart (all US-based). We chose corporations featured
on the Fortune 500 and Handelsblatt lists which had over 100,000 employees, branch
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    205

offices in four continents, and both a DM and an inclusion policy mentioned on their
corporation website. The CoC also had to be available on the website. Out of this sam-
ple we have then selected the twenty corporations (ten US-based, ten European-based)
with the biggest number of employees. The CoCs were downloaded in January 2013.

Analytical Framework
The methodological application of queer theoretical concepts is a challenge, although
queer theoretical approaches do not imply specific methods. Due to their epistemologi-
cal roots, queer modes of analysis are mostly based on variations of discourse analy-
sis (see e.g. Sedgwick 1985) and deconstructive approaches (see e.g. Lorber 1996). As
Graham (2010: 185) points out, ‘we must be aware of what a method constitutes as well as
what it excludes and fails to materialize, for methods are not only revelatory, they are also
productive devices’. Thus, for our queer analysis, we conceptualized DM as performative
and CoCs as one effect of the performative act. In order to avoid pre-categorizations, we
used a grounded theory-oriented method of text analysis based mostly on in-vivo cod-
ing; we did all the coding by ourselves and synchronized our codes as we coded the texts
separately.
As mentioned, this empirical analysis addresses the reproduction and transgression
of hetero- and cisnormative structures and cultures in organizations. Due to the results
of the literature review and the aim of revealing the potential of queer concepts in DM
discourse, the analysis is conducted with the following questions in mind: Are there pat-
terns of reproduction in terms of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ dichotomies and hetero-/
cisnormativity? How do the CoCs conceptualize the relation of ‘sex–gender–sexuality’?
Do the CoCs produce manifestations of, or space for, alternative constructions of ‘sex–
gender–sexuality?’ What does it mean to become an anti-discrimination and inclusive
organization from a queer perspective in terms of not reproducing hetero- and cisnor-
mative structures, and what is needed in order to do so?
The coding process resulted in forty-seven codes which refer to the relation of ‘sex’,
‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ in the twenty organizations. For this publication we chose nine
core codes which portray constructions and intersections of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’
and related (non-)hetero- and cisnormative patterns. These codes are ‘sex’, ‘gender’, ‘gen-
der identity’, ‘gender expression’, ‘sexual identity’, ‘relationships’, ‘health and safety’, ‘laws,
regulations, principles, policies and values’, and ‘business case of diversity management’.

Findings
Sex–Gender–Sexuality
Most of the corporations included a list of diversity categories in their CoC. These lists
should demonstrate which social categories are protected against discrimination and/
or should be addressed by the inclusion policies. As Table 9.2 shows, six out of ten CoCs
206    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

from the European-based corporations have ‘sex’ or ‘gender’ in the list of diversity cat-
egories; two of the European-based corporations refer to ‘sex’ in their CoC and four to
‘gender’. In comparison, six out of ten US-based corporations refer to ‘sex’ and four to
‘gender’. With regard to ‘gender identity’, only one of the European CoCs refers to this
category compared with five of the US CoCs. Four US organizations also mention ‘gen-
der expression’.
For the analysis of the entanglement of the constructions, the co-occurrence of codes
is also of interest. It has to be noted that ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘gender identity’ co-occur in
the same context in different combinations and also with ‘gender expression’ and ‘sexual
orientation’.
With regard to the detailed description of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’, six out of ten CoCs from
the European-based corporations do not use personal pronouns which would allow
identification of a reference to women and men or female and male. This conceals the
nature of the gender relation in the CoCs. The four CoCs which have a gender-inclusive
language reproduce a dichotomy by referring to women and men only, for example: ‘In
addition, every Senior Officer must familiarize herself/himself with the written descrip-
tion of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures and its internal controls pro-
vided by the Company’ (Daimler), or ‘You are not permitted to search only for male
applicants nor may You reject the applications of female applicants just because they
are female because this is discrimination on the basis of gender. Your search must be
focused on the qualifications, skills, and experiences of the candidates and how they
meet the essential functions of the position, without regard to the candidate’s gender’
(Continental). In fact, no European- or US-based CoC produces a language which goes
beyond the binary (dichotomy and hierarchy) of gender to offer additional gender rep-
resentations and identities. One CoC explicitly problematizes a hierarchy of gender with
man/males as the ‘norm’ and woman/female as the ‘other’ as follows ‘You are searching
for a candidate to hire a sales manager for the sales department. You believe that sales
business is “male business” and ask Yourself if You can consider only male applicants for
the sales manager position’ (Continental).
In the US-based organizations more personal pronouns (seven out of ten, but
mainly in examples) are applied but, like the European CoCs, they construct employ-
ees as female or male and do not mention other genders, although some of the CoCs
mention gender identity as a diversity dimension which should be protected against
discrimination.
Interestingly, some CoCs do not include ‘sexual orientation’ in their explicit listing
of diversity categories (e.g. ‘gender’, ‘race’, ‘age’, ‘disability’, ‘religion’, etc.) towards which
a discriminatory practice or any other unlawful basis will not be tolerated. With regard
to the European-based CoCs, only three have included ‘sexual orientation’ in their
list of diversity categories (see Table 9.2), but these CoCs have a more extensive list of
diversity categories, going far beyond the six diversity categories (‘gender’, ‘age’, ‘sexual
orientation’, ‘disability’, ‘religion’, ‘ethnicity’) protected by the EU Antidiscrimination
Directive (RL 2000/78/EG). These CoCs also list, for example, pregnancy, veteran
status or marital status, language, and national origin, as well as citizenship, aptitude,
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    207

Table 9.2 Sex, gender, and sexual orientation in the CoCs

Gender Sexual Gender
Company Sex Gender identity identity expression Sexual orientation

Europe-based 2 4 1 1 – 3
US-based 6 4 5 – 4 8

ancestry, and worldview. Furthermore, certain diversity categories are made even more
precise, for example, physical or mental disability, religion and religious beliefs. One of
the European-based corporations’ CoCs does not refer to ‘sexual orientation’, but lists
‘sexual identity’ amongst the diversity categories: ‘We work together with individuals of
various ethnic backgrounds, cultures, religions, ages, disabilities, races, sexual identity,
world view and gender’ (Siemens).
The US-based organizations show a different picture. Eight out of ten mention ‘sexual
orientation’ in the list of diversity categories, although no US law on the federal level
provides protection for this diversity dimension. The companies seem to react to protec-
tion laws, including sexual orientation, on the US state level and laws in other countries
such as European Union (EU) member states.
Some European CoCs do not refer explicitly to sexual orientation, but make, for
example, general statements which may either include or exclude sexual orienta-
tion: ‘This principle governs our Group’s policy on the respect for private life and diver-
sity, the fight against discrimination and the prevention and punishment of bullying and
harassment’ (GDF Suez), or ‘In addition to providing equal employment opportunity,
it is also the Corporation’s policy to undertake special efforts to [. . .] foster a work envi-
ronment free from sexual, racial, or other harassment’ (Exxon).
With regard to the structure of the text, both the European- and US-based CoCs
refer to ‘sexual orientation’ directly in connection with anti-discrimination (local laws,
national standards). Furthermore, some European CoCs indirectly link ‘sexual ori-
entation’ with local cultures. In the majority of the twenty codes, ‘sexual orientation’
represents one criterion of anti-discrimination amongst others (e.g. ‘gender’, ‘race’,
‘religion’, etc.).
In terms of ‘sexuality’, the CoCs refer mainly to those contexts where negative behav-
iour (e.g. ‘unwelcome sexual advances’) towards any person, either inside (employees)
or outside the organizations (customers, suppliers, partners) should be avoided, for
example ‘In no case may information be retrieved or transmitted that furthers or incites
racial hatred, glorification of violence or other criminal acts, or contains material which
is sexually offensive within the respective culture’ (Siemens), or ‘This includes harass-
ment based upon gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, pregnancy,
national origin, veteran or marital status, disability, or other characteristics or catego-
ries protected by law. Harassment can be verbal, non-verbal, or physical in nature and
can take many forms, including behavior that offends, threatens, or disturbs others or
208    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

which creates an unpleasant or hostile environment’ (Delhaize Group). All in all, these
results show that most of the CoCs have adopted the triangle of ‘sex–gender–sexuality’.
However, even though the CoCs mean to apply it with an anti-discriminative appeal, its
application reproduces binaries. But the results demonstrate also that its application and
meaning is context-dependent in terms of place, law, organizational culture, and so on.

Relationships
The construction of relationships represents an important indicator of an organization’s
social order. The CoCs address different forms of relationships, and at times these go
beyond familial or private relationships by also including business partners; for exam-
ple: ‘They should disclose any relationship with persons or firms with whom we do busi-
ness (“business partners”), which might give rise to a conflict of interest, to a supervisor.
Such relations include in particular a relationship by blood or marriage, partnership,
participation or an investment in business partners’ (Deutsche Post). Additionally, the
CoCs mention, for example, ‘family members’, ‘spouse’, ‘brother’, ‘sister’, ‘friends’, ‘bio-
logical parent’, ‘adoptive parent’, and ‘close relatives or partners which can be linked by
relationships of blood’ or ‘partnership’. One CoC from a US corporation even refers
explicitly to these ‘significant others’: ‘same or opposite sex domestic partner’. In this
context, we tend to believe that this designation is meant to refer to a lesbian, homo-
sexual, and so on, partner. However, considered closely, it could also refer to a person
with which the employee lives but does not have a sexual relationship. Altogether, the
CoCs consider all partnerships to be a factor for their financial and moral well-being
but, except for one cooperation, in terms of private couples the CoCs reproduce hetero-
sexual relationships.

Health and Safety

With regard to health and safety perspectives, most of the CoCs (eight European-based
corporations and seven US corporations) refer to workplace health and safety policies/
regulations which are not only concerned with physical (‘accident rates’, ‘accident pre-
vention’, ‘ban of illegal drugs’, ‘work instructions’, ‘physical wellbeing of employees’, etc.),
but also with psychological (‘no threatening and intimidating behaviour’, ‘secure and
positive working climate’, ‘psychological wellbeing of employees’) notions. Some CoCs
also subsume health and safety perspectives under security issues. However, an employ-
ee’s sense of safety is also of concern with regard to the exposure of sexual orientation or
sexual identity, and in terms of protection when reporting cases of harassment, violence,
or retaliation. Therefore, some of the companies have anti-violence, anti-harassment,
and anti-retaliation policies in place, but link them only implicitly to health and safety
issues. This shows that CoCs do not explicitly consider sexual orientation and identity
as safety issues.

Laws, Regulations, Principles, Policies, and Values

The CoCs address the corporations’ internal and external stakeholders and refer
to internal policies as well as external regulations and laws. Internal policies are
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    209

self-defined principles such as ‘instructions of management’, ‘accounting and audit-

ing standards’, ‘data protection guidelines and policies’, and ‘corporate rules, stand-
ards and instructions’, for example. As external sources, the CoCs state general
policies such as ‘applicable governmental law, rules and regulations’, ‘jurisdictions in
which the country operates’, ‘existing legal framework’, ‘respective local laws’, ‘laws,
rules and standards on ethics and compliance produced not only by international,
federal, national and local bodies, but also by professional bodies’. More specified
external sources are, for example, ‘United Nation’s Global Compact’, ‘Principles
of the United Nations Global Pact’, ‘Anticorruption and Bribery Law’, ‘ISO 14000’,
‘export and import laws’, ‘trade law’, ‘human rights’, ‘customs law and regulations’.
Apart from the fact that the CoCs advise all corporations’ stakeholders to comply
with these principles, regulations, and laws, the CoCs set up values to which all the
stakeholders should adhere: ‘Fairness’, ‘integrity’, ‘respect’, ‘trust’, ‘to act ethically’ and
‘responsibility’. However, the content used to outline the meaning of these values
causes the CoCs to merge them somewhat, in a way that, to some extent, they use
one value to explain another value. For example, trust is defined in terms of integrity
and respect (‘Integrity and respectful behaviour towards one another are indispen-
sable prerequisites for trust’, Deutsche Bank), respect in terms of integrity, fairness,
and respect (‘Arcelor Mittal expects us to preserve the quality of our customer rela-
tions by maintaining business relationships that are based on integrity, fairness and
mutual respect’, ArcelorMittal), and integrity in terms of fairness and respect (‘As a
Company and as individuals, we must commit ourselves to treat each other in a fair,
respectful and honest manner’, Delhaize Group).
But, in explaining their values, the CoCs also go beyond such tautological construc-
tions. For example, the emphasis on the value ‘respect’ lies on ‘no harassment (including
workplace bullying, unwelcome sexual advances, unwanted physical contact, proposi-
tions or a working environment poisoned with harassing jokes, words and demeaning
comments)’, ‘dignity in all circumstances and their differences and cultures’ and ‘for dif-
ferent cultures and sensitive manner in order to build trust and credibility’, as well as
‘local cultures and understand issues of communities’. In fact, the CoCs display the busi-
ness case as well as the moral case of DM.

Business Case of Diversity Management

‘We see employee diversity as a guiding principle in our employment policy. This means
promoting the diversity and heterogeneity of the individuals in the company in order to
attain the highest possible productivity, creativity and efficiency’ (Deutsche Post)—this
and similar statements, such as: ‘Unilever is committed to diversity in a working envi-
ronment where there is mutual trust and respect and where everyone feels responsible
for the performance and reputation of our company’ (Unilever) introduce the business
case for DM in the CoCs (two European-based corporations and six US corporations).
In reference to business cases, the CoCs do not mention diversity dimensions in detail,
but the reader can assume that all diversity dimensions, which are enumerated else-
where in the CoC, are considered to contribute to the business case.
210    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

Discussion
To begin with, our applied methodology has unavoidable limitations: CoCs are only one
artefact within organizations, and therefore the findings mirror only one of the ways in
which organizations construct their normative systems. For a deeper analysis, the CoC
must be placed in a broader managerial, sectoral, and social context. However, despite this,
our analysis of the CoCs of MNCs which have DM practices in place allows some deduc-
tions regarding how the corporations (re)produce the relationship between ‘sex’, ‘gen-
der’, and ‘sexual orientation’. In the empirical data, we identified the following patterns of
reproduction of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ dichotomies and hetero- and cisnormativity:

The representation of ‘sex’, ‘gender’ and ‘gender identity’ shows that some organiza-
tions do not distinguish between ‘sex’ as the biological (woman/man) and ‘gender’
as the social (male/female) representation of gender. Otherwise, both ‘sex’ and ‘gen-
der’ are present as terms in every CoC. But the use of personal pronouns he/she and
the lack of other gender and sexual identities shows that the companies reproduce
a dualistic sex–gender system. A more inclusive solution could be a reference that
employees may choose how they want to be addressed in their gender and sexual
identity (as he or she or in another way or only by their name without using a gen-
dered personal pronoun). Additionally, it becomes evident that organizations relate
to different anti-discrimination laws, in which different reasons for discrimination
are mentioned which have effects for the setup of the CoC. In the EU, ‘sexual orienta-
tion’ constitutes part of the list, while in the USA this is not the case on the level of the
federal law, but is present in some state laws.6 From this point of view the results are
surprising: Only three European-based companies have ‘sexual orientation’ in their
list of diversity dimensions compared to eight US-based companies. One reason for
this may be the differing degrees to which companies have to apprehend sanctions,
which are comparatively more serious in the USA than in the EU.

What is remarkable in this context is that a CoC from one of the European-based corpo-
rations refers to ‘sexual identity’ and not to ‘sexual orientation’. This may be an indicator
that organizations are beginning to recognize the public discussion on ‘sexual identities’,
but it may also be a result of different translations of the notion of ‘sexual orientation’, as
described in the EU directive 2000/78/EG, in national law.7 Either way, the application
of the term ‘sexual identity’ allows the whole person and not only their sexual orienta-
tion to be addressed.

6
See e.g. <http://www.eeoc.gov/employees/> (accessed 21 August 2014).
7
See, for example, the Equality Act 2010 of the UK (<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/
section/4> (accessed 21 August 2014)), where gender reassignment and sexual orientation are
mentioned separately. Concerning different translations: in the Austrian anti-discrimination law
(Gleichbehandlungsgesetz—GlBG) sexual orientation is mentioned, while in the German law
(Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz—AGG) sexual orientation is translated as sexuelle Identität,
which includes not only sexual orientations like homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality, but also
transsexuality.
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    211

However, independent of whether ‘sexual orientation’ is mentioned explicitly or

implicitly, the structures of the CoCs show that ‘sexual orientation’ and sexual behav-
iour (e.g. romantic relationships, sexual activities, sexually explicit language, or sexual
advances) are considered as risks to the organization, and thus have to be kept under
control (see Foucault 1978). This is also the case when companies portray relationships
between their employees outside of the company setting. Relationships are considered
as potentially hazardous, as they are mainly mentioned in the context of conflicts of
interest, which can be broadly subsumed under the term ‘insider information’.
The data also shows traces of hetero- and cis-normative patterns. The CoCs do not
always mention ‘sex’ and ‘gender,’ (see Table 9.2), but in the cases where they do—mostly
in examples—they do so in a dichotomic way. In not one of the twenty CoCs is the con-
nection between ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ explicitly considered. As a consequence,
the dichotomic view of the hetero- and cisnormative ‘sex–gender’ concept has not been
transcended by, for example, mentioning transpersons or examples of non-norma-
tive gender expression. In addition, it remains unclear as to whether ‘heterosexuality’
is included under ‘sexual orientation’, and whether the organizations only refer to ‘the
other’, not normative sexual orientations such as ‘homosexuality’ or ‘bisexuality’. Last
but not least, the CoCs consider sexual matters primarily as a risky terrain which has to
be controlled.
Regarding to the (legal) forms of partnership, some CoCs also mention ‘registered
partner’, ‘adoptive child’, ‘child (regardless of the marital status of the parents)’, ‘mem-
ber of families or persons living with us or with whom we are associated, or in any
other manner’. Implicitly, these terms may go beyond traditional heterosexual living
arrangements and may consider the fact that not all employees live according to heter-
onormative patterns. But the CoCs do not mention non-heterosexual partners explic-
itly, as in the way heterosexual partners are mentioned. By referring only implicitly to
non-heterosexual partners (except for one CoC), the CoC makes them the ‘other’, which
may also work as a process of silencing.
Of interest in this context is also the fact that the CoCs mention relationships mainly
in terms of conflicts of interest, as stated. We therefore would assume that the focus of
the CoCs is not on the form of sexuality and actual sexual arrangements in the relation-
ship (whether it be homosexual or heterosexual) per se, but on the employees’ (compet-
ing) bonds of trust between the company and the people that they live with. In contrast,
relationships are not mentioned in the context of corporate organizational culture or
corporate values; such a perspective nourishes our assumption that the corporations do
not explicitly connect the relations of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ with organizational
culture. As a consequence, the powerful arrangement of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ is
not a subject of organizational change.
To secure the economic bottom line is one of the main goals for a corporation, but,
from an equality and inclusion perspective, the CoCs show that their interest is primar-
ily in the business case of DM for all forms of relationships. Being inclusive in such a
context is largely related to preventing the organization from any kind of—mostly
financial—damage. With regard to the presence of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ alongside the
212    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

near-absence of ‘sexual orientation’ and, in particular, the absence of a reference to gay,

lesbian, queer, and so on, sexual relationships, the CoCs constitute that only a heter-
onormative structure can contribute to the business case of DM. In terms of relation-
ships, then, the corporations’ interest in inclusion goes only as far as the point at which
the bottom line can be secured.
This is also the case when it comes to laws, regulations, principles, and policies. The
CoCs make clear that compliance is imperative in order to avoid negative consequences
for the business. For this reason, the relevant regulations are defined very well. Compared
to this, values such as ‘fairness’, ‘integrity’, ‘respect’, ‘trust’ and ‘acting ethically’, and
‘responsibility’, which should build the cultural and moral basis for action, remain in the
texts as a state of common sense. From a queer perspective, this is a core issue. Whereas
laws and so on are results of societal negotiations, and organizational decisions con-
nected with sanctions are considered as binding, values are indicators of normative ori-
entations and, therefore, much more contested. For example, we have to ask how fairness
is related to justice (e.g. Fraser 2008); what does integrity and acting ethically mean when
dealing with non-conforming gender identities? How can trust be built under hetero-
and cisnormative structures and processes, and what does responsibility mean for an
inclusive organization? In addition, values not connected with an idea of inclusion and
self-reflection, such as ‘trust’ and ‘responsibility’, define the cultural frame only for ‘fit-
ting’ and ‘passing’, which foster modes of assimilation in a homonormative way.
In relation to the question of how far companies connect ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexual-
ity’ with other issues in their CoC, the data show that, besides the association of ‘sex’,
‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ and their relationship with risk, such connections are rare.
Explanations of what a positive working climate, security, and health mean in terms of a
diversity of sex–gender and sexuality would foster a more inclusive approach.
To sum up: our analysis of CoCs shows that laws and regulations, as well as societal
movements with their negotiations on norms, have an influence on organizations. But
within the CoCs, the companies barely produce manifestations of non-normative, alterna-
tive constructions of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’. According to their CoCs, the corpora-
tions still seem to be far from a relational perspective on ‘gender–sex–sexual orientation’
and a non-hetero- and cisnormative approach. Although some of the CoCs do mention
‘gender identity’, ‘gender expression’, and ‘sexual identity’, their situatedness shows no trans-
fer to organizational life. In addition, the interconnectedness of ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’,
and the powerful effects of this connection, remain hidden. From this perspective, CoCs
are a means of enforcing the organizational rules and of establishing the predictability of
employees’ behaviour in reproducing hetero- and cisnormative power relations.

Conclusion

From a queer perspective, what does it mean to be an anti-discrimination and inclu-

sive organization, which does not reproduce hetero- and cisnormative structures? And
 Queer Perspectives Fuelling Diversity Management Discourse    213

what is required in order to become such an organization? Although the analysis shows
that the corporations more or less uphold hetero- and cisnormative structures in their
CoCs by not addressing the powerful effects of hetero- and cisnormativity, the CoCs
also offer a transformational potential. For example, there are possibilities for exempli-
fying the connections between hetero- and cisnormative structures and processes in
descriptions of situations where organizational members have to act in a certain way to
fulfil the requirements of the CoC. It could also be shown how non-normative gender
expression can be handled within the organization, or which problems, for heterosexu-
als and LGBTIQ,8 arise from gender norms. There are some further challenges for the
practice of DM in dealing with the entanglement of ‘sex’, ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ and the
intersections with other social categories, such as, for example, controversies in terms of
LGBTIQ’s rights and religion, or dealing with multi-discrimination such as the ‘lesbian
double gazed class ceiling’ (Miles 2008). From a queer perspective it is therefore impor-
tant that organizations disclose their knowledge on normative constructions when
defining their normative orientations in the CoC. This could help to make visible the
possibilities for those agencies aiming for inclusion.
With regard to organizational discourse, queer analysis makes it possible to show how
the powerful normative connection between ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexuality’ is oftentimes
neglected. As a consequence, when organizational research deals with the discrimina-
tion of queer employees, it reduces them to sexual objects by referring only to sexual
orientation, but making no reference to gender and sexual diversity beyond the norm.
Queer-oriented analyses have the potential to make visible the idea that heterosexual-
ity is not addressed as the norm explicitly, but reproduced performatively by the dis-
play and presentation of couples/gendered pairs in the workplace. In addition, with its
focus on exploitative relations, queer perspectives are not only restricted to the indi-
vidual level but include societal inequalities (classism, racism, intersectionalities, etc.),
which are reproduced in organizations. Queer notions also have the power to defer the
organizational discourse as they shift the perspective from ‘sex’, ‘gender’, and ‘sexual ori-
entation’ to ‘gender identities’ and ‘gender expressions’, as well as to ‘sexual identities’
and ‘sexual expressions’. Thus, organizational analyses with such stances of deferral do
not only break the silence and bring ‘the others’, who have been rendered invisible, into
the centre of the discussion, but also open up space for new and more inclusive organi-
zational practices by addressing hetero- and cisnormativity and their excluding effects.
By fuelling the DM discourse with critical perspectives, scholars and practitioners
can search for knowledge, resources, and networks for deconstructing and destabiliz-
ing hetero- and cisnormativity. By reflecting and answering the following questions,
for example, they can open a door to a deferral of the existing DM discourse: Where
and how have I come across the concept of hetero- and cisnormativity in research,
organizational practices, and private life? How does hetero- and cisnormativity affect
my research methodologically and empirically? How does it influence organizational

8
LGBTIQ = lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender, intersexuals, queers.
214    Regine Bendl and Roswitha Hofmann

practices in my context? Where do I experience limits caused by hetero- and cisnorma-

tivity. And, last but not least, if I have found a way to overcome hetero- and cisnormativ-
ity in my field, what strategy can I recommend to my colleagues?

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 Chapter 10

Am bigu ou s Di v e rsi t i e s
Practices and Perceptions of Diversity Management

Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

Introduction: Is Ambiguity Good

for Diversity?

Diversity management (DM) is a multifarious academic and practical field; there are
many different theoretical rationales and principles for engaging with diversity and
many different practical takes on DM. One could argue that it is only fitting for a field
that explicitly aims at enhancing organizational diversity to be diverse in and of itself;
however, the literature tends to speak of the multiplicities as ambiguities and to view
them as problems rather than resources (Liff and Wajcman 1996; Nkomo and Cox 1996;
Dick and Cassell 2002). Sidestepping the discussion of whether the theoretical and
practical ambiguities of DM are inherently good or bad, we begin from the assumption
that ambiguity is an unavoidable and constitutive condition of organizational practices,
generally, and practices of diversity, specifically. Our main argument, then, is that the
value of ambiguity for DM cannot be assigned a priori; it must be studied in and through
managerial practices and employee perceptions. Does ambiguity lead to better or worse
conditions for practising diversity? This is a question to be studied in its specific instan-
tiations, not to be settled as a matter of scholarly sentiment or managerial temperament.
In this chapter we offer a framework for such study, exploring various expressions of
ambiguity in theoretical terms and presenting empirical illustrations of how ambiguities
are practised and perceived by managers and employees. We suggest three categories of
ambiguity which may be used to express and analyse diversity in organizations: strategic
ambiguity, contradiction, and ambivalence. Furthermore, we exemplify each through
an illustrative case study (conducted by one of the authors, Annette Risberg) of diver-
sity practices in a Swedish municipality. The case study was conducted between April
2008 and December 2010 and based on observations (of daily work, events, training,
 Ambiguous Diversities   219

and diversity and equality committees’ meetings), semi- and unstructured interviews,
and internal material (e.g. annual reports, diversity plans, personnel surveys). All obser-
vation notes and interviews have been transcribed and the texts have been analysed to
identify common and particular themes. In this chapter, the results of the analysis will
be used to illustrate our theoretical arguments (see Stake 1994 for a discussion of illus-
trative cases).
While our main purpose is to present a conceptual and methodological framework
that begins from the assumption of ambiguity as an unavoidable condition of DM, we
also wish to suggest whether and how expressions of ambiguity may foster new and
more inclusive practices of diversity. That is, given the constitutive condition of ambigu-
ity, which expressions of it are likely to produce more positive effects and which might
tend to be detrimental to diversity? In order to realize these goals, we substantiate the
claim that ambiguities are inherent in the theory and practice of DM, before moving on
to presenting and illustrating our conceptual framework for investigating expressions
of ambiguity. In a final section, we discuss the implications of our framework (and our
illustrative findings) for future studies and practices of DM.

Ambiguities of Diversity Management

The field of DM is riddled with ambiguities. What is, for instance, the rationale
behind diversity initiatives: the need to comply with legal requirements, the desire
to uphold moral standards, or the endeavour to achieve economic goals (e.g. Thomas
1992; Özbilgin et al. 2008; Mensi-Klarbach 2012)? While these three reasons are not
mutually exclusive, they point to quite different goals and standards for measur-
ing success and, hence, may lead to considerable uncertainty about which specific
practices to pursue. At the conceptual level, DM straddles a number of binaries:
difference/equality, structure/actor, group/individual, and problem/potential (Cox
and Blake 1992; Liff 1997; Litvin 1997; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000). Here, the individual
scholar or manager is seemingly faced with a choice: For instance, should diversity
initiatives aim at promoting difference or at ensuring equality? Or could they actu-
ally do both? These basic ambiguities foster a practical problem of choosing between
various approaches that either pertain to affirmative action (AA) or equal oppor-
tunities (EO) (Liff and Wajcman 1996; Holvino and Kamp 2009). Is it necessary to
opt for one or the other? Or is it possible to treat some groups/individuals in special
ways while ensuring that everyone has the same chances? Could it even be said that
we need to treat people differently in order to give them the same treatment? Here,
we will briefly unfold how the ambiguities of DM are usually handled or smoothed
over, and then go on to discuss the possibility of viewing the ambiguities as not only
inherent to DM, but potentially beneficial to it. This entails a reconceptualization of
ambiguity and a presentation of its analytical implications, resulting in our suggested
framework for studying ambiguous diversity.
220    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

The ambiguities of DM are often solved by opting for one of the rationales, one side
of the binaries, and one of the practical approaches. A perfect duality may be achieved
by placing the rationales of legal and moral responsibility in one camp and the rationale
of economic potential in another, as the first two view diversity efforts as an obligation
whereas the last sees it as an opportunity (Risberg and Søderberg 2008). Thus, one camp
emphasizes the legal or moral commitment of organizations to protect and enhance dif-
ferences. This camp suggests that organizations can become more diverse by using AA
programmes to reduce institutional and structural barriers that hinder certain social
groups from gaining access to and thriving within organizations (see, e.g., Benschop
2001; Ahmed 2007; Ahonen et al. 2014). The other camp deals with the ‘business case’ for
DM: how organizations can gain economic benefits by promoting equality and focusing
on the potentials of individual actors through EO initiatives (see, e.g., Gilbert, Stead,
and Ivancevich 1999; Friday and Friday 2003; Maxwell 2004). Thus, the tensions of DM
can seemingly be solved by simply placing oneself in one camp or the other.
However, there is an increasing and fundamental recognition within (studies of)
DM that this route is untenable; instead, it is suggested than one must engage with
the ambiguities that arise from combining various rationales and approaches (Syed
and Kramar 2009; Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010; Danowitz and Hanappi-Egger
2012). In practice, however, the need for clarity all too often wins out, leading compa-
nies to focus on, for instance, including more women as a group through one initiative
(i.e. quotas) and developing the talent of individual women in another initiative (i.e.
talent management or mentor schemes) without regard for the ambiguities that may
arise from the combination of initiatives. The ambiguity of DM could, for instance,
appear in the following way: when women as a group are seen as in need of help to
gain access to the upper echelons of organizations, this might rub off on the subse-
quent careers of individual women. Promotion of a woman could, in this context,
be perceived as a result of organizational support rather than of personal achieve-
ments. Conversely, the inclusion of women might not take the form of a full-blown
AA scheme (i.e. quotas) for fear of neglecting the potentials and competencies of the
individual (i.e. not choosing ‘the best person for the job’). The result of not address-
ing these and similar tensions would be that neither collective initiatives to promote
women as a group, nor plans to develop individual women’s careers are implemented
fully; the organization, as well as the women involved, remain caught in a double-bind
between group characteristics and individual propensities (Tienari and Nentwich
2012: 116–17).
The problems of DM, then, may be said to arise from the way the ambiguities are pre-
dominantly handled rather than from the ambiguities themselves. This has led to calls
for more systematic or comprehensive approaches that allow each specific diversity ini-
tiative to be aligned with, and embedded within, an overarching company strategy. DM,
on this count, is first and foremost a matter of general organizational cultural change
and only subsequently a question of specific organizational practices (Gilbert, Stead,
and Ivancevich 1999).
 Ambiguous Diversities   221

Potentials of Ambiguity: A Framework

for Studying Ambiguous Diversity

We suggest that embracing the ambiguity of DM may facilitate the cultural change that
is needed if specific diversity initiatives are to succeed. Thus, we seek to radicalize the
burgeoning recognition that ambiguity is not only unavoidable, but also necessary for
successful DM. Diversity is inherently ambiguous, and one misses the chance for creat-
ing more inclusive practices, more room for the expression of difference, if one does
not embrace, perhaps even seek to enhance, this ambiguity. Thinking of ambiguity as
a potentially productive force, however, demands a reconsideration of the concept that
moves beyond its common-sense and usually negative connotations of equivocation
and misunderstanding. Thus, we will now turn to conceptualizing ambiguity and setting
up an analytical framework for the study of ambiguous diversity practices. The remain-
ing issue of whether and how diversity practices may actually prosper from ambiguity is
partially addressed in and through the illustrative case, but also taken up for more direct
consideration in our concluding discussion.
Ambiguity may be defined as a state of indeterminateness or plurality. If a situation,
practice, or utterance is ambiguous, it does not have a single specified meaning, but is
open to various interpretations. The concept of ambiguity is itself ambiguous: there are
many different definitions and meanings of ambiguity in the relevant literature (Risberg
1999). As we have seen, ambiguity is often perceived to be a problematic or abnormal
situation in the literature on DM, and this also goes for some of the scholarly discussions
of the concept as such: an ambiguous situation may be viewed as something that should
be avoided or resolved (e.g. McCaskey 1982; Thomas 1988). However, we begin from
the assumption that ambiguity is a constitutive feature of human interaction (Martin
1992; Meyerson 1994). Noting that ambiguity is inherent to discursive and social prac-
tices also means moving beyond the issue of whether ambiguity is good or bad; in itself,
ambiguity is neither. It is, instead, a non-normative condition of possibility that may
have both positive and negative effects through the concrete expressions and practices
it elicits. Thus, the analytical task is to determine the forms and effects of ambiguous
expressions, and we aim to provide a framework for studying and determining these.
We may begin to grasp the potential of ambiguity as a means of expressing and fos-
tering diversity by noting its affinity with the concept of ‘queerness’, which points to the
possibility of performing existing norms differently, of queering them through ‘. . . an
attitude of unceasing disruptiveness’ as Parker (2002: 148) puts it. Queerness, then, is
a theoretical and political stance that refuses to accept reified meanings and identity
positions, insists on the contingent and constructed—ambiguous—nature of what is
currently taken for granted, and seeks out potentials for alternative meanings and prac-
tices (Butler 1993: 19). Although it is important to note the link between queer theory
and an activist stance on (non-heterosexual) identity politics, we follow Rand’s (2008)
lead in detaching queerness from specific identity positions and highlighting its general
222    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

‘undecidability’. Rather than being a quality of certain individuals and groups, queer-
ness is a characteristic of sense-making per se; it is ‘the lack of a necessary or predictable
relation between an intending agent and the effects of an action’ (Rand 2008: 298). Or, to
put it bluntly, queerness is ambiguity.
Relating ambiguity to queerness in Rand’s sense of the word brings us closer to an
understanding of the potential of ambiguity. Queer or ambiguous expressions have
many possible meanings, rather than one intended and/or predictable effect; they hold
up the possibility of indeterminate agency, of repeating existing and recognizable norms
with a difference, of bringing about change from within. In order to unpack this claim,
let us look closer at the concept of agency and its link to ambiguity. Here, the question
of how individual expressions of identity relate to general norms takes centre stage;
according to the theory of performativity, to which the notion of queerness is intimately
connected, individual performances of identity are recognizable because they rely on
and reproduce a limited number of existing norms. Yet the norms do not exist outside of
their expression and, hence, depend upon their reiteration for continued effect (Butler
1993). This is what creates the possibility of queerness, of repetition with a difference,
or, in Allen’s (1998: 463) words: ‘the very fact that it is necessary for norms to be reiter-
ated or cited by individuals in order for them to maintain their efficacy indicates that we
are never completely determined by them’. From this perspective, blatant rejections or
negations of existing norms will not result in recognizable expressions of identity, but
more subtle, nuanced, ambiguous expressions offer agential potentials whose effects are
not given, whose resulting subject positions are not pre-determined.
The potential of ambiguity, understood as a ‘queer form’, is that it holds indetermi-
nate agency and, hence, may rework the relationships between existing norms and
their expressions, opening up new opportunities for performing identity within given
social contexts. In order to explore whether and how this potential may be realized, we
introduce three ambiguous forms whose ability to enhance, but also hinder, diversity
are explored through our illustrative analyses: strategic ambiguity, contradiction, and
ambivalence.

Strategic Ambiguity
The notion of strategic ambiguity was first presented by Eisenberg (1984) as a strategic
use of communication to enable multiple interpretations. Davenport and Leitch (2005)
call this a ‘ “space” in which multiple interpretations by stakeholders are enabled and to
which multiple stakeholder responses are possible’ (Davenport and Leitch 2005: 1604).
Eisenberg (1984) established three central characteristics of strategic ambiguity: (1) it
promotes unified diversity; (2) it facilitates organizational change; and (3) it amplifies
existing resource attribution and preserves privileged positions. For our purpose, the
first two characteristics are particularly relevant.
Strategic ambiguity, the proponents of this form assert, may be used as a way to attain
organizational goals by reaching unified diversity. Thus, leaving messages open to
 Ambiguous Diversities   223

multiple interpretations may allow people to hold different views or opinions while con-
tinuing to work towards a common or overall goal. When strategic ambiguity is used,
for example, in organizational goals and mission statements, ‘it is . . . not the case that
people are moved toward the same views (in any objectively verifiable sense) but rather
that the ambiguous statement of core values allows them to maintain individual inter-
pretations while at the same time believing that they are in agreement’ (Eisenberg 1984:
231). The main argument for the potential positive effects of strategic ambiguity is that it
allows for creativity and flexibility. Thus, strategic ambiguity may enhance the possibil-
ity of diversity within organizations generally speaking, but can also be linked directly to
DM, in that it may be a device for using the ambiguities that are built into the concept of
diversity productively. It is likely that contesting views towards diversity are held in the
organization. It may be that diversity is understood differently by different individuals
or in different organizational units, or even that it is resisted. If used strategically, such
ambiguity may be to the advantage of the organization as well as its members, leading
not to resistance, but to the possibility of working together while maintaining—perhaps,
even promoting—difference.
Strategic ambiguity, then, tends to be used in organizational missions, goals, values,
and plans enabling conflicting interpretations to exist simultaneously and allowing
diverse groups to work together (Eisenberg and Witten 1987). Eisenberg (1984) posits
that concretely stated organizational goals are ineffective; ambiguously stated goals, mis-
sions, and plans, on the contrary, foster the productive existence of multiple viewpoints
in an organization. He further claims that it is ‘a political necessity to engage in strategic
ambiguity so that different constituent groups may apply different interpretations to the
symbol’ (Eisenberg 1984: 231). Research on strategic ambiguity finds that it is a valuable
political resource, as it enables the mobilization of collective action and change where
organizational constituents hold different interests (Jarzabkowski, Sillince, and Shaw
2010), and it could thus be useful in implementing diversity in organizations. Diversity
and equality work in organizations is not always accepted by the organizational actors,
and too clear and open goals may lead to the mobilization of dissent (Eisenberg 1984;
Davenport and Leitch 2005). On the other hand, ambiguous statements could enable
people to agree on the symbol of diversity even if they disagree on the specific means
and ends of DM. Ambiguity, then, could be used strategically to foster agreement that
diversity is something we should strive for without limiting specific interpretations of
what it may mean. A typical example of this would be to write diversity policies in a
general and abstract manner that allows the interpretation of what diversity is and how
to achieve it to be negotiated locally by the involved stakeholders (Davenport and Leitch
2005). Specifically, statements such as ‘we value diversity’ or ‘we see difference as an
asset’ are ambiguous enough to be open to different interpretations. For example, they
could be seen as maintaining tensions between expressions of moral support for diver-
sity and articulations of the economic benefits of diversity. Strategic ambiguity could
also be used as a way to move diversity efforts forward or even redirect them without
losing the sense of commonality and continuity; the symbol (‘diversity’) would remain
the same, but its ambiguous expression allows for gradual change in its interpretation
224    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

over time (Eisenberg 1984). For instance, the diversity categories that are in focus may
vary over time, and by being strategically ambiguous in the general definition of diver-
sity, the organization creates the possibility for shifting or new categories to be empha-
sized as the work moves along. A current practical example of this is the rising focus on
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues in many organizations’ diversity
work; the general definition of diversity usually remains the same, but the scope of the
concept is broadened or earlier emphases (typically, gender and ethnicity) are down-
played or displaced.
Strategic ambiguity, however, is not only viewed as a positive resource: Abdallah and
Langley (2014) discuss what they term the double edge of strategic ambiguity, pointing to
the pitfalls as well as the potentials. Whereas strategic ambiguity may hold great poten-
tial, as Eisenberg points out and we have sought to illustrate, it may also cause confusion
and even lead to what Denis and colleagues (2011) call escalating indecision. According
to Abdallah and Langley (2014), the results depend on how the receiver of the message
interprets it. They draw on de Certeau, presenting organizational members as consum-
ers of strategy discourse who are free to ‘creatively consume it in multiple and sometimes
unexpected ways’ (Abdallah and Langley 2014: 236). Individual readings may be produc-
tive and constructive or constraining and disabling. Abdallah and Langley conclude that
strategic ambiguity does offer all the benefits laid out by Eisenberg (1984); in particular
it may be very useful to launch new initiatives and to initiate change. Sooner or later,
however, constraints are likely to (re)occur as the outcomes of divergent interpretations
become clearer, but this does not mean that strategic ambiguity becomes less important,
only that the strategic process of (dis)ambiguation enters another cycle.
Moving to our illustrative analysis, the diversity practices in our case organization
exemplify how a lack of strategic ambiguity may have negative effects of less, rather than
more, room for diversity. In the municipality, the diversity goals were very explicit and
specific, often presented in terms of measurable key performance indicators (KPIs);
they were non-ambiguous. A specific example is the stipulated political goal that the
backgrounds of the employees in the organization should reflect the ratio of inhabit-
ants with a foreign background in the municipality, or, on a more local level, that the
number of male employees should increase in the kindergartens. These political goals
proved to be difficult to put into practice at local organizational levels: because they were
so specific, they actually became ambiguous in the sense that local managers could not
work out how to use them locally. Here, the ambiguities were not strategic, but actually
resulted from the intended clarity of the goals. As a consequence, unproductive ambi-
guities arose between clear goals and less distinct practices; the goals were intended
to promote structural diversity, but managers simply did not know how to move from
structure to actor—they did not feel empowered to adapt the goals to their own con-
texts, nor to deal with individual cases on an individual level.
The relationship between organizational goals and practices was ambiguous in a
number of ways, but none of them were very productive, and some had rather nega-
tive consequences. One could say that the goals were both too clear and too ambigu-
ous at the same time, or to put it differently, strategic ambiguity was not in place. First,
 Ambiguous Diversities   225

and somewhat surprisingly, the very specific goals were barriers to the practice of diver-
sity; they did not create room for local and individual interpretations and creative solu-
tions. That is, the goals were not expressions of strategic ambiguity in the positive sense.
Second, the specific diversity goals were sometimes misinterpreted in an even more spe-
cific direction than intended; this shows that employees, because of the seeming clarity
of the goals, were seeking the ‘official’ interpretation (which they sometimes got wrong)
rather than promoting the interpretation that would be most productive in their own
work. For example, one unit with a focus on community work interpreted the politi-
cal goal of reflecting the backgrounds of the inhabitants as if the unit had to reflect the
backgrounds of the inhabitants in the neighbourhood that was specifically targeted by
the community work. A dominant ethnic group in the neighbourhood had low levels
of education and some individuals were even illiterate. The unit manager asked how
he could find enough qualified job candidates within that ethnic group to meet the
goal. One possible answer to this problem could be to initiate special educational pro-
grammes for the relevant groups, yet such bridges between structural inequalities and
context-specific solutions were not made. Thus, the goals may have been operational-
ized and, to some extent, realized, but employees carried them out mechanically and/or
grudgingly, rather than practising them in a personalized and creative manner. Indeed,
the very focus on being able to measure diversity was at the heart of the problem; a
measure is a number that can be reached once and for all, a ‘head count’ rather than a
dynamic, open-ended practice. In sum, one could say that the goals became barriers for
all forms of non-measurable diversity work, and many managers did not know how to
conduct diversity initiatives in the required direct and directly measurable way.
As our illustrative case shows, too clear diversity goals may work as an impediment
for the goals’ potential to be fulfilled. In large organizations (such as our municipality,
with approximately 20,000 employees), it will never be possible to agree on one under-
standing of diversity nor to find diversity goals that can apply equally to all operations.
Instead, strategic ambiguity may be a way to enable diversity in organizations where
different interpretations of diversity occur, but also where resistance against diversity
exists. It could be used initially to launch the notion of diversity in the organizations,
but as the diversity work proceeds, at least part of the work might call for less ambiguous
discourse, which could lead to disambiguation, but also to new rounds of strategically
ambiguous expressions. Rather than having a political goal point out a certain number
of a certain category, the municipal political goal could have been more abstract; that is,
more ambiguous, allowing for the local organizational units to provide their own inter-
pretations of the overall goal. Likewise, the KPIs could have been replaced by more prac-
tical suggestions of how to become a more equal and inclusive organization.

Contradiction
Broadly speaking, contradiction, as conceptualized by Renegar and Sowards (2009),
is linguistic opacity; Renegar and Sowards suggest (2009: 2) that what may be seen as
226    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

an irreconcilable clash between two opposed principles, positions, or practices could,

in fact, ‘. . . foster agency in social, political, and collaborative contexts’. ‘Rather than
condemning the rhetorical practice of contradiction’, they argue, we should view it as
‘a strategic and agential orientation that enables marginalized perspectives to find
voice’ (Renegar and Sowards 2009: 3). Contradiction, then, is here conceptualized as
a way of introducing a new or subversive idea or position by relating it with its oppo-
site. Applying this conceptualization to DM suggests that we can play ‘diversity’ and
‘management’ against each other. Some scholars (most notably Kirby and Harter 2001)
have argued that DM is, in some respects, a contradiction in terms, since ‘management’
always implies some form of regulation, control, and/or ordering that can hardly be seen
as conducive for diversity. Whereas Kirby and Harter (and other scholars that point to
the same tension, e.g., Bendl, Fleischmann, and Hoffman 2009) are critical towards
the diversifying potential of (any form of) management, Renegar and Sowards’ take on
contradiction suggests that the very strain between the two terms of ‘diversity’, on the
one hand, and ‘management’, on the other, could also become a strategy for bringing
diversity into the field of management, for enabling a discussion and a possible change
process that would otherwise be inconceivable. While the current tendency may be for
management to overrule diversity, the contradictory relationship works both ways, so to
speak, and is not necessarily to the disadvantage of diversity. Subversive groups or indi-
viduals, then, could use an initially delimiting contradiction as a means of voicing their
own views and bringing more diversity into management and organizations.
Whereas contradictions are usually seen as logical dead ends or fallacies, they can
be used productively as an ambiguous form that is particularly suited for overcoming
dichotomies and limited choices. That is, contradiction may be used as a starting point
for thinking about alternatives to the two seemingly exclusive and exclusionary options
or for discovering ways of merging the opposites (Renegar and Sowards 2009). Moving
from the general articulation of DM to its underlying principles, this could, for instance,
involve dissolution of the tendency to focus either on individuals or groups, EO or AA,
the business case or the moral arguments. DM, it could be claimed, is all of these things
at once, and while that may seem (indeed, be) conceptually messy, it is also helpful, since
it creates the potential for new and unthought-of concepts and practices. Ultimately,
the messier, more logically inconsistent the concept, the more potential for change and
for forging new pathways. The conceptual contradictions of DM, then, could be seen as
resources to be explored, rather than as obstacles to be overcome.
Moving from theory to practice, contradiction as a specific mode of articulating
ambiguity may contribute positively to DM in two respects: first, it may help recover/
uncover the social contradictions and conflicts of interest that DM, in a sense, sets out
to unveil and address, but may end up obfuscating or even reproducing (Kersten 2000).
Thus, DM with its claims to (establish) ‘colour-blindness’, ‘gender equality’, and the like
may, in fact, blind itself to the persistent inequality of, and discrimination against, peo-
ple who represent minorities within organizational settings. Saying ‘we do not discrimi-
nate’ does not (necessarily) do away with discrimination, and contradiction may be a
particularly effective way of pointing to gaps between organizational talk (e.g. ‘we value
 Ambiguous Diversities   227

difference’) and practices (e.g. upholding a homogenous workforce). Contradiction,

then, can serve to raise awareness of the structural differences that DM initiatives leave
intact and the conflicts of interest associated with these differences (e.g. male members
of the organization might have to give up some privileges if ‘gender equality’ were to
become rigorously enforced). Second, contradictions may not only serve as a means
of promoting collective interests, but are also ‘. . . useful rhetorical tools for negotiat-
ing complex lives in a complicated world’ (Renegar and Sowards 2009: 3) that may help
individuals to construct and come to terms with their own multiple and strained identi-
ties. Thus, contradictions are apt tools for bringing in and acting out the intersectionali-
ties that comprise one’s (social) identity (Staunæs 2003); for instance, a female manager
might describe herself as an ‘insider–outsider’ (which is, in specific rhetorical terms, an
oxymoron, a condensed contradiction) and use this as a privileged position for analys-
ing (and changing) the social setting (Naples 1996; see also the section ‘Ambivalence’ in
this chapter).
It is not enough, however, to raise awareness if the identified problems are not dealt
with; nor is it sufficient to point to intersectionalities if these are not given room to flour-
ish. Our illustrative case will here be used to show how contradictions point to weak-
nesses in current diversity work, but will also show that the inability to deal with these
weaknesses leads to ambiguity with a negative effect on the organization. In one of the
organizational units of the municipality, much of the diversity work was delegated to a
diversity committee responsible for coordinating the diversity work. Thus, the diversity
committee should serve as an engine for this work, and at the same time act as an expert.
Moreover, the committee was expected to initiate and execute the active diversity work
in each department. To put it differently, the members of the committee were given the
responsibility for the diversity work in the organizational unit. At the same time, how-
ever, the members of the committee all had ordinary full-time jobs elsewhere in the
unit. While the committee was given a lot of responsibility, it had neither the resources
nor the mandate to actually make decisions and plan for the diversity activities. For
each and every activity, the committee members needed to request permission and, fre-
quently, resources. And often the answer was no, you may not do this. There was a clear
contradiction between what the committee was meant to do and what it could do. When
the committee members pointed out this contradiction to the management of the unit,
the management failed to do anything about it. This led to stress and a feeling of despair
among the committee members.
This example points to a negative consequence of ambiguity based on the fact that
the organizational structures were not aligned with the way the diversity work was
meant to be conducted. A conclusion is that, not surprisingly, managers need to cre-
ate structures that enable the practices they want to promote; otherwise, the resulting
ambiguity will be restrictive, rather than enabling the agency of individual employees.
For instance, if diversity training is prioritized by the top management, they should also
make sure that it is possible for the unit managers to train the personnel during work
time without jeopardizing daily operations. The experienced discrepancy between the
stipulated responsibilities of the diversity committee and its actual inability to act was
228    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

contradictory, and while members of the committee were able to point this out, they
could not use the contradiction productively. They could articulate the existence of
structural barriers, but could not change them. On a more positive note, the employees’
expressions of the contradiction might serve as a first awareness-raising initiative that
could (if one accepts that the municipality is actually committed to diversity) eventu-
ally change the structures (or put the hypocrisy of the organization on display). What is
more, the contradiction might allow for various decentralized actions; in a structurally
complex organization such as the municipality, the diversity practices might be diverse
themselves, leaving room to adapt the diversity work to local structures. While this
does not help the specific diversity committee much in overcoming the contradiction
between its nominal responsibilities and its actual resources, it suggests that the most
important diversity work goes on at the specific sites where the diversity goals should be
realized, rather than in a committee setting that is structurally and practically unable to
implement the goals into the day-to-day operations of the municipality. Perhaps, then, a
greater potential exists at the nexus of the overall goals and specific practices.
In sum, contradiction offers the possibility of negotiating tensions between iden-
tity and difference, of maintaining and using those tensions creatively, rather than dis-
solving them or having them fall on one side or the other of the contradictory pair(s).
When the contradiction is one between articulated goals and structural realities, as in
our case, individual (and collective) actors may not be able to do much more than point
to the limitations of their own agencies. But even such limited criticism of (and, possi-
bly, resistance to) the organizational ‘powers that be’ could create the initial impetus for
reconfiguring the structures and relations of those powers.

Ambivalence
Renegar and Sowards’s contradictions are primarily linked with a bottom-up or subver-
sive approach, where marginalized groups can point out structural differences and dis-
criminations and individuals can construct complex identities. In contrast, Eisenberg’s
strategic ambiguity has an instrumental top-down and possibly unethical flavour
(Davenport and Leitch 2005: 1606), meaning that it is primarily a managerial tool for
securing and maintaining ‘unity in diversity’. Meyerson and Scully (1995) offer a strategy
for expressing ambiguity that is positioned midway between bottom-up (and, perhaps,
reformative) and top-down (possibly conservative) uses of ambiguity: ambivalence.
Ambivalence, Meyerson and Scully suggest, enables ‘tempered radicals’ to identify with
the organizations of which they are members, as well as with very different, perhaps
opposed, groups, communities, and/or causes (Meyerson and Scully 1995: 588). The
dual identity of ambivalence may enable organizational unity and diversity simultane-
ously, and provide a means for different individuals to not only enter organizational set-
tings on their own terms, but also to diversify organizations from within.
In the context of DM, the position of ‘tempered radicals’ may be occupied by both
diversity managers, who seek to diversify organizations through policies, strategies, and
 Ambiguous Diversities   229

initiatives, and subjects of diversity, who live and breathe diversification every time they
enter the organizational context. Both are ‘change agents’ who may use their professional
and/or personal ambivalence (oftentimes diversity managers are themselves representa-
tives of one minority group or another) as a means of overcoming resistance to change.
Meyerson and Scully offer two main advantages of the ambivalent subject position, cor-
responding to two ways in which ambivalence may be advantageous to DM. First, the
ambivalent subject position offers a more detailed account of and way of harnessing the
insider–outsider position (or ‘outsider within’ in Meyerson and Scully’s terms): ‘While
insider status provides access to opportunities for change, outsider status provides the
detachment to recognize that there even is an issue or problem to work on’ (Meyerson
and Scully 1995: 589). The insider–outsider, then, may use his or her ambivalent posi-
tion to advocate diversity (or, indeed, other kinds of organizational change) in a form
that is recognizable to those who would otherwise not see a need for change or, indeed,
be resistant to it. Second, the ambivalent stance of the tempered radical may act as a
bridge between advocates of the status quo and advocates of more radical change, thus
mediating between the various factions of the organization—and in so doing he or she
can both be critical towards and in favour of more conservative and more radical posi-
tions (Meyerson and Scully 1995: 589). This provides a good starting point for sustainable
diversification processes because it offers the possibility of reflecting upon all the various
interests and positions of the organization, thereby setting goals upon which everyone
can agree, and providing steps towards these goals that take their starting points not only
in the dominant organizational consensus, but also in the existing opposition.
Let us turn to our illustrative case one last time to see how ambivalence can play out
in an organizational setting. As mentioned, the municipality had an overly clear politi-
cal goal regarding the reflection of the ethnic background of inhabitants. When middle
managers attempted to fulfil this goal, and when organizational members tried to make
sense of it, ambiguous interpretations arose that were turned into ambivalence by some
middle managers, who thereby became tempered radicals. In their local interpretations,
managers agreed with the goal as such, but they initially had difficulties in understand-
ing how it should—and could—be fulfilled at the local level. As mentioned, the goal was
sometimes interpreted as if employees with a foreign background had to be proportion-
ally represented at each organizational level and in each unit, although this was not its
original meaning, according to the politicians who drew up the goal. The meaning of the
goal was thus ambiguous, and the local interpretations meant that it became a barrier
to the work practices or caused frustration because it was difficult to fulfil. Some units,
however, used this ambiguity productively instead of reducing it in unfruitful ways. One
example was to make a local interpretation of the goal as it related to local operations.
For instance, one of the local units doing community work aimed at developing a poor
neighbourhood with a high degree of immigrant inhabitants. By employing people with
many different backgrounds (educational, professional, national, religious)—instead
of the type of backgrounds stipulated by the political goal—the employees of the unit
developed innovative projects and solutions. For example, an immigrant man with a
doctoral degree in nuclear physics worked with a project on immigrant role models for
230    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

school pupils, and a woman with no formal training, but with a great deal of social work
experience collaborated with real estate owners in the neighbourhood to improve the
living conditions as well as the quality of the housing. The local manager said that it
was due to the diverse background of people (as opposed to a more uniform group of
employees trained as social workers who would normally do this kind of job) that the
unit was very successful. This example points to ways in which ambivalence may lead to
stronger agency and nuanced negotiations of identities.
At a more general level, some managers saw diversity as a specific resource to their
operations, and this meant that they became more successful in achieving the diver-
sity goals. However, in doing so, the managers applied a logic that was different from
the dominant logic of the municipality—one closer to the business case than the moral
case for diversity—even though the moral case was what had been officially sanctioned
by the municipality. These managers became tempered radicals who espoused the offi-
cial goals of the organization, but used alternative logics to make sense of them and/
or found different practices to realize them. The ambivalent stance of these managers
meant that they both took on more personal agency and became better able to realize
organizational goals.
While it is arguably not the best solution that managers work on the basis of a logic
that is different from that of the organization to achieve organizational goals, the
example nevertheless points to the potentials of ambiguity in a general sense, and of
ambivalence more specifically. When diversity is seen as a resource to the operations
rather than a goal to be achieved, it becomes possible to maintain and promote diverse
identities and different practices, to cultivate ambivalent stances to the benefit of the
organization. This final illustration points to the potential of ambiguity for promot-
ing diversity. Understood as an open-ended practice that allows individuals to main-
tain their ambivalence(s) towards the organization, while at the same time allowing
the organization to prosper from the employees’ precarious stances, ambiguity may
create room for diversity as both a managerial tool and a liberating project. By being
positioned in the middle of the other two strategies (and possibly drawing on both),
ambivalence may seem to provide the best option for using ambiguity productively to
enhance diversity in organizational settings. However, this does not mean that strategic
ambiguity and contradictions cannot also become productive; rather, what is indicated
is that all three forms need to be present—and be put to use by organizational members
in various positions—if ambiguous expressions of diversity are to enable new and better
practices of diversity.

Conclusion

DM is inherently ambiguous. Through our theoretical framework and empirical illus-

trations, we have suggested some of the ambiguous aspects of diversity and its man-
agement. We have also focused on the potentials of strategic ambiguity, contradiction,
 Ambiguous Diversities   231

and ambivalence in terms of creating more room for diversity practices as related to the
stated goals and existing structures of our case organization.
Strategic ambiguity seems to be a necessity in writing diversity goals, as too clear and
specific goals leave little room for localized interpretations and actions. Diversity is con-
textual and must be understood within the organizational as well as societal context.
Our case is an example of how the context of a large organization, with many differ-
ent daily operations requiring employees with different competencies and backgrounds,
affects how diversity can be understood and practised.
For DM to work, the overall organizational diversity policies and goals must be
ambiguous to allow for local translations. In our case, we saw that the very specific goals,
and especially the focus on measurability, often had adverse effects, particularly with
regard to the limitations of what diversity might mean and what social categories might
be included. In the municipality, diversity was mostly reduced to a question of ethnicity
or gender, whereby other types of diversity, especially intersectionalities between diver-
sity categories, were ignored.
Contradiction is probably unavoidable when diversity and its management are
introduced in an organization; existing structures will usually present barriers to the
suggested practices of (promoting) diversity. Our case has, however, illustrated that
contradictions can have both positive and negative consequences. A contradiction
can be the signal needed to raise awareness about inequalities and covert discrimina-
tion taking place in the organization. And pointing out a contradiction could become
an opportunity for the organization to become more inclusive if it is willing to listen.
Contradictions, then, may present opportunities for addressing existing tensions
between stated goals of inclusion and existing structural limitations on individual agen-
cies, but they must be harnessed by individuals as a means of raising awareness, and
organizations must respond positively to the raised challenges if the potential is to be
realized.
Ambivalence seems to be the expression of ambiguity with the greatest potential for
creating positive effects because it allows the organizational members to negotiate their
identities in and through practice. When organizational members act as tempered rad-
icals, they turn ambiguities into resources which enable more diversity and allow for
more benefits of diversity. Having said this, we would like to emphasize that ambivalence
is unlikely to arise if other expressions of ambiguity are not at hand. For example, strate-
gic ambiguity may be a necessary means of creating room for the exercise of ambiguity,
for the negotiations of identities to take place. And contradiction may be a way of creat-
ing ambiguity from the bottom up if organizational leaders do not create sufficient ambi-
guity strategically. In our case, for instance, the expressions of contradictions—however
exasperated they may have been—enabled tempered radicals, represented by middle
management, to promote practices of diversity through expressions of ambivalence,
despite the non-ambiguous diversity goals of the top management.
In sum, what we have sought to demonstrate in both theory and practice is that
and how ambiguity may work to provide enhanced opportunities for diverse and
diversifying organizational practices. When understood as a defining feature of
232    Annette Risberg and Sine Nørholm Just

all organizations, however, ambiguity is neither inherently good nor bad, and we
have illustrated the fact that it may have both positive and negative effects. Further
research, as well as experiments with diversity practices, may shed light on the spe-
cific ways in which ambiguity may be employed so as to avoid its possible delimiting
consequences and provide the basis for more open and inclusive practices and per-
ceptions of organizational diversity. Ambiguous diversity, then, is not something
that can be achieved once and for all, or that organizations can ever be finished
with. On the contrary, it is an open stance which organizations and their members
alike could apply to enable the ever-unfolding negotiations of collective interests
and individual needs.

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 Chapter 11

In di viduals, T e a ms , a nd
Organiz ationa l Be ne fi ts
of Managing Di v e rsi t y
An Evidence-Based Perspective

Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

One of the most salient trends of the twenty-first century is the increasing diversity
in the workforce as a result of worker immigration. Immigrants make up a significant
percent of the workforce in Australia (32.8%), Canada (22.4%), New Zealand (21.9%),
the United States (13.3%), the United Kingdom (8.7%), and other Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations (Belot and Hatton 2012).
Despite the promise of a competitive advantage, employers are grappling with how best
to manage diversity to enhance organization performance (Kochan et al. 2003; Jayne
and Dipboye 2004; Kearney and Gerbert 2009). Researchers have touted that work-
force diversity, when properly managed, improves business performance because of a
greater utilization of talents, and also because firms can reach out to a broader and more
diverse customer base (Cox and Blake 1991; Robinson and Dechant 1997). Others, how-
ever, are sceptical of this claim, pointing to the contingent and short-term nature of the
‘business case’, and the inability to quantify the benefits of workforce diversity (Dickens
1999; Noon 2007). The findings from studies documenting the direct effects of work-
force diversity on performance have been mixed and inconclusive (van Dick et al. 2008;
Pitts and Wise 2010). This chapter attempts to reconcile these seemingly contradictory
studies by adopting an evidence-based approach to investigate the benefits of manag-
ing diversity at the individual, team, and organization levels. We first provide a brief
commentary on the definitions of diversity in the workplace. We then review existing
theoretical frameworks on the proposed benefits of diversity. Next, we examine exist-
ing empirical evidence on the benefits of managing diversity at the individual, team,
and organizational levels, based on existing studies that have been published in this
domain. We also document how, when, and under what conditions diversity enhances
236    Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

performance at the individual, team, and organization levels. Where possible, we iden-
tify the policies and practices that are effective at promoting a more diverse workforce,
and also those that can enhance the benefits of diversity.

Definitions of Diversity

Diversity, in its most basic form, refers to differences among people, which includes
attributes that may be used to differentiate one person from another (Williams and
O’Reilley 1998). Examples of such differences include, but are not limited to, age, gen-
der, race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, religion, social class, education/
function, national origin, and language (see Kossek, Lobel, and Brown 2005). There are
many typologies which have been used to classify people together as distinct groups,
the most common being cultural differences (Richard 2000; Shore et al. 2009), physi-
cal differences, including appearance and (dis)ability (Woodhams and Danieli 2000;
Olkin 2002; McLaughlin, Bell, and Stringer 2004; James 2007), and inherent differences
(e.g. age and race) (see Bohm et al. 2011; Stone and Tetrick 2013; Andrevski et al. 2014).
These differences may also be grouped into two primary categories: surface-level and
deep-level diversity (Harrison, Price, and Bell 1998). Surface-level diversity attributes
encompass age, race, and sex (see Tajfel and Turner 1986; Phillips, Northcraft, and Neale
2006), while deep-level attributes include one’s personality, values, beliefs, attitudes, and
mental models (see Bell 2007). For the purpose of this chapter, we will focus on gen-
der and racial diversity, since they are more prevalent and present significant challenges
to organizations and employers in light of an influx of women into the labour market,
and worker immigration (Burke and Ng 2006), although logically and theoretically,
other forms of diversity, such as age, nationality, and the others identified here, would
also apply. We also use the terms ethnic diversity, racial diversity, and cultural diversity
interchangeably.

Theoretical Frameworks

The term ‘managing diversity’ (MD) was popularized by Thomas (1990) to refer to
management practices that aim to harness the benefits of a heterogeneous workforce.
It includes espousing an official policy on diversity, active recruitment of minority
group members, training and development of minority employees, examining com-
pensation for fairness, and holding management accountable for diversity goals (Ng
2008). Managing diversity is also differentiated from affirmative action (AA), in that
it is a voluntary corporate approach to dealing with increasing heterogeneity in the
workplace, rather than being mandated by the government (Ng and Burke 2005). As a
 Benefits of Managing Diversity    237

result, managing diversity is seen as less controversial than AA, since there is no quota
or numerical targets to fulfil (Ng and Burke 2005).
Multiple theoretical perspectives have been advanced on the benefits of managing
diversity. Thomas (1990) first suggests that AA is outmoded, as the emphasis in recent
years is for managers to tap into the potential capacities of everyone. This perspective
is seen as more inclusive than AA because everyone, including the white male major-
ity, is encouraged to contribute to their fullest potential to maximize organizational
effectiveness. Thomas (1990) argues that managing diversity is better than AA because
it focuses on leveraging on the benefits of diversity rather than trying to gain the same
level of efficiency as a homogeneous workforce. As a result, employers can gain a
competitive advantage when everyone in the workforce performs to his or her own
potential.
Following Thomas (1990), Cox (1993) proposes that individual differences among
diverse employees can serve to enhance creativity and improve problem-solving in
workgroups. According to the ‘value-in-diversity’ hypothesis, workforce diversity
when properly managed, can lead to group and organizational processes that enhance
overall firm performance. The benefits which may be realized by firms include attract-
ing talent from across different cultural groups, greater marketing success, and bet-
ter retention of employees, thus also contributing to cost savings for employers. The
value-in-diversity hypothesis has been the catalyst in promulgating the business case
for diversity, and has also spawned numerous studies in both experimental and field
studies (which will be discussed in the section titled ‘Effect of Diversity on Group and
Team Performance’).
Thomas and Ely (1996; see also Ely and Thomas 2001) propose three paradigms
for managing diversity, which are related to organizational performance. Under the
‘discrimination and fairness’ perspective, the goal for diversifying the workforce is to
increase the underrepresentation of minority groups with little to no connection to
work outcomes. In the past, this has been the predominant approach for firms when
dealing with an increasingly diverse workforce. Under the ‘access and legitimacy’ per-
spective, firms are actively managing diversity, but only to access the marketplace and
gain legitimacy with diverse customers. However, according to Thomas and Ely (1996),
this perspective is short term in focus and utilizes the benefits of diversity at the mar-
gins. Employers do not incorporate the value of diversity into the core functions of
the firm. The third paradigm, ‘integration and learning’ is about infusing diversity into
organizational processes and using diversity as a resource for organizational change
and renewal. This approach is seen as more enduring because it links diversity to work
processes. Thomas and Ely’s three paradigms for managing diversity have also been
widely cited in academic literature (Mannix and Neale 2005; Carroll and Shabana 2010;
Zanoni et al. 2010; Shore et al. 2011; Guillaume et al. 2013).
Apart from Cox’s (1993) value in-diversity hypothesis and Thomas and Ely’s (1996)
paradigms for managing diversity, other theoretical perspectives document the impact
of workforce diversity on performance. Richard (2000), drawing on Barney’s (1991)
238    Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

resource-based theory, argues that workforce diversity can be a strategic advantage

when firms are able to capitalize on the value of its diverse workforce, and to create a
diverse workplace that is rare and difficult to imitate. Ortlieb and Sieben (2013) simi-
larly propose a typology for managing diversity based on resource-based theory, to take
advantage of the human capital among diverse group members. In this view, workforce
diversity is seen as an economic resource that can provide firms with a competitive
advantage, under the right conditions.
Stakeholder theory argues that diversity should be a concern for managers and
firms because of instrumental and normative reasons (Berman et al. 1999). Under the
instrumental perspective, employers manage diversity because of the economic bene-
fits that accrue to the firm. In the normative view, firms should manage diversity out of
a moral obligation because it is the right thing to do. The stakeholder perspective con-
siders the ‘treatment of women and minorities’ as employees and stakeholders who
can affect a firm’s social and corporate performance (Agle, Mitchell, and Sonnenfeld
1999). Firms gain legitimacy with investors and customers when employees are
treated fairly and equitably, thus leading to greater firm profitability (Donaldson and
Preston 1995).
Research in corporate governance has documented that the presence of women on
corporate boards leads to greater monitoring of firm behaviour and, consequently,
better firm performance (Campbell and Mínguez-Vera 2008; Bernardi, Bosco, and
Columb 2009; Boulouta 2013). Likewise, studies conducted in the public sector have
found that having women in government leads to lower corruption (Sung 2012).
Although a majority of studies have focused on the gender-ethical orientation link,
other dimensions of diversity such as culture and nationality have also been linked
to greater firm ethical orientation and performance (Ben-Amar et al. 2013; Hafsi and
Turgut 2013). It is likely that the greater diversity of viewpoints and constructive con-
flicts that arise from diverse group members may lead to better decision-making (de
Wit, Greer, and Jehn 2012). Suffice to say, firms with diverse boards also benefit from
enhanced firm reputation as they gain legitimacy with customers and investors (Bear,
Rahman, and Post 2010).
Our review of the major theoretical frameworks suggests that workforce diversity
has the potential to provide organizations with a source of competitive advantage.
However, in order to realize this potential, employers and managers will need to pro-
actively manage the differences arising from a diverse workforce (Cox and Blake 1991).
As Thomas (1990) noted, the goal is to harness the benefits of diversity beyond what
can be accomplished by a homogeneous workforce. Furthermore, employers that are
able to infuse diversity into core organizational processes will reap greater benefits
than those who simply utilize them at the margins (Ely and Thomas 2001). When firms
hire from a diverse workforce, they also gain diverse viewpoints leading to more ethi-
cal decision-making. Firms also benefit from enhanced reputation for social responsi-
bility and gain legitimacy with customers, resulting in overall improved performance.
Given the promise on the benefits of a diverse workforce, the following sections review
how managing diversity can benefit individuals, teams, and organizations.
 Benefits of Managing Diversity    239

Benefits of Managing Diversity

on Individuals

Literature on diversity management (DM) has focused on improving individual and

group effectiveness to improve overall firm performance.1 However, comparatively lit-
tle research has been undertaken to examine how diversity programmes affect individ-
ual outcomes. On this basis, we document how DM can assist individuals in attaining
individual career goals, and consequently contribute to their career outcomes and
satisfaction.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action

One focus of managing diversity in organizations is to increase the representation of
minority group members to achieve a demographically diverse workforce (Thomas and
Ely 1996; Ely and Thomas 2001). In this regard, public policies such as equal employ-
ment opportunity (EEO) and AA are useful and effective instruments to increase the
number of women and minority groups in the workforce. EEO refers to regulations pro-
hibiting employers from using an individual’s immutable characteristics as their criteria
for making employment decisions (Holzer and Neumark 2006), while AA refers to situ-
ations where preference is given to individuals if they are members, of an underrepre-
sented group for employment (see Brown, Langer, and Stewart 2012). Although EEO
and AA programmes are often differentiated from managing diversity, in reality they
are a part of a firm’s broader efforts to manage diversity (Mighty 1996). For example,
Canadian firms which have to comply with AA often refer to it as DM (Ng 2005). In
general, EEO and AA are legally mandated, while DM represents voluntary efforts to
manage diversity by the employers (Agocs and Burr 1996).
Studies have shown that AA practices do affect the employment outcomes for women
and minorities. For example, Konrad and Linnehan (1995) found that, in the American
manufacturing and service sector, AA is associated with positive employment out-
comes for women and minorities. Likewise, Holzer and Neumark (2000) reported that
AA increased employers’ use of targeted human resource (HR) practices, to hire more
women and minorities into organizations. Furthermore, Ng and Burke (2010) found
that senior management (e.g. CEOs) are more likely to pay attention to and commit to
managing diversity when they are required to comply with AA mandates. In Canada,

1 DM includes a range of diversity practices, such as diversity policy statements, active recruitment,

training and development, compensation, management accountability, and community support, all
of which are considered to be essential in the advancement of women and minorities (Konrad and
Linnehan 1995).
240    Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

the threat of fines and negative publicity may also compel employers to increase the
number of women and minority group members (Taggar, Jain, and Gunderson 1997).
Moreover, it has been suggested that when AA is replaced by a meritocracy-based
policy, as in the case of California in 1996, employment of women and minorities
dropped sharply as a result (Myers 2007). The effectiveness of AA policies in increasing
the employment of women and minorities has been documented in Australia (French
and Strachan 2007), Canada (Haq and Ng 2010), New Zealand (Edgar 2001; Hyman
2008), India (Saha 2012), and South Africa (Horwitz and Jain 2011), although at varying
levels of success in different countries, and for different groups.

Career Advancement and Pay Equity

EEO and AA programmes have been instrumental in advancing and promoting the
careers of women and minority groups. Kurtulus (2012) reported that AA has been
responsible for the increasing share of women and minorities in high-paying occupa-
tions over a thirty-one-year period in the US. Similarly, women assumed greater execu-
tive roles in government and exercised as much influence as men in the US public sector
as a result of AA (Dolan 2004). Therefore, it should be no surprise that organizations that
have to comply with AA see the strongest effects in the number of women and minori-
ties in management. When the different types of AA programmes are considered, firms
that assign accountabilities for diversity to managers (e.g. setting goals and timetables,
assessing progress) were found to be more effective than programmes that address man-
agerial bias or social isolation of minorities (Kalev, Kelly, and Dobbin 2006).
Additionally, Hakim (2006) credits AA for the progress of women’s career advance-
ment. Although the occurrence of women (and minorities) in senior and executive-level
positions is still rare, due to limited experience (resulting in part from a lack of mid-level
managerial experience), AA programmes ensure that women (and minorities) gain
the experience necessary for assuming senior positions in the future. In other words,
increasing the number of women and minorities in the pipeline will inevitably lead
to increases in female and minority representation in management and senior-level
positions. Countries such as Norway, which mandates the number of women on cor-
porate boards (quotas) also reported more women in management (Matsa and Miller
2011, 2013).
Many jurisdictions, such as Canada and Europe, put in place pay equity or equal pay
policy as a part of their AA legislation (Rubery and Fagan 1994; Singh and Peng 2010).
Pay equity essentially requires that employers pay women and men the same wages
for performing the same job, while equal pay dictates that employers pay women the
same as men for performing work of comparable worth or value. Pay equity policy
has been largely responsible for pay increases for women, especially in the public sec-
tor, and for narrowing the pay gap. According to Singh and Peng (2010), the wage gap
decreased from 38 per cent to 29 per cent, from 1988 to 2008 (a twenty-year period) in
Canada.
 Benefits of Managing Diversity    241

Career Satisfaction
Career satisfaction relates to an individual’s career attainment in terms of goals, pro-
gression, income, and development. In Canada, Yap and colleagues (2010) found that
racial minorities in managerial and professional jobs reported lower satisfaction than
whites because their human capital is frequently undervalued and underutilized. This
finding is not surprising, given that minority employees’ qualifications and work experi-
ence, particularly among immigrants, are often devalued or discounted when they are
acquired abroad (Esses et al. 2007). When individuals are dissatisfied with their careers,
on account of prejudice and discrimination, they are more likely to report lower job
satisfaction, have less commitment to their work, perform more poorly, and be more
likely to engage in withdrawal behaviours (e.g. absenteeism and turnover) (Hughes
and Dodge 1997; McKay et al. 2007; McKay, Avery, and Morris 2008; Antecol and
Cobb-Clark 2009).
In this regard, EEO and AA programmes may be helpful in promoting perceptions
of justice and in creating a more inclusive climate among women and minorities at
the individual level. Likewise, AA in the public sector moderates minority employees’
job satisfaction, which in turn lowers turnover intentions (Choi 2009). Furthermore,
an appreciation of diversity can lead to employee well-being (e.g. less stress and a bet-
ter work/life balance), and a greater commitment to their team members (Lehmann-
Willenbrock, Lei, and Kauffeld 2012). Thus, there is evidence to suggest that AA
programmes promote minority employees’ career satisfaction and individual work per-
formance (Gonzalez and DeNisi 2009; Triana, Garcia, and Colella 2010).
In sum, DM practices such as EEO and AA programmes are responsible for ensuring
the representation of women and racial minorities. When managers are held accounta-
ble for diversity goals, minorities are also more likely to be promoted into management.
This is important, because they gain the experience and acquire management experi-
ence necessary for promotion to senior management levels. DM through pay equity leg-
islation is also responsible for reducing the pay gap between women and men.

Impact of Managing Diversity on Team

and Group Outcomes

When individuals feel valued, they are more likely to be committed to the team and
to the organizations for which they work (Hopkins, Hopkins, and Mallette 2001).
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that women and minorities value employer
efforts to manage diversity in the workplace (Kossek and Zonia 1993). On this basis,
firms that are able to manage the diversity in terms of communication, cohesion, and
intra-group conflict are more likely to reap the benefits from diversity. However, the
context and conditions in which diverse work groups are required to perform also have
242    Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

an impact on overall group processes and team performance (see Jehn and Bezrukova
2004; Joshi and Roh 2009).

Effect of Diversity on Group

and Team Performance

Research findings on the effects of workgroup diversity have related to team perfor-
mance, despite the value-in-diversity arguments. In a laboratory study in the US,
Watson, Kumar, and Michaelsen (1993) reported that homogeneous workgroups out-
performed culturally diverse workgroups on problem-solving and idea generation at
the initial stages of the task. However, performance differences disappeared after sev-
enteen weeks when diverse workgroups were able to work out their communication
challenges. However, it is unclear if diverse teams were able to outperform homogene-
ous teams over a longer period of time, although Ng and Tung (1998) did find diverse
workgroups outperformed homogenous workgroups in a field study involving mul-
ticultural bank branches across different financial measures. In a subsequent study,
based on a US sample, Watson, Johnson, and Merritt (1998) reported that team orienta-
tion vis-à-vis self-orientation predicted team performance, with diverse teams outper-
forming homogeneous teams initially and homogenous teams outperforming diverse
teams subsequently. Thus, findings on realizing the gains from the value-in-diversity
hypothesis at the group and team level remain largely mixed and contingent upon a
number of factors.

Diversity Beliefs
A number of other studies have shown that the processes and dynamics within diverse
workgroups can affect their performance. Van Dick and colleagues (2008) reported
that when individual team members believe that diversity is good for achieving team
goals (i.e. pro-diversity beliefs), they are more likely to identify as a group, share infor-
mation with each other, and intend to stay as a group. Groups that hold pro-diversity
beliefs also performed better, although groups that hold pro-similarity beliefs (i.e. pre-
ferring group members who are demographically similar) did not have poorer per-
formance (Homan et al. 2007). Foldy (2004) suggests that individual beliefs about
diversity may moderate the relationship between team diversity and performance. Van
Knippenberg, van Ginkel, and Homan (2013) similarly propose that diversity mindsets
(mental beliefs about diversity), moderate the diversity–performance link. Based on
these studies, there is evidence to suggest that positive beliefs about diversity, which
promotes diverse team efficacy, may be key to unlocking the performance of diverse
workgroups.
 Benefits of Managing Diversity    243

Task Types
The types of tasks required of diverse workgroups also appear to have an effect on
their team performance. Accordingly, diversity is expected to provide teams with
greater creativity and innovation, but diverse teams also suffer from poorer commu-
nication, a lack of cohesion, and intra-group conflicts. Nouri and colleagues (2013)
reported that team diversity was beneficial for creative-type tasks (e.g. idea generation)
when tight coordination and shared understanding among team members are relatively
less important. In another study, Woehr, Arciniega, and Poling (2013) reported similar
observations, and concluded that less diversity in teams is suited for tasks with process
outcomes, since there is more team cohesion and less conflict. Furthermore, the benefits
of diversity (e.g. creativity) accrue to teams with highly interdependent outcomes and
low longevity, since they are more likely to avoid groupthink (Schippers et al. 2003). In
this regard, team performance is highly dependent on the types of tasks and outcomes
that are expected of teams with diverse and homogeneous team members.

Levels of Diversity
Additionally, the composition of diverse teams also affects the outcomes of diverse
workgroups. Richard, Kochan, and McMillan-Capehart (2002) propose that the rela-
tionship between diversity and performance is curvilinear. The curvilinear relationship
represents the tension that exists between the positive and negative effects of diversity.
As the level of diversity increases, the benefits that accrue to groups also increase. As
an example, Konrad, Kramer, and Erkut (2008) found that having three women on
corporate boards appears to be most helpful to realize the gains from diversity (one or
two female directors are tokens and less effective). Once the optimal level of diversity
has been attained, groups will begin experiencing diminishing returns from diversity.
Drawing from societal-level studies, when a neighbourhood becomes increasingly more
diverse, citizens reported that their interactions with dissimilar others occur less often
and they also have less trust for each other (Putnam 2007; Stolle, Soroka, and Johnston
2008). In this instance, the benefits from diversity may be eroded by weakening rela-
tionships and trusts among diverse group members, as is often documented in social
network studies (McFadyen and Cannella 2004; Chen and Gable 2013).

Diversity Fault Lines

Diversity in teams may also create fault lines, which are ‘hypothetical dividing lines that
may split a group into subgroups based on one or more [demographic] attributes’ (Lau
and Murnighan 1998: 328). In other words, members in diverse groups divide them-
selves into homogeneous subgroups, which can threaten the gains from diversity.
Strong fault lines increase the potential for dissensus with demographically dissimilar
244    Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

others, which could lead to ‘behavioural disintegration’ (Li and Hambrick 2005: 800).
Members from this smaller subgroup may also receive less internal support and experi-
ence more opinion suppression, leading to reduced confidence and effectiveness (Lau
and Murnighan 1998). Meyer and Schermuly (2012) reported that pro-diversity beliefs,
task motivation, and communication about task information help lessen the fault-line
strength. Likewise, Sawyer, Houlette, and Yeagley (2006) found that diverse cross-cut-
ting teams (where race crosses job functions), and team members not pre-disposed to
pre-task discussions (which facilitated necessary discussions) outperformed homoge-
neous teams. The fault line may be diminished when no clear subgroups exist, or weak-
ened when members are required to interact with each other more extensively prior to
task.

Top Management Teams

A critical area for examining group or team diversity is within top management teams
(TMTs), as top executives make decisions that directly impact firm performance
(Homberg and Bui 2013). Studies have shown that various dimensions of diversity
on corporate boards lead to greater degree of internationalization (Kaczmarek and
Ruigrok 2013), greater product diversification (Hutzschenreuter and Horstkotte 2013),
greater innovation (Mihalache et al. 2012), and overall firm performance (Nielsen and
Nielsen 2013). Group processes such as fault lines also affect TMTs. For example, task-
related diversity lessens the fault-line strength, while demographic diversity (i.e. race)
strengthens TMT fault lines (Hutzschenreuter and Horstkotte 2013). The presence of
women also contributes to the informational and social diversity on TMTs, which leads
to firm performance, particularly for innovative firms (Dezsö and Ross 2012).
In sum, diversity at the team or group level has the potential to benefit organizations.
However, the types of task, a belief in (the benefits of) diversity, and the composition of
the teams are all crucial in realizing the potentials from team diversity. In this regard,
it is crucial for managers and team leaders to create teams with three or more minority
group members (or women), and to weaken any potential fault lines (by having greater
diversity). Firms also benefit when TMTs are diverse.

Impact of Diversity on
Organizational Outcomes

The impact of diversity at the organizational level receives the most attention in
research studies, since top executives are most likely to pay attention to the instru-
mental benefits derived from a diverse workforce (Ng and Wyrick 2011). Despite the
impetus to manage diversity at the individual and group or team levels, evidence on
 Benefits of Managing Diversity    245

the diversity–organizational performance link has not yet been conclusively estab-
lished, as evidenced by the conflicting findings from empirical research (Shore et al.
2009; Roberge and van Dick 2010). This is likely because the ability of a firm to capital-
ize on its diverse workforce is dependent on a host of factors, such as a firm’s strategic
orientation, TMT diversity, and firm leadership, as well as policies and practices that are
related to DM.

Strategic Orientation
Richard (2000) reported that the link between workforce diversity and firm perfor-
mance is contingent upon a firm’s strategic orientation. Workforce diversity contrib-
uted to employee productivity, return on equity, and market performance, but only for
firms with a growth orientation. In another study, conducted in the US, Richard and col-
leagues (2003) reported that employee diversity enhanced the performance of firms that
are pursuing an innovative strategy. Diversity in TMTs similarly affected the innovation
outcomes and firm performance for firms with an innovative orientation (Mihalache et
al. 2012). Taken together, these findings suggest that firms pursuing growth and innova-
tion strategies are more likely to be able to capitalize on the gains from diversity, particu-
larly when creativity and innovation, as well as access to the market, are considered to be
essential for firm success.

Leadership
Although workforce diversity, when properly managed, is expected to lead to
improved firm performance (Cox 1993), the role of leaders and managers in capital-
izing on those benefits cannot be underestimated. Ayoko and Konrad (2012) demon-
strate that effective leadership could reduce task and relationship conflicts in diverse
teams, which are related to morale and group performance. Likewise, Muchiri and
Ayoko (2013) found that transformational leadership style plays a moderating role
in eliciting greater organizational citizenship behaviour and productivity among
women in diverse work units. Ng and Sears (2012) similarly reported that transfor-
mational leaders, and transactional leaders with relatively high age or social values,
are related to the number of diversity practices implemented in a firm (see also Ng
(2008) on other individual characteristics that are hypothesized to predict CEO
motivation to manage diversity). The number of diversity practices have been found
to be related to the employment outcomes for women and minorities (Konrad and
Linnehan 1995). CEOs are more likely to be motivated to manage diversity when
they see an instrumental link to workforce diversity. Researchers have variously
attempted to document the relationship between workforce diversity and firm finan-
cial returns (Weigand 2007), as well as stock prices (Wright et al. 1995), to establish
the diversity–financial success link, with positive results
246    Eddy S. Ng and Jacqueline Stephenson

Diversity-Related Policies and Practices

Research has also shown that DM practices contribute to firm performance above
and beyond high performance work systems (Armstrong et al. 2010). In the US pub-
lic sector, diversity policies and practices enhanced the performance of government
agencies (Choi and Rainey 2010). Western-based multinational corporations (MNCs)
were more likely to adopt strategic HR management practices that promote a diverse
workforce than Eastern-based (e.g. Indian and Chinese) firms, given the link to firm
financial performance (Cooke and Saini 2010). As we mentioned in the section titled
‘Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action’, Konrad and Linnehan (1995)
reported that HR policies and practices must specifically target women and minori-
ties in order for them to be effective. Kalev, Kelly, and Dobbin (2006) found creating
accountability to be crucial for ensuring representation of women and minorities in
management. Likewise, Ng and Sears (2010) found bias-free selection to have the great-
est influence on the promotion of minorities into management ranks, because of the
possibility of adverse impact in selection practices. Thus, in order for firms to capitalize
on the benefits of diversity, the ‘right’ context-dependent HR policies and practices must
be in place, to ensure that the potential advantages associated with workforce diversity
are maximized, while the potential disadvantages are minimized.
In sum, having the right leaders (e.g. CEOs) and strategic orientation (e.g. growth- or
innovative-oriented firms) is helpful for organizations to reap the benefits of a diverse
workforce. Furthermore, the right HR management practices can reduce adverse
impact and increase the number of minorities in management. Taken together, DM has
the potential to contribute to overall firm performance.

Conclusion

Although the benefits of workforce diversity are promising for organizations and
employers, research on its direct effect on individual, team, and organizational perfor-
mance have not been conclusively established. This chapter reviews existing research
and documents how, when, and under what conditions diversity enhances performance
at the individual, team, and organization levels. We also identify several policies and
practices which are effective when promoting a more diverse workforce, as well as those
that enhance the benefits of diversity.
Our review suggests that the positive effects of diversity on performance at all levels
are present, but they are established only under the appropriate conditions. According
to the resource-based view, firms must be able to create a diverse workforce in order to
capitalize on its benefits. In this regard, EEO and AA programmes appear helpful in
increasing the employment of women and minorities. When individuals feel valued and
are treated fairly, they are also more likely to perform on the job, report greater career
satisfaction, and contribute to a firm’s success. At the team level, an understanding of
 Benefits of Managing Diversity    247

group-level processes and dynamics is key to ensuring that communication barriers,

cohesion, and intra-group conflicts arising out of diversity are minimized. Holding
pro-diversity (or pro-similarity) beliefs, types of team tasks, group composition, the lev-
els of diversity, as well as team fault lines, individually and jointly contribute to, or dis-
tract from, team performance. These processes also have an impact in the TMTs, with
firm performance consequences. At the organizational level, firm strategy and leader-
ship are crucial for firms to capitalize on the benefits of employee diversity. Employers
must also have HR policies and practices that are inclusive to encourage everyone to
contribute to their fullest potential. A number of such types of practices have already
been identified in multiple studies referenced in this chapter. As workforce diversity
becomes an imperative with the emergence of globalization and worker immigration,
we surmise that organizations which pay attention to issues of diversity will reap the
potential benefits that are associated with it.
In closing, we suggest a few avenues for future research to extend our knowledge on
the benefits that can be derived from a diverse workforce. First, based on our review, the
impetus for managing diversity appears to be driven by the business case. Therefore,
it remains unclear if organizations and employers will devote resources to manage
diversity in the absence of instrumental benefits. On this basis, we suggest that future
research on managing diversity be extended to the public service and non-profit sectors.
The findings could inform researchers and practitioners on other potential benefits that
could be realized from managing a diverse workforce across different organizations and
settings. Second, while it is evident that senior leadership commitment is crucial for an
organization’s diversity efforts, it is unlikely that the leaders themselves will be responsi-
ble for implementing an organization’s diversity strategies. Thus, greater research atten-
tion should be focused on the individual (e.g. AA officer) who is charged with managing
diversity. In this regard, it is important to study the role and characteristics of the AA
officer, in order for diversity programmes to be successfully implemented. Furthermore,
the relationship between an organization’s leader and the AA officer (e.g. direct report-
ing relationship) should also be explored. Third, there has been a suggestion that the
relationship between diversity and performance is curvilinear (Richard, Kochan, and
McMillan-Capehart 2002). In other words, increasing levels of diversity is will bring
about diminishing marginal benefits to team and group performance. However, it
is unclear what level of diversity is optimal for work teams, and comparatively little
research has been conducted in this area. Thus, it would be fruitful to investigate the lev-
els of diversity that would be associated with maximum team performance.

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 Chapter 12

Organiz ationa l Be ne fi ts
throu gh Di v e rsi t y
Manageme nt
Theoretical Perspectives on the Business Case

Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

Originating in the United States in the 1990s (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Kochan et al.
2003; Litvin 2006), the business case for diversity is essentially a managerially driven,
economic argument for improving organizational outcomes through investment in
diversity management (DM) initiatives (Litvin 2006; Tomlinson and Schwabenland
2010). The business case attempts to quantify the benefits of effectively managing diver-
sity and links DM strategies such as ‘the recruitment, selection, development and reten-
tion of a diverse workforce to business goals, labour market shifts, globalization and
competitive advantage (Yakura 1996)’ (in Kossek, Lobel, and Brown 2006: 53). The use
of the word ‘attempt’ is intentional as the quantification of benefits is problematic, as will
be discussed below in the section ‘What is the Business Case for Diversity?’.
This chapter explores the business case for diversity as it is situated within the broader
discourse of DM. Of interest is the ‘making of meaning’ in terms of how arguments in
support of DM are communicated and thus legitimized. Language is an important tool
for ‘the analysis of social organization, social meanings, power, and individual con-
sciousness’ (Weedon 1993: 21), as it is through language that meaning is constructed.
This is supported by Alvesson and Karreman (2000: 1128), who contend ‘language, put
together as discourses, arranges and naturalizes the social world in a specific way and
thus informs social practices’. It is through an examination of discourse that we hope
to better understand the business case for diversity and the subsequent making of
meaning.
Although this chapter is dedicated to the specifics of the business case for diversity, a
brief discussion of its origins within the evolution of the broader discourse of DM seems
appropriate.
256    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

The Evolution of Diversity

Management

Lorbiecki and Jack (2000) suggest that the evolution of DM is best described by four
overlapping turns, each with their own dominant discourse. The first such turn, the
demographic turn, was a product of influential studies such as Workforce 2000 (Johnson
and Packer 1987), which suggested that the demographic face of the American work-
force would be dramatically changed by the year 2000. The predominantly white,
male-dominated workforce would become more diverse, and representations by
women, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and other visible minor-
ity groups would increase dramatically, to the point where they become the majority.
Stated simply, the demographic make-up of the United States was changing and the
need to ‘manage’ this diversity was deemed essential (Hall and Parker 1993; Cox 1994;
Kelly and Dobbin 1998; Dolan and Giles-Brown 1999; Barak 2000; Berger 2001; Von
Bergen, Soper, and Foster 2002). The assumption here was that if organizations did not
accommodate this demographic shift through appropriate recruitment, management,
and retention of diverse employees, their competitiveness would suffer (Wrench 2005).
Similar changes were happening in the Canadian and UK workforces, thus ushering in
what became known as the demographic imperative to manage diversity (Cox and Blake
1991). Many argue that this first turn was responsible for the emergence of organizations’
focus on diversity and the need to manage it.
Steeped in an almost palpable fear of the change in demographics, the language of
this turn includes a focus on labour force, participation rates, immigration, minority
groups, and the notion of the ‘visible minority’. Central to the discourse were issues of
sex and race and, as a result, much of the focus was on the representation of women and
non-white members of the workforce. This resulted in greater numbers of women and
non-white men and women in organizations, and legislative attempts to ‘equal out the
numbers’. Other underrepresented groups were less present in the discourse.
The second turn, according to Lorbiecki and Jack (2000), was political in nature and
resulted in a focus away from affirmative action (AA) programmes in the United States
and employment equity programmes in Canada and the United Kingdom, which were
all experiencing considerable backlash caused by feelings of reverse discrimination
and the perception that hiring was based on factors other than merit. Instead of ‘count-
ing people who look different’ (Ahmed 2007: 240), the focus of DM initiatives changed.
This was mirrored by a change in the discourse. Essentially, DM became more ‘pal-
atable’ by focusing on language around inclusion, equity, and fairness (Lorbiecki and
Jack 2000).
Interestingly, in many cases, the worker became ‘disembodied’ or ‘sexless’ (Acker
1990) in an attempt to demonstrate that organizational actors were not making deci-
sions based on sex or gender—at least not overtly. Within this discourse, references
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    257

were made to ‘the employee’ rather than men and women, and overt discrimination was
deemed taboo.
However, this change in discourse was met with some scepticism as many were still
reeling from perceived (or real) injuries felt as a result of AA and employment equity.
Some felt the change in language was really about political correctness and that the pro-
grammes presented under this guise were nothing more than ‘politically correct’ con-
tinuations of AA and employment equity agendas (Wise and Tschirhart 2000). Indeed,
in some instances this was very much the case. This proved to be a significant challenge
when implementing diversity initiatives, and resulted in many less-than-successful
attempts to manage diversity (Caudron 1998; Kelly and Dobbin 1998; Von Bergen,
Soper, and Foster 2002).
The third turn is where our interest, for the purpose of this chapter, begins, as it
was the harbinger of the business case for diversity. This turn, deemed the economic
turn by Lorbiecki and Jack (2000), was quite dramatic and bespoke of the need for
organizations to embrace and manage diversity or perish at the hands of competitors
who had already begun to do so, in an increasingly competitive, global marketplace.
According to Lorbiecki and Jack (2000), ‘These economic arguments were highly
seductive as they tapped into the existing fear that traditional monocultural organiza-
tions were no longer effective in meeting the demands of a global marketplace’ (s21).
As a result, the bottom line became the focus and is at the core of the business case for
diversity.
The DM climate had changed. Fuelled by globalization and demographic shifts, and
in response to failed diversity initiatives couched in notions of multiculturalism and
equity as a moral imperative, there was a general sentiment that, as stated by Kevin
Sullivan, vice president of Apple Computer, ‘initiatives must be sold as business, not
social work’ (in Ivancevich and Gilbert 2000: 79). A common sentiment, it was evident
that ‘arguments for inclusive and non-discriminatory employment practice based on
the rationale of “equal opportunity” [had] proved insufficiently convincing’ (Tomlinson
and Schwabenland 2010: 103).
Accompanied by a change in rhetoric (Gilbert, Stead, and Ivancevich 1999; Kochan
et al. 2003; Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010), the business case for diversity gained
ground in the 1990s, and became what some claim is the most enduring argument for
the need to manage diversity. What marks this turn is the key role of top management
in situating managing diversity as a strategic element, linked to organizational perfor-
mance (Wrench 2007).
Indeed, many DM initiatives today still cling to the discourse of diversity as imper-
ative for growth and success. Redolent of the arguments put forth for any new ini-
tiative within organizations, the business case discourse is riddled with references
to competitive advantage, return on investment, profits, and market share. Within
this greater discourse, we find language around globalization, innovation, customer
service, and stakeholder engagement. A more thorough review of the business case
follows.
258    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

What is the Business Case

for Diversity?

The business case for diversity suggests that improvements in productivity and profit-
ability can be achieved by having, and effectively managing, a more diverse workforce
and by creating a culture that embraces differences (Cox 1994; Robinson and Dechant
1997; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000). In essence, improvements to the bottom line can be
gained by managing diversity through various strategic and human resource (HR)
initiatives aimed at changing organizational culture and managing people ‘so that the
potential advantages of diversity are maximized while its potential disadvantages are
minimized’ (Cox 1994: 11). Accordingly, the business case ‘legitimized organizational
scrutiny of employees’ responses to differences, and suggested that there were ways of
changing them if responses were deemed “improper” ’ (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000). In
essence, DM became ‘programmable’ (Lorbiecki and Jack 2000), and the end goal of
these programmes was organizational performance.
This focus on bottom line and strategy was a dramatic change from the equity-centred
discourse found in the political turn discussed. As explained by Litvin (2006), ‘One
makes the business case to demonstrate to members of the organization that they should
engage in diversity work for pragmatic, financial, business reasons’ (Litvin 2006: 75), not
social justice reasons.
Although not immediately evident in most DM initiatives centred on the business
case, at the core is the need to convince others (usually those holding power and control
over resources) that DM is essential, thus legitimizing it (Kochan et al. 2003; Litvin 2006;
Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). As indicated by Robinson and Dechant (1997: 21),
‘Just as the head of Research and Development must present a compelling, fact-based
business case to top management to gain the necessary commitment and resources
from the organization to pursue a product initiative, so too must the head of Human
resources develop a case for diversity integration based on the competitive edge gained
by optimizing the people resources of the firm.’ Consistent with capitalist agendas, the
business case for diversity implies that decisions made by organizations, and the sub-
sequent utilization of resources, must be made in the best interest of stockholders, and
that HR can be controlled and optimized through DM. As indicated by Tomlinson and
Schwabenland (2010), the business case ‘reinforce[s]‌the view that [diversity] is some-
thing that needs to be justified and advocated in order to “get through” various points of
resistance (Ahmed, 2007)’ (in Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010: 105).
Some argue that the business case provides space for social justice issues such as
inclusion and the reduction of prejudice (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010).
Proponents of this line of thought suggest that there is a need to create more harmo-
nious and equitable workplaces if the financial benefits of diversity are actually to be
realized. They suggest that, more than just ensuring women and minorities have equal
access to positions and promotions within organizations, as AA programmes seem to
typify, diversity-management programmes should focus on: ‘(1) increasing sensitivity
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    259

to cultural differences; (2) developing the ability to recognize, accept, and value diver-
sity; (3) minimizing patterns of inequality experienced by women and minorities;
(4) improving cross-cultural interactions and interpersonal relationships among dif-
ferent gender and ethnic groups; and (5) modifying organizational culture and leader-
ship practices’ (Soni 2000: 396). It is important to note that these arguments, which
appear to be couched in social justice issues and engage a social justice discourse, are
often presented as necessary for organizational performance improvements. The bot-
tom line is the bottom line in many such business case arguments.
Within the business case for diversity, a number of arguments link DM initiatives
with firm strategy, HR practices, and, ultimately, performance. Most include the follow-
ing claims (or variations thereof) about the benefits of effectively managing diversity:

• Attracting and retaining top talent.

• A reduction in costs associated with not managing diversity effectively.
• The ability to better represent an increasingly diverse consumer group.
• Enhanced creativity/innovation and decision-making.

The Ability to Attract and Retain Top Talent

The business case relies heavily on the notion that employees, especially top perform-
ers, want to work for organizations that value diversity. They want to be part of inclusive
organizations that actively engage with members of minority groups and offer oppor-
tunities, benefits, and accommodation for diverse needs. It also suggests that failing
to value diversity prevents the organization from having access to an important pool
of ‘stars’, and much is made of the competition for talent (Robinson and Dechant 1997;
Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). Organizations that remain homogeneous are at
risk of drawing from a smaller labour talent pool (Wrench 2007).
This argument has garnered considerable attention and, as a result, there are count-
less ‘Top Employer’ competitions, awards, and published lists. These include: Canada’s
Best Diversity Employer, the Top 50 Employers for Women (UK), Top Employers
for Canadians Over 40, the Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2013 (self-reported as ‘the
definitive list of Britain’s most gay-friendly workplaces’), and The DiversityInc Top 50
Companies for Diversity (USA), among many others. A quick review of such lists and
awards reveals a discourse that includes emphasis on inclusive workplaces, work–life
balance, inclusive benefits, the celebration of diversity, and diversity strategy.

Reduced Costs Associated with Not Managing

Diversity Effectively
Focused solely on the bottom line, this argument makes no allusions to social justice
agendas—if organizations wish to save money on litigation and HR complaints, as well
as maintain customers, diversity needs to be managed effectively (Bell, Connerley, and
260    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

Cocchiara 2009). Several assumptions are central to this argument. First, it is assumed
that poorly managed diversity will result in an increase in discrimination-based lawsuits
(Robinson and Dechant 1997). On the other hand, employees will not sue employers or
‘waste’ resources on grievances if diversity is well managed. Second, this justification for
effectively managing diversity assumes that employees will have higher rates of absen-
teeism and turnover if diversity is not well managed (Robinson and Dechant 1997). The
final assumption is that customers care enough about the ethics of the organizations
they patronize to base their consumption on whether an organization receives bad pub-
licity. Bad management of diversity leads to lawsuits, bad publicity, and reputations as
poor employers, which all contribute to a reduced bottom line.
This argument does have the benefit of good optics, as some of the outcomes are more
visibly linked to the bottom line than in the other arguments. Whereas it is difficult to
quantify whether an organization has attracted top talent because of its diversity ini-
tiatives, it is easier to assess whether litigation costs, incidents of harassment, and the
amount of bad publicity have gone up or down.

Better Representation of an Increasingly Diverse

Consumer Group
As the face of the workforce changed, so did the face of the consumer. As consum-
ers become more diverse in race, ethnicity, age, and gender, they represent an impor-
tant market opportunity for organizations. This business case argument suggests that
a more diverse workforce is better able to represent a diverse group of customers in
terms of product offerings, sales, and customer service (Cox and Blake 1991; Cox 1994;
Williams and O’Reilly 1998; Bell, Connerley, and Cocchiara 2009), and is thereby able
take advantage of the opportunity to attract and retain more customers (Tomlinson
and Schwabenland 2010). Instead of diversity acting as a liability and barrier, under this
argument it is seen as a desirable trait and positive asset (Wrench 2005) that offers val-
ued intelligence to organizations.
In response to this particular argument, it is not unusual to see firms hiring employees
that they feel most ‘resemble’ their clients for sales and customer service positions, both
at home and abroad. This argument relies on the assumption that minority group mem-
bership makes one an expert in how to best serve other members of that minority group.
It is assumed that employees who are demographically similar to consumers may have
an easier time understanding their preferences, behaviours, and needs. For example,
Pepsi’s 2001 diversity push required that half of all new hires be women or ethnic minor-
ities in order to help the company better understand customer tastes and behaviour as it
strived to target new market segments (Slater, Weigand, and Zwirlein 2008). It also sug-
gests that customers prefer to be sold products and serviced by members of the groups
to which they perceive they belong. This argument holds broad appeal and often appears
on websites and publicly available marketing and reporting materials. Customers like
to see that effort is being made to meet their specific needs and shareholders like to see
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    261

efforts being made to increase market share. It is within the discourse of this argument
that we see an emphasis on customer service and stakeholder engagement.

Enhanced Creativity/Innovation and Decision-Making

This argument stems from that belief that more diverse organizations, and especially
more diverse teams, result in better decision-making, creativity/innovation, and
problem-solving (Cox 1991, 1994; Cox and Blake 1991; Robinson and Dechant 1997;
Williams and O’Reilly 1998; Bell, Connerley, and Cocchiara 2009). Citing the benefits
of multiple perspectives and diversity in experiences, it is thought that a more diverse
workforce is better able to analyse problems and generate more creative solutions, thus
giving the organization a competitive advantage and driving business innovation and
growth (Robinson and Dechant 1997; Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010).
What is perhaps most interesting about this argument is its focus on the benefits of alter-
native perspectives, as reflective of its diverse employees (Tomlinson and Schwabenland
2010). This is a slight shift away from more traditional understandings of diversity, as well
as other arguments within the business case, that focus on those elements of diversity
which can be seen—sex, ethnicity, ability, and so on. In doing so, one could argue that this
shift creates space within the business case discourse for other important forms of diversity
and encourages divergent thinking. Rather than simply being ‘managed’, this perspective
suggests that employees who challenge established practices and offer unique and interest-
ing ideas should be embraced. Whether this is put into practice is another matter entirely.

Does the Business Case Deliver?

Despite the enduring nature and widespread use of the business case to promote and
support DM initiatives, research conducted on the benefits does not reveal a clear pic-
ture in terms of the measurable impact on the bottom line (Kossek, Lobel, and Brown
2006). At best, the research is incomplete and contradictory (Kochan et al. 2003). One of
the reasons for this incomplete picture is the difficulty in, and failure of organizations to,
measure the impact of their own diversity initiatives. For example, a study of US colleges
and universities found that many of the institutions studied had ‘invested substantial
resources in (diversity workshops) without seeing or seeking any empirical assessment
of return on their investment’ (McCauley, Wright, and Harris 2000: 11). Another US
study found that only 30 per cent of the organizations who conduct diversity training go
on to measure resulting behaviour at work (Carnevale and Stone 1994). This is consistent
with other findings discussed in the literature (Rynes and Rosen 1994; Kelly and Dobbin
1998; Ivancevich and Gilbert 2000; McCauley, Wright, and Harris 2000). It appears that
although many North American organizations are committing considerable resources
(Von Bergen, Soper, and Foster 2002) to managing diversity, the effectiveness of these
262    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

projects is often not being measured. Given the nature of the business case, it seems
paradoxical that few organizations actually measure their ‘return on investment’ when it
comes to diversity initiatives.
The indirect nature of the relationship between diversity initiatives and firm perfor-
mance is partly to blame for the dearth of measurements of success for many diversity ini-
tiatives (Kochan et al. 2003). The relationship between good HR practices and the bottom
line is complex and indirect. Although one might hypothesize that creating an inclusive
organization leads to the hiring of top performers, which in turn leads to better perfor-
mance, it is not a direct relationship that can be easily measured (Kochan et al. 2003).
The incompleteness is further exacerbated by the lack of research on actual organiza-
tions, as opposed to experimental research commonly used to assess whether diverse
teams make better or more creative decisions (Kochan et al. 2003; Wrench 2005). The
Diversity Research Network, a consortium of researchers dedicated to the study of
the relationships between gender and racial diversity and firm performance (Kochan
et al. 2003: 5), found that ‘There is little research conducted in actual organizations that
addresses the impact of diversity or diversity-management practices on financial suc-
cess.’ In an attempt to remedy this, the consortium conducted a multi-firm study of the
effects of gender and racial diversity on firm performance. They found few positive or
negative direct effects of diversity on performance, although they did gain some insight
into the nuances of more diverse groups (Kochan et al. 2003).
The research results that we do have are contradictory. For example, Cox and Blake
(1991) contend that their results demonstrate a positive net effect on the bottom line, and
McLeod, Lobel, and Cox (1996) contend that there is evidence to suggest that increased
diversity results in greater creativity. Similarly, Watson, Kumar, and Michaelsen (1993)
found that heterogeneous groups are better at problem-solving than more homogenous
groups. Other studies have also found racial diversity to positively influence organiza-
tional outcomes, especially where there is a strong emphasis on innovation (Richard
et al. 2003). On the other hand, von Bergen, Soper, and Foster (2002) contend that unin-
tended consequences of DM actually increase costs, and others have found that diverse
workplaces experience more conflict and reduced cohesion (Tajfel and Turner 1979).
Williams and O’Reilly (1998) found that racial diversity has a negative impact within
the firm. Finally, several studies have resulted in the conclusion that there simply is
not much hard evidence to support the claims that DM improves firm performance
(Kochan et al. 2003; Wrench 2007).

The Critical Turn in Diversity

Management

According to Lorbiecki and Jack (2000), the fourth turn is the critical turn in DM, which
resulted from the plethora of challenges encountered by those attempting to manage
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    263

diversity. It is here that we find many of the critiques of the business case for diversity,
which focus on its ideological assumptions, located within a functionalist paradigm,
thus privileging management interests (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). Critical
studies have attempted to destabilize the common-sense, taken-for-granted ways of
thinking about the business case for diversity. Such efforts attempt to ‘create possibilities
for the construction and practice of alternative discourses about people, diversity and
organizations’ (Litvin 2006: 80).
Several themes that critique the business case discourse are evident and are discussed
in the sections that follow.

Discourse of Control
A number of scholars have interrogated the business case discourse’s practical impli-
cations and strong linkages to organizational performance (Prasad and Mills 1997;
Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Kirby and Harter 2003; Noon 2007). For example, Kirby and
Harter (2003) suggest that the language of the bottom line and competitive advantage
serve to frame diversity in the workplace in the interest of management. This is sup-
ported by Litvin (2006: 86), who contends that the managerial focus evident in the
business case discourse is based in ‘a normalized Mega-discourse that enshrines the
achievement of organizational economic goals as the ultimate guiding principle and
explanatory device for people in organizations’. Lorbiecki and Jack (2000) further
suggest that the business case for diversity can be viewed as an instrument that uses
employee diversity as a means for achieving economic end goals. Because of its man-
agerial approach, this instrumental use of a diverse workforce as a way of achieving
financial goals is possible through control and compliance, thus restricting diversity as
opposed to setting it free (Christiansen and Just 2012).
The business case discourse values difference within the workforce based on how
it contributes to the bottom line. The notion of ‘valuing diversity’ within this dis-
course becomes diluted, and inextricably links contributions to organizational goals
(Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). This is supported by Zanoni and Janssens
(2004), who found that HR managers are less interested in demographic differences,
and are more focused on how these differences can be used to attain organizational
goals. According to the same study, ‘diversity is conceived in a very selective and
instrumental way with reference to the productive process in the specific organiza-
tional context’ (Zanoni and Janssens 2004: 71). The findings suggest that the business
case discourse of diversity is a discourse of control. Drawing on the assumptions of
human capital theories, members of the workforce are treated as assets and economic
resources (Prasad and Mills 1997) with potential value to the organization when
organizational goals are met. According to Litvin (2006: 87), within this discourse,
‘the colourful chaos of human diversity disappears into a synchronized, mutually
indistinguishable chorus, whose members’ only purpose is to function as instru-
mental, interchangeable cogs in the profit-making machine’. Thus, the organization
264    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

appears to take centre stage within the business case discourse, while the diverse
workforce fades in the shadows.

Denies Agency and Full Subjectivity

In order to limit potential backlash and resistance from dominant groups in the work-
place, diversity is defined more broadly within the business case discourse (Zanoni and
Janssens 2004). As Litvin (2002) suggests, this conceptualization of diversity within
the business case discourse implicitly assumes that specific groups are not targeted, as
it moves beyond race and gender to target all members of the workforce. This broad
conceptualization conveys that all group members (including the dominant) can par-
ticipate without feeling threatened (as implied by the equal opportunity (EO) and AA
approaches) (Mirchandani and Butler 2006). However, where diversity is defined within
this discourse, it tends to encompass fixed representations by constructing employees in
demographic categories portrayed as obvious, natural, and immutable (Lorbiecki and
Jack 2000). Difference is seen within static and mutually exclusive traits, and organi-
zations fail to take into consideration ‘the ways in which individuals’ social locations
are embedded within multiple and interconnected norms around gender, race, class,
ability and sexuality’ (Mirchandani and Butler 2006: 482). Zanoni and Janssens (2004)
found that HR managers construct employees solely as members of reference groups
deemed to be relevant to the organization (i.e. gender and culture). This construction
is problematic as these fixed singular identities fail to recognize the fluidity and hybrid-
ity of identities within organizations (Mirchandani and Butler 2006). What is more,
such constructions of identity groups fail to represent difference in individual terms
with situational and contextual considerations in mind. Such a construction is further
problematic as diversity is conceptualized as being different from the norm: the white,
heterosexual, Western, middle/upper-class abled men (Zanoni et al. 2010). Thus, those
who manage are privileged subjects and those constructed as different are managed and
denied agency and full subjectivity (Zanoni and Janssens 2004).

Dilution of Racism and Discrimination

According to critical scholars, the business case discourse silences discrimination, rac-
ism, unequal power relations, and other conflicts that are rampant in the workplace
(Prasad and Mills 1997). Wrapped in a HR management discourse, critics of the business
case discourse argue that racism and discrimination need to be combatted against and
not managed (Wrench 2007). Further, with its happy rhetoric and inclusive approach,
the business case discourse dilutes racism and discrimination by mixing policies related
to traditionally excluded groups with those of all groups, potentially failing to address
crucial hard elements required to address systemic inequities within organizations.
These critics argue that the business case for diversity does not challenge these conflicts,
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    265

but serves to facilitate existing hierarchies and unequal power relations privileging
management interests.
A number of critical scholars have turned to postcolonial theory for new discursive
accounts of diversity in the workplace (Prasad 1997, 2006; Prasad and Prasad 2002;
Munshi 2005), because of the particular attention given to processes of Western knowl-
edge construction which stereotype and subordinate the other (Lorbiecki and Jack
2000). Munshi (2005) draws from Prasad’s (1997) analysis to make a case for using colo-
nialism as a sense-making framework in order to surface power dynamics, inequali-
ties, and the mission to manage, control, and help save the other. Prasad (1997: 305), in
his analysis of workplace diversity, has shown that ‘the discourse of workplace diversity
is inextricably (and fatally) linked with the discourse of colonialism’. Prasad suggests
that diversity is viewed as something that needs to be managed to keep the non-West-
ern other (namely immigrants and visible minorities) under control—their treatment
resembling that of the colonized other. Drawing on the business case for diversity dis-
course, ‘diversity becomes the cause of organizational problems, and, therefore, needs
to be managed by the controlling elite for the sake of goal achievement and profitability’
(Munshi 2005: 58). In essence, the business case for diversity calls for the need to capital-
ize on diverse and top talent to drive bottom-line results and competitive advantages. In
the quest for organizational performance, minority groups remain at the margins, and
are capitalized upon for financial gains. The imprint of the colonial doctrine is visible, as
these organizational programmes serve to guide and develop the other in their civiliz-
ing mission and implement control over the other to drive performance (Prasad 1997,
2006).

Contextual Considerations of the Business

Case Discourse
Critical scholars have also argued that demographic, historical, social, institutional, and
geopolitical contexts impact our understandings of diversity within the workplace and
yet are dangerously absent from the business case discourse. A number of researchers
have examined diversity discourses within their contexts, problematizing and chal-
lenging the dominant business case conceptualization of DM (Zanoni et al. 2010).
Several of these studies suggest that diversity as business case discourse is featured most
strongly in the management discourse of multicultural societies such as the United
States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. While it is argued that US-based mul-
tinational corporations (MNCs) have played an important role in transferring the busi-
ness case discourse to other national and local contexts, differences exist across national
boundaries. Singh and Point (2004, 2006) show, in their analysis of corporate websites
in Europe, that UK-based firms embrace the US model most readily amongst all the
countries examined. The United Kingdom has followed the American tradition more
closely than other European countries (Wrench 2007). Other studies have shown that
266    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

DM within European contexts is very different from discourses engaged in the United
States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (Singh and Point 2004, 2006; Meriläinen et al.
2009; Barbosa and Cabral-Cardoso 2010). Within a Portuguese context, Barbosa and
Cabral-Cardoso (2010) found that foreign-owned companies are most eager to publi-
cize their equity and diversity initiatives. Conversely, Portuguese-owned companies do
not appear to have a policy on diversity and equity, particularly where they are targeting
a local audience (Barbosa and Cabral-Cardoso 2010). In their analysis of Finnish com-
panies, Meriläinen and colleagues (2009) and Singh and Point (2006) found that the
business case discourse has not gained a strong foothold in Finland, as it is ignored on
most Finnish corporate websites.
Adopting a universal business case discourse is problematic given the different par-
adigms between countries in North America and those in Europe when it comes to
diversity (Wrench 2007). The North American paradigm reflects a history of immigrant
absorption and policies rooted in anti-discrimination and fairness (Wrench 2007),
whereas the European paradigm differs across national boundaries. Various studies
have shown differences and variations across Europe in awareness levels ‘of racial dis-
crimination in employment, in the definition of it as a problem issue, and in the experi-
ence in organizational policies to combat it’ (Wrench 2007: 39).

Relationship between the Business

Case and Social Justice Discourses

A number of scholars, such as Ahmed (2007) and Tomlinson and Schwabenland

(2010), suggest that a relationship exists between the social justice and business case
discourses. However, the nature of the relationship remains unclear and is a matter of
debate amongst diversity scholars (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). For exam-
ple, while some argue that an overreliance on the business case absolves organizations
from social justice obligations (Prasad and Mills 1997; Bell, Connerley, and Cocchiara
2009), others contend that the business case makes room for social justice issues in an
otherwise profit-driven world (Soni 2000; Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). For
example, Ahmed’s (2007) work suggests that some practitioners use the diversity busi-
ness case (and economic language) when appealing to senior managers to enable social
justice and transformation within organizations. It is also argued that both discourses
have an important role to play in achieving social justice aims, even within profit-driven
organizations. Ahmed (2007) suggests that practitioners without a political purpose for
social change should choose the appropriate discourse based on what works best for
each audience in order to drive action. Therefore, ‘the business model and the social
justice model are used together, or there is a switching between them, which depends on
a judgement about which works when, and for whom’ (Ahmed 2007: 242). By switch-
ing between these models and attaching them to words valued by the organization,
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    267

practitioners make diversity appealing for uptake. Saying one will implement the busi-
ness case for diversity, does not necessarily equate to undertaking the business case for
diversity. Social change and action is enabled depending on how the discourses are
taken up within organizations and by whom.
Litvin (2006) takes a more disruptive position. Given the lack of solid empirical evi-
dence related to the efficacy of the business case discourse (Kochan et al. 2003), she
argues that the reframing of the business case discourse is simplistic, and does not allow
for new ways of talking and thinking about diversity. According to her, perhaps it starts
with new discourses rooted in different conceptualizations of the origins and purpose
of organizations and the employees that are found within them (Litvin 2006). Perhaps
these new discourses rest on the ideas of justice, equity, and basic employee rights, and
new conceptualizations of how organizations view their purpose in relation to the lives
of their members (Litvin 2006).
Positions on the business case versus the social justice case are polarized, and research
on the relationships between the two discourses is scant. A review of the extant literature
leaves one amid a sea of debate with very little reconciliation. The question, as posed by
Tomlinson and Schwabenland (2010), remains: Are the two discourses oppositional or
can they can they be reconciled? While reaching a conclusion in this regard is beyond
the scope of this chapter, a better understanding of the tensions and relationships
between the business case and social justice discourses is warranted. This understand-
ing is of particular interest given the fact that the efficacy and endurance of the business
case are central to this chapter.
In an effort to better understand the tensions and relationships between these dis-
courses, a small study was undertaken which examines organizations labelled by one
agency as ‘Canada’s Best Diversity Employers’. This annual list is created to acknowl-
edge and celebrate those organizations ‘that have exceptional workplace diversity and
inclusiveness programs’ (<http://www.canadastop100.com/diversity/>). For the pur-
poses of the Best Diversity Employer designation, organizations are evaluated in terms
of their diversity initiatives aimed at five employee groups, including: women; visible
minorities; persons with disabilities; Aboriginal peoples; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgendered/transsexual (LGBT) peoples. It was acknowledged that this focus on only
five groups (and the labelling of employees according to seemingly obvious, natural, and
immutable groupings) is in itself problematic. However, it was felt that such a list pro-
vides a snapshot of mainstream ‘doing’ (Prasad and Mills 1997) of DM.
The 2013 list contains fifty-five organizations and can be found in Table 12.1. For the
purposes of the current study, the list was refined by examining the mission and values
statements of all fifty-five organizations. Those that contained an emphasis on diversity
in either statement (indicated by the use of words such as diversity, inclusion, equity,
and various other forms of these words) were included in the study. It was anticipated
that organizations publish their mission and values statements on their website as an
important strategy for communicating their identity to stakeholders. While some
researchers have suggested that the mission and/or value statements may not always be
directly linked to organizational practice (Helms-Mills 2006), others have argued that
Table 12.1 2013 Canada’s best diversity
employers

Accenture Plc
Agrium Inc.
Amex Canada Inc.
BC Hydro
Boeing Canada Operations Limited
Bombardier Inc.
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Business Development Bank of Canada
Cameco Corporation
Cargill Limited
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
CIBC/Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Corus Entertainment Inc.
Dalhousie University
Dentons Canada LLP
ENMAX Corporation
Ernst & Young LLP
Health Canada/Santé Canada
Hewlett-Packard Canada Co.
Home Depot Canada, The
Information Services Corporation/ISC
Jazz Aviation LP
KPMG LLP
Loblaw Companies Limited
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Manitoba, Government of
Manitoba Hydro
Mount Sinai Hospital
National Bank Financial Group
New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults and Families Inc.
Newalta Corporation
Northwest Territories, Government of the
Ontario Public Service
Ottawa, City of
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Procter & Gamble Inc.
Rogers Communications Inc.
Saskatoon, City of
SaskPower
SaskTel
SGI/Saskatchewan Government Insurance
Shaw Communications Inc.
Shell Canada Limited
Stikeman Elliott LLP
TD Bank Group
(continued)
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    269

Table 12.1 (Continued)

TELUS Corporation
TransCanada Corporation
University of Toronto
University of Victoria
Vancouver, City of
VIHA/Vancouver Island Health Authority
William Osler Health System
Workers’ Compensation Board of Manitoba
Xerox Canada Inc.
YMCA of Greater Toronto

misleading mission and value statements can be damaging to a firm’s reputation and
credibility—important issues in stakeholder management (Mahon and Wartick 2003).
Therefore, it was deduced that organizations which place DM at the core of their mis-
sion and values statements would prove to be rich arenas for study. Twenty-two organ-
izations indicated an emphasis on diversity in such statements. Of these, eleven were
for-profit organizations and eleven were non-profit and/or government organizations.
Table 12.2 lists the organizations included in the study.
The intent of the study was to explore the discourses being used by these organiza-
tions to celebrate or ‘sell’ their emphasis on diversity, and the relationships between the
discourses therein. In each case, the HR, corporate social responsibility, and diversity
web pages were examined for mentions of diversity and the organizations’ reasons for
and commitment to diversity initiatives. That data was collected and content analysed.

Business Case Most Dominant Discourse

for Most Companies
The first step in the analysis was to identify the most dominant discourses. Overall, the
business case discourse was, by far, the most dominant discourse in both profit-driven
and not-for-profit-oriented organizations alike. Indeed, twenty-one of the twenty-two
organizations analysed engaged the business case discourse, thus supporting the afore-
mentioned suggestion that the business case for diversity may well be the most enduring
argument for effectively managing diversity. The business case discourse was engaged
in ways that are consistent with the main arguments outlined in the first section of this
chapter, ‘The Evolution of Diversity Management’. For example, diversity was linked to
a multicultural discourse and the assertion that diverse customers are best represented
by a diverse workforce. It is suggested that only through the diversity of employees can
organizations supply products, services, and customer care that meet the needs of dif-
ferent client or customer groups. This was consistent for both for-profit or non-profit
270    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

Table 12.2 For-profit and non-profit companies

selected for study
For-profit companies

Accenture Plc
Cameco Corporation
Dentons Canada LLP
Hewlett-Packard Canada Corp
Jazz Aviation LP
Loblaw Companies Limited
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Rogers Communication Inc.
Stikeman Elliott LLP
TD Bank Group
TransCanada Corporation

Non-profit companies

Dalhousie University
Health Canada
Information Services Corporation (ICS)
Manitoba, Government of
Ontario Public Service
Saskatoon, City of
University of Toronto
University of Victoria
William Osler Health System
Workers’ Compensation Board of Manitoba
YMCA of Greater Toronto

organizations. The organizations studied also explained the benefits of drawing ideas
from a diverse group of employees, and the richness in ideas, approaches, and experi-
ences, leading to creative and innovative solutions to business challenges.
This reliance on economic discourses, situated within a managerialist agenda, is wor-
risome for critics. They question leaving issues of employment equity in the hands of
managers, and suggest that this focus on the business case absolves organizations of their
moral responsibility and other worthwhile endeavours that do not directly tie to finan-
cial performance and labour market conditions (Prasad and Mills 1997; Bell, Connerley,
and Cocchiara 2009). It is not surprising that this discourse does not sit well with the
ideals of equity, fairness, and social justice (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). It is
argued that the underlying dominant business case is more consistent with a liberal eco-
nomic discourse, focused on responding to individual needs as opposed to equalizing
differences between groups (Wrench 2007). Critics argue that DM has moved EO away
from its intended moral and ethical intensions and the quest for egalitarianism, towards
a business strategy (Wrench 2007).
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    271

Social Justice Discourse Strongest in Non-Profit

Organizations
The social justice discourse was particularly strong in the non-profit organizations stud-
ied. As noted by Tomlinson and Schwabenland (2010), this is not surprising given the
fact that social justice is often central to the mandates of such organizations. They sug-
gest that increasing demands by funders for ‘cost-effective and professional manage-
ment’ (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010: 102), coupled with the expectation ‘to adopt
a “business-like” approach’ (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010: 107) may be at the
heart of the adoption of the business case discourse. The existence of the social justice
discourse was anticipated but, although much should be made of its presence and more
research on this is warranted, this is beyond the scope of this chapter. Of more interest is
the application of the social justice discourse and the resultant relationships between the
business case and social justice discourses.

Relationship between Business Case

and Social Justice Discourses
An attempt was made to tease out the relationships between these two discourses.
This was particularly interesting in cases where both the business case discourse and
the social justice discourse played a significant role. This occurred in fifteen of the
twenty-two organizations analysed (five for-profit and ten non-profit). The ‘employ-
ment equity as mandated’ discourse was also evident and appeared in seven of the eleven
for-profit organization websites. This is not surprising given that many of these organi-
zations are federally regulated and are required, by law, to have employment equity pro-
grammes. What may be surprising is the manner in which the discourses were engaged.
Our snapshot approach does not lend itself to an analysis of rationales behind, or orders
of adoption of, the discourses. However, careful review of language use is telling and
leads to some compelling questions.
One that is of interest is the inclusion of social justice arguments, alongside business
case arguments, within some of the for-profit organizations:

At TD, we believe that diversity is key to our success in the competitive global
marketplace . . . As part of our team, you will be treated fairly and recognized and
rewarded for your ability. You’ll have access to opportunity for career growth and
personal development. You’ll work in a culture that actively supports respect; where
the fundamental values of diversity and inclusion are ingrained and promoted in our
corporate policies and principals.1

1
TD Bank Group; see <http://www.td.com/careers/why-td/diversity/diversity.jsp>.
272    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

From this quote, it is evident that a space has been carved out within the business
case for social justice issues, but it appears that this is an effort to attract and retain the
most productive employees—or star performers. It is with regard to this goal that we see
organizations engage in discussions of inclusion, EO employers, justice, fairness, and
opportunity for all.
It is becoming more common for companies to promote equality and diversity
together (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010). Carving out a space for social justice
within the business case discourse supports claims that diversity builds on equality
and facilitates advocacy on behalf of a broader range of employees (Tomlinson and
Schwabenland 2010). This argument begs the question of whether organizations
recruit, develop, and promote on the basis of competence, group membership, or pos-
sibly both. By carving out a space for both discourses, focus and attention continue
to be placed on categories of people argued to be historically excluded: ‘The privi-
leges of inclusion may be delivered to a more diverse group than in the past’ (Wrench
2007: 110). The business case and social justice discourses are used, as Wrench
(2007: 110) states, to legitimize recruitment efforts and DM under a ‘natural function-
ing of a market comprised of individuals aspiring for’ access and upward mobility
within organizations.
There is evidence of the reliance on both the business case and social justice dis-
courses by non-profit-oriented organizations, which is consistent with the findings of
Tomlinson and Schwabenland (2010). In their study of UK non-profit organizations,
they too found that ‘the idea of the business case does seem to have taken hold in the
voluntary sector’ (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010: 117). For example, in many cases
this study found that organizations present a compelling social justice argument for
DM, which is immediately followed by a business case argument:

By providing a safe working environment and a manager who demonstrates the

importance of diversity, employees with varied backgrounds can become more com-
fortable within the workplace. This encourages employees to be actively involved in
the workplace, as well as share and discuss work issues and ideas with each other,
leading to increased satisfaction levels of employees, as well as higher productivity
and quality results.2

UVic is committed to equity, diversity, social justice and fostering a welcoming and
diverse learning, teaching and working environment. These are essential elements in
achieving excellence in research and education.3

Tomlinson and Schwabenland (2010), in their examination of the tensions between

the social justice and business case discourses, concluded that the instrumental aspect
(i.e. the business case) could never be completely dismissed, ‘because the demands on
organizations imposed by their goals, performance expectation and limited resources

2
Government of Manitoba; see <http://www.gov.mb.ca/govjobs/government/emplequity.html>.
3
University of Victoria.
 Organizational Benefits through Diversity Management    273

shape and constrain how diversity is produced and practised (Janssens and Zanoni
2005)’ (in Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010: 118).
The tensions presented by the use of these two discourses raise important ques-
tions. Could social justice discourses be presented solely for the purpose of mak-
ing the business case more compelling? If this is the case, what does this mean for
both the social justice and business case discourse? For example, does the presence
of the business case undermine social justice arguments? One could argue that the
social justice discourse is being co-opted (Dye and Mills 2011) to achieve business
case ends. Such co-optation is not uncommon (Dye 2011; Dye and Mills 2011), and
may be a skilful attempt to engage the competing discourse in a way that dilutes
it and renders it ‘accomplished’, thus requiring no further action. As discussed by
Humphries and Grice (1995), where organizations use the business case and social
justice discourses together, it is feared that ‘discourse of diversity is the discourse of
pragmatics clothed in the garments borrowed from “the discourse of equity” . . . con-
temporary preferences for an economic pragmatism in the promotion of EEO and
AA may mean that in the future communities may have little or inadequate labour
regulation and limited practice in public resistance to unfair exclusion from employ-
ment opportunities’ (Humphries and Grice 1995: 31). Although a closer examination
of the co-optation of discourse is beyond the scope of this chapter, it is, nonetheless,
important to consider this if we are to truly understand the complexities of the busi-
ness case. Suffice it to say that the discourse of the business case for DM is a compli-
cated one, including social justice language within a more dominant discourse of
profit and market share.

Conclusion

Simply stated, the business case for diversity is a utilitarian, managerial argument that
promises quantifiable organizational benefits for those organizations that can effectively
‘manage’ their diversity. Although some decry the business case’s position as firmly
planted within the functionalist paradigm, and assert that it privileges and universalizes
managerial interests (Tomlinson and Schwabenland 2010), others feel that the business
case, with its broad definitions of diversity and its focus on culture change and inclusiv-
ity, has made room for social justice aims and outcomes. Whatever the sentiment, the
business case discourse has endured.
Given the paucity of concrete evidence, some might consider it hard to understand
the enduring nature of the business case. If there is little empirical evidence to support
the business case, and some evidence to the contrary, why is it that organizations con-
tinue to rely on the business case discourse to support their diversity initiatives? One
could argue that the business case offers logical arguments for diversity initiatives
that, at face value, seem to make sense—the arguments are intuitive and simple; there-
fore, practitioners continue to trot out the business case whenever there is a need to
274    Kelly Dye and Golnaz Golnaraghi

defend old diversity programmes or legitimize new ones. Or do organizations cling to

the business case in order to maintain power and privilege in the face of more diverse
workplaces? Or perhaps the business case discourse is simply a vehicle through which
managers and CEOs can be convinced to commit resources to initiatives that are really
trying to ‘do the right thing’. If this is true, should we not use the business case in order to
affect change? Or, finally, is it simply another fad that has incredible staying power, feeds
the coffers of diversity gurus and consultants, and is continuously taught in business
schools, despite contradictory evidence? Much has been written about such fads and
fashions (see Dye, Mills, and Weatherbee 2005; Weatherbee, Dye, and Mills 2008) and
their enduring nature (i.e. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Lewin’s Three Stage Model
of Change). The motivations behind the continued reliance on the business case remain
unclear and warrant further research.
Regardless of the intentions behind the reliance on the business case, it is important
to consider both the intended and unintended consequences of doing so. Careful review
of work that is critical of the business case brings to light some important questions.
For example, what happens when diversity, as a means to a business end, is not eco-
nomically viable (Christiansen and Just 2012)? Or what happens when diversity, focused
on economic benefits, is vulnerable to market challenges? Could it be that the fight for
discrimination and racism will only be given importance when there is a business rea-
son for doing so? As stated by Wrench (2003: 10), within the business case discourse,
racism and discrimination are ‘indeed argued to be unacceptable, but only when it is
recognized that the outcome leads to inefficiency in the utilization of human resources’.
Furthermore, does the business case absolve organizations of moral responsibilities and
ethical behaviour? Does bottom line trump moral obligations? And finally, does a con-
tinued emphasis on categories of difference only serve to reify otherwise non-existent
boundaries and positions of power? It seems that there is much work to do if we are to
truly understand the business case for diversity and the multitude of contradictions that
it brings.

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 Pa rt I I I

DI V E R SI T Y
OF E M P I R IC A L
M E T HOD S
 Chapter 13

Ex pl ai n i n g Dive r sit y
M a nag e m e n t Ou tc ome s
What Can Be Learned from Quantitative
Survey Research?

Sandra Groeneveld

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the role of quantitative sur-
vey research in the field of diversity management (DM) in organizations. Surveys are
data collection methods and techniques which involve asking individuals questions in
order to produce statistics about characteristics of a population (Fowler 2009). These
characteristics may not only involve socio-demographic characteristics, but also opin-
ions, attitudes, and preferences, which makes survey research a very popular research
method in the social sciences. However, since diversity-related research questions are
often complex and multilayered, they will not so quickly be associated with statistics,
except perhaps for the monitoring of the representation of minority groups. Therefore,
before going through the findings of survey research in the field, I will briefly explain
the fit between survey research and the study of DM in detail.
In this chapter, DM is delimited to policies and interventions that organizations
develop and implement for managing a diverse workforce. I define diversity as all the
characteristics in which individuals may differ, although the policies examined in the
studies reviewed in this chapter usually focus on socio-demographic groups, such as
women and men, persons with different ethnic backgrounds, ages, disabilities, and
sexual orientations. Part 1 of this Handbook has already outlined the shift from equal
opportunity (EO) policies to DM, the accompanying change in policy orientations and
what this has meant for organizational diversity practices. Broadly speaking, EO poli-
cies are primarily motivated by social justice arguments, while DM is more strongly
282   Sandra Groeneveld

linked to the business case of diversity (Kirton and Greene 2010; also Chapter 12, this
volume). Notwithstanding the fact that policies that would once have fallen under the
label of EO policy are now incorporated in the DM practices in organizations (see, for
example, Kellough and Naff 2004), DM is targeted at bringing about the added value of
diversity for business-related objectives, rather than having an exclusive and explicit
aim to combat inequalities and discrimination in the workplace. This shift in focus
in organizational practice is reflected in academic literature. Since the 1990s, a line of
research has emerged focusing on this business case of diversity, which tries to disen-
tangle the processes that foster or hamper the realization of the potential benefits of
diversity for organizations. Many of these processes involve attitudes and behaviours
of employees, leading scholars to examine work-related outcomes of diversity on the
individual level and on the level of the work group, often by surveying employees (see
Chapter 5, this volume).
Survey research on DM and its outcomes is emerging. Whereas these research
efforts are certainly inspired by the findings of previous studies on diversity and their
outcomes, I believe that the growing body of survey research on human resource
(HR) management, work-related outcomes, and performance has been another
important driver of survey research into DM outcomes. In fact, survey research
fits very well with the examination of the incidence and outcomes of management
policies and practices, since employees themselves are the best source of informa-
tion in finding out about the practice of management and whether this influences
their attitudes and perceptions. The employee outcomes central to these studies,
such as job satisfaction, work motivation, commitment, and turnover are, further-
more, often considered important predictors of employee, team, and organizational
performance.
The chapter is organized as follows. The next section provides an overview of recent
research articles on DM and its outcomes, using survey research methods. I will distin-
guish between organizational surveys and employee surveys, and discuss the main find-
ings and the contributions of these studies to our knowledge about DM outcomes. The
chapter proceeds with an example of a recent survey research study among public sector
employees in the Netherlands. While explaining the design and results of this study, spe-
cific advantages and disadvantages of survey research will be touched upon. I will then
go deeper into four main weaknesses of current survey research on DM outcomes, and
identify the main gaps in our knowledge that need to be addressed in future research.
A research agenda for future survey research on DM outcomes will be outlined in the
concluding section.

Overview of the Field

In view of this chapter’s focus on studies inspired by the business case of diversity since
the mid-1990s, I start with a brief discussion of survey research that has been conducted
 Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes    283

with the aim of identifying factors that foster or hamper diversity outcomes which boost
organizational performance, the so-called diversity dividend.

Work Group Diversity Outcomes

Several theoretical and review studies published since the mid-1990s have shown
that, from an organizational perspective, work group diversity may have both
positive and negative outcomes. Milliken and Martins’s (1996) review of the man-
agement literature identifies possible mediating factors between different types of
diversity, and individual-level, group-level, and organizational-level outcomes.
Their study identifies four common consequences of diversity that affect diversity
outcomes, positively or negatively: affective consequences, cognitive consequences,
symbolic consequences, and communication-related consequences. By distinguish-
ing between different mediating factors, this much cited review article offers a first
explanation for previous inconsistent findings on the diversity and performance
relationship. Van Knippenberg, de Dreu, and Homan (2004) amended this study by
identifying two dominant perspectives in the diversity and performance literature,
highlighting positive cognitive processes related to diversity and negative affective
processes respectively. Their categorization and elaboration model (CEM) integrates
an information and decision-making perspective, and a social categorization per-
spective, on diversity. Their model shows that there are several mediating and mod-
erating factors simultaneously at play that hamper or foster productive processes in
diverse work groups.
What both these two key articles have in common is that they point at the under-
lying mechanisms through which diversity outcomes come about. Following these two
studies, many empirical studies have been conducted focusing on one or more factors
making up or influencing these processes, and amending previous studies on direct
effects. Empirical studies of work group diversity outcomes can be mainly found in
the domain of social and organizational psychology. Survey research techniques are
an important part of the two types of research strategies that are most commonly used
in this field: experimental designs (laboratory experiments and field experiments in
which surveys are administered to members of the control and treatment groups) and
field studies (case studies of organizations within which work groups and/or individ-
ual employees are surveyed) (see, for example, the meta-analytical studies of Bell et al.
(2011) and Horwitz and Horwitz (2007) for an overview).
Identifying mediators and moderators in the diversity and performance relationship
provides management practice with possible intervention points. For instance, recent
studies emphasize the need to create organizational climates that are inclusive of all
employees as a necessary condition for realizing the potential benefits of work group
diversity (Shore et al. 2011; Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015). The emerging literature on
inclusiveness essentially built on a integration-and-learning perspective on workforce
diversity, which ‘links diversity to work processes—the way people do and experience
284   Sandra Groeneveld

the work—in a manner that makes diversity a resource for learning and adaptive change’
(Ely and Thomas 2001: 240). Shore and colleagues (2011: 1265) argue that ‘diverse work
groups that adopt an Integration-and-Learning perspective incorporate both unique-
ness (through viewing diversity as a resource) and belongingness (through members
feeling valued and respected)’.
Using a survey completed by 1324 employees working in 100 departments of a
regional site of a large biomedical company, Nishii (2013) examined the benefits of
an inclusive climate in gender-diverse work groups. This study is one of the few that
empirically examines and validates the measurement of climate for inclusion. Nishii
(2013: 1766) finds evidence for a moderating role of climate within the relationships
between gender diversity, conflict, and satisfaction: ‘[B]‌oth relationship and task con-
flict were significantly lower in gender diverse groups with high climate for inclusion
than in diverse groups with low climate for inclusion. [. . .] [T]he negative association
between relationship conflict and satisfaction disappears when climate for inclusion
is high.’
Other research articles in this strand of research adopt organizational and manage-
rial characteristics, such as leadership and HR policies, as contextual factors in their
models, explaining the diversity and performance relationship. An increasing focus
on the role of leadership can be observed, which is very relevant to the study of DM.
By explicitly examining the influence of managing practices, these studies go beyond
studying outcomes of diversity as such. In their study of sixty-two research and develop-
ment (R&D) teams, Kearney and Gebert (2009) draw on the processes identified in the
CEM model and find that transformational leadership fosters elaboration processes and
collective team identification of diverse teams. Nishii and Mayer (2009), in their study
of 4500 employees within 348 supermarket departments, find that the role of leader-
ship is important for creating patterns of inclusion within diverse work groups, and thus
for reducing employee turnover. Both studies are good examples of the use of survey
research methods and techniques with a large sample size on both the work group and
individual level, and of the use of advanced statistical techniques to analyse the hypoth-
esized relationships between diversity, leadership, and performance. I will come back to
these methodological issues later on in this chapter.
Articles that examine the moderating role of HR and diversity policies in the relation-
ship between diversity and its work-related outcomes are by far the least common. For
example, Jehn and Bezrukova (2004) examine training-oriented and diversity-oriented
HR practices as moderators of the diversity and performance relationship. Their study
shows that training and diversity-oriented HR practices do not affect the performance
of demographically diverse groups. Furthermore, and again contrary to what had been
expected, training and diversity-oriented HR practices negatively affect the perfor-
mance of work groups that are diverse in level of education. However, although their
study is quantitative as to research technique (a field study of one organization within
which a large number of work groups are examined), they did not use survey research
techniques.
 Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes    285

Diversity Management Outcomes

Despite the growing body of literature on the relationships between diversity in organi-
zations or work groups and outcomes on the individual level (job satisfaction, motiva-
tion, turnover intention), the team level (conflicts, cohesion, performance), and the
organizational level (turnover, performance), not much is known about whether and
how DM affects these relationships. So far, more general research questions about the
extent to which DM succeeds in producing desirable outcomes have not been answered
either. All in all, compared to the studies of diversity outcomes, (survey) research into
the outcomes of DM is more recent and still fewer in number, and is based in multiple
disciplines. It is fragmented and characterized by multiple theories, methodologies,
and measurements (Foster Curtis and Dreachslin 2008; Guillaume et al. 2014).
The conceptualizations and measurements of DM particularly vary. This may impair
the reliability and validity of the findings. Whereas DM is generally distinguished from
EO and affirmative action (AA) policies, what exactly DM entails remains unclear. Some
studies take a comprehensive view of DM by including both policy and management
programmes and practices aimed at both the attraction and management of a diverse
workforce. For example, Pitts (2009: 330) states that DM encompasses ‘elements of both
affirmative action/EEO and diversity management programs. These programs [. . .]
consider all diversity-related processes and programs under a large diversity manage-
ment umbrella.’ In contrast, other studies focus on specific DM programmes, policies,
practices, or interventions. Some of these studies depart from an organizational policy
approach and examine the effectiveness of specific diversity policies. Others explicitly
take a management focus and conceptualize DM by focusing on management practices
targeted at a diverse workforce within organizations. All in all, the variety in approaches
to DM adopted in these studies explains the inconsistency in the field and impedes
research progress.
In the remainder of this section, two types of survey research into DM outcomes are
briefly discussed. First, a short overview will be given of survey research among organi-
zations which mostly take a policy approach to DM. Second, studies based on employee
surveys are discussed. These increasingly take a management approach.

Organizational Surveys
To my knowledge, the study of Rynes and Rosen (1995) is the first, and one of the very
few, organizational surveys on diversity-related issues in organizations. It examines
what factors affect the adoption of diversity training and its perceived effectiveness by
surveying 785 HR professionals. This study explicitly draws on HR management studies
and studies on diversity outcomes. It shows that only one third of respondents perceived
the adopted diversity training in their organization as successful, although, at the same
time, the results indicate a change in employee attitudes to diversity, with more positive
attitudes after training. Unfortunately, the study adopts a general and subjective meas-
urement of perceived training success, by asking respondents to evaluate the overall
286   Sandra Groeneveld

success of the diversity training on a five-point scale. Hence, conclusions on the precise
outcomes cannot be drawn.
Other studies, based on organizational surveys, are more explicit about the out-
come variable, but in doing so seem to move away from the business case approach of
diversity. Instead, they assess diversity policy effectiveness by examining its impact on
minority representation. Although employment equity and inclusion may be consid-
ered necessary conditions for the business case of diversity being realized, these stud-
ies do not assess to what extent and in what way DM may positively affect the diversity
and performance relationship. For example, Naff and Kellough (2003: 1307) assess the
effectiveness of DM programmes of US federal agencies by examining the relation-
ship between five components of DM programmes and three indicators of success or
failure: promotions, dismissals, and turnover. Based on a survey of 160 federal agen-
cies and subagencies (Kellough and Naff 2004), it is concluded that, all in all, these
programmes have barely had any effect on these outcome indicators.
Kalev, Dobbin, and Kelly (2006) examine the effects of seven diversity programmes
on the proportion of native and ethnic minority men and women in management. Their
study combines administrative data from the annual equal employment opportunity
(EEO) reports US private employers are required to file, with an organizational survey
among a random sample of establishments in this dataset of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, comprising of all EEO reports in the period 1971–2002. Their
findings point at the importance of assigning responsibility for diversity: ‘Structures
that embed accountability, authority, and expertise (affirmative action plans, diversity
committees and taskforces, diversity managers and departments) are the most effec-
tive means of increasing the proportions of white women, black women, and black men
in private sector management’ (Kalev, Dobbin, and Kelly 2006: 612). However, even
the most effective programmes still have only modest effects on the representation of
women and ethnic minorities in managerial positions.
Based on a comparable database of annual EEO reports in the Netherlands, Stijn
Verbeek and I examined the effects of diversity programmes on the representation of
ethnic minorities in Dutch organizations (Groeneveld and Verbeek 2012; Verbeek and
Groeneveld 2012). We concluded that assigning responsibility can be evaluated most
positively, even when, in the short span of a year, effects of separate policies on ethnic
minority representation are absent (Verbeek and Groeneveld 2012). In addition, pol-
icy programmes targeted at managing a diverse workforce do show modest positive
effects on ethnic minority representation in the course of a year, whereas more tradi-
tional EEO programmes targeted at the influx of ethnic minorities into the organiza-
tion do not show any effect (Groeneveld and Verbeek 2012).

Employee Surveys
One of the earliest studies I encountered that uses survey research techniques among
employees to examine DM outcomes draws both substantively and methodologically on
the field studies on diversity outcomes mentioned. Gilbert and Ivancevich (2001) exam-
ine the effects of DM on work group attachment and organizational commitment of
 Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes    287

employees by comparing two organizations, one that could be considered as exemplary

with respect to DM and a second organization with less DM efforts, and those primar-
ily motivated by EEO. In both organizations, a sample of employees was surveyed with
respect to attitudinal attachment. Results suggest that DM contributes to the attachment
of both majority and minority employees.
The publication of the Diversity Research Network on the effects of diversity on busi-
ness performance can be placed in the same research tradition and is frequently cited
(Kochan et al. 2003). While, in fact, the relationship between diversity and business per-
formance is central to this study, it explores the way in which, among others, HR policies
and practices produce beneficial outcomes of diversity, by focusing on the moderating
role of the organizational context. The study initially aimed at including a large num-
ber of organizations but instead ended up with four case study reports of four organi-
zations, which were also reported in separate publications (see, for example, Jehn and
Bezrukova 2004). Some case studies use secondary analyses of existing employee sur-
veys. For that reason I discuss this publication here. The case studies largely draw on the
field studies on diversity outcomes, as discussed, and draw on a management approach
to diversity. In so doing, this publication can be considered a marker in the evolution
of diversity and performance studies, and a starting point for employee surveys on DM
and its business-related outcomes.
In addition to variation regarding conceptualization and measurement of DM, the
survey research on DM and business-related outcomes uses different outcome indica-
tors. The majority of studies use one or more work-related outcomes which have proven
to be predictors of employee performance, such as job satisfaction, work motivation,
and organizational commitment. Some also include a measure of performance, but,
given the survey research methodology, based on respondents’ perceptions of work
group or organizational performance.
Most studies are, again, US-based. Public management scholars in particular have
examined DM outcomes, probably since public organizations face a double DM chal-
lenge: on the one hand, being a model employer providing employees with a fair work-
place and, on the other, managing a diverse workforce in such a way that it improves
performance (Groeneveld and Van de Walle 2010). The majority of publications exam-
ine DM outcomes in US federal agencies, use the same dataset, the Federal Human
Capital Survey, and, as a consequence, apply the same measurement of DM (Choi
2009; Pitts 2009; Choi and Rainey 2010, 2014). The studies show that there is a posi-
tive link between DM, job satisfaction, and perceived work group performance (Pitts
2009). Furthermore, DM affects these outcomes more strongly for women and ethnic
minorities compared to men and natives. Choi (2009) and Choi and Rainey (2010)
examine DM as a moderator affecting the relationship between diversity and affective
outcomes (job satisfaction and turnover intentions) and perceived performance. Their
results show that DM is particularly effective in managing racially diverse work groups.
Analysing the same dataset, Choi and Rainey (2013) find that DM affects job satisfaction
more strongly in the presence of fair organizational procedures. However, ethnic minor-
ity employees have lower levels of job satisfaction in the presence of a combination of
288   Sandra Groeneveld

DM and fair organizational procedures. Probably this is due to the ‘identity blindness’
that fair organizational procedures tend to imply. In such an organizational environ-
ment, ethnic minority employees may feel their uniqueness inadequately recognized,
while, at the same time, they may have high expectations in this regard given the organi-
zation’s efforts in managing diversity.
Employee surveys among a representative sample of the workforce in a specific sec-
tor or country are relatively uncommon. Using an internet panel survey among a rep-
resentative sample of Dutch public sector employees, I found positive relationships
between DM policies and practices, and employee retention (Groeneveld 2011). I will
discuss this survey in more detail in the next section. Houkamau and Boxall (2011), in
their telephone survey of 500 New Zealand workers, examined employees’ perceptions
of, and responses to, DM in their organizations. Their results show that employees who
perceive more DM practices in their organization are more satisfied with their job, are
more committed, and have higher levels of trust in their employer.
All in all, previous survey research among employees has predominantly found
positive effects of DM policies and practices on employee outcomes and percep-
tions of performance, although effects may vary across groups and are dependent
on the context and measurement of both DM and its outcomes. And yet little is
known about how effects of DM can be explained. Following research on the diver-
sity and performance relationship, as discussed in the previous section, ‘Diversity
Management Outcomes’ research on DM outcomes should focus more on the impact
DM has on the mediating and moderating factors this research has already identi-
fied. In doing so, it will help us understand when and why some programmes are
successful, while others are not. For example, if DM programmes are perceived to be
favouring specific groups in an organization, this could reinforce categorization pro-
cesses. This may explain backlash effects of DM comparable to those found in previ-
ous studies on attitudes towards AA programmes (Harrison et al. 2006). If, on the
other hand, DM programmes are helpful tools in the hands of managers, enabling
them to achieve an inclusive organizational climate, social categorization processes
could be countered, and information and decision-making processes enhanced
(Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015).

Diversity Management
Outcomes: Survey Research among
Dutch Public Sector Employees

Several of my own studies on DM outcomes have been based on an employee survey

among a representative sample of Dutch public sector employees in 2010 and 2011 (Celik,
Ashikali, and Groeneveld 2011, 2013; De Ruijter and Groeneveld 2011; Groeneveld
2011; Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015). Both the 2010 and 2011 editions were based on
 Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes    289

an internet panel with employees who had agreed to participate in the research. Their
agreement was asked for in a large-scale survey project among Dutch public sector
workers, which was based on a probability sample of over 100,000 public sector employ-
ees. The questionnaire contains items on DM, diversity policies, diversity attitudes and
beliefs, attitudes towards diversity policies, leadership, employee outcomes such as job
satisfaction, commitment, and turnover, and performance. In spring 2013, the research
was replicated and the questionnaire elaborated, with, among others, items on inclusive
organizational climate added.
The results show that employment equity policies targeted at specific minority groups
are most commonly used in their organization, although frequently combined with pol-
icies that can be labelled as DM. Employees, on average, have positive attitudes towards
diversity and diversity policies, although some differences between public subsectors
can be observed. It seems that in sectors with organizations that are most engaged in
DM and policies, employees are more doubtful about the value and effectiveness of DM
and policies (De Ruijter and Groeneveld 2011). Furthermore, it is concluded that poli-
cies targeted at managing diversity effectively, in particular training and development
trajectories aimed at creating an inclusive culture, show the strongest associations with
positive employee outcomes, such as increased work motivation and commitment, and
organizational outcomes, such as a more positive diversity climate (Celik, Ashikali, and
Groeneveld 2011, 2013; De Ruijter and Groeneveld 2011).
Compared to native Dutch employees, ethnic minority employees have a more
positive attitude to DM and policies, and are more positive about potential positive
effects of diversity (diversity beliefs). However, the relationship between the per-
ceived presence of DM in the organization and employee outcomes does not differ
across groups (Groeneveld 2011). As such, we do not have any signals of backlash
effects occurring.
In order to explain the DM and employee outcome relationship, we examined the
mediating role of leadership and perceived inclusiveness of organizational climate. It
was hypothesized that employee perceptions of DM are affected by the behaviours of
direct supervisors (Purcell and Hutchinson 2007). The supervisor also influences the
perceived inclusiveness of the organizational culture, for supervisors can be considered
the agents of creating inclusiveness (Nishii and Mayer 2009; Shore et al. 2011). In par-
ticular, a transformational leadership style of direct supervisors is expected to be sup-
portive, since this style balances attention for individual growth and inspiration and for
collective endeavours of the work group or organization.
The results show that the relationship between perceived DM and commitment
and retention of employees is mediated by the inclusiveness of the organizational
culture (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015). We also found evidence that diversity poli-
cies that are targeted at creating an inclusive organizational climate affect perceived
inclusiveness of the organizational climate and employee outcomes particularly pos-
itively (Celik, Ashikali, and Groeneveld 2013). Finally, a transformational leadership
style by the direct supervisor contributes to the positive outcomes of DM (Ashikali
and Groeneveld 2015). These studies confirm the importance of targeting diversity
290   Sandra Groeneveld

interventions at the development of an inclusive organizational culture and accom-

panying leadership behaviours, in order to maintain and effectively manage a diverse
public sector workforce.
The external validity of these survey studies among a representative sample of Dutch
public sector employees is relatively high, particularly when compared to qualitative
case studies. In addition, by unravelling the causal chain between DM and employee
outcomes we shed light on possible explanatory factors involved. However, the
cross-sectional design limits the possibilities of making causal inferences. Moreover,
our results have all been based on employee perceptions of all variables. Although the
construct validity of the variables involved has been tested, the analysis in this study is
undoubtedly partly influenced by common method bias (Podsakoff et al. 2003; Meier
and O’Toole 2013). Common method bias exists ‘when some of the common variation
between two concepts is a function of the common measurement and/or source used to
gather the data’ (Meier and O’Toole 2013: 431). It yields systematic measurement errors
and may inflate relationships between variables. DM, transformational leadership, and
organizational culture were measured by perceptions of individual employees in one
questionnaire, together with the dependent variable. The observed variances therefore
will be partly due to having a common respondent and a common item context. These
and other methodological issues related to doing survey research on DM outcomes are
dealt with in the next section.

Methodological Issues in Survey

Research in the Study of Diversity
Management Outcomes

The four methodological issues I will discuss in this section underlie debates about the
usefulness of survey research in the study of diversity, but often remain implicit. I will
illustrate them by examples from survey studies on DM outcomes. All four issues are
related to the validity of studies based on survey methods.

External Validity: The Role of Context

Survey research as a quantitative research strategy is generally strong with regard to
external validity compared to qualitative research strategies, albeit, of course, to the
degree that a representative sample of the population is being analysed. Statistical gener-
alization implies that findings that were based on analyses of a sample are generalized to
the population. The question arises, however, regarding to what extent findings can actu-
ally be generalized. Studies on diversity outcomes are commonly case studies in which
survey research techniques are used to examine attitudes and behaviour of employees
 Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes    291

in different work groups in one or more organizations. External generalizability is then

restricted to the specific context of the case. Furthermore, the organizational context is
often only used post hoc to interpret the findings or to provide explanations for their
deviation from findings in previous studies (compare Joshi and Roh 2009).
The review of studies on DM outcomes reveals that survey research techniques are
used to examine the attitudes and behaviour of employees in a wider context compared
with the studies on diversity outcomes (Pitts 2009; Groeneveld 2011). However, whereas
these samples allow generalization to a population of employees across organizational
contexts (but in a specific sector or country), such studies do suffer from problems with
regard to the content and internal validity of the research results. These issues will be
discussed in the next section, ‘Content and Construct Validity’.

Content and Construct Validity

Diversity-related concepts are often complex, multilayered, and multi-interpretable.
The review of survey research studies in this chapter reveals that a validated meas-
urement of diversity policies and DM has not yet been developed. Although employ-
ees themselves are a valuable source of information in finding out about the practice
of management, when measuring DM by surveying employees several problems arise.
First, the construct validity of existing measurements may be questioned. If we take,
for example, the measurement applied in the Federal Human Capital Survey, on which
several research articles have been based (Choi 2009; Pitts 2009; Choi and Rainey 2010,
2013), DM is measured by a three-item measure on a five-point Likert-type scale:

1. Supervisors/team leaders in my work unit are committed to a workforce repre-

sentative of all segments of society.
2. Policies and programmes promote diversity in the workplace (for example,
recruiting minorities and women, training in awareness of diversity issues,
mentoring).
3. Managers/supervisors/team leaders work well with employees of different
backgrounds.

The researchers have tried to provide a broad conception of DM, but, in doing so,
essentially different concepts have been put together in one measure. In fact, policies
(item 2), management practices (item 1), and their effectiveness (item 3), are combined
within this single measure. The measure is, most of the time, labelled as DM, although
Pitts (2009) also refers to measuring a ‘diversity culture’ when using this measure-
ment. Replicating this measurement in a Dutch context, the items showed only moder-
ate correlations, resulting in a low reliability of the scale in contrast to the high alpha
scores found in the US context. Related to this, what DM or diversity policies mean
to respondents may be context-dependent. If a sample of a national workforce is sur-
veyed, respondents are employed in a variety of work group and organizational settings.
292   Sandra Groeneveld

The substance, but also the meaning, of certain policies may very well differ across these
settings. Likewise, they mean different things in different national contexts.
Second, what policies or management activities mean to individual employees may be
different from what executive management or HR professionals have intended. Wright
and Nishii (2007), for example, distinguish between intended, actual, and perceived
human resources management (HRM) policies, a distinction that is taken up by many
scholars to explain how HRM, work-related outcomes, and performance are linked.
Applied to diversity policies and management, their model assumes that diversity policy
and management practices actually implemented by managers can be different from
those intended when formulated at the organizational level. Perceived practices result
from the interpretation of the actual policy by individual employees. These perceptions
may affect employee outcomes that, in turn, affect organizational performance.

Internal Validity: Multi-Level Theories Require

Multi-Level Research Designs
The links between work group diversity, DM, and their outcomes are expected to be
influenced by several mediating and moderating factors. Furthermore, these hypoth-
esized mediating processes occur across different levels: the organizational level (at
which diversity policies are formulated), the work group or team level (at which super-
visors implement diversity policies and at which consequences of diversity actually
occur), and the individual level (at which diversity as well as policies targeted at work
group diversity are perceived). In the recent years, HRM scholars have been analysing
the mediating processes between HRM and performance across different levels (Wright
and Nishii 2007). The distinction between intended, actual, and perceived diversity pol-
icies, as discussed, implies that we need theories that link these multiple levels of analy-
sis. Multi-level theories are an important step forward and require multi-level designs,
with data collection on the distinguished levels of analysis. So far, however, most survey
research designs only include one level of analysis.

Internal Validity: Causal Relationships

and Common Method Bias
Another advantage of a multi-level design with data collection on different levels is the
assurance of independent measurements of independent and dependent variables. In
this way, problems associated with common method bias can be prevented (Podsakoff
et al. 2003; Meier and O’Toole 2013). Studies on the relationships between DM and their
outcomes that are based on a survey of either managers or employees, often suffer from
biases as a result of having a common respondent and a common item context. Common
method bias may lead to spurious results, to the extent that the error in the measurement
 Explaining Diversity Management Outcomes    293

of DM is related to the error in the measurement of its outcomes. For example, managers
may overestimate both their DM efforts and their performance. Likewise, employees’
general attitudes towards their work context may affect their perceptions of both DM
initiatives and its outcomes. Related to this, a more general concern is that self-reported
outcomes in surveys are often inflated (Horwitz and Horwitz 2007).
Common method bias can be a problem in survey research on diversity outcomes,
since my review showed that, in studies that actually found positive relationships
between DM and favourable outcomes, both independent and dependent variables are
measured by surveying the same respondents. Multi-level designs may solve this by
measuring the independent and dependent variables separately, for instance by measur-
ing DM at the organizational level, DM practices at the level of the work unit by survey-
ing direct supervisors and perceptions, and outcomes at the level of employees.

Conclusion: New Avenues for Survey

Research on Diversity Management
Outcomes

This chapter has focused on what survey research has recently contributed to our
knowledge of DM outcomes. To this end it provided an overview of recent survey
research articles on DM outcomes. This review revealed inconsistent results: whereas
organizational surveys have yielded inconclusive findings with regard to the outcomes
of diversity policies and management, employee surveys have generally shown positive
relationships between diversity policies and management and employee outcomes. The
inconsistency of the findings was then further explained by discussing four main meth-
odological weaknesses of current survey research practice in the field of DM. These
methodological issues may have severe implications for the substantive conclusions that
can be drawn, and lead us to identifying the main gaps in our knowledge.
First, as can be derived from the review of studies in this chapter, research progress is
impeded by the lack of consistency in the measurement of the central concepts. Survey
research should particularly allow for reliable measures, as well as developing and test-
ing the construct validity of the measurements. Research on DM would very much ben-
efit from efforts to develop measurements of DM and related concepts, and to validate
measurements across contexts.
Second, problems related to the internal validity of existing survey research on diver-
sity outcomes brings us to more thoroughly examining why-questions: Why would DM
yield positive or negative outcomes? Studies based on organizational surveys and those
based on employee surveys both have their strengths and weaknesses, but both particu-
larly fall short in explaining DM outcomes, as this would require insight in intermediate
processes that diversity and DM imply across levels in organizations. Diversity processes
occur at several levels of analysis: the individual, dyad, work group, and organizational
294   Sandra Groeneveld

level, but multi-level studies are still few in number (Jackson, Joshi, and Erhardt 2003).
Multi-level designs may better capture the cross-level interactions diversity-related
processes yield. Following multi-level studies on diversity outcomes and the increas-
ing number of multi-level studies in the field of HRM and performance studies on DM
outcomes would profit from multi-level designs. Given the statistical techniques that
are currently available, it can be expected that multi-level studies will emerge in the
field of DM.
Third, existing multi-level studies on diversity outcomes generally focus on the indi-
vidual and work group level within a specific organizational context. For explaining
DM outcomes, the inclusion of the organizational level as a source of variance would,
however, be of theoretical importance. A recent example of such a study is based on a
survey among 155,922 employees across 395 health-care organizations in England (King
et al. 2012). Results show that the extent of diversity training in organizations affects eth-
nic minorities’ experiences of discrimination. Personal experiences of employees with
diversity training lead to higher job satisfaction, whereas the organizational prevalence
of diversity training as such does not have an effect.
Finally, this example also shows that survey research, in principle, allows for a wider
scope compared to other research methods. The problems related to external valid-
ity that were discussed in this chapter draw our attention to when-questions: When
or under what conditions and in what contexts does DM lead to positive or negative
outcomes? In order to answer this question, survey research methods could be used
to measure DM outcomes across contexts, be it across national contexts, sectors, or
organizations.
If survey research on DM outcomes acknowledges current drawbacks and tries to
reduce its potential sources of error, as I have outlined, I believe the strengths of survey
research on DM outcomes would be fully utilized and its potential contribution to the
field realized. In more general terms, survey research on DM outcomes, in my opinion,
would profit from combining insights from the literature on diversity outcomes with
those from the literature on the HRM and performance relationship. Furthermore,
I would substantially build on the work of Benschop (2001), who, in her qualitative case
study research, developed a theoretical model incorporating these insights. Now, more
than ten years later, both literatures provide extensive theoretical work that enable us to
amend and fine-tune this model, as well as survey research and statistical techniques to
put it to the test. Developing survey research in this direction would improve our under-
standing of ‘what works’ (Pitts and Wise 2010). It would not only contribute to academic
work on DM outcomes, but also be beneficial for managers confronted with the chal-
lenge of managing a diverse work group effectively.

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 Chapter 14

Challe ng e s
and Opp ort u ni t i e s
Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research
and Practice

Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde 1

Introduction

It is not unusual to hear concerns that organizational diversity literature is over-

weighted in positivist research and that managerialist approaches dominate diversity
management practice (Nkomo and Cox 1996; Dickens 1999; Janssens and Zanoni 2005;
Willmott 2005; Nkomo and Stewart 2006; Noon 2007; Hart 2010; McMahon 2010).
Management of diversity in organizations has been found to be coupled with improve-
ment of business efficiency variables (Dickens 1999; Noon 2007; Hart 2010), mainte-
nance of organizational economic performance (Janssens and Zanoni 2005; McMahon
2010), and the normalization of organizational members to reduce conflict and to
maintain control (Nkomo and Cox 1996; Willmott 2005; Nkomo and Stewart 2006).
Paradoxically, researchers have found that diversity management programmes exist in
organizations alongside with discrimination (Nkomo and Stewart 2006).
A second broad criticism is that social psychology frameworks (e.g., social identity
theory) dominate theoretical approaches in this body of work. Researchers have paid
much attention to understanding the constructions of identities of social demographic
categories such as race or gender. Over time, scholars have reflected on two key prob-
lems resulting from this over-focus. In the first instance, concentration on one or two
identities ignores multiple interacting and conflicting identities in individuals’ actions
(McCall 2005; Bagilhole 2010). Secondly, focus on individual identity tends to underplay

1
This chapter was an equal collaboration between the two authors.
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    299

or to neglect the effects of other levels of analysis such as organization and organizing
processes (Ashcroft 2004; Martin 2006). Scholars such as Zanoni et al. (2010: 12) agree
that predominance of social psychological approaches in this literature has resulted ‘in
a narrow understanding of the processes leading to inequality, namely one that largely
overlooks structural, context-specific elements’.
In this chapter we focus on three calls for future diversity research that emanate from
the above general criticisms. The first call is for more enquiry that is multi-level in analy-
sis, reflecting the view that individuals with intersecting multiple identities are situated
within multiple organizational, institutional, and social structures (Zanoni et al. 2010).
Secondly, there is a call for more study of subtle linguistic and non-linguistic mecha-
nisms of discrimination in the workplace. This includes inter-individual focus such as
inter-individual incivility (Cortina 2008) or everyday examples of social exclusion (Van
Laer and Janssens 2011). It can also include the observation, documentation, and analy-
sis of formal and operationalized organizational processes that produce inequalities in
workplaces (Janssens and Zanoni 2005) or ‘the means by which groups are able to secure
their vested interests within the organizational structure’ (Mumby 1987: 117). The last
call we wish to note emanates from the observation that diversity research and prac-
tices often serves to perpetuate the status quo (Grimes 2002). This articulates as the need
for diversity research design to more deeply problematize basic assumptions—such as
the origins of diversity concepts (Nkomo and Stewart 2006), the assumptions of diver-
sity management pedagogy (Litvin 1997), or the unquestioned social constructions of
organizations. Over the years, scholars have noted that too few diversity studies address
the intents of these calls empirically (Nkomo and Cox 1996; Nkomo and Stewart 2006;
Zanoni et al. 2010).
Our aim in this chapter is to demonstrate that textual analysis methodologies
have much potential to serve this assembly of identified needs. For researchers in
non-positivist and non-essentialist theoretical positions, textual analysis can be used
to produce expository diversity studies that are empirical, contextual, and situational,
with multi-levels of analysis. Critical approaches using textual analysis add the benefit
of a problematized status quo, challenging assumptions of both management research-
ers and practitioners. When one has specific, concrete, and numerous details about how
power within organizations is created, organized, structured, distributed, entrenched,
enacted, resisted, or challenged, one can see how asymmetrical differences in power
and inequities are subtly and, in some cases, invisibly produced among and between
social groups. Textual analysis can serve to illuminate the enactment of injustice on
individuals by other individuals, by organizing processes unintentionally or unknow-
ingly designed to be unfair, or by institutional discrimination. These illuminations can,
in turn, be used to create awareness, strategies for resistance, provocation for change,
and improvement in sets of evidence for legal cases, challenges, and settlements—the
banes of every human resource department.
This chapter assists those interested in organizational diversity studies. We wish to
offer understanding beyond functionalist and interpretive approaches in order to
actively challenge the assumptions underlying traditional organizational diversity
300    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

management theory and practice. To that end, we will first discuss, in the broadest
sense, what textual analysis is, what it has to offer, and its disparate uses in organiza-
tional diversity research. Then we will highlight findings in diversity research that
show the different ways in which textual analysis produces specific but wide-ranging
examples of how asymmetry in social groups in organizations is created. Next we pre-
sent and explore in detail the use of Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory and the
application of Helms Mills et al.’s (2010) critical sensemaking in the context of studying
diversity in organizations. We believe that these two approaches offer much potential for
delivering specific, contextual, empirical, and multi-level analysis, exploring how asym-
metry in social groups is simultaneously and mutually constructed by individuals and
by organizational structures.

Textual Analysis in Different

Theoretical Perspectives

Human actions, it has been argued (Weick 1995; Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld 2005),
are not based on people’s knowledge, but rather on whether they can make sense of the
information presented to them. Textual analysis is one method that researchers can use
to explore how people do this, by studying human interaction with, and response to,
information in the form of language, symbols, and sign systems. Understandably then,
the range of textual data that can be used is quite broad. Data may include, but are not
limited to, written material, spoken words, pictures, symbols, artefacts (Phillips and
Hardy 2002), as well as cartoons (Hardy and Phillips 1999), metaphor (Morgan 2006),
photographs (Bell 2012), fiction, stories, and narratives (Mumby 1987; Flyvjberg 2001;
Czarniawska-Joerges 2004; Czarniawska 2006), films (Bell 2008), advertisements
(Royo-Vela et al. 2007), or TV programmes (Fairclough 2003).
The textual analysis approach to research is evident throughout many epistemologi-
cal positions and appears in many different research traditions. In positivist and post-
positivist quantitative content analysis, individual texts are coded and categorized for
purposes of correlation or prediction. In the interpretive paradigm, textual analysis can
be used to understand individual construction and interpretation of a past situation or
event (Cox and Hassard 2007) with an unproblematic view of the status quo (Burrell
and Morgan 1979). Critical perspectives and related inquiry problematize the status quo
by exposure and critique of existing realities and, depending on the perspective, consid-
eration how alternative realities can be emancipatory (Gergen and Thatchenkery 1996).
In these two non-positivist and non-essentialist perspectives, textual methodologies
appear as analysis of, for example, documents, discourse, conversation, life histories,
narrative, or rhetoric (O’Connor 1995; Bryman et al. 2011). In the critical perspectives
(including critical theory, feminism, and post-structuralism), different epistemologi-
cal beliefs produce different methodological uses of textual analysis. Researchers in
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    301

this tradition problematize existing processes, practices, and texts and may advocate
for fundamental change in organizational, institutional, or societal structures. Textual
approaches can include examination and deconstruction of text for alternative mean-
ings, hidden assumptions, and/or power relations in context (Bryman et al. 2011), pro-
duction of alternative texts (Calás and Smircich 1991), or reproduction of texts from
opposing assumption bases (Martin 1990). Simply put, a researcher who is positioned
in a non-positivist and non-essentialist framework performs textual analysis in order
to call out and to debate different interpretations that might be made of a particular set
of texts (McKee 2003). If taken as systems of interpretation and organizing processes
(Vibert 2004), text can plausibly represent, for example, how institutions function
(Smith 2001), how collective identity is accomplished (Garfinkel 1967; Scott 1994), or
‘the social relations of which we are practitioners’ (Smith 1983: 322).
Choosing to collect a variety of types of data strengthens representations of interac-
tions between individuals, groups, and organizations (Helms Mills, Thurlow, and Mills
2010) and improves arguments about the resulting implications (Flyvjberg 2001; Smith
2001). A multiplicity of texts and different levels of analysis and maintenance of contex-
tual data provides specific examples and helps support localized and relevant arguments
about where change is needed or can occur in organizations. Lastly, when a wide variety
of texts are studied across and between organizing processes and between groups, this
may help shift the managerialist approach to diversity management to one that is less
focused on how to get individuals to conform and one that is more introspective about
how organizing processes embed discriminatory workplace practices. The next section
discusses how textual analysis has been used in non-positivist/non-essentialist and crit-
ical perspective organizational diversity research.

Textual Analysis in Organizational

Diversity Research

Both non-positivist/non-essentialist and critical theoretical perspectives employing

textual analysis are useful in revealing important facets of diversity in organization
and management. Discourse analysis, conversation analysis, narrative analysis, rhe-
torical analysis, or contextual analysis (sometimes a grounded theory approach) are
commonly used textual analysis methodologies for organizational diversity research
rooted in these two positions. In non-positivist/non-essentialist positions, studies are
expository—designed to show and understand how individuals make sense of and
react to their experiences. These positions tend to problematize gaps in applications of
theory, absence of a certain type of methodology, or empirical terrains that have been
under-explored, or missed completely. Herbert (1990), for example, uses Levinson’s clin-
ical/biographical interview method to capture the psychosocial developmental periods
of black male entrepreneurs, in order to add to the literature of experiential differences
302    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

between white and black adults and between white and black male entrepreneurs. Pio
(2005) uses interviews with South-Asian female immigrants to New Zealand, with a
grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis, to interpret the bricolage of ethnic
identity construction within the context of immigration policy and management of a
diverse workforce. Similarly, Liversage (2009) evaluates the narratives of high-skilled
female immigrants for identity-challenging difficulties during attempts to access job
markets in Denmark. The professional identities of the respondents were challenged by
difficulties in accessing their original professions, with some reporting fall-back to tra-
ditional social roles such as mother and housewife. Studies in this perspective are situa-
tional and empirical. They are contextual in that broader institutional or societal themes
are mentioned, albeit for information purposes rather than textual analysis. Data collec-
tion is usually via interviews with individuals. The text that is evaluated is the language
expressed by the respondents, as reflected by and through the researchers.
In diversity studies rooted in critical perspectives, the exploration of language and
its uses similarly figures prominently. In one strand, researchers employing textual
analysis have challenged the very construction of the knowledge of diversity. Zanoni
and Janssens (2004) use critical analysis of discourse and the use of rhetoric to make
visible the diversity discourses expressed in interviews of human resources managers.
The authors explore the definitions of diversity as found in three types of texts within
the mainstream literature: practitioners’ articles and books on diversity management,
chapters on diversity in organizational behaviour handbooks, and academic articles
researching the effects of diversity in organizations. They question the nature of the
managers’ narrowly defined construct of diversity and link this construct to power
exerted in managerial relations. On the same note, Litvin (1997) traces the origins and
assumptions of workforce diversity discourse in organizational behaviour textbooks
back to its underlying roots in essentialist thought.
Other critical studies focus on language-based practices within organizations. Van
Laer and Janssens (2011) go deep into the language of discrimination by exploring subtle
verbal mechanisms of social exclusion uttered by Flemish Belgian majority profession-
als as reported by minority professionals of Turkish or Maghrebi descent in interviews,
using critical discourse analysis. Menard-Warwick (2008) use Fairclough’s critical dis-
course analysis to locate the hidden assumptions of ESL (English as a Second Language)
teachers with respect to Latina immigrant women. This critical ethnographic study dis-
cursively analysed a linguistic practice of positioning Latina immigrant students in an
ESL programme essentially as homemakers, employable as domestic servants.
A third strand of critical diversity studies focuses on studying language-based indi-
vidual resistance to various forms of discrimination in organizations. For example,
Essers and Benschop’s (2009) study shows the intersection and agency of entrepreneur-
ship, gender, and religion identity of Muslim women of Moroccan or Turkish origin as
these women established self-employment in the Netherlands. The authors used quali-
tative content (thematic) analysis of life story interview material. Bell et al. (2003) use
conversation analysis to compare and contrast silence and voice as resistance strategies
used by black and white women in reaction to injustice and hierarchy in workplaces.
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    303

Malhi and Boon (2007) employ rhetorical and critical discourse analysis in interviews
with South Asian Canadian women to show themes of resistance and understanding
in incidents of covert ‘democratic’ racism in Canadian workplaces. In an inductive
(grounded) approach, with ethnographic and interview material, Denissen (2010) doc-
uments resistance and strategic adjustment in tradeswomen’s responses to normative
constructions of gender enacted in the male-dominated building industry. Pullen and
Simpson (2009) use a feminist post-structuralist perspective to explore the discursive
and disruptive ‘doing and undoing’ of gender identity (West and Zimmerman 1987;
West and Fenstermaker 1995; Gherardi 2003) by males in the female-dominated nursing
and primary school teaching professions. Narrations of lived experience were evaluated
to understand how men managed gender identity differences (Otherness) in these areas
of feminized work.

A Call for Multi-Level Approaches in Organizational

Diversity Research
So far, we have drawn attention to many diversity studies using textual analysis that
explicitly problematize the presence of discriminating attitudes and behaviours of
organization members and explore other members’ responses. These studies are similar
in the collection of linguistic data at the individual level, with analysis at the individual,
group, or broader cultural level. We can see the numerous and varied reports of ways that
discrimination and resistance in organizations manifest between individuals of differ-
ent social groups. However, as mentioned in the introduction, diversity scholars are call-
ing for studies that are situational, empirical, contextual, and multi-level. Asymmetrical
differences in power and inequities are subtly and, in some cases, invisibly produced
among and between social groups and individuals. They are also structured, distrib-
uted, entrenched, enacted, and produced by organizing processes unintentionally or
unknowingly designed to be unfair or administered as such. The delivery of knowledge
of diversity in organization is arguably incomplete in specific contexts as few studies in
its canon consider structure and the interactions with individuals thereof. More simply,
in a practical sense, it is difficult to prove systematic and actionable injustice in organi-
zations if one only speaks about data that relates strictly to individuals’ experiences of
discrimination.
By using the term multi-level, we mean combining individual respondent data with
other levels of analysis. This can be done in many different ways. Textual analysis can
be used to show the impacts of everyday practice, which comprises both linguistic and
non-linguistic activity (Boréus 2006). In one example, Fletcher (1999) job-shadowed
several female engineers in their roles as project managers or team members in a US
high-tech company. Fletcher found that the women engineers and their practices of
relational work (calling on, for example, skills of empathy, collaborative behaviour,
and actions supportive of teamwork) had been ‘disappeared’; that is, the types of rela-
tional work required to move work smoothly through an organization was either not
304    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

noticed, not valued, or ignored. In a different example, McCoy and Masuch (2007) use
institutional ethnography to explore foreign credential recognition in Canada from
the standpoint of immigrant women with post-secondary degrees and non-regulated
professional employment backgrounds. Interviews, observation, and document anal-
ysis are used to explain social and institutional influencers of the respondents’ every-
day experience. Two sets of interviews are used—one with the immigrant women and
another with local service providers and government officials. Ethnographic obser-
vation and discourse and document analysis contribute to locating the experience of
these immigrant women in larger sets of societal and institutional formations. This per-
mits McCoy and Masuch to present not only findings but also recommendations for
directions in immigration policy development and services. These studies both model
systems as social constructions that establish, maintain, and control organizational,
institutional, and societal structures. Studies of this nature can focus on organizational
processes, policies, and procedures that contribute to non-language-based discrimina-
tion, such as exclusion from important meetings or discussions (Boréus 2006).
As with any methodology, consideration of multi-level textual analysis by researchers
should be accompanied by sensitivity to some of the issues that critics of textual analysis
studies raise. One important criticism is that specific textual data is often overempha-
sized as the basis for analysis (Merquior 1985; Fairclough 2003). This will be somewhat
alleviated through the inclusion of diversity of texts as well as the researcher’s careful
consideration and explanation of text selection. Will analysis closely focus on a specific
text as in Martin (1990) or on a wider range of documents as in Smith (1990, 2001)?
See Alvesson and Karreman (2000) for a useful discussion of text selection. Secondly,
Phillips and Hardy (2002) comment that many researchers who use textual analysis in
fact only link text and context, omitting an exploration of the role of the discourse of
which the text is a part. This may be because establishing boundaries and deciding how
to interface into historical and societal context are difficult theoretical concepts. Every
theorist has an opinion—Laclau and Mouffe say everything is discourse, Fairclough,
Wodak, and Meyer argue for discourse interfacing into social and historical context,
and Helms Mills argues for a multilayered approach with an emphasis on agency and
social accomplishment. The researcher then grapples with where to gather texts, which
texts to include or exclude, and how to explain their choices to other scholars. We rec-
ommend that the researcher develops a carefully supported and plausible position on
text selection that is sustained and consistent throughout the work. The researcher
should also consider, as mentioned previously, the danger that individual identity work
and frameworks of discursive psychology theory can be overemphasized. This begs
the question of methodological choice of unit of analysis: individuals, groups, organ-
izations, institutions, social movements, or rules and routines. Lastly, transference of
theoretical conceptualizations to empirical applications through methodology and data
collection can be problematic. For some theoretical frameworks of textual analysis nei-
ther numerous empirical examples nor broad sets of methodological guidelines exist
(Howarth 2000). However, this does not release the researcher from a fully explained
approach (Jorgensen and Phillips 2002) that delivers against the research question. As
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    305

in all research, ontological, epistemological, and methodological choices should be con-

gruent, transparent, and reflexive.
At this point, we wish to introduce two relatively overlooked textual analysis meth-
odologies that we believe provide situational, contextual, empirical, and multi-level
approaches to studying diversity, its effects, and its management in organizations. Our
next two sections explore this claim.

Two Critical Approaches to Textual Analysis

We believe that we have demonstrated the usefulness of textual analysis methodolo-
gies in the study of diversity in workforces. We argue that when both linguistic and
non-linguistic practices are studied across individual, group, organization, and soci-
etal levels, we can more clearly see and understand how realities of diversity are con-
structed. By implication, this opens possibilities of problematizing deeper and further
into areas that are not within legitimate reach of the researcher when the unit of analysis
is restricted to one level or when only linguistic (or non-linguistic) practices are studied.
Our purpose in this section is to provide two in-depth examples of textual analy-
sis methodologies that we hope meet this standard. Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse
theory and Helms Mills’ critical sensemaking method (CSM) are similar in that they
emanate from the common philosophical position that reality is socially constructed.
These critical approaches problematize the status quo, are multi-level in approach,
and include analysis of linguistic and non-linguistic practices. In contrast, Laclau and
Mouffe’s work is socio-political while CSM has its roots in social psychology. The two
empirical examples discussed here employ different approaches to collecting linguis-
tic data; one mainly uses interviews, and the other uses public records of group data.
There is also a wide range of non-linguistic practices in both examples. By reading this
section, we hope that the reader gains further insight into the usefulness and flexibility
of textual analysis methodologies in diversity study and agrees with our opinion that
both these approaches have attributes that can enrich this body of work. We will now
discuss our examples.

Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Theory and

the Concept of Hegemony
Laclau and Mouffe (1985) construct their theory of discourse by combining and modify-
ing aspects of Marxism (a theory of the social), structuralism (a theory of meaning), and
Saussurian linguistics (Jorgensen and Phillips 2002), along with adoption and adapta-
tion of Foucauldian discursive concepts and Gramsci’s conceptualization of hegemony.
In de Saussure’s signification of language theory, an ‘element’ is a sign that has multi-
ple (polysemic) meanings. When the potential for multiple meanings of an element is
tied down to only one meaning, as determined by the presence and position of other
306    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

signs and the relations among these signs, this element has been reduced to a moment.
A nodal point is a moment that has privilege; it has particular influence in ordering
relations among the gathered signs. A nodal point appears as a sign that is universally
structured, thereby providing a taxonomizing (Harding 2005) or organizing process. As
privileged signifiers, nodal points serve to stabilize terms, phrases, concepts, and identi-
ties into systems of meaning (Solomon 2009). Examples of nodal points include ‘health’
in the context of the British National Health System (Harding 2005) or ‘body’ in the con-
text of Western or Eastern medicine (Phillips and Hardy 2002). Whereas a nodal point
is temporarily fixed, a floating signifier is a sign whose meaning is a site of struggle. In
Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, an articulation is any practice that establishes a set
of relations among elements, creating differential positions between elements, reducing
the elements to moments where ‘all identity is relational and all relations have neces-
sary character’ (Laclau and Mouffe 1985: 106). The structured reality emanating from a
set of articulatory practices is called a discourse, such as the discourses of management
(Spicer and Böhm 2007). The infinite set of possibilities of meaning that naturally chal-
lenges moments and articulations is denoted as the field of discursivity. The meaning
encompassed by a moment, an identity, an articulation, or a discourse must have limits
in order to be coherent. Therefore frontiers are established between what is meant and
what is not meant. These frontiers are dynamic sites of tension, the constant threat of
nodal points by antagonistic differences of meaning, establishing the terrain of political
struggles for meaning.
In these tension-filled dances between floating signifiers and nodal points, the dis-
cursive formations are the data and the analysis is the study of the frontiers of tensions.
Although the conceptualization of organizational space as political has been used and/or
referenced in many diverse academic areas (Carpentier 2005; Harding 2005; Meriläinen
et al. 2008; Solomon 2009; van Bommel and Spicer 2011; Herschinger 2012; Kenny and
Scriver 2012;), specific use of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory is not often found
in organizational studies (Willmott 2005). In one recent example, Thomas and Hewitt
(2011) study the discursive construction of professional work, combining aspects of
Laclau and Mouffe’s theoretical positioning with that of Fairclough, Chouliaraki, and
Bhabha. Spicer and Böhm (2007) studied the rise of four different kinds of resistance
movements, arguing first that they serve to disrupt the hegemonic discourse of manage-
ment, and second that modes of resistance must be multiple and diverse.
Sparse use of Laclau and Mouffe’s framework in organizational diversity studies (see,
for example, Hearn’s (2004) theoretical essay on conceptualizations of masculine iden-
tity) is noteworthy given that Laclau and Mouffe’s discursive-based concept of hegem-
ony offers diversity researchers a basis for analysing how a political space becomes
hegemonized. In order to declare a space as hegemonized, Laclau (2000) specifies four
conditions. We will explain the four conditions and then connect hegemony with the
study of diversity. Hegemony first requires the condition of asymmetry or unevenness
of power between discourses. Asymmetry is created by a growing surplus of differ-
ences in meaning and difficulties in trying to fix these meanings in a stable articula-
tion (Laclau and Mouffe 1985). This produces tensions and antagonistic forces that will
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    307

challenge established frontiers of meaning within a political space. In order to satisfy the
second condition of hegemony, there must exist opposing floating signifiers that thwart
or prevent the existing meanings from staying intact. In the third condition of hegem-
ony, there is production of tendentially empty (biased and ambiguous) signifiers that
either will enable the reconstitution of established meanings or create new ones. This
re-establishes a frontier or division of a single political camp into two opposing fields.
Lastly, the universalized empty signifiers are taken as common sense, or the constitu-
tion of a social ordering; the universalized empty signifiers make reality appear objec-
tive and natural (Jorgensen and Phillips 2002). It is through the presence of these four
hegemonic conditions within discursive formations that alternative understandings of
the world are suppressed, leading to antagonisms for the establishment of dominant
meanings and the naturalization of single perspectives.
Clegg (2001) argues that the innovation of the four conditions of hegemony allow us
to focus on the forms that hegemony takes rather than on the content of the ideas of
the specific political space. This vantage point can be very helpful with research ques-
tions in general (see, for example, Herschinger’s (2012) study on United Nations dis-
courses on international terrorism and the drugs trade). Moreover, this framework has
potential in diversity research. Instead of isolating the conditions that are produced
by the hegemonies, and studying how people feel about these conditions, we can look
at how the antagonisms arise in the discourse, the ways in which the antagonisms are
resolved, and the effects on the discourses thereafter. In her doctoral dissertation (Porter
2013), the first co-author studied empirical linguistic and non-linguistic mechanisms
of antagonisms and hegemonies of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination dis-
course in a Canadian professional engineering association, using the four conditions of
hegemony. The author first described the broader discursive formations that organize
the localized notion of the profession of engineering in the province of Ontario. As the
outcome of many interacting discursive formations, the profession’s legislated principle
of self-regulation simultaneously constructed a political space and created an eagle’s eye
view into many linguistic and non-linguistic processes of the association. The author
was then able to empirically observe how antagonisms, which articulated discourses of
sexual harassment and sexual discrimination of female engineers in engineering work-
places, were formed and positioned at the frontiers of dominant meanings in the local
professional association setting. The author could then see and represent the clashing of
nodal points and floating signifiers as the engineering association and its women engi-
neers action committee worked through proposals to declare sexual harassment and
sexual discrimination in the profession as contraventions of the association’s established
code of ethics and guidelines of professional practice. The formations and mechanisms
of hegemony were present and apparent in both linguistic and non-linguistic data. This
enabled the author to conclude that the antagonisms that arose indeed challenged sedi-
mented meanings but were ultimately insufficient to bring significant and sustained
change to poor female representation in the local setting of the engineering profession.
In conclusion, the underuse of Laclau and Mouffe’s innovation in diversity research
is curious, given its capacity to show how dominant meanings are set and maintained
308    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

in place, how antagonisms arise and challenge, and how the field of discursivity
resolves to relative, if temporary, stability. The study of the mechanisms of hegemony
in local contexts is useful in that it can expand understanding about existing linguis-
tic and non-linguistic forms of power, in turn serving to broaden strategies for addi-
tional and diversified antagonisms. This form of textual analysis methodology makes
possible theoretical and empirical contributions to the domain of diversity research in
organizations.

Using Critical Sensemaking as

a Method of Analysis

Similar to Laclau and Mouffe’s goals of untangling complex phenomena and associated
power relations, critical sensemaking also digs deeply into context. In this section, we
will discuss what the critical sensemaking perspective is, how it works as an analytical
method, and its value to researchers who are interested in understanding complex issues
surrounding human organizations and diversity. Later in this section, we will briefly
discuss some of its drawbacks.
The critical sensemaking perspective (Helms Mills, Thurlow, and Mills 2010), as
a poststructuralist lens, can aid in understanding the ongoing interconnected rela-
tionships among the micro- (the sensemaker), the meso- (organizational rules), and
the macro-elements (the social context) of social interaction. Critical sensemaking is
sometimes mistaken as a branch of Weick’s (1995) sensemaking that merely deals with
micro aspects (such as the sensemaker) of critical issues. In fact, this is a methodol-
ogy that focuses on four clusters of elements: (1) the socio-psychological processes in
which people engage (Weick 1995, 2001); (2) the organizational rule(s) within which
people make sense (Mills and Murgatroyd 1991); (3) the discursive processes involved
in making sense (Foucault 1979); and (4) the sedimented, formative context that serves
as the broader social framework in which people interact (Unger 1987a, 1987b, 1987c).
However, there has been little discussion of the application of critical sensemaking per-
spective as a method of analysis. Our goal is to provide a sense of how the critical sense-
making perspective can be used as a textual analytical approach in diversity research.2
The four clusters of interconnected elements should neither be used separately, nor is
sensemaking a simple process where a clear division can be drawn between elements. The
elements are simultaneously processing and mediating each other while a person is mak-
ing sense of his/her situation. Therefore, the framework cannot be restricted to a four-step
analysis, nor can each element be used as a stand-alone tool. Guided by the complex ele-
ments of critical sensemaking, the researcher’s role is to see how sense and organization
emerge when a story begins to come together and identities begin to make sense. The

2
A full discussion of critical sensemaking perspective is available in Helms Mills et al. (2010).
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    309

identities and the actions of the informants provide a sense of narrative rationality, and the
researcher then connects plot and character from the data (Cunliffe and Coupland 2012).
This of course requires a repetitive approach, to create and confirm themes (or concepts)
for interpretation. Specific attention is given to understanding discursive elements that
surface in the data and how they are relevant to the lived experience of the actors (and their
agency). Such analysis is not a bounded process; rather, this is a multi-dynamic disorgan-
ized situation, particularly in the beginning. It involves a close, line-by-line reading of the
text and a noting of the thoughts, ideas, impressions, feelings, and initial interpretations
that the text (broadly defined) evokes. Researchers then develop and refine these interpre-
tations, attempting to move away from descriptive to more conceptual and thematic levels
of analysis. The goal is to derive a collection of themes that have enough particularity to be
grounded and enough abstraction to be conceptualized.
Critical sensemaking is particularly concerned with how the sensemaker’s view of
agency in context is fleshed out from the text. Agency is broadly defined as ‘the ways in
which human beings make sense of their life-worlds and the options and restrictions
within them’ (Tomkins and Eatough 2012: 13). In other words, it refers to a person’s abil-
ity to act, to choose, and to take action. The key is to pay special attention to the elements
of critical sensemaking: both organizational rules and the intersection of formative
contexts and other discursive practices (discourses) that are involved in the sensemak-
ing process of each actor (Mills and Murgatroyd 1991; Helms Mills, Thurlow, and Mills
2010; Thurlow 2010). Moreover, hierarchical divisions and labels adopted in the social
construction processes also help in locating voices and dominant discourses (Foucault
1982; Knights 1992). From there, researchers can conceptualize the process of sensemak-
ing that reveals the forms of micro-politics of resistance that engage at the individual
level (Mills and Helms Mills 2004). The value of the critical sensemaking methodology
lies in its ability to conceptualize the magnitude of the combined effects and interac-
tions across the various clusters of elements. Because of its emphasis on agency, a critical
sensemaking approach helps us to explore how and why some (but not all) experiences
become subjectively meaningful for the sensemakers.
One way in which to make a complex approach comprehensible is to develop a meta-
phorical analytical framework for data analysis (e.g. Figure 14.1), a way of mapping out
the interconnected relationships of the clusters of elements.
In the study illustrated in Figure 14.1, for instance, the framework helps researchers to
look through the informants’ eyes. Imagine a professional immigrant’s sense of his/her
situation is intensified by the shock of realizing that his/her past experience and educa-
tion are not recognized in the quest for employment. During the sensemaking process,
s/he tries to regain a sense of control, searching for meanings and directions. The mean-
ings are mediated by the unseen organizational rules and institutional discourses (of the
multi-ethnic service organization) that simultaneously inform and are informed by the
formative context and societal discourse. It is important to note that, to a certain extent,
agency shapes discourse and discourse shapes agency (Hardy and Phillips 1999); thus
some are more constrained by or resistant to the contextual elements at the individual
level than others.
310    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

Workplace The “Mainstream”

Identity, social,
retrospection, ongoing,
enactment, cues, plausibility Glass

Ethnic ?
service
organization

Shocks
Micro-level

Resistance
Constraints

Constraints
Meso-level
Organizational rules and discourses
Resistance

Constraints
Constraints

Macro-level
Formative context, societal discourses

Figure 14.1 Immigrant workplace experience in Canada.

Source: Hilde 2013.

When the second author was working with the informants’ data, she initially thought
that the immigrant workplace experience could result from individual sensemaking—a
socio-psychological process—and that this might be why some are more successful than
others in the Canadian workplace. However, the framework led her to consider the idea
of history—the formative context (one of the critical sensemaking elements)—such as
the history of immigrants in Canada. From there, she realized that racism was deeply
embedded in the Canadian context, especially during the time when Chinese workers
were building the Canadian Pacific Railway. Further, the framework drew her to inves-
tigate various organizational rules from a single organization to an entire institutional
field, considering both written and unwritten documents. Critical sensemaking also
brings the idea of agency to the centre of the analysis, to explain why the same event
could have different interpretations. Other textual analysis approaches that deal with
single-level analysis could have oversimplified the phenomenon.
Owing to the capability and the approach of critical sensemaking—that is, that it
requires researchers to dig into the historical and/or systemic issues and explains the
value of agency in the process—this researcher (the second co-author) was able to pull
together a wider picture of power relations, such as how government has treated the
widely accepted discriminatory practice of positioning local experience and educational
 Contextual Approaches to Diversity Research and Practice    311

qualifications as ‘normal’. Instead of enforcing legislation against discrimination, the

government has treated such discriminatory practice as a ‘normal’ social issue that
immigrants must face. Further, the government uses funding requirements to control
ethnic service organizations in order to legitimize this agenda, reinforcing the restric-
tions on immigrants’ access to the workplace. This allows employers, at the institutional
level, to escape the accusation that they have discriminatory practices; they can com-
fortably reproduce rules that hinder the workplace opportunities of immigrants. At the
micro-level of sensemaking (agency), some immigrants were able to push against the
powerful discursive context through micro-processes of resistance as they reconceptu-
alized their own identities. Hence, the second author contends that the sense that immi-
grants make at the level of micro-politics is crucial to the opportunities they are able to
find (Hilde 2013).
Critical sensemaking is a powerful tool but also a difficult one to learn and use. With
fewer than a dozen empirical studies available for reference (Helms Mills, Thurlow,
and Mills 2010), it is extremely hard for novice researchers to master the wide range of
elements and concepts in a short period of time. Hence, the depth and breadth of the
approach are its strengths but also its weaknesses. Researchers need to deal with episte-
mological and ontological issues, and to determine whether the diverse elements of the
methodology are compatible with the phenomena under investigation. Depending on
the problem at hand, pulling all elements together can be far from easy. In attempting
to make a significant contribution to the operational side of the critical sensemaking
approach, the second author has had to confront several issues of analysis and defini-
tion. For example, it is not always clear when and where formative contexts influence
ongoing senses of a situation or how their embeddedness in current practices could be
revealed. Nor, in the multi-level approach, is it easy to unravel aspects of each level to
develop a plausible account. Nonetheless, through the process, researchers can gain
greater understandings of the usefulness and challenges of using the critical sensemak-
ing approach as a method of analysis. Owing to all these complexities and perhaps owing
to the small word limit prescribed by journals for publishing articles, critical sensemak-
ing may be a less easily accessed methodological approach for researchers when com-
pared to a single-level textual analysis.

Conclusion

Textual analysis methodologies are undoubtedly complex and complicated. It takes

time and effort to gather, prepare, and analyse data. By the same token, these method-
ologies are flexible; a vast array of texts can be gathered and analysed in many different
ways. These approaches can show in situ the many ways in which organizing pro-
cesses produce and reproduce asymmetrical differences between and among social
groups. They can serve to expand currently held views of diversity in organizations.
312    Janet Porter and Rosalie Hilde

They can be used to explore existing theoretical and empirical terrains in new ways.
They can also help to open new terrains of research. Lastly, expanding the range of
methodologies used in diversity research will enhance the repertoire of strategies
available to organizations to acknowledge, embrace, and develop diverse and inclu-
sive workforces.

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 Chapter 15

In Search of t h e ‘ Re a l ’
The Subversive Potential of Ethnography in the Field
of Diversity Management

Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

Introduction

In a recent genealogy of diversity management (DM) Vertovec (2012) returned to the

emergence of the concept and explored its various affiliations, detours, and associations
over the past five decades. In tune with others (e.g. Foldy 2002; Litvin 2006; Zanoni et al.
2010) he observed a well-known transformation in the ideas and practices attached to
the concept of diversity; that is, a shift away from diversity as social justice and towards
a business rationale (see also Chapter 13, this volume). This positive approach to diver-
sity does not take ‘difference as a source of deficiency but of productive relationships’
(Blackmore 2006: 183).
Despite the deluge of investments in the appeal of this discourse (i.e. its conceptual
origins and developments as well as the consequent social and discursive practices
of DM) it is not without its critics. Some have argued that it is simply emphasizing
esteem and ‘feel-good’ measures at the expense of actual amelioration of structural
inequality (cf. Vertovec 2012), while others have regarded the ‘we-are-all-different
mantra’ principally as a strategy to fragment the workforce and suppress collective
labour action (hence the hostility of trade union officials towards DM in some con-
texts; cf. Wrench 2005). A focus on deregulated individual accomplishments (e.g.
diversity as a business condition for ‘high potential leaders’ to experience personal
challenge and ambition) has substituted collective and orchestrated action (e.g.
social movements that organize around wrongs to be righted). While this may strike
a disturbing chord for some, it may not do so for others—and the matter remains by
and large political.
318    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

Dazed by the often fierce debates between advocates of (ostensibly) competing dis-
courses of diversity as a social issue versus diversity as a business case (cf. Tomlinson
and Schwabenland 2010)—often backed up with more or less covert political
agendas—researchers may run the risk of forgetting to actually study DM and what
it means to people. It is precisely this task that we have assigned to ourselves, that is,
to open up diversity discourses and find out what really happens in situ. Such a con-
crete task creates a moment that appears rife with ethnographic significance as it is
exactly anthropology’s analytical edge that allows an escape from ideological argu-
mentations that go in repetitive circles simply because they were started with tools of
power rather than tools of inquiry. Such ideological argumentations can be found on
both sides of the ideological divide. Scholars such as Noon (2007) attack the logical
integrity of business arguments for the compatibility and mutual reinforcement of on
the one hand capitalizing on diverse human resources and on the other hand realiz-
ing equal opportunities and fairness. Noon says the latter are universal rights whereas
the former is contingent upon volatile economic circumstances (e.g. changes in labour
or commodity markets). As such, the political statement can be made that an ‘overly
rational cost–benefit analysis’ may give people ‘evidence-based arguments for not
pursuing [equality] initiatives because it is not in the interest of their business’ (Noon
2007: 778; see Carter 2000 for an example within the British National Health Service).
And certainly, the same can be said about those who pit their tent on the other side of
the divide, like those who take matters of justice, fairness, and equality cum grano salis
and have an interest in the added value of diversity in terms of, say, high performance
systems, creativity, innovation, flexible workforces, or work-related outcomes at large
(e.g. Richard 2000; Kochan et al. 2003).
Despite some ethnographically oriented approaches to DM (e.g. Janssens and
Zanoni 2005; Zanoni and Janssens 2007; Zanoni 2011), the field remains dominated
by academic quarrels over who has the best, preferably meta-analytic, evidence for
or against the business case of diversity and its social implications (e.g. Horwitz and
Horwitz 2007; Bell et al. 2011; Van Dijk, Van Engen, and Van Knippenberg 2012). We
draw on our experiences in both Finland and The Netherlands when we state that DM
scholars may tend to lose touch with reality in the workplace. To speak with a Dutch
community police officer in Amsterdam, whose statement is the prototype for numer-
ous others: ‘What I’ve never understood is . . . when you look at the enormous invest-
ment in diversity, cultural craftsmanship, particularly in these endowed chairs; that is
absolutely not corresponding to the things that happen in practice.’
We therefore suggest looking at diversity afresh and studying what it means to peo-
ple by looking through the eyes of the beholder; that is, by centralizing the addressees
of DM initiatives. Were we not to do this, we argue, we would forgo opportunities to
take the complexity of DM seriously. In a way, ethnography is complexity and it derives
its potential and its capacity of challenging established views, its counter-hegemonic
punch, exactly from its openness towards complexity (Blommaert and Dong 2010).
Herein lies its subversive potential. We concur with Groeneveld (Chapter 13, this vol-
ume) and Porter and Hilde (Chapter 14, this volume) that we can only really grasp the
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    319

complexity of DM through a multi-level/multi-layer analytical framework. We hope to

demonstrate that ethnography has the ability to do so, by emphasizing its capacity to
cross organizational domains (and thus levels).

The Eyes of the Beholder:

Ethnographic Inquiries
into Workplace Diversity

Ethnographic studies in (work) organizations have multiplied since Barley and Kunda
published their widely known call for such efforts in 2001. While anthropologists, who
have been developing ethnographic styles of social research since the late nineteenth
century, have busied themselves largely elsewhere, the ‘Western worlds of work’ have
been examined by other scholars with varying approaches, but often relying on the
legacy of ethnography: the credibility of one who ‘has been there’ using what is termed
participant observation. Organization studies and working life studies (e.g. Roy 1954;
Burawoy 1979; Hochschild 1983/2003; Kunda 1992; Fine 1996/2008; Orr 1996) have in a
way kept open the paths of the Chicago school and early organization studies through
the years of macro sociology and institutional studies.1 The present-day ethnographic
landscape is characterized by a burgeoning field of organizational ethnography (see
Bate 1997; the Journal of Organizational Ethnography; Ybema et al. 2009; Van Maanen
2011; Watson 2011). Over the years much has been gained by a growing body of eye-
witness reports of work practices, labour conditions, coping strategies, emotions, and
identities, to mention but a fraction of all aspects illuminated by these reports. Some
anthropologists have partaken in these activities and the days are certainly gone when
anthropologists were only known as the troublemakers who used to raise giggles and
irritation—and eventually tired their audiences—with exotic counterexamples from
the lives of people far away.
Our attempt requires that we shake off some of the dust people associate with the
ethnographies of yore. We are not going to tell you what the Trobrianders do to man-
age their diversity—although that would be a perfectly legitimate option too; we are
going to tell you how employees in a Finnish high-tech company go about having vari-
ous nationalities in their workplace in the absence of official DM initiatives, and what
actually happens in Dutch police departments when people are confronted with certain

1
Interestingly, Down (2012) traces this history all the way back to Engels’s 1845 account The Condition
of the Working Class in England. Some of the very first studies of work were conducted by non-academic
journalist or novelist ethnographers and amateurs educated in fields beyond social sciences, among
them several adventurous women (Zickar and Carter 2010; Down 2012). A tradition of non-academic,
covert fieldwork has been continued by, for example, Wallraff (1985) and Ehrenreich (2001).
320    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

DM discourses. What actually happens—not how much of it is believed, hoped, or pre-

scribed to happen according to fixed storylines in the diversity literature.
Ethnography is unique among social science methods as it adopts a holistic view on
the people, scenes, and activities observed. Actually, what an ethnographer does in the
field is not much different from everyday encounters, only better documented. As any
fellow human being, the ethnographer meets Noam, rather than the work-related atti-
tudes of a male worker in age group A with ethnicity X. She meets him,2 he meets her,
and they might befriend each other or at least get acquainted. She would get a hint of
what his work means to him, what it feels like. Some of her questions would go unan-
swered. Instead, she would learn the answers to questions she never asked. She might be
surprised, baffled, scared, awed, or bewildered by things she did not expect to encoun-
ter in the field. She would learn which questions matter to Noam and his colleagues.
Re-engaging with people who talk about ‘diversity’, she would have things to say to them
that begin like: ‘No, no, you’ve got it all wrong! That’s not the issue . . .’ The experience
would have decentred the ethnographer’s previous understanding.
Ethnography helps to grasp novel phenomena hitherto unknown, like cultural forms
in the Southern Seas or work practices in a new industry. But there is more to its capac-
ity: for the same qualities that facilitate this ‘cartography’, ethnography is also suited for
re-conceptualization, building new vocabulary, and escaping dominant cultural forms.
Throughout its history in anthropology, it has been used for subversive purposes in
at least two ways: by bringing out the voices of the silenced and marginalized, and by
Verfremdung or distancing. Hegemonic and taken-for-granted ideas can be put into
perspective, questioned, or dwarfed by juxtaposing them to unexpected alternatives and
dissident perspectives. As George Marcus (1998) reminds us, this helps to rethink and
destabilize established orders.
The two strategies that allow for the subversive potential of ethnography—‘distancing’
and ‘voicing’—prevail in both cases discussed in this chapter, albeit with different
accents. The strategy of distancing is most articulated in the Finnish case, in the sense
that DM is studied in a context that is actually devoid of DM initiatives or campaigns.
During long term fieldwork (1999–2004; see Trux (2010) for a more voluminous report
on this period) Marja-Liisa immersed herself in F-Secure, a high-tech organization,
where she discovered that members of this organization (software engineers and other
employees at the Helsinki headquarters) had developed a passionate anti-diversity-
management attitude. They were estranged from diversity discourses and had actually
developed alternatives in terms of ‘organizational democracy’, rendering any specific
diversity programme mostly unnecessary.
The strategy of voicing is best visible in the Dutch case, in which Paul looks at two
ethnographically reconstructed cases in which ethnic minority police officers are

2 The feminine pronoun is here to help you read the passage without mixing researcher with the

researched. It also reflects the original encounter of Marja-Liisa with Noam (pseudonym). Of course,
you are also welcome to read into it feminist attempts to counterbalance the overwhelming dominance
of masculine subjects in the English language. We sympathize with this.
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    321

confronted with certain offshoots of official DM discourses. To understand these

cases—one is about a job interview; the other about a fireside meeting between ethnic
minority police officers and their deputy district commander—it is important to real-
ize from the outset that ‘diversity’ is often differentially entextualized in different set-
tings; it actually changes when it ‘travels along varying institutional pathways in which
its immediate referents vary a lot’ (Urciuoli 2010: 49). This happens with what may be
coined ‘itinerant diversity management’; it changes along the way. For instance, a cer-
tain technique or instrument may be developed by a group of consultants, then taught to
diversity managers in a certain organization, after which it is disseminated to the team
leaders of that particular organization, before it finally reaches those people it was origi-
nally meant for. What diversity (management) actually means to people may be learned
by studying how the circulation of certain techniques, instruments, or bits and pieces of
discourse is experienced and subsequently voiced by the informants. This is done in the
study of police officers in the south of The Netherlands (based on Paul’s ethnography
between 2008 and 2013).
The nature of ethnographic knowledge favours a narrative mode of reporting, in
which the researcher is a character among others. To do this in a jointly authored chap-
ter, combining the results of two separate fieldworks, we present both eye-witness sto-
ries from The Netherlands and from Finland, each voiced by the ethnographer him/
herself, and return to our joined, plural narrator discussion thereafter.

Itinerant Diversity Management

of Dutch Police Officers

Quintessential to itinerant diversity management is the difficulty of planning or organ-

izing DM schemes, campaigns, or agendas centrally, as things may change with every
transfer (e.g. an exchange between a subcontracted diversity consultant and an in-house
diversity expert, or the application of a certain ‘diversity product’ in practice). This diffi-
culty may be expected to arise easier in complex organizations such as the Dutch police
organization, which has been organized on the basis of twenty-six relatively autonomous
forces for nearly two decades (since regionalization in 1993 and until nationalization in
2013, when the latest police law was enacted). As a corollary of this difficulty, a plethora
of diversity initiatives came to life with some initiatives being purposely engineered by
for instance the Board of Chiefs of Police (Raad van Hoofdcommissarissen) and others
locally and spontaneously grown. Some do not square with others, and there is a great
deal of ambiguity involved in the diversity apparatus of the Dutch police. Decoding
this apparatus falls outside the purview of this chapter (others have begun to do so; see
Boogaard and Roggeband 2010). My interest lies with the ‘domaining effect’, as anthro-
pologists (Shore and Wright 2000) have called it; an effect which occurs when a certain
logic (or constellation of various concept, i.e. a semantic cluster) typically associated
322    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

with one domain migrates to another where it receives new operational power, often
with unanticipated outcomes (Shore and Wright 2000).
In the two cases that follow I am going to look at the domain crossing of ‘diversity’
and various other keywords that are easily associated with it by diversity consultants
and trainers in The Netherlands (‘authenticity’, ‘open-mindedness’, ‘extraversion’, etc.).
The semantic value of these keywords appears obvious at the surface, and yet a great
deal of indeterminacy is built into their semiotics (cf. Urciuoli 2010), which only reveals
itself after application in real-life settings. What follows is an analysis of itinerant diver-
sity discourses that depart from the Nederlandse Stichting voor Psychotechnieken (the
‘Dutch Foundation for Psychotechniques’—NSvP) and arrive at two different police dis-
tricts within the same police force in the south of The Netherlands.
The NSvP is one of the prime suppliers of diversity instruments to the Dutch police.
It is an influential knowledge institute in The Netherlands that works at the junction
of organizational psychology, social psychology, and human resource management
(HRM) (Strien and van Dane 2001). It is mainly involved in facilitating and conducting
research projects, awarding grants, organizing seminars, conferences, and workshops,
and in journal and book publications (see <http://www.innovatiefinwerk.nl>). Its part-
nership with the Dutch police is multiplex, including research projects within the police
organization conducted by NSvP associates, endowed chairs within the Dutch Police
Academy being held by NSvP members, and so on.

Diversity, Authenticity, Leadership

‘Discourse as semiotic production . . . has a chronotopic character . . . in that it can
be conceptualized as something that “circulates”, moves virtually through the time
[chrono] and space [tope] of social organization’ (Silverstein 2008: 6). What this boils
down to, Silverstein continues, is that the usage of language by people in a certain
communicative event may connect to the language use of other people on other occa-
sions. This connection is best captured by the term ‘interdiscursivity’, a sort of ‘likeness’
between various communicative events. But there is more to it, as interdiscursivity may
be actively and strategically deployed by people.
That being said, let us now turn to two text fragments; the first coming from a dis-
sertation that appeared under the supervision of a NSvP board member (and was pub-
lished on their website), the second coming from the national HR division of the Dutch
police (published as an official ‘employers’ statement’):

Accommodating authenticity allows for individual differences and “being differ-

ent” and creates possibilities to experience these differences and let them co-exist,
rather than disappear. . . . More specifically, in diverse working contexts, research
shows that when group members give recognition to the unique qualities of other
group members, this recognition moderates the relation between diversity and
performance. . . . Creating a working climate that stimulates authentic behaviour
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    323

is contingent upon authentic leadership. Authentic leadership means that manag-

ers are a reflection of themselves and are in contact with all dimensions of their self.
(Raaijmakers 2008: 92)

The police organization pursues diversity and this requires a variety and authenticity
of leadership in the police organization. . . . Leaders coach and impassion employees
in order to let them excel in things they are good at; this gives employees a chance to
act in accordance with their own views . . . Leaders must be capable of touching upon
the authenticity of employees. (Werkgeversvisie Politie 2008: 77–8)

It becomes instantly clear that the two excerpts are lexico-grammatically conso-
nant in the sense that the grammatical mood is declarative in both cases (lacking for
instance hedging expressions) and the same words are used (diversity, authenticity,
leadership). They seem to fit neatly together and appear to form a coherent whole that
encourages the reader to feel at ease with working climates that are characterized by
this diversity-authenticity-leadership (DAL) triangle. One would hardly be able to spot
possible fissures within this apparently coherent discourse if the analysis were kept
within the domains of consultancy, HRM, research, and policy. Stepping outside these
domains, however, gives a different impression.
In 2011 the DAL discourse, of which the two excerpts are of course merely exemplary,
had had some time to settle in or to sediment, so to speak. It had traversed several police
districts, one of which was my fieldwork site in the autumn of that year. While ‘shadow-
ing’ (cf. Czarniawska 2007) a few team and district leaders for several months, I suddenly
found myself in a real-life setting in which the surefire DAL triangle was applied. It was a
P-schouw, a meeting dedicated to review the district personnel, which is organized periodi-
cally by the district commander (DC) and his HR advisor (a bilateraaltje in police jargon)
to discuss career developments of subordinates as well as other HR-related issues. On the
agenda was a job interview the two of them had the other week with an operational leader
(a line manager) who had applied for a job as deputy team leader. During the P-schouw they
were finalizing their decision to reject him, as they deemed him insufficiently authentic and
thus unfit as a team leader. When I asked at the end of the P-schouw what was meant by
‘authenticity’, how it would fit the job profile, and how it could be assessed, nerves started
to dominate the scene. The HR advisor felt ashamed to confess that it is mostly a gut feeling
and that it is applied as a criterion in various ways within the force. However, in separate
conversations that I had afterwards with both persons, a different story came to the fore.
The HR officer had regained confidence when I asked the same questions:

Leaders must be themselves, that is, authentic. . . . In a job interview you are most
importantly looking for the true self of a person. And you know what . . . an answer
is not right or wrong—I mean substantively right or wrong. No, it’s about how you
come to it. This means that you look for who someone really is.

When I asked the DC the same questions, he came up with a specific interpretation of
authenticity; that is, being assertive and daring to stand up against superiors. He did not
324    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

refer to himself, of course, but to the (Turkish) team leader the Surinam-born applicant
would come to work as her deputy. I had a lengthy conversation with this team leader,
and it turned out that her employment record contained a number of ethnic conflicts,
which had her expelled from another police district. According to the DC, she had a
‘strong personality’ and ‘needs to be brought back into balance’. In the end, he carefully
opened up about his expectation that a team leader and a deputy both having a migra-
tion history would not bring the desired harmony in the (predominantly white) team.
I cannot do otherwise but conclude that in this case an inversion has taken place
within the DAL triangle, as authenticity has been inverted from a bedfellow to diversity
into its infidel spouse, doing more harm than good. To comprehend what has happened
here, I embrace what Urciuoli (2008) has to say about ‘strategically deployable shifters’
(SDSs). She uses the term to understand the value and function of soft skills in the work-
place, a category to which authenticity can easily be said to belong. Such skills (often
framed as competences) are characterized by a denotational vagueness—in this case
clearly indicated by the various definitions given to authenticity—that is central to their
strategic use. In fact, their strategic indexicality (they can easily be aligned with certain
organizational values) and denotational vagueness (hard to grasp, multi-interpretable)
have an inner connection. The applicant did not protest at the usage of authenticity as a
criterion for the vacant job. In an interview I conducted afterwards, he acknowledged
the importance of it (who can be against authenticity?). But at the same time he shared
with me a concern that going along with the expectations of his superiors would force
him into processes of alienation. In that sense, a double inversion took place, as ‘authen-
tication’ meant alienation for him:

Applicant. I am not willing to change my whole personality. . . . And I said that to

the committee. If you’re looking for someone who bangs his fist on the table, that’s
fine. But that’s not who I am.
Paul. You don’t want to change that?
Applicant. No, because I want to be myself.

Fireplace Sessions
The previous case makes clear what can happen if researchers tend to refrain from stud-
ying the offshoots of DM in addition to its official or original discourse(s); that is, if they
will not cross domains in their research. This may be unpalatable to purists who want
to preserve pure research domains and abstain as much as possible from real-life power
struggles, but I believe that in order to study DM for real, a certain amount of ethno-
graphic engagement that revolves around such domaining effects is necessary. Let me
turn to a second case in order to further substantiate this claim.
A few years ago (in 2010), I sat together with a deputy district commander to have
an informal conversation about the progress of my research. Enthusiastic as always,
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    325

the DC openly shared her knowledge about the topic (diversity) and told about a fire-
place mentoring session she had recently had with five Dutch–Turkish colleagues at a
fancy restaurant in an idyllic village close by. Such comfortable fireplace settings—‘we
have our feet on the table and sit by the fire’ (said the DC)—are intended to encour-
age employees to open up about troubles at work. This time she had invited those five
men, because time and again they did not succeed in getting promoted from constable
first class (hoofdagent) to sergeant (brigadier). Their quality and quantity of work was
perfectly up to standards (this was confirmed in their job evaluations according to the
DC) and yet they were facing a stagnant career (as do many ethnic minorities within
the Dutch police; cf. Boogaard and Roggeband 2010). Towards the end of the session
the DC concluded that all five of them did a great job, but lacked the communicative
and personal skills to make this known to others. They were advised to work on their
entrepreneurship, open-mindedness, and flexibility, as these had become key compe-
tences within the organization according to the DC.
They had become so, as two years earlier a new diversity initiative had made its appear-
ance within the organization, politietop divers (police top diverse), which revolves most
of its programmes around the five core competences of the ‘multicultural personality
questionnaire’: cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stabil-
ity, and flexibility (cf. Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven 2001). This questionnaire was
developed by Karin van der Zee (an NSvP expert). Van der Zee had applied this ques-
tionnaire in her police research in the south of The Netherlands and politietop divers
had designed a programme that portrayed these multicultural personality traits as a sine
qua non of police leadership. Since the five officers pursued promotion to a position that
involves leadership (sergeant), the DC’s advice makes sense at first sight.
In the winter of 2012–13 I joined one of the session participants for several weeks,
being unaware that he was in fact one of the participants. Things fell in place when Talik
(pseudonym), during one of our car patrols together, shared his concerns about the
career-related hardships of ethnic minorities within the organization. He admitted that
he was disappointed about the fireplace session, since nothing was done with it after-
wards. Nobody had received feedback, there was no follow-up, and almost three years
later all participants still worked as constable first class. ‘I had the feeling I was forced to
sell myself, which I cannot do; perhaps I should move to a marketplace or something for
some time’, is what he said while complaining about the self-commodification (Urciuoli
2010) he felt was imposed upon him. Coincidentally, at the end of our time together
Talik was in fact promoted to sergeant, although it remained unclear to him and others
whether this was a result of the polycentric roadblock that he had prepared for several
months and brought to a successful end (‘the best one we ever had’, according to a col-
league) or the empowerment course (‘you’re the director of your own life’) in which he
had recently enrolled—and which had originally started as a course for ethnic minori-
ties in particular to work on their auto-regulation and mental resilience.
In any case, it cannot be concluded that compliance with the competences enlisted
in the multicultural personality questionnaire gives any guarantee to career advance-
ment (here I take it for granted that participating in an empowerment course fuels such
326    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

compliance; I was not granted access to these classes owing to privacy issues). After all,
another participant in the fireplace session (Fahim; pseudonym) had been doing all the
tasks of a sergeant for a year and a half, without getting the official recognition (or sal-
ary). When he was dismissed from these tasks, because the organization is obliged to
promote him to sergeant after two years of doing the job, he took the initiative to send
an email about his ideas on this matter (he was ‘open-minded’ and ‘enterprising’). Not
much later he found himself transferred to another post doing one of the most ungrate-
ful routine jobs within the organization. Thus manipulation was a primary managerial
strategy and coercion was held in reserve. In an interview Fahim complained about the
constant exhaustion and feelings of burn-out he experienced, and confessed he consid-
ered leaving the organization owing to the constant pressure he felt to profile himself
and because of his nightmarish vision of his dead-end career—despite the numerous
personal development plans he was forced to write.
My ethnographic data thus reveal a set of techniques—a multicultural personal-
ity questionnaire, a fireplace mentoring session, an empowerment course, personal
development plans—that dwell on individual change efforts rather than focusing on
the structural impediments of career advancement. Such an emphasis on intrapsychic
domains leaves unscathed the work systems, structures, and processes that may con-
tinue to produce ethnic inequality in this organization (cf. Bielby 2008). In a way this
refers all the way back to what Braverman (1974: 20) said about the convenience of
‘assaying not the nature of the work but the degree of adjustment of the worker’. That
such an adjustment, if at all necessary, is not that easy only shows when one steps out of
the comfort zones of research, consultancy, and HRM and enters the domain of real-life
interactions and lived experiences. It might easily be said that Fahim was for a moment
simultaneously enterprising and emotionally unstable (he showed upset in the email).
What will he score on the multicultural personality questionnaire? Neat discourses of
DM do not allow for such internal contradictions to arise, but this does not mean that in
practice they may burst into conflict nonetheless. These contradictions become all the
more salient when the DAL triangle is revisited. Are police officers not required to be
authentic, that is, to reveal themselves?

The Hacker Story—Organizational

Democracy as Alternative
to Identity Regulation

Around the turn of the millennium, the Finnish economy was undergoing rapid dereg-
ulation and internationalization. Immigrants started arriving in larger numbers than
ever before and ethnic boundaries (cf. Barth 1969) appeared in workplaces used to deal-
ing only with gender, class, and age as social divides. This development began simulta-
neously at the lower wage ends of service, such as cleaning, and somewhat higher up
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    327

among skilled employees, such as software engineers. I (Marja-Liisa) studied both, but
in this chapter I will go into the particularities of the latter.

The Wonderland of High Tech

I contacted F-Secure, a medium-sized antivirus company, because of a business maga-
zine article that praised their wonderful DM. As DM was still rare in Finland at the time,
the article triggered my curiosity. Upon meeting, the Human Resources (HR) director
had to dispel my hopeful anticipations. The journalist in question had simply exagger-
ated the results of a quick visit and small talk with management and reproduced some
standard content from International Human Resource textbooks, letting the discourse
stand in the way of reality. It would not happen to me, I decided. ‘So you do not care for
diversity management? How’s that? You still have people here from many countries . . .?’
Yes, there were people with different nationalities, but it was stated with certitude that
this was not a problem to anyone. I asked around about other personnel politics: how are
people treated relative to their professions and tasks, in terms of power and so on? I duti-
fully recorded a utopian narrative of happy camaraderie in a hacker’s paradise. I was
going to check it against what the employees said.
The employees sided with the HR director and shared his account. That is, with minor
variations they told the same story of a workplace that was social and tolerant (towards
socio-demographic differences but also towards mistakes, for instance). They were
enthusiastic about the new technology being invented and about their own role in the
digitalization of society. This was in their heyday, just before the IT bubble burst; it was
an employees’ market. The company would do whatever pleased the people, so it seemed,
and managed social identities displeased them. ‘In the beginning,’ said Delphine (pseu-
donym), the French-German business-lawyer, ‘I had the feeling that I was walking with
the French flag attached to my back.’ That had ceased by the time of the study, to her
great relief. The employees detested the idea of being labelled or having to label their
colleagues. The only official step taken in favour, as it might be argued, of diversity was
the decision to adopt English as a company language. This is not so trivial a point as it
may seem. Most of the “foreigners” would have failed requirements if Finnish had been
the lingua franca. Apart from Estonians, very few immigrants can speak Finnish upon
arrival. But then again, not every company is part of the global high-tech industry, nor a
transnational space which recruits people via the internet.
The workers also confirmed management’s discourse on the egalitarian organi-
zation. The word they used was ‘democracy’; they gave praise to the prevailing ‘air of
democracy’. In practice this meant that the employees actually had some say in company
matters, for example through monthly general meetings and the YT-neuvottelukunta
(cooperative council), where elected representatives of the personnel discuss all kinds
of company matters with top management. Immigrant employees were members of
this body as well as Finns. My interviewees were not naively positive about everything,
though; in fact, they criticized the management freely and with gusto, just not in issues
328    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

related to ethnicity. They had a ‘voice’ (Bakhtin 1981; Holland et al. 1998) but did not use
it in matters relating to ethnicity because, as they put it, it was not an issue.
I started to wonder if a genuine slice of power was not a good substitute for specific
diversity programmes. Somewhere after my fifteenth interview and two lively Christmas
parties mixing employees with all kinds of backgrounds, I stopped disbelieving my
ears, and it dawned on me that demographic heterogeneity in the workplace does not
automatically lead to a disaster in the absence of managerial treatment; the latter may
actually do more harm than good. At this location, people were capable of treating one
another with ‘civility’ (Gomes, Kaartinen, and Kortteinen 2007) without managerial
intervention. Immigrant members offered me positive testimonies of their well-being
and satisfaction with the company management and collegial relations among the staff.
One might seek explanations in the fact that many immigrant employees had a
European or North American nationality; but then again, so-called ‘visible minorities’
from Asia were present as well as Russians, the latter in large numbers. Russians have
been subjected to collective stigmatization in Finland, based on historical events and
their offshoots in present-day ethnicism. Others may seek explanations in the race/class
nexus (or ethnicity/class nexus for that matter), as I did myself initially. Sheltered from
precarity, F-Securians gained a proper livelihood and reaped the fruits of globalization.
But this would not hold much longer.

Downturn
Early in the new millennium the IT sector was sliding into the depths of a recession. The
blow on professional pride and a sense of security was hard on the hackers, since they
fell from such a height. Many of the ills described by Richard Sennett (2006) became
chronic at F-Secure. Layoffs and cuts, followed by sharp increases in productivity
demands, the imperative of customer orientation, and the bleak outlook of an employ-
ers’ market hollowed out their self-confidence. Their efforts to explain and get a hold
on the situation ran in many directions. Some blamed themselves, calling the lay offs a
‘healthy reminder’ (see Ho 2009 for similar findings at Wall Street), others cursed the
management for its mistakes and for exaggerating financial rigour at the expense of the
human productivity that was needed to rise from stagnation. I continued to observe and
to interview, expecting soon to witness anxiety becoming ethicized and scapegoats run-
ning to slaughter. It never happened.
In interviews, I never started with the theme of ethnicity but took it up eventually if
the interlocutor did not. Usually I had to do it. The word ‘diversity’ rarely came spon-
taneously from the lips of anyone in management or on the work floor. Though they
knew I was studying ethnicity (or ‘multinationality’ or ‘internationality’), they would
continue to talk about their work and what the prospects looked like professionally.
Though I embedded all inquiries about subjects and identities in the kind of work
that each of them did—most of our conversations concerned professional hopes and
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    329

worries—it took me a while to see that one of their reasons for stubbornly resisting
managerial identity regulation was anchored in their professional subculture. They
kept drawing from hacker values. One of these was international solidarity, a cherished
theme in their folklore. A foreign colleague could therefore only be foreign in the eyes
of local authorities. For fellows, (s)he was a citizen of a hackers’ nation, bordering vir-
tual space. Computer experts are members of a truly global network of fellow profes-
sionals. Although this subculture is very heterogeneous in its constitutive ingredients
(Gere 2002; Coleman and Golub 2008) and has been under severe pressure since eco-
nomic agendas started to toss it between glory and subjugation (Trux 2008), it persists
in its strength.
This does not mean that all could skip merrily off into the sunset. The weak spot
in a community of hackers is that not all are hackers proper. Bharat (pseudonym),
coming from India, was lonely. His young wife stuck in India with their new-born
baby, he spent his evenings and weekends mostly alone, producing articles for
Indian papers and writing poems. Being a translator of products and manuals, he
did not belong to the hacker’s community. Computer specialists have communities
of practice and wider networks that spread solidarity and useful resources across
borders—but not necessarily to the neighbouring cubicle, occupied by a workmate
that does not belong to their own moral community. He or she might be, for instance,
a secretary or a localizer – such as Bharat. What’s more, Bharat suffered from diffuse
insecurity in his dealings with the Finns. He was never quite sure whether his antici-
pation of a ceiling to his career was attributable to a flat hierarchy, his Indianness,
non-hacker identity, (imaginary) insufficient productivity, or perhaps just the dif-
ficulty in socializing: ‘just because of me they have to talk in English. So you feel like
OK, let’s not disturb them’. But he never could observe that anything like ethnicity
would have affected lay offs or other substantial decisions.
At the end of my fieldwork, the downturn was over, though good times did not return
to F-Secure. Some latent sources of cross-cultural friction felt a bit like stones in the
shoe, being no more discussed than in the average organization. White-collar immi-
grants nevertheless continued to spend a fairly comfortable middle-class life with their
generally tolerant and ‘open-minded’ colleagues. I agreed with the HR manager that
introducing top-down identity management programmes would probably have wors-
ened the situation.
During a visit I paid to the San Jose subsidiary of F-Secure, in Silicon Valley, California,
I witnessed worse outcomes of insecurity. After massive lay offs—and without clear task
definitions—the local staff trembled with fear of what was to come next; it was a fear of
the Finns. I got the chance to observe structurally ethicized troubles, which produced a
taxonomy of two: the Finns and the others. Desperate locals asked me what they should
do to make the Finns trust them. What I think is to be learned from the comparison of
Helsinki and San Jose is the role of the often underestimated impact of their different
statuses. Sales offices tend to have less prestige and fewer resources in the high-tech busi-
ness than offices which house R&D functions or head offices. The personnel in San Jose
330    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

had higher levels of turnover and were more precarious. Compared with the peaceful,
trustful ambience in Helsinki, it was a whole different world. In Helsinki people stuck to
their civility, defending their professional pride and sense of community among hack-
ers, even under conditions of economic pressure. Clearly, whatever it was that prevented
the workers from ethnicizing in Helsinki did not reach San Jose, or was not powerful
enough against the structural evils they faced.

Organizational Democracy
The notion of ‘organizational democracy’ has a long pedigree in the social sciences
(e.g. Davies 1967; Johnson 2006; Luhman 2006). Much can be said about its disadvan-
tages for workers—it may be deployed to manufacture employee consent, as Burawoy
(1979) long ago claimed, without adding much to real improvements in working
conditions—as well as about its advantages—particularly when genuine power shar-
ing is involved, such as in the case of labour-managed firms or worker-owned firms
(cf. Luhman 2006), where property rights are actually held by workers. This is not
the place to substantially add to this literature or make normative judgements. It is
the place, however, to juxtapose certain qualities that are ascribed to organizational
democracy with features of employee experience at F-Secure, which in turn can ren-
der understandable why the promises of top-down administration of identity had zero
appeal for the workers.
Certain key characteristics of organizational democracy as described by Luhman
(2006, based on a meta-analytic narrative study of ninety-seven works), such as com-
munity solidarity, control over tasks, involvement in decision-making processes,
access to information, a sense of meaningful work, multiple skills, a concern for equal-
ity, task variety, tolerance, and respect were observable at F-Secure. In the experiences
of my informants, these elements positively contributed to their life at work. What is
more, they were part of a meaningful whole, a profession as a ‘form of practical activity’
(MacIntyre 1981) with its internal goods, traditions, and community-bound sources
of legitimation, which, while they allow for managerial discretion, tend to keep it
decent and under collegial scrutiny. Like many software companies, F-Secure had been
founded by a handful of friends. At the time of the fieldwork, the company was still
owned by the same CEO who, back in the start-up days, used to sit on the floor in
monthly meetings if there were not enough chairs. In an analysis à la Jacques Rancière
(see Biesta 2010), democratic moments ruptured the ‘police order’ and replaced
dependent emancipation with a more genuine one, as minority members assumed
themselves equal and came into presence as subjects of the local politics. ‘When Noam
brings out his checked notebook,’ the HR director described the monthly meetings,
‘we can be sure that tough questions will follow.’ I argue that the ‘air of democracy’ so
whole-heartedly defended in Helsinki equated pretty much with this short distance
between management and staff.
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    331

Discussion and Conclusions

What can be learned from comparing the experiences of Dutch police officers and
Finnish software engineers? How may this help to make sense of the field of DM? We
had a unique opportunity to compare two unexpected ethnographic cases, in two dif-
ferent national contexts, that helped us to separate the rhetorics from the realities in
the field of DM. In this sense, our work compares to Legge’s (2005) meta-analytic effort
within the broader field of human resource management, to which DM owes much of its
achievements. Our cases qualify as unexpected because one opened a wedge to analyse
the downsides of DM (most scholars have only gone so far as casting light on its subopti-
mal conditions; inquiries seldom reach into its harmful effects), while the other enabled
us to study an organization in the absence of DM. Popular rhetoric has it that DM is
either neutral (it has no effects whatsoever) or beneficial (economically or in terms of
social equality), but our ethnographies uncover a different reality. With the on-going
economic recession in mind, we expect that diversity scholars will have plenty of oppor-
tunities to study similar scenarios in the future. Being a typical expenditure of surplus,
DM may be past its prime for now and will confront workers in the near future with
either its absence or its leftovers; that is, the remains of low budget itineraries.
What caught our attention in comparing the two cases were the different ways in
which organizational members’ careers were dealt with. In both contexts employ-
ees were facing the hard realities of being seen as disposable resources and produc-
tion costs (under public managerialism, police officers too are said to produce rather
than serve). However, in Finland, F-Securians faced this reality with clear sight, with-
out ideological clouds, and actually had a say in their company through the coopera-
tive council (YT-neuvottelukunta) and all the rest of it. The Dutch police officers, on
the other hand, felt misled by the soft rhetoric of employee development, participa-
tion, voice, and self-efficacy that accompanied (the offshoots of) DM. The occlusive
language that was used even succeeded at times in breaking resistance (in the case of
the applicant), because the rhetorical composition appeared nice, attractive even, and
was cherished. So the larger canvas behind diversity discourses is what we might term
an economy of good expectations. Protected within the compounds of consultancy,
HRM, and para-academic life, good expectations need not be compromised, the shift-
ing character of ‘diversity’ need not be confronted, and power asymmetries do not have
to become too obvious. But eventually diversity discourses have to break out of these
compounds because, by design, their real-life applications are their raison d’être (and
main source of income). At that moment the charm is broken and it becomes evident
that they have multiple meanings and can be strategically deployed. The subversive
potential of ethnography resides in its ability to uncover these meanings and shed light
on these deployments.
On a more abstract level, it may help to revisit Bauman’s Liquid Modernity (2000)
and interpret the various applied diversity instruments that we have studied as
332    Paul Mutsaers and Marja-Liisa Trux

auxiliaries to what he calls ‘life-politics’, in contradistinction to ‘public politics’. Central

in his analysis of life-politics is the observation that people who live in this histori-
cal form of human cohabitation (liquid modernity) feel constantly coerced into shar-
ing intimacies. ‘When public politics sheds its functions and life-politics takes over’,
Bauman warns, the public sphere is likely to be excavated except for ‘the site where
private worries are confessed and put on public display’ (2000: 51–2). This is exactly
what happened in the fireplace session, which can easily be thought of as a Foucauldian
technique of avowal (cf. Covaleski et al. 1998). After all, the participants were invited to
release all breaks and confess as much as they pleased, but gained nothing thereafter.
We therefore concur with Bauman, who follows Ulrich Beck in stating that there are
simply ‘no effective biographic solutions to systemic contradictions, and so the dearth
of workable solutions at [people’s] disposal needs to be compensated for by imaginary
ones’ (2000: 38). But herein lies the rub: the psychotechniques that are produced and
circulated by the NSvP are both the instigators of and imagined solutions to the par-
ticipants’ troubles. It is a closed circuit, as various forms of psychometric profiling
(cf. DiFruscia 2012) are used to problematize a certain situation (e.g. Dutch–Turkish
police officers lack certain personality traits) to which solutions are offered that keep
them within the same psychological discourse (e.g. an empowerment course). While
such a consistency of diagnosis and solution stands to reason, it may be useful to
remind oneself of Marxian dialectics, which urges people sometimes to find solutions
to problems. The actual problems of structural discrimination remain in the world of
work, waiting to be tackled once resources and attention are liberated from the mana-
gerial closed circuit of psychotechniques. Our evidence suggests that solutions to prob-
lems of power abuse (such as discrimination) might indeed include some measure of
power redistribution.
By putting emphasis on the subversive potential of ethnography we hope to escape
from the closed circuit of dominant paradigms and produce more radical innova-
tion (see Chapter 16, this volume). The emergency exit is right around the corner if
researchers and organizational members only dare listen to the silenced and some-
times distance themselves from the alleged universal good that DM is nowadays con-
sidered to be. A deceptive habit of thought has started to confuse the high moral goal of
anti-discrimination with managerial and political practices of DM. Our examples show
that managerial regulation of identities in organizations (the activity of DM that actu-
ally occurs; see Zanoni and Janssens 2006 for similar conclusions) does not stand the
test of function. It does not yield the promised results, neither in equality—as it further
burdens the careers of minorities, nor in productivity—as it diverts attention from the
quality and quantity of work. The claim of its universality is broken by the counterex-
ample of civility without managerial regulation. Failed practices and circular discourses
unlearned, it becomes possible to think afresh: how could organizations allow people to
live full professional and human lives?
We conclude in the words of Noam (pseudonym), himself an ethnic minority
member:
 The Subversive Potential of Ethnography    333

Marja-Liisa. So, are you happy about the way that this firm addresses diversity
among employees?
Noam. It doesn’t address it in any way.
Marja-Liisa. Are you happy about that?
Noam. Yeah, I mean because I don’t feel that I’m diverse.

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 Chapter 16

C ollecting Na rrat i v e s
and Writing Stori e s
of Diver si t y
Reflecting on Power and Identity
in Our Professional Practice

Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

Introduction

It is no coincidence that qualitative research is often branded as a ‘craft’ (e.g.

Golden-Biddle and Locke 1997; Prasad 2005). Indeed, as crafting depends on the
embodied ‘technical’ knowledge and experience of craftsmen and craftswomen,
qualitative research is a process which is grounded in knowledge that cannot be (eas-
ily fully) codified. And again like crafting, qualitative research involves an inten-
sive creative process that (hopefully) leads to an original (research) product. Rather
than embarking on yet another attempt to describe ‘how to do’ qualitative research,
in this chapter, we reflect on our own experiences as qualitative, critical research-
ers of diversity, who regularly conduct interviews with individuals with diverse
socio-demographic profiles in different kinds of jobs. By doing so, we aim to highlight
and illustrate the difficulties, dilemmas, considerations, and pragmatism inherent in
the craft we practise.
We organize our thoughts along the phases of the research cycle, from our sociali-
zation into the academic community, to fieldwork, the writing up of our research,
and engaging with our peers in the review process. In each phase, we both reflect on
our own experiences, paying particular attention to the micro-politics and iden-
tity dynamics in the praxis of qualitative research (Song and Parker 1995; Limerick,
Burgess-Limerick, and Grace 1996; Johnson-Bailey 1999; Alvesson and Sköldberg
338    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

2000). In diversity scholarship, these micro-politics are exacerbated by the unique

intersection of power relations characterizing qualitative research with those related to
multiple socio-demographic identities. It is our explicit aim to explore the complexity of
this intersection, using our experiences to reflect on important themes and institution-
alized practices in qualitative organizational diversity research.

‘Learning to Labour’: On
the Disciplining Effects
of Discipline-Specific
Methodological Norms

To become management/organization studies scholars, we undergo a process of sociali-

zation into academia during which we learn how to ‘labour’ according to contempo-
rary professional norms (Trowler and Knight 2000; Mendoza 2007; Hakala 2009).
Methodological practices represent an important aspect of this socialization process
as they reflect the community’s scientific preferences constituting its very identity.
Methodological norms and practices are powerful instruments of socialization because
they define, in a field, whether an activity is ‘scientific’ or not, and thus whether indi-
viduals enacting them are members of the ‘scientific community’. Learning to labour
therefore entails adopting the professional practices of the professional community, and
making the underlying ideology one’s own to develop a suitable sense of a professional
self (Trowler and Knight 2000; Mendoza 2007; Adler and Harzing 2009).

Patrizia: Starting my PhD with degrees in international sciences and social and cul-
tural anthropology, and having some prior work experience outside academia, my own
socialization into management studies has been one of learning new work practices and
re-constructing my professional identity. Due to my working-class family background and
left political activism, doing a PhD in business was not an obvious step for me. I gradu-
ally rolled into organization studies, picking up professional practices from my supervisor
and other scholars around me. When I started reading the diversity literature published in
‘quality’ management journals, what struck me was the absolute dominance of quantita-
tive studies relying on social psychological theories. The contested world of work and the
politics of diversity which I had expected to find were not there. Inequality was represented
as the inevitable result of ‘natural’, if problematic, cognitive processes. ‘Real’ people from
disadvantaged groups were absent, as most studies were populated by numbers referring to
individuals in managerial jobs, although historically subordinated groups are most often
not managers. As a whole, this literature mystified the politics of diversity and was thus
quite boring compared to the anthropological (gender) literature and the Marxist literature
I was familiar with.
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    339

My own work on diversity was triggered by my initial puzzlement with the narrow way
management seemed to approach socio-demographic identities, both theoretically and meth-
odologically. Monographs on gender from the 1980s (e.g. Cavendish 1982; Cockburn 1983;
Ong 1987) and the work of a handful of more critically oriented diversity scholars published
in the 1990s (e.g. Calás 1992; Nkomo 1992; Liff and Wajcman 1996; Litvin 1997; Prasad et al.
1997) however gave me hope that diversity research could be done differently. My supervi-
sor had a key role in my socialization process into organization studies, as her knowledge of
the field enabled us to write of diversity in ways that were at the same time innovating and
yet recognizable for the (then emerging) critical (diversity) community in management. This
normative process represents a fundamental aspect of one’s professional socialization.
Whereas during my PhD, I enjoyed great freedom concerning theoretical choices, meth-
odological ones were also based on ‘strategic’ considerations. We excluded a single-case
ethnography early on in favour of less risky and more time-efficient qualitative data col-
lection methods, such as extensive semi-structured interviews in multiple organizations.
Indeed, methodological choices are typically made bearing existing norms of how much
and what type of data is ‘desirable’, ‘necessary’, and/or ‘acceptable’. Because good organi-
zational research is synonymous with anonymously peer-reviewed research, researchers
come to stand under high pressure to conform to existing methodological praxis found in
published articles (Willmott 2011). Many choose quantitative methods in order to avoid
being excluded on methodological grounds from prestigious institutions such as journals
and universities. Alternative methods (e.g.visual methods, auto-ethnography) are rarely
used also because there is little expertise available to socialize new scholars into using them
and a lack of clear shared standards to judge the quality of the ways they are applied.
Koen: I started my PhD research immediately after completing a business education
which had prepared me to be a manager, rather than to study management or organiza-
tions. As I had not been exposed to methodological, epistemological, or ontological debates
or trained to do research, my only real point of reference on what it meant to do research
was my master’s thesis. In it, I used economic theory to study cooperation between politi-
cal parties and adopted a traditional, positivist qualitative approach based on semi-struc-
tured interviews. This experience was important because it taught me that I enjoyed doing
research on a topic I believed to be socially and politically relevant. Witnessing the steady
rise of the Flemish extreme-right party throughout my youth, I had been increasingly con-
cerned about inequality, discrimination, and racism in society.
With little prior knowledge about doing research or the academic world, but with a
clear ‘mission’, I underwent the socialization process characterizing the start of each young
academic’s career. Throughout this process, I engaged in both resistance and conformism,
leading to a sort of ‘tempered radical’ professional identity (Meyerson and Scully 1995),
which I have aimed to maintain since. On the one hand, I attempted to resist the domi-
nant instrumental and management-focused approach guiding much research in organi-
zation studies (Alvesson and Willmott 2003; Adler et al. 2007), including that of many of
my colleagues. On the other hand, I tried to establish a ‘competent’ professional identity
by conforming to the norms and institutionalized practices of academia. I listened to my
supervisor’s and colleagues’ ideas, went through articles in ‘top’ international journals to
340    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

gain an understanding of what ‘good’ journal articles look like and how an academic argu-
ment should be crafted, learnt about the ‘valued’ academic outputs, . . . Perhaps because
of my lack of prior knowledge about the academic world, I never really questioned such
dominant norms on ‘correct academic behaviour’. Finding this balance between resisting
and conforming is perhaps the fate of many critical diversity scholars in business faculties.
After all, it is only by being not too resistant that it is possible to secure a form of legitimacy
and maintain one’s professional identity and academic voice.
When deciding which diversity issue I wanted to study, I opted for a topic that was not
only academically, but also socially relevant. Given the highly precarious position of indi-
viduals of Turkish and Maghrebi descent in Flanders, and feeling it was important to give
voice to individuals who clearly do not fit into the existing stereotypes about these ethnic
groups as unwilling to participate in ‘mainstream’ society and as causing social problems,
I decided to study the workplace experiences of ethnic minority professionals. I later real-
ized that my focus on professionals was actually largely in line with the diversity literature’s
preference to study individuals in managerial and professional positions (e.g. Bell and
Nkomo 2001; Ahmed 2007; Atewologun and Singh 2010; Özbilgin and Tatli 2011; Kenny
and Briner 2013). When I also started doing and supervising research on ethnic minority
employees in blue-collar jobs, I realized that perhaps part of the explanation of why—even
critically oriented—studies of diversity often investigate managers and other highly skilled
professionals, might be found in the pressure on (young) academics to quickly publish as
much articles as possible (Archer 2008; Lund 2012). Managers and consultants are often
highly articulate and can talk at length about their work and their careers using concepts
and terminology that closely reflect our own jargon, which makes it easier to quickly trans-
late their interviews into findings sections, and publishable articles. Still, one can wonder
whether such pragmatic considerations, promoted by current academic pressures, do not
lead us to ignore the most disenfranchised voices, such as those of recent immigrants work-
ing in the most dreadful jobs in our economies.
Similarly, despite continued calls for contextualized and in-depth explorations of diversity
processes as they unfold in real-life organizational settings (e.g. Pringle, Konrad, and Prasad
2006; Zanoni et al. 2010), the default option in qualitative research seems to be methods based
on semi-structured interviews. An approach which can clearly more easily and quickly be
translated into findings sections than more time-intensive ethnographic approaches. I myself
also used semi-structured interviews, mainly because it made sense given my research topic,
but perhaps also in part because this was the main method of gathering qualitative empirical
material I had encountered in the organizational literature on diversity.

‘Alice in Wonderland’: On Discovery,

Power, and Identity in the Field

The most exciting yet also somewhat threatening experience for a qualitative researcher
is fieldwork. In the field, we enter an ‘alien’ culture and have to learn to navigate it
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    341

(Czarniawska 1998). Whereas the initial immersion in the scientific literature requires
us to engage with abstract knowledge, fieldwork makes us aware of our dependence on
others to collect ‘good’ stories, which are indispensable for the writing of good research.
It forces us to negotiate our position vis-à-vis others, in a web of power relations, and in
the process confronts us in novel ways with ourselves (Song and Parker 1995; Limerick,
Burgess-Limerick, and Grace 1996; Czarniawska 1998; Johnson-Bailey 1999; ). Arguably,
the identity processes and power dynamics occurring in all qualitative research
(Limerick, Burgess-Limerick, and Grace 1996; Bhopal 2010) are even more salient in
research on diversity, to the extent that this latter precisely aims to investigate the role of
social identities in power relations.

Patrizia: Although the methodological literature stresses the difficulties of accessing organ-
izations and gaining the commitment and the trust of interviewees (Czarniawska 1998),
my own experience with recruiting organizations was not too painful. Perhaps this is due
to the fact that diversity management was, at the time of my fieldwork (2003–5), gaining
increasing popularity in Belgium and that the large companies I studied—an automotive
factory, a consulting company, and a hotel—profiled themselves as diversity management
pioneers. In each, I had distinct fieldwork experiences resulting from partially different
methodological approaches, work processes in the organizations, profiles of the respond-
ents, and life phases I was in at the time of fieldwork.
In the automotive company, I conducted an ethnographic study including participant
observation, extensive interviews, internal documents, and photographs. It was early in
my PhD and I had no family obligations. I got up at 5 a.m. to reach the factory before the
early shift started or stayed till the late shift ended at 10 p.m. I was struck by the role time
and space played in defining people in the factory. Bound to the line, workers were under a
self-enforcing time–space discipline. This affected my own fieldwork, as to spend time with
workers I had to follow their shifts, stand along them while they were working, or join them
in their short breaks. I could interview workers only when they could be substituted on the
line, which put both of us under time pressure.
Although the quality of the interviews greatly varied across individuals, young Belgian
male workers were especially hard to interview. Possibly they missed a ‘right’ language to
speak with a female interlocutor of about the same age. I tried to keep the conversation as
neutral as possible, focusing on ‘facts’. Young males with a foreign background were in gen-
eral more talkative with me, perhaps because my research was about diversity and I shared
Italian origins with many of the workers. I had introduced myself as a student and told peo-
ple that I was studying how people with different cultural backgrounds, men and women,
people with different ages, abled and disabled, worked together. While some shop floor
supervisors were highly critical of diversity, I learned the most from them, as they were not
bound by the line, and made the most time for me. They provided key insights in the factory
production system, its social world, and the many inconsistencies between the rhetoric and
the reality of factory life.
The fieldwork in the consulting company was a different experience. I autonomously
selected respondents from a contact list drawn by the HR unit, mailing and calling them
to arrange individual meetings. Here, I had to really push for people to make time for an
342    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

interview, which made me feel guilty about stealing time from these overworked knowledge
workers. As consultants often work at the clients’ premises, I conducted observations in
the open offices at the company’s headquarters only sporadically, between interviews. The
articulateness of respondents’ narratives compensated somewhat for the lack of observa-
tion. Given the highly educated profiles of my respondents and the fact that at the time I was
in the last trimester of my first pregnancy, I branded myself as a university researcher rather
than as a student, as had been the case in the factory. While, at least for some respondents,
my pregnancy might have brought the private too much to the foreground, it perhaps sig-
nalled to the respondents that it was legitimate to talk about the difficulties of balancing
consulting work and private life, as they tended to talk extensively about this topic.
Fieldwork in the hotel was again quite different. I conducted semi-structured interviews
during the summer of 2005. Here too, most of my empirical material was collected through
interviews, in multiple languages, although I did some non-participant observation and
occasionally had lunch with personnel. I excluded systematic participant observation
because that would have meant working in the very early morning, late evening, and/or
weekends. This was not feasible given the commute and my at the time six-month-old son.
In the hotel, I had the impression that some of the respondents in lower-rank jobs agreed
to be interviewed because their supervisor had asked them. I was aware that these work-
ers were particularly vulnerable, as they have few or no other work alternatives. I felt that
many female workers with Asian backgrounds found it particularly uneasy to talk with
me. This might have however been caused by language problems or ‘cultural’ reasons rather
than fear. Possibly, they felt that talking about their personal experiences at work with a
stranger was out of place. I repeatedly stressed that there was no obligation to be inter-
viewed and reassured them that all information was confidential, but am not sure whether
this helped.
My exposure to respondents with very different profiles made me aware of how the
modalities of interviewing give us, as researchers, unequal access to respondents and how
they themselves, in turn, can be heard by us to different degrees. The more respondents are
‘like us’, speak the same language, have a high education, and are in jobs allowing them to
autonomously manage their time, the more they can relate to us and to our work, antici-
pate what we want to hear, and help us produce ‘good’ stories. It is with these respondents
that we end up talking longer and are more likely to sympathize with, which makes that
their perspectives play a greater role in shaping our own understandings.
Although socio-demographic identities and their intersections are key in negotiating
with our respondents roles with which both of us are comfortable, caution remains war-
ranted in interpreting the impact of one’s own socio-demographic profile on one’s fieldwork.
This relation is highly complex and not transparent. The roles I took with my informants
were highly diverse and reflected not only my intersecting identities, but also theirs. For
instance, as a female researcher, I related quite differently to males that were of my age and
males that were older (and they clearly did, too), and age seemed generally more impor-
tant than ethnic background or organizational rank in shaping the relation. Female inter-
viewees of all ethnic backgrounds and in all organizational ranks often expected I would
understand their experiences because of my own gender. As an Italian woman, I was
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    343

approached by young men from Mediterranean countries in less sexualized ways than by
some Belgian ones.
Koen: I experienced the phase of ‘gain accessing’ to the field for my PhD research as
highly challenging. Part of the difficulties I encountered were the result of the group I had
chosen to study. At the time, second-generation ethnic minority professionals of Turkish or
Maghrebi descent were a relatively small group, and I had further restricted it by (initially)
excluding well-known individuals such as famous politicians or media figures. As is often
done to study small, hard-to-reach populations, I relied heavily on snowball or chain refer-
ral sampling (Biernacki and Waldorf 1981; Penrod et al. 2003). While this approach was
useful to identify respondents, it produced ‘false starts’ (Biernacki and Waldorf 1981), as
I was referred to individuals who did not fit into the sample I had envisioned, leading to
uncomfortable situations in which I had to turn them down because they did not have the
‘right profile’. I also quickly realized that I risked getting ‘stuck’ in a circle of friends, with
often quite similar experiences. Therefore, I looked for interviewees in different chains of
reference, for example by placing calls for participation on websites and making use of my
own professional and personal networks.
Once I had obtained the contact information of a possible interviewee, I had to gain
his or her commitment to participate in my research. I experienced this ever-continuing
cycle of ‘gaining access’ as very embarrassing and discomforting. First, because I, an ethnic
majority individual, was addressing my potential interviewees as ethnic minority individ-
uals. Although I do not know whether my ‘outsider status’ influenced this, some did refuse
to participate because they did not feel like discussing their experiences as an ethnic minor-
ity individual with me. Both to make up for the categorical way I addressed them and to
convince them that I had ‘good intentions’, I always clearly positioned myself in my ini-
tial communications as an ‘ally’, who aimed to question and challenge existing stereotypes
and inequalities (Gibson and Abrams 2003). Second, making contact with possible inter-
viewees was an unpleasant phase because, as noted by Limerick, Burgess-Limerick, and
Grace (1996), I felt that potential interviewees had strong control over me, as I depended on
individuals who did not know me to make time for me and help me advance my research.
Luckily, many were willing to participate.
While my interviews were characterized by specific identity processes and power dynam-
ics, which were potentially made more salient by the ethnic (and sometimes gender) dif-
ference with my interviewees, I think it is too simplistic to assume that who I am made
the interviews ‘more difficult’. Rather, I believe that my multiple and intersecting identities
influenced the interview process in a number of different and potentially contradicting and
unpredictable ways (Song and Parker 1995; Johnson-Bailey 1999; Archer 2002 ). On the one
hand, belonging to the ethnic majority, I grew up with the privilege of lacking the ‘insider
knowledge’ of living as an ethnic minority individual in Flanders, and facing the discrimi-
nation and identity challenges it entails. This became painfully clear during one of my first
interviews, when an interviewee got mad at me because of a follow-up question I asked
concerning her cultural identity. She luckily quickly forgave me and we ended up having a
very interesting discussion about the issue. While later interviewees never expressed their
frustrations this openly, I might have unwillingly offended others by my questions and
344    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

choice of words, and by doing so, influenced the answers they gave. Still, some interview-
ees explicitly stated that they allowed me to ask questions they would normally experience
as problematic, precisely because they believed the research I was doing was important.
Perhaps surprisingly, I myself sometimes felt very uncomfortable because of statements
interviewees made about ethnic minorities, including those from their ‘own’ ethnic com-
munity. For example, one person argued that most individuals of foreign descent were only
driven by a desire to earn a lot of money, going as far as calling them ‘magpies interested in
everything that shines’.
On the other hand, I also noticed that ethnic difference was not only a drawback (Gibson
and Abrams 2003; Essers 2009). For example, some interviewees expressed admiration for
my interest in diversity and my critical views on the status quo, creating a feeling of mutual
respect and common purpose, and helping to push our ethnic difference to the background
(Manderson, Bennett, and Andajani-Sutjahjo 2006). This was further strengthened by
other common identities, such as our higher educational background, or the fact that some
interviewees had attended the university or the faculty where I was working. Furthermore,
some seemed to be more comfortable expressing their views on sensitive topics to someone
not belonging to their ethnic community, feeling I would be less likely to condemn them for
them (Essers 2009). My lack of knowledge generally did not appear to offend the interview-
ees, as most did not expect this from someone of the ethnic majority. They rather made an
extra effort to explain their experiences and opinions in depth and often seemed to perceive
me as a sort of pupil (Rhodes 1994), who was there to learn from them, a role which was
also hinted at by my age and professional junior status compared to them.
I rarely felt I was in a very clear position of power during the interviews. Not only
did interviewees ultimately keep control over how long the interview lasted, whether
they answered questions, how much information they shared, but they also occasion-
ally clearly had a message they wanted to communicate through my research (Limerick,
Burgess-Limerick, and Grace 1996). On the whole, I ended my period in the field with a
sense of gratitude, and a feeling that I was really indebted to the individuals who had told
me their stories.

‘Lost in Translation’: Re-telling Field

Stories to an Academic Audience

Once empirical material has been ‘harvested’ in the field, the challenge for a researcher
becomes to weave it into a story that is appealing to an academic public (Van Maanen,
1988; Golden-Biddle and Locke 1997; Rhodes and Westwood 2007; Essers 2009). Some
refer to this process as one of translating the received ‘gift’ (Limerick, Burgess-Limerick,
and Grace 1996). Today, producing translations in accordance with the dominant norms
of academic writing represents perhaps the most important competence for a scholar.
As the publication of scientific articles constitutes the basis on which one’s academic
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    345

performance is evaluated, writing in ways that meet peers’ expectations largely defines
who belongs to the particular realm of academia (Hardy, Phillips, and Clegg 2001;
Archer 2008; Adler and Harzing 2009; Miller, Taylor, and Bedeian 2011; Willmott 2011;
Lund 2012).

Patrizia: The origin of an article lies in a hunch: What does this empirical material say that
makes me think differently about diversity? As the same material might be exciting and
stimulating to different people in different ways, this is only an apparently easy question
to answer. It is thanks to our socialization into the academic community that we learn,
as individual scholars, to ‘see’ aspects in data that are likely to speak to the community
as a whole. This initial intuition is therefore all but ‘free’, it is firmly embedded in current
debates in the field. Then the tricky task comes of problematizing the existing knowledge on
diversity to highlight the necessity of the study, out of which new insight will emerge. This
process is commonly referred to as showing the ‘gap’, an unfortunate quantitative metaphor
which evokes the possibility that knowledge gaps can be filled once and for all, and which
obscures the rhetorical dimension of constructing the ‘gap’ in the first place (Golden-Biddle
and Locke 1997).
Specific to organization studies is the expectation that empirical pieces make not only an
empirical contribution (a quite legitimate enterprise in itself in other disciplines), but also
a theoretical one, that is contesting, extending, deepening, and/or refining existing theory.
While reducing the risk of purely descriptive papers, the focus on theory building straitjack-
ets empirical research into very specific formats, which pose important problems to critical
diversity researchers. First, the need to make a theoretical contribution forces authors to
relate their work to the existing research, which functions as a ‘benchmark’. Much energy
and room is spent portraying one’s study as commensurable to such research, contributing
to the reproduction of existing dominant paradigms. Even when a piece explicitly aims at
contesting it, it has to repeat and refer to the main tenets of the contested paradigm, inad-
vertently favouring theoretical continuity over more radical forms of innovation (Alvesson
and Sandberg 2011). Radical breaks are rare not only because they (rightly) require a thor-
ough knowledge of the existing literature but also, crucially (and less rightly), because they
tend to require a central, established position in the field from which one’s point can be
plausibly made.
Second, building theory from subordinated groups’ experiences is particularly arduous
because academic knowledge largely reflects the perspectives of dominant groups at work.
Meriläinen et al. (2008) have rightly pointed to how the dominant assumption that histori-
cally subordinated groups are not representative of the working population entails the dis-
qualification of their experiences as suitable bases to build theory that goes beyond them as
a group. Respondents from historically dominant groups are on the contrary assumed to be
representative, no questions asked. To highlight that their experiences say something that
transcends their socio-demographic specificity, I often choose theoretical approaches that
allow showing that individuals from subordinated groups are agents, despite their embed-
dedness in structures which disfavour them. I try to balance between determinism and
excessive agency, avoiding, respectively, victimization or naivety. I do not think of myself
346    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

so much as ‘giving voice’ to my respondents, but rather as committed to portraying them

as ‘full’ subjects. Ideally, as in fiction, readers should feel in these individuals’ shoes and
come to the conclusion that, if they actually were, they would think and act in a similar
way. This approach has its drawbacks, the main being that it tends to portray individuals
as overly ‘strategic’, downplaying their weaknesses and inconsistencies. As a result, my sub-
jects might be complex yet rarely weak or inconsistent. This reflects my own understanding
of weakness and inconsistency as the luxury of privileged groups, whose subjectivity and
agency are not constantly called into question. It therefore reflects them as much as me
(Rhodes 2009).
Aware of my own privileged position, while writing, I ask myself whether my work could
possibly be used to damage individuals in subordinated positions, for instance through the
managerial reappropriation of the identified mechanisms of domination and exploitation
(Brewis and Wray-Bliss 2008). Then I console myself thinking that managers surely do not
read scientific journals (especially the ones I write in), and that no visibility of my work in
the ‘real’ world out there should be assumed.
Koen: During the process of translating what we encounter in the field into academic
writing, we obviously wield important power. Probably the most important challenge we
are faced with is upholding our responsibility to our interviewees and our ambition—
despite all the difficulties this might entail (Czarniawska 1999)—to give voice to histori-
cally disadvantaged groups, while conforming to the demands of academic writing. These
demands force us to reduce our interviewees’ stories, lives, and experiences to instruments
used to achieve the ‘greater goal’ of the theoretical contribution. As this is an end that is
far removed from their realities, we are actually doing to our interviewees what many of
us criticize (diversity) management of doing (e.g. Prasad and Mills 1997; Lorbiecki and
Jack 2000; Zanoni and Janssens 2004): using people as ‘human resources’ to reach our own
professional ends. In this process, we might end up acting less as spokespersons, and more
as ventriloquists, whose voice is transmitted through the stories of others who seem to be
doing the talking (Czarniawska 1999).
A second way in which the interviewees’ voice might get compromised is through the
need for translation. As English is currently the lingua franca of the academic world, this
forces us to translate interview statements from the language in which they emerged, which
obviously leads to a certain loss of meaning and nuance. Of specific concern in this process
is my fear that staying too close to the original constructions might result in statements
which are grammatically weak or incorrect in English, thereby fuelling the stereotype that
my ethnic minority interviewees lack adequate language skills. This issue of language is
related to a number of larger points that can be made about writing from a ‘peripheral
country’ in the academic world (Meriläinen et al. 2008). For example, I also struggle with
the pressure of adopting concepts which are prevalent in the dominant centres of academia,
but completely foreign to the lifeworld of the interviewees. For example, while some have
advised me to use the concept of race rather than ethnicity, I feel uncomfortable doing so, as
this notion was never used by my interviewees, and has a very negative connotation in my
own context. Similarly, I often worry that because of a language error or the use of a con-
cept that has a negative meaning in some contexts but not in mine (e.g. second-generation
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    347

individual), I might be perceived as uninformed, insensitive, or even racist. I think such

points touch upon issues central to our discipline, as they raise the question of how much
diversity in language, even if we use English, is allowed to capture the nuances of the con-
text under study, or how strongly we should assimilate to the dominant (language) centre
of academia.
Another challenge when writing from the academic periphery concerns the description
of the local context, which is obviously key to understanding diversity processes (Pringle
2009; Zanoni et al. 2010). While those writing from a dominant centre of academia have
the privilege that their context is relatively well known to outsiders, this is not the case
for others, who are forced to extensively detail their setting; or even to convince readers/
reviewers that what they are saying is also relevant for other (more ‘important’) contexts
(Meriläinen et al. 2008; Nkomo 2009).

‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’: On

the Complex Politics of Reflexivity

Throughout the process of crafting qualitative research of diversity, from learning to

labour, to our travels in Wonderland, and the translation into an academic text, research-
ers reflect on their experiences and attempt to make sense of them (Hardy, Phillips, and
Clegg 2001; Macbeth 2001; Pillow 2003). Next to this ‘good’ dimension, reflexivity also
harbours some perils. Especially relevant for diversity research is that reflexivity can be
used ‘badly’ to justify and legitimize one’s research by strategically positioning oneself
in terms of socio-demographic make-up to claim legitimate authorship (Macbeth 2001;
Pillow 2003). Conversely, it can be used in ‘ugly’ ways to call into question the plausibil-
ity and legitimacy of the advanced insights based on researchers’ socio-demographic
identity rather than based on their capacity to say something meaningful and novel.

Patrizia: Coming from a discipline such as social and cultural anthropology, which has
spent the last decades self-reflecting on its involvement in colonial relations, the cursory ref-
erence to the authors’ identities at the end of the method section of an article appears quite
hollow, not to say thoroughly un-reflexive. Yet the disclosure of one’s gender, ethnic back-
ground, and age have become common practice, and whenever it is omitted in the original
manuscript, it is elicited by reviewers during the peer review process to appear in its final
version. Although reviewers might be moved by the noblest motivations, to me this request
feels like a obligatory ritual in which authors confess their identity sins and ask for absolu-
tion and reviewers, as self-elected Catholic priests, grant it or deny it. Surrealistically, even
methodology sections of articles written in post-structuralist traditions are filled with over-
simplified and essentializing representations of the authors and their relations with their
informants. As Pillow (2003) has convincingly argued, they enact a practice of reflexivity
resting on a modernist understanding of the subject: singular, knowable, and fixable.
348    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

These ‘coming out’ statements are generally written in a defensive mode to curb possible
critiques or even to claim a superior ability to understand specific forms of diversity (Patai
1991). However, the assumption that commonality of social identity entails closeness, more
equal power relations between researcher and respondents, and thus ultimately access to
more ‘truthful’ empirical material is erroneous. Consider my nationality. Although it most
probably helped me make friends in the automotive company, where many workers had
Italian origins, it is much less clear how it affected my data collection and interpretation.
As an Italian migrant to Belgium, I might for example cope with my own traumatic migra-
tion experience and develop a positive identity by adopting Belgian stereotypical negative
images of Italians. Or, as a highly educated first-generation woman from Northern Italy,
I might have trouble connecting with third-generation, low-educated men with roots in
Southern Italy (Bhopal 2010). The possibilities in which multiple identities and their inter-
sections might play a role are countless.
In critical diversity research, the ‘bad’ of reflexivity too often becomes the ‘ugly’: because
socio-demographic identities and power are the core issue under investigation, iden-
tity confessions (or the absence thereof) are commonly played out in the review process.
It is not exceptional that reviewers appropriate the information provided by the authors
on their socio-demographic profile to de-legitimize their claims or, conversely, to insinu-
ate that their claims are biased due to their specific perspective on the grounds of their
undisclosed identities. This is highly problematic in that it shifts the plane of the critique
from the plausibility of the offered interpretation to the author as defined by an assumed
‘essential’ identity. Authors and reviewers belonging to specific socio-demographic groups
defend their own exclusive claim to the ‘truth’ over that group against non-members, with
the key difference that authors are expected to come out of the closet and declare their
socio-demographic profile while reviewers enjoy the comfort of anonymity. Ironically, this
occurs among scholars who all swear to anti-essentialistic conceptualizations of identity.
Review processes risk becoming the battlefield for inter-individual identity politics rather
than a process that develops ideas.
The perils of current practices of reflexivity extend beyond the critical diversity litera-
ture, however. Stressing the partiality and specific positionality of our work might have the
(unintended) effect to de-legitimize our scholarship in the eyes of colleagues working in
positivistic epistemological traditions, who might reappropriate explicit references to the
absence of objectivity to dismiss critical research as unscientific/‘untrue’. This critique is
not far-fetched; on the contrary, it represents one of the main points of debate between criti-
cal realists and post-structuralist scholars within the critical management studies commu-
nity (Johnson and Duberley 2000).
Despite these fundamental reservations with current practices, a self-reflexive praxis
remains key to the profession of qualitative researcher (Brewis and Wray-Bliss 2008). I try
to systematically reflect on the process through which my empirical material is generated
in my interactions in the field, on how my biography shapes my theoretical preferences and
my ability to ‘see’, as well as on how the review process leaves an indelible mark on my work
(for good and for bad). I try to make sense, often post hoc, of my own intuitively enacted
positioning strategies vis-à-vis my diverse informants, in order to evaluate their strengths
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    349

and their weaknesses. I regularly discuss this ‘experienced’ dimension of research with my
peers and junior researchers, attempting to learn from our experiences. In sum, scepticism
towards public, lip-service reflexivity, does not exclude engaging in multiple, more ‘private’
circles of reflexivity that help me understand why we do what we do. To avoid a logic of
guilt, confession, and redemption, we need to engage in more thorough self-reflective prac-
tices in which we do not feel under any pressure to perform alienating personas to fulfil
standardized expectations of distant, anonymous others. Practising reflexivity in this way
leads to convenience self-branding, the very negation of reflexivity.
Koen: To me, the ‘good’ of reflexivity is about fundamentally exploring, acknowledg-
ing, questioning, and exposing the way our identities, interests, and politics are present
throughout, and shape, the research process, and about being aware of the responsibility we
have when we wield the blunt weapon of language, construct reality, and represent others
(Pillow 2003; Hibbert, Coupland, and MacIntosh 2010). I consider reflexivity to be espe-
cially important as my position as a male, heterosexual individual of the ethnic major-
ity without disabilities grants me forms of advantage and privilege which, especially as a
diversity researcher, I simply have to be aware of (Jacques 1997; Kamenou 2007). What I do
struggle with is the fact that, when trying to unveil myself from behind a text, I feel that to
really account for all elements that have played a role in crafting a specific article, I would
need a few pages. How else is it possible to offer a nuanced account of my self in relation to
the field, to the interviewees, and to the produced translation? Yet this space is not avail-
able in a journal article, as every page devoted to reflexivity is a page that cannot be used
to describe findings and develop theory, elements which might ultimately decide the fate of
the piece.
As a result of these constraints of the article format, reflexivity often seems to be con-
demned to become ‘the bad’, and reduced to positioning the self through a simple list of
social identities. While such a ‘confession’ about the self tells us something about the author,
it nevertheless appears to be a superficial gesture. First, authors are not simply determined
by their social identities nor can they ‘transcend’ these social positions by the mere fact of
acknowledging them. Second, such confessional tales often only seem to involve a strategic
exercise aimed at claiming closeness to the subject and at obscuring the power relations in
the research process (Pillow 2003). If we acknowledge this, should we be satisfied with such
a relatively meaningless overview of social identities? If we answer this question with ‘no’,
then the more fundamental question becomes: is there room for ‘real’ reflexivity as long as
we’re bound by the shackles of the journal article with its strict world limits?
Sadly, I have in the past also been confronted with ‘the ugly’ of reflexivity. The privileges
that I have by virtue of my ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation occasionally seem to
turn into disadvantages when I write about diversity. For example, one of the worst days
of my professional life so far must have been when I received a review in which my ethnic
background was invoked to question what I wrote and to assert that I seemed to be mock-
ing my interviewees. As someone whose objective it has always been to question ethnic
inequality, I experienced these comments as a fundamental challenge to my professional
identity. The following days, I thought long and hard about these comments, as they both-
ered me much more than the rejection of the manuscript. While I certainly could have
350    Patrizia Zanoni and Koen Van Laer

phrased certain issues better and in more nuanced ways, I also wondered whether this
reviewer would have made such remarks if (s)he had not known my ethnicity, or if I had
written more about myself, and extended my reflections beyond some short remarks about
my social identities. Perhaps this latter element played a role, and perhaps I simply received
the type of response I could expect given the superficial way I had positioned/essentialized
myself as an ethnic majority individual. As I continue to ponder on such issues, I fear that
truly translating the reflexive processes we go through is almost impossible when writing
articles, leaving us stuck with the bad and ugly of reflexivity.

Conclusion

In this contribution, we have shared our experiences as critically oriented scholars of

diversity working with qualitative research methods, mainly interviews. Written in the
form of personal accounts, our narratives highlight the power-laden difficulties and
dilemmas in our research practice, which we attempt to reflect on and deal with. We
hope to have touched upon aspects which are relevant to the experiences of colleagues
working on diversity, sharing insights, frustrations, and tricks to get the job done with-
out losing oneself completely in the process. Yet there are obviously no once-and-for-all
answers to these problems. As researchers, it is our job to make those calls again and
again, evaluating each time the potential consequences, for the good and the bad.
Indeed, the reader who is familiar with our work might associate us with those very
practices we have contested here. For sure, as writers, reviewers, editors, and perhaps
even more as teachers, we are always accomplices in the reproduction of those scientific
norms, even when we distance ourselves from them.
Learning to be a ‘good’ researcher always entails some degree of conformity to the
dominant norms in academia (Trowler and Knight 2000; Adler and Harzing 2009;
Lund 2012). We continuously negotiate our own identity and position vis-à-vis the
scholarly communities to which we belong, our interlocutors in the field, the various
audiences we address, and of course ourselves. In each relationship, we carry out intense
‘identity work’, in which we are disciplined by others, self-discipline ourselves, and, in
turn, discipline others around us. Although we do retain some freedom in deciding
how faithfully we ultimately conform, methodological norms are generally not radi-
cally called into question, as they constitute fundamental aspects of paradigms of scien-
tific investigation. They exert a strong homogenizing force, which steers research away
from the ‘hands on’ data collection strategies that are often called for (Pringle, Konrad,
and Prasad 2006; Zanoni et al. 2010) towards traditional quantitative methods and, to
a much lesser extent, familiar qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews.
As critical diversity scholars, we should be wary of norms and practices pressuring us
to assimilate to an ‘ideal’ academic and stimulating the reification of our own and our
respondents’ identities along essentialist logics (Litvin 1997), two power-laden processes
which we commonly deconstruct and criticize in our own scholarly work on diversity.
 Collecting Narratives and Writing Stories of Diversity    351

We should also be aware of how our ‘theory building’ perspective operates as a pow-
erful mechanism to exclude entire bodies of knowledge which are less ‘common cur-
rency’—for instance because they do not reflect the experiences of dominant groups, or
are not written in English—from organization studies, because they are seen as unsuited
to contributing to a shared enterprise of building common knowledge. Little is needed
to be perceived and branded as ‘niche’ and ‘marginal’, a label which then becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy. We suspect that those exclusions say more about ourselves as
organizational scholars than about the excluded, reflecting a double inferiority complex
of our discipline, which is condemned to borrow theory from the humanities, where
theories are generated, while at once mimicking the methodological precision of the
exact sciences, which it will never achieve.

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 Pa rt I V

DI V E R SI T Y
OF C ON T E X T S
A N D P R AC T IC E S
 Chapter 17

Rethin k i ng
H igher Edu c at i on
Diversit y St u di e s
t hrou gh a Di v e rsi t y
Managem en t Fra me

Mary Ann Danowitz

Introduction

Higher education institutions’ efforts to promote equality and become inclusive have
increased rapidly since the mid-1990s, although diversity management (DM) is a term
that is seldom used in the higher education research and policy literature. At the same
time, DM has been one of the driving measures for equity and gender mainstreaming
in academe in the European Union. By contrast in the United States (US), the concept
of DM is embedded in maximizing diversity’s learning benefits for students. As a term
originating in the business world, DM may seem a rather loose and even contrived fit
in the higher education sector. I contend, however, that the guiding perspectives and
action to increase equity and inclusivity in higher education may, in part, explain the
limited progress that has been made (Hall, Rosenthan, and Wade 1993). Diversity
work in higher education has seldom incorporated multiple, interrelated elements of
organizational change processes necessary to fully incorporate the initiatives into a
comprehensive organizational change process, and thus transform the overall func-
tioning of a higher education organization in its treatment of diversity (Danowitz and
Hanappi-Egger 2012). This perspective leads to the suggestion that an improved way to
go forward is to reduce current confusions and misunderstandings regarding efforts to
diversify higher education by describing diversity management for that sector. I then
use that definition as a framework to analyse the literature on diversity work in higher
358   Mary Ann Danowitz

education institutions (HEIs)—universities as well as institutions that teach specific

capacities of higher learning such as colleges and technical training institutes.
I begin by proposing a definition: diversity management is a concept and process
that acknowledges the value of difference and strategically strives through structures and
processes to increase inclusion and promote equity among its stakeholders, especially its
internal ones, to create added value. It is a comprehensive form of strategic management
from the conceptualization and demonstrated commitment to organizational change
through its implementation, evaluation, and adaptation. It is a generic definition for
higher education that can be understood as a comprehensive multi-element process
within diverse multi-level contexts.
Any analysis of DM in higher education needs to consider differences in histories,
cultures, politics, priorities, and rationales among countries. These factors profoundly
influence the nature of higher education as a core instrument of the nation state (Clark
1986) and HEIs’ responses to diversity to become more inclusive (Ibarra 2001; Allen,
Bonous-Hammarth, and Teranishi 2006). For example, France’s tradition of strong
national control on higher education limits the kinds of higher education institutions;
its espoused commitment to égalité and fraternité higher inclusiveness mainly addresses
economically disadvantaged youth (Donahoo 2008). In contrast, the US has a relatively
unregulated but market-driven postsecondary higher education sector wherein the
fifty states and individual HEIs set most policies (Donahoo 2008). The historical back-
drop of racial segregation and more recent legal decisions of the late twentieth century
intended to reduce discrimination (Greenberg 2001) have, until recently, prioritized
race and gender in equity and diversity efforts (Donahoo 2008). These examples from
two nations illustrate the importance of situating DM-related policies and practices in
specific national contexts.
Syed and Özbilgin’s (2009) multi-level relationality perspective on DM offers a use-
ful lens to locate and understand the national differences and the focus of this chap-
ter on DM at the organizational level of HEIs. Syed and Özbilgin identify multi-level
factors to contextualize diversity and equality: the macro-national, meso-organiza-
tional, and micro-individual levels of analysis. The national characteristics of France
and the US constitute the macro-national level—the all encompassing domain of the
legal framework of diversity and equal opportunity, cultural traditions, political ide-
ologies, and other elements of the socio-economic context (Syed and Özbilgin 2009:
2445). The meso-organizational level or intermediate level refers to ‘relationships
that occur between organizational contexts and component behaviour (individu-
als, groups and dyads), and examines how those relationships affect outcomes’ (Syed
and Özbilgin 2009: 2442). The micro-level encompasses issues associated with indi-
viduals—aspirations, identity, and agency. Applying Syed and Özbilgin’s (2009) rela-
tionality perspective to DM in higher education, there are a number of interrelated
factors at multiple levels of analysis that influence diversity outcomes in HEIs. While
for purposes of practice the levels are interconnected, for purposes of explanation in
this chapter they are separated. This is done in order to help understand and man-
age diversity and organizational change systematically and thoughtfully at the core
 Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies    359

organizational level where most policies and practices are carried out and diversity
work is done—the HEI level.

Defining DM in Higher Education

Aspects of DM have been namelessly used in the higher education literature

and thereby creating confusion about what DM means. For example, Bensimon
(2004: 45) describes the diversity scorecard as ‘an ongoing initiative to foster change in
higher education in the United States by helping close the achievement gap for histori-
cally under-represented students’, a priority for HEIs in the US. Thus, she focuses on an
institutional change process that uses data analysis by race, ethnicity, and gender for
outcome measures of access, retention (such as pass rates in certain courses) to pro-
pose interventions to increase educational outcomes for under-represented groups. She
makes an important contribution by offering a DM strategy and process, without nam-
ing it, to increase student success and the possibility of widening the analysis to other
elements of diversity such as disability or age. The higher education diversity scorecard
does not refer to the term DM nor does it consider how DM might apply to staff or
the interrelationship between staff and student success and/or other institutional per-
formance indicators. Bensimon’s helpful higher education tool to increase diversity
and access and student success is somewhat similar to Hubbard’s (2004) widely used
diversity scorecard, which he describes as a DM resource. Hubbard’s diversity scorecard
encompasses multiple areas of diversity and their interdependence in business organi-
zations to achieve outcomes including generating revenues from new products, satis-
fying customers, accelerating new multicultural product development, and acquiring,
developing, and retaining strategic skills. A key difference between the two approaches
is that Bensimon’s (2004) emphasizes one aspect of organizational change and does not
use the term DM, whereas Hubbard’s scorecard is a multifaceted initiative approach to
organizational change initiatives integrated into the business as a whole and refers to it
as a DM.
Developing a clearer and more comprehensive definition of higher education DM
may reduce current confusions and misunderstandings regarding efforts to diversify
higher education that are associated with a lack of a clear definition and purpose for
diversity and an absence of explicit goals and processes integrated into the whole organ-
ization. Although there will never be one universal definition, it is important to have
a common reference for scholars and practitioners through which to analyse the phe-
nomena used, to represent an HEI’s change processes to increase diversity and equity
and to advocate for support from policymakers, academic leaders, and decision makers
in various national and cultural contexts.
The working definition proposed earlier in this chapter de-emphasizes a profit
outcome found in the business literature on DM (Danowitz, Hanappi-Egger, and
Mensi-Klarbach 2012). Further, the definition in this chapter employs a process
360   Mary Ann Danowitz

perspective with DM comprising an interrelated group of elements that together cre-

ate an added value for an HEI. The definition stresses ‘an organisation’s actions towards
DM represent its socialized predispositions, and as such reflect the social attitudes
directed towards diverse groups of individuals’ (Syed and Özbilgin 2009: 2442). It
also calls for HEIs to change more than a single component for effective DM (Cao,
Clarke, and Lehaney 2003) and accommodates a variety of activities and results. The
definition emphasizes the internal organizational environment (curriculum) and stake-
holders (academic staff and students), and includes the interaction with the external
environment and external stakeholders (such as programmes to increase the access of
under-represented youth to a university or to specific fields of study). The interaction
with the external context reflects the role of higher education as an instrument of the
nation state; often at the centre of the public policy regime.
DM refers to the totality of an organization’s efforts to become inclusive and to pro-
mote equality (Danowitz, Hanappi-Egger, and Mensi-Klarbach 2012: 153). The definition
proposed earlier in this chapter is composed of four elements. Valuing diversity refers to
awareness, vision, and defining relevant diversity issues. Strategically strives refers to a
planned, intentional change process, and sustained effort. Initiatives and structures refer
to processes, actions, practices, and rules. Added value refers to outcomes from moni-
toring, controlling, and evaluating. The definition is intentionally broad to encompass
the array of benefits, activities, and results that vary enormously across nations and
from institution to institution. I now turn to the higher education diversity research to
analyse it from the proposed four element framework.

Method

The research method was a qualitative review of journal articles. An extensive online
search of peer-reviewed literature from four databases—the Web of Science, ERIC,
PsychINFO, and Public Administration Abstracts was conducted for articles published
between 1995 and 2013. An eighteen-year time frame was chosen to provide a reasonable
sampling of diversity legislation, policies, and practices across a range of nation states.
The key word selection criteria used in the search were: higher, postsecondary and ter-
tiary education, college, diversity, DM, equity, inclusiveness, affirmative action, equal
opportunity, gender mainstreaming, and widening access. The search was limited to ref-
ereed articles as they are considered to have met the standards of external scrutiny of a
community of scholars. The 188 articles were then entered into a reference management
system.
A qualitative review of the articles indicates that the literature on diversity work in
higher education came from twenty-six countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, New
Zealand, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tunisia,
the UK, and the US. Some 136 articles (72 per cent) were from the US. Some eleven (about
 Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies    361

6 per cent) were comparative or included multiple countries. Another six (about 3 per
cent) featured Australia, making Australia the second best represented county in the data
set.1
Inductive and deductive processes were used to analyse the articles to identify key
concepts and to determine the themes in the works. The two readers independently
read and coded each article. The independent judgements between readers were com-
pared to validate the analysis. The few times when judgements differed about an article,
two readers re-analysed them and discussed them, and a third reader re-evaluated the
criteria and reasoning that had been used to reach a final decision.

Coding Content Framework

A content mapping approach was used in phase one to sort and review key information
such as the purpose, research questions, level of analysis, and kinds of literature cited
to classify articles. The predominant emergent theme was the clustering of articles at
three levels with an additional cluster of articles that were conceptual in nature. Four
clusters were identified: governmental or system level, institution level, social category,
and conceptual. The first three of these correspond with Syed and Özbilgin’s (2009)
macro-national, meso-organizational, and micro-individual relational levels of DM.
The few articles that overlapped more than one cluster were categorized in multiple cat-
egories. Each of the clusters is briefly described:

• The governmental or system (macro-national) level cluster includes fifty-seven (30

per cent) articles that focus on the historical context of social inequality in differ-
ent nation-states and implications of governmental policies to promote equity and
social inclusiveness in higher education. These articles present different aspects of
diversity work, such as the emergence of new institutions to widen college access;
policies regarding admissions (selection criteria for allowing students to matricu-
late); changes to increase under-represented groups’ attendance at elite institutions;
higher education finances and their implications on access; and the impact of the
market on higher education in different national economic contexts and research
projects to determine the effectiveness of diversity work. Articles from developing
nations often addressed internationalization of higher education as a prominent
topic for study.
• The institution (meso-organizational) level cluster includes 100 (53 per cent) arti-
cles that focus on policies, practices, and the implementation of projects in areas
of selection and retention of students from minority, under-represented groups,

1 There are five articles from the UK, four from South Africa, four from China, and two from South

Korea. There is one article from each of the following countries: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Egypt,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Tunisia.
India, Israel, Taiwan, and Sweden are only featured in comparative pieces.
362   Mary Ann Danowitz

or historically discriminated groups, and how to effectively recruit and support the
career advancement of women and individuals from under-represented groups.
Another important topic is changes in curriculum, pedagogy, and how classroom
teaching may contribute to student understanding of diversity. Articles in this cat-
egory also study the perception of diversity held by key internal stakeholders, such
as students, faculty members, and administrators, and how potential policy and
practice changes could more effectively incorporate stakeholders’ perspectives and
enhance their experiences.
• The social categories (micro-individual) cluster includes thirty-three (18 per cent)
articles that primarily examine individual, group, or groups’ (identified by a social
category such as sex, religion, race/ethnicity, gender identity, or nationality, and
age) experiences and perceptions of diversity. These social categories are associ-
ated with shared characteristics or experiences in relation to diversity and groups
that have historically been excluded from higher education. The groups are often
defined simply on demographic characteristics and position, such as women lead-
ers or women in technology and engineering. As policies and programmes influ-
ence perceptions and experiences, many of these articles are cross-listed with
articles at the institutional level.
• The conceptual cluster includes forty-nine (26 per cent) articles that address the
value of diversity to higher education, social justice, and higher education’s social
role, competing views towards affirmative action and positive action, research
directions for diversity studies, and organizational factors driving or imped-
ing diversity efforts. Articles in this category attempt to untangle the complexity
of the diversity term and phenomenon, and provide theoretical foundations for
on-going and future diversity research and practice.

There are twenty-five articles that are rated in one category. An example of a
cross-categorized article at the governmental—system (macro-national) level and con-
ceptual level is Deem’s (2007) article titled ‘Managing a Meritocracy or an Equitable
Organization? Senior Managers’ and Employees’ Views about Equal Opportunities
Policies in UK Universities’, published in the Journal of Education Policy. This article
examines the tensions between the prevalent meritocratic institutional culture and the
governmental policy supporting diversity in higher education. The conceptual clus-
ter placement is based on an application of a feminist perspective to analyse concepts
of excellence, meritocracy, and diversity; its governmental level cluster placement is
based on its description of how these concepts are operationally defined and imple-
mented in governmental equity policies such as widening participation and gender
mainstreaming.
One conclusion drawn from the review of the literature discussed in this chapter
is that the dominant understanding is derived largely from US higher education and
Anglosphere countries. Another conclusion is that a great deal has been learned about
diversity work at the level of HEIs. Yet, the small number of twenty-five multi-level stud-
ies suggests that most articles have been written for a domestic audience and seldom
 Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies    363

considered the interaction between the legal framework of diversity and equal opportu-
nity, cultural traditions, political ideologies, and other elements of the socio-economic
context.

The Institutional Level Analysis

In order to change HEI’s structures and cultures to be less discriminatory and more
inclusive, it is necessary to revise, at least some, organizational rules and practices
(Danowitz and Hanappi-Egger 2012: 138). As the work of teaching and learning and
the experiences of faculty and students occur within an HEI (the meso-organizational
level), often within a sub-unit of an academic department or institute, the remainder of
the chapter describes the 100 articles in the institutional level cluster. The next section
describes the analysis of the articles in a DM framework.

The Conceptual Framework

Phase two consisted of determining the key elements of DM that have been researched
and whether studies have included multiple elements, which are associated with success
rates for organizational change (Cao, Clarke, and Lehaney 2003). The articles were ana-
lysed for the four elements derived from the DM definition offered in this chapter: (a) val-
uing diversity, (b) strategy, (c) initiative or structure, and (d) added value (outcome):

• The valuing diversity element encompasses statements about key institutional stake-
holders’ perceptions on diversity. Valuing diversity is the foundation for diversity
policy and practices to promote equity and inclusion. The core of valuing diver-
sity is to establish a shared understanding, beliefs, or expectations to further an
organizational commitment to equity and diversity among stakeholders (Banks
2009). Yet such a valuing of diversity takes place in the context of the organiza-
tional culture and the social attitudes directed towards diverse groups or individu-
als (Syed and Özbilgin 2009). Attention is directed to the perception of internal
stakeholders—administrators, faculty, and students. Valuing diversity provides
information about how HEIs define diversity, incorporate it into their mission, and
communicate and demonstrate a commitment to becoming and being an inclusive
organization. Also included is the relationship between individual perceptions of
diversity and the organizational discourses of diversity.
• The strategic planning element encompasses organizational policies and manage-
rial plans to promote inclusion and equity. Attention is directed to organizational
culture and its interaction with diversity policies, plans, and approaches. A specific
focus is diversity plans, with their proposed processes, oversight, and the extent of
their comprehensiveness.
364   Mary Ann Danowitz

• The initiative and structure element includes a variety of practices designed to

increase the representation and success of minority groups in higher education and
to develop a more inclusive organization. These practices range from recruitment
strategies for members of under-represented groups for faculty and administrative
positions and student places, and incorporating equity practices and responsive-
ness to diversity into teaching and the curriculum.
• The added value element examines or measures the outcomes of diversity policies
and practices, such as having a diverse faculty and/or diversity among students or
success of under-represented students. Many of the studies from the US address the
consequences of diversity on student learning because of the need to demonstrate
the value of diversity in legal cases. Attention is also directed towards how diversity
affects student learning and socialization, including cognitive development, criti-
cal thinking, leadership development, and preparation to function effectively in
work settings with diverse people and/or cultures.

DM at the HEI Level

Figure 17.1 shows the distribution of articles across the various elements of DM. The
first four rows on the bottom of the figure show that slightly more than one-third,
thirty-eight, of the 100 articles address one element. Attention was somewhat evenly
distributed among the first three elements, with fifteen articles focusing on valuing
diversity, twelve articles focusing on strategy, eleven articles focusing on initiative or
structure, and no articles focusing on added value.

All four dimensions

Valuing diversity + initiative + value added
Strategy + initiative + value added
Valuing diversity + strategy + value added
Valuing diversity + strategy + initiative
Strategy + value added
Valuing diversity + value added
Valuing diversity + initiative
Initiative + value added
Strategy + initiative
Valuing diversity + strategy
Value added
Initiative
Strategy
Valuing diversity
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
One element Two elements
Three elements Four elements

Figure 17.1 Diversity management elements.

 Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies    365

The next four rows show that slightly more than half (fifty-five) of the articles
address two elements of the DM definition. Among these, seventeen include the
elements of valuing diversity and strategy; thirteen include strategy and initiatives;
fifteen address initiatives and value added; five include valuing diversity and initia-
tives; three attend to valuing diversity and value added; two focus on strategy and
value added.
Very few of the articles take a comprehensive approach or give a full picture of man-
aging diversity, with only six addressing three elements. Two of those articles address
strategy, initiative, and value added, and two focus on valuing diversity, initiative, and
value added. Only one article addresses all four elements.
The single- or two-element focus of the majority of the articles indicates that most
studies break diversity work into small parts and then manage the parts. This is done
without regard to how change in one element or area affects the HEI through interac-
tions with other elements or parts of the HEI. These studies focusing on a specific prob-
lem or initiative fall short of the ideal of how to manage change to produce measurable
impact (Hall, Rosenthal, and Wade 1993) on the HEI through having insufficient breadth
or not addressing multiple elements of DM and their relationships. This in turn may
help explain why diversity work has often had limited success. Next, a single-element
and a four-element article are described to point out the difference in the extent of the
comprehensiveness of the treatment of DM.

Single-element Articles
Articles with a single element of DM address one phenomenon, usually in depth and
often describing how HEIs define and incorporate diversity into their mission, the
organizational policies, and managerial plans in the context of the institutional cul-
ture, or a practice to increase diversity. An example of the single dimension article is
the Leicht-Scholten, Weheliye, and Wolffram (2009) study of ‘Institutionalisation of
Gender and Diversity Management in Engineering Education’ in the European Journal
of Engineering Education. The publication provides an in-depth account of the institu-
tional practices of gender and DM at a male-dominated German technical university.
The authors indicate that the gender and diversity strategy focuses on research and
teaching along with organizational human resources development, although the reader
is left to speculate what is valued regarding diversity, what strategies are behind the DM
initiatives, and what the value-added outcomes are from the institutional practices.
Consequently, the article has a narrow rather than comprehensive approach to expli-
cate two concrete measures, the initiatives and structures, developed to increase the par-
ticipation of women and under-represented groups. The article provides information
about the gender and diversity unit and specific measures, including workshops pro-
moting procedural knowledge regarding workplace conflicts, mentoring programmes
for seventh to eleventh graders and female graduate students, a lecture series focusing
on interdisciplinary studies on gender and diversity, as well as funding to encourage
366   Mary Ann Danowitz

research work on gender and diversity within the institution. The article makes a useful
contribution to understanding specific activities to increase diversity. It shows an aware-
ness of the other elements of DM but does not attend to them in detail nor show the
inter-relationships between them. For example, missing from the publication is atten-
tion to stakeholders other than the rector or to the organizational policies and plans that
are behind the efforts to promote equity and inclusion. Also missing is an indication of
the measures or actual outcomes of the practices. Thus, there is a fine description of one
aspect of DM but the reader is left without knowing what was behind the scenes of the
organization to make these initiatives a reality and more importantly what the actual
consequences of the initiatives have been and whether they are likely to be sustainable.

Four-element Article
In contrast, the Iverson (2007) ‘Camouflaging power and privilege: a critical race
analysis of university diversity policies’ in Educational Administration Quarterly is an
exceptional article in that it addresses all four elements of DM to show what HEIs have
done and what they need to do in order to improve diversity and inclusion endeavours.
The author employs critical race theory to analyse diversity action plans and related
activities at twenty US universities. Iverson identifies four predominant frames or
rationales that universities use to explain their valuing diversity: access, disadvantage,
marketplace, and democracy (Iverson 2007: 593). ‘For example, university action plans
propose to “feed the education pipeline; to open access, to widen the net,” and to elimi-
nate barriers and obstacles to increase the “presence” and “prevalence” of people of
color . . . ’. The strategic planning element of the universities explicitly shows how uni-
versity administrators, faculty, and students drafting diversity action plans order and
constitute the cultural reality for people of colour on campus through the way they
write about diversity (Iverson 2007: 588). For example, to reduce harassment and dis-
crimination, institutional strategies may not address the source of the problem—the
acts of discrimination. Instead, those strategies might be to ‘Create mechanisms to sup-
port and protect students who bring allegations of gender, sexual and racial discrimi-
nation in order to lessen their vulnerability, fears of reprisals and harassment’. There are
many initiatives and structures addressed in the article such as diversity in promotional
materials to market the university’s commitment to diversity, diversifying the curricu-
lum, and creating international programmes. The value-added element is substantial in
that it shows how diversity action plans may undermine the effectiveness of the policies
that set out to promote a diverse and inclusive campus. This can happen through the
unintended consequences of reproducing racial inequality by defining the necessary
institutional tasks based on white racial experiences. The author concludes by calling
upon educators and administrators to re-analyse diversity action plans to reframe their
work and identify the roots of problems before developing strategies and initiatives to
address them.
 Rethinking Higher Education Diversity Studies    367

Discussion and Implications

In this chapter I have proposed a definition of diversity management modified from the
business sector for higher education. It is one through which diversity initiatives can
be understood as interrelated elements in an organizational change process. The four
elements of the definition were then used as a framework to analyse the literature on
diversity work in HEIs to determine what has been studied and to what extent the diver-
sity work has used a comprehensive approach to DM, which has been associated with
success in organizational change. Some 188 peer-reviewed articles on diversity work
in higher education were analysed. The vast majority of articles are from Anglosphere
countries. Those perspectives/biases dominate the knowledge about diversity work in
higher education, as in the business sector. The higher education literature analysed
seldom attends to the interaction of the multiple levels influencing DM. A few articles
address the influence of the government or system level (meta-national) on the HEI
level (meso-organizational). Yet most attention focuses solely on the HEI level where
policies are enacted and the actual management or implementation of change must
occur. An analysis of the 100 HEI level articles using a framework of the four DM ele-
ments offered in this chapter: (a) valuing diversity, (b) strategy, (c) initiative or struc-
ture, and (d) added value (outcome) and the extent of their treatment of DM indicates
that the attention of the majority, fifty-five, of the articles address the interdependence
of two elements. The two most frequently combined elements were the valuing diver-
sity (the vision, awareness, and commitment to change) with the strategies guiding and
implementing DM and the combination of the actual initiatives with the added value
from the initiative. This provides evidence of a limited coupling of multiple elements
associated with comprehensive change. This is underscored by only seven of the arti-
cles containing three or four of the elements. Consequently, seldom does diversity work
entail a comprehensive DM approach.
The review of the articles on DM in higher education suggests that valuable work
is taking place to improve equity and inclusivity in higher education, although fre-
quently in a compartmentalized manner; or that is how it is reported. I contend that
these narrowly focused studies may be inadequate to sufficiently address the interaction
of various elements that influence the complex change processes necessary for HEIs to
function more equitably and inclusively.
I have described the article base of diversity work in higher education and proposed
a diversity framework and multi-level analysis intended to help researchers and practi-
tioners understand diversity management. My intent is to reduce confusion and mis-
understanding about the meaning of DM in higher education and to suggest ways to
improve the success of strategies and practices to increase equity and inclusivity. These
include taking into account the interaction of contextual levels (Syed and Özbilgin
2009) of HEIs and the multiple elements of diversity management as a strategic organi-
zational change process.
368   Mary Ann Danowitz

The review is not without limitations. Using only peer-reviewed literature means that
many diverse and interesting examples of work have been missed. For example, the key
words did not include dimensions of diversity such as nationality, ethnicity, and dis-
ability (Kandola and Fullerton 1998), nor books or reports—other significant outlets to
improve practice. For example, the Association of American Colleges and Universities
has provided a leadership role in making excellence inclusive—a multilayered process
to infuse diversity into the institutional core of HEIs in the US (<http://www.aacu.
org/compass/inclusive_excellence.cfm>). As the majority of the studies are from the
US, individuals searching for research on diversity work must be cautious about a pre-
dominant US lens and be diligent when adapting research questions or approaches or
applying findings from that nation to others. Moreover, the search is limited to English
language journals; therefore, undoubtedly, many important articles published in other
languages have been missed. For example, there is a burgeoning literature on diversity in
the Scandinavian countries and German-speaking Europe.
In closing, researchers and practitioners may want to validate and/or adapt the mul-
tiple level frame and the four-element DM higher education framework proposed in
their respective HEIs. They may also want to consider frameworks other than a process
approach to investigate and tackle the complexity of the organizational change to reduce
inequalities and increase inclusivity. As I have briefly indicated, the proposed framing
attempts to transcend a focused or silo emphasis on a strategy or practice to bring about
organizational change, but also implies that the processes to achieve more equitable and
inclusive HEIs are more complex than the way they have been studied and enacted thus
far. In short, the overall aims are to help understand and reduce confusion about diver-
sity management in higher education, encourage creative use of frameworks, and assist
improving diversity practices.

Acknowledgement

I wish to thank Difei Li and Trae Brookins* for their generous time and support in this
research. * Deceased January 4, 2015.

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 Chapter 18

Gl obal Di v e rsi t y
Manageme nt
Breaking the Local Impasse

Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı,

and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

Introduction

The continually growing literature on diversity management provides a multidimen-

sional set of research emphases, with a sufficiently sophisticated base of theories and
ideas now to encompass several milestones in its doxic trajectory (Lorbiecki and Jack
2000). However, the wealth of studies considering diversity management has not yet
produced a clear and practical roadmap for improvements, and employees are yet to
be free of inequality, exclusion, and marginalization processes, despite virtually all sur-
vey evidence indicating that global firms consider diversity of paramount importance,
especially in the global domain (Nishii and Özbilgin 2007). The diversity management
literature remains a field of contestation, as was first suggested by Linnehan and Konrad
(1999), about how best to remedy workplace inequalities, where white, Anglo-Saxon,
able-bodied, heterosexual men still enjoy privileged status in corporate hierarchies to
the detriment of workers who are not members of this dominant group. Progress on
equality, diversity, and inclusion of all employees is still tentative and contingent, despite
the advent of a rich range of approaches to diversity management, including ecosys-
tems (Barak 2000), corporate culture (Gordon 1995), micro-emancipation (Zanoni and
Janssens 2007), learning (Lorbiecki 2001), relational frameworks (Syed and Özbilgin
2009), Bourdieuan sociology (Tatli 2011), Foucauldian philosophy (Ahonen et al. 2013),
and queer theory (Bendl, Fleischmann, and Walenta 2008) perspectives.
Apart from the above-mentioned range of conceptual approaches to diversity man-
agement, a plethora of models and frameworks are used to operationalize diversity
management priorities. Among these, the strategic model, the process model, and the
 Global Diversity Management    371

context model are of particular relevance to global diversity management. The strate-
gic model hinges on shaping diversity management practices through the negotiation
of global standardization versus the local customization of policies and frameworks
(Brock and Siscovick 2007). The process model of global diversity management, on
the other hand, emphasizes the need to take account of varied and multidimensional
processes of knowledge management, decision-making, social identification, and so on
in the management of diversity issues (Nishii and Özbilgin 2007). Finally, the context
model of diversity management encompasses the multi-level, multi-actor nature of the
field of diversity relations, and how this may impact upon the management of diversity
itself (Joshi and Roh 2009).
Complicating the multifarious approaches to diversity further, there are potentially
competing discourses of diversity management (social justice versus the business
case), and while it is possible to view this divergence as conflict, we believe that these
approaches are actually complementary to one another. Although they may emphasise
different motivators for diversity management, this is simply a reflection of the employ-
ment landscape where there are multiple reasons why diversity management is benefi-
cial. To clarify our point, in this chapter we take the social justice strand as focusing
on fairness concerns as the main driver of the need to ensure team-based or firm-level
diversity, with goals of creating fully equal and inclusive environments where individu-
als with a specific diversity trait (i.e. gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability)
or an intersection of various diversity traits (for instance, a disabled gay black employee)
are safeguarded from discrimination, and are valued and appreciated for their contri-
bution to organizational life. By contrast, the business case for diversity argues that a
diverse employee base is essential for business success in a globalizing world, where
divergent groups of suppliers and customers have complex needs and requirements that
can only be met by an equally multidimensional body of workers. This logic suggests
that as diversity is vital for business, good diversity management is in the best interest of
firms, and thus once the business case for diversity is proven, it is possible to largely rely
on voluntary, firm-initiated solutions to any diversity challenges in day-to-day business
life. Rather than seeing these discourses as antagonistic ways of conceiving of diversity
management solutions, Tomlinson and Schwabenland (2010) demonstrate that these
bifurcations reveal the localized, historicized, and situated uncertainties, obscurities,
and multiple workings of local conceptions of equality and diversity. In this sense, for
effective, change-inducing diversity management, it is important for diversity managers
to be able to foreground localities in the solutions. It is also important for practition-
ers to have realistic, grounded, solution-based approaches that take account of business
sensitivities in the aftermath of a major global downturn.
Implementing global diversity management standards locally is not a straightforward
process, as local agents may face socio-political tensions associated with the country
in which they operate for a number of reasons (Nishii and Özbilgin 2007). First, there
may be local interpretations of the global diversity agenda that differ from the way in
which it was construed at the global level. Second, global HR policies of multinational
corporations (MNCs) that focus on a specific issue or pillar of diversity may not be as
372    Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

relevant to a given local context. Finally, it may not be obvious exactly how to bring in
and implement global diversity management policies at the local level. Thus, discrimi-
nation that may be completely unacceptable at the global level may crop up unnoticed
in one of many far-reaching localities a global firm encompasses. For instance, in his
wide-ranging analysis of the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) employees
in Turkey, Öztürk (2011) shows that local arms or subsidiaries of otherwise lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)-friendly global firms can be just as discriminatory as
domestic companies for LGB individuals in Turkey. Therefore, the main global diversity
management question may counter-intuitively be precisely about how we resolve local
impasses, where the local actors are unwilling to pay attention to diversity concerns or
are operating in active resistance against them, and where minorities have declining
trust in the relevant institutions’ efficacy for providing positive change.
Part of the rationale for this chapter is that there is a great variety of historical con-
texts and a divergence of local norms, practices, and rules of the game on the ground
(Özbilgin 2009), which makes the simplistic one-size-fits-all approach to diversity man-
agement models highly suspect. For instance, while market forces, public opinion, and
legislation increasingly put pressure on global organizations to have convergent stand-
ards and policies of diversity management, we believe this must be tempered with a clear
eye to take account of specificities and unique dimensions of various locales. In the after-
math of the global financial crisis and the subsequent recession, trust in institutions and
government as well as corporate actors are at a historic low in Europe (Roth 2009). This
necessitates that even more care is taken in understanding the needs, requirements, and
expectations of local actors in European countries such as the UK, and how diversity
management can be calibrated to ameliorate different diversity-related challenges emer-
gent in specific contexts. We believe that this localised perspective avoids the resistance
trap, where local actors contest diversity management models imported in a wholesale
manner from the global headquarters or, worse yet, a wholly different country with dis-
similar structural, institutional, discursive, and normative priorities without adequate
attention to local historicity (Ferner, Almond, and Colling 2005).
We suggest in this chapter that it is imperative to make use of diversity toolkits that
emerge on the strength of the business case. Such toolkits are, simply put, monitoring
tools that assess the deficits in organizational diversity, equality, and inclusion across
all levels and areas of operation, and then suggest potential solutions and recommen-
dations to counter discrimination. An effective toolkit would have specific features
addressing the local challenges and goals on the ground in order to sustain diversity
efforts in a difficult politico-economic environment, where there is much lip service
paid to full equality goals, but little fundamental change in the organization of employ-
ment relations. Our localized approach hinges on the development and extensive use
of diagnostic checks that make sense to the relevant diversity management officers in
the field.
The chapter is structured in several sections. We start with an overview of the UK
labour market context, which is then followed by a review of the business case argu-
ments drawn from the wider literature in support of organizational diversity. We then
 Global Diversity Management    373

draw on an extensive field study of providers and potential users (sixty-two respondents
in total) of diagnostics checks in equality and diversity in the UK. Our findings help us
to identify success factors for an equality and diversity check, discuss how generic or
tailor-made these toolkits should be, and explain the conditions for facilitating the effec-
tive adoption and application of diagnostic checks by diversity management officers. By
engaging with local circumstances pragmatically, this approach illuminates the adroit
use of equality and diversity toolkits to effectuate positive change.

Overview of the UK Labour

Market Context

We write this chapter at a time where there are still a potent set of discriminatory trends
that afflict the UK labour market. In terms of gender, it has been shown time and again
that there is a significant pay disadvantage experienced by women (Harkness 1996;
Blackaby, Booth, and Frank 2005; Chevalier 2007), which is exacerbated by gender-
based vertical segregation (Conyon and Mallin 1997; Singh and Vinnicombe, 2004;
Brammer, Millington, and Pavelin 2007; Martin et al. 2008). Evidence of discrimina-
tion against ethnic and racial minorities in UK labour markets has also long been dem-
onstrated (Noon 1993), but barriers persist even despite legal improvements, as there
still exists an implementation gap between legislation and practice (Creegan et al. 2003).
Furthermore, equality laws are insufficiently sophisticated to deal with more complex
cascading of disadvantages such as intersectionality (Healy, Bradley, and Forson 2011),
where employees occupy more than one source of difference, such as being an ethnic
minority woman employee (Özbilgin et al. 2011). Ethnic and racial minority versus
majority tensions are on the increase owing to the recent politicization of the immigra-
tion debate in the UK, where the previously liberal views in favour of a strong inward
immigration trend, both from the newer European Union (EU) countries as well as non-
EU developing countries, is now increasingly vilified (Hopkins 2011). This is a concern
as it may strengthen discriminatory trends against ethnic and racial minorities further.
Additionally, another changing trend, the ageing population (which is also reflected in
the wider socio-geography of the EU), is increasingly recognized as being at the receiv-
ing end of subtle but very real discrimination (McVittie, McKinlay, and Widdicombe
2003; Loretto and White 2006). However, in this difficult landscape, perhaps the most
silenced and invisibilized employees are sexual and gender identity minorities, who still
routinely face a sense of exclusion and a lack of support in the workplace (Wright et
al. 2006; Colgan et al. 2007; Colgan and McKearney 2011; Öztürk and Rumens 2014;
Öztürk and Tatli forthcoming).
These discriminatory trends are permeating a labour market which inhabits a two-
speed economy, with London in the driver’s seat imposing disproportionate impact on
policy, with its sophisticated services industries, such as finance, legal, marketing and
374    Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

advertising, and technological services. The rest of the country, which had been man-
ufacturing-oriented until its decline (which started with the Thatcherite privatization
and de-industrialization policies and continued with the newer trends of international
outsourcing and lean employment trends resulting from the globalization of produc-
tion), poses a continual structural problem for the economy. Given such deep struc-
tural challenges, in their desire to attract businesses to the UK and provide a supportive
environment for their company operations, successive governments have often adopted
a light-touch, business-friendly policy posture towards global companies. This pro-
business approach has often resulted in reliance on a voluntaristic approach (Özbilgin
and Tatli 2011) as well as a business-shaped and business-driven diversity management
agenda for the whole labour market, instead of strong government oversight of busi-
ness actions that would mandate proactive action on the part of companies to amelio-
rate equality, diversity, and inclusion challenges in the labour market. This backdrop is
a significant basis for our choice of relying on business case arguments to shape equality
and diversity tools for company uses. In the absence of a strong legislative environment,
business buy-in within the context of the UK is essential to ensure the success of any
diversity management initiative.

The Business Case

for Organizational Diversity

Diversity is increasingly viewed as an important pillar of firm performance (Richard

2000; Herring 2009; Carroll and Shabana 2010). Organizational interest in harness-
ing the power of intra-firm diversity can potentially enhance the position of diversity
management on the organizational agenda and enable diversity managers to become
key players in their organizational settings. In their research on management perspec-
tives in Europe, Calori, Steele, and Yoneyama (1995: 59) indicate that ‘top managers
identified four common characteristics of management (philosophies and practices)
across Europe: an orientation towards people, internal negotiation, managing inter-
national diversity and a balance between extremes . . . Because of the small size of
their domestic markets European firms have been forced to look outside at other dif-
ferent markets, and their managers learned to deal with diversity.’ Within this context,
having effective systems in place to promote equality and diversity would turn the
diversity of workforce into a source of competitive advantage and subsequent business
success (Soni 2000). In effect, there is a business case for a proactive and voluntary
approach on the side of employers to promote diversity and equality in organizations.
The business case for equality and diversity is the result of the changing composition
of the talent pool as well as the internationalization of business. The main features
of the current business environment in the UK in which a diverse workforce may
flourish are: changing patterns of labour market demographics, globalization and
 Global Diversity Management    375

internalization of business, and changing patterns of work organization, production,

and competition (Tatli et al. 2006).
Skill shortages and the ageing population are topical concerns on the UK political as
well as industrial relations agenda (Ruhs and Anderson 2010; Shury et al. 2010). Upon
the background of demographic changes in the labour market, employers increasingly
find themselves in a position to turn to different and previously under-utilized segments
of the labour force for recruiting new employees. These segments are generally popu-
lated by the individuals disadvantaged in society owing to their age, gender, ethnicity,
race, sexual orientation, religion and belief, disability, or minority status. There is also
a growing recognition that the retention rates for employees from under-represented
groups are lower than the dominant groups in employment (for instance, McKay
et al. 2007; Servon and Visser 2011; Wrench 2012). Yet it is predicted that the tradi-
tional labour pool made up of white men will not be able to meet the demands of the
increasingly international markets, resulting in growing representation of female and
non-white employees in the labour market (Gilbert and Stead 1999). The benefits of this
transformation are beginning to be experienced already. Using an extensive database,
Herring (2009) demonstrates specifically that racial and gender diversity is correlated
with a positive upswing in revenues, market share, and profits. There is also research
that points out greater diversity at firm level with regard to, for instance, gender is linked
to better financial performance (Campbell and Minguez-Vera 2008).
International migration, which appears as another solution to the skills shortages
that capture the continent, also promotes the diversification in the labour market.
Spatial mobility of not only capital but also labour has become an ordinary phenom-
enon worldwide, despite the fact that national barriers for labour migration are more
rigid. Labour research has long indicated that the brain drain from developing countries
to developed countries is a significant trend in the advanced economies (Guellec and
Cervantes 2001). In the case of the United Kingdom, the shortage of skilled workers is
widely recognized, and the UK government tries to encourage the migration of highly
skilled workers. It is argued that with the demise of the homogeneity in workgroups,
organizations need to design workforce diversity policies in order to attract and retain a
diverse employee base which could serve as a competitive advantage (Shaw 1993; Gilbert
and Ivancevich 2000).
As opposed to the relative cultural homogeneity of the enterprises operating in a
single country, the internal workforce of multinational corporations (MNCs) consists
of the employees from different cultural backgrounds. The external business environ-
ment that faces MNCs necessitates responsiveness and flexibility with regard to the
cultural contexts in terms of consumers’ demand for the products and supply of labour,
as well as forming mergers and acquisitions with national companies. From the stra-
tegic point of view, workforce diversity of an MNC may provide it with the necessary
strengths to deal with the culturally diverse context within which it operates and to
implement competitive corporate strategies. Adler and Ghadar (1990: 243) indicate
that the emerging circumstances force all multinational companies to ‘manage cultural
diversity within the organisation as well as between the organisation and its supplier,
376    Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

client, and alliance networks. Attention to cultural differences becomes critical for
managing both the firm’s organisational culture and its network of relationships out-
side of the firm’. They further argue that cultural diversity can be used in MNCs ‘to
differentiate products and services when culturally distinct markets and or workforces
must be addressed and as a primary source of new ideas when innovation is needed’
(Adler and Ghadar 1990: 253).
Hendry and Pettigrew (1986) state that the internal workforce of a firm is an invalu-
able strategic resource for gaining and maintaining competitive advantage. In a study of
company boards in the UK, it is established that ethnic minority diversity in the board-
room is associated with an appreciably higher market capitalization outcome for the
firms involved (Singh 2007). The strong positive relationship between ethnic minority
presence in the leadership rungs and positive firm performance is explained through
the resource dependency view of the firm. A diverse workforce situated in key positions
brings varied layers and types of human and social capital into the strategic mix, which
enhances intangible organizational resources to generate non-negligible competitive
advantages in the marketplace (Singh 2007).
Creating a team of employees with diverse skills and from different nationalities is
increasingly the primary method of enhancing creativity at both individual and organi-
zational levels. However, cross-cultural teams need to be managed effectively in order
to reap the benefits of the diverse skills and perspective that is available in the team
(Loosemore and Muslmani 1999; Chevrier 2003). The implementation of proactive
diversity and equality policies is necessary to transcend the communication problems
and conflicts stemming from diversity among employees and to create a trustwor-
thy, inclusive organizational culture that generates feelings of belonging, which in
turn enhances the performance, commitment and motivation of different groups of
employees.
The organization of work in twenty-first-century global firms has gone far beyond the
early twentieth-century Taylorist style of highly planned organization of labour process
of the mass production era. The contemporary business environment, which is becom-
ing increasingly dynamic with the rising uncertainty and competition, necessitates cor-
porations to overcome organizational rigidities by developing their capacity to adapt
and respond to change through fostering horizontal organizational structures based on
diverse teams (Procter and Mueller 2000; Blazevic and Lievens 2002).
As markets expand globally and customer bases become ever more diverse, organiza-
tions increasingly need greater diversity in team composition that adequately reflects
the diverse customer base that they serve. Ashkanasy, Hartel, and Daus (2002: 328–9)
argue that, in the global service-oriented economy, employees’ ability to communicate
with and respond to the demands of diverse customers and clients is an essential feature
of firm survival (Carroll and Hannan 2000; Blazevic and Lievens 2002). Evidence shows
that heterogeneous teams have better cognitive and operational performance capacity
than their homogeneous counterparts (Page 2007), which form a strong potential causal
relationship between workforce heterogeneity or diversity and greater business success.
It is argued that workforce diversity enhances the organizational member’s capacity for
 Global Diversity Management    377

learning (Blazevic and Lievens 2002), thereby providing opportunities for creativity,
innovation, problem solving, and adaptability (Gurin, Nagda, and Lopez 2004).
Employers with successful equality and diversity programmes in place are in a more
advantageous position to attract and retain the best personnel of scarce skills, because
many workers would prefer good practice employers with well-established equality and
diversity policies (Woods and Sciarini 1995). As well as recruiting the best personnel in
the labour market, employers embracing equality and diversity also spend less on their
recruitment efforts. McEnrue (1993) finds that recruitment expenditures of the organi-
zations valuing diversity are significant lower than those organizations which do not. It
is also pointed out that equal opportunities and diversity employers suffer less from the
costs stemming from high levels of labour turnover and absenteeism, and discrimina-
tion lawsuits (Fernandez 1991; Morrison 1992; Cox 1993).
Despite the benefits of workforce diversity for business success, empirical research on
the issue displays conflicting results, revealing advantages of diversity on business per-
formance in some studies and disadvantages in others. For instance, some of the poten-
tial negative outcomes of diversity include poor employee well-being, low level of team
cohesion, tension between and within teams, and communication problems, leading to
a decrease in organizational performance and team effectiveness (Thomas and Ely 1996;
Robbins 2001; Chevrier 2003). Diversity does not automatically cause better organiza-
tional learning, creative brainstorming, higher customer or client satisfaction levels, or
better financial performance. As Adler (1986: 118) puts it, ‘only if well managed can cul-
turally diverse groups hope to achieve their potential productivity’.
Noon (2007) also suggests that business short-termism and a tendency to nar-
rowly define business value in money terms could mistakenly undervalue the ben-
efits of organizational diversity. In order to reveal the ‘creative dimension of diversity’
and to avoid the potential conflicts that may stem from having a human resource pool
that consists of different nationalities, MNCs need to be able to create a corporate cul-
ture valuing, respecting, and learning from diversity. Organizations that embrace the
‘equal opportunity climate’ and have robust equality and diversity frameworks and pro-
grammes take best advantage of their diverse workforce (Knouse and Dansby 2000).
For instance, a large-scale survey of organizations in the US finds that an effective diver-
sity management strategy is linked to a significant increase in work-group performance,
greater job satisfaction for minority employees, and an elevated overall productivity
(Pitts 2009). However, for those organizations which devalue diversity and privilege
a white, middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied man as the implicit model employee,
there is the possibility of increased conflict.

Methodology

Our data collection process was supported by two parallel studies, which we previously
conducted for the Equal Opportunities Commission in the UK. First, we performed
378    Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

a consultation exercise on the development of an equality check with the providers of

diagnostic checks such as UK equality advocacy bodies working on issues of gender,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and so on, and membership organizations in the
UK such as professional bodies that represent Human Resources (HR) officers. During
this consultation, we interviewed thirty-four key institutional stakeholders. Second,
we identified and carried out interviews with significant employers in public, private,
and voluntary sectors in order to map out their approaches to diagnosing inequality in
organizational environments. The majority of the private and voluntary sector organiza-
tions were large multinationals. The interviews aimed to explore the needs of the poten-
tial users of equality checks. In order to increase the number of respondents who were
able to comment on the possible approaches for a diagnostic check, we targeted organ-
izations with a commitment to promoting equality and diversity. Twenty-eight inter-
views were conducted with the HR managers or diversity officers of these organizations.
In total, sixty-two interviews lasting around one hour were conducted, tape-recorded,
and transcribed verbatim. Three main categories of organizational actors, that is provid-
ers of equality check tools, employers, and membership organizations, were included in
the study. The organizations participating in the research represented a wide variety of
sectors and industries, including recruitment, oil and gas, manufacturing, higher edu-
cation, defence, banking and finance, retail, energy, and communication.

Views on Diagnostic Equality Checks

Our findings indicate the importance of creating an equality and diversity toolkit that
can reduce the burdensome aspects of organizational self-assessments, and that make
practical sense in terms of simultaneously covering all the relevant areas of diversity that
businesses may have to account for. Situated as they are in businesses that are sensitive
to commercial concerns before any other consideration, diversity management officers
need tools that will satisfy their organizations by simplifying processes and that will help
them in effecting their change agendas by rationalizing their own work burdens:

A lot of institutions are grappling at the moment with impact assessments in terms of
some of the equality legislation, and if you assess your practices in terms of race, then
six months later you go back to the same managers and services and say, well, can you
assess your practices in terms of disability and then can you do it in terms of gender,
it becomes almost like a legislative burden, and I think if there was a general equality
check that allowed us or guided us in terms of checking our practises right across the
equality and diversity themes, I think that might be more practical in terms of insti-
tutions checking their procedures.

Some respondents argued that developers of such a diversity toolkit should be cau-
tious about how they include and balance different strands of diversity. It is now
 Global Diversity Management    379

increasingly recognized that making sense of the diversity climate of an organization

requires the factoring of multiple strands of diversity into the analysis (Özbilgin et al.
2011). For instance, one of the respondents from the higher education sector thought
that equality legislation in the UK is inconsistent with respect to its attention to differ-
ent strands of diversity. As a result, policies on some diversity strands such as sexual
orientation and gender identity remain under-developed. One of the drawbacks of a
standardized global HR policy for an MNC is that not only are there differences across
national legislative and policy contexts regarding various diversity strands, but also dif-
ferences appear, sometimes quite strongly, even within a given national context, in the
treatment of one diversity strand compared with another. Such complexity across and
within nations can potentially create a quagmire if diversity management officers are
not empowered and enabled to offer localized equality and diversity initiatives, through
the use of, for instance, an equality and diversity toolkit, among other options. Our
respondents believed that a new diagnostic check should have a balanced approach in
treating different strands of diversity:

I think it should cover all the diversity scene. So, we know that the legislation is some-
times more involved in some areas such as race and disability than others, but I think
it should cover right across the areas such as sexuality and faith.

Yet many of the participants highlighted that the tool should be sensitive about differ-
ent opportunities and challenges associated with different diversity categories, as well
as the unique elements generated by intersections of two or more diversity categories.
According to the respondents, there is no consistency in terms of which HR areas are
covered more and which areas are covered less, since this is currently dependent on par-
ticular firms’ differential diversity agendas and what they believe is important for their
organization. The participants emphasized the importance of implementing diversity
solutions across all aspects of HR throughout the life cycle of employment beginning
with recruitment and ranging to promotion to leadership. This is in line with the recent
diversity literature’s emphasis on holistic and contextual understanding of all aspects
of the HR function as they interrelate with diversity (Wrench 2012). The respondents
further suggested that while an equality check is primarily a diagnostic tool, it should
incorporate possible action points and pathways to improvement for the problems diag-
nosed. Often, diversity management suffers from ambiguity of objectives and a lack of
clarity in terms of positive transformative action, with renewed efforts now focused in
the literature on creating a more concrete, action-oriented, principle-specific diversity
management (Stahl et al. 2012). The respondents’ support and interest in having specific
organizational action points in the diagnostic equality check is perhaps a reflection on
the ground of this important need:

I think one of the reasons why employers don’t take action now, or as much action
as we would like to see on equalities, is that they don’t know what to address. So I
think developing a good diagnostics toolkit enables them to break down the task that
380    Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

they face. I think it has to be clear that if employers are going to undertake such an
exercise and going through all this toolkit or checklist assessment, if they’re not then
going to act on it there’s no point in it.

The need for an equality and diversity tool that provides organizations with possible
action plans and prescriptive logics is particularly acute in organizations, which do not
have in-house expertise in tackling diversity challenges. The majority of the respond-
ents were wary that an equality and diversity tool, which does not go beyond diagnosis,
may lead to inaction or even negative reaction in organizations with limited resources
and expertise for managing diversity. Just as global HR policy of an MNC may be too
blunt and generally lacking in terms of expertise of local variations and complexities, it
is possible that local HR officers with a finely tuned understanding of their contextual
realities may yet be inexpert when it comes to diversity management systems and pro-
cesses, as in some country settings diversity management as a construct may still be a
nascent phenomenon. Thus, resolving the problematic of implementing MNC’s global
diversity management standards locally may not be as straightforward as simply local-
izing more. Local agents still need support and enablement, which can come through,
in this case, an equality and diversity toolkit that is properly resourced and strategically
valued to allow local HR officers to become effective agents.
There was a general agreement that the equality and diversity tool should be inte-
grated into strategic planning if it is be taken seriously at all levels of organization. Yet
some others insisted that the employers are best motivated to promote equality and
diversity through strong legislative backing. Particularly, the providers of equality tools
thought that the absence of strong legal enforcement in the UK leads to the need to
develop a business case. Concerns of this type have been raised previously in the lit-
erature (Dickens and Hall 2006), and it is telling that they continue to resonate within
organizations. As a result, the financial aspect of the equality check implementation is
emphasized as a key concern by the respondents. Hence, it is argued that the equality
and diversity tool must take account of the opportunity cost of failure to act in support
of diversity, as part of constructing a strong business case argument (Robinson and
Dechant 1997). As one participant suggested in delineating the crucial role played by
business case considerations:

Commitment from the top to actually do it, if it’s labour-intensive to get the staff to
do it, collect the data. You need commitment from the department to say ‘yes, I will
give you two hours of my time to actually go through’, preparing to put together evi-
dence to support their statements. First you need commitment from the top to do
this, then you need buy-in from the people who are actually going to provide you
with information. Because we’re all very busy people and we need top management
to do this because they believe that this will help our business. Top management also
needs to give resources to these departments.

As the quotation above shows, our study found that the equality and diversity tool
would need to have an ability to engage other organizational members at different levels
 Global Diversity Management    381

through a strong business case. While top management may not have the textured,
finely tuned understanding of localized circumstances, they have a key role in the suc-
cess of diversity initiatives at the local level. Top management commitment and finan-
cial backing are needed to activate the local level HR expertise in creating innovative,
locally sensitive, more tailor-made solutions appropriate to context. Our data indicate
that this symbiotic relationship between the global and local is best activated through
the articulation of a business case for diversity agenda, in the local context of the UK,
where there is an absence of strong legislative environment and government oversight.
A well-made business case is also crucial, as it was thought to be one of the most signifi-
cant dimensions of acceptance and implementation of the tool:

You know, businesses still need to function, still need to deliver on their commit-
ments. So the tool needs to actually show that there are benefits. I appreciate that
not all the benefits are tangible, but it needs to highlight, you know, what are the
long-term intangible benefits. Why should organizations take up this journey, if
you like?

This is the idea that aside from the general argument about more meso-linkages
between greater diversity and better economic outcomes, there needs to be an emphasis
on understanding the exact mechanisms of positive impact through tracing of both tan-
gible and intangible benefits of diversity management, ranging from cognition to learn-
ing to performance dynamics of work groups and teams (Kearney, Gebert, and Voelpel
2009; Roberge and van Dick 2010), not to mention the organizational justice benefits
(Noon 2007). That is, the local level HR officers often feel the need to show the value of
diversity initiatives not just for the resolution of localized issues and challenges, but also
for wider organizational outcomes that encompass the global HR policy of MNCs. One
way in which this can be achieved is to tie the results of equality and diversity diagnos-
tic checks to wider organizational performance and justice outcomes. The locality argu-
ment only works when local HR agents not only argue for equality and diversity solutions
which are fit for purpose in their specific contexts, but also robustly explain the potential
latent benefits of localized policies upon the global workings of the organization.

Concluding Remarks

Our findings indicate that there is a strong interest in the UK for a high-quality, locally
specific, business-sensitive, equality and diversity tool. One of the most important sug-
gestions from our research is that breaking with the past and moving forward into a
diversity landscape marked by full equality and inclusion in organizations requires that
we implement an evidence-based approach to diversity management. Instead of abstract
ideas that might only work in theory or practical ideas translated from a disconnected,
super-arching global point of view, the starting point in the diversity management
382    Mustafa Bilgehan Öztürk, Ahu Tatlı, and Mustafa F. Özbilgin

process must hinge on paying attention to a specific locality’s issues and problems. This
requires understanding the historically and contemporaneously resonant issues on the
ground, gathering evidence through a meticulous examination of ground reality, and
then attempting to provide diversity management solutions.
Our analysis of the equality and diversity tool suggest that it should be implemented
step by step, with a focus on all areas of operation of the organization as well as all aspects
of HR processes. This multi-level, multi-area focus is also consistent with the implica-
tions of workforce diversity literature in tackling diversity issues (Alcázar, Fernández,
and Gardey 2013). Our research also indicates that a sound diagnostic equality check
must be able to engage with individual, organizational, and societal concerns, and adopt
a multi-level approach, which seeks to reveal the source of diversity challenges in a
wider range of constituent fields. This is indicative of the value of a relational approach
in the realization of diversity management policies (Jackson and Joshi 2004; Kyriakidou
and Özbilgin 2006). With a relational focus here, we emphasize the need to account for
overlapping but also competing interests that different diversity management actors in
the field may have in trying to reach diversity goals. In other words, we believe that the
practice of diversity management is not a monolithic effort in terms of its constituent
agents, and thus how their interests relate to and sometimes subsume each other must
be accounted for. Local laws, practices, and norms, and global diversity agendas can dif-
fer significantly, and understanding how to constantly negotiate the tension requires a
delicate balancing act between oppositional forces such as regulation versus volunta-
rism (Özbilgin and Tatli 2011).
This chapter illuminates the importance of the localized perspective, which is rooted
in incorporating the views of the practitioners in the field, in order to empower them,
and crucially, rely on their local knowledge of pressures as well as opportunities in deal-
ing with the context-specific challenges in developing robust diversity management
solutions. At the level of the locality, this analysis suggests that the needs and expec-
tations of agents on the ground are too complex and variegated for them to be glob-
ally determined through standardization-based policies, however well intentioned
these may be. The implication of our findings in the global context, as this case indi-
cates, would be the need for MNCs to create company-wide equality policies and pro-
cedures, with manoeuvrability left for local actors to adjust intra-policy guidance,
without changing the spirit of a given policy, so as to allow them the ability to account
for locally specific issues on the ground. The actual act of going out into the field, speak-
ing to professionals situated within both provider and user populations, and identifying
their understanding of what would work on the ground to effectuate genuine transfor-
mational change formed the key components of this study. Given the ambiguities and
challenges surrounding the fortunes of business organizations during a time of deep
economic change, we also deemed it crucial to start from an analytical point of view,
namely, the business case for diversity, which would be readily intelligible to busi-
nesses and respond to their sensitivities. The results of this endeavour provide a strong
basis to start reorienting the diversity management literature toward an impact orien-
tation steeped in carefully constructed multidimensional interventions in the form of
 Global Diversity Management    383

diversity toolkits designed to effectuate measurable positive change. We believe that the
inertia-inducing, macro-stranglehold of history, institutions, and place can be produc-
tively disrupted in this manner. However, for such disruption to be effective, diversity
managers, organizational change agents and country-level and global strategic policy-
makers must work in tandem with each other to develop and then, when and where
necessary, revise and even tailor diversity management policies. Such multi-level efforts
would sustain a beneficial positive feedback loop between the global and the local.

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 Chapter 19

Entreprene u rsh i p
and Dive rsi t y

Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

Introduction

Traditional mainstream entrepreneurship literature tends to emphasize particular

psychological traits of entrepreneurs, such as being innovative and creative, possessing
the urge for achievement and autonomy, exhibiting risk-taking behaviour and individu-
alism (Thomas and Mueller 2000). The entrepreneurial archetype in this literature is
often based on a ‘rational’ masculine stereotype, assumed to be risk-taking, and con-
quest, domination, and control focused. This hegemonic entrepreneurial discourse also
reproduces the conventional female stereotype as subordinate, supportive, and depend-
ent (Bruni et al. 2004: 186).
Female entrepreneurs and ethnic minority entrepreneurs are, more often than not,
either ignored in such normative mainstream entrepreneurship texts, or else depicted
as the exotic ‘other’ entrepreneurs. Many studies develop typologies of female entre-
preneurs, either implicitly or explicitly, and authors such as Ahl (2004) and Bruni
et al. (2004) have criticized the gender subtext in this style of theorizing, which too
often constructs females as the exception, or ‘other’ entrepreneurs. Research on eth-
nic minority entrepreneurs tends also to assert that minorities start businesses because
they face discrimination in the labour market or because they hold specific values and
have access to certain resources, such as close ties and family relations (Bonacich 1973;
Portes, Guarnizo, and Haller 2002). This form of analysis focuses in on points of ‘dif-
ference’ and, in doing so, risks reproducing stereotypes rather than disrupting them.
Representations of ethnic minority entrepreneurs based on comparisons with a pre-
sumed (normative) archetypical entrepreneur can simply perpetuate the relations of
power which stem from a preoccupation with othering. The ethnic ‘other’ is too read-
ily contrasted with other population groups which are alleged to be more culturally
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    389

focused on performance and therefore presumed to be more ‘inclined’ to pursue entre-

preneurship (McClelland 1987).
This dominant representation of entrepreneurship holds within it an ethnocen-
tric subtext, which implicitly compels businesspeople from minorities to assimi-
late or Westernize in order to succeed in business (Ogbor 2000). However, Thomas
and Mueller (2000) argue that successful entrepreneurs from diverse cultural
backgrounds continue to score differently on scales of the more conventionally
accepted (Western) entrepreneurial traits. Much of the mainstream entrepreneur-
ship literature suggests that masculinity and Westernness are important to successful
entrepreneurship—and this is starkly contrasted with other stereotypes of feminin-
ity and non-Westernness.
This chapter aims to extend on other critical entrepreneurship contributions (e.g. but
not limited to: Armstrong 2005; Jones and Spicer 2009; Weiskopf and Steyaert 2009;
Gross, Sheppes, and Urry 2011) to illustrate and analyse diverse entrepreneurs stemming
from diverse contexts. In this chapter, we specifically reject binary and hierarchical ways
of reifying and normalizing existing power positions (Wekker and Lutz 2001: 27). We
consider that such essentialism creates problematic effects, which, in turn, may result in
discriminatory practices by both practitioners and policymakers (Ogbor 2000; Bruni,
Gherardi, and Poggio 2004; Essers and Benschop 2007). Instead, we build on more
critical accounts of entrepreneurship, to question the often ethnocentrically biased and
gendered foundations of entrepreneurial practices in Western society. We incorporate
case study material drawn from both our joint and separate empirical fieldwork mate-
rial, such as studies on Turkish female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands and the UK, and
on Aboriginal entrepreneurs in urban and more remote country areas of Australia. We
intend to not only demonstrate how ‘Other’ entrepreneurs have to deal with implicit and
explicit prescriptions about what it is to be a successful entrepreneur and how they have
to relate to the ethnocentrically and gendered (popular) discourse on entrepreneurship,
but also to illustrate how these ‘deviant’ and less known entrepreneurs ‘do entrepreneur-
ing’ against the grain, by both implicitly and explicitly inventing and applying particular
identity strategies. We reveal new takes on entrepreneurship in action to explore not only
new forms of entrepreneurial diversity, but also the diversity of how (and what) entrepre-
neuring can mean.
In this chapter, we first explore aspects of Indigenous entrepreneurship in Australia,
and discuss how entrepreneurial activity in this context can have profound social and
political meaning for people who are marginalized and stigmatized yet remain strong
in the pursuit of their human right to self-determination on their own lands. We then
move on to a comparison of the experiences of female Turkish entrepreneurs in the
UK and the Netherlands, discussing the intersectionality of ethnicity, religion, and
gender, as well as the different role of the national context in shaping minority entre-
preneurial experiences. Both these exemplars deviate from a standard normative view
of entrepreneurship as a purely economic activity, and one more often pursued by
entrepreneurial Western males. We explore these examples to reveal instead some of
the diverse and rich experiences of these entrepreneurial ‘Others’.
390    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

Indigenous Entrepreneurship
A little-understood phenomenon is the way in which ‘entrepreneurs may be more
likely to emerge from those groups in society which are deprived or marginal, i.e.
groups which are discriminated against, persecuted, looked down upon or exception-
ally exploited’ (Scase and Goffee 1980: 29). While the study of ethnic minority entre-
preneurs is concerned with the economic engagement of immigrant groups new to a
particular area, and the diverse forms of social capital such groups may deploy to further
their interests in such new contexts (Light 2004), a focus on Indigenous entrepreneurs
explores how individuals with a deep and long-standing attachment to their ancestral
lands engage in contemporary economic ventures. In this context, Indigenous enter-
prise development and entrepreneurship is part of a continuum of community-based
development which aims to contribute to Indigenous political, social, and economic
self-determination (Peredo et al. 2004; Dana and Anderson 2007; Tedmanson 2014).
Indigenous entrepreneurship has both local and global dimensions, and, since
the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, it has
become an area of increasing interest in the field of entrepreneurship studies. We con-
sider it important to first understand the oppressed and often marginalized status of
Indigenous populations worldwide, as this is a powerful contextual influence over
Indigenous people’s economic engagement. Shapero (1975) has explored the notion
of the entrepreneur as a ‘displaced’ person, while others, such as Frederick and Foley
(2006), argue that disadvantaged groups, whether Indigenous or non-Indigenous, can
improve their economic and social positioning through engagement in entrepreneurial
activities (see also: Dana 1995, 2007; Foley 2000, 2006; Sullivan and Margaritis 2000;
Anderson 2002; Nnadozie 2002; Dana and Anderson 2007; Lee-Ross and Mitchell
2007; Tedmanson 2014).
Indigenous communities worldwide continue to survive against the harsh and often
near genocidal legacies of past (and in some cases continuing) colonial oppressions.
Australia’s Indigenous peoples fit this worldwide pattern and continue to be the nation’s
most disadvantaged people,1 living in the poorest conditions in the poorest urban
areas—or, for those in the ‘remote’ communities in the desert regions of central, north-
ern, and Western Australia, in what are effectively ‘Third World’ conditions, encircled
by the colonizing culture of a globalizing First World nation, ‘another country hidden
within our borders’ (Macklin 2008: 1). Indigenous Australians are overrepresented in
the prison system, face high levels of unemployment, have the lowest educational attain-
ment, the highest incidence of chronic disease, the highest rates of infant mortality, a
life expectancy some twenty years less than non-Indigenous ‘white’ Australians, and
continue to endure the cumulative, intergenerational effects of invasion, exploitation,

1 The term ‘Indigenous’ is used to denote the inclusion of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

peoples (who comprise the Indigenous peoples of Australia) whereas the term ‘Aboriginal’ will elsewhere
be used where this refers to Australia’s mainland Indigenous peoples who prefer the use of the term
‘Aboriginal’.
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    391

dispossession, and entrenched racism: ‘that such conditions should exist among a group
of people defined by race in the 21st century in a developed nation like Australia is a dis-
grace and should shame us all’ (Chivell 2002: 9).
Like those in Latin America, Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and other areas of the
South Pacific region, Australia’s Indigenous peoples face not only the continuing impact
of the colonial past in the neocolonial present, but globalization has also brought greater
inequalities in wealth distribution, increased surveillance by governments, the threat of
police/military and corporate incursions into Indigenous lands,2 and either the denigra-
tion or appropriation of Indigenous knowledge—ways of being, seeing, doing, organ-
izing. Despite the depravations caused by poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate access
to services, alcohol and other substance misuse, and limited access to political power,
however, the resilience of Australia’s Indigenous cultures continues to defy the political
economy of cultural ‘genocide’ by the dominant state.3 In such conditions, it can be hard
to perceive how entrepreneurship can flourish, yet, following Scase and Goffee (1980),
Indigenous entrepreneurship is growing as a field of interest, not only in Australia but
also worldwide.
Peredo and Chrisman (2006: 11), for example, suggest that the more ‘commu-
nity-oriented’ a population, the more ‘they will feel their status and well-being is a
function of the reciprocated contributions they make to their community’. Peredo
and Chrisman also maintain that this ‘community orientation’ is a key feature of
Indigenous community life worldwide. Similarly, Dana and Anderson (2007: 6) sug-
gest that, ‘social organisation among Indigenous people is often based on kinship ties’
rather than in response to market needs. This depiction of the communal and socially
oriented nature of Indigenous entrepreneurship is a common theme which occurs
across the literature in this emerging field of research. Lindsay (2005) argues that
Indigenous entrepreneurship is undertaken for the direct benefit of the Indigenous
peoples involved in the venture—as a form of Indigenous community economic
development that has social as well as economic goals. He connects this ‘holistic’ view
of Indigenous social entrepreneurship with an expression of ‘self-determination’. In
this way, Lindsay argues (2005: 1) that Indigenous ventures are fundamentally ‘entre-
preneurial strategies originating in and controlled by the community, and the sanc-
tion of Indigenous culture’.

2
On 22 June 2007, the then Australian prime minister announced a national emergency into ‘the
abuse of children in Indigenous communities in the NT. Amongst these measures was the deployment of
the military as well as police and specialist security forces to take over some 60 Indigenous communities
in remote areas’.
3 The 1997 Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report, Bringing Them

Home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their
Families, found government policies of the time towards Indigenous peoples fell within United Nations’
definitions of ‘genocide’. On 13 February 2008, the Australian prime minister formally apologized to
Indigenous Australians on behalf of the Australian people for what they had endured during the public
policy period known as the ‘Stolen Generations’.
392    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

There is growing support amongst Indigenous leaders in Australia arguing for an

acceleration of Indigenous entrepreneurial effort to help overcome what have been
historically (post-European invasion of the continent) intractable levels of Indigenous
disadvantage. Prominent Indigenous political spokesperson Noel Pearson (2000), for
example, suggests that, in considering problems confronting Indigenous Australians,
there has been too much separation of social and economic domains which are, in fact,
inextricably related. The disembedding of economic activity from social life creates an
artificial notion that the pursuit of economic activity can occur in isolation from consid-
erations of social context. For people living in remote Indigenous communities—which
are small and often highly dependent on a state-provided service economy—the oppor-
tunities for economic development can be limited. Factors such as historical exclusion
from competitive market forces, absence of an economic base, lack of access to skills
and training, and tensions between social, cultural, and economic aims are often cited
as reasons for the poor prospects of remote Indigenous communities seeking greater
market engagement (Tedmanson and Guerin 2011). Altman (2001) suggests, however,
that market, state, and customary economies can coexist in many of Australia’s remote
Indigenous communities, creating a hybrid economy where productive cultural and
customary activity intersects with spheres of broader state and market influences. This
hybridity enables a diversity of enterprising effort to emerge.
In summarizing the major research themes in Indigenous entrepreneurial research,
Peredo and colleagues (2004: 14) suggest that by far the most dominant research theme
is the ‘relationship between Indigenous entrepreneurship and Indigenous culture’.
Such deep links to cultural values and relational, more communally oriented, forms of
exchange and benefit, establish Indigenous entrepreneurial effort as different from, and
not confirming to, more orthodox mainstream depictions of entrepreneurship as a form
of heroic individualism. Peredo and Chrisman (2006: 19) also argue that Indigenous
entrepreneurship may in fact be a way for Indigenous communities to sustain their cul-
tural values, and that ‘entrepreneurship may be conducted in a different way in keeping
with those values, including a community emphasis, consensus decision-making, and a
focus on sharing and cooperation, instead of competition’. Indigenous social entrepre-
neuring, for example, may have both a market orientation and aim to fulfil a social or
cultural purpose—or both. Strengths-based approaches to community development
emphasize social ‘capital’, which can reinforce local talents and build local capacity.
By focusing on local priorities and strengths and assets—rather than perceptions
of the ‘other’ as deficient and disadvantaged—pride, confidence, and motivation can
be enhanced. Support for, and facilitation of, locally determined processes stimulates
greater participation and lessens dependence on external economic interventions or
approaches which aim to ‘solve’ Indigenous problems by imposing externally designed
and driven Eurocentric and mainstream agendas. In collaborative research work with
local Indigenous peoples in remote communities, the extent and diversity of entrepre-
neurial activity can be made more visible and local people can narrate their own forms
of entrepreneurship.
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    393

Entrepreneurial Aspirations within an Indigenous

Cultural Context
In a qualitative participatory action research study conducted in 2008–11 by Banerjee
and Tedmanson on stakeholder views of prospects for local entrepreneurial develop-
ments on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia,4
key local Aboriginal (Anangu) informants spoke with great enthusiasm about entrepre-
neurial ventures stimulating social, cultural, and economic returns to the community.
Young people, for example, spoke of their aspirations and hopes:

I want to learn to run my own business—maybe the shop here. There are no shops
or businesses here now—but I would start one, start something at least,—if I can get
something going here then it will be good for me but also family . . .
(Young Indigenous male)

All my family work in some way—and we still hunt together too—I want to make my
own things to sell . . . maybe punu [traditional Anangu wood carving/craft] and at
least then add to supporting my family and helping community here.
(Indigenous male elder)

I’d like to do people’s hair and make-up here; maybe once a week to be open . . . but
we could be a business like in town then . . . even just once a week or month . . .
(Young Indigenous female)

Older people focused also on the regenerative power of enterprises to sustain an ongo-
ing desire for connection to country while also fostering engagement with people out-
side the area:

I bring tourists here, only a couple at a time, small numbers, but show them my coun-
try and tell stories and involve family—pass on culture and leave something here for
family . . . so people can stay on our homeland and not leave for the city . . .
(Older Indigenous male elder)

Want to see the community with Anangu serving Anangu . . . grow our own food
and exchange it at maybe markets . . . We need to teach the culture more to everyone
non-Anangu and Anangu—we need to get back to balance!
(Middle-aged Indigenous female)

4
The APY Lands of South Australia are a vast area of the central desert region located within South
Australia but bordered by Western Australia and the Northern Territory also, which were handed back
to the Aboriginal communities of the region through the historic Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
Land Rights Act in 1981. A map of this area and information about APY Lands Aboriginal communities
is available at: <http://www.anangu.com.au/>.
394    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

The entrepreneurial vision of those interviewed always included a combination of

both social and economic goals, and usually this was framed within the context of main-
taining homeland and community cultural life. Concepts in the international develop-
ment literature such as ‘sustainable livelihoods’ provide a framework for analysis that
emphasizes the building of community ‘assets’ in terms of people—not just consumable
material goods. Promoting micro-enterprises and local social entrepreneurial ventures
are important components of processes that support the recovery of social cohesion and
foster its maintenance, and play an often underdiscussed role in strengthening commu-
nity health and well-being (Tedmanson and Guerin 2011).
On the dark side, however, postcolonial power politics and a ‘political economy of
whiteness’ (Banerjee and Tedmanson 2010: 1) shape the state context within which
Indigenous entrepreneurship occurs, and can impede its visibility and control its via-
bility. In analysing the histories of ‘settler–native’ relations in Australia, Indigenous
scholar Moreton-Robinson (2004) shows how the intersection of race and prop-
erty created and sustained white economic, political, and cultural domination over
Indigenous peoples. She argues the hegemonic effects of ‘whiteness’ served to deny
Indigenous sovereignty while legitimating dispossession of Indigenous lands. Thus,
‘whiteness’ lies at the ‘very heart’ of the way in which the Australian continent was
unsettled (Tedmanson 2008).
From this theoretical perspective, the ‘white’ conquerors’ lie enabled the founding of
an Australian nation specifically built on the dispossession and non-recognition of its
Indigenous peoples. Such hegemonic control of the nation’s population diversity—and,
in particular, its Indigenous peoples, is maintained by keeping economic control
and, in effect, marginalizing Indigenous people’s entrepreneurial efforts. Yet despite
this hegemonic control, the racisms of the dominant nation, and the everyday strug-
gles of the impoverished and poor standard of living that is the lived reality of so many
Indigenous peoples, entrepreneurship survives—and in some communities it even con-
tinues to thrive.
The potential benefits with respect to enterprise development include building con-
fidence, providing leadership and role modelling, increasing interaction between dif-
ferent groups leading to social harmony, greater social stability derived from feelings
of commitment and belonging to the community, and a reduction in dependence on
welfare (Fuller, Howard, and Cummings 2003). The key goal expressed by participants
in this research project was to develop sustainable entrepreneurial ventures which com-
bined economic, social, cultural, and environmental aims. One of the greatest chal-
lenges for Indigenous entrepreneurship is to integrate economic activity with social
concerns, cultural priorities, and legal rights within effective governance systems. Given
the lack of infrastructure and demand factors, along with community concerns about
social, environmental, and economic problems resulting from large-scale economic
activity, it may not always be possible to create sustainable for-profit businesses at the
onset. Rather, building a social enterprise provides a good opportunity for community
members to be involved in business activity, where the goal is to generate revenue rather
than profits in a strictly business perspective.
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    395

For others, however, entrepreneurship can provide liberation from the difficulties
of everyday life. This often-stated dual objective and motivation for Indigenous enter-
prise activity is cultural rebuilding as well as the quest for the general improvement of
socioeconomic conditions of family and community (Frederick and Foley 2006; Lee-
Ross and Mitchell 2007; Reveley and Down 2009; Banerjee and Tedmanson 2010). One
Anangu elder explained his aims to generate a family clan-based cultural enterprise:

[B]‌efore I die I want my kids and their kids to know their stories and Tjukurpa
[Aboriginal cosmology, spiritual beliefs or ‘dreaming’ . . . to understand and have
pride in their culture and be able to live off this land right way . . . and make an
income from it . . . To live independent, not like old days, mission gone, government
not helping—the past is gone but we can make it live again new way to hand on down
the generations . . .
(Very old Indigenous male)

Australian Indigenous entrepreneurs who pursue local, national, and international

markets in innovative and creative ways, on their own terms, are emerging. The term
‘entrepreneurship’ has become an iconic mantra in business and management studies, a
metaphor for innovative thinking and new ways of ‘organizing’ economic change across
a broad range of settings, spaces, and places. Normative values, however, still shape
presumptions about the ‘naturalness’ of individualism and competition hidden in dis-
courses about entrepreneurial activity and new enterprise creation (Steyaert and Katz
2004). Growth and ‘development’ is still more often portrayed in terms of wealth gen-
eration rather than in socio-political or cultural terms, and most entrepreneurship anal-
yses are informed by Western values and Eurocentric epistemologies, using Western
methodologies to reproduce Western theoretical frames of reference (Chakrabarty
2000; Ogbor 2000; Escobar 2001 . By focusing on researching with Indigenous entre-
preneurs, it becomes possible to see a greater diversity in the range of entrepreneurial
effort occurring, and to comprehend more fully the diversity of lived experiences which
shape—and are shaped by—the discursive constructions of entrepreneurship and its
more heterogeneous potential.

Female Migrant Entrepreneurship

Besides the research on Indigenous entrepreneurs, which contributes much to the lit-
erature on diversity in entrepreneurship, studies on female migrant entrepreneurs in
Europe enriches this body of literature too. Most studies on ethnic minority entre-
preneurship, implicitly or not, concentrate on male entrepreneurs or ignore the roles
played by female entrepreneurs in these businesses (Westwood and Bhachu 1987; Essers
and Benschop 2007).
Moreover, the popular discourse on entrepreneurship, or the way the public, media,
but also traditional entrepreneurship, ‘talk’ about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship,
396    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

seems to be in conflict with the discourse on womanhood. Thus, being a woman and an
entrepreneur at the same time results in many tensions (Ahl 2004). Entrepreneurship,
and originating from outside Europe (or the West), or being ‘non-Western’, also seems
to be a dichotomy in this popular discourse. And so being a woman of Turkish or
Moroccan origin, and an entrepreneur at the same time, is a big challenge for the females
that we study: Turkish- and Moroccan-origin female entrepreneurs in Western Europe.
A comparative pilot study was conducted in 2010 (see also Humbert and Essers 2012)
to get a first impression on how national opportunity structures in the Netherlands
as well as in the UK impact upon the female Turkish entrepreneur’s possibilities and
chances. Entrepreneurial rates among Turkish migrants in Europe are lower than that
of the general population. Yet evidence shows that the number of economically inde-
pendent female Turkish entrepreneurs is growing. In the Netherlands, only 4 per cent
of the population of Turkish origin are entrepreneurs, 18 per cent of which are female
(Statistics Netherlands (CBS) 2009), while in the UK the self-employment rate is esti-
mated to be 20 per cent for Turks (Basu and Altinay 2002; Altan 2007), 20 per cent of
which are estimated to be female (Basu and Altinay 2002; Strüder 2003). In this research,
we gathered life-story interviews with Turkish-origin female entrepreneurs.
We spoke with eighteen Turkish female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, and eight
in the UK, to explore how these Turkish migrant entrepreneurs respond to, adjust to,
and alter the various political, institutional, and societal opportunity structures. By con-
trasting the UK and the Netherlands, we were able to show how diverse structures may
affect processes of entrepreneurial possibilities and agency.

Comparing Female Turkish Entrepreneurs’ Experiences

in the Netherlands and the UK
In this pilot study, we observed that the social context or opportunity structure (com-
prising particularly the networks and social contacts) in the Netherlands is fraught
with much more tension than in the UK. The respondents feel their position as (young)
females of Turkish origin and entrepreneurs is problematic, as this combination of iden-
tities is perceived as incompatible and sometimes even connected with shame.
Familial support may compensate and eventually strengthen the business attitudes
and acumen of these female entrepreneurs, and their position as Turkish individuals may
become more of an asset than a hindrance, particularly as they become more established
and, for example, promote themselves within a culturally specific niche market. Networking
was mostly seen as difficult to sustain because of time commitments, and respondents in
this research spoke of often feeling excluded due to their gender and ethnicity.
In the UK, Humbert and Essers (2012) conclude that there is a greater usage of business
Turkish networks and a greater sense of inclusion within mainstream networks than in
the Netherlands. In the study, female Turkish entrepreneurs in the UK mostly do not feel
the need to be coached formally, yet some successful female Turkish entrepreneurs seem
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    397

to coach other minorities to contribute to society. Moreover, entrepreneurialism is picked

up ‘naturally’, respondents in the study commented, and to actively encourage potential
entrepreneurs is regarded positively. Regarding finance, the female entrepreneurs are more
circumspect, however, as having the right contacts at banks to obtain a loan seems to be
essential in both the UK and the Netherlands, just like, in some cases, having the right name
or appearance appears an important attribute to attracting backing in both countries.
In the UK, more interviewees indicated a lack of interest in pursuing business
loans, as the female entrepreneurs do not see it as desirable to be burdened by repay-
ments. Instead, they choose to be much more reliant on informal sources of funding.
Finally, the social opportunity structure appears to be experienced more negatively in
the Netherlands, when compared to the experiences of the female Turkish entrepre-
neurs in the UK. The political climate in the Netherlands has changed over the past
two decades, towards becoming more hostile to ethnic minorities, particularly those of
Muslim faith. Islam is being used in societal discourses to exclude this group, and the
need for these allegedly non-adjusted citizens to integrate is constantly being stressed.
This atmosphere makes it difficult for these respondents to come to terms with their
sense of identity as entrepreneurs who are also female and also Turkish. In the UK, the
female Turkish entrepreneurs feel less different and otherized, and seem to be able to
distance themselves more from negative pigeonholing in the media.
The variations in these experiences might be explained by the fact that the
political climate towards Turkish Muslims in the UK is less polarized than in the
Netherlands. This negative climate apparently, in the view of the female Turkish
entrepreneurs interviewed, affects the opinions and sentiments of the various actors
of the opportunity structure (not only the societal one) with whom they have to deal.
The differences might also be explained from migration, which occurred at differ-
ent times in the respective countries. Because of migration occurring earlier, the
Turkish respondents in the UK might perhaps feel less cultural difference between
their community and the British. Moreover, their experiences can also be contextu-
alized within different economies, the UK being a liberal market economy and the
Netherlands being a coordinated market economy. Although one might expect that
the Dutch coordinated market economy would provide much more institutional-
ized support, leading to (proportionally) much more entrepreneurship amongst this
group than the UK’s liberal market economy, alternatively this coordinated market
economy might entail too many obstructing rules. Of course, these are only indica-
tions, and we cannot, and do not, aim at generalizing the situation of the whole pop-
ulation of female Turkish migrant entrepreneurs, but we may also detect different
forms of agency being enacted by these females when connecting with these oppor-
tunity structures. They adjust to, deploy, and alter the various opportunity structures
in order to enhance their entrepreneurial possibilities in various ways. Some female
Turkish entrepreneurs seem to figuratively or literally distance themselves from the
negative opinions regarding (Muslim) Turkish people within a Western society, since
this atmosphere impedes their entrepreneurial activity. Their way of dealing with the
dominant discourse on foreigners and migrant entrepreneurs is to escape negative
398    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

images. They herewith, if somewhat understandably, sustain this hegemonic dis-

course on the ‘different, Other Muslim’.
However, although seemingly adjusting to the various opportunity structures, the
female Turkish entrepreneurs in this study eventually found room to undertake entre-
preneurship in their desired way. Some seem to be distancing themselves from the vari-
ous opportunity structures, as they refuse to engage with any formal institutions. They
exploit opportunity structures by conforming to a ‘Western’ way of doing business, and
render their own otherness invisible, both physically, and in entrepreneurial behaviour.
Although the othering by Dutch people in the field of entrepreneurship is bother-
some for female Turkish entrepreneurs, they sensibly, patiently, and pragmatically deal
with such prejudice in order to be able to perform their entrepreneurship. While build-
ing on their growing experience, knowledge, and professionalism, these entrepreneurs
subtly try to change the system from within. Some reported being quite pragmatic
about not letting their ethnic identity affect their business practices, while at the same
time capitalizing on the Turkish community where possible. But there are also female
Turkish entrepreneurs who react more aggressively to the negativity they experience
in the Netherlands. Some take the opportunity to set up a network for female Turkish
entrepreneurs to cooperate.
Moreover, some female entrepreneurs explicitly make use of their gender and ethnic
identity as a unique selling point, helping society by, for instance, initiating projects on
entrepreneurship at schools. Such female Turkish entrepreneurs actively fight to change
the various opportunity structures that surround them, such as their own migrant com-
munity. Being energetically involved in several networking and professional organiza-
tions, and using them to actively change the way things are done in business in/out of
the Turkish community, as well as traditionally gender relations, these female Turkish
entrepreneurs can be called active ‘change agents’. Of course, these are only some pre-
liminary results, and the number of interviews done in the UK is lower than in the
Netherlands. More systematic comparative research regarding the impact of national
context on the possibilities and challenges confronting female Turkish entrepreneurs
across Europe would provide further insights on the barriers this group experience. For
instance, a comparison between the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany, while using
both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the impact of the social, institu-
tional, and political opportunity structure on this important group of new European
professionals, would contribute to a better policy (on a national and European Union
(EU) level) to stimulate and support these entrepreneurial change agents. This would
not only add to economic development, but also aid the emancipation of these new
European female entrepreneurs.

Considering Intersectionality
While doing research on the intertwinement between structure and agency, we noted
that identity construction and intersectionality are important theoretical concepts.
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    399

Generally, gender and ethnicity seem to be regarded as important identity categories

for understanding the identities of female migrants (Buitelaar 1998). Entrepreneurship
and Islam are other salient identity categories when studying the multiple identities of
female migrant Muslim entrepreneurs. The concept of intersectionality can be used to
understand how being a Muslim, for instance, intermeshes with gendered and ethnic
practices of exclusion, and how this influences entrepreneurial identities.
Intersectionality provides insights into the complexity of lived multiple identities and
into the identity work necessitated by simultaneity of the socially orchestrated identity
regulations. This identity work can be regarded as boundary work that people do to react
to processes of inclusion and exclusion tied to various identity categories (Lamont and
Fournier 1992; Bartkowski and Read 2003). Islam, for instance, connects to how gender
is ‘done’ within a specific religious context, which is ‘about how women and men make
their femininities and masculinities known to themselves and to each other, through
saying and doing things in specific instances’ (Torab 1996: 238). Female entrepreneurs
of Moroccan and Turkish descent have agency in the construction of their gender iden-
tities being a businesswoman, but are also affected by structural constraints provided
by gender socialization and patriarchal processes. Moreover, in the dominant academic
discourse on entrepreneurship, Islam has been negatively related to successful entrepre-
neurship. Thomas and Mueller (2000) note that a culture of individualism and achieve-
ment has dominated the worldview of entrepreneurship, which is related to Weber’s
Protestant work ethic. Calvinists were perceived as potentially successful entrepreneurs
(Weber and Kalberg 2002) because of skills congruent with the virtues and practices
of Calvinism: working hard, using time carefully, innovating, having an internal locus
of control, and reinvesting earnings (Anderson, Drakopoulou-Dodd, and Scott 2000;
Arslan 2001). According to Weber, Islamic societies were not able to produce ‘the spirit
of capitalism’ because of the warrior ethic, other-worldly Sufism, Oriental despotism,
and a lack of individualism (Arslan 2001: 321).
Yet authors such as Shane and Venkataraman (2000: 220) stress that entrepreneurial
opportunities come in a variety of forms and do not necessarily equate with capitalism.
In the case of immigrant businesspeople who focus on ethnic market niches, entrepre-
neurship can be a way to retain one’s self-esteem, as this economic mobility does not
entail cultural assimilation (Porter and Washington 1993).

Different Roles in Different National Contexts

Additionally, postcolonial theorists, such as Said (1978) and Prasad (2003), take note
of a typical Orientalist discourse in organization studies which perceive certain non-
Western businesses practices to be residues of ‘traditional’, backward, and primitive
cultural practices that are an obstacle to organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
In many Orientalist discourses, Islam is pictured as backward, violent, and primitive,
which does not tally with honest, ethical, and straightforward ways of doing busi-
ness (Said 1978). In contrast to the alleged entrepreneurial asset of individualism, the
400    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

literature on ethnic minority entrepreneurship stresses the advantages of sociability

and family relations (Portes 1995). Although a few authors (for example, Sloane 1999)
discuss the realities and opportunities of the combination of Islam and entrepreneur-
ship, the standing entrepreneurship literature constructs a hegemonic discourse that
suggests the incompatibility of Islamic and entrepreneurial identities. What does this
mean for the identities of female Muslim entrepreneurs of Moroccan and Turkish
descent? In a research project undertaken in the Netherlands amongst this group of
female migrant entrepreneurs (Essers and Benschop 2009), we saw these Muslim
female entrepreneurs exhibit complex boundary work (see also Sveningsson and
Alvesson 2003), entailing strategies in which Islam is used as a basis for distinction,
stratification, and demarcation to facilitate entrepreneurship.
All of the interviewed female entrepreneurs resist traditional, dogmatic approaches
of Islam and negotiate their Muslim identity in relation to entrepreneurship. Based on
our analysis, we distinguish four kinds of boundary work in relation to gender, ethnicity,
entrepreneurship, and Islam. One strategy is to resist the strict sex segregation as advo-
cated by certain sections in Islam. Females may pragmatically relate their job to respect-
ful professions and define their ‘limits’ by keeping an appropriate distance from male
clients. They symbolically create a boundary between themselves and their male clients
to conform to gendered norms without jeopardizing their businesses. Another strategy
to deal with gender regulations ascribed to Islam is to emphasize the individuality of
faith. The female entrepreneurs in this study do this by claiming the right to decide for
themselves which religious rules apply to their working lives and which—in their eyes,
dogmatic—rules can be disregarded. Thus, they craft an individual Muslim identity and
build boundaries within Islam; different Islams are distinguished to create space for reli-
gious individualism. They view Muslim identity as an individual matter between Allah
and the believer. Therefore, the boundaries of what is (not) allowed are individually set
and stretched to accommodate female entrepreneurship. The third form of boundary
work involves embracing feminist progressive interpretations of the Qur’an, such as
referring to Qur’anic female role models and stressing the morality of work. This pro-
vides females with the opportunity to stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable work
within gendered and religious regulations. The final form of boundary work involves
historicizing and contextualizing the Qur’an, such as stating that the strict gender rela-
tions as described in several Qur’anic verses pertain to ancient periods where societies
had other gender dynamics. Demarcating earlier societies from contemporary societies
helps these entrepreneurs shield themselves from more dogmatic interpretations of the
Qur’an. Accordingly, they are able to craft a more individual religious identity to counter
more collectivist, universal interpretations within Islam regarding appropriate gender
behaviour.
Boundary work closely relates to the notion of identity regulation and identity work,
which has been discussed in a recent project (Essers, Doorewaard, and Benschop
2013) in the context of family relations. We studied how female entrepreneurs of Turkish
and Moroccan origin in the Netherlands perform their identity work between conflict
with, and compliance to, the family regulations, in continuous interplay with their social
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    401

environment. We found that the patriarchal contexts in the Turkish and Moroccan com-
munities emphasize the ‘good woman role’ in the private family environment and tend
to restrict females from holding public roles. The female entrepreneurs have to manoeu-
vre strategically between the conflicting roles of the good woman in private contexts
and the small business owner in the public. The stories of the interviewed entrepreneurs
have demonstrated how these female migrant entrepreneurs are regulated by a set of
restrictions and norms regarding gender, ethnicity, as well as small business ownership.
These norms and regulations relate to normative discourses, patriarchal norms, and tra-
ditional practices, which tell them what to do, and how to behave. Females are expected
to behave in a feminine manner and to adhere to female roles, strongly related to the
private sphere, such as motherhood and being a housewife (Sadiqi and Ennaji 2006).
These norms and practices hinder female migrant entrepreneurs from stepping outside,
into the public domain, as business owners. Two important identity regulations can be
discerned: the first concerns ‘the good woman’, the second one the ambiguities regard-
ing ‘family support’.
From this research project on family dynamics, a variety of identity work manifes-
tations emerges, all between conflict and compliance. These manifestations of identity
work can be placed in four different positions: the two poles of conflict and compliance,
and two more hybrid positions of bending and selecting in-between. We also distin-
guish a fifth manifestation of identity work, which surpasses these poles of conflict and
compliance. For the majority of the migrant female business owners we interviewed,
only a small and winding path is available in order to become a business owner without
bringing shame to the family. Each of them followed their own path, more or less suc-
cessfully. In so doing, each of them forms, maintains, strengthens, or revises a construc-
tion of herself in relation to the claims and demands issued on them. Most identity work
manifestations stay within the conflict–compliance dimension. A first category of mani-
festations can be found on the conflict pole of the strategic manoeuvring continuum.
Conflict-oriented identity work is a visible, active, and sometimes aggressive activ-
ity. In order to get what they want, female migrant entrepreneurs need to rebel against
the family norms and oppose their family members and acquaintances openly. Another
manifestation of conflict-oriented identity work is the activity we describe as black-
mail. Blackmail is a form of coercion, through which the blackmailer realizes his or her
wishes based on threats. The conflict-oriented responses operate within the set of family
norms. The entrepreneurs mostly do not question the family norms; they just want to
ignore them. Neither rebelling nor being blackmailed is an easy position, and for both
positions female migrant business owners need persistency and a thick skin to convince
their relatives that they want to stick to their business owner identity. Such an attitude
openly objects to the norm that a female should stay home and should keep a distance
from the public sphere. Compared to conflict-orientation, the category ‘bending’ is
characterized by softer and less aggressive interventions. Manipulation, for instance, is
a manifestation of identity work which aims at adjusting or bending the environment
to someone’s wishes. The female entrepreneurs involved in this kind of identity work
object to the idea that they ought to perform a subordinate, economically dependent,
402    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

and reproductive role. Nevertheless, they do not speak their minds freely, but appear
to be inclined to use more ‘manipulative’ tactics to impress their relatives. This strategy
contains similarities with Ketner, Buitelaar, and Bosma’s (2004) approach, which aims
at playing out people or ideas against each other. Telling ‘white’ lies and other forms of
secret behaviour also belong to the bending approach.
We may infer that female migrant entrepreneurs are inclined to display secret behav-
iour during their childhood in particular, as it is in this period that they live with their
parents and are heavily controlled. When they are adults, this secret behaviour is less
necessary, as they may physically and emotionally distance themselves from this paren-
tal control. This role of secretly opposing family members can be recognized in Ketner,
Buitelaar, and Bosma’s (2004) secret behaviour approach, regarding the identity strate-
gies among adolescent girls of Moroccan descent in the Netherlands.
Compared with conflicting and bending, this category of identity work does not alter
the norms. Instead of openly or secretly trying to fight or adjust the effects of the norms
and mores of the family, female migrant entrepreneurs attempt to realize their wishes
by taking very small steps. Selectively, they accentuate those norms or suggestions,
which, within the limits of the factual situation they are in, will help them on their paths
towards small business ownership. We found several examples of this form of identity
work. Some female entrepreneurs selectively filter the suggestions that suit their inten-
tions, such as having a good education, and more or less ignore other suggestions stem-
ming from their family. Others apply familiarity to sustain their small business, whereas
on other occasions they keep their family away from their company in order to preserve
their business ownership autonomy. Sometimes, the female migrant entrepreneurs
explain that they had no choice but to accept the rules of the family. Evidently, such
female entrepreneurial identity work invokes pragmatism, which entails seeking female
autonomy from their families by pragmatically presenting themselves in relation to the
family norms on gender and ethnicity. To some extent, this pragmatic approach echoes
Bruni, Gherardi, and Poggio’s (2005) study on Italian female entrepreneurs, in which
females as ‘disentrepreneurs’ were found to leave the impression (with clients) that they
were secretaries instead of the entrepreneur.
Apparently, sometimes it is possible that for a migrant female entrepreneur to succeed
in extricating herself from family influence, and thus her identity work surpasses the
poles of conflict and compliance. We recognized this in only a few cases, where female
entrepreneurs who have a good relationship with their husbands are able to subvert the
identity regulation and negotiation process with the rest of their family. Accordingly,
such an action does not always result in breaking up the family. The family might not like
it, but sometimes the love and respect for their daughter, sister, or wife is stronger than
the disappointment that she does not behave completely according to the family norms.
We do not suggest that the overview of identity work we presented is exhaustive,
since other narratives may reveal different manifestations. Moreover, dependent on
the situation, time, and family relation, each of the presented manifestations of identity
work may easily be practised by one and the same female business owner. Overall, our
research has shown that, by developing various forms of identity work in response to
 Entrepreneurship and Diversity    403

normative familial standards, the migrant female entrepreneurs in our study are able
to maintain—within certain limits—the respect of their relatives, the illusion of female
modesty, and their autonomy at the same time.

Reflections
Despite the vast differences in geography covered by the research projects referred to
in this chapter and the diversity of contexts and identities, from Indigenous Australian
to Turkish Muslim female entrepreneurs for example, we argue that not only are there
a range of unique research issues outlined here which run counter to the dominant
normative and hegemonic notions of ‘the’ entrepreneur, there are also threads woven
through the experiences of these ‘other’ entrepreneurs which resonate with similarities
despite the diversity of context.
One of the main features which stands out is the way in which these research insights
serve to highlight that, for ethnic minority populations and for many female entrepre-
neurs, the experience of entrepreneuring is one embedded in web-like connectedness to
community and family. It is not an individualized or exceptional activity, but rather one
which underpins, liberates, or enriches people’s sense of identity and cultural context.
For many Indigenous entrepreneurs, business activity is a means for supporting fam-
ily and community; showcasing culture and reinscribing cultural identity in a positive
and value-adding way (Foley 2000, 2008; Peredo and Chrisman 2006). Entrepreneurial
activity is marked by its intersectionality for the female entrepreneurs highlighted in this
chapter also. The disembedding of entrepreneurial activity can be seen in this context to
be the ‘exceptional’ province of the dominant and more mainstream norms which have
been established, not around the majority of the world’s people with the diversity of con-
texts which could be represented, but rather positing male ‘white’ Western experience as
if this were the norm against which all other experience should be calibrated.
A further link emerges here between the experiences of Indigenous entrepre-
neurs and the experiences of female entrepreneurs from diverse contexts and cultural
backgrounds—that of postcolonialism. Postcolonial theory (see, for example, Said 1978;
Moreton-Robinson 2003; Prasad 2003) takes account of difference and makes visible
the oppressive and limiting lens of ‘whiteness’ and how this tends to normalize Western
(Anglo, Christian, and European) experience as the desired norm, and renders invisible
the oppressive and colonial nature of the way ‘others’ are perceived to be lacking, exotic,
or primitive. Postcolonial theory highlights how dominant culture interests are served
by the continued ‘othering’ of people with diverse epistemological understandings or
from non-Western cultures.
For Indigenous peoples around the world, the pernicious nature of past coloniza-
tion, with its accompanying violence and systemic dispossession of millions of people
worldwide, is not just an historic legacy but a lived experience in the neocolonial pre-
sent day. Economic engagement through micro, community-based social enterprise, or
larger-scale entrepreneurial effort, can be, in this context, not just an act of assimilation,
404    Deirdre Tedmanson and Caroline Essers

but more often of cultural resilience, continuity, and survival. For female entrepreneurs
from diverse cultural backgrounds, engagement in self-actualizing business efforts is a
powerful expression of agency and selfhood, and one which is enacted in ways congruent
with one’s identity and priorities (Essers and Benschop 2009; Essers, Doorewaard, and
Benschop 2013). Postcolonial organizational theory enables us to better understand how
popular constructions and all-too-frequent insidious, often invisible, taken-for-granted
stereotypes and perceptions stigmatize and ‘otherize’ people from diverse backgrounds.
It enables us also to re-evaluate and better appreciate the depth and importance of entre-
preneurship as a powerful tool for the expression of agency in diversity.
In this chapter, it has been our aim to extend other critical entrepreneurship con-
tributions to illustrate and analyse diverse entrepreneurs stemming from diverse
contexts. By highlighting current research findings on studies which focus, first, on
Indigenous entrepreneurs in Australia and, second, on female Muslim Turkish entre-
preneurs in the UK and the Netherlands, we have shown how new takes on entrepre-
neurship in action across different locations and settings can reveal not only new forms
of entrepreneurial diversity, but also the increasing diversity of how (and what) entre-
preneuring can mean.

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and Aesthetics of Entrepreneurship: A Fourth Movements in Entrepreneurship Book.
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 183–201.
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het Gender – en Etnitciteitsdenken in Nederland. In M. Botman, N. Jouwe, and G. Wekker
(eds.), Caleidoscopische Visies: De Zwarte Migranten en Vluchtelinginvrouwenbweging in
Nederland. Amsterdam: KIT, 25–50.
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Relations. London and New York: Routledge.
 Chapter 20

Pr actices of Org a ni z i ng
and M anaging Di v e rsi t y
in Em erging C ou nt ri e s
Comparisons between India, Pakistan,
and South Africa

Anita Bosch, Stella M. Nkomo, Nasima M. H.

Carrim, Rana Haq, Jawad Syed,
and Faiza Ali

Introduction

Emerging countries are those countries which are increasingly industrializing through
economic growth and therefore show promise in becoming high-performing econo-
mies in the current century. These countries are challenged by newly formed consti-
tutions, fluctuating political power, and deeply entrenched and varied religious and
cultural norms. The power differences between minority and marginalized groups and
dominant groups are highly varied and structurally entrenched in societal functioning.
This chapter compares India, Pakistan, and South Africa, as examples of such emerg-
ing countries in terms of organizational diversity practices in relation to each country’s
definition/s of diversity and equality, as well as major legislative frameworks that protect
the rights of diverse groups. The chapter illustrates how organizations within each coun-
try (as opposed to across countries) are responding to macro-level legislative practices
highlighting the tensions and inconsistencies in applying legislation and its intent, whilst
dealing with country-specific realities such as levels of education, economic growth
resulting in job opportunities, gender parity, ethnic, language, and cultural parity, sexual
and religious acceptance, and other diversity variables. The chapter is concluded by high-
lighting differences in diversity management (DM) practices in the three countries.
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    409

Emerging Countries

The term ‘emerging countries’, although widely used, is constantly changing. Emerging
countries is a term based on a set of evolving criteria and therefore does not refer to a
fixed group of countries. Fleury and Houssay-Holzschuch (2012) explain that there are
some commonalities to emerging countries, in that they were all previously known as
‘underdeveloped’ countries, and have only recently become players in the global eco-
nomic and political power dynamics as a result of implementing financial, economic,
social, and political reforms. While this has radically transformed their standard of
living, education, income, wealth, and consumption levels, it has also led to deeper
inequalities, as the trickle effect has not reached the rural and poor masses. Emerging
countries include the much larger economies with lucrative consumer markets such as
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS); and the industrial productivity
within geographic regions such as in Taiwan, Hong Kong, North Korea, and Singapore,
also known as the ‘Asian Dragons’, or Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines,
known as the ‘Baby Dragons’; as well as smaller economic and political powers such
as Chile and Turkey, known as the second circle of emerging countries; countries with
hazardous and downwards trajectories such as Argentina and Indonesia, known as the
third circle of vulnerable countries; and countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Egypt, and the Maghreb, which are on the verge of emergence (Fleury and Houssay-
Holzschuch 2012). Pakistan is classified by Goldman Sachs Investment Bank (2013) as
one of the ‘Next Eleven’ most important emerging markets that are set to become the
world’s largest economies, together with the BRICS countries.

The Link between India, Pakistan,

and South Africa

India, originally called Bharat and also known as ‘Hindustan’ or the land of the Hindus,
has evolved into a multicultural society with several major religions, ethnicities, lan-
guages, and cultures during its 5000 years of rich and turbulent history of kingdoms,
invaders, and conquerors. Independence from the British Empire in 1947 was a land-
mark crossroad in the recent history of India, with a violent partition, on the basis of
religion, displacing over one million people with the creation of the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan, which included East Pakistan and West Pakistan. After the first democratic
elections in Pakistan in 1970, the country was divided along political lines; the ensuing
war was won by East Pakistan, resulting in the formation of the Peoples’ Republic of
Bangladesh. Both Bangladesh (89.9 per cent) and Pakistan (96.4 per cent) are Muslim-
majority countries (Pew Research Centre 2010). Pakistan was created by the British to
appease the Muslims of India, who identified themselves on the basis of their religion,
410    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

as Muslims first, rather than as Indians. However, there were an equally large num-
ber of practising Muslims who identified themselves as Indian-Muslims and chose to
remain in India, where they account for 13.4 per cent of the population (Census of India
2001). In actual fact, there are more Muslims in India (176,190,000) than in Pakistan
(167,410,000) or Bangladesh (133,540,000) (Pew Research Centre 2010), and all three
countries are facing serious challenges based on religious diversity issues.
South Africa is host to the world’s oldest and largest Indian diaspora; South African
Indians recently celebrated their 150th anniversary. The date of 16 November 1860 marks
the arrival of the first indentured Indian labourers to the eastern port of Durban, South
Africa, to work on the colonial sugar cane plantations (Saha 2010). Today, there are
over one million people of Indian origin who have settled in South Africa (Xavier 2010)
and 2.5 per cent of South Africans are of Indian descent (Statistics South Africa 2012).
Durban is known as the largest Indian city outside of India, with over 800,000 people of
Indian descent. The remainder of this chapter contextualizes and describes practices of
organizing and managing diversity in the three countries.

India

Country Definition of Equality and Diversity

In the post-independence secular Republic of India, a ‘Hindustani’ today refers to an
Indian, regardless of the religious affiliation to Hinduism (8.6 per cent), Islam (13.4
per cent), Christianity (2.3 per cent), Sikhism (1.9 per cent), Buddhism (0.8 per cent),
Jainism (0.4 per cent), or other religions (0.6 per cent) including Zoroastrianism and
Judaism, which are all practised widely in the country (Census of India 2001). Although
caste has historically been the basis of discrimination in India, there are also other
important diversity dimensions, such as the many religions, 22 recognized languages,
398 spoken languages, and 1652 dialects practised in its 28 unique states and 7 union ter-
ritories, which are evidence of India’s rich multilingual, multi-ethnic, and multicultural
diversity (Census of India 2001).
In India, unlike other countries, there is no formal definition of diversity encom-
passing the wider areas of the term, such as race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orienta-
tion, and so forth. The primary basis of inequality and discrimination stems from the
Hindu religious and social traditions, aimed particularly at ‘untouchability’, arising
from the deep-rooted beliefs of purity and impurity of the castes (Haq 2004; Thorat and
Attewell 2007). The constitution of India’s (1950) Article 15 prohibits discrimination on
the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, 15(3) allows the state to make
special provisions for women and children, and 15(4) allows the state to make special
provisions for the advancement of any ‘socially and educationally backward classes’
(other backward classes, OBC) of citizens, for the ‘scheduled castes’ (SC), and for the
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    411

‘scheduled tribes’ (ST). Article 16 mandates equality of opportunity in matters of public

employment, Article 17 abolishes ‘untouchability’, and Article 29 protects the interests of
minorities. Although the term ‘affirmative action’ (AA) is not used, part XVI of the con-
stitution outlines special provisions relating to certain classes, such as proportional res-
ervation of seats for the SC and ST in the House of the People and also in the Legislative
Assemblies of the States. ‘Reservation’ is defined in the Indian constitution primarily
as quotas for the SC/ST/OBC regarding employment in the public sector, higher edu-
cation, and legislative institutions. In reality, however, various forms of discrimination
against the SC, ST, and OBC, especially women and children, are prevalent today.

Legislative and Current History on Diversity and Equality

SC are the outcastes also known as the achuts or untouchables. Despite protection in the
constitution, they continue to face discrimination in basic day-to-day life (Haq 2004,
2010, 2012, 2013). ST are the indigenous aboriginal peoples or adivasis, who belong to
tribal communities that are marginalized in the workplace as a result of their limited
access to education and employment opportunities due to systemic barriers and wide-
spread discrimination. The SC and the ST are protected under reservation of 15 per cent
for the SC, 7.5 per cent for the ST, and 27 per cent for the OBC, based on proportional
representation in the total population. The OBC, however, is a work-in-progress, with
many contentious issues plaguing the definition, depth, and width of this broad catch-
ment term, since the constitution allows each state to determine its own OBC levels. The
Supreme Court of India has capped the total reservations of public sector jobs and seats
in public institutions of higher education at 50 per cent on the recommendations of the
Mandal Commission. The outcome of the Mandal Commission is currently being chal-
lenged by many states where rates of reservation are already exceeding the target for the
different reservation groups based on local populations.
In 1995, the central government adopted the Persons with Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act reserving 3 per cent of
jobs for persons with disabilities in central government employment and higher educa-
tional institutions, although implementation of these policies is still quite inconsistent
(Haq and Ojha 2010).
There are no constitutional reservation quotas for Indian women in the workplace or
in higher education. However, Article 243D(1) of the constitution does reserve one third
of the seats for women and one third of the SC/ST seats for SC/ST women in the elected
panchayats, the rural self-governance system, and the same for the elected municipali-
ties by Article 243T(2) (India 1950). In 2010, the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed,
requiring reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in Parliament and state legislative
bodies. The bill is expected to result in reserving 181 (of 543) seats for women in the
Parliament’s lower house, Lok Sabha, and 1370 (of 4109) seats in the 28 State Assemblies
(Times of India 2010).
412    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

The World Bank reports that India’s women workforce participation rate is one of the
lowest in the world, at 13 per cent, compared with 46 per cent in China and 60 per cent in
the developed world. In fact, women’s workforce participation in India has historically
remained unchanged for more than twenty years, despite economic liberalization and
double-digit growth rates. Most of the women workers are in the informal unorgan-
ized sector, such as rural unwaged agricultural labour, but even after including them the
total rate is under 25 per cent, due to barriers to women’s participation in the workforce
(Nolen 2012).

Socio-Political Dynamics
Workplace opportunities, benefits, and career success in India are attained by those with
a good education, where English was the primary language of instruction. Deshpande
(2006) argues that the economic forces of liberalization and globalization have gener-
ated numerous jobs in the outsourcing industry, but the SC/ST and OBC have been left
out of this lucrative job market because of the basic requirement for fluency in English
and computer literacy, which undermines their ability to compete due to lack of access
to such education.
Private education, where English is the primary language of instruction, is expensive
in India. Since it is not regulated by reservations quotas at the primary and secondary
schooling levels, private education has resulted in an economic class advantage at the
post-secondary levels for the elite, who are educated in English-medium schools. Free
public school education, in Hindi, is mandated by the constitution of India, for every
child up to the age of 14 years. The public sector higher education institutions, regulated
by the obligation to reserve quotas, make accommodations for the SC, ST, and OBC in
their admissions processes by relaxing some of the qualification criteria, such as mini-
mum age and minimum cut-off in percentage marks required for admission in public
institutions of higher education, as well as targeted training sessions to help SC/ST/OBC
students prepare for entrance exams and interviews (Haq 2014).
Tragically, there has been an increasing number of suicides by SC/ST/OBC stu-
dents over the past few years, as a result of casteism, discrimination, and harassment
on the campuses of public higher education institutions that are bound by the reser-
vations policies (Nolen 2012). A new regulation of the University Grants Commission
(UGC) has, for the first time, clearly defined harassment and victimization of SC/ST
students for colleges and universities, and made harassment and victimization both
punishable acts on and off campus. The Prevention of Caste-based Discrimination/
Harassment Victimisation and Promotion of Equality in Higher Educational
Institutions-Regulation 1012 defines both overt and covert casteism by professors and
students, making it mandatory for all institutions to establish an equal opportunity (EO)
office and an anti-discrimination officer authorized to address complaints and obliged
to resolve them within a two-month timeframe via the ombudsman of the institution
(Chopra 2012).
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    413

Organizational Diversity Practices

The reservation-regulated public sector focuses exclusively on compliance quotas for
the SC and ST, which were first introduced by the British government in India even
before independence, and later entrenched in the constitution. A typical organization’s
reservation profile would be 15 per cent SC, 7.5 per cent ST, 27 per cent OBC, and 3 per
cent physically handicapped (PH).
The private sector in India is not bound by reservations and claims to be ‘caste-blind’
and only ‘merit-based’ in its human resource (HR) management processes (Haq 2012). It
has resisted the need to collect information on the caste of its employees and implement
any voluntary AA reservation policies. But increased lobbying efforts by the designated
groups, and governmental pressures, have led to some awareness building and volun-
tary action in the private sector in efforts to escape the threat of the legislated imposition
of reservation quotas (Haq 2012).
Currently, the voluntary diversity management efforts by foreign multinational cor-
porations (MNCs) operating in India with corporate Equal Employment Opportunity
(EEO) policies focus primarily on women. Economic reforms in India during the
early 1990s led to the entry of MNCs, along with their diversity strategies, based on the
Western model and primarily targeting gender equality and disability accommodation
programmes. Some Indian private sector companies are including diversity as a part of
their corporate social responsibility agenda, and acknowledge that there is also a need
for the recognition of other salient diversities in the complex Indian context, such as
geographic, linguistic, educational, cultural, class, and religious differences, which share
equal importance with gender and disability, to increase the socioeconomic participa-
tion of the marginalized (Haq 2010).
Srinivas, Haq, and Ojha (2011) explored HR management practices on equality, diver-
sity, and inclusion (EDI) in the private sector within Indian MNCs and foreign MNC
operations in India, in order to understand these organizations’ underlying philosophies
and their efforts at enhancing diversity within their workforce. They examined these
diversity practices in comparison with the Indian government’s AA policies, applicable
to central government-regulated organizations. They report that the local management
of the public sector companies does not play a role in setting the reservation quotas, as
recruitment is centralized and follows government policies where the selection criteria
states the percentage of seats reserved for the SC/ST/OBC/PH categories and applicants
are required to present their reservation identity card.
In the private sector, however, the focus of diversity policies was primarily on women,
followed by persons with disabilities. For example, a consumer durables Indian subsidi-
ary of a MNC, headquartered in Europe, reported that its employee population consists
of 50 per cent women across the organization, while in some areas of its operations, such
as HR, the representation of women was higher. Persons with disabilities constituted
3 per cent of their employee population. Their best practices include an annual global
employee survey by which, amongst other indicators, the diversity index is measured.
Managers are evaluated on their performance in each area, and their bonuses, rewards,
414    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

and recognitions are tied to their annual achievements. Gender diversity is an aspect
of their global operations which, in India, translates into personal safety restrictions
on travelling times for women, and an approved list of cab companies and hotels used.
Gender diversity is tracked and measured annually.
An Indian subsidiary of a US MNC in agricultural food products with over 1200
employees in India, also reported that their definition of diversity is limited to women
only. The MNC measures the progress it makes on gender diversity, since its products are
purchased by women, who are the primary purchasing decision makers for many Indian
households. It therefore regards the recognition of women as consumers as a strong busi-
ness case. The Indian operations of an MNC in financial services, headquartered in the
United States, also indicated that they have diversity and inclusion policies for women
only. The firm does not actively seek women candidates, but once they are recruited into
the organization, they are given support to make them ‘less disadvantaged’. The organiza-
tion reported an overall representation of 31 per cent women, except at the higher levels
in the organization, which they attributed to the lower percentage of women in the mid-
dle to senior levels, explained in terms of attrition of women soon after child birth. India’s
statutory maternity leave of three months with full pay is respected by the MNC.
Paternity leave, of five days without pay, is also granted, upon request, by this firm.
Men primarily use paternity leave in India to accompany their wife to and from her
maternal home before and after the delivery. This MNC defines diversity in the United
States as including women, African Americans, Hispanics, and people with disabilities,
yet, for their Indian subsidiary, it defines diversity in terms of gender only. In their best
practices across the globe, this MNC has an active network for women employees. Each
chapter for each region or hub is championed by very senior women leaders. This plat-
form provides women with exposure to senior leaders, networking, and career plan-
ning. The firm also requires recruitment agencies to provide equal numbers of resumes
of eligible men and women when recruiting staff. Data is tracked and reported to the
regional and head office on a quarterly and annual basis, detailing the organizational
statistics on the number of women hired, promoted, and leaving the organization.
A global staffing services organization in India, with its parent organization in the
United States, must comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s
(EEOC) requirements of including the statement ‘equal opportunity employer’ in all
Indian job advertisements, focusing on gender diversity only. This company further
provides staffing services to Indian firms and indicated that diversity is not a priority
issue in the Indian private sector.
In conclusion, India has complex historical, religious, social, and economic reali-
ties which raise numerous barriers and discriminatory outcomes for the SC, the ST, the
OBC, persons with disabilities, and women. Despite these barriers, HR management
practices that focus on managing diversity and inclusion in India are quite limited in
the private sector, where 90 per cent of India’s jobs are located. MNCs are focusing on
gender issues, recognizing some of the challenges faced by women in the workplace, and
implement their voluntary diversity initiatives under the umbrella of their non-Indian
parent organization’s diversity and corporate social responsibility policies. Meanwhile,
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    415

public sector organizations, such as the legislature and publicly funded institutions of
higher education, are focused on compliance towards reservation quotas for the SC/ST/
OBC and the physically handicapped (Haq 2012).

Pakistan

Country Definition of Equality and Diversity

In Urdu, Pakistan’s official language, there is no common equivalent for the word
‘diversity’. The Urdu word tanawwo (literal meaning: difference, diversity) is heav-
ily Arabo-Persian in its origins and is not understood or used by ordinary Pakistanis.
The word ‘equality’ does have a common equivalent in Urdu, that is, musawat, a word
which is often used to highlight the Islamic principle of equality between people of dif-
ferent genders, races, classes, and so on. However, such definition of equality (Musawat)
in practice does not include tabooed areas, for example, sexual orientation, or certain
tabooed sects or faiths (e.g. Ahmadis, Hindus, Jews, etc.). Another Urdu word which
could be used for diversity is ikhtilaf (literal: difference), but the word has a generally
negative connotation, as it is related to conflict and disagreement. Ironically, diversity
remains an uncommon notion in a country which is itself very diverse in religion, sect,
ethnicity, and so forth. The lack of a common word for diversity in the Pakistani ver-
nacular also suggests a general lack of attention to DM in societal and organizational
contexts. It is, therefore, no surprise that, except for a few provisions for gender equality
and mostly rhetorical commitment to religious and ethnic equality, DM has been his-
torically ignored in legal and organizational practice. A few organizations where gender
and diversity policies are found generally refer to the word ‘diversity’ in the English lan-
guage rather than using a local language substitute.

Legislative and Current History on Diversity and Equality

Pakistan’s constitution (Pakistan 1947) guarantees equality to all people irrespective of
their gender, religion, race, or creed. However, at the same time, it declares Islam to be
the state religion and clearly prohibits any legislation that contravenes the fundamental
teachings of Islam. In some respects, the law is quite discriminatory against non-Muslims,
who are barred from being elected as the country’s president or prime minister. The
Ahmadiyya sect (a nineteenth-century offshoot of Sunni Islam) is, in particular, perse-
cuted. The constitution does not allow Ahmadis to declare themselves as Muslims and
they are not allowed to freely practise their interpretation and rituals of Islam.
In terms of gender, the Pakistani law is characterized by ambiguity and ambivalence.
There are certain Islamic provisions in the law which suggest women’s inferiority or sub-
ordination to men. However, there is also some evidence of positive action in favour
416    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

of women, for example, quotas for women in education, employment, and Parliament.
Recently, the government has passed anti-sexual harassment legislation to provide bet-
ter legal protection to working women. The Protection Against Harassment of Women
at Workplace Act 2010 was passed by the Pakistan Parliament in January 2010. There
is currently a quota reservation system of a minimum of 5 to 10 per cent for women
employees in various government departments.
Previous research shows that a very limited legal framework of EO exists in Pakistan
(Mullally 1996; Ali 2000, 2006; Goheer 2003; Syed et al. 2009). The national consti-
tution places a ban on discrimination on the basis of gender (Articles 25 and 27) and
provides that ‘steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of women in all spheres
of national life’ (Article 34). In order to adopt a gender-neutral approach, Article 263(a)
states that ‘words importing the masculine gender shall be taken to include female’.
Several constitutional provisions undertake a positive obligation on the part of the
state for AA to improve the status of women. For instance, Article 25(3) states, ‘Nothing
in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the protec-
tion of women and children.’ Within employment contexts, the constitution (Pakistan
1947) requires the state to take special measures for the protection of women work-
ers. According to Article 37(e), ‘The state shall make provision for securing just and
humane conditions of work, ensuring that children and women are not employed in
vocations unsuited to their age or gender, and for maternity benefits for women in
employment.’
While Pakistan has ratified several pro-equality conventions, including the
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW), the country does not have any autonomous body to oversee cases of dis-
crimination, including gender, ethnic, and religious discrimination in the workplace
and wider society.

Socio-Political Dynamics
Pakistan’s estimated population in 2012 was over 190 million, making it the world’s sixth
most-populous country (CIA 2013). The country is diverse not only in terms of reli-
gious diversity (Sunni, Shia, Ahmadi, Christian, Hindu, etc.) but also ethnic diversity
(Punjabi, Pashtun, Sindhi, Baloch, Saraiki, Hazara, Gilgiti-Balti, etc.). According to the
1973 constitution, Islam is the state religion of Pakistan. With more than 96 per cent of
the population adhering to Islam, Pakistan is the second largest Muslim majority coun-
try, after Indonesia, in the world (Pew Research Centre 2010). The religious diversity
of the Pakistani population is represented in the following statistics: Sunni Muslims
80–85 per cent, Shia Muslims 10–15 per cent, other (includes Christian, Hindu, etc.)
3.6 per cent (Pew Research Centre 2010). The country has more non-Muslims than
there are people in either Toronto or Miami.
In terms of ethnicity, there are numerous ethnic groups in Pakistan. These groups
not only vary in their local culture and customs but also speak different languages.
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    417

The population distribution in terms of ethnic/linguistic diversity is as follows: Punjabi

48 per cent, Sindhi 12 per cent, Saraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10 per cent, Pashtu 8 per cent,
Urdu (official) 8 per cent, Balochi 3 per cent, Hindko 2 per cent, Brahui 1 per cent, English
(official; lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries), Burushaski,
and other 8 per cent (CIA 2013). The number of Punjabi speakers in Pakistan is greater
than the entire population of France; Pushto speakers in Pakistan are greater in number
than the population of the whole of Saudi Arabia; Sindhi speakers exceed the population
of Australia; Saraiki speakers exceed the population of the Netherlands; Urdu speakers
(also known as Muhajris) exceed the population of Cuba; and Balochi speakers are more
numerous than the entire population of Singapore.
The case of ethnic and religious diversity in Pakistan is unique because the major-
ity of one ethnicity or Muslim sect in one province may become a minority in another
province or area. For example, while Punjabi-speaking people are in majority in the
Punjab province, in the rest of the country they constitute a minority. Similarly, while
Shia Muslims are a numerical majority in the Gilgit Baltistan province, they remain
a minority in almost all other parts of the country. This creates a lot of complexities
when it comes to defining, understanding, and implementing EO in the workplace and
broader society. For example, a Punjabi-speaking person working in an organization in
Balochistan will constitute an ethnic minority in that province, whereas a Baloch work-
ing in an organization in Punjab will be considered an ethnic minority in that prov-
ince. Similarly, a Shia Muslim will usually constitute a Muslim minority employee in
organizations in most parts of the country except in Gilgit Baltistan, Parachinar, and
certain other parts of Pakistan where Shia Muslims constitute the majority of the local
population.
With such a diverse population, there is a dire need for transparent and
context-appropriate diversity policies. However, this does not seem to be occurring, as a
study on the legislative framework of EEO in Pakistan suggests that the laws and policies
of EEO are weakly implemented and lack appropriate administrative bodies (Ali and
Knox 2008).

Organizational Diversity Practices

In addition to the socio-political dynamics in Pakistan, adverse stereotypes and prej-
udices also infiltrate the workplace, causing discrimination and disparities. There is
also a lack of implementation of legal and constitutional guarantees of equality in the
workplace. For example, it is a legal obligation for employers to provide childcare
support facilities in organizations where a specified number of workers are employed
(ILO 2004). Enforcement of such requirements, however, is notoriously and openly
lax. As a result, many women with small children, particularly those without appro-
priate family support, cannot continue their employment because there is no one
to take care of their children. This lack of legal implementation is particularly
418    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

problematic in a society where stepping out of the four walls of the home and enter-
ing the male order of work may reduce a woman to an object of ridicule (Syed 2008).
Organizations in Pakistan generally pay lip service to EEO and DM (Ali and Knox
2008). In practice, when it comes to equality issues, gender seems to be the focus of
attention, while other diversity-related issues such as ethnicity, religion/sect, sexual
orientation, disability, and so on, remain ignored. The focus on gender becomes evi-
dent through the legislative framework providing for maternity leave, protection of
women’s rights at work, and the recently introduced sexual harassment law; however,
there are no explicit laws protecting the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, disa-
bled persons, or LGBT groups.
In the public sector, there is some evidence of attention to gender equality in
the workplace and AA in favour of women. For example, the Small and Medium
Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), a semi-government organization,
includes EEO laws such as maternity benefits and equal remuneration in their staff
policies. Due to the fact that Pakistan has ratified the CEDAW convention, all govern-
ment departments are presumably implementing government directives and laws on
gender equality. According to the Pakistan’s CEDAW report (2005):

All public sector agencies have established practices, procedures, and recruitment
rules with regard to employment including that of women. Recruitment rules spec-
ify the nature of the job, role and responsibility of the position, nomenclature of the
post, qualification and experience required, and age according to the job require-
ments. These do not discriminate on the basis of gender. (p. 69)

Public sector organizations, as well as certain MNCs, are making efforts to implement
equality policies in the workplace; however, the focus mainly remains on gender ine-
quality. Issues of ethnic or religious discrimination, are routinely ignored, suppressed,
or understated.
MNCs in Pakistan are known to have formal EEO policies, generally under the
influence of their head office policies or home country’s national laws. For exam-
ple, Nestlé Pakistan labels itself as a family- and women-friendly organization. The
organization has ‘set up a day-care centre, and have established a “comprehensive
maternity benefits scheme” ’ for its female employees. According to its 2010 Annual
Report, the company believes in the importance of having a dedicated and moti-
vated team to meet the modern challenges. Nestlé is committed to the policy of EO
employment (Nestlé Pakistan 2010). Further, the organization has also introduced
‘fair remuneration structures’ (benchmarking Nestlé employees’ pay against other
competitive organizations). Another example from MNCs is Citibank Pakistan. The
organization celebrated International Women’s Day and extended the celebrations
over the month of March, to create awareness regarding women’s rights at the work-
place. Citibank Pakistan has a ‘more than favourable female employment rate of 30
per cent versus two per cent nationally within the corporate workforce, with strong
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    419

female representation on our management committee, and our employee-focused

policy framework’ (Citibank 2008). Citibank Pakistan has initiated a number of
women-friendly programmes, such as maternity, flexible work, and employee assis-
tance schemes. The percentage of women working in Citibank Pakistan is among the
highest in the industry (Aurora Ventures 2007).
Diversity and EO is a low priority area in the private sector, where formal commit-
ment to EEO policies is found in large organizations only. In the manufacturing sector
(the single major employer of women employees in the private sector), large organiza-
tions usually have formal EEO policies. For example, Nishat Chunian Group, a large
industry conglomerate, claims to be an EO employer where careers depend on compe-
tence, dedication, and leadership potential. The company offers benefits such as flexi-
ble office hours, annual and medical leave, maternity leave, and a daycare centre facility
for women employees (Nishat 2012). Similarly, Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group (KMLG),
a producer of textile and cement, claims to be an EO employer with policies to ensure
there is no discrimination on the basis of cast, creed, sex, and religion (KMLG 2008).
A recent study on gender equality in Pakistani organizations highlights how soci-
etal, organizational, and individual level factors have a joint effect on EO (or lack
thereof) that are available to women employees (Ali 2013). The study, which focused on
EO-related issues and challenges facing highly qualified women employees in Pakistani
organizations, revealed that the issues and challenges facing women employees can be
categorized into three different levels, that is, macro-societal-, meso-organizational-,
and micro-individual-level issues. At the macro-societal level, the study highlighted
socio-cultural (modesty and inhibition), legal and other structural factors (transport
and childcare issues). At the meso-organizational level, workplace-related issues and
challenges (such as sexual harassment, income parity, and the glass ceiling effect) and
issues of gender stereotyping were outlined. At the micro-individual level, issues related
to identity and agency were highlighted. Overall, Ali’s (2013) study suggests that focus-
ing exclusively on organizations and holding them solely accountable for the implemen-
tation of EO may be inadequate.
Another recent study provides a brief comparison of workforce diversity in public
and private sectors in Pakistan (Afzal et al. 2013). The study, conducted in the banking,
health, and medical services sectors, reveals that substantial differences exist between
employees working in public and private sector organizations due to variances in the
conception and application of workforce diversity. The findings of the study show that
the middle and operational levels of the workforce are more diverse than the top levels.
In general, there is evidence of somewhat better attention to DM in private organiza-
tions, while public sector organizations are still lagging behind. Though there are still
many hurdles to overcome, the concept of DM is gaining more importance in Pakistani
organizations because of diversity’s potential benefits for organizational performance
(Afzal et al. 2013). DM in Pakistan is still in its infancy, which provides opportuni-
ties to both public and private sector employers with regard to the development of
context-specific practices and policies.
420    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

South Africa

Country Definition of Equality, Diversity,

and Legislative History
Defining diversity in South Africa must begin with an understanding of how the African
National Congress, which took power in 1994 after decades of institutionalized oppres-
sion of the majority of the population, conceptualized the transformation of the country.
In its historic Freedom Charter, the African National Congress set forth the principle
that ‘all national groups shall have equal rights’ (African National Congress 1955). The
principle of equality was also embedded in preamble of the constitution adopted on 8
May 1996: ‘We, the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of the past; honour
those who have worked for justice and freedom in our land; respect those who have
worked to build and develop our country, and believe that South Africa belongs to all who
live in it, united in our diversity . . .’ (South Africa 1996; emphasis added). Further, empha-
sis was placed on the attainment of substantive equality, which requires the removal
of structural inequality in all areas of society (Hepple 2009; Maré 2011). Diversity and
equality is defined quite broadly in the constitution in ­chapter 2 section 9, and encom-
passes ‘race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual
orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language, and birth’. The
constitution has been heralded as one of the most progressive in the world (Philip 2012).
However, the content of the preamble and subsequent clauses point to one of the major
tensions the country has experienced in its transformation since 1994. Balancing the
vision of a country united in its diversity but one that also redresses the injustices of the
past remains a stubborn challenge at the both societal level and in the workplace (Habib
and Bentley 2008; Erasmus 2009).
Subsequent legislation relevant to the workplace reflects the tension between attain-
ing substantive equality for what is referred to as the previously disadvantaged and
women, without compromising the core principle of a nation where all social groups
have equal rights (Hepple 2009). The Employment Equity Act (South Africa 1998a)
prohibits discrimination against the categories of diversity specified in the constitu-
tion, but also requires AA for designated previously disadvantaged groups: black peo-
ple (Africans, Indians, and Coloureds), women, and those with disabilities. The latter
dimension of the Act has a more narrow definition of diversity than the broad categories
contained in the constitution. However, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of
Unfair Discrimination Act (South Africa 2000, 2002), together with other human rights
acts (South Africa 2006), were promulgated to strengthen the commitments made in
the Bill of Rights of the constitution, and also make explicit reference to family responsi-
bility and status as well as HIV/AIDS.
The Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (South Africa 2003a) fur-
ther underscores the importance of redress in the government’s conception of how
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    421

equality is to be achieved for black people (Africans, Indians, and Coloureds). The law
requires enterprises to establish equity ownership specifically for black people, to accel-
erate economic equality in the country. Other than the Broad Based Black Economic
Empowerment Act, the categories of diversity that organizations in South Africa focus
on are the groups designated in the Employment Equity Act (as stated). For instance,
gays and lesbians in South Africa do not feature heavily in diversity initiatives, as is the
case in many organizations in Western countries where they are included.
Since the passage of the Employment Equity Act, a number of other laws and man-
dates have been promulgated to achieve equity (see Booysen and Nkomo 2010 for an
overview). The Skills Development Act and its amendments (South Africa 1998b, 1999,
2003b, 2008, 2011) require companies to allocate funds to the training and development
of the South African labour force, particularly for upskilling the previously disadvan-
taged. Further, sector or industry charters have been put in place to increase black own-
ership of businesses and accelerate black representation in management. Dissatisfaction
with the progress of women in leadership roles in the private sector in particular has
resulted in the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Draft Bill (South Africa
2012b; Booysen and Nkomo 2014).The goal of the bill is to give real effect to the letter
and spirit of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, to ensure women fully participate
in all domains of society. In sum, the definition of diversity in South Africa focuses on
what has been referred to in diversity literature as primary (or surface-level) rather than
secondary (or deep-level) dimensions (Harrison, Price, and Bell 1998). While current
Western-based definitions of diversity stress attention should be paid to both dimen-
sions, the focus on primary dimensions in South Africa is consistent with the need to
undo the deep racial and gender inequalities that were entrenched in society and in
organizations during apartheid.

Socio-Political Dynamics
Although South Africa has a progressive constitution and labour laws to eradicate all
forms of discrimination within organizations, implementing such laws in organiza-
tions and within the larger society has been dominated by resistance, non-compliance,
and the privileging of racial discrimination over other forms of diversity and exclu-
sion. South African organizations remain deeply racialized and unequal in terms of job
opportunities and salaries (Booysen 2007; Seekings 2008; Commission for Employment
Equity 2013). Unlike the overt racism of apartheid, racism today is more subtle, but is
manifested in business structures and systems (Moloko 2008; Nkomo 2011). In rela-
tion to the economically active population, black Africans and Coloureds are the most
underrepresented racial groups at senior management levels in South African organi-
zations, with 12.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent management representation respectively
during 2012, while whites, whose numbers have declined by 8.9 per cent since 2002,
continue to dominate senior and top managerial positions (72.6 per cent), followed by
Indians (7.3 per cent) (Commission for Employment Equity 2013). This perceived slow
422    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

pace of racial transformation among the management cadre has led to a political climate
of impatience regarding workplace and societal transformation.
Confusion also exists regarding the status of white women and disabled whites in
terms of the Employment Equity and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment
Acts (Hermann 2012; Booysen and Nkomo 2014). While white women and disabled
whites are regarded as previously disadvantaged in terms of the Employment Equity
Act, both these groups are excluded under the stipulations of the Broad Based Black
Economic Empowerment Act, and, as such, organizations do not earn any points on
their Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment scorecards by including white
women and disabled whites as part of their workforce (Khuzwayo and Nkabinde 2011;
Hermann 2012). White disabled people are therefore excluded from the Broad Based
Black Economic Empowerment Act due to their race and not their disability, yet spe-
cial provisions are made for disabled black Africans (Khuzwayo and Nkabinde 2011;
Hermann 2012). Diversity categories are therefore not treated equally, and some are
regarded as more important in legislated diversity redress than others.
Since the 1994 democratic elections, there has been a marked increase in the number
of foreigners working in corporate South Africa. The 2013 Commission for Employment
Equity statistics revealed the following trends for foreign workers employed in corpo-
rate South Africa from 2002 to 2012: the number of top and senior management posi-
tions for this period increased from 0 per cent to 3.1 per cent (mid period) and 2.5 per
cent (end of period), while the percentage of professional and skilled foreign employ-
ees increased from 0 per cent to 2.4 per cent (mid period) and 1.5 per cent (end of
period) (Commission for Employment Equity 2013). These figures suggest that there
is an increase in predominantly foreign black workers in South African organizations
which, it is feared, is driven by organizations’ need to meet employment equity targets.
On 19 October 2012, the first amendment to the Employment Equity Act, namely the
Employment Equity Amendment Bill (2012a), was promulgated, which resulted in an
adjustment to the term ‘designated group’. According to this bill, foreign employees, who
became South African citizens after April 1994, are not regarded as previously disadvan-
taged and they are therefore not recognized in the attainment of employment equity
targets.
While some strides have been made to address racial inequalities in the workplace,
other forms of discrimination have become largely invisible. One example is South
Africa’s laws in terms of sexual orientation. South Africa was one of the first coun-
tries that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in May 1996 (Belkin
and Canaday 2010) and the first country in Africa and the fifth in the world to legalize
same-sex marriages (Booysen and Nkomo 2014) through the Civil Union Act (South
Africa 2006). However, this constitutional advancement of minority rights was chal-
lenged in 2012 by the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA),
a non-governmental group aiming to preserve black African culture, heritage, and tra-
ditions. CONTRALESA demanded that LGBT, and queer rights be removed from the
South African constitution. Their proposal was rejected by Parliament, who supported
gay rights and marriages (Rousseau 2012). However, the majority of South African
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    423

workplaces have yet to acknowledge same-sex couples in their benefit policies, result-
ing in delays in obtaining benefits such as medical and life insurance as well as pensions.
Since same-sex couples have to highlight the fact that they are omitted from organi-
zational policy and bring the omission to the attention of managers, the ‘coming out’
process is expedited, as individuals have to disclose their sexual orientation and face
pressure from colleagues and supervisors for which they may not be prepared (Belkin
and Canaday 2010).
The use of language has been another muted aspect of diversity in the South African
workplace. The 2011 Census reveals that Afrikaans and English are the first languages
of approximately 6 million and 4 million of the population respectively, with Afrikaans
being the third most used home language in the country (Statistics South Africa 2012).
Out of a population of 45 million, the home language of the majority of South Africans
is a black African language, with Zulu and Xhosa being the first and second most
used home languages in the country (Statistics South Africa 2012). Yet, within South
African organizations, the use of English and Afrikaans predominate. A great number
of lower-level black African employees have minimal command of these languages,
although English is taught in schools as a primary language of communication (Webb
1999). The dominance of English and Afrikaans in workplaces has led to the margin-
alization of black African languages and has become a barrier for the majority of South
Africans in attaining economic prosperity, as only a select few have command of the lan-
guages, resulting in their increased access to economic participation and occupational
mobility (Webb 2002; Casale and Posel 2011). Until 1994, South African workplaces were
dominated by white Afrikaans and English speakers, and therefore very few managers
speak a black African language. In addition, perceptions of an employee’s proficiency in
English and Afrikaans affects appointments and promotions (Grant 2007). Language
has therefore become a means of prejudice, although Section 9(3) of the constitution
prohibits such discrimination.

Organizational Diversity Practices

DM in South African organizations, when compared to that in other countries glob-
ally, has an additional layer of complexity. South Africa is dealing with the relics of
legislated discrimination where the racial majority was legally, economically, and cul-
turally disempowered. Organizations are therefore seen as catalysts in giving effect to
the moral imperative of broadening participation of this racial majority into positions
of leadership and economic power. DM in the South African context therefore differs
from the other countries in this chapter in that the majority was previously marginal-
ized; whereas, in India and Pakistan, organizations are attempting to address minor-
ity constituents’ participation through DM (Booysen et al. 2007). Though the moral
imperative should strongly influence organizational strategy and practice, most South
African organizations apply mechanistic approaches (Cilliers and May 2002), attempt-
ing to meet compliance targets instead of effecting complex, deep culture change through
424    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

diversity literacy (Booysen et al. 2007: 13). Since the ethnic imperative is foremost in
the mind of the marginalized majority and lawmakers, DM in organizations has been
reduced to a racial numbers game (Booysen et al. 2007; Steyn and Kelly 2009), to the
detriment of most of the other diversity categories stipulated in the constitution. Some,
often smaller, organizations do not place emphasis on DM at all, which leads to dissatis-
faction and increased staff turnover (Dombai 1999).
As part of their DM efforts, many South African organizations utilize diversity
training into which issues of difference, discrimination, and stereotyping are incor-
porated. Larger organizations have women’s initiatives in an attempt to attract and
retain increased numbers of women employees. Due to the legislative imperatives
that could result in large fines imposed on organizations that do not comply, diversity
training usually includes elucidation of the stipulations of the Employment Equity
Act, the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, and organizational policies
that support the implementation of the requirements of the acts. Most South African
diversity interventions are based on theories and models derived from international
literature, specifically from North America and Europe, with very few derived locally
or from other emerging countries. Measuring the impact of diversity training is high
on the list of priorities of some companies (Cavaleros, Van Vuuren, and Visser 2002;
Fouche, De Jager, and Crafford 2004), in an attempt to verify the hoped-for impact of
diversity training. However, organizations soon realize that diversity training is not suf-
ficient as a stand-alone intervention, but should be part of a larger diversity change pro-
cess (Cavaleros, Van Vuuren, and Visser 2002). A further strategy is the development
of diversity competencies for managers, in order to effect implementation of diversity
practices that will render positive long-term results. These may include competencies
such as tolerance of ambiguity and affiliative leadership styles (Goleman, Boyatzis, and
McKee 2002), which correlate highly with treating others with dignity (Visagie, Linde,
and Havenga 2011), a key focus of diversity initiatives.
South African organizations invest considerable time and capital in studies on man-
agement’s and employee’s perceptions and experiences regarding DM, in an attempt to
gauge how and where organizations could improve these interventions (Cavaleros, Van
Vuuren, and Visser 2002; Erasmus 2007). Studies reporting on their perceptions have
shown that managers perceive diversity interventions more positively than employ-
ees do (Erasmus 2007). Steyn and Kelly (2009) report that racism and white resistance
against transformation are prevalent in organizations, and that the biggest resistance to
diversity initiatives is found in middle management. Middle managers are those who are
tasked with compliance with all the relevant diversity acts. They often have to perform
a balancing act between attaining diversity and the demands of performance targets,
which is further exacerbated by realities such as skills shortages and lack of experience
in managing multicultural teams, poor adjustment behaviour, as well as their own bias
and prejudice.
Workforce diversity has resulted in the compilation of DM policies for organiza-
tions and institutions. These policies address office and institutional topics such as lan-
guage mediums, sexual harassment (Gouws 2012), employee benefits, promotion, and
 Practices of Managing Diversity in Emerging Countries    425

staffing. In this regard, childcare is treated from a perspective of cost effectiveness, and
not as a vital issue of structural support for diversity. Therefore, if provided, it is usu-
ally outsourced. Gouws (2012: 531) eloquently captures this misinformed notion by stat-
ing: ‘Childcare is seen as a concession for women and not a necessity for working families.’
In a summary of South African organizational DM case studies, Steyn and Kelly
(2009) draw attention to difficulties in managing diversity that were evident through-
out all the case organizations, namely an inattention to contextual realities, such as the
racialized composition of organizations during apartheid and the realities in dealing
with complex transformation dynamics where senior management remains predomi-
nantly white (Commission for Employment Equity 2013). The neglect of categories
other than race in aiming to achieve diversity, coupled with the poor quality of diversity
interventions, which are often conducted in a haphazard manner, contributes to the pre-
vailing climate of fear and suspicion, characterized by high levels of anxiety (Pretorius,
Cilliers, and May 2012), which entrenches past behaviour.
DM in South African organizations is influenced by the contextual and historical
uniqueness of the country. Sadly, efforts in this regard evidence a lack of prioritization
of diversity efforts, and are further undermined by an absence of management systems
that measure progress on key diversity deliverables. The country’s vast array of people
underscores the need for dynamic and appropriate DM, instead of the current, rather
myopic, goal of meeting compliance demands purely for the sake of meeting those
demands.

Comparison of the Countries

As postcolonial societies and emerging economies, India, Pakistan, and South Africa
are all struggling with their uniquely nuanced sources of diversity and searching for
creative strategies towards achieving the EDI of all citizens in an increasingly globalized
economy, workplace, and society. Their perspectives on managing diversity have poten-
tially rich contributions to research and debates on EDI.
On a national level, the equality challenges in India have parallels in Pakistan and
South Africa in terms of religion and regional majority/minority conflicts as a result
of high numbers of in-migration from other states, in the case of India and Pakistan,
and of Africans from other African countries into South Africa. Although these three
countries have their equality policies included in their constitution, India and Pakistan
do not have an explicit act, similar to the Employment Equity Act in South Africa,
which focuses on diversity redress in addition to the protection of workers from dis-
crimination. The three countries also do not deal with immigrant integration in their
definition of diversity, despite serious issues of discrimination against interstate labour
migration and integration. South Africa has seen an increase in xenophobia (Integrated
Regional Information News 2012; Agence France-Presse 2013) yet organizations are
employing black African migrants, often to manipulate their AA figures (Commission
426    Bosch, Nkomo, Carrim, Haq, Syed, and Ali

for Employment Equity 2013), since the skills of African foreign nationals are often per-
ceived as superior to those of their South African counterparts. Pakistan, furthermore,
does not have a clear definition of diversity and, as such, the protection of minority
rights is not adequately supported through legislation. In contrast to both India and
Pakistan, South Africa is addressing the repair of majority rights that were previously
suppressed to the benefit of a minority.
Within organizations, the three countries show an overall lack of focus on wider
diversity categories such as the rights of the LGBT groups, religious minorities, lan-
guage groups, or different cultures. Indian companies show a predominant focus
on castes and the ‘reservation’ system. South African organizations primarily focus
on race. The most important diversity category that Pakistani workplaces concern
themselves with is women. The societal culture of Pakistan, which encourages
social modesty and inhibition of women, might therefore be the biggest inhibitor
of increased participation of women in all levels of organizations when consider-
ing diversity initiatives. Women in the workplace are the second biggest category
of diversity for both India and South Africa. Throughout organizations in the three
countries, DM initiatives seem to be taken seriously when a business case is made.
Business cases relate to the importance of aspects such as reflecting customer pro-
files in employee composition, targeting specific market segments, or understanding
the needs of diverse constituents. Slow progress is made in embracing diversity, and
each country understands and practises DM differently, depending on its history and
socioeconomic imperatives. Ultimately, organizations, not governments, become a
catalyst for change and could have great impact on the advancement of the rights
of diverse groups if organizational leaders are able to convince themselves of the
benefits of DM.

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 Pa rt V

I N T E R SE C T ION S
OF DI V E R SI T Y
 Chapter 21

In tersectiona l i t y at
the Interse c t i on
Paradigms, Methods, and Application—A Review

DANIELLE MERCER, Mariana Ines Paludi,

Jean Helms Mills, and Albert J. Mills

Introduction

Over twenty years ago, Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) introduced the idea that civil rights
laws lack the ability to address the type of inequality and discrimination faced by peo-
ple who are oppressed in multiple ways (Crenshaw 1989; Best et al. 2011). Her work has
inspired many researchers, of various disciplines, to take on intersectionality in all its
complexity. In simple terms, intersectionality is the idea that various forms of oppres-
sion interact with one another in multiple, complex ways (Garry 2011).
Although the concept of intersectionality is widely used across a multitude of disci-
plines, and was rarely criticized for nearly two decades, conflicts are arising. There are
issues related to the limitations, implications, and slipperiness of intersectionality as a
whole (Garry 2011). Rasky (2011: 239) states: ‘it [intersectionality] both explodes into
a proliferation of identity categories and implodes into a distillation of such categories
into a simplistic model. This tension thoroughly penetrates the concept and is reflected
in the way it informs its methodology.’ The problems continually arise in an often failing
effort to conceptualize and operationalize intersectionality.
This chapter seeks to address the messiness and controversial views of intersectional-
ity. In particular, it explores the various definitions of intersectionality and the challenges
involved. We begin with an overview of the history of intersectionality,1 then comment

1
We do not suggest that this is the history of intersectionality but one version of past developments
(see Durepos and Mills 2012, on the problems of historical representation in social sciences research).
436    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

on the implications of the link between the paradigmatic approach, conceptualization,

and the operationalization of intersectionality.

The (Contested) History

of Intersectionality

Simply put, the term intersectionality—which focuses on the idea that various forms of
oppression interact in multiple complex ways—has been advancing through feminist
studies and critical race studies for over two decades (Garry 2011). The term intersec-
tionality was initially used by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in her work on violence
against women of colour. Initially, she used the concept of intersectionality to denote
the various ways in which race and gender interacted to shape multiple dimensions of
black women’s employment experiences (Crenshaw 1989). Her objective was to dem-
onstrate that many of the experiences black women faced were not confined within
the traditional boundaries of race or gender discrimination, and that the intersection
of race and gender factors into black women’s lives must be captured interdependently
with one another (Crenshaw 1991). She later built on this observation by examining the
many ways in which race and gender intersect in shaping structural, political, and rep-
resentational aspects of violence against women of colour (Crenshaw 1991).
Although Crenshaw is credited with being the first, or one of the first, to use the term
intersectionality (Garry 2011) the idea of intersecting identities and discrimination has a
long history in the social sciences (Collins 2000). In developing her case for intersection-
ality and interlocking systems of oppression, Patricia Hill Collins (2000: 42) argued that
the seeds of the idea can be traced back to the work of W. E. B. Du Bois who ‘saw race,
class, and nation not primarily as personal identity categories but as social hierarchies that
shaped African American access to status, poverty, and power’. She notes, however, that
Du Bois omitted gender from his theorizations, reducing it to a personal identity cate-
gory. In her book Black Feminist Thought (1990) Collins sought to define black feminism
as including women who theorize the experiences and ideas shared by ordinary black
women that provided a unique angle of vision on self, community, and society. More spe-
cifically, Collins (1990) conceptualized the structural dimension of intersectionality as a
‘matrix of domination’ in which sex, race, and other ‘axes of oppression’ operate together
to produce diverse experiences of domination within a structured whole. She found that
intersectionality does not engage in an analysis of separate systems of oppression like gen-
der, race, and class as separate entities, but explores how these are mutually constitutive
and how they interconnect (Collins 1990; Boogard and Roggeband 2010).
Choo and Ferree (2010: 132) sum up the past work of Crenshaw and Collins thus:

By emphasizing the differences among women, these scholars not only countered the
unwarranted universalizing of white, middle-class, American women’s experiences
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    437

as women but began a highly productive line of theorizing how lived experiences
of oppression cannot be separated into those due to gender, on the one hand, and
race, on the other, but rather simultaneously and linked. (Brewer 1993; Glenn 1999;
Espiritu 2000)

The last thirty years have seen a growing number of challenges to categorization by
race, gender, class, and sexuality from critical feminists (Butler 1990; Reay, David, and
Ball 2005; Cole 2009). Many scholars who have taken up intersectionality have gener-
ated studies that incorporate data from women of different racial-ethnic and class back-
grounds (Naples 1998). Today, feminist scholars believe that race, class, and gender are
closely intertwined, and argue that these forms of stratification need to be studied in
relation to one another (Choo and Ferree 2010; Rasky 2011). While the concept of inter-
sectionality significantly advanced research on women of colour, it has also led to the
realization that all social identity groups can experience multiple forms of oppression in
society (McCall 2005).

Defining Intersectionality

Since Crenshaw’s work in the early nineties, intersectionality has been emerging in a
wide range of disciplines as a framework that more accurately captures the complexi-
ties of identities by explicitly linking individual, interpersonal, and social structural
domains of experiences (Shields 2008; Dill and Zambrana 2009; Jones, Kim, and
Skendall 2012). As stated by Magnusson (2011: 94):

No single identity category or social category can satisfactorily account for the
meanings a person places on his/her social relations, life events and social sur-
roundings, nor for how he or she is responded by those surroundings. Human
identity is inherently complex. The meaning content of each of the social categories
[sexuality/sexualities, social class, ethnicity and race] I have described here is from
the very outset intertwined with each of the other categories; this term is entitled
intersectionality.

For example, being a female may mean very different things depending on what
other social categories to which a particular female belongs. Similarly, belonging to
the social category ‘working class’ may have different implications for a man than for a
woman (Magnusson 2011). According to Rasky (2011), identity can be viewed as expe-
rience that is not composed of objective attributes but as a subjective set of dynamics.
Identity is therefore multiple and complex, and contingent upon a variety of social,
political, and ideological factors (Rasky 2011). Shields (2008) notes that intersection-
ality should begin with a reflection of the reality of our lives due to the fact that there
438    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

is no one single identity category that describes how we respond to our social environ-
ment or are responded to by others (Shields 2008: 304).
Thus, it has been argued that intersectionality should no longer be approached sim-
plistically in a two- or three-part model. The term has moved well away from the initial
analysis of double and triple oppression of race/class/gender identities. From Rasky’s
(2011) perspective, it is better to conceptualize how the multiple axes of differentia-
tion intersect in specific contexts. In other words, intersectionality must be examined
interchangeably at the micro level and the macro level. First, the notion of interlocking
oppressions refers to the macro-level connections linking systems of oppression such
as race, class, and gender. Second, the notion of intersectionality describes micro-level
processes, namely, how each individual and group occupies a social position within
the interlocking structures of oppression (Collins 2000; Hurtado and Sinha 2008).
These compounded intermeshed systems of oppression in our social structures help to
produce:

• Our social relations.

• Our experiences of our own identity.
• The limitations of shared interests among members of the same oppressed group.
(Garry 2011: 827)

Choo and Feree (2010) analysed the work of several past scholars (McCall 2005;
Prins 2006; Davis 2008) in an effort to highlight dimensions of theorizing that have
become part of what intersectionality signifies. They developed three dimensions
in total:

(1) The importance of including the perspectives of multiple marginalized people,

especially women of colour.
(2) An analytic shift from the addition of multiple independent strands of inequal-
ity towards a multiplication, and thus transformation, of their main effects into
interactions.
(3) A focus on seeing multiple institutions as overlapping in their co-determination
of inequalities to produce complex configurations from the start, rather than
extra-interactive processes that are added onto main effects. (Choo and Ferree
2010: 131)

Similarly, Collins (2007) and Dill and Zambrana (2009) have created characteristics
used to define intersectionality research. They believed that one must centre the lived
experience of individuals; complicate the identity and examine both individual/group
identities; explore identity salience as influenced by systems of power and unveil power
in interconnected structures of inequality; and, finally, advance intersectionality as part
of a larger goal of promoting social justice and social change (Jones, Kim, and Skendall
2012: 702).
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    439

As complex and ambiguous intersectionality is, ‘with each new intersection, new
connections emerge and previously hidden exclusions come to light’ (Davis 2008: 77).

Confusing Intersectionalities

Scholars of all disciplines have embraced the call for an intersectional analysis, but its defi-
nition is still questioned, leading Kathy Davis (2008) to title intersectionality as a ‘buzz­
word’ with as yet unrealized analytic bite (Choo and Ferree 2010). While the concept of
intersectionality has advanced significantly since its introduction over two decades ago,
there continues to be controversy about what intersectionality is, how it should be con-
ceptualized, whether it concerns individual experiences, theorizing, or identity, or if it is a
property of social structures and cultural discourses (Davis 2008: 68). In psychology, for
example, intersectionality may be better understood as a framework rather than a theory.
Cole (2009: 179) states that intersectionality ‘is a paradigm for theory and research offering
new ways of understanding the complex causality that characterizes social phenomena’.
It was not until September 2001 that Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) was invited to intro-
duce the notion of intersectionality before a special session at the World Conference
against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa. According to Yuval-Davis (2006),
it was in the expert meeting on Gender and Racial Discrimination that took place in
2000 as part of the preparatory process to the WCAR conference that a more specific
analysis and proposal for a specific methodology for intersectionality was attempted.
It was discovered that the analytical attempts to explain intersectionality in the reports
were very confusing. For example, Crenshaw (2001) stated that intersectionality is ‘what
occurs when a woman from a minority group . . . tries to navigate the main crossing in
the city . . . the main highway is “racism road”. One cross street can be colonialism, then
Patriarchy Street . . . She has to deal not only with one form of oppression but with all
forms . . .’ (cited in Yuval-Davis 2006: 196). The metaphorical description of intersection-
ality is very different from the one that appeared in the Australian Human Rights and
Equal Opportunities Commission Issue Paper, which stated: ‘An intersectional approach
asserts that aspects of identity are indivisible and that speaking of race and gender in
isolation from each other results in concrete disadvantage’ (Yuval-Davis 2006: 197). The
nature of these definitions are quite oppositional: Crenshaw seems to focus on struc-
tural intersectionality, whereas the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities
Commission uses a definition that is strongly linked to the notions of identity.
It is apparent that the concepts of intersectionality continue to remain unstable.
However, a number of scholars do not realize that it is not enough to call one’s study
intersectional. Analysis of intersectionality is both problematic and difficult to opera-
tionalize because of the diversity of conceptualization and disciplinary approaches, and
thus it is often difficult to identify the most effective intersectional models for one’s own
research (Naples 2009).
440    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

Conflicting Methodological Approaches

to Intersectionality
Several kinds of intersectionality theories, concepts, or approaches exist. Many aim at
large-scale, structural process, while some focus on social interactions and individual
identity processes. The meaning given to terms such as ‘intersecting’ and ‘category’ vary
among researchers dependent on their approach to intersectionality, and continue to
be heatedly debated (Magnusson 2011). Arguably, both old and new approaches con-
tinue to be inadequate to the task of studying intersectionality in all its complexity
(McCall 2005).
When Crenshaw and other early researchers first introduced the topic of intersec-
tionality, it tended to offer an individualistic approach, emphasizing the ways in which
women’s social location intersected with race, class, gender, and sexuality, and shaped
their lived experiences (Naples 2009). Writings in this regard sought to theorize differ-
ence by category and shaped individual experiences and oppression. More specifically,
the theory of intersectionality as used by Crenshaw (1989) and Collins (1990) was used
as a way of making sense of interlocking societal oppression experienced by subordinate
groups. Syed (2010: 61) stated ‘for these scholars, intersectionality served as an analytic
frame for highlighting the complexities of oppression’. In later studies, Crenshaw (1995)
defined the terms structural intersectionality (also known as categorical intersectional-
ity) and political intersectionality. Structural intersectionality represents the ways that
the experience of membership in a category varies qualitatively as a function of other
group membership one holds (Cole 2008). For example, Crenshaw (1995) stated that the
specific convergences of socioeconomic status, race, and gender make it less likely that
poor women of colour will receive rape counselling if resources are allocated according
to the standards of need of racially and economically privileged women (Shields 2008:
304). In contrast, political intersectionality describes the way that those who occupy
multiple subordinate identities may find themselves caught between the sometimes
conflicting agendas of two political constituencies to which they belong (Cole 2008).
The example Crenshaw (1995) uses here is black women whose political energies are
often split between social action agendas based on race and on gender, neither of which
may alone adequately address their specific concerns or most pressing needs (Shields
2008: 305). Intersectionality has become strongly linked to the notions of individual
identity and identity formation, but it often fails to explore the dimensions of structural
intersectionality central to Crenshaw’s work (McCall 2005; Verloo 2006; Boogard and
Roggeband 2010).
Subsequent work has tended towards a relational approach to intersectionality. The
relational approach to intersectionality offers a more historical and regional varia-
tion of the earlier themes of difference (Naples 2009). There continues to be contro-
versy towards this approach, dependent upon the researcher. For instance, Weldon
(2008) describes the relational approach as the ‘intersection-plus’ model, focusing on a
process-centred understanding where the interaction effects of categories come to play,
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    441

but only in selected cases. In contrast, McCall (2005) argues that a core element of this
approach is comparative analysis: seeing how the interplay among different structures
of domination varies we must use a methodology that uses comparisons above the indi-
vidual; she titles her version of a relational approach ‘intercategorical’.
McCall’s (2005) contribution is the contention that the notion of intersectionality
has introduced new methodological problems and has a limited range of methodo-
logical approaches used for studying intersectionality. She uses three intersectionality
approaches that are defined in terms of their stance towards categories (i.e. individualis-
tic versus relational models) and, more specifically, in terms of how they understand and
use analytical categories to explore the complexity of intersectionality. The approaches
are referred to as ‘anti-categorical complexity’, ‘intracategorical complexity’, and ‘inter-
categorical complexity’, and it must be emphasized that not all research on intersection-
ality can simply fit within one of the three approaches, as some research belongs partly
to one approach and partly to another (McCall 2005). McCall (2005: 1774) concludes:

The three approaches can be considered broadly representative of current

approaches to the study of intersectionality and together illustrate the fact that dif-
ferent methodologies produce different kinds of substantive knowledge and that a
wider range of methodologies is needed to fully engage with the set of issues and top-
ics falling broadly under the rubric of intersectionality.

The first approach is called anti-categorical complexity because it is based on a method-

ology that seeks to deconstruct categorical divisions (McCall 2005). Basically, nothing
fits neatly into any single master category due to the fact that categories, including gen-
der and race, are too simplistic to capture the complex social life and lived experiences of
individuals (McCall 2005). More generally, the process of categorization itself may lead
to exclusion and then, ultimately, inequality. For example, there would be no longer a
category of ‘gender’, no longer two genders but countless genders eliminating the singu-
larity and separateness of social categories (McCall 2005).
The next approach is ‘intercategorical complexity’ and is quite the opposite of
‘anti-categorical complexity’ in that it addresses the fact that inequalities exist in society
and will continue to be imperfect and ever changing (McCall 2005). Proponents of this
methodology focus on using analytical categories to document societal inequalities and
the relationships that exist. More specifically, the approach focuses on the complexity
of relationships among multiple social groups and not divided into single categories or
groups (McCall 2005).
The final approach—‘intracategorical complexity’—falls neatly in the middle of the
two other approaches. Anti-categorical rejects the use of categories while intercategori-
cal uses categories complexly and strategically. Like the first approach, ‘intracategorical
complexity’ interrogates the boundaries of distinction and recognizes the shortcomings
of social analytical categories (McCall 2005). Yet, like the second approach, it acknowl-
edges the stable relationships that social categories represent, but remains critical of
them at all times. McCall (2005) calls this ‘intracategorical complexity’, because ‘authors
442    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

working in this vein tend to focus on particular social groups and neglected points of
intersection in order to reveal the complexity of lived experience within such groups’
(McCall 2005: 1774).
The association of anti-categorical approach with the complexity introduced
by studies on intersectionality may also have resulted from the tendency to com-
bine this approach with ‘intracategorical’ (McCall 2005). McCall (2005) rejects the
‘anti-categorical’ and ‘intracategorical’ approach to intersectionality because she sees
them as inadequate, leaving the ‘intercategorical complexity’ approach as the most real-
istic option (Naples 2009). Similarly, other critics (i.e. Garry 2011) also state that inter-
sectionality does not abolish identity categories; instead, they become more complex
and messy. This is not to say that the use of identity categories in intersectional analysis
is not problematic due to the fact that not all situations are intersectional to the same
extent; this alone causes researchers confusion because the appropriate intersectionality
methodology is not set in stone.
The approaches to intersectionality methodology and analysis continue to conflict.
McCall’s (2005) three approaches are not the only ones. Many other scholars have devel-
oped their own take on studying intersectionality as it is dependent on the way they the-
orize and analyse research. For example, Naples (2009) developed an approach called
the epistemological approach of intersectional analysis, which is rooted in the insights
from different theoretical perspectives developed to analyse gender, race, and class ine-
qualities, as well as sexuality and culture. Similarly, an epistemological view is evident
in Collins’s (2000) work as it centres on the construct of the matrix of domination. The
difficulties to operationalize intersectionality stem from the various theories, types, or
approaches. Naples (2009: 574) states: ‘Each approach to intersectionality . . . offers a dif-
ferent angle of vision on the complex processes, relationships, and structural conditions
that shape everyday life, relations of ruling and the resistance strategies of diverse actors.’

Methodological Design in Intersectionality Analysis

Despite the emergence of intersectionality as a major paradigm of research, there has
been little discussion pertaining to intersectionality methodology. Studies of intersec-
tionality are limited in terms of methodology, and the methodological issues are quite
complex and inconsistent with past practice (McCall 2005).
Many scholars state that intersectionality is not a methodology, just as it is not a the-
ory of oppression or power (Hurtado and Sinha, 2008; Garry 2011). Intersectionality is
more of a framework, and methods or methodologies can be developed that support it.
More specifically, intersectionality directs one to the appropriate design and analysis.
The problematic part of the design is determining the most appropriate method for ‘dig-
ging into the details of the ways that the full range of oppression and privileges interact
in our societies, life and theories’ (Garry 2011: 844).
More often than not, the methodological demands of intersectionality research are
quite challenging no matter what research method is chosen. So far, approaches to
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    443

intersectionality have mostly been used in qualitative field studies. As stated by Shields
(2008: 311): ‘Intersectionality theory by virtue of its description of multidimensional
nature of identity makes investigation through qualitative methods seem both natu-
ral and necessary.’ The theoretical compatibility and historical links between intersec-
tionality and qualitative methodologies imply that one does not go without the other
(Shields 2008; Syed 2010). However, different types and levels of analysis may require
different qualitative methods. For example, Dorothy Smith (1987, 1990) uses an institu-
tional ethnographic methodology that is considered one of the most powerful method-
ologies for intersectional research (Naples 2009). The use of narratives and theoretical
interventions essentially created the study of intersectionality, but the use of case stud-
ies is considered as well (McCall 2005). However, both can become problematic. In the
case of narratives, these can get confusing due to the problems of representation and
othering. Questions can lead to personal bias (Butt et al. 1992) and there is the issue
of the researcher misinterpreting or construing the stories (Denzin 1989). Cole (2009)
explained that this raises the issue of representation and how lives can be represented
through text in all their complexity, to quote Phillips (1994: 15) will any old story suffice?’
Using case studies as a methodology to study intersectionality can also work, depend-
ing on the complexity of the research. Case studies focus on the intensive study of sin-
gle groups. For example, many feminists who are trained in social science and study
intersectionality use the case study method to identify a new or invisible group (McCall
2005).
Although using qualitative methods to study intersectionality is gaining momentum,
it is more difficult to use quantitative methods in intersectionality research (Shields
2008). Using quantitative research is very problematic when studying intersectional-
ity because it oversimplifies and separates the very relational and complex intermesh-
ing that intersectionality captures (Shields 2008). Shields (2008) describes the difficulty
with using a quantitative method such as analysis of variance (ANOVA). For example, a
2x2 study of sexual orientation and gender allows an analysis of how one variable influ-
ences another but it does not allow appreciation of the dependence of one category’s
definition on the other (Shields 2008). In psychological research, using an ANOVA
framework leads to an additive approach of the intersectionality categories, as they
are seen as independent from one another. Similarly, McCall’s (2005) intersectionality
approach, ‘intercategorical complexity’, uses a quantitative methodology to analyse how
categories influence one another.
The question of whether to interpret intersectionality as an additive or as a constitu-
tive process is still a central debate (Yuval-Davis 2006). An additive approach means
that social inequality increases with each additional stigmatized identity (Bowleg 2008).
One of the problematics of the additive intersectionality model is that it often remains on
one level of analysis, the experiential, and does not differentiate between different levels
(Yuval-Davis 2006). It conceptualizes people’s experience as separate, independent, and
summative (Bowleg 2008). For example, Bowleg (2008) used past studies related to black
lesbians to determine the intersections of race, sex/gender, and sexual orientation. What
she found was that none of the literature review sections of these past studies reference a
444    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

single intersectionality theorist or mention the word intersectionality. Instead, the ‘tri-
ple jeopardy approach’ to black lesbians’ experiences was used, in which all identities
were seen as separate entities. Bowleg (2008) realized that every methodological choice
made in the past studies represented an additive approach, black+lesbian+women
(Bowleg 2008: 314). The point of this discussion is that, in designing the methodology,
the wording of the questions shape how participants respond to them. Unfortunately,
it can be quite difficult to create the proper questions for intersectionality research. The
main issue is how to ask questions about experiences that are intersecting and mutu-
ally constitutive without resorting to an additive approach (Bowleg 2008). Often, the
way the questions are asked imply that the experience is to be recounted serially and the
identities kept separate. Bowleg (2008: 322) sums up the issue at hand quite well:

While several studies focus on race, age, gender, ethnicity . . . these studies tend to
have limited abilities to answer important questions about intersectionality. First,
they often develop meaningful constructs to measure experiences based on intersec-
tions of these social identities, relying instead on the erroneous assumption that vari-
ables such as race sex . . . class . . . are explanatory constructs in and of themselves.

There is obviously no one-size-fits-all methodological solution to incorporating an

intersectionality perspective. Not only do the controversial methods and question-
ing lead to difficulties in operationalizing intersectionality, but the data analysis can
cause problems as well. One key issue is how to handle intersectionality data that is
implicit rather than explicit. This is especially an issue when the intersectional approach
requires a more complex analysis than in more familiar and accessible additive
approaches (Bowleg 2008). More specifically, in the case of narratives, there is always
the question—what counts as data (Cole 2009)?
In all of the complexity that comes with intersectionality, there are two suggestions to
put forth. First, questions about intersectionality should focus on meaningful constructs
rather than typical identity categories. For instance, a study with participants who are
ethnically diverse and includes demographic measures such as socioeconomic status and
sexual orientation is not intersectionality research. A similar study that focuses on the
dimensions of participants’ experience related to socioeconomic status and sexual orien-
tation would be considered intersectional research (Betancourt and Lopez 1993; Weber
and Parra-Medina 2003; Helms, Jernigan, and Mascher 2005; Bowleg 2008). Second,
questions should be intersectional in design, that is, the identity categories must be rela-
tional and show interdependence, rather than be additive in nature (Bowleg 2008).

Intersectionality and Practice: Paradigms

and Applications
Intersectionality has come a long way since its introduction a couple of decades ago. It is
now possible to chronicle many approaches to intersectionality that differ by discipline,
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    445

epistemology, and conceptualization (Naples 2009). Despite this emergence, there has
been little development in how to study intersectionality, that is, of its methodology
(McCall 2005). The problem lies within the fact that there are such diverse ways of con-
ceptualizing and approaching intersectionality. Attempting to operationalize intersec-
tionality may be a daunting and impossible task because: ‘Intersectionality can point
us to locations where we need to begin identifying issues and constructing our theo-
ries . . . It does not do the work for us, but tells us where to start and suggests kinds of
questions to ask. It sets the stage . . .’ (Garry 2011: 828).
The various ontological, epistemological, and methodological aspects of different
paradigmatic positions (Burrell and Morgan 1979) arguably influence the application of
intersectionality.

Positivism
From a positivist perspective (Johnson and Duberley 2000), the emphasis on a natural
science approach is likely to encourage a focus on more-or-less fixed categories (gen-
der, race, etc.) and an additive approach whereby different categories (often expressed as
variables) can be studied and measured to assess their cumulative impact (see, for exam-
ple, Glauber 2008; Lovell 2000). Here, operationalization requires the codification of a
great number of data that will be analysed, with regression analysis showing correlations
among categories or variables. To conduct research in this tradition implies being able to
see the impact of one type of oppression on another, in a linear and simplifying way. This
approach has proven useful in drawing attention to the fact that anti-discriminatory
policies may actually miss the mark where a person faces multiple discriminatory fac-
tors. The work of Best and colleagues (2011), for example, helped United States court
cases on discrimination to support the argument that race and gender disadvantages
are interrelated, and that anti-discrimination laws provides less protection where inter-
sected categories are involved.
Nonetheless, some researchers have decried this approach as ‘body counting’
(Alvesson and Billing 2002), arguing that it serves to reinforce essentialist notions of
gender and race (Hearn 2011) as relatively fixed categories (McCall 2005). On the other
hand, it has been argued that, regardless of methodological issues, categorization is the
basis for discriminatory practices (people do politically categorize others and discrimi-
nate based on such categorizations) and that political engagement against discrimina-
tion often needs to appeal to people—at least initially—as categories of social actors.
Calás and Smircich (1992), for example, contend that feminist poststructuralism needs
to take into account the appeal of categorization (e.g. collectives of women) for political
action while simultaneously encouraging the deconstruction of the very same ‘master’
category of gender (see also McCall 2005).

Postpositivism
Beyond positivism, there are a disparate number of ‘intellectual traditions’ that share a
common reaction to positivism in questioning ‘social reality and knowledge produc-
tion from a more problematized vantage point, emphasizing the constructed nature
446    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

of social reality, the constitutive role of language, and the value of research as critique’
(Prasad 2005: 9, cited in Bryman et al. 2011: 57–58). These various approaches focus, to
different degrees, on language (e.g. poststructuralism), narrative (e.g. postmodernism),
context/history (e.g. postcolonialism), socio-psychological interactions (e.g. critical
sensemaking, CSM), and relationships (e.g. actor–network theory, ANT). In the pro-
cess, we suggest, there are very different implications for the study of intersectionality
(or the intersection of different identity formations). We will briefly look at some of the
issues involved in selected methodological approaches to the study of the intersections
of identity, including critical hermeneutics, critical discourse analysis (CDA), CSM,
ANT, and postcolonialism.
Critical hermeneutics focuses largely on textual analysis (Prasad 2002), seeking to
derive meaning from such things as the socio-historical context in which selected texts
were produced, the situated location of the reader-as-interpreter, and recognition of the
role of translation as the researcher attempts to bring both her location and that of the
text under review. This approach has been used, among other things, to show how cor-
porate documents have served to shape images of the Arab as Other (Prasad and Mir
2002). It has been less used to understand issues of multiple identity projects.
One immediate problem of this approach is the issue of text itself. In the literal sense
of text, the researcher is very much stuck within the boundaries of written documents
that may or may not deal with how a person is being viewed, imaged, or employed:
any intersecting (discriminatory) identities/structures may be unclear (e.g. a person’s
name may give little clue as to their ethnic background, gender, age, etc.) and there
may be little or no clue as to selected persons’ experiences of discriminatory practices
(e.g. the intent of the text may serve to reduce the clues to certain experiences). On
the positive side, it can be argued that texts can provide important clues to ‘naturally
occurring’ discourses (Phillips and Hardy 2002) that allow the researcher to avoid pre-
fixed categories—allowing the character of discriminatory experiences to emerge from
the text. This still does not get the researcher past the problem of discriminatory prac-
tices that serve to exclude certain people from a given text or set of texts. For example,
Mills’s (1995, 2006) study of British Airways found that women of colour were largely
excluded from corporate texts over much of the first fifty years of the company’s opera-
tion. Potential ways forward may be to undertake an extensive case study of a single
organization over time that has an established archive of materials. Various documents
(e.g. newsletters, corporate letters, annual general reports) could then be interrogated
and cross-referenced in attempts to understand the way in which discriminatory
practices are structured and experienced, as named people are followed in the array
of materials. While this may be limited to the people referred to in the various texts
(discrimination, for example, is likely to exclude certain people from the texts), it has
the advantage of providing clues to the contexts of discrimination and how they may
change over time (see Hartt et al. 2012).
CDA involves a focus on the relationship between language and practice that mutu-
ally reinforces a sense of the world that is experienced as knowledge (Weedon 1997).
Drawing on Foucault (1979), the interrelationships between language, practice, and
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    447

knowledge are seen as discursive (i.e. the process of producing a discourse). In other
words, a discourse can be seen as ‘an interrelated set of texts, and the practices of their
production, dissemination, and reception, that brings an object into being’ (Phillips and
Hardy 2002: 3). From this perspective, ‘social reality is produced and made real through
discourses, and social interactions cannot be fully understood without reference to the
discourses that give them meaning’ (Phillips and Hardy 2002: 3). This has been used in
a number of studies of the production of gender (Thomas and Davies 2002) and avoids
the problem of fixed categories. Thomas and Davies (2002), for example, focus not so
much on gender as a fixed category, but rather the fluidity of notions of gender and the
discursive processes through which they are constructed as seemingly fixed categories.
The contribution of poststructuralism to the study of intersectionality is to move
attention away from fixed categories of discrimination to the study of if, how, and where
overlapping experiences of discrimination occur and differ over time and across dif-
ferent contexts. The challenges include finding ways to unravel specific discourses of
discrimination and show how, at times, they might overlap and, at other times and in
different contexts, do not. The size of the challenge is rooted in the various problems of
establishing/identifying discourses. For example, in their study of interviews of female
executives of multinational companies in Latin America, Paludi and Helms Mills (2015)
were able to identify discourses of gender (both notions of masculinity and femininity)
and ethnicity (the women’s identities as Latin American coupled with issues of race and
localized ethnicity). However, these identity clues had to be explored beyond the text to
uncover aspects of the context and history of gender relations in Latin America, but also
the complex history of the discursive nature of ‘Latin America’ itself: a vast undertaking
in terms of time and the ability to build plausible accounts of emergent discourses.
CSM draws on the work of Weick (1995) by attempting to ground sensemaking in a
series of structured (i.e. organizational rules, formative contexts) and discursive con-
texts. Yet the focus is not only on how people make sense in context but how, in the
process, they enact a sense of context (Helms Mills, Thurlow, and Mills 2010). To date,
CSM has been used to understand how the development, maintenance, and change in
gendered situations have been rendered plausible (Mills and Helms Mills 2010). More
recently, the approach has been used to explore the creation of a sense of race and eth-
nicity in the development of immigration policies in Canada (Hilde 2013; Hilde and
Mills 2015). With a focus on the socio-psychological properties that people bring to
bear on creating a sense of a situation, the challenge for CSM is to find ways of study-
ing the same or similar people across a range of situations. Hilde (2013), for example,
interviewed Hong Kong Chinese immigrants to Canada to gain an understanding of
how they made sense of the experience. Although gender was not a specific aspect of her
study, she began to realize as she analysed the data that there appeared to be a difference
between respondents in terms of their gendered identity work. The challenge of future
work, however, would not be to assume gender differences but rather to track the same
group of people across varying situations to see how—in situations not directly linked to
immigration status—they feel identified, which identity is prevalent, and to what extent
it is experienced negatively.
448    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

ANT is, for feminists, arguably one of the more controversial approaches to dis-
crimination (Corrigan and Mills 2012), yet it continues to attract a number of feminist
researchers (Singleton and Michael 1993; Haraway 2004; Hunter and Swan 2007). In
its focus on actor networks as the site/process of the production of knowledge, ANT
(Callon 1999; Law 1999; Latour 2005) refuses to privilege human actors over non-
human actors (e.g. computers, texts, laboratory coats) nor to start with a study of
knowledge production that sets out to trace a prefixed category of thought. Its focus
is on tracing (‘reassembling’) how an initially disparate assembly of actors comes to
produce a particular knowledge. To understand that knowledge is an effect of a par-
ticular set of networked relations. For example, the notion of intersectionality would
not be seen as a form of universalized or even generally understood knowledge of the
world, but rather as something that has various (localized) meanings or even a lack of
meaning across different actor networks. Much like we have argued throughout this
chapter, the idea of intersectionality differs across paradigmatic networks of scholars.
A central problem levelled at ANT in this regard is the practice of trying to follow the
key actors (Latour 2005) in the process of selected network formation, and so on. Thus,
for example, many of ‘the actors’ in studies of mainstream organizations may not include
selected people because of their skin colour, assumed ethnicity, age, and so on. Pan
American Airways, for example, was dominated by so-called white, American-born men
and, to a lesser extent white, middle-class, and American-born women: making the search
for intersecting identities very limited and/or restricted to narrowly defined groups (Hartt
et al. 2012). Regardless, one way forward is to consider the role of exclusion (or exclusions)
as part of the effects of a particular actor network. The challenge would be to extrapolate
from the exclusions to assess any intersecting experiences of discrimination.
Postcolonial theory draws on the work of Said (1978) focusing on the role of colonial
(and postcolonial) relationships in the construction of images of the Other. In the pro-
cess, it focuses on issues of power, cultural representation, and geopolitical relationships.
As Spivak (1988: 90) argues, ‘if you are poor, black and female you get it [discrimina-
tion] in three ways. If, however, this formulation is moved from the first-world context
into the postcolonial (. . .) context, the description “black” or “poor” loses persuasive
significance.’ This statement summarizes the complexity of a postcolonial–intersection-
ality approach. When intersectionality is approached through postcolonialist lenses,
the notions of cultural representation, nation, and First World/Third World countries,
emerge as key components to be problematized and contested. Postcolonial theory is
linked to the notion of identity in two ways. On the one hand, it problematizes the idea
of identity as a fixed construct. On the other hand, identity cannot be seen without cul-
ture and how it is represented in each society (Kailo 2001).
Through this focus, postcolonial theory adds a complex series of levels to the debate
on intersectionality that ultimately challenges the (Western) culture-bound character
of the term itself (Holvino 2010). It draws the focus away from simple categories, indi-
viduals, relationships, and structural rules to the broader context of culture and socio-
economic practices and histories. Thus, intersecting identity work, it is argued, will vary
across socio-political relationships of colonial and colonized positions.
 Intersectionality at the Intersection    449

The challenges here include the sheer amount of work it takes to ‘uncover’ aspects of
the various layers involved. For example, understandings of extant identity work in any
of a number of Latin American countries would require extensive research on the his-
tory of South (and North) America—its people before and after European conquest; the
shaping of particular peoples into national identities (Eakin 2007; Ibarra-Colado 2008),
and the ‘idea’ of Latin America itself (Mignolo 2005). Another challenge is to capture
the interrelational aspect of intersecting identities. Said (1978), for example, while able
to capture the images of Other in the writings of British and French novelists, does not
reveal how those images were understood, translated, and/or resisted by those who have
been othered. Similarly, the (textual) voice of the oppressed, while revealing reactions
to colonial images, does not necessarily capture the interactive character of the process
of postcoloniality (Amoko 2006). Finally, postcolonialist approaches also face the chal-
lenge of unravelling the construction of different identities across various situations
when faced with largely textual traces.
Despite these various challenges in implementing a focus on intersecting discrimina-
tory practices/experiences, postcolonial theory draws attention to the complex and far-
reaching problems of reducing intersectionality to categorization and to studying it out
of context (in terms of both culture and past events). Possible ways forward include lon-
gitudinal case studies, where there is access to various participants across the colonizer/
colonized divide, and the possibility of both archival and ethnographic study.

Summary and Conclusion

In this chapter we have discussed the relationship between epistemology, methodol-

ogy, methods, and application in the study of intersectionality. Our intent was sixfold:
first, we wanted to draw attention to the heuristic value of a focus on intersectionality,
in so doing we have attempted to reveal the widespread and growing interest in framing
discriminatory practices through an intersectionality lens as well as some useful out-
comes associated with it. Second, we wanted to reveal the gap between the widespread
theorization of intersectionality and the much more limited application (and discus-
sion of the application) of intersectionality. Third, we set out to say something about the
discursive—as opposed to universalist—nature of the concept and ensuing debates. We
contend that intersectionality cannot be treated as a term that is commonly accepted
(or understood) across various research communities, including feminist scholars.
Fourth, in focusing on the discursive nature of the idea of intersectionality, we explored
the links between the concept and its possible understanding across different epistemo-
logical and methodological stances. Our central argument is that the understanding and
use of the term intersectionality differs markedly across different paradigms of thought
and thus had profoundly different implications for if or how it is applied. Fifth, through
an exploration of selected paradigmatic approaches, we attempted to present some of
the issues and challenges in studying intersectionality from a specific approach. In the
450    Mercer, Paludi, Mills, and Mills

process, we tried to show that issues of ontology, epistemology, and methodology shape
the very issues and challenges as starting points of enquiry. For ease of discussion and
space we restricted our discussion to selected approaches and also to cases where one
particular method or methodology was prevalent. Obviously, a number of researchers
employ more than one way of studying a specific problem of discrimination. Our sixth
and final point was to reveal the rich but diverse nature of the debates around intersec-
tionality, and to encourage further engagement with issues of implementation.

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 Chapter 22

The Intersect i ona l i t i e s

of Age, Ethn i c i t y, a nd
Cl ass in Orga ni z at i ons

Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger
and Renate Ortlieb

Introduction

In recent decades diversity has gained prominence both in academic debate and in
practice as the pressures of internationalization and socioeconomic change have forced
societies all over the world to deal constructively with the growing diversity of their
workforce, the labour market, and consumer markets. A growing number of organiza-
tions, in particular in Western countries, have already implemented policies of diversity
management (DM), or have subscribed to a diversity charter in order to explicitly con-
firm their commitment to diversity and a policy of inclusion. Yet upon closer inspec-
tion it becomes clear that in most American or European organizations these policies
focus rather narrowly on certain single social categories such as gender, sexual orienta-
tion, and age, but do not take several social dimensions or intersectional categories into
account (see Hanappi-Egger 2006; Klarsfeld 2010). Hanappi-Egger and Hofmann (2012)
point out that, despite this limited purview (e.g. focusing just on women but leaving
out the diversity among women), such measures are nonetheless important first steps
in reducing complexity by tackling the most pressing issues faced by an organization.
Thus, for example, DM programmes in the fields of engineering and science in Austria,
which historically suffer from a very low level of participation by women, generally
focus on measures to promote women, but do not consider any intra-group heteroge-
neity of women. This means that these measures address women without taking their
background in terms of ethnicity, class, or living contexts—such as motherhood—into
account (Hanappi-Egger 2011, 2012).
Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations    455

Scholarly work in the field of DM in Europe has generally concentrated on one of the
‘big six’ social categories as defined by European anti-discrimination and equal treat-
ment legislation: age, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. This
legislation recognizes these categories both separately and as so-called ‘multiple’ dis-
criminations (European Commission 2007; Schiek and Lawson 2011). While much has
already been written by scholars in diversity studies on age and ethnicity, little work has
been undertaken on the intersection between these two social categories—and, in par-
ticular, their relation with class issues is being understudied.
In this chapter we focus on the intersectionalities of the social categories of age, eth-
nicity, and class. Following the fundamental contribution of McCall (2005), we define
intersectionality as ‘the relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of
social relations and subject formations’ (McCall 2005: 1771). Rooted in feminist move-
ments and research, proponents of the intersectionality concept proclaimed that being
a woman has different meanings, depending on a woman’s race and class belonging-
ness. As a reaction to criticisms of feminist research concerning the neglect of such dif-
ferences, a growing body of literature that explicitly takes the analytical categories of
race/ethnicity and class—and their interwovenness—into account evolved. Examples
include Adib and Guerrier’s (2003) analysis of the multiplicity of gendered identities
according to ethnicity/nationality/race and class in the British hotel industry; Bryant
and Jaworski’s (2011) study on the role of gender, ethnicity, and class with particular
respect to skills and job prestige in Australia; Zanoni’s (2011) analysis of gender, ethnic-
ity, disability issues, and class in a Belgian manufacturing firm; as well as Lin and Mac an
Ghaill’s (2013) investigation of the shifting gender identities of men, who, by migrating
from rural to urban regions in China, also changed class identity.
These analyses primarily centre on gender and its intersection with two or more other
social categories, thereby representing a quite established body of intersectionality lit-
erature. In contrast, this chapter refers to much smaller research bodies, since the key
social categories under consideration are not gender but age, ethnicity, and class. These
three analytical dimensions relate to different aspects of social status: whereas age and
ethnicity primarily refer to social categorization and the question of recognition by the
social environment in terms of socially accepted identity concepts and corresponding
norms, of non-stigmatization and non-marginalization, class refers to the material, eco-
nomic background of individuals, and therefore is linked to the question of distribution
of wealth and social justice. Consequently, the discussion on how to eliminate margin-
alization and exclusion based on age, ethnicity, and class should, according to Fraser
(1995), focus on both of these two factors, namely recognition of various identity con-
cepts and distribution of wealth.
Within diversity studies there is a particular danger of ignoring the question of eco-
nomic inequality and merely considering the issue of identity building (Zanoni 2011).
Hanappi and Hanappi-Egger (2013) argue that the notion of diversity should be inves-
tigated in more detail in order to elaborate its interplay with the traditional concept of
‘working class’. Fraser (1995) was at the basis of the discussion of social differentiation
by highlighting the distinction between the injustice of distribution and the injustice of
456    Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb

recognition. As she puts it: ‘Here, then, is a difficult dilemma. I shall henceforth call it
the redistribution–recognition dilemma. People who are subject to both cultural injus-
tice and economic injustice need both recognition and redistribution. They need both
to claim and to deny their specificity. How, if at all, is this possible?’ (Fraser 1995: 77; for
further discussion see also Fraser 2000; Fraser and Honneth 2003).
Against the background of this dilemma, in the following paragraphs we elaborate on
both of its components: issues related to social identity (i.e. the recognition dimension)
and issues related to social inequality (i.e. the redistribution dimension). However, cor-
responding with their prevalence in extant literature, in some paragraphs we put more
emphasis on one of the two perspectives, and, on other occasions, we elaborate more on
the other. Moreover, we take more functionalist DM perspectives into account (i.e. the
business perspective), but also more critically oriented perspectives (as scholarly work
on intersectionality historically takes a critical stance). Therewith, we try to capture the
large spectrum of approaches within the intersectionality and diversity literature. At the
same time, due to the scarcity of research on the intersectionalities of exactly those social
categories under consideration in this chapter, restricting the focus to one single perspec-
tive would have rested on a very thin literature fundament. The latter is also the reason
why the following sections cover only dyadic intersectionalities. A section on the triadic
intersectionality of age, ethnicity, and class is lacking since, to the best or our knowledge,
no relevant literature on exactly these three social categories (or more) exists.
The remainder of this chapter will proceed in two steps. First, we will introduce the
key concepts of age, class, and ethnicity, and present empirical findings concerning the
three dyadic relations: age–ethnicity, age–class, and class–ethnicity. Then we will criti-
cally reflect on the current academic debate on age, ethnicity, and class, and suggest ave-
nues for future research on the intersectionalities of these categories.

The Age–Ethnicity–Class Dyads

First, we briefly describe the basic concepts of the three analytical categories. With
respect to age in organizations, the scholarly discourse closely mirrors the long-term
demographic trend throughout Europe towards ageing societies. Due to lower birth
rates and rising life expectancy, the European population is growing older in terms of
a higher ratio of elderly people. For instance, according to European Union (EU) statis-
tics, the share of people aged 65 years and older will rise from 17 per cent to 30 per cent
in 2060 (European Commission 2012). In line with this demographic shift, which has
provoked recent legislative moves in several European countries towards higher retire-
ment ages, organizational workforces are also ageing (e.g. in Austria, the retirement age
of women born from June 1968 was raised from 60 to 65 years, and the law concern-
ing early retirement arrangements was tightened, leading to lower numbers of early
retirees). To meet the challenges associated with ageing workforces, many firms imple-
ment age management programmes—not only because of the larger numbers of older
Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations    457

employees, but also because of the need for intergenerational management in order to
exploit the knowledge and expertise of different generations (see e.g. Hanappi-Egger
and Schnedlitz 2009).
However, one has to bear in mind that the meaning and connotation of age is strongly
defined by the particular cultural context. For instance, Hanappi-Egger and Ukur (2011)
show that in Kenya—contrary to the majority of Western European countries—age man-
agement largely addresses the problem of exclusion faced by younger people. Enjoying
high social prestige, ‘elderly people’ find it is much easier to advance into manage-
ment positions than younger workers with comparable knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Such country differences in attitudes to age have been identified by Hampden-Turner
and Trompenaars (1994) between the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain,
Sweden, and the Netherlands. Similarly, the treatment of older workers can vary con-
siderably across industrial sectors. For example, while employees aged 40 years and
over are regarded in the IT (see e.g. Griffiths and Moore 2010) and advertising sectors as
rather old, in other industries they may still be characterized as young—see, for example
He (2014) for a discussion of the youth-centred image of the creative industries in China.
Ethnicity is related to demographic trends, too, and an issue affecting the daily busi-
ness of organizations. Today, ethnically diverse workforces are not merely common
in international companies but across the board (OECD 2012). Many firms imple-
ment programmes such as training in multilingual competence and ethnic networks,
as well as measures to promote sensitivity to different religions and beliefs, thereby
aiming to eliminate organizational barriers and to exploit the different cultural back-
grounds of ethnic minority employees (Ortlieb and Sieben 2013; Ortlieb, Sieben, and
Sichtmann 2014).
Even more than in the case of age, ethnicity is a social category that can only be under-
stood within a specific cultural context (Klarsfeld 2010). In Western Europe, with its
history of colonialism, bilateral labour agreements in order to combat shortages at
domestic labour markets by attracting foreign workers, and diverse immigration poli-
cies, the term ‘ethnicity’ often signifies a mixture of several factors: country of origin,
nationality, language, skin colour, religion, and value system. Such a broad meaning of
ethnicity is far more complex than the typical US definition of an ethnic group as ‘a set
of people who share a common cultural background that is often embedded in language
and religion’ (Proudford and Nkomo 2006: 325).
Similar to age, organizational practices and social connotations related to ethnic-
ity differ according to industrial sector. Prominent examples of industries in which a
particular ethnic (or national) background indicates high quality are top restaurants
employing a French chef or football teams comprising a Brazilian star player. In addi-
tion, there exist large differences between various kinds of ethnic backgrounds, reflect-
ing the social hierarchy of a particular organization and country. For instance, Ortlieb
and Sieben (2014), in a case study of a US-headed online trading company in Germany,
demonstrate that job holders in higher positions of the formal hierarchy were either
native Germans, Americans, or people of a Western European background. Inversely,
people of other backgrounds, such as Romanians or those with African roots, worked
458    Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb

in the lower rungs. Several organizational practices reinforce this social order, such
as recruiting or the assignment of regional responsibilities to certain business units.
Consideration of such differences of social status brings us to the third social category
covered in this chapter.
Class describes an individual’s socioeconomic background, as, for example, by cat-
egorizing persons as belonging to the ‘upper’, ‘middle’, or ‘lower’ class according to the
amount of their property and the related power in society, politics, and organizations.
Class is a general category that can comprise persons of diverse ethnicities, gender, age,
sexual orientation, and disability. According to Hanappi and Hanappi-Egger (2013),
class refers to the societal position in the productive process and an individual’s con-
sciousness of belonging to a certain class—in classical Marxian analysis, the proletariat
(working class) versus the bourgeoisie. Class hierarchies are established by education,
typically the possession (or lack) of a university degree, while class identity and class
symbols provide a ‘sense of one’s position’ in the class division and, consequently, within
organizations. In diversity studies class is often ignored, as pointed out by Litvin (1997)
and Zanoni and colleagues (2010). In a similar vein, Holvino (2002) stresses that, since
class plays a crucial role in organizations in terms of access to promotion and career
planning, it should be made visible.
In recent years, the topic of class has gained increasing attention by organization
scholars. Examples include the case study by Dacin, Munir, and Tracey (2010) on dining
rituals at Cambridge colleges, which demonstrates how this particular organizational
practice serves to maintain the British class system, and the conceptual framework by
Gray and Kish-Gephart (2013), which explains the mechanisms of ‘class work’, that is,
the institutionalizing processes of creating and maintaining class distinctions in and
through organizations. With special regard to diversity, the ethnographic study by
Zanoni (2011) in a Belgian car manufacturing firm illustrates how socio-demographic
identities are intertwined with the capitalist logic of using labour to maximize
profitability.
Such issues are also addressed in the influential work of Bourdieu (e.g. 1986, 1989).
According to Bourdieu (1989), class refers to the positioning in a social space (‘field’),
determined by the individual stock of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital.
This positioning also depends on the family background—so that there exists a struc-
turally determined package of opportunity for class mobility. Moreover, class (or capital
endowment) is closely related to power: generally speaking, the greater an individual’s
volume of capital, the higher her/his position in the field, lending power, and privileges
over other individuals in the same field. In this sense, organizations can be seen as social
fields comprising specific mechanisms of inner (class) distinctions and class as referring
to special, highly distinctive groups such as management and employees. Thereby, the
distinction mechanisms are closely connected to both the external social environment
and socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and ethnicity.
Other approaches to class focus less on material and symbolic capital endow-
ment than on an individual’s social identity. Skeggs (1997), for instance, identi-
fies a trend of ‘disidentification’, that is, a reluctance to identify with a particular class
Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations    459

(frequently the working class due to negative connotations). Instead, individuals

tend to refer to ‘people like us’ when they are essentially talking about class belonging
(Savage, Bagall, and Longhurst 2001). Against the background of the aforementioned
recognition–redistribution dilemma brought forward by Fraser (1995), these findings
point to a particular problem of DM in organizations: while, on the one hand, diversity
scholars and DM practitioners recognize inter-individual differences as to social identi-
ties, on the other hand the question is, on what basis should actors deal with redistribu-
tion issues if the considered individual’s identity does not fit with the pre-set analytical
categories?
Before we continue our presentation of age–ethnicity–class intersectionalities, it is
important to clarify two issues. First, these analytical categories should be understood in
a relational sense. That is, as many intersectionality scholars emphasize (e.g. Anderson
1996; Holvino 2010; Zanoni 2011; Anthias 2013), the categories’ meaning and implica-
tions only evolve in combination, so that they can only be fully comprehended if con-
sidered as interacting forces. Second, it is vital for academics as well as for practitioners
not to view individuals who share certain socio-demographic characteristics (e.g. young
adults or those belonging to the middle class) as homogeneous groups. Critical diversity
scholars have, time and again, pointed out the danger of such essentialism (e.g. Adib
and Guerrier 2003; Proudford and Nkomo 2006; Zanoni et al. 2010). Nonetheless, we
need to establish some starting point from which to attempt our presentation of the
consequences of age–ethnicity–class intersectionalities. Thus, for the sake of clarity
and to reduce the inherent complexity, in the rest of this chapter we draw on the three
described analytical categories and undertake an analysis of their dyadic intersections.

The Age–Ethnicity Dyad

The intersection of age with ethnicity is related to both social identity and social ine-
quality issues. One example taken from the literature on identity building is Buitelaar’s
(2006) analysis of the self-descriptions of a woman politician of Moroccan background
in the Netherlands. Though the author does not explicitly focus on age, her analysis
clearly reveals how aspects of the politician’s identity associated with her ethnic back-
ground change during the course of her life. This observation, which might easily be
replicated within business organizations, underlines the necessity for academics and
management practitioners to carefully consider the great diversity within social groups,
since an individual’s self-understanding is dynamically constructed and depend-
ent upon a variety of aspects such as ethnicity, age, and gender. Regarding inequali-
ties, Barnum, Liden, and Ditomaso (1995) identify a pay gap between ethnic minority/
black and ethnic majority/white employees of two US organizations, which increases
with age. According to the authors’ interpretation, this finding confirms the existence of
certain barriers faced by ethnic minorities at the workplace. Since barriers and missed
opportunities may accumulate during employment, pay discrepancies will grow by age
and tenure.
460    Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb

While these analyses focus on social identity and inequality issues, other research
highlights the business case for diversity with special regard to the interplay of the social
categories of age and ethnicity. Examples include Balkundi and colleagues (2007), who
investigate the role of social networks in organizations for safeguarding tacit knowledge
in teams. Based on the theory of homophily, the authors argue that individuals tend to
cluster towards others who display ‘similarity’ in some way or other. Both the age and
the ethnic background of co-workers are prevalent characteristics on the basis of which
people identify themselves as being similar (see e.g. Ibarra 1992 for a discussion on gen-
der). Age diversity can lead to higher fragmentation of groups due to the formation of
age-related subgroups, but also to less rivalry for jobs and promotion between junior
and more senior members of organizations. Balkundi and colleagues (2007) conclude
from their study of twenty-three production teams within a wood products company in
the US: ‘Our research spotlights the hitherto neglected structural consequences of older
and younger people included in the same work team. The results imply that, irrespective
of whether or not a team exhibits high ethnic or gender diversity, the presence of age
diversity can protect the team from fragmentation’ (Balkundi et al. 2007: 253). In other
words, the negative effects of ethnic subgroups may be counterbalanced by age diver-
sity. Thereby, team performance can be increased by processes such as mentoring and
decreased rivalry.
Additional insights are provided by Leonard, Levine, and Joshi (2004). These authors
have studied the performance impact of diversity within more than 700 US retail stores
in which salespersons are demographically matched with customers in terms of age
and ethnicity/race. The analyses reveal a robust negative statistical correlation between
age diversity and sales, that is, the more diverse in age a store’s workforce is, the lower
the sales. Regarding ethnic/racial diversity, there are no clear results supporting the
assumption of a similarity–attraction effect between employees and customers. While,
for stores situated in US communities that have many non-English-speaking people of
Asian and Hispanic background, the share of Asian and Hispanic employees is posi-
tively correlated with sales, this relationship is influenced by additional, but unknown,
factors. Overall, the results of this study point to the dominance of the effect of age diver-
sity on sales over the impact of ethnic diversity. However, causality structures appear
much more complex than the simple matching of one or two social categories.
Pelled, Eisenhardt, and Xin (1999) also reveal varying effects of diversity on work
team performance within forty-five intra-organizational quality management project
teams in three US companies. Considering age diversity and race diversity, the authors
show that, although socio-demographic diversity correlates with intra-group emo-
tional conflict, the effect is not the same for age and race: whereas dissimilarity in race
(and tenure) increases the frequency of emotional conflict, age diversity decreases such
tension.
Alongside this literature, which largely originates from the US, other approaches to
the relation of age and ethnicity focus on culturally constructed understandings of age
and the management consequences thereof. Hanappi-Egger and Ukur (2011) point to
the narrow ‘Western’ bias of focusing on discrimination against older employees when
Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations    461

studying age. Using the case of Kenya as a counterexample against US-based research
(as mentioned), they demonstrate how notions of age are culturally shaped, resulting in
organizational age management policies that aim for the inclusion of younger employ-
ees in prestigious, leading positions. Hence, when considering the impact of ethnicity
in age studies, it is necessary to keep different research and management perspectives
in mind.

The Age–Class Dyad

Against the background of the Bourdieuian conceptions of the social field and class out-
lined, the issue of social inequality is closely interconnected with the question of class
mobility chances. Accordingly, previous analyses, on the one hand, examine discrimi-
natory practices which are based on the intersection of age and class, while, on the other
hand, they study the mechanisms that enable or hinder class mobility at certain life
stages.
Regarding recruitment, Ashley and Empson (2013) show that British leading law
firms prefer white, privately educated ‘elite’ young people as trainees. The authors sug-
gest that such a profile satisfies the expectations of clients, in particular ‘specific forms of
institutional and embodied capital which are arbitrarily legitimized and, compared with
relevant credentials and qualifications, relatively scarce’ (Ashley and Empson 2013: 237).
In Bourdieu’s terminology, for people to become a partner—and even trainee—of a
leading law firm it is necessary to possess a particular habitus, indicating upper- or at
least upper-middle-class membership. In a similar vein, Tatli and Özbilgin (2012a) dem-
onstrate how recruiting practices and the career system of the British arts and cultural
sector lead to discrimination against young people from the lower classes. In contrast
to law firms, individuals working in arts and cultural organizations do not necessarily
need to have a distinctive habitus in order to satisfy the expectations of clients. Instead,
these organizations simply offer young interns a very low remuneration. Since profes-
sional careers in the arts and cultural sector generally begin with a number of lengthy
internships, entry to these professions is effectively blocked to individuals who lack a
solid financial backing. In terms of DM, this means that social inequality based on class
is reproduced by such recruitment practices—and that class-based inequality could be
mitigated through recruitment practices and pay systems that do not favour young pro-
fessionals of upper-class background.
Focusing on class mobility in terms of career steps, promotion, and higher salaries,
the empirical analyses by Featherman, Selbee, and Mayer (1989) reveal that transi-
tions between classes can take place both in early and later phases of the professional
career. Thereby, the probability of upward class mobility at an early rather than late stage
depends on the societal and structural context. For example, according to Featherman,
Selbee, and Mayer (1989), free access to school and other forms of education increases
the probability of upward class mobility in earlier career stages. Within organizations,
the internal career system also plays an important role, in particular when it comes to
462    Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb

the question of the appropriate age (related to professional status) at which individuals
are considered ‘fit’ for the next career rung.
Beyond the question of how organizations foster or hinder class mobility, further
research on their potential to create, maintain, or destroy class boundaries at differ-
ent individual life or career stages is needed. One example is the distinction between
‘blue-collar’ and ‘white-collar’ employees that prevails in many organizations, reflect-
ing labour law or collective agreements. This distinction corresponds with disparities
in short- and long-term income and career prospects, procedures of socialization in
the organization, working time regulations, notice periods, and retirement regulations.
However, employers can mitigate these differences by negotiating counteracting com-
pany agreements or by setting guidelines for staff contracts that stipulate equal terms for
both employee status groups. Research that analyses an employer’s motives for harmo-
nizing personnel practices and the mechanisms that support or hinder such practices
seems to be particularly promising.

The Class–Ethnicity Dyad

Scholars of intersectionality, such as Anthias (2013), stress the need to integrate eth-
nicity (and gender) into class studies in order to overcome a monolithic understand-
ing of social groups. However, extant literature is rather fragmented, focusing either on
social inequality and discrimination issues associated with the employment of migrant
workers and ethnic minorities—hence, members of the lower classes (e.g. Fleischmann
and Dronkers 2010; Skuterud and Su 2012) or on the career prospects of highly skilled
employees with international roots (e.g. Al Ariss and Syed 2011; van den Bergh and Du
Plessis 2012; Tomlinson et al. 2013). This point is also raised by Berry and Bell (2012),
who criticize the one-sided focus of mainstream international management research.
This literature focuses on highly skilled, well-paid, white Anglo-Saxon (male) ‘expatri-
ates’ and masks the underprivileged ‘migrants’, who are less skilled, less paid, and from
other countries (and female), though both types of people are employees of multina-
tional corporations.
Although some critics argue that Bourdieu’s studies of the society and culture of
the Kabyle in Algeria are shaped by ethnocentrism (e.g. Lane 2000; Anthias 2013),
we find his approach to class via the different forms of capital helpful when analys-
ing the class–ethnicity intersectionality, because it provides a multidimensional con-
ceptualization of class that relates to economic, educational, and cultural aspects.
For instance, Al Ariss and Syed’s (2011) qualitative study of thirty-nine highly skilled
Lebanese migrants in France highlights the importance of social capital for a successful
international career. The immigrants received tremendous support from their friends
and family members while they had to apply for visas, study programmes, flats, or job
positions. All kinds of capital, if mobilized, helped the immigrants to pursue a pro-
fessional or even managerial career. This study is an example of research on individ-
uals who are formally members of an ethnic minority, yet who are clearly privileged
Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations    463

over less educated immigrants and the native French due to their considerable stock
of capital—that is, due to class membership. Similarly, Hernández-León (2004) elabo-
rates the complex mechanisms involved in the various forms of individual capital that
enable a group of Mexican immigrants in Texas to maintain their comparatively high
(class-related) status by finding an occupational niche in highly skilled jobs linked to
the oil industry. The thirty-six immigrants under consideration did not only draw on
their social networks to get a well-paid job (in general, companies replaced formal
recruitment measures by informal activities within the immigrant network), but they
also benefited from their urban–industrial background and the professional skills
acquired during their former lives in Mexico.
In a similar vein, Bachan and Sheehan (2010) find that the social networks of Polish
immigrants to the UK not only facilitate the search for suitable employment but can also
assist in the process of ‘occupational upgrading’. Because their social networks worked
very well, it took the immigrants on average only one month to find their first job in the
UK. Moreover, later on, their social networks helped them to get a subsequent job with
even better working conditions. While this kind of job betterment does not automati-
cally entail a shift in class, it is certainly preferable to a downgrade and may indeed open
up long-term opportunities. However, Sumption (2009) also highlights the danger that
immigrant networks can ‘lock-in’ ethnic minorities to low-skilled jobs.
While these analyses relate to more material aspects and social inequality, Adib and
Guerrier (2003) focus on social identities at work. On the basis of narrative interviews
with women hotel employees in the UK, this study shows how the women construct
their social identity by differentiating between themselves and ‘the others’ along vary-
ing social categories. For instance, one of the respondents, who, during a management
internship, had to do housekeeping tasks, refused to identify as a ‘real’ chambermaid.
By pointing out that, in contrast to her chambermaid colleagues, who all came from
Portugal, she was British, this respondent simultaneously distinguished between the
(Portuguese) lower-class chambermaids and herself as a (British) middle-class manage-
ment aspirant.
Other research on the intersection of class and ethnicity critically examines the busi-
ness case. Rodriguez (2004) shows how US employers actively exploit the social net-
works of their Mexican employees to recruit and control additional unskilled—that is,
lower-class—agricultural workers. The already mentioned ethnographic analysis of
blue-collar workers at a Belgian automobile company by Zanoni (2011) is even more
sophisticated. The author clearly demonstrates how the discursive construction of eth-
nicity (and other social categories) by organizational decision makers is intermeshed
with business logic. For example, during a process of organizational restructuring at the
company, which was accompanied by redundancies, it became obvious that the image
communicated by the management of a highly valued workforce diversity is constrained
by business needs: while the company, on the one hand, praised workforce diversity as
an organizational resource, on the other hand, supervisors interviewed by the study’s
author relied heavily on the ‘usability’ of ethnic minority workers within the production
process of the company.
464    Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger and Renate Ortlieb

All these analyses provide valuable insights into the manifold forms of class–ethnicity
intersectionalities and their consequences. Future research that expands this litera-
ture, thereby applying different research perspectives and different methodological
approaches, would be highly desirable.

Research Challenges Concerning

the Intersectionalities of Age, Class,
and Ethnicity

The previous discussion in the section ‘The Age–Ethnicity–Class Dyads’ has shown how
the rare attempts at research into the intersectionality of age, ethnicity, and class have
generally concentrated on the respective dyads in isolation. Thereby, the three social cat-
egories are associated with different aspects of social status. While the analytical catego-
ries of age and ethnicity mainly relate to social identity and recognition by others, class
is linked to the socioeconomic background of individuals, and therefore refers to social
inequality and the different set of materialized living conditions. This divide is mirrored
by the related forms of academic research: traditionally, the focus in diversity studies
tended to lie on social categories such as ethnicity and age rather than class. In con-
trast, scholars in class studies emphasize social inequality and frequently ignore issues of
social identity. However, in the meantime there are already contributions that address
both aspects. Examples include the study by Zanoni (2011). In addition, Woodhams,
Lupton, and Cowling (2015) show that there is a correlation between pay penalty and
multiple disadvantages in terms of gender, race, age, and disability. The analysis of pay
data from a large UK-based company shows that the pay discrimination of employees
increases exponentially with regard to the number of individual disadvantages. In other
words, payment of employees differs significantly from the salary of the most privileged
group (men, white, non-disabled, mid-career, aged 31–45 years). However, the study still
does not integrate a class concept but highlights a correlation between the deviation of
the ‘ideal worker’ and pay discrimination.
We argued that the identification of individual social groups based on age, ethnic-
ity, or class may facilitate understanding of intersectionalities, because this approach
reduces complexity. Nevertheless, care must be taken when addressing individual
social identity groups not to oversimplify the study of diversity. Management schol-
ars and practitioners should avoid treating social groups as internally homogenous,
nor should they neglect the concrete organizational context, because the meaning of
social categorization within organizations is strongly shaped by the organizational con-
text and the interplay of a variety of social categories. With respect to this complex and
multifaceted issue of intersectionality, Tatli and Özbilgin (2012b) stress the problem
that most diversity scholars concentrate on a single diversity category, thereby adopt-
ing an etic approach. Here, etic means that the social categories under study are pre-set
Intersectionalities of Age, Ethnicity, and Class in Organizations    465

by the researcher and subsequent analyses are based upon unquestioned specifica-
tions of social category. Contrary to this, an emic approach requires that the meaning of
social categories are contextualized, adopting—in the language of McCall (2005)—an
anti-categorical approach. Rather than searching for social categories specified ex ante
and their role in organizational dynamics, an important topic for future research relates
to the fundamental question of which social categories are activated in specific organi-
zational contexts and how they are made relevant.
In other words, we suggest that future investigations into the intersectionalities of age,
ethnicity, and class (as well as other social categories) should closely examine the mech-
anisms by which organizational practices (re)inforce or mitigate inequalities associated
with the intersections of age, ethnicity, and class.

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 Chapter 23

People with Di s a bi l i t i e s
Identity, Stigmatization, Accommodation,
and Intersection with Gender and Ageing
in Effects on Employment Outcomes

David C. Baldridge, Joy E. Beatty, Alison

M. Konrad, and Mark E. Moore

Introduction

The prevalence of disability ranges from a reported 3 per cent of the Korean population
to 20.6 per cent of the Swedish population aged 20–64, with an average of 14 per cent for
nineteen Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member
states (OECD 2003). The 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study funded by the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation identified the leading causes of disability to be low back pain,
major depressive disorder, iron-deficiency anaemia, neck pain, chronic obstructive pul-
monary disease, anxiety disorders, migraine, diabetes, and falls (Vos et al. 2012).
Reported disability statistics are contested, however. Even within countries, the term
‘disability’ is not consistently defined (McLean 2003). For instance, Human Resources
and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) states that ‘there is no single, harmonized
“operational” definition of disability across federal programs’ in Canada (HRSDC n.d.),
making counting the prevalence of disability difficult. The most widely accepted defini-
tion of disability is provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘Disabilities is
an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restric-
tions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation
is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a par-
ticipation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life
situations’ (WHO 2013). Under such a definition, considerable latitude exists, allow-
ing nations and provinces to include or exclude individuals from disability statistics.
470    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

Advocacy groups bemoan the under-counting of members of the disabled community

and its downward impact on the perceived need for programmes and supports (Konrad,
Leslie, and Peuramaki 2007).
Adults with disabilities are less likely to work for pay than their counterparts with-
out disabilities (Jensen et al. 2005; Bagilhole 2010). The US reports that 61.1 per cent of
adults aged 21 to 64 work for pay, compared to 54.8 per cent of adults with non-severe
disabilities and only 19.9 per cent of adults with severe disabilities (Brault 2012). Eurostat
reports that, in 2002, while 17.8 per cent of adults in fifteen countries of the European
Union had a disability, only 14.3 per cent of employed adults were disabled, and 26.0 per
cent of working-age adults not in the active labour force were persons with disabilities
(Eurostat 2009).
Not all working-age persons with disabilities are able to work, even when provided
with workplace accommodations. Some adults with disabilities in the inactive popula-
tion may be able to work, but may have been discouraged from seeking employment
due to perceptions of discrimination or lack of workplace accommodations. Even when
such discouraged workers are not considered, however, workers with disabilities expe-
rience consistently higher unemployment rates than their non-disabled counterparts.
The OECD reported an average unemployment rate of 9.5 per cent among non-disabled
workers, compared to 17.2 per cent of workers with disabilities across 17 countries in the
late 1990s (OECD 2003).
Disability employment policies are intended to reduce the rate of unemployment and
worker discouragement by requiring employers to provide workplace accommodations
for workers with disabilities. For example, Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act
of 1990 (ADA) and amended in 2008 (ADAAA) requires employers to provide reason-
able accommodations for workers with disabilities, to allow these workers to participate
in paid employment in the occupation for which they are qualified. Such accommo-
dations include but are not limited to ‘job restructuring, part-time or modified work
schedules, reassignment to a vacant position, acquisition or modification of equipment
or devices, appropriate adjustment of examinations, training materials or policies,
the provision of qualified readers or interpreters, and other similar accommodations’
(US Department of Justice 2008). Accommodations are required up to the point of
undue hardship to the employer, defined as an action requiring significant difficulty
or expense, considering the employer’s financial resources and potential impact on the
employer’s operations (US Department of Justice 2008). The Ontario Human Rights
Commission requires similar actions on the part of employers in the province (Ontario
Human Rights Commission n.d.). The Dutch Working Conditions Act of January 2007
requires employers to develop a return-to-work plan cooperatively with workers who
have become disabled. Return-to-work plans customize the work situation in ways
that allow workers with disabilities to continue to contribute value to the organization
(Kopnina and Haafkens 2010).
Other policy initiatives require more proactive action on the part of employers, but
these policies tend to be limited to the public or publicly regulated sectors of the econ-
omy (Bagilhole 2010). For instance, Canada’s Employment Equity Act of 1986 required
 People with Disabilities    471

publicly regulated employers (such as banks, broadcasters, telecommunication com-

panies, airlines, railways, and others) to remove barriers as well as implement positive
initiatives to increase the employment of people with disabilities (PWD) (as well as
women, members of the Aboriginal nations, and visible minority groups). Examples of
positive policies include job advertisements on websites providing resources for per-
sons with disabilities, or an apprentice programme directed towards people with dis-
abilities. Covered employers are required to monitor the extent to which their labour
force reflects the proportion of workers with disabilities in their industry and set of
occupations, and to set goals for improving their statistics (HRSDC 2010). Similarly, the
UK’s 2005 Disability Discrimination Act requires public sector employers to monitor
and report on the extent to which they employ persons with disabilities, and to develop
action plans for increasing their statistics (Roulstone and Warren 2006). Research has
shown that such proactive policies result in an increase in the employment of women
(Leck and Saunders 1992), but less is known about their impact on workers with
disabilities.
Disability status intersects with gender and age in its effects on workplace outcomes.
Research in multiple countries shows that, as workers age, they are more likely to acquire
a disability (Bruyère 2006; Stover et al. 2007; Berecki-Gisolf et al. 2012). For instance, in
Canada, 16.6 per cent of the population aged 15 and over has a disability, including 6.1
per cent of adults aged 25 to 34, 9.6 per cent of adults aged 35 to 44, 15.1 per cent of adults
aged 45 to 54, 22.8 per cent of adults aged 55 to 64, and 43.4 per cent of adults aged 65 and
older (Statistics Canada 2007). In the US, nearly 60 per cent of disability discrimination
charges are made by workers age 40 and older (Bjelland et al. 2010). The implication
for employers is that ageing workforces will increasingly require accommodations for
disability.
Disability status results in systematically different employment outcomes for women
and men. Studies from around the world show that women with disabilities are less
likely than their male counterparts to be active in the labour force (Eurostat 2001;
Karlsson et al. 2006; Oguzoglu 2011; Brault 2012; Lederer, Rivard, and Mechakra-Tahiri
2012). A Swedish study indicates that this gender gap is partly explained by women’s
lower wages and poorer working conditions (Claussen and Dalgard 2009). Both Finnish
and US research indicates particularly negative effects of both workplace and marital
conflicts (including experiences of violence) on labour force participation for women
with disabilities (Appelberg et al. 1996; Hogan et al. 2011). The implication for employers
is that women with disabilities, particularly those in low-quality employment, will be
difficult to retain in the labour force.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of academic research in the field
of disability in the workplace. We will summarize and synthesize research results on
disability identity development, employment outcomes, stigmatization and stereotyp-
ing, and workplace accommodations. Within each of these topics, we highlight research
examining the intersection of disability status with other social categorizations, particu-
larly gender and age. We end with a reflection on extant knowledge and directions for
future research and practice.
472    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

Disability Status and Identity

Diversity scholars have long encouraged us to conceptualize identities as multifaceted

and dynamic (Nkomo and Cox 1996). Identities are constructed in response to social
interactions, as people come to understand themselves based on information reflected
back to them from others. Disability identity is less stable than other social identity
markers like race, gender, and sexuality, because we may all experience a disability at
some point in our lives. Only 15 per cent of PWD are born with a functional impairment
(Siebers 2008), while 85 per cent acquire them later in life. People with disabilities can
feel isolated because they do not have peers with disabilities, and they lack role models.
In some cases their status is invisible, which makes identification of similar others diffi-
cult, and their families of origin are likely to be from the dominant non-disabled culture
(Scotch 1988).
The development of an individual’s disability identity may begin with trying to act as
non-disabled; followed by a period of isolation and conflict; and then finally incorporat-
ing disability as part of one’s identity (Gilson, Tusler, and Gill 1997). Gilson, Tusler, and
Gill (1997) alluded to the component theory of disability identity development which
focuses on ‘integration’, which they define as ‘the act of incorporating or combining into
a whole’ (Gilson, Tusler, and Gill 1997: 39). The integration concept is applied at four lev-
els: integrating into: (1) society; (2) the disability community; as well as (3) integrating
one’s internal notions of self; and (4) external self-presentation. If all the levels are com-
pleted, people with disabilities may claim a ‘proud identification’ (Gilson, Tusler, and
Gill 1997: 45) and freedom to express their authentic selves. Eventually, as people with
disabilities come to embrace their disability, they may view their disability as an integral
and valued part of their identity, a part they would not eliminate if they had the option
(Smart and Smart 2006). As this sense of affiliation grows, a disability culture develops
with history, language, and customs (Gilson, Tusler, and Gill 1997). This ‘coming out’
stage is considered the full fruition of disability identity development (Gilson, Tusler,
and Gill 1997), but it is important to note that not all people with disabilities will (or will
want to) reach this level of collective identity. Living with disability does not automati-
cally translate into claiming a disability identity (Crooks, Chouinard, and Wilton 2008).
Further, disability identity does not develop in isolation. Imrie (2004) notes that
people can experience the same disability very differently, depending on their age and
gender. Recent empirical work by Riach and Loretto (2009) looks at the relationship
between ageing, disability, and unemployment within a sample of unemployed workers
in Scotland. Their participants felt that the unemployment and job support systems in
place in Scotland imposed disabled identities on them by assuming that their disabili-
ties made them ineligible for work. In their view, employers had conflated the identities
of ‘incapable’, ‘older’, and ‘disabled’ to create insurmountable barriers to employment.
When they were considered for employment, their age and disability limited the kinds
of jobs they were expected to take. Employers assumed that ‘disabled’ and ‘older’ workers
 People with Disabilities    473

could only do particular jobs, like sitting at a computer. Some were offered low-level
work based on their status as disabled or older, rather than their experience and skill
set. This reaction led some of the older workers to lie about their disability on the job
applications.
Yet, for these workers, their own experiences of identity were that disability status was
more fluid, and that they moved in and out of disability status episodically, depending
on their physical condition on any particular day. They had compartmentalized their
impairment, instead of incorporating it as a permanent feature of who they are. Riach
and Loretto (2009) suggest that this framing of identity by people with disabilities allows
them to side-step the disabled/non-disabled dichotomy. The discrimination these older
disabled workers experienced was more than just the ‘additive’ discrimination experi-
enced by either category—it was ‘intersectional’ discrimination, ‘where the components
cannot easily be broken down into their constituent parts, and the effect is cumulative
rather than additive’ (Riach and Loretto 2009: 115).
A recent US study by Ostrander (2008) also focuses on the interplay between dis-
ability identity and other identities, highlighting the bracketing of disability iden-
tity from other, more valued identities. Ostrander examined the relationship between
disability, masculinity, and race, interviewing men who were disabled due to vio-
lently acquired spinal cord injuries (often caused by gunshot wounds). He found that
a disability identity was inconsistent with their masculine identities, and that the men
took steps to assert masculinity in other ways to make up for their perceived physical
deficiencies—for example, by carrying a gun. The participants in his study, African
American and Latino men, did not believe that their disability affected their racial iden-
tities; however, the intersectionality of race and disability was evidenced by the fact that
they felt that, due to racial stereotyping, others tended to assume that their disabilities
were due to gang violence.
In the disability population, individuals with additional stigmatized identity markers
have different experiences of stereotyping and discrimination, and evidence suggests
that the effects of multiple categories are cumulative. A recent US empirical study by
Shaw, Chan, and McMahon (2012) analysed data from the National Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, which compiled allegations of discrimination under the
ADA. Studying the interactive effects of gender, race, disability status, industry, and
size of employer on discrimination, their study split disability into the four categories of
behavioural, neurological, physical, and sensory impairments. They found clear inter-
active effects. Women older than 35 years from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds
with behavioural disorders represented three of the highest five harassment groups
(Shaw, Chan, and McMahon 2012: 88). These women tended to work for very large or
very small companies, and frequently represented industries such as manufacturing,
health care, public administration, and retail. The researchers suggest that the effects of
membership in various stigmatized categories are not merely additive; again, there is an
intersectional effect that multiplies the risk of harassment. They note that legal systems
should revisit their definitions of discrimination to consider the effects of multiple cat-
egories, a consideration scholars have raised regarding the UK as well (Bagilhole 2010).
474    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

The problem is that, currently in the legal domain, each kind of discrimination needs to
be proven and litigated independently. People may experience discrimination in multi-
ple categories that does not meet the threshold for legal action in any one category, yet,
taken as a set, would reach the threshold of discrimination. Current legal options do not
allow for the consideration of the effects of multiple stigmatized categories.
Thus far, we have discussed individuals’ conceptions of identity, but identity can also
be conceptualized at the group level; the contrast between individual and group notions
is relevant for the development of a political disability identity. In identity politics, stig-
matized groups argue that the categories to which they have been assigned—for exam-
ple, woman, elderly, disabled—are socially constructed and reinforced. Those groups so
labelled challenge their assigned identities and concomitant exclusion: ‘They challenge
the system of thought that stigmatized them’ (Moon 2013: 1340), exposing how domi-
nant and taken-for-granted ideologies can lead to oppression. The concept of intersec-
tionality highlights the way multiple identities intertwine, creating a liminal social space
that is ‘in-between’ the dominant social positions (Holvino 2008: 251). Different identi-
ties mutually construct one another, and power relations emerge from people’s simul-
taneously held identities—including race, gender, age, disability status, ethnicity, class,
nationality, and sexuality as simultaneous processes of identity (Holvino 2008; Zanoni
2011).
In feminist studies, intersectionality additionally implies the consequences of mem-
bership in multiple protected classes, and whether people with these attributes experi-
ence more discrimination than those with single membership (Cole 2009). Some work
focuses on the additive effects of multiple identity group memberships, highlighting
‘double’ or ‘triple’ disadvantages faced by individuals disadvantaged by disability sta-
tus as well as gender, race/ethnicity, or other devalued identity (Berdahl and Moore
2006). Other research illuminates the distinctive experiences of disadvantage faced
by individuals holding different sets of identities (Bagilhole 2010). This inter- and
intra-categorical approach implies the need for a programme of research that examines
how the experience of ableism differs categorically between persons holding different
sets of identities, for instance, younger men with disabilities compared to older women
with disabilities.
Historically, disability has been framed as an individual issue to be resolved with indi-
vidual accommodations. In the traditional biomedical model of disability, disability
is defined by medical professionals using medical language—outsiders without direct
experience with disability helping passive and compliant patients. Disability is objec-
tive and represents an individual’s pathology, to be described and categorized in terms
of physical functioning and limitations. Internalization of these messages reinforces
people with disabilities’ alienation and lack of power, leading to a negative self-image.
Since disability is an individual affair, the disabled are fragmented, as aspects of collec-
tive experience and identity are overlooked (Scotch 1988).
The minority group model of disability identity proposed by Hahn (1994) and devel-
oped in reaction to the biomedical model, argues that disability is a social and cultural
phenomenon shaped by public policies; disability lives in the relationship between the
 People with Disabilities    475

individual and the environment. This is a political model of identity, arguing for the rights
of self-definition and self-determination, elimination of prejudice, and full equality and
civil rights under the law (Smart and Smart 2006). Initially, disability advocates focused
on the positive social stereotypes, such as overcoming adversity, inner strength, and cheer-
fulness in the face of adversity (Gilson, Tusler, and Gill 1997). Through legal advocacy, per-
sons with disabilities shaped a minority group identity to support a positive self-image that
reflected self-determination and autonomy. As a result of struggle and advocacy based on
persons with disabilities identifying themselves as a social group with shared interests, key
legislation occurred in multiple countries, for instance, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and
the ADA of 1990 in the US and the Disability Discrimination Act (1995 amended 2004)
and the Disability Discrimination Act (2005) in the UK.

Employment Outcomes of Workers

with Disabilities

A review of almost twenty years of research showed that enduring employment status
is positively associated with employment outcomes for workers with disabilities (Crisp
2005). Recent Canadian research has shown that, in particular, employment in a per-
manent full-time job that fully utilizes one’s skills and abilities is positively associated
with life satisfaction and negatively associated with perceived discrimination among
workers with disabilities (Konrad et al. 2012). Unfortunately, workers with disabilities
are less likely than their non-disabled counterparts to hold such advantageous positions
in the labour market (Bruyère, Erickson, and Ferrentino 2003). Across nations, workers
with disabilities are more likely than their counterparts to experience job loss (Magee
2004) and unemployment, including long spells of unemployment (OECD 2003).
Temporary work, independent contracting, and part-time employment are almost
twice as likely among workers with disabilities as among their non-disabled counter-
parts (Schur 2002). Research in the UK and the US shows that underemployment, or
location in a job where an individual’s skills and abilities are not fully utilized, is more
prevalent among disabled than among non-disabled workers (Bruyère, Erickson, and
VanLooy 2006; Jones 2007; Kaye 2009).
Economists argue that workers with disabilities have poorer employment outcomes
than their non-disabled counterparts, due to either differences in productivity, dif-
ferences in preferences, or discrimination by employers (Jones 2008). Organizational
factors affecting the outcomes of workers with disabilities include the development of
an inclusive organizational culture, the provision of workplace accommodations, and
leadership. The attitudes of organizational members also have a significant influence,
including leader and co-workers’ attitudes towards working with employees with dis-
abilities. Evidence of the impact of each of these factors on employment outcomes for
workers with disabilities is discussed in this section.
476    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

Impact of Disability Status on Employment Outcomes

Empirical studies unanimously show that workers with disabilities receive lower pay
than their non-disabled counterparts, despite statistical controls for a variety of explan-
atory factors (Jones 2008). To the extent that disability is associated with reduced pro-
ductivity, workers with disabilities ‘earn’ lower wages compared to their non-disabled
counterparts, who add more value for the employer (DeLeire 2001; Jones, Latreille, and
Sloane 2006). Disability status may result in reduced preferences for participating in
paid work due to poor health, fatigue, or pain (Kaye, Jones, and Jans 2010), resulting in
increased preferences for leisure over consumption (Jones 2008). Yet many adults with
disabilities are willing and able to work for pay (Ali, Schur, and Blanck 2011). However,
discriminatory attitudes towards hiring and promoting workers with disabilities doc-
umented in North America, Europe, South and East Asia reduce the perceived bene-
fits of working for pay (Bordieri, Drehmer, and Taylor 1997; Harlan and Robert 1998;
Bricout and Bentley 2000; Hazer and Bedell 2000; Hunt and Hunt 2000; Kennedy
and Olney 2001; Graffam et al. 2002; Geng-Qing Chi and Qu 2003; Wilson et al. 2006;
Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, and Kulkarni 2008; Houtenville and Burkhauser 2012), making
reduced preferences for work a rational response to disability status.
A substantial body of research documents that decision makers discriminate against
workers with disabilities in workplace staffing decisions. Experimental studies in
France and the US show that workers with disabilities are rated lower as potential hires
than equivalent workers without a disability (Colella, DeNisi, and Varma 1998; Miceli,
Harvey, and Buckley 2001; Louvet 2007), although workers with disabilities receive
positive ratings on their personal qualities (Bell and Klein 2001). Particularly valuable
have been two field experiments, one in the US and the other in Hong Kong, in which
employers were sent job applications by hypothetical candidates, randomly receiving
either a candidate with or a candidate without a disability. Both studies found that job
applicants with a disability received lower employability ratings than their non-disabled
counterparts (Bricout and Bentley 2000; Pearson, Ip, and Hui 2003).
Extending this body of research, Hazer and Bedell (2000) found, in a US experimental
study, that workers with disabilities who requested an accommodation were rated as less
suitable than others. Leasher, Miller and Gooden (2009) found, in a US study, that peo-
ple with more positive attitudes towards workers with disabilities, as well as people who
were committed to diversity, gave more positive ratings with regard to the likelihood of
hiring hypothetical applicants with disabilities. Loo (2004) found that Canadian raters
expressing relatively high discomfort around workers with disabilities were more likely
to consider such workers to be a burden and to be relatively unproductive. In a Belgian
study, Zanoni (2011) found that workers with disabilities, as well as women and older
workers, were viewed as unable or unwilling to perform well in an automobile factor
lean production system, resulting in the elimination of such workers over time.
US survey studies also show negative attitudes among employers towards workers
with disabilities (Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, and Kulkarni 2008; Dong, MacDonald-Wilson,
 People with Disabilities    477

and Fabian 2010; Houtenville and Burkhauser 2012). Some evidence suggests more
negative attitudes towards workers with psychiatric disabilities compared to their
counterparts with physical disabilities (Scheid 1998; Hazer and Bedell 2000; Gouvier,
Sytsma-Jordan, and Mayville 2003; Dalgin and Bellini 2008). A Dutch study indicated
a general lack of awareness of the needs of workers with chronic illness among employ-
ers (Kopnina and Haafkens 2010). Knowledge of public policies (Hernandez, Keys, and
Balcazar 2004) and prior experience employing workers with disabilities is associated
with more positive employer attitudes (Levy et al. 1993; Hernandez, Keys, and Balcazar
2004; McLoughlin 2002; Kontosh et al. 2007; Copeland et al. 2010; Wood and Marshall
2010). Harcourt, Lam, and Harcourt (2005, 2007) found that employers with greater
cost concerns over hiring workers with disabilities were more likely to engage in dis-
criminatory behaviour, such as asking disability-related questions on their job applica-
tion forms.
Workers with disabilities in many countries report several types of discriminatory
experiences in the workplace (Bruyère, Erickson, and VanLooy 2004; Piggott, Sapey,
and Wilenius 2005; Roulstone and Warren 2006; Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, and Kulkarni
2008; Shier, Graham, and Jones 2009; Naami, Hayashi, and Liese 2012). US data suggest
that about a tenth of workers with disabilities experience some form of discrimination
(Kennedy and Olney 2001). These experiences include employers discouraging requests
for accommodations (Harlan and Robert 1998), marginalization, fictionalization, and
harassment (Robert and Harlan 2006), failure to provide accommodations, unfair rules,
denial or delay of promotion, different or harsher standards of performance, assign-
ment to inappropriate job tasks, restriction to a certain type of job, receiving excessive
supervision on the job, refusal to hire, unfair compensation, limited access to benefits,
and forced retirement (Roessler et al. 2011). Workers who are younger, poorer, and have
more severe disabilities are more likely to report experiencing discrimination, and
about a third of respondents reporting discrimination leave the workforce permanently
(Kennedy and Olney 2001). Hallock, Hendricks, and Broadbent (1998) found that per-
ceptions of discrimination do not neatly coincide with earnings discrepancies attribut-
able to discrimination, but are associated with perceptions of inadequate compensation.
The authors concluded that perceptions of discrimination likely arise in many areas and
are not limited to compensation issues.
Consistent with this idea, Shaw, Chan, and McMahon (2012) found that a substan-
tial number of US workers with disabilities reported harassing experiences in the work-
place. Five sets of workers with disabilities were found to be most at risk of workplace
harassment. Consistent with the notion of intersectional effects on discriminatory expe-
riences, four of these groups consisted of women who were members of ethnic minor-
ity groups, and the fifth group consisted of men who were members of ethnic minority
groups. A Swedish study indicates that gender also interacts with gender-segregated
employment, whereby both women and men in the extreme gender minority expe-
rience harassment resulting in disability associated with ill-health (Reinholdt and
Alexanderson 2009).
478    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

Impact of Public Policies on Employment Outcomes

Research has examined the impact on employment outcomes of instituting pol-
icy measures. The ADA in the US has received the most research attention to date.
Bruyère, Erickson, and VanLooy (2004) found that employers responded to disability
non-discrimination legislation by providing needed accommodations to workers with
disabilities, indicating positive effects for employment outcomes. Other authors have
argued that the ADA in the US reduce the employment and earnings of workers with
disabilities due to employers’ desires to avoid the costs of workplace accommodations
(DeLeire 2000; Acemoglu and Angrist 2001; Beegle and Stock 2003), but research sug-
gests that the observed drop in employment is at least partially attributable to the con-
temporaneous recession (Bagenstos 2004).
Another factor with the potential to reduce the effectiveness of public policy is poor
implementation. For instance, in Canada there is no federal legislation specific to disabil-
ity status, rather, each province has its own, different set of practices (Kovacs Burns and
Gordon 2010). Even though it is a federal-level policy, the ADA has been criticized for
poor implementation through case law, which, scholars argue, unduly favours employ-
ers (Colker 1999; Hurley 2010), particularly when plaintiffs suffer from psychiatric dis-
abilities (Lee 2001). The overall rate of resolution in favour of the complainant in the US
is about 21 per cent (McMahon, Hurley, West et al. 2008). Younger workers are the most
likely to prevail, winning their cases about a third of the time (McMahon, Hurley, Chan
et al. 2008). Anderson (2006) indicates that a number of courts have required accom-
modation to be linked to narrowly identified aspects of a disability, rather than reason-
ableness, and suggests that such narrow interpretation limits the impact of the ADA.
A ruling allowing obesity to be covered under the ADA is linked to a 2 to 4 percentage
point increase in employment of workers with obesity (Carpenter 2006), suggesting that
stronger case law could increase the effectiveness of the Act. Burkhauser (1997) suggests
means of strengthening public policies to support paid work among adults with disabili-
ties. The provision of accommodation subsidies and disabled worker tax credits would
increase the incentives to employers to hire, train, and retain workers with disabilities.
The separate mobilization of different identity groups (e.g. by gender, race/ethnicity,
sexual orientation) has led to the development of a set of public policies that are com-
plex, fragmented, and inconsistent between groups (Bagilhole 2010). For instance, in
the UK there are ten separate pieces of anti-discrimination legislation, providing dif-
ferent groups with different levels of protection. Legislation for persons with disabilities
covers employment, education, access to goods, facilities and services, and also requires
positive action on the part of public sector employers (Bagilhole 2010).

Stigmatization and Stereotyping

Theorists suggest that stigmatization is an important factor explaining the subpar

employment outcomes of persons with disabilities (Scheid 2005; Fabian, Ethridge, and
 People with Disabilities    479

Beveridge 2009). In fact, workplace prejudice based on disabilities can be traced back to
the 1960s in the US (Rickard, Triandis, and Patterson 1963). Stigmatization, defined as
devaluation or derogation of an individual based upon an attribute viewed as undesir-
able (Paetzold, Dipboye, and Elsbach 2008), has been identified as obstructing the full
inclusion and utilization of those with disabilities in the workforce (Barclay, Markel, and
Yugo 2012). Individuals with disabilities have cited stigmas as prominent environmental
barriers in their pursuit of gainful employment (Henry and Lucca 2004).
McLaughlin, Bell, and Stringer (2004) purported that employment opportunities
have been broadened for persons with disabilities, and advocated for investigations to
carefully study the effect of stigmatization on their work experiences. Moreover, their
work showed that stigmatization mediated the association between disability type and
acceptance. Other researchers accepted the charge of McLaughlin and colleagues to
delve into the effect of stigmatization on the employability of those with varying dis-
abilities. Scheid (2005) indicated that employers expressing coercive (concern about
being sued) as opposed to normative (concerns about doing the right thing) ration-
ales for compliance were more likely to hold stigmatizing attitudes. In examining the
employment potential of individuals with psychiatric disabilities and criminal histo-
ries, Tschopp and colleagues (2007) identified stigmatization as a salient impediment to
labour force inclusion, and Perkins and colleagues (2009) showed that being gainfully
employed diminished as the level of stigmatization encountered by a person with a dis-
ability increased. A recent study conducted by Baron, Draine, and Salzer (2013) found
stigma to be one of the malicious impediments to the work aspirations of individuals
with mental disabilities upon ending their incarnation in the US prison system.

Causes of Stigmatization
Leaders can propagate stigmas of workers with disabilities through hierarchy and
organizational culture. Ju, Roberts, and Zhang (2013) concluded, from their review of
past research, that employers have reservations about hiring people with disabilities.
The competitive values of an organizational culture can also promote the stigmatiza-
tion of workers with disabilities, and Ruscher and Fiske (1990) found that people are
more likely to stigmatize others in a competitive context. Moreover, Rao and colleagues
(2010) found that individualistic and competitive values result in the stigmatization of
workers with disabilities in an investigation of employers’ attitudes in China and the US.
Lack of knowledge leads to greater stigmatization of workers with disabilities.
Employers and other stakeholders in the organizational hierarchy may not be knowl-
edgeable regarding the vocational capabilities, as well as the professional aspirations,
of applicants and employees with disabilities. For instance, Hall and Parker (2010)
emphasized that service providers desire information with regard to employing those
with physical and mental afflictions, but do not particularly know how to gain this
sought-after intelligence. Knowledge gaps have been underscored in the extant litera-
ture when assessing employer attitudes on disability in the workplace. Lengnick-Hall,
Gaunt, and Kulkarni (2008) documented that most employers are not very proactive in
480    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

hiring persons with disabilities, and that most employers hold stereotypical beliefs not
supported by the existing literature. According to Houtenville and Burkhauser (2012),
individuals with disabilities were perceived as incapable of performing required job
duties among surveyed employers in the hospitality industry. The findings of Draper,
Reid, and McMahon (2011) for the US indicate substantial discrimination on the basis
of being perceived to be disabled among workers without disabilities, demonstrating the
stigmatizing effects of a perceived disability status.
Further, the absence of critical facts can distance employers from persons with dis-
abilities; thus fostering stereotyping. In a Dutch study, van’t Veer and colleagues (2006)
found that stereotypical views about those with mental disabilities were positively cor-
related with social distance from this population. Social distance seems to be fuelled
by overt ableism-related terminology used by employers. In fact, organizational lead-
ers, like most of society, primarily apply the ‘ability lexicon’ when referring to someone
with a physical or mental impairment. Wolbring (2008) maintained that the term ability
should not be used solely in relation to persons with disabilities, and highlighted the
various forms of abilities displayed in the UK’s technological-oriented society.
The stigmatization of people with disabilities demonstrates intersectional effects as
well. For instance, the stigmatization of Lebanese women with disabilities is strongly
influenced by the role of wife and mother. They tend to be viewed as undesirable mar-
riage partners as well as incapable of learning or adding value in a paid work role.
This stigmatization severely curtails their life options and the chances of attaining
high-quality employment (Wehbi and Lakkis 2010).

Effects of Stigmatization
Since the extant literature showed that employer attitudes lead to hiring intentions
(Fraser et al. 2011) and intention to properly accommodate workers with disabilities
(Dong et al. 2013), stigmatization can result in reduced employment opportunities for
workers with disabilities. Further, assumptions about capabilities can lead to subopti-
mal and inequitable job fits for workers with disabilities. Berry and Bell (2012) alleged
that stereotyping and discrimination lead to poor outcomes for some job applicants and
workers while advantaging others. Colella, DeNisi, and Varma (1998) raised concerns
about job-fit stereotypes and stressed the importance of controlling these factors when
assessing the contributions of workers with disabilities.
Meta-analysis of 172 studies, primarily from North America but including European,
Asian, and African countries, has shown that a poor person–job fit results in dissatis-
faction and suboptimal performance in the workplace (Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman,
and Johnson 2005). As such, inappropriate job placements may lead workers with dis-
abilities to inadvertently assimilate themselves within an existing organizational cul-
ture which condones and heightens stigmatization and stereotyping (Biernat 2003).
Moreover, such assimilation can prompt feelings of inferiority, reducing motivation
and striving towards career goals (Major and O’Brien 2005), supporting perceptions
 People with Disabilities    481

of being unemployable and poorly skilled (Major 2006). In fact, persons with disabili-
ties may be inclined not to enter the labour market or to withdraw from competitive
employment because of threats of being stereotyped as being different or being con-
scious of the stigmatization that is manifest in the contemporary workplace. Von Hippel,
Kalokerinos, and Henry (2013) reported that feelings of stereotype threat were related
to more negative job attitudes and poorer work mental health among older workers
in Australia. Furthermore, such mindsets were associated with intentions to resign or
retire. Additionally, attitudes towards persons with disabilities may vary based on gen-
der. For example, Simkhada and colleagues (2013) found that women in Nepal showed
positive views towards the full societal inclusion of people with disabilities.
At an organizational level, stigmatizing categorizations of persons with disabilities
can hamper organizational efficacy. Recent Australian research indicated that legiti-
mized discrimination undermines organizational commitment (Jetten, Schmitt, and
Branscombe 2013). As such, it is plausible that an organizational climate that toler-
ates biases on the basis of disability may not be able to sustain staff commitment in the
long run.

Remedies for Stigmatization

Previously, knowledge gaps were identified as a relevant reinforcement of stigmas and
stereotypes towards people with disabilities. Accordingly, education can be an effec-
tive intervention in dispelling these labels. Hunt and Hunt (2004) employed a Solomon
four-group quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effect of educational interven-
tion on attitudinal change. They found that educational intervention had a significant
positive impact on both participants’ knowledge levels and their attitudes, even when
the gender of subjects and prior experience with individuals with disabilities were
controlled.
The goal of educating employers and organizational leaders can also be attained
through having contact with individuals with disabilities. Barr and Bracchitta (2008)
indicated that contact was effective in transforming attitudes towards persons with
disabilities among baccalaureate educational majors. Prior contact was a factor that
positively influenced Japanese employer motivation to hire persons with psychiat-
ric disabilities (Ozawa and Yaeda 2007). Additionally, Novak, Feyes, and Christensen
(2011) found that US co-workers were generally more accepting of an employee with
a disability if they had the opportunity to get to know the employee as an individual
rather than as a stereotype or label; they worked with the employee as an equal peer to
accomplish common work goals; and the employer or worksite supervisor unequivo-
cally supported the equality and workplace inclusion of the employee with a disability.
Finally, there should be ongoing assessments of how demographic categorizations such
as age and gender interact with stigmatization in forming attitudes of individuals with
disabilities. Such research should be carried forward through using cross-sectional and
longitudinal methods. Moreover, the effect of disability severity on stigmatization is an
482    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

important question that remains unanswered. For instance, does severity evoke stigma-
tization in general or is its presence varied across age, gender, and type of disability?
Also, do severity and childhood onset of disability interact to stigmatize individuals?

Impact of Workplace Accommodation

In theory, disability accommodation allows people with disabilities to be equals, or at

least more equal, in the labour force. In this light, accommodation should decrease both
disability stigma and negative stereotypes. Accommodation, however, can also make a
disability more visible which, in turn, can lead to increased stigma and negative stereo-
types. As noted by Baldridge and Veiga (2001), asking for accommodation can signal
new information about one’s disability, the need for help, and willingness to assert one’s
legal rights.
In thinking about workplace disability accommodation, it is important to remember
that disability does not mean less able, but rather differently abled. People with disabil-
ities, like their non-disabled counterparts, run the full spectrum from brilliantly able
to average to incompetent. People with disabilities, however, lack specific abilities that
employees are generally presumed to have, such as the ability to walk, see, hear, stand,
and so on. Unfortunately, one area of inability can prevent a person with a disability
from contributing his or her abilities. Workplace disability accommodations help miti-
gate the impact of disability (e.g. a larger computer monitor or text-to-speech software
for someone unable to see a standard computer screen) so that people with disabilities
can contribute their abilities to their organizations.
Great Britain’s Steven Hawking, who is among the most brilliant scientists in the
world but who is also almost entirely paralyzed, provides a dramatic example of how an
employee can be both extremely disabled and simultaneously enormously able. Without
accommodation, Hawkins could contribute little. With accommodation, Hawkins
contribution is Herculean. Likewise, many people with disabilities cannot contribute
fully, if at all, to organizations unless they receive appropriate accommodation. Lack of
accommodation, or under-accommodation, can mean lower performance, underem-
ployment, and often unemployment. Some scholars see accommodation as levelling
the playing field. Indeed, this appears to be the intent of those who drafted the ADA.
Current research, however, indicates that people with disabilities are lucky to receive
even basic accommodation, so, for most persons with disabilities, accommodation is a
toehold to gain or maintain employment on an extremely uneven playing field.

Impact on Employment Outcomes

Providing workplace accommodations can reduce productivity differentials and per-
ceptions of discrimination by levelling the playing field in the workplace. US employers
 People with Disabilities    483

report that half of the accommodations provided to workers with disabilities had no
cost, and on average, the median dollar amount spent on accommodations that did cost
something was $600 (Hendricks et al. 2005). US employers also report several organi-
zational benefits to providing workplace accommodations, including increased worker
productivity, employee retention, eliminating the cost of training a new employee,
improved interactions with co-workers, and increased company morale, with 61 per cent
estimating the average financial benefit of each accommodation at over $1000
(Solovieva, Dowler, and Walls 2011). Research has shown that receiving workplace
accommodations improves the outcomes of workers with disabilities in many ways, for
instance, increasing job retention (Burkhauser, Butler, and Kim 1995), improving life
satisfaction (Konrad et al. 2013), and reducing perceptions of workplace discrimina-
tion (Konrad et al. 2013). The provision of accommodations is particularly beneficial to
workers who acquired disabilities in childhood (Moore et al. 2011).
Given the benefits to workers with disabilities of receiving accommodations, prefer-
ences for working rather than remaining out of the labour force are likely to be affected
by the provision of workplace accommodations. The failure of employers to provide
reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities is a form of employment dis-
crimination, and needs to be considered when assessing the impact of disability status
on employment outcomes to avoid underestimating the impact of such discrimination.
Research has examined whether employers provide workplace accommodations in
a discriminatory way, specifically, by lowering the wages of workers with disabilities to
pay for the cost of accommodations. Findings suggest that employers have implemented
accommodations in this discriminatory way in both the UK and the US (Charles 2004;
Jones and Latreille 2010). Given that half of all accommodations cost nothing and the
other half average only $600, discriminating against workers with disabilities by lower-
ing their wages to ‘pay for’ accommodations is egregious.
Other research indicates intersectional effects on the provision of workplace accom-
modations. A Canadian study showed that older workers with disabilities were less
likely to both request an accommodation and to receive the accommodations they did
request. Attributing one’s disability to ‘natural aging’ further reduced the likelihood of
both requesting accommodations and receiving requested accommodations, indicating
a direct link between perceptual processes and lack of access to workplace accommoda-
tions for disability (McMullin and Shuey 2006).

Willingness to Request Disability Accommodation

Research suggests that one important barrier to appropriate workplace accom-
modation is that people with disabilities often do not request needed accommoda-
tion. The reasons are varied, dynamic, and multifaceted. To understand the scope of
under-accommodation, it is important to keep in mind that people with disabilities are
often unaware of the extent to which disability impacts their work. For instance, an esti-
mated 36 million Americans have hearing impairments, yet only 25 per cent seek help of
484    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

any kind. Of those who acknowledge their disabilities and seek help, many never request
workplace accommodation and most withhold at least some requests for needed accom-
modation. People with disabilities may be unaware or unwilling to admit to themselves,
much less their employer, that they have a disability impacting work performance. On
the one hand, this barrier seems easy to overcome. People with disabilities need to step
up and ask for the accommodation they need. However, stigma associated with having
a disability, needing help, and asserting one’s legal rights make this barrier a formidable
challenge (Baldridge and Veiga 2001, 2006).
Two recent US studies examine factors that influence the willingness of employees
with disabilities to request accommodation. Davison and colleagues (2009) investigated
decisions to request accommodation and found that a past accommodation request is
the strongest predictor of future accommodation requests. Prior experience also influ-
ences perceptions of organizational culture, thus, past accommodation request expe-
riences may directly and indirectly shape the likelihood of future accommodation
requests. These authors also find that personal concerns about requesting accommoda-
tion mediate the relationship between perceptions of organizational culture and future
request likelihood. In another recent study, Baldridge and Swift (2013) looked at the
impact of requester age and gender, and found that older employees withheld accom-
modation requests less frequently. They did not, however, find a significant main effect
of gender. Baldridge and Swift also find that the influence of requester age was weaker
when disability was more severe and when disability onset was earlier. Moreover, dis-
ability severity may influence the strength of the relationship between gender and
request-withholding frequency. Together, these studies show the complex interplay
between attributes of the person contemplating an accommodation request and the
request context. In particular, these studies help explain why people with disabilities are
often unwilling to request disability accommodation. Future research is encouraged to
continue to explore these dynamics, including the role of individual differences, iden-
tity, supervisor, and co-worker attitudes, as well as organizational culture and climate.

Willingness to Provide Accommodation

When people with disabilities do request needed accommodation, many barriers
remain. One major barrier is continued employer resistance. Wendt and Slonaker
(2007) analysed 10,197 employment discrimination claims in Ohio and found three
main patterns in the reasons why employers did not provide appropriate accommo-
dation: (1) some employers sought to avoid inconvenience by not hiring people with
disabilities, ignoring employees’ disabilities and accommodation requests; (2) other
employers transferred, demoted, or reassigned people with disabilities to avoid accom-
modation; and (3) some employers used absenteeism as an excuse to discipline or dis-
charge employees rather than offer accommodation in the form of schedule flexibility.
Williams-Whitt (2007) investigated factors that contributed to accommodation diffi-
culties in the US and found four key contributing elements: (1) managerial reluctance
 People with Disabilities    485

and bias related to added workload and questions about disability credibility; (2) man-
agers frequently excluded the employee with a disability from accommodation planning
discussions; (3) managers overinvestigated disability legitimacy and underinvestigated
accommodation options; and (4) in some cases union–management tension strained
communication and increased distrust.
Mitchell and Kovera (2006) looked at the relationship between disability-onset con-
trollability and accommodation provision in the US and found that fewer accommo-
dations were granted when disability was attributed to the requestors’ own behaviour.
Moreover, employees with excellent work histories were granted costlier accommoda-
tions than those with an average work history. In another study, Shuey and Jovic (2013)
investigated whether or not people with disabilities in non-standard employment
arrangements (i.e. non-permanent, low-wage, and non-union jobs) are more likely to
have unmet accommodation needs. These authors examined data from a large, nation-
ally representative, sample of Canadian workers and found that, despite disability leg-
islation, employees in less secure employment arrangements were more likely to have
unmet accommodation needs.
Balser (2007) points out that research on disability accommodation often examines
whether or not accommodation was provided but often does not examine the level
and appropriateness of accommodation. This is an important consideration because
people with disabilities often need very specific accommodations, not just any accom-
modation. In particular, Balser finds that the capacity of US organizations to make
particular accommodations was a more powerful predictor than employees’ need for
accommodation.
While these findings are perhaps unsurprising, this study offers a reminder of a
potential vicious circle in which lack of accommodation leads to underemployment
and underemployment increased the likelihood of unmet accommodation needs.
Together, these studies shed some light on the conditions in which employers are more
likely to under-accommodate or even actively discourage and/or deny accommodation
requests. Future research is encouraged to examine training and organizational climates
that encourage supervisors to understand and respond to the accommodation needs of
employees with disabilities.

Co-Worker Reactions
Once accommodation is granted, people with disabilities may face negative co-worker
reactions (Colella 2001). García, Paetzold, and Colella (2005) investigated the relation-
ship between co-workers’ personalities (big five personality dimensions) and their
judgements of accommodation appropriateness in the US. While the authors did not
find evidence of main effect of personality, they did find some evidence of interaction
between disability, accommodation, and both agreeableness and openness to new
experiences. In another study in the US, Paetzold and colleagues (2008) examined fair-
ness perceptions by manipulating accommodation provision, reward structure, and
486    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

performance. These authors find that granting an accommodation was seen as less
fair than not granting it, but also that accommodation provision was seen as least fair
when a person with a disability received accommodation and excelled in performance.
Similar to research on employer willingness to provide accommodation, research on co-
workers’ reactions shows how factors beyond those that are legally permissible under
the provisions of the ADA impact co-workers’ reactions. Future research is encouraged
that examines how co-workers’ attitudes towards accommodation can be managed and
balanced with privacy needs.
We also note that, to date, much of the research on workplace disability accommo-
dation has investigated individuals and organizations in Canada, the UK, and the US.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),
however, has brought increased international attention to disability accommoda-
tion by indicating that failure to provide reasonable accommodation to persons with
disabilities is a form of discrimination (Petersen 2010). In Europe, the Employment
Equality Directive also stresses the importance of accommodation. A recent study
by Waddington (2008), however, finds that EC member states interpret the concept
of reasonable accommodation differently, with some nations focusing on reasonable
cost to employers, while others focus on reasonableness in terms of accommodation
effectiveness in allowing persons with disabilities to perform essential employment
tasks, and still others stress both reasonable cost and reasonable effectiveness. Future
research examining workplace accommodation in other regions is therefore encour-
aged, because historical, legal, and cultural factors can be expected to play an impor-
tant role.

Conclusions, Action,
and Research Directions

In some countries, public policies require that employers not ask job applicants ques-
tions about disability status, but rather focus interview questions on whether the
applicant can perform the essential functions of the job, either with or without a rea-
sonable accommodation (Cabot and Slogoff 1995). Once hired, individuals with dis-
abilities can make the choice to request or not request reasonable accommodations
that allow them to perform effectively in the workplace. Individuals with invisible dis-
abilities also have the choice of whether or not to disclose their disability status to an
employer. US and European research demonstrate that substantial barriers exist that
hinder both requests for accommodations and disability disclosure (Baldridge and
Veiga 2006; Kopnina and Haafkens 2010; Baldridge and Swift 2013). As such, to be
effective, the locus of action for enhancing the employment outcomes of workers with
disabilities rests with the employing organizations rather than the individual workers
themselves.
 People with Disabilities    487

Implications for Employers

Research has identified many steps employers can take to improve the employment out-
comes of workers with disabilities. Organizational diversity policies that include dis-
ability status communicate inclusion (Ball et al. 2005) and are associated with greater
compliance with non-discrimination legislation (Scheid 1998), higher wages for work-
ers with disabilities (Jones and Latreille 2010), and greater presence of workers with
disabilities in management positions (Moore, Konrad, and Hunt 2010). Being knowl-
edgeable about public policies and workplace accommodations enhances employer
intentions to hire workers with disabilities (Chan et al. 2010). Formal retention and
integrated disability management practices are associated with hiring workers with dis-
abilities (Habeck et al. 2010). Leadership also makes a difference; specifically, support-
ive leaders increase the strength of the association between disability diversity practices
and the representation of workers with disabilities in management (Moore, Konrad,
and Hunt 2010). A culture of fairness that is responsive to the needs of all employees
enhances the employment outcomes of workers with disabilities (Schur et al. 2009).
Firms benefit in many ways from accommodating people with disabilities, such as
the ability to retain quality employees, an avoidance of costs associated with hiring and
training new employees, and an improved sense among employees that the employer
values their contributions (Hartnett et al. 2011). Evidence suggests that firms recognize
these benefits and act accordingly. For instance, small US firms with interests in accom-
modating customers with disabilities and workers with disabilities who are already
on the job are more compliant with disability non-discrimination legislation (Moore,
Moore, and Moore 2007). Firms with greater exposure to disability and benefits costs
are more likely to implement diversity management (DM) efforts (Salkever, Shinogle,
and Prurshothaman 2000). Corporate social responsibility framing of disability issues
in the workplace encourages employers to employ more workers with disabilities in
order to enhance their reputations (Dibben et al. 2002), and research suggests that peo-
ple are more willing to do business with employers who hire workers with disabilities
(Siperstein et al. 2006).

Implications for Public Policies

To date, North American public policies take a ‘just-in-time’ approach to disability
accommodation, requiring the employee to make a request and the employer to respond
as supportively as possible (e.g. Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2000). The format
of this process puts the onus of action on individual employees rather than employers.
An alternative developed in the field of architecture and taking a ‘just-in-case’ approach
to disability accommodation is the process of universal design. Universal design
means that the building or community is designed to be fully accessible to all indi-
viduals regardless of disability status (Steinfeld and Maisel 2012). As such, individuals
488    Baldridge, Beatty, Konrad, and Moore

with disabilities are not required to request changes to the building to accommodate
their needs.
Proactive public policies such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities
Act of 2005 in Canada take such a ‘just-in-case’ approach by requiring that all provid-
ers of goods and services that have at least one employee in Ontario make their cus-
tomer services processes fully accessible to persons with disabilities (Service Ontario
2007, 11 August). Also in Ontario, educational institutions are moving to a ‘just-in-case’
approach providing universal instructional design, so that students with disabilities are
not required to request accommodations (Ontario Human Rights Commission 2004).
In this model, all university classes need to be formatted to be accessible, just in case stu-
dents with disabilities select the course.
Workplaces are likely to be more complex than university classrooms, and employers
may not be able to create all jobs in ways that are fully accessible just in case persons with
disabilities apply for them. Yet a university organizational design approach could inspire
employers to identify ways to make many jobs fully accessible ‘just in case’, to limit barri-
ers to employment for workers with disabilities. As workforces age, currently employed
persons will acquire disabilities, and planning ahead by becoming creative with job and
work-station design is likely benefit employers by reducing uncertainty regarding work-
force retention and productivity.

Implications for Research

This review identifies several areas for future research. A number of valuable US survey
studies have reported on employer activities (Bruyère, Erickson, and VanLooy 2004;
Chan et al. 2010; Hartnett et al. 2011). To deepen knowledge regarding the impact of
employer actions, more cross-level studies testing the effects of team factors, such as
norms, communication processes, and shared mental models, as well as organizational
factors such as culture, climate, policies, and practices on the individual-level employ-
ment outcomes experienced by workers with disabilities, are needed to develop both
theory and practice. Considerably more work is required to investigate the impact
of various team- and organizational-level factors on different categories of persons
defined by the intersections across multiple identities, such as gender, age, and race/
ethnicity.
A number of useful studies have examined employer perceptions of workers with
disabilities and disability non-discrimination policies (Hernandez, Keys, and Balcazar
2000). To build on this knowledge base, studies of the attitudes, perceptions, and actions
of leaders who directly supervise workers with disabilities would enhance understand-
ing of what leaders can do to enhance the employment outcomes of workers with dis-
abilities. Such research should attend to intersectional effects of disability, gender, age,
and race/ethnicity to accurately describe the different characteristics of ableism expe-
rienced by different categories of individuals (e.g. younger visible minority men with
disabilities, older white women with disabilities).
 People with Disabilities    489

Co-workers’ attitudes towards working with and accommodating workers with disa-
bilities have been shown to be potentially problematic (Colella, DeNisi, and Varma 1998;
Colella 2001; Colella, Paetzold, and Belliveau 2004). To extend this area of research,
future work should examine attitudes, perceptions, and actions in teams that include
one or more members with a disability, attending to possible intersectional effects of
gender, age, and race/ethnicity. Such research would enhance understanding of the
experiences of workers with disabilities in team environments as well as actions team
members and leaders can take to improve these experiences.
As researchers consider the effects of multiple identities, additional research might
explore whether people with multiple stigmatized identities develop an intersectional
master status—that is, one that is a cumulative mixture of multiple categories—or if they
instead strategically deploy their various individual identities according to the situation.
Because identities are socially performed and result from categorization by others as
well as personal identification (Bagilhole 2010), it is not easy to turn them on and off at
will. It would also be useful to understand more about the dynamics of intersectional
identities. Research might investigate if individuals reach the most integrated stages
of identity acceptance when they have multiple identities, or if they compartmentalize
between their multiple identities. The inter- and intra-categorical approach to research
on multiple identities (Bagilhole 2010) implies the need for a programme of research
that enhances understanding of the distinct identities defined by the intersections
across multiple identities, including disability, gender, age, and other statuses.

Acknowledgements

Alison M. Konrad gratefully acknowledges support from the Corus Entertainment

Chair in Women in Management, Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario.

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 Chapter 24

Of Race and Re l i g i on
Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim
Prejudice in the United States

Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

Ever since 9/11, Muslims living in the United States (along with those who are perceived
to be Muslims, such as non-Muslim Arabs and South Asians) have been subjected to
an intensified scrutiny, increasingly viewed with fear and suspicion, and victimized
through acts of discrimination and violence at the hands of both state and non-state
actors. In much of the discourse about Muslims, whether critical or sympathetic, the
organizing logic assumes that there is something called ‘Islam’, which can explain
‘Muslim society’, ‘Muslim culture’, and the ‘Muslim mind’. The terms circulating in this
discourse are usually in the singular, implying that there is one essential, monolithic
‘Islam’ which remains consistent across time and space, and that this particular iden-
tity accounts for the actions of those who either claim it or are otherwise marked by it
through their name, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, or race.
The discourse and its accompanying policies have had material consequences for the
lives of Muslims in the US including surveillance, harassment, intimidation, discrimi-
nation, and incarceration. And while there is not yet a significant body of research on
this issue, the evidence points to increasing workplace discrimination against those
who are perceived to be Muslims (see, for example, Malos 2010; Cavico and Mujtaba
2011; Ghumman and Ryan 2013; see also the annual reports put out by CAIR 2013a).
Studies have shown that, in the aftermath of 9/11, Muslim and Arab men working in the
US experienced a significant drop in their earnings (Kaushal, Kaestner, and Reimers
2007). In their analysis of the ‘discursive character of contemporary hostility towards
the niqab-wearing Muslim women’ in Quebec, Golnaraghi and Mills (2013: 158) outline
the links between Islamophobic discourse around the niqab (or face veil), state action
such as the passing of anti-accommodationist legislation, and Muslim women’s ability
to access state resources and services from education to health care.
500    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

In the US, the spike in the number of complaints filed by those of Middle Eastern
and South Asian backgrounds with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission
(EEOC) was so significant that the EEOC created an entirely new category to keep
track of these grievances. Responding to a request for data made by the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the EEOC prepared a report indicating that
‘Muslim Americans have filed more charges of religious discrimination and retaliation
than any other religious group that the EEOC monitors’ and that increasingly, a large
proportion of these filings include retaliation charges that were brought about against
the complainant (ADC 2013). EEOC statistics also show that ‘religious-based dis-
crimination claims in the USA have nearly doubled over the last decade and have risen
four times more rapidly than any other protected category under the US Civil Rights
Act of 1964’ (Ghumman and Ryan 2013: 672). Despite being less than 1 per cent of the
population (Pew 2011), Muslims accounted for 21 per cent of the filings (EEOC 2011).
Hate crimes against Muslims remain high (FBI 2011) as do attacks on Muslim places of
worship (ACLU 2011), while anti-Muslim ‘hate-groups’ continue to spread (Southern
Poverty Law Center 2013).
This rise in discrimination directed at Muslims and Arabs by private actors and insti-
tutions is, unsurprisingly, accompanied by a rise in anti-Muslim prejudice within US
society at large. For instance, polls and surveys show higher feelings of prejudice towards
Arab-Americans than any other ethnic group (Bushman and Bonacci 2004), with one
nationwide poll finding that 44 per cent of Americans agreed that restricting the civil
rights of Muslim Americans was acceptable and even necessary (Sheridan 2006). Such
frank and open expression of prejudice against a social group is exceptional in the US
today. We argue that the state has itself authorized and legitimized this expression of
prejudice and discrimination against Muslims through its own actions.
A particularly important set of examples of such actions are the bills that have been
introduced in state legislatures and the US Congress, which are focused on legislating,
monitoring, and circumscribing Muslim religious practices. A specifically absurd sub-
set of these are ‘red herring bills’ passed by six states in the country, which ban sharia,
a dynamic and varying set of Islamic codes that cannot, under the US Constitution,
replace, supersede or displace US law (CAIR 2013b). Sweeps conducted after 9/11 in
Muslim neighbourhoods, particularly in the wake of the passage of the 2001 Patriot
Act, along with the 2002 National Security Entry-Exit Registration (NSEER) Program
(or ‘Special Registration’)—which demanded that immigrants from a set of Muslim-
majority countries (and from North Korea) register with the Justice Department—
resulted in the detention and deportation of thousands of Muslims, with thousands of
others subjecting themselves to self-deportation (Rana 2011). A 2011 investigative report
by Wired magazine showed that anti-terrorism FBI training routinely depicted Muslims
as violent and the ‘Arabic mind’ as ‘swayed more by words than ideas and more by ideas
than facts’ (Ackerman 2011, published online). A probe by Associated Press revealed
that the New York Police Department (NYPD) had routinely spied on Muslim neigh-
bourhoods, catalogued mosques and restaurants, collected information about congre-
gations, and built up a database on communities that were objects of suspicion purely on
 Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim Prejudice    501

the basis of their religious affiliation (Goldman and Apuzzo 2012). Additionally, part of
the training of the NYPD officers included the screening of The Third Jihad, a documen-
tary filled with images of blood, explosions, and angry mullahs, all of which are then
interpreted by ‘Islam experts’ as proof of a 1400-year-old Muslim conspiracy of world
domination coming to a head (Robbins 2011). Further, various news reports have doc-
umented the ways in which Muslim communities have been infiltrated by informants
(Aaronson 2011), while others have described the conditions of special prisons called
‘Communications Management Units’—known colloquially as ‘Little Gitmos’—that are
mostly designed to quarantine Muslims (Johnson and Williams 2011; Stewart 2011). On
11 March 2011, Representative Peter King, chair of the Homeland Security Committee
of the United States House of Representatives, held a hearing entitled ‘The Extent of
Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response’,
which was widely denounced by civil rights groups as the reproduction of racism against
Muslim Americans (Hakimeh 2012).
These and other related events have clearly established Muslims in America as a par-
ticularly stigmatized ‘out-group’ against which even overt forms of prejudice and dis-
crimination are acceptable and sanctioned. These forms of prejudice have come to be
referenced by the term ‘Islamophobia’. First formally deployed in a 1997 report by the
Runnymede Trust in the United Kingdom to describe the tendency to see Islam as ‘a
single monolithic block . . . inferior to the West . . . barbaric, irrational, primitive, sex-
ist . . . violent, aggressive [and] threatening’, the concept of Islamophobia has gained
currency within mainstream, activist, and scholarly circles. It has also become a hotly
contested term, with critics arguing that it is too broad and therefore risks silencing
valid and appropriate critiques of ‘Islam’. Nonetheless, the term and its referents have
become the subject of serious scholarly interest (for example, Bunzl 2007; Gottschalk
and Greenberg 2008; Fekete 2009; Allen 2010; Esposito and Kalin 2011; Sheehi 2011;
Helbling 2012; Kumar 2012), leading a recent review article to declare that the concept
‘has come of age’ (Klug 2012: 665).
Notwithstanding the examples of the studies on workplace discrimination against
Muslims cited in this chapter, the fact of the matter is that there hasn’t been sufficient
empirical work done yet by management scholars on this issue. This is partly because of
the lag between real life and scholarly output—that is, it takes time for discrimination
against newly stigmatized groups to be recognized and studied. Additionally, the fact
that religion is often an ‘invisible’ diversity category can make research on discrimina-
tion against Muslims difficult. Much of the existing research on workplace discrimina-
tion faced by Muslims has focused on the experience of hijabi Muslim women precisely
because the hijab is a visible marker of Muslim identity and can be used to index a ‘vis-
ible stigma’ whose effects can be empirically measured (Ghumman and Ryan 2013;
Reeves, McKinney, and Azam 2013).
In this chapter, we seek to offer a broad analytical perspective on anti-Muslim prej-
udice in the United States in order to propose a more complex understanding of the
discrimination faced by Arabs and Muslims in society in general and in the workplace
in particular. Our intent here is not so much to look at existing modes of workplace
502    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

discrimination, but to offer a framework for management scholars to engage with the
issues surrounding this form of prejudice, and thereby enhance the extant literature in
this discipline on diversity and discrimination in the workplace.
We start by locating anti-Muslim prejudice in the US in its historical context in order
to demonstrate the lineage which informs and influences the contemporary moment.
We then seek to understand the racialization process as it applies to Muslims in the US
today by first outlining the history of the idea of race and its evolution over time from its
origins (or prehistory) in the religious politics of the reconquista, through its transfor-
mation into race-as-biology, to its contemporary form via theories of cultural racism.
What we attempt to emphasize in this brief history is the fact that religion, specifically
the relationship between Islam and Christianity, played a crucial role in the genesis and
development of race as an idea, and that this history continues to inform discourses of
Islam and Muslims in the US today. We then outline the approach to race offered by crit-
ical race theorists who urge that it be understood as ‘an unstable and “decentered” com-
plex of social meanings’ (Omi and Winant 1994: 55), and as a historically and politically
contingent process of racialization or ‘racial formation’, rather than something with an
empirical basis in phenotypic differences. We contend that understanding the ways in
which ideas of race, and the forms that racism takes, have changed over time is crucial
to grasping what is happening with Muslims in the contemporary period, both within
society more generally and thereby, inevitably, within the workplace.
As anti-Muslim discrimination grows as a social and workplace phenomenon, we
propose that management scholars, especially those who work on issues of diversity,
will have to deploy different frameworks of understanding ‘the Muslim question’ in the
US today in order to think about anti-Muslim prejudice as a form of racism, where race
is understood as a technology of power, and racialization (of Muslims, as well as oth-
ers) as a contingent and political process. It is only by shifting our frame of understand-
ing away from ‘religious chauvinism’ and towards ‘race’ and ‘racialization’ that we can
hope to understand and confront anti-Muslim discrimination within organizations and
workplaces.

Essentializing Muslims

In 1990, Orientalist scholar Bernard Lewis published The Roots of Muslim Rage in which
he sought to explain what he called the Muslim world’s ‘revulsion against America’. He
concluded that this ‘is no less than a clash of civilizations—the perhaps irrational but
surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our sec-
ular present, and the worldwide expansion of both’ (Lewis 1990: 60).
Lewis’s theory of the clash of civilizations—which, according to him, ‘began with
the advent of Islam, in the seventh century, and has continued virtually to the present
day’ (Lewis 1990: 49)—was catapulted into the mainstream when it was reworked in
an influential essay by Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs. In this essay,
 Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim Prejudice    503

Huntington (1993) hypothesized that the ‘fundamental source of conflict’ in the world
in the coming years would be neither ideological nor economic, but rather ‘cultural’. The
‘clash of civilizations’, he pronounced, ‘will be the battle lines of the future’ (Huntington
1993: 22).
It was not a coincidence that Lewis and Huntington made these arguments for civi-
lizational (rather than ideological or economic) clashes in the early 1990s. This was the
period in which Cold War ideology had to be reworked in the wake of the break-up
of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. As many scholars have argued, this
state of affairs required the invention of a new global enemy that the ‘free world’ could
be pitted against, and ‘Islam’ was a convenient choice, enabled in part by the Western
reaction to the Iranian revolution of 1979. Edward Said signalled this coming change
both in Orientalism, published in 1978, and in Covering Islam: How the Media and the
Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, published in 1981. In a new intro-
duction written for the 1997 edition of Covering Islam, Said (1997: lv) laid out the manner
in which Islam was being depicted in the media during the 1990s, and its growing status
as ‘a kind of scapegoat for everything we do not happen to like about the world’s new
political, social, and economic patterns. For the right, Islam represents barbarism; for
the left, medieval theocracy; for the center, a kind of distasteful exoticism’. In Said’s view
(1997: xi–xii), there was, at this time ‘a strange revival of canonical, though previously
discredited, Orientalist ideas about Muslim, generally non-white, people—ideas that
have achieved a startling prominence at a time when racial and religious mis-represen-
tations of every other cultural group are no longer circulated with such impunity’.
Many of these formulaic ideas about Islam form the backbone of anti-Muslim sen-
timent in the current times. This sentiment relies upon oppositional binaries such as
Western liberalism versus Muslim illiberalism, civilization versus barbarism, rationality
versus irrationality, and most of all, modern versus traditional. How then are these bina-
ries to be interpreted? Is the purportedly illiberal, barbaric, irrational, and traditional
Muslim being interpellated as an inferior race? Does the essentialization of Muslims in
the US offer evidence of their racialization?
As Said (1978, 1981) has persuasively argued, Muslims—and Islam—have historically
been essentialized in the US, and the West more generally, by reducing their diverse
ethnic and national identities to a singular one of ‘Muslim’. The common-sense under-
standing of what it means to be ‘Muslim’ today is similarly based on an essentialist and
reductionist construction of ‘Islam’, which is understood to be incommensurable with
something called ‘the West’, variously expressed through terms such as ‘Western values’
and ‘Western culture’. Islam, it is argued, is uniquely and exceptionally misogynist (and
within certain contexts, homophobic), and this is then presented as proof of Muslims’
essentially illiberal nature (Toor 2008; 2012; Selod and Embrick 2013). Islam’s essential
difference from, and thereby incompatibility with, and/or resistance to ‘the West’ and its
(universalized) liberal values (Lewis 1990; Samman 2012) are offered as the explanation
for the ‘backwardness’ of Muslims and the justification for casting them out of liberal
law and politics within the West (Razack 2008). An example of the egregiousness of this
discourse can be found in an online piece by Martin Peretz (2010), a Harvard professor
504    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

and the publisher and editor-in-chief of the New Republic, in which he contends that
‘Muslim life was cheap, most notably to Muslims’ and wonders ‘whether I need honor
these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment
which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse’ (emphasis added).
The essentialization of Muslims is tied in the West to their increasing exclusion from
the liberal (nation-)state and the rights of citizenship. For the purposes of this chapter,
we propose that citizenship can be seen as having two main, interlocking dimensions.
The first is membership in the ‘nation’ (or ‘national community’), which is understood as
a community of affect, bearing a structural relationship to ideas of kinship—the ‘nation’
is, after all, often imagined as a family, complete with the latter’s hetero-patriarchal
underpinnings. The second is the way citizenship is usually understood: as member-
ship in the state, which is the granter and protector of the rights that this membership
accords. Second-class citizenship is, in effect, the result of having formal member-
ship in the state, but not being accorded membership in the community of affect, the
‘nation’. Being of the wrong race/ethnicity/religion/gender/sexuality can all result in
being denied membership in the ‘national family’, and thereby have one’s formal rights
of citizenship actually or potentially compromised. The ‘casting out’ (Razack 2008) of
Muslims occurs at both of these mutually reinforcing levels.
Interestingly, the place that the Muslim now occupies vis-à-vis the liberal state bears
a striking resemblance to that occupied by ‘the Jew’ in Europe not very long ago. Several
scholars have pointed to the strong similarity between ‘the Jewish Question’ of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the ‘Muslim Question’ today (Mufti 2007;
Brown 2008). The strong communal focus of Judaism, it was argued at the time, made
it impossible for the Jew to be the fully individuated subject required by liberalism. His
strong bonds with co-religionists competed with the normative bonds between indi-
vidual citizens, thus rendering him inassimilable into the national community. At the
same time, his membership in a global (that is, extra-state) community of Jews under-
mined the primacy accorded to the relationship that the (individual) liberal subject was
expected to have to the modern state. The figure of the Jew at that time was thus the
figure of ‘the stranger’, the ‘outsider within’. In Mufti’s (2007: 38) words, ‘[t]‌he figure of
the Jew has faced a paradoxical predicament in the culture of the modern West, and
has typically been met with a contradictory set of representational demands: on the one
hand, as a figure of particularity, it has generated anxieties about the undermining of the
universalizing claims and ambitions embedded in the constitutive narratives of modern
culture, with the Jews coming to be seen as slavishly bound to external Law and tra-
dition, ritualistic and irrational, and incapable of the modernity and autonomy called
for in the development of enlightened, modern subjectivity; on the other, as a figure
of transnational range and abilities, it raises questions about deracination, homeless-
ness, abstraction, supra-national identifications, and divided loyalties.’ The similari-
ties between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have been discussed in some detail by
a variety of scholars (see, inter alia, Kalmar 2009; Meer and Modood 2012). This rela-
tionship has a long and complex history, and the silence over it within scholarship on
race and anti-Semitism is interesting given its well-documented nature (see Said 2002
 Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim Prejudice    505

and Kalmar 2009; for an explication of its curious effacement in histories of race and
racialization, see Rana 2007). The ‘Muslim’ in the West today is similarly constructed
as a ‘bad’—in fact, a dangerous—immigrant, an outsider who will not (indeed, cannot)
assimilate, and therefore one whose loyalties will always remain in question (Ali 2012;
Bazian 2012).
It is notable that the overt and explicit animosity demonstrated in the statements
made and circulated about Muslims within the public sphere (and this is important)
would be impossible to imagine directed against any other social group. Several scholars
have argued that the exceptional nature of this animosity requires that anti-Muslim prej-
udice be understood as a form of racism (see, for instance, Poynting and Mason 2007;
Gotanda 2010; Rana 2011; Elver 2012; Meer and Modood 2012). Perhaps unsurprisingly,
there is also vehement resistance to any attempt to identify it as such. The standard argu-
ment offered for rejecting the framing of anti-Muslim prejudice as racism is that Islam is
a religion and therefore Muslims are not a race. Several liberal intellectuals, particularly
‘the new atheists’ such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have
been at the forefront of this response, which is encountered so consistently and reflex-
ively that it has attained the status of a meme. On the surface, the argument seems incon-
trovertible. Islam is a religion, and Muslims are not (officially) considered or understood
to be a race as race is conventionally understood in the United States today. However, by
this token, anti-Semitism cannot be a considered a form of racism since Judaism is also
a religion. But just as race and religion were intertwined in the anti-Semitic figure of ‘the
Jew’ in Europe, so, we argue, is the case with ‘the Muslim’ in the West today.
However, we argue that the ‘Muslim question’ in the US must be approached through
the framework of race and racism for the simple reason that race is the pre-eminent way
in which difference has been understood and organized within the US not only from its
inception as an independent republic, but from the time of the European conquest of
the Americas. Further, as we seek to demonstrate, race and religion have been intricately
intertwined throughout the history of the United States, and continue to be so in the
most relevant of ways. As several scholars and civil rights organizations have pointed
out, this history has had an impact on the structures of discrimination in contemporary
workplaces as well (Malos 2010; EEOC 2011; CAIR 2013a; Ghumman and Ryan 2013;
Reeves, McKinney, and Azam 2013).

Race and Religion in the US

Scholars of race agree that ‘race’ as a concept had its genesis in the moment of contact
between Europeans and the indigenous people of the Americas in 1492. Richard Omi
and Howard Winant (1994: 62), in their highly influential and paradigmatic book Racial
Formation in the United States, persuasively argue that the conquest ‘was the first—and
given the dramatic nature of the case, perhaps the greatest—racial formation project’.
A new chapter in the US’s racial history—a new racial project—began with the arrival
506    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

of African slaves, and over time, European settlers developed a complex and dynamic
racial matrix which all new groups of immigrants (have) had to negotiate and be slotted
within (Bonilla-Silva 2001; for a history of race and immigration in the US, see, inter alia
Takaki 1993).
The most important intervention made by critical race theorists has been to point out
the malleability, resilience, and opportunism of the category of ‘race’ and ‘race thinking’,
and the manner in with the idea of race evolved from its originary moment in religious
racism into a biological (scientific, hence secular) racism, and eventually morphed into
contemporary cultural ideas of race (Blaut 1992; Omi and Winant 1994; Hartigan 2009).
The concept of race emerged out of the proto-racial concept of ‘purity of blood’
which was articulated after the reconquista as a way to differentiate between ‘real’
Christians and the Marranos and Mariscos, converted Jews and Muslims respectively
(Goldschmidt 2004; Gottschalk and Greenberg 2008). After the European conquest
of the Americas in 1492 and the contact with indigenous populations, this concept of
‘proto-race’ began its evolution into a theory of biological race that we associate with
‘classic’ racism (Mignolo 2000; Modood 2005; scholars such as Grosfoguel and Mielants
2006 and Samman and al-Zo’by 2008 have gone on to argue anti-Muslim prejudice
ought to be seen as constitutive of the modern world-system). However, the religious/
theological angle did not completely disappear; religion continued to be associated with
race, even in the late nineteenth century when a secularized, scientific form of biological
racism rose to prominence (Samman 2012).
This biological theory of race remained hegemonic until the horrors of Nazism and
the power of the Civil Rights movement combined to render it politically untenable in
the mid-twentieth century. As a result, a new, cultural form of racism (often referred to
as racism without race) emerged to take its place (Samman 2012). Cultural racism works
by replacing the biological case for superior or inferior races with that of superior and
inferior cultures. The goal and logic remain the same, however: to conclusively establish
the innate superiority of the (white, Christian) West. As Blaut (1992: 292) argues, ‘cul-
tural racism substitutes the cultural category “European” for the racial category “white” ’.
This new form of racism has proved to be remarkably resilient and therefore ideologi-
cally useful, since it no longer talks about ‘race’ as we conventionally understand it—that
is, race as biology, as phenotype. Cultural racism can therefore circulate unimpeded,
and in fact it now saturates and structures the public discourse on inequality in the US,
both in the workplace and in the broader society.
Each new instantiation of race and racism did not emerge out of whole cloth to
neatly replace the earlier one; instead, even as one form emerged as dominant in any
given historical period, the others continued to circulate and reinforce one another in
complex ways in response to various political exigencies. In fact, every racial project is
legitimated by an articulation (in the Althusserian sense of a mutual imbrication) of
different racial discourses. Thus, even while it seemed to have been de-racinated, the
discourse of cultural superiority continued to be informed by biological and, indeed,
religious ideas of race. The term ‘European’, for example, carried within it the sense of
both whiteness and Christianity. Blaut (1992) cites Weber as the pre-eminent example
 Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim Prejudice    507

of the secularization of the older discourse of religious racism and its emergence as
cultural racism within the Western intelligentsia (in fact, he refers to Weber the god-
father of cultural racism), for behind Weber’s famously ‘path-breaking’ cultural(ist)
explanation for social change, lurks religion (Nafissi (1998) argues that, in fact, Weber’s
cultural racism was not just Orientalist but specifically anti-Muslim). It is, after all the
Protestant ethic (albeit in a secularized form) which Weber sees as giving rise to and
animating modern rational capitalism; his much-celebrated contingent model of soci-
ological explanation has a deep investment in demonstrating that this rational, emi-
nently modern form of capitalism could only have arisen in the (Protestant) West. New
theories asserting the cultural superiority of Europeans therefore continued to carry
within them the logic of the earlier theories; religious and biological race are embed-
ded in the idea of ‘European’, which implicitly invokes both whiteness and Christianity
(specifically Protestantism).
The new discourse of cultural racism has enabled both domestic and international
racial projects. It played a crucial role in both phases of European colonialism, which
were justified by the idea of the ‘civilizing mission’, where ‘civilization’ indexed a com-
plex mixture of religion and race. In the first phase of the conquest of the Americas,
civilization very explicitly meant Christianity. By the nineteenth century, the category
of ‘European’ had itself been racially disaggregated into the ‘white’ (Northern and
Western) and ‘non-white’ (Southern and Eastern) Europeans, a divide which strongly
overlapped with that of Protestant and Catholic. Anti-Catholic Protestant discourses
about ‘the Black Legend’ animated an internal civilizing mission within the US, as the
Anglo-Protestant elite sought to manage Catholic Italian, Irish, and Mexican immi-
grant populations (Haverluk 2002: 48–9). It is easy to forget that the idea that Catholics
were not fully American was so mainstream even as recently as the 1960s that the elec-
tion of (to most people today, the unqualifiedly white) John F. Kennedy to the office of
president—an event that took place in the wake of the de-racialization of the Irish and
their promotion to the status of white ethnics—was considered a major turning point in
US history.
The power of cultural racism has always lain in the fact that it is not recognizable as
racism since it is not overtly about ‘race-as-biology’. This is also precisely what makes it
so pernicious; it can continue to perform the ideological functions of racism without
being held open to challenge (see, for example Schiffer and Wagner 2011). The juxtapo-
sition of ‘Islam’ with ‘the West’ in the contemporary moment, we contend, illustrates
the slipperiness of the discourse of cultural racism, counterposing as it does a religious
category (‘Islam’) with a geographical category (‘the West’). Since we have seen that ‘the
West’ carries within it racial and religious connotations, the juxtaposition of the two
forces us to read race and geography into the category of ‘Islam’. Poststructural analy-
sis understands discourse as working precisely through binaries such this (‘Islam’/‘the
West’), whereby one term in the binary is privileged and gains meaning from the other,
inferior one. Any statement in which this binary appears is always already a statement
about the superiority of the West and its values of rationality, secularism, individualism,
and so on. By constructing ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’ as hermetically sealed and mutually
508    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

exclusive categories, this binary ensures that the very idea of a ‘Western Islam’, and
thereby ‘Western Muslims’, becomes incomprehensible.
The link between race and religion in the US can be further seen through the ways
in which Christianity and whiteness are articulated, together with a deeply racialized
idea of Christianity legitimating and animating almost every racial project. And so
it is not by coincidence that the white supremacist project in the US has always been
explicitly Christian in its expression. That it was, and continues to be, a racial project
is evidenced by the fact that it was historically aimed not at ‘heathen non-Christians’
but at Christian African Americans, underlining the ways in which religion in the
US was, and still is, deeply raced (in this context, Charles Lincoln (1973) has argued
that African Americans turned to Islam as a form of protest against white society).
Upstanding white Christian Americans historically looked upon black forms of
Christianity either with disdain (towards, for instance, the ‘pagan’ aspects of black
Pentecostal traditions) or fear (of, for instance the ‘militant’ preachers of the civil
rights and specifically Black Power era). The religious right in the US continues to be
overwhelmingly white, and almost old-fashioned in its anti-black racism. As a result,
despite the profession of religious pluralism and the Establishment Clause, which
states that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion’ and is
commonly read to mean that the US should have no state religion, Christianity (and
specifically Protestantism) has always been and continues to be the de facto ‘national’
religion in the country.

Phenotypes and Muslims

We have argued that Muslims are racialized in the US through the discourse of cultural
racism. However, as we have also pointed out, cultural racism continues to be articulated
with both religious and biological forms of racism. While it is true that Muslims as a whole
are not officially designated a singular racial identity in the US, there is nevertheless a com-
mon-sense idea of what Muslims ‘look like’—a Muslim ‘phenotype’, as it were. Incidents of
discrimination such as removal of (brown, male) passengers presumed to be Muslim from
airlines based on the fear of their fellow passengers make this clear. But what does it mean
to ‘look Muslim’? One aspect of this ‘recognizability’ has a non-biological basis. Facial hair
and clothing, such as the beards sported by certain male Muslims, and the head-coverings
of certain Muslim women, have become closely intertwined with Muslim identity (Love
2009). This is testified to by the fact that Muslims (but also ‘misrecognized’ non-Muslims
such as Sikhs) have been profiled and subjected to violence on this basis. The fact that these
supposedly identifiable signs of Muslimness are often incorrect—for instance, not all male
Muslims sport beards of the sort that have become associated with Muslim male identity
and not all Muslim women wear headscarves—is immaterial. What is important is that
they have become part of the general public understanding of what Muslims look like, and
therefore of how to recognize a Muslim when you see one.
 Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim Prejudice    509

But how is this about race? In order to understand this, we must turn to the concept of
racialization (a process), rather than race understood as a pre-given and stable (biologi-
cal) identity. One of the ways in which race functions is through ‘hypervisibility’. Thus,
anything that makes people appear to be ‘recognizable’ as members of a particular social
group, and thereby subject to prejudice and discrimination, must be understood as part
of a process of racialization. The fact that Muslim identity in the public consciousness is
also associated with a particular skin colour (brown) and certain ethnic, regional, and
national identities (such as ‘Arab’/‘South Asian’/‘Middle Eastern’) shows that the raciali-
zation of Muslims also proceeds through the conventional form of race-as-phenotype.
The proof of the fact that there is there is an image of a Muslim body which exists in
the public mind comes from the ‘misrecognition’ in identifying Muslims, both through
false positives and false negatives. The targeting of non-Muslim brown people (such as
turbaned Sikhs) is an example of a false positive. The false negative is exemplified by the
so-called ‘American Taliban’ and ‘Jihad Jane’, two white Muslim ‘terrorists’, who were
white, and recent, converts to Islam. The public discourse with regard to their identity
as Muslims was rife with confusion because they were understood to have the ‘wrong
racial body’ (Gotanda 2011: 193). As Gotanda (2011: 193) points out, the use of the quali-
fier ‘American’ in the case of the ‘American Taliban’, ‘follows a common practice that dis-
tinguishes white Americans from minorities through the use of the term “American” ’,
while the ‘notoriety surrounding Jihad Jane and the American Taliban emphasize that
they are racial anomalies who have crossed over the racial divide’.
This equation of ‘Muslim’ with a particular phenotypic identity has been further
encouraged by the actions of the US state, which, through its acts of overt profiling, has
been instructing the American public that ‘looking “Middle Eastern, Arab, or Muslim”
equals “potential terrorist” ’ (Volpp 2002: 19; see also Elver 2012: 124). Perhaps the most
explicit proof of the racialization of Muslims is provided by the visual tropes through
which they are represented in the mainstream, which, while often featuring turbans
and veils, also bear a striking resemblance to older, long-standing anti-Semitic stereo-
types, in large part due to the conflation of ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ within the US and the
long history of racist depictions of Arabs in the US mainstream (Hudson and Wolf 1980;
Michalak 1988; Semmerling 2006).

Anti-Muslim Prejudice
as a Racial Project

If the argument as so far outlined is persuasive, we need to return to the question of

why there is such a huge resistance to seeing anti-Muslim prejudice as a form of rac-
ism. What is the investment in the widespread refusal to see it as such? We have seen
that cultural racism replaced biological racism as the primary modality of race-thinking
once the latter became politically untenable, since biology was understood to be about
510    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

ascription, and culture was not. Thus, there is widespread agreement today that preju-
dice and discrimination against people on the basis of their biologically ascribed char-
acteristics (race, sex, etc.) is wrong and unjust, since these characteristics are things that
people are understood to have no choice over. People’s ‘culture’ (and their religion, as
a subset of culture), however, is not understood as an ascribed characteristic, because
even though people are born into particular cultural and religious traditions, nothing
prevents them from leaving these and accepting new ones, or so the argument goes. In
fact, it is claimed that the sign of an enlightened and liberal individual is the willingness
to reject the ‘culture’ (understood as values, norms, etc.) she was born into should it
come into conflict with the universal values of ‘human rights’. Culture and religion thus
become cast within liberal discourse as things amenable to individual choice.
And so, ironically, constitutional protections are available in the US, the land of indi-
vidual freedom and choice, for ‘communities of ascription’, precisely because ascription
implies a lack of choice. An example which illustrates how deeply ideas of biological
ascription are connected to justifications for legal and constitutional protection in the
US is provided by the debate over homosexuality and gay rights. The idea that homosex-
uality is not a choice, but a form of ascription—that people are born with specific sexual
orientations which they carry throughout their lives—has been pivotal to the argument
for the equal rights of gays and lesbians, not just in the legal and constitutional arena,
but in the court of public opinion. Any other way of understanding sexuality has had to
be squashed and marginalized, lest it lend credence to the idea that homosexuality was
nothing more than a (‘deviant’) lifestyle choice (see, inter alia Goodloe 2012) or a ‘con-
trollable stigma’.
And so, according to Ghumman and Ryan (2013), highlighting the fact that not all
Muslim women wear the hijab can actually exacerbate negative attitudes towards hijabi
women, since they come to be seen as having a ‘controllable stigma’, one that does not
require protection under the EEOC laws. This might explain the pattern of workplace
prejudice and discrimination against hijabi women that existing studies, including
those by management scholars, have clearly demonstrated (see, for example, Ghumman
and Jackson 2010; King and Ahmad 2010; Syed and Pio 2010; Unkelback et al. 2010).
Scholars have also noted an ambiguity or confusion within organizations towards the
category of religion in general (and Islam in particular) when it comes to operationaliz-
ing EEOC rules regarding the prevention of discrimination against its protected catego-
ries (see Reeves, McKinney, and Azam 2013).
Once religious affiliation, and thus identity, is constructed as a matter of individual
choice, Muslim identity cannot be understood as a form of ascription (see, for exam-
ple, Meer and Modood 2009: 42). Given the essentialization of Muslims (and their cul-
ture) and the construction of ‘Islam’ as the very negation of liberal values, Muslims who
do not openly ‘reject’ their culture and religion—and particularly those that appear to
accept and practise it—become unsympathetic, and even legitimate, targets of criticism
in the eyes of many. Thus, the argument that ‘Islam is a religion, therefore Muslims are
not a race, therefore anti-Muslim prejudice is not racism’ serves to neutralize any objec-
tions against a wholesale critique of Islam and Muslims, even when that critique deploys
 Understanding the Roots of Anti-Muslim Prejudice    511

arguments and tropes which would be unacceptable when applied to any other social
group (Meer and Modood 2009; Khan and Ahmad 2013).
The appearance of new racial groups and the disappearance of old ones in the US
has always been deeply connected to political and historical necessities and contingen-
cies, a fact which Omi and Winant (1994) captured in their concept of racial formation.
Defining racial formation as ‘the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are
created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed’, they argue that studying race involves
connecting ‘the process of historically situated projects in which human bodies and
social structures are represented and organized’ to ‘the evolution of hegemony, the way
in which society is organized and ruled’ (Omi and Winant 1994: 55). That is, under-
standing race was, or should be, really about understanding the ideological work done
by the concept of race, and by the existence and ordering of racial categories at any given
moment in time within a specific society. This ideological work of ‘making the links
between structure and representation’ is done by specific racial projects.
Racial formation within the US has always had both domestic and international
aspects, with race being an integral part of both domestic as well as foreign policy. The
racialization of Filipinos and Mexicans during the Spanish-American War and the
internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War are all examples of
racial projects that corresponded to the needs of US foreign policy of that time. During
the Cold War, Black radicals (and Black Muslim radicals in particular) from the 1950s
to the 1970s were projected as communists.
Wars are always accompanied by a dehumanization of the ‘Enemy’. Given the imbri-
cation of race in the US’s social, cultural, and political matrix, it is not surprising that US
foreign policy, and particularly US wars, have always resulted in this dehumanization
being played out through narratives of race, and through the processes of racialization.
The ‘Enemy’ is thus always understood as a racialized enemy. It is within this framework
that anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination in the US today must be approached—
as the latest in a long line of racial projects.

Conclusion

The evidence is fairly overwhelming that Muslims in the US (and in the West, in gen-
eral) have been constructed as suspicious bodies by both state and non-state actors, and
consequently have been facing a significant, and increasing, amount of discrimination,
both in the broader social space and in the workplace. Management scholars, especially
those interested in issues of diversity and discrimination, have only recently started pay-
ing some attention to this phenomenon, which will only become more important as bet-
ter empirical data begins to emerge. When management scholarship has approached
the topic, it has tended to do so as an instance of religious prejudice. In this chapter,
we have sought to demonstrate how race is a far more powerful and useful conceptual
framework to apply to this topic. Indeed, we show that the politics of the contemporary
512    Ali Mir, Saadia Toor, and Raza Mir

moment cannot be understood without coming to terms with the long history of anti-
Muslim antagonism in the West, out of which the concept of race was forged.
The constraints of space prevent us from presenting a more complete exposition of
the form, content, and extent of anti-Muslim prejudice in the US today, and its rela-
tionship to domestic politics (nor have we had the opportunity to talk about the sig-
nificant, and growing, resistance to this prejudice by Muslims and non-Muslims alike).
Islamophobia has literally become an industry in the US today, and, as the report put out
by the Center for American Progress (2011) titled Fear Inc., details, a very lucrative one.
Other investigative reports (see Cincotta 2011 and Lean 2012) have documented how
anti-Muslim prejudice helps to generate and sustain a multi-million-dollar industry in
technologies of surveillance, repression, and incarceration.
Scholars have also argued that the antagonism against Muslims should be read as part
of the neoliberal project, with the special prisons housing Muslims serving the func-
tion of spaces of ‘exception’, not unlike the Special Economic Zones cropping up in
the Third World, where, paradoxically, the law determines that the law does not apply
(Agamben 2005). Drawing upon Aihwa Ong’s (2006) work, Razack (2008: 11) argues
that ‘at the heart of neoliberalism is the idea and the practice of the exception, the notion
that the government has the right to do anything in the interest of governance’. In the
introduction to his magisterial State of Exception, Giorgio Agamben (2005: 3) noted
that the US action in the post-9/11 period, ‘radically erases any legal status of the indi-
vidual, thus producing a legally unnameable and unclassifiable being’. Along with the
creation of ‘states of exception’, the War on Terror has enabled the increasing designa-
tion of Muslims as homo sacer—‘the sacred or cursed man’—reduced to ‘bare life’ and
stripped of any rights (Agamben 1998). The logic of exception enables the creation of the
new gulags where the ‘bad’ Muslim can be segregated, while his (and this is very much a
gendered as well as raced project) increasing relegation to the status of homo sacer com-
pletes his dehumanization domestically and abroad. It is thus incumbent upon scholars
to address the forms which this racialized dehumanization is taking today.
Social scientists studying the issue of diversity have focused on the processes by which
Muslims are subjected to routines of organizational exclusion (Torpey 2006; Fortier
2007). Some scholars of organizational diversity have also examined the issue of anti-
Muslim prejudice, albeit from the point of view of strategy and policy (Guimond et al.
2013; Reeves, McKinney, and Azam 2013). Our chapter is more likely to find traction
with the work of critical diversity studies (see Bendl, Fleischmann, and Walenta 2008;
Zanoni et al. 2010), and offers a framework that might be useful to those who approach
issues of discrimination from the perspective of social justice, which we strongly believe
must underlie, in fact precede, any effective diversity initiative.

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 Chapter 25

I ntersect i ona l i t y,
SO C IAL IDENT I T Y T H E ORY,
AND EXPL ORAT I ONS OF
HY BRI DI T Y
A Critical Review of Diverse Approaches to Diversity

Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe,

and Lucy Taksa

The many pathways available to study diversity and diverse identities present scholars
with numerous choices among disciplinary orientations, definitions and conceptu-
alizations, methodologies and focus, particularly on the subject of social identity/ies.
Despite the inherently cross-disciplinary nature of the phenomena of diversity and
identity, there has been what Shields (2008: 305) described ‘as a kind of naive circling
of the disciplinary wagons’, most notably evident between sociological and psycho-
logical approaches, and particularly between those informed by intersectionality and
Social Identity Theory. Certainly with feminists in the vanguard, fruitful efforts have
been made to break through disciplinary boundaries by psychology scholars (Purdie-
Vaughns and Eibach 2008; Shields 2008; Warner 2008; Parent, Deblaere, and Moradi
2013) who have engaged with intersectional perspectives. Initially developed as a
metaphor by Crenshaw (1991), intersectionality was soon elaborated ‘as a “provisional
concept” to demonstrate the inadequacy of approaches which separate systems of
oppression, isolating and focusing on one, while occluding the others’ (Carastathis 2014:
305). According to Yuval-Davis (2006: 206) intersectional analysis of social divisions
came ‘to occupy central spaces in both sociological and other analyses of stratification
as well as in feminist and other legal, political and policy discourses of international
human rights’. Effectively it contributed to the recognition that analysing ‘various social
divisions, but especially race and gender, as separate, internally homogeneous, social
categories’ was inadequate.
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    519

This perspective, according to Shields (2008: 302), has had more impact on ‘academic
specializations already concerned with questions of power relations between groups’
than psychology which ‘has lagged behind’ or in which ‘intersectionality has had little
influence on theory’ (Warner 2008: 457). As Shields (2008: 305) pointed out, psychol-
ogy scholars responded to intersectionality by ‘excluding the question; deferring the
question; limiting the question’. Hence Parent, Deblaere, and Moradi (2013: 640–1) com-
mented that ‘[d]‌espite the noted importance of intersectionality and the growing calls
for its integration into psychological research . . . challenges remain in the translation of
intersectionality frameworks or theories to research questions, methods, and analyses’.
Essentially this is because intersectional perspectives stand ‘in contrast to the concep-
tualization of social identities as functioning independently and as added together to
form experience’ (Warner 2008: 454). For the most part identity research in psychology
has continued to be dominated by social identity theory (SIT) which emerged from the
work of Tajfel (1982) as a means of interpreting the cognitive dimensions of intergroup
relationships. With only rare exceptions (Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach 2008) psycho-
logically trained scholars who have engaged with intersectional perspectives have not
attempted to relate the two to each other. The problem here, as Zanoni and colleagues
(2010) noted, is that ‘the diversity literature has relied on social psychology theories to
investigate the effects of a broad variety of differences on group dynamics’.
This chapter considers both intersectional and SIT approaches, recognising their con-
tributions and also identifying issues and gaps. One important issue relates particularly
to the conceptualization of emergent identities ‘as a uniquely hybrid creation’. An out-
come of postcolonial studies (Shields 2008: 305), this notion of hybridity has been devel-
oped in studies of ‘simultaneous processes of identity, institutional and social practice’
(Holvino 2010: 248) and racialized masculine practice and critical masculinities studies
which encompass attention to spatial practice and embodiment. As we see it, attention
to the identity intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality with space and bod-
ily practices can productively extend dialogue across disciplines by highlighting dimen-
sions of multiplicity often overlooked from within disciplinary and even sometimes
multi-disciplinary wagon trains. Accordingly, following an overview of intersectional
and SIT approaches to identity, the chapter examines how gateways offered by mascu-
linity studies on spatial contexts of racialized masculinity and the bodily experiences
of racialized men can enhance understandings of individual identity negotiations and
group processes in specific locations, such as Delhi and Sydney, and contribute to more
effective operationalizing of intersectional approaches.

A Preliminary Note on Identity

Those who draw on SIT highlight how ‘people notice, identify with, and react to the expe-
riences of members of their social identity group regardless of whether they personally
share those experiences’ (Mollica 2003: 417). SIT provides a useful basis for considering
520    Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa

how people categorize themselves and others and also how different identities and dif-
ferent social groups relate to each other. Yet, as Triandafyllidou and Wodak (2003: 205)
noted, there has been ‘a tendency to take for granted what identity is, or indeed that it IS’
in ways that obscure that identity is ‘a contested concept and a complex reality’, ‘context-
dependent’ and ‘dynamic and constantly in evolution’ (Triandafyllidou and Wodak 2003:
208; see also Shields 2008: 302). Similarly, some scholars have treated ‘collective iden-
tity as a stable and cohesive “property” that characterizes a given group at a given point
in time’ and have thereby neglected to consider ‘the internal inconsistencies, tensions
and re-elaboration’ of various identities. To overcome this neglect, Triandafyllidou and
Wodak (2003: 11) suggest that it is important to recognize that ‘[p]‌ersonhood is socially
constructed through social interaction between individuals and/or between individu-
als and groups’ and that ‘collective identities are constantly in a process of negotiation,
affirmation or change through the individuals who identify with a given group or social
category and act in their name’. Because they see these levels as ‘intertwined and mutually
constituted’, Triandafyllidou and Wodak (2003: 215) argue that ‘rather than using identi-
ties as “demographic facts” ’ or ‘social categories’ in which ‘a person may be potentially
classifiable by gender, ethnicity, class or age’, the focus should be ‘on whether, when and
how identities are used’ (Triandafyllidou and Wodak 2003: 215). Therefore, they propose
that attention needs to be given to ‘the process of identity formation’ (Triandafyllidou and
Wodak 2003: 210), so that ‘rigid distinctions between individual and collective identities’,
which take ‘identities as an essential quality that people “have” or as something concrete
to which they “belong” ’ (Triandafyllidou and Wodak 2003: 211) can be avoided. This
would help to acknowledge the struggles involved in forging and maintaining identities
(Bondi 1993: 97) and what Ang (2001: 194) refers to as the ‘complicated entanglements’
associated with ‘the ways in which differences in identity can be negotiated’. According
to Shields (2008: 308), ‘understanding of the fluidity in and between and within identity
categories’ can be enhanced by intersectional approaches.
However, investigation of ‘different levels of analysis may require radically different
strategies’ (Shields 2008: 306) and finding the appropriate model for multi-level enquiry
can be challenging given the different levels identified by various SIT and intersectional
scholars (Collins 1990; Deaux and Martin 2003; Hitt et al. 2007; Syed and Özbilgin
2009). SIT scholarship generally informs analysis of individual cognition and meso-
level group dynamics. By contrast, intersectional scholars focus on the interaction of
different levels of analysis (McCall 2005; Yuval-Davis 2006), which according to Syed
and Özbilgin (2009: 6–7), ‘are irreducibly interdependent and interrelated’. As Dill and
Zambrana (2009: 11, cited in Carastathis 2014: 307) suggest, ‘intersectionality reveals
“the workings of power, which is understood as both pervasive and oppressive [. . .] at all
levels of social relations” ’. This orientation helps to describe power dynamics generated
at the macro societal level but experienced and enacted at both the micro relational level
and within the meso organizational level. Potentially, these two perspectives could be
used alongside each other to analyse more effectively organizational contexts, but cau-
tiously, with attention paid to clarifying the levels of analysis employed and allowance
for categories of analysis to evolve and emerge in the process (Tatli and Özbilgin 2012).
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    521

Yet, while multi-level approaches emphasize the importance of context, the role of spa-
tial practices has not figured prominently in either intersectional or SIT scholarship.

Considering Social Identity Theory

and Intersectionality

Foundational differences in epistemology, ontology, and methodology exist between

SIT and intersectionality (Browne and Misra 2003; Carbin and Edenheim 2013). Yet,
both approaches have strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. Neither was intended to be
a stand-alone universal theory of identity. SIT’s original intention was to explain
inter-group relations rather than to ‘unravel, conceptually or empirically, the general
issues of identity or of the individual’s self-concept’ (Tajfel 1982: 2). Similarly, the origi-
nal proposition of intersectionality as a critical tool, explicitly excluded its use as a ‘new
totalizing theory of identity’ (Crenshaw 1991: 1244).
Tajfel’s elaboration of SIT set out to explain how cognitive processes shape and
function within intergroup relations and to provide a framework for understanding
inter-group competition or conflict, in-group/out-group comparison and, when cou-
pled with self categorisation theory, how groups form around shared social catego-
ries (Tajfel 1982; Turner et al. 1987). SIT’s focus is on collective phenomena generated
through individual cognitive processes, such as social comparison, self-enhancement,
uncertainty reduction, and internalisation of prototypical group norms (Hogg and
Turner 1987). SIT scholarship now recognises that an individual can have as many
‘social and personal identities’ as they have groups or relationships that matter to them
(e.g. Hogg 2006: 115). But for Tajfel, an individual had only one social identity, made up
of multiple group memberships. Shortly before his death in 1982, Tajfel settled on a clear
definition of social identity, which he suggested should:

be understood as that part of the individuals’ self-concept which derives from their
knowledge of their membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value
and emotional significance attached to that membership . . . Some of these memberships
are more salient than others; and some may vary in salience in time and as a function of
a variety of social situations (Tajfel 1981, 255 cited in Tajfel 1982: 2–3, his emphasis).

In other words, for Tajfel and his immediate disciples, an individual’s group mem-
berships form his/her social identity, a singular concept, with different memberships or
categories within this identity varying in salience.
The conceptualisation of salience has also shifted in the post-Tajfel version of SIT
alongside the redefinition of social identity as a collection of multiple identities. First,
which identity is salient has become more determined by external circumstances, rather
than by the ‘value and emotional significance’ an actor feels for membership of a group
522    Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa

(Tajfel 1982). As Hogg (2006: 115) describes it, ‘in any given situation only one identity is
psychologically salient to govern self-construal, social perception, and social conduct.
As the situation or context changes, so does the salient identity or the form that the iden-
tity takes’. Moreover, salience is thought to involve a social aspect with actors ‘strategi-
cally competing’ with each other to shape the social context, so that subjectively more
‘meaningful and self-favoring’ identities become salient (Hogg and Terry 2001: 7). There
has also been a debate about the possibility of simultaneous salience of multiple identi-
ties (Ashforth and Johnson 2001: 46; Hogg 2006: 127).
By contrast, the focus of intersectionality has been on discriminatory processes (Brah
and Phoenix 2004; Davis 2008) and informed by the more sociologically and politically
oriented concerns of feminist, race and gender scholarship (e.g. Crenshaw 1991; Browne
and Misra 2003; Yuval-Davis 2006). From the outset, it has been concerned with the
dynamics of identity, power imbalances and multiple sources of oppression that mutu-
ally reinforce and exacerbate each other. Feminist scholars are divided on whether to
affirm intersectionality as a fully developed theory, or just a concept or reading strategy
(Davis 2008: 68) and calls have been made to address the diverse range of methodologies
adopted for investigating intersectionality (McCall 2005; Choo and Ferree 2010). There
is no doubt that intersectionality provides a means of raising the visibility and audibil-
ity of previously invisible and silenced groups. Yet its impact on sociology, according
to an assessment undertaken by Jones, Misra, and McCurley (2013: 2) found that only
around 17 percent of articles published in the top-ranked ‘sociology journals in 2009
were intersectional; the majority were relational, and the fewest use anti-categorical
models’. Given that the majority (77%) of the articles were empirical (Jones, Misra, and
McCurley 2013: 4) and that numerous scholars who claim to be adopting an intersec-
tional approach take ‘an additive approach rather than truly engaging with how social
statuses intersect’, Jones, Misra, and McCurley (2013: 7) concluded that greater attention
needs to be given to theory and methodology in this genre.
Increasingly, efforts have been made to integrate intersectional and SIT approaches
(Howard 2000; Azmitia, Syed, and Radmacher 2008; Jones, Kim, and Skendall 2012; Settles
and Buchanan 2014). Huddy (2001), for example, accepts the SIT idea that multiple groups
are associated with multiple identities, but she rejects the implication that identities are eas-
ily manipulated, citing her research into feminist identities (Huddy 2001: 137). Rather than
being fluid, flexible, and easily changed in response to circumstances, her findings suggest
that some identities are particularly stable within the self-concept. Huddy’s research provides
evidence that individuals are not simply helpless victims of circumstance, as once they have
invested in an identity and integrated it within their self-concept, it remains salient to them
in a wide range of situations. Other promising new approaches to intersectionality have
included a focus on ‘multidimensionality’ (Ehrenreich 2002) and ‘simultaneity’ (Holvino
2010, 2012), where ‘differences such as race, gender, class, ethnicity, nationality, and sexu-
ality coexist and are experienced simultaneously, [but] the importance or salience of spe-
cific differences at particular moments varies depending on the social context. This makes
for identities that are multiple, fluid, and ever-changing, instead of stable and one dimen-
sional’ (Holvino 2012: 174). The tension between Huddy and Holvino shows there is room
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    523

for research that can enhance understanding of the dynamics of power and competition at
work as internally salient identities are asserted in the face of externally imposed salience.
The critical difference with SIT is that the latter’s construal of social identities as ‘contextually
fluid’ (Hogg 2001: 200) seems to suggest that identities are easily and cheaply accumulated
and deployed in response to salient external circumstances. In stark contrast to intersec-
tional approaches, this downplays issues of oppression, power, and any sense of struggle.
It is the core purpose of intersectionality to unveil interlocking, overlapping, and con-
tested layers of identity and complex vectors of discrimination, difference, and identity
groupings that mutually reinforce and influence each other (Ehrenreich 2002; Yuval-
Davis 2006; Nash 2008). An intersectional approach to SIT could arguably ensure the
self-concept is understood as more complex than a neat package of atomistic identi-
ties waiting to be awakened by the appropriate salience stimulus. Concepts of simul-
taneous salience and overlapping identities have been proposed to address real world
problems where singular social categories are inadequate (Crisp and Hewstone 2000;
Ashforth and Johnson 2001: 45), such as in situations where the agent has multiple-
salient identities, but the circumstances allow only one such identity to be salient. A
good case in point is provided by the distinctiveness of laws focused on race and gen-
der in Australia, which require ‘minority ethnic women’ to choose whether to present
their experiences of simultaneous sexual harassment and racial discrimination ‘as being
about sex or race’. In effect, the legal regime ignores ‘the joint impact of race-and-gender
intersectionality’ and forces complainants to emphasise the salience of one identity over
another (Syed 2007: 1960). Such suppression of potentially salient identities results in
what social psychologists Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach (2008) call ‘intersectional invis-
ibility’. While intersectionality is not typically described in terms of social identity sali-
ence (Crenshaw 1991; Brah and Phoenix 2004), it does facilitate analysis of how people
characterised by multiple social categories of identity, difference and disadvantage (Cole
2009), are discriminated against one category at a time (Crenshaw 1991). Hence, some
intersectional scholars have addressed the problem of categorisation. For instance,
McCall (2005) identified an anti-categorical approach, which avoids stereotyping; an
approach that acknowledges the need for categories but stresses their intracategorical
complexity, and an approach which may acknowledge the complexity but elects to use
categories strategically. Addressing the same problem, Tatli and Özbilgin (2012) pro-
pose an emic, rather than etic, approach to social categories. An emic approach allows
categories of difference to emerge during research processes, also enabling exploration
of power imbalances in identity negotiation, while an etic approach defines categories
that remain static throughout. As their systematic literature review reveals, the latter
is by far the most common approach to research, but tends to constrain the findings.
Similarly, social constructionist perspectives argue for more consideration of the inter-
play between individual differences and collective identities, as a key insight of inter-
sectionality is that social categories benefit some and disadvantage others who are less
prototypical (Huddy 2001; Purdie-Vaughns and Eibach 2008). As Brown (2000) notes,
different categories have different social psychological dynamics of occupational groups
or political affiliations, versus larger categories like ethnicity, gender, and religion.
524    Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa

Multiple Levels

SIT and intersectionality both conceptualise identity as a pluralist construct that oper-
ates on multiple levels. Brewer (2003) makes the point that SIT is a bridge between
individual and group levels of analysis. Some scholars note that social categories and
interpersonal networks operate as two different levels for identity work (Deaux and
Martin 2003). The initial focus on intergroup relations and cognitive processes, along
with a growing emphasis on business and organizational contexts and management
(Ashforth and Mael 1989; Hogg and Terry 2001) naturally focused SIT on meso and
micro level interactions, but rarely on the interplay between differing levels of analysis.
And while scholars working from an intersectional perspective, like Choo and Ferree
(2010: 134), have called for a multi-level awareness of intersections within and across
levels, attention to the groups, networks, organizations and institutions that populate
the meso level are often strangely absent from intersectional theorising. The focus tends
to be on macro level social structures and norms that impact on individuals who are
assumed to be groups because they share a social category or categories.
SIT provides insight into inter-group dynamics, for example analysing the porosity
of group boundaries between high and low status groups and the impact of subjective
beliefs about legitimacy of group status (Hogg 2006). This offers insight into the com-
plex identity related cognitive processes at work when a minority representative finds
themselves accepted inside a dominant in-group. It also suggests a more sympathetic
reading of the dynamics at work when the isolated minority representative fails to
single-mindedly pursue the interests of their minority group, while negotiating shifting
categories, identity entrepreneurship, new in-group expectations and also doing the job
they get paid for.
While demonstrating powerful descriptive and explanatory potential, these various
conceptions of identity work and the power dynamics that minority representatives
experience, are largely concerned with the individual’s experience and actions at the
micro level of analysis. Intersectional analysis recognises the need for a new multi-cat-
egorical group. In contexts that require individuals to conform to single category sali-
ence, intersectionality offers a new, hyphenated (Settles and Buchanan 2014) category
and asserts its right to recognition. As others identify with the nascent group, through
a process of negotiation, struggle, and conflict, it gradually achieves recognition. While
intersectionality recognises such entrepreneurial identity work, there is little scholar-
ship on such group creation. Individuals responding to structural pressures by engag-
ing in creative identity work require collective identity work, performed at the level of
the organization or group. Intersectionality may help to explain the individual’s expe-
rience, but SIT can contribute insights on group formation (Turner 1982; Ashforth
and Mael 1989). On the one hand, SIT struggles with inter-group asymmetry (Brown
2000). On the other, intersectionality provides a framework for mapping the dynamics
involved when self-concept and in-group perceptions are out of step, or in conflict with,
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    525

out-group perceptions or dominant structural perceptions of the identity imposed on a

group.
The idea that particular social categories constitute a ‘group’ is common in the formu-
lation of intersectionality. In her early work Crenshaw (1991) acknowledged the impor-
tance of ‘groups’ consisting of race, gender, sexual orientation and other categories in
shifting perceptions from ‘isolated and individual’ to ‘social and systemic’. Indeed she
used the term ‘group’ seventy-seven times in her discussion of identity politics, which
she described as a source of ‘strength, community, and intellectual development’ for
these ‘groups’ (Crenshaw 1991: 1241–2). However, she gave no attention to the processes
involved in actual group formation. Crenshaw is not alone in ignoring the potentially
difficult and contested process of forming a ‘group’ as a collective entity once a poten-
tially unifying characteristic has been recognised. McCall (2005: 1778) certainly noted
the difference between naming and creating a group, but focused on the complexities
raised by the problem that however many new social groups are identified, the complex-
ity of identity resists categorisation into neat groups. While calling for a more detailed
and interdisciplinary unveiling of the complexities inherent in intersectional identities,
she still tends to assume that ‘groups’ are pre-existing and available for study.
SIT could supplement the intersectional perspective by facilitating attention to the
processes by which individuals ‘share a common social identification . . . or . . . per-
ceive themselves to be members of the same social category’ (Turner 1982: 15). Arguably
though both SIT and intersectionality could benefit from consideration of the costs,
risks and creative effort involved in the social construction of a group and of the identity
factors once the group has emerged, rather than imagining such groups arrive ready
formed from the simple discovery of a common social category.
It is important, however, to also acknowledge that identity is fundamentally linked to
practices that occur in distinct spaces (Taksa 2000). As Valentine (2007: 19) acknowledged
in opening a conversation about intersectionality within feminist geography, an intersec-
tional perspective could contribute to, and benefit from, a focus on the ‘dominant spatial
orderings that define who is in place/out of place, who belongs and who does not’. Studies
in the field of racialised masculinity have made a significant contribution in this regard.

Examining Racialised Masculinities

Attention to the social and cultural intertwining of masculinity and ethnicity in the field
of masculinity studies first occurred in the mid-1990s when Cornwall and Lindisfarne
produced an edited collection that ‘offered a new perspective for viewing gendered
identities and subverting dominant chauvinisms on which gender, class, race and other
hierarchies depend’ (Cornwall and Lindisfarne 1994: 2). This work sought to remedy
the anglo-centric orientation of masculinities, which effectively universalised Western
perspectives and largely overlooked the intersecting identity experiences of men from
non-Western backgrounds. The sentiment within much early scholarship on the
526    Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa

intersections of race and masculinity was that masculinities studies was overwhelm-
ingly a discipline organized by Western men, for Western men, and about Western men;
resulting in the marginalization of men from ‘othered’ (racial) contexts. From the late
1990s, then, critical masculinities studies started to engage with the concept of race,
especially intersectional ideas about race, and of the place of racialised men within the
discipline (Louie and Low 2003). Almost twenty years later, De Neve (2004: 65) noted
that few studies of racialised masculine practice had ‘ “localised” the construction of
masculinities in specific places or addressed the manner in which they are shaped by
particular localities.’ Critical masculinities studies has reached out to this literature
through the ‘postcolonial turn’ and expanded upon it.
The most recent substantial addition to this corpus of literature is the edited collec-
tion about Men and Masculinities in Southeast Asia by Michele Ford and Lenore Lyons
(2012b). Apart from this, other noteworthy additions include examinations on: the con-
struction and contestation of racialised masculinities in urban areas (Srivastava 2010);
the construction of racialised masculinities in rural areas (Chopra, Osella, and Osella
2004); the masculine experience of second generation migrant males in the developed
West (Noble 2007, 2009; Kalra 2009; Thangaraj 2010); racialised masculinities and sex-
ual identity and practice (Boellstorff 2005; Osella and Osella 2006; Caluya 2008); and
racialised masculinities and the experience of transnational labour (Datta et al. 2009;
Kitiarsa 2012). According to Osella, Osella, and Chopra (2004) much has been writ-
ten and published on masculine identity and the experience of race since Cornwall and
Lindisfarne’s influential publication. However, a great deal of this work has been uneven
and constrained in scope, particularly when compared with Western masculine forma-
tions, their intersections with other identity forms, their spatial patterning, and pro-
cesses of hegemony and dominance.
Raewyn Connell’s theorisations have been enormously useful in the development of
an analytical framework examining racialised masculinities. Connell (1987) was argu-
ably the first to cogently conceptualise the existence of plural masculine forms against
a backdrop of the material reality of everyday power relations and gender identity.
Connell’s famous theory of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ demonstrates that masculinity is
heavily defined against femininity, yet is also patterned across competing masculine
forms structured through varying levels of dominance: complicit, subordinate, and
marginal masculinity conceptualised through intersections of race, class, sexuality, and
the like (Connell 1995).
The notion of a suite of masculinities and of the structured relation between hegem-
onic and subordinate forms has been productively examined in many disciplines,
including sociology and critical masculinities studies. But it has also been widely con-
tested and discussed. For example, useful contributions have come from empirical
studies demonstrating the socially legitimising role oppositional and negotiated con-
sumption practices may play for men positioned in subordinated social identity catego-
ries (Kates 2004). Across many recent ethnographies of racialised masculinity, there are
debates over how hegemonic masculinity is conceptualised, and who is represented by it
(Coskuner-Balli and Thompson 2013). Beasley’s (2008) critique of Connell argued that
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    527

despite its productive tenor, especially its desire to illuminate the dimensions of multiple
masculinities and gendered power relations, Connell’s essentialising framework ends
up reducing the complexity and specificity of the actual ‘doings and sayings’ of men.
It is noteworthy that, given Connell’s structuring framework of masculinity grounded
in personality traits and attributes, Connell has acknowledged that some of these criti-
cisms are warranted (Messerschmidt 2008).
Osella, Osella, and Chopra (2004: 1) similarly argue against an over-reliance on
approaches to hegemonic masculinity pointing out that much work on racialised mas-
culinity has been ‘preoccupied with testing out [Connell’s] theory against specific local
cases or concerned to argue for or present the specificity of the ethnographic partic-
ular.’ Ford and Lyons (2012a) make a similar point: that racialised masculinity cannot
be reduced to a simple set of abstract meanings, but rather is co-constituted through a
matrix of gender processes and meanings calibrated to specific cultural, temporal, spa-
tial, and situational contexts. While Osella, Osella, and Chopra (2004) reject the con-
cept of hegemonic masculinity altogether because of its homogenization and focus on a
singular masculine type, Ford and Lyons (2012: 12), following Srivastava (2004), suggest
‘it is no longer even possible to conceive of a pristine theoretical and cultural world of
“non-Westernness” unmarked by a history of asymmetrical interactions.’
Similar to Ford and Lyons, we understand racialised masculinity as less a psycho-
logical than a cultural reality, and focus on questions of subjectivity, the ideological
construction of masculinity; and its interaction across other vessels of identity such
as sexuality and race. As well as seeing racialised masculinity through a more cultural
lens, this chapter—again following Ford and Lyons—also conceptualises masculinity as
a strategic interaction and focuses on the construction of identities through local net-
works of masculine practice, responding to and moulding social situations, and nego-
tiating one’s social relations with others (Datta et al. 2009; Thangaraj 2010). Key to this
perspective is an emphasis on the vitality of the spaces, places, and situational contexts
of the lived experiences of gendered power and practice.

Spatial Contexts of Racialised

Masculinity

The sociohistoric and spatial patterning of masculinity and male identity provides evi-
dence that masculinity is a socio-cultural and relational practice. A number of recent
works (Osella and Osella 2006; Walsh 2011) catalogue the complex interactions between
masculinity, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, transnational labour, and lifestyle in
national and immigrant settings, across various geographic locations of, for example,
the street and leisure and consumption space, and from within the institutional spaces
of the military and the residential slum, and especially the home and work space. A
notable feature of this work is its attention to how the physical nature of these spatial
528    Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa

contexts shapes and choreographs the very nature of the lived experience of masculinity,
and how masculinity is linked to other central categories of social relations. It may well
be that some of the most sophisticated theorisations of racialised masculinities practice
are themselves influenced by cultural geographies of gender and sexuality (van Hoven
and Hörschelmann 2005b; Noble 2009).
Van Hoven and Hörschelmann’s (2005a: 5) conclusion that ‘space has been shown to
be gendered in many ways, while gender itself is seen to be constructed through spatial
relations and geographical imaginations’ indicates a refined understanding of the nego-
tiated and fluid interplays between space and gender identity. Srivastava’s (2010) recent
analysis of urban space and commodity politics in Delhi exemplifies this approach. His
outline of the way that masculinity unfurls across a number of ‘registers’, allows us to
witness the everyday ‘splitting’ of masculine identities, the ‘crossing’ of category ‘bor-
ders’, as identity forms are developed that are more complicated and fragmented in quo-
tidian operation than those presented by traditional portraits of the contemporary man.
These ideas are pertinent to a recent Australian case before the New South Wales (NSW)
Anti-Discrimination Board in which a Jewish male worker was ‘unable to work beyond
a certain distance from home on Fridays as he had to get home by sunset for ethno-
religious reasons’ (Anti-Discrimination Board NSW 2014).1 Here we see inconsistency
and tension between various identities and identity norms, notably between traditional
Western masculine breadwinner and employment norms and those associated with
ethno-religious identity and practices. These practices challenge our perspectives of
how work-based masculinity is constituted and also the ways that work-based spaces
can be at once gendered and imbued with ‘ethno-religious’ implications. Applying
Srivastava’s insights enables us to discern a multifaceted picture of masculinity and
the negotiated manner through which performances of gender practice are enacted in
mundane, everyday locales such as the workplace. Significantly, the insights developed
through this case study and Srivastava’s work stress the spatial and relational dimension
undergirding racialised masculinity.

Legitimacy, Spatial Context,

and Racialised Masculinity

All identities, including masculine identity, are constructed and operate according to a
perceived social fit or difference with broader cultural norms—according to shades of
cultural legitimacy (Kates 2004). Noble’s (2009: 876) recent work on male identity notes

1
The Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW was set up under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW)
to promote anti-discrimination and equal opportunity principles and policies throughout NSW and to
administer the Act. It is part of the NSW Department of Justice. It handles complaints of discrimination,
investigates and conciliates complaints when appropriate. See <http://www.antidiscrimination.justice.
nsw.gov.au/Pages/adb1_aboutus/adb1_aboutus.aspx>.
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    529

a growing awareness of the spatial dimensions involved in the process of granting cul-
tural legitimacy to racialised groups of men, including Muslim men. Noble writes of a
complex interplay of class, gender, ethnicity, and age ‘even within the apparent singular-
ity of Muslim identity.’ He argues that the identification of young men as Muslim is only
one part of who they see themselves. This approach locates questions of power through
a sensitivity towards their deployment in specific places and contexts. Noble emphasises
that gender is enmeshed with ethnicity and class. He also hints at its productive poten-
tial: that there is a range of masculine legitimacies that can be bestowed on men from
racialised backgrounds.
Kenway and Hickey-Moody (2009), for example, take account of the spatialised
workings of masculine practice in local geographies, tying male practice to cultural
legitimacy within a globalised leisure context. In the process, they develop a more
graded conceptualisation of masculinity than Connell’s—sacrosanct, subversive, and
scorned—that recognises that gender practice can be performed through varying
shades of intensity. The overall effect is to develop a more vivid tapestry of the lived mas-
culine experience of the young men in their study. This more nuanced understanding
of masculine identification is amply evident in a decision handed down in Australia
by the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal. Termed the ‘bombchucker’ case, it
involved the loss of an appeal by transport giant Toll Express against a former employee,
a Muslim man of Lebanese background who was born in Australia and returned there
after attending school in Lebanon and who was subjected to racist slurs by fellow Toll
employees. The complainant, Mr Mohamed Abdulrahman, was repeatedly referred to as
‘Osama bin Laden’ and ‘Mokaakaakaahomed’ by his manager, who ‘asked him to change
his name to an Anglo-Saxon name such as “John” ’ (New South Wales Administrative
Decisions Tribunal 2007: 4). Against a backdrop of a culture fractured by panic over
the place of young Lebanese Australian men and of Islamic migrant masculinities in a
post Sept 11 world (Noble 2007, 2009), the case demonstrates how the work space can be
a site where culturally legitimising practices are performed. In this instance, the racial
slurs against Abdulrahman served to delegitimate Abdulrahman’s cultural background
and ignored his Australian origin. A case such as this, involving multiple, simultaneous
identity negotiations and in-group and out-group processes could be productively ana-
lysed from both intersectional and SIT perspectives.

The Experiences of Racialised Men

The work of Datta (2009) and Caluya (2008) is equally rich in outlining the complex
experiences of the intertwinings and intersections of race, ethnicity, masculinity,
sexuality, and cultural legitimacy. Here, it is not so much about border crossing and
the synching in unison of fundamental social identities as it is about recording both
the ‘messiness of layered subjectivities and multi-dimensional relations’ (Hopkins
and Noble 2009: 815) in specific spatial contexts, and the ‘circuits of recognition’
530    Glen Powell, Laknath Jayasinghe, and Lucy Taksa

(Noble 2009) in racialised men’s everyday lives. In Datta’s (2009) case, as in the various
studies edited by Ford and Lyons (2012b), it is the impact of migration from develop-
ing nations to the west—on male identity, conventions, and norms—that is unearthed
and examined. Here, the idea of mobility and mobile masculinities arises. Datta
(2009: 854) sums up the issue nicely, arguing for the need to ‘consider how gendered
identities travel and how these identities are remade at each stage of the migration pro-
ject in relation to a range of different and often contradictory gender regimes encoun-
tered in different places.’ She argues the need to unpack the category of ‘migrant men’,
acknowledging that a range of vectors enable male migration; and that the impact of
migration often confers a ‘double masculine consciousness’—subordinate in the host
country, yet domineering and hypermasculine in the home country.
Caluya (2008) spins this issue in an interesting direction by incorporating affect and
ideas of sexual desire into the mix. His study examines how racialised sexual desire
produces precise spatial formations and practices that confine gay Asian men into
literal ghettos, or racialised clusters, in gay male cultural space in Sydney. The neat-
ness of Caluya’s research is that he challenges us to rethink the nature of racialised and
sexually ‘liberatory spaces’, demonstrating that, often, it is a case of ‘smooth’ and ‘stri-
ated’ spaces coexisting and shaping each other through choreographed, performative
acts involving gender, race, racialism, and desire. In this sense, the discussion shifts
from one of categories of social being to the processes and meanings through which
racialised masculine experience is formed. From this perspective, masculine identity
in the work place is enmeshed within the ‘specific particularities of experienced’ iden-
tities concerning oppression and social inequality (Brown 2012: 542) rather than in
essentialist and more singular social constructivist notions of masculine identity. In
addition, in his effort to recognise the difficulties of practicing masculinity for those
operating from outside of the normative spheres of gender, Muñoz (1999: 6) showed
that even ‘minority identifications are often neglectful or antagonistic to other minori-
tarian positionalities’ (Muñoz 1999: 8).
In his work on how mainstream understandings of the masculine bodies of racialised
gay men articulate questions of felt experience, movement, embodiment, identity ambi-
guity, fear, and uncertainty, Caluya (2008: 287) alerts us to how power and dominance
contain performative elements. An evidence note from the Toll case dramatizes this
issue. Let us remember that Mr Abdulrahman was born in Australia. In evidence note
13 (New South Wales Administrative Decisions Tribunal 2006: 21) a choreographed
display of masculine power about what constitutes the nature of ‘Australian’ identity
is demonstrated through the way that Mr Abdulrahman’s manager, Mr Wallace, rou-
tinely repeats the ‘Mokaakaakaahomed’ slur in face to face encounters and more insidi-
ously—through deliberate calls of this slur over the office loudspeaker system, ‘mocking
and embarrassing’ Mr Abdulrahman over his Lebanese background. Mr Wallace’s per-
formative utterance of the racial slurs over the loudspeaker in effect turns the entire Toll
work place into a racially striated space of masculine power–one that is affectively expe-
rienced by Mr Abdulrahman as mocking, embarrassing, shaming, and humiliating, and
reduces his desire to identify with the Australian in-group in his workplace. We see here
 Intersectionality, SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY, AND EXPLORATIONS    531

how analyses attuned to how the male subject experiences discourses of male power
have the potential to reshape and deepen our understanding of the interplay between
identity, gender, race/ethnicity, space, and bodily movement.

Conclusion

This chapter has considered a number of pathways for the study of diversity and identity.
Specifically it has presented an overview of the approaches adopted by scholars under the
umbrellas of intersectionality and social identity theory, two of the leading approaches
that are rarely considered together. Although fundamentally different in disciplinary ori-
gins, epistemology, and ontology as well as political and also ideological orientation, both
traverse the same ground exploring identity categories, relations, and multiple levels. Both
also seek to make sense of dimensions and categories of individual and group identity.
While intersectionality places emphasis on power and oppression, SIT emphasises mat-
ters of cognition. Yet both in different ways struggle with multiplicity. Some, generally
feminist psychology scholars, have engaged with intersectionality in an effort to extend
the boundaries of their discipline. At the same time feminist sociologists have noted that
intersectional approaches have been concentrated in specific sub-fields without making
great inroads in the majority of highly ranked journals in their field. In the meantime,
intersectionality approaches have spread to a range of other fields including geography
and masculinity studies. It is particularly in the last named field that great strides have
been made to address not only the hybridity of identity/ies but also the everyday nego-
tiations involving practices engaged in by individual and collective bodies operating in
space. The bringing together of these diverse approaches to the study of identity/ies, with
their diverse and often divergent range of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary orientations,
definitions and conceptualizations, methodologies and focus, is intended only as a gate-
way to further dialogue among scholars concerned to unpack the complexities involved in
the analysis of intersections between various categories of identities and relations.

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 Pa rt V I

W H E R E TO G O F ROM
HERE?
 Chapter 26

E xamining Di v e rsi t y
in Organiz at i ons from
Critical Perspe c t i v e s
The Validity of the Research Process

Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

Introduction

Research on diversity in organizations explores hierarchical organized dichotomies,

such as the norm of the ideal worker and its implicit counterpart (Acker 1990; Tienari,
Quack, and Theobold 2002). By examining the gender, race, class, age, or sexual ori-
entation dimension of organizations, scholars reveal implicit assumptions about which
categories are the norm and which categories deviate. Classical examples are organiza-
tions taking men’s experiences and masculinity as the norm and women’s experiences
and femininity as the other (Calás and Smircich 1992; Knights and Kerfoot 2004; Bendl
2005), or the experiences of the white minority as the norm and the black majority as the
opposite (Holvino 2008). Feminist and anti-racist scholars have pleaded for critical per-
spectives on organizations, putting the experiences of people in subordinated categories
as central rather than in the margins (Reinharz 1992). They argue that taking the empiri-
cal perspective of these subordinate ‘others’ in the centre of the analysis will positively
influence the validity of the research results (Reinharz 1992; Essers and Benschop 2009),
where validity is defined as ‘whether the claims, implications and conclusions found in a
piece of research can be justifiably made’ (Mills, Durepos, and Wiebe 2010: 962).
We aim to (further) explore the meaning of validity in research from critical perspec-
tives, by discussing how methodological decisions in different phases of the research
process influence the knowledge that is derived. We define a critical perspective as a
research approach that aims at revealing organizational norms, in particular hierarchi-
cal organized dichotomies, in order to make organizations more inclusive for groups
540    Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

that deviate from the norms. In this sense it differs from mainstream research on diver-
sity in organizations, where gender, race, class, age, or sexual orientation are examined
as single variables and organizational norms are taken for granted. In this chapter we
illustrate research agendas of scholars who examine diversity in organizations from a
variety of critical perspectives, and discuss their methodological decisions and the
consequences for the validity of the knowledge they derive in different phases of the
research process.

Research Agendas from a Critical

Perspective

Social phenomena in organizations are often explored and explained from the perspec-
tive of hegemonic groups, in many cases white, heterosexual, middle-class, able-bodied
men (Hearn 1996; Knights and Kerfoot 2004). To attain knowledge that incorporates
the perspective of the whole organization, organization studies need to incorporate the
empirical perspectives of marginalized groups. To put it bluntly, research from critical
perspectives calls for studies that examine organizational phenomena from the perspec-
tive of women employees, black employees, lower class, ageing, and disabled workers,
among others (Bryant and Jaworski 2011; Zanoni 2011). These studies can reveal how
diverse identities in organizations can discursively and materially reproduce unequal
power relations and so contribute to changing these power relations.1
Organization studies are not only dominated by the perspective of white, middle-class
heterosexual men, but also by the perspective of Western organizations (Prasad
and Prasad 2002). This suggests that research in organizations with an American or
European descent or location is often understood as providing universal knowledge
that can be applied in organizations all over the world. To prevent this knowledge from
being falsely considered externally valid, organization studies need to involve the per-
spective of a broader variety of organizations, such as businesses run by immigrants
in Western countries (Essers and Benschop 2009) and locally owned organizations in
South America (Jabbour et al. 2011), Africa, and South East Asia (Saha 2012). Therefore,
using critical perspectives calls for conscious decisions about which persons and organ-
izations in which particular context to examine.
One of the key issues in examining diversity in organizations from critical perspec-
tives is the way in which different strands of diversity are included. Organizations
often perceive and treat workplace diversity as a strategic choice (Jonsen, Maznevski,
and Schneider 2011), taking diversity initiatives focusing on single identities rather
than considering the multiple identities that many diverse groups have to negotiate

1
In line with Chapter 8, this volume, diverse identities are recognized not as matters of ‘having’, but as
discursive processes of ‘becoming’ (Zanoni et al. 2010).
Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical Perspectives    541

(Ruwanpura 2008). Previously this has also been true of diversity research, although
there is an increasing recognition that research needs to take a more holistic approach
towards individuals and their relationships with the organization. For example,
Tatli and Özbilgin (2012) argue that diversity research reveals a dominance of an etic
approach, which takes a single category focus, has static and fixed notions of differ-
ence, and therefore limits the inclusion of certain categories. However, to overcome
fixed mutually exclusive categories, it is not sufficient just to add elements of diversity
together (e.g. gender and race), as the experiences of a black woman are both differ-
ent and similar to white women and black men (Nash 2008). Tatli and Özbilgin call
for an emic approach, which starts the analysis of diversity by identifying relations
and processes of power that manifest themselves in the struggle for the accumulation
of different forms of capital, namely human and social capital. Critical perspectives
call for ignoring disciplinary boundaries in empirical research and aim at breaking
down universal categories for operationalization: scholars should recognize how all
empirical knowledge about diversity is time and space, or in other words, context
dependent. This is supported by the work of Özkazanç-Pan (2012), who postulates
that the problem is with the very notions of ‘inclusive’ and ‘alternative’, which are
still theorized based on Western liberal humanist ideas without regard to their meta-
theoretical assumptions. It is not sufficient for researchers merely to ‘contextualize’
the participants of diversity research, as diversity cannot be independent of the partic-
ular research exercise. They need to investigate the interrelationships between context
and power by developing theorizations and practices that turn this modality of power
against itself (Ahonen et al. 2013).
There are a number of studies that demonstrate the benefits of analysing the intersec-
tion of multiple categories of diversity to understand inequality. For example, Woodhams,
Lupton, and Cowling (2013) investigated the impact of multiple categories of disadvan-
tage related to remuneration (i.e. gender, race, disability, and age). They found that those
with more than one disadvantaged identity had lower pay than those with a single disad-
vantage, and introducing more sources of disadvantage results in further remuneration
penalties. A less obvious form of discrimination was identified by van Laer and Janssens
(2011), who found that it was small exclusionary acts, such as not inviting women to social
events, that had the most profound impact on reproducing power differences. These acts
potentially endangered the motivation of employees, the way individuals performed, and
the way they were consequently evaluated: reproducing gender, racial, and ethnic ste-
reotypes. Disadvantage is socially constructed, thus in order to understand the context
within which disadvantage occurs researchers should not only look at the organization,
but also at wider society as well. This is clearly demonstrated in the work of Haq (2013)
who explores the impact of multiple identities on women in India, including colour, caste,
religion, ethnicity, and marital status. Exploring the socio-cultural traditions leading to
the intersection of multiple identities offers a paradigm shift from mainstream, Western
views of gender as a single dimension of inequality.
Most studies of diversity in organizations typically focus on the organization level,
rather than individual or social levels, examining implementation of HR policies and
542    Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

change strategies through organizational practices. This has raised a number of inter-
esting issues, including managers’ commitment to diversity (Bell 2011), the level of
involvement in implementation (Pitts et al. 2010; Sabharwal 2014), the areas of diversity
that need to be addressed (Pless and Maak 2004), and the tendency to focus on spe-
cific groups (Roberson 2006). For example, in Brazil Jabbour et al. (2011) found that the
beliefs and values held by senior management are crucial to the successful implementa-
tion of diversity policies and diversity management requires the strong and continuous
support of senior management in order to sustain efforts to implement HR policies. This
concurs with work in the UK (Mulholland, Özbilgin, and Worman 2006), US (Kossek,
Markel, and McHugh 2003), and Asia (Saha 2012) which showed that if managerial
beliefs and values were unfavourable, regardless of the elements of diversity covered by
organizational policy, change strategies would be inadequate. For example, recruitment
as a change strategy cannot tackle the institutional and structural framework of oppres-
sion (Healy et al., 2010) if there is not a positive climate and supportive group norms
(Kossek, Markel, and McHugh 2003; Jonsen et al. 2013). HR policies that seek to elimi-
nate discrimination without addressing the underlying unequal power relations tend to
lead to unsystematic, uneven, and subjective treatment of different employee groups.

Phases of a Critical Research Process

The methodological decisions in examining diversity from critical perspectives relate to

the systematic and theoretical underpinning of the specific methods of data collection
and analysis. This has potential consequences for all phases of the research process: it
may influence the research questions to ask, the research strategies to apply, the data
sources to collect and analyse, and the way to assess both the role of the researcher and
the contribution of research. In the following sections we will discuss with examples the
consequences of these choices for the validity of the knowledge that is derived.

Research Questions
Using critical perspectives affects the research questions about diversity in organizations
that are being asked. Being aware of the interrelatedness of different categories of diver-
sity, scholars may prefer to explore the intersection between them rather than focusing
on a single identity. For example, examining class through the lens of gender, disability,
and age, in the context of automobile industries (Zanoni 2011), or examining gendered
and classed bodies in relation to place, in the context of Australian mining and food
industries (Bryant and Jaworski 2011). Nevertheless, we argue that focusing on a par-
ticular diversity identity, such as women, migrants, or disabled people, can be a useful
step towards empowering marginalized groups, on the condition that scholars recog-
nize the differences within these groups and do not reproduce the differences between
Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical Perspectives    543

marginalized and hegemonic groups. Since the context of knowledge is extremely

important in critical diversity research, the research questions will be directed towards
explaining a social phenomenon in a particular context rather than making universal
claims. This does not disqualify critical research on diversity in organizations from
being theory oriented or externally valid, rather it suggests that researchers using this
perspective contribute building blocks to theory building via the use of case studies in
particular contexts (George and Bennett 2004).

Critical Research Strategies

A critical research agenda influences how researchers attain knowledge about diversity
in organizations. Studying diversity in organizations from a critical perspective calls for
a research strategy that is suitable for revealing experiences that have not yet been theo-
rized and that nuance or fall outside organizational norms. This will logically lead to
a qualitative research strategy that allows for inductive knowledge production and an
emic perspective (Tatli and Özbilgin 2012). A classical choice would be to conduct com-
parative or single case studies that allow researchers to examine particular social situa-
tions in depth and combine diverse methods of data collection such as open interviews,
participant observation, and collecting documents and cultural artifacts. For example,
Tomlinson (2010) used comparative case study research to study six organizations in the
UK that included refugee women among their volunteers. Another classical research
strategy would be the ethnographic study, which allows the researcher to observe an
organization from within by performing fieldwork for a longer period. Zanoni (2011)
carried out three months of field work in a Belgian car factory, which allowed her to
make informal contacts and observe informal communication at the factory gate, in
the changing rooms, at the shop floor, and in the cafeteria, in addition to the more for-
mal data collection via semi-structured interviews with employees and the collection of
internal and external documents.
Alternative research strategies focus on one particular form of qualitative data col-
lection, mainly open interviews (van Laer and Janssens 2011: Lin and Mac an Ghaill
2013) or collection of documents (van den Brink and Benschop 2012). Van den Brink
and Benschop (2012) focused on document analysis to examine the construction of
academic excellence in professorial appointments in the Netherlands. They collected
971 appointment reports of application procedures. By comparing the criteria men-
tioned in the job description to the criteria during the final nomination phase, they
were able to reveal what criteria were decisive in distinguishing between the candi-
dates who were nominated and those who were rejected (van den Brink and Benschop
2012: 511).
As mentioned, a particular research strategy that is particularly appropriate in sup-
porting the study of diversity in organizations from critical perspectives is action
research (Eikeland 2006). In action research researchers not only study organiza-
tions from the perspective of outsiders or minority groups, but also consciously aim to
544    Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

improve the position of these groups by involving them in the research (Reid 2004).
For example, Bendl and Schmidt examined diverse strategies of feminist activists at an
Austrian university and supported this activism by organizing workshops that allowed
discussion and reflection between different generations of women activists (Bendl
and Schmidt 2012). As researchers they had been involved in various roles in feminist
activism at their own universities and, by presenting their own reconstruction of the
changes in national policies and in the managerial structure of their universities to dif-
ferent groups of activists, they were able to identify current needs and potential strate-
gies for further feminist activism in the managerial structures at the university (Bendl
and Schmidt 2012: 487). They wanted to give voice to both activists and administrators
in order to learn as much as possible from the process of changing organizational real-
ity through human interaction in the implementation of policy and strategy (Eikeland
2006). Räsänen and Mäntylä (2001) and Katila and Meriläinen (1999) also performed
action research within their own Finnish university by involving their own colleagues in
diversity issues via the use of seminars. Unlike Bendl and Schmidt (2012), they did not
address activists but rather tried to support active reflection about diversity among all
organization members.

Data Sources, Collection, and Analysis

Organizational research is often based on interviews with or observations of members
of hegemonic groups in Western organizations, such as (male) able-bodied manag-
ers and (white) professionals, but using such data sources runs the risk of reproducing
unequal power relations rather than revealing or criticizing them. As the introduc-
tion suggests, critical perspectives on diversity in organizations call for the selection
of research participants in empirical categories that fall outside organizational norms,
such as migrant workers (Ortlieb and Sieben 2010; van Laer and Janssens 2011; Lin and
Mac an Ghaill 2013), (refugee) women employees (Tomlinson 2010), shop-floor work-
ers (Bryant and Jaworski 2011, Zanoni 2011), homosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians (Pringle
2008), or disabled people within organizations (Wilson-Kovacs et al. 2008), businesses
run by (women) immigrants (Essers and Benschop 2009), or locally owned small and
medium enterprises in non-Western countries (Fielden and Davidson 2005, 2010). The
sample can also be taken from mainstream categories (e.g. white professionals), but with
the conscious intention to critically analyse the race, gender, sexual, and class identity of
the organization rather than take it for granted.
Critical scholars plead for collecting documents and cultural artifacts, such as
records, films, objects, and buildings to examine dominant culture (Reinharz 1992: 142).
The advantage of examining artifacts is twofold. First, they are naturalistic, since they
were not created for the purpose of the study but ‘found’. Second, they are ‘unobtru-
sive’, since they are not affected by the process of studying them, as in the case when
researchers ask interview questions or observe people. As Reinharz (1992) argued,
the results of studies based on analysis of documents and artifacts may be potentially
Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical Perspectives    545

more effective in convincing hegemonic groups about the presence of unequal power
relations than results of studies based on interviews and observations. For exam-
ple, Ogbonna and Hassis (2006) collected company documents and cultural artifacts
such as promotion videos, company newsletters, and training manuals to analyse the
dynamics of employee relationships in an ethnically diverse workforce in the UK. These
artifacts helped them to reveal indirect discrimination that was connected to language
abilities rather than ethnic background, but which affected groups with diverse ethnic
backgrounds disproportionally. Another example is the appointment reports of appli-
cation procedures of full professors in the Netherlands collected by van den Brink and
Benschop (2012), which helped to reveal gender and gendered practices in the con-
struction of academic excellence. On the basis of analysis of documents, combined with
interviews with application committee members, they showed that women were dis-
advantaged and men privileged in the application procedure on the basis of a gendered
construction of academic excellence. The fact that documents were produced by the
committee members themselves and could be unobtrusively accessed gave the research
results credibility.
However, collecting and analysing documents also has potential disadvantages for
the validity of knowledge production. Critical scholars have argued that the perspec-
tive of marginalized groups is sometimes not represented in official documents, since
these documents express the opinions of the majority rather than minorities in organi-
zations (Bleijenbergh 2013). In those cases the personal documents of members of those
disadvantaged groups have to be collected to compensate for this bias. Boone Parsons
and colleagues (2012) analysed letters from a US-based feminist grass-roots organiza-
tion from the 1970s, Stewardesses for Women’s Rights, to show the internal struggle
between the feminist ideals of the founders and the increasing push towards a bureau-
cratic structure from the leadership of the organization. The organization was set up
with the purpose ‘to fight sexual and racial discrimination and to ensure that women are
given equal employment and promotional opportunities’. However, the development of
the feminist grass-roots organization into a corporate business structure, with an execu-
tive director who could make autonomous decisions, caused a loss of direct influence of
the grass-root members it represented.
Sometimes personal documents are produced for research purposes rather than being
‘found’ within the organization. Lowson and Arber (2013) engaged twenty women nurses
in the UK to produce personal documents such as audio sleep diaries during a three-week
period to examine the gender effect of night work on their household responsibilities and
childcare. In addition, their partners and children were invited to complete daily audio
sleep diaries during a two-week period as well. They analysed seventy-four sleep diaries in
total and undertook interviews with all family members, allowing the researchers to show
how women night workers undertake complex planning of domestic tasks before their
night shifts begin and re-enter established domestic routines after their night shifts end.
So, when the perspective of marginalized groups is not represented in official documents,
researchers may need to use personal documents such as diaries or letters to incorporate
this perspective in empirical research. While collecting official documents may be the
546    Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

most valid choice to examine mainstream perspectives in organizations, the collection of

personal documents may be a more valid choice to reflect marginal voices.
Interviewing those who are outsiders to organizations or members of minority
groups within organizations is a good alternative for identifying their experiences with
and perspectives on organizational phenomena. This has consequences for the sam-
ple as outsiders to organizations, or minorities within organizations, may be more dif-
ficult to access than members of hegemonic groups, either because of their marginal
position or their low number. As a result, researchers often use snowball sampling to
identify their research candidates and involve them in the study. For example, van Laer
and Janssens (2011) interviewed twenty-six second generation migrant professionals
from Turkish or Maghreb backgrounds in Belgium to investigate subtle discrimination
at the workplace. Since only a few employees fitted that profile, they started by asking
HR managers they were acquainted with and multicultural organizations they knew to
identify individuals within this profile and, when contacting these individuals them-
selves, they asked them to refer them on to other professionals with a migrant back-
ground. By interviewing second generation migrant workers in white-collar jobs they
selected a group in a token position, potentially vulnerable to subtle rather than blatant
discrimination (van Laer and Janssens 2011: 1208). Essers and Benschop (2009) also
collected their respondents via snowball sampling when interviewing entrepreneurs
with a Moroccan or Turkish background in the Netherlands. This technique was also
used by Lin and Mac an Ghaill (2013) who conducted twenty-eight life-history inter-
views with male peasant workers in China to understand workplace relations of local,
non-Western working men. By conducting life-history interviews lasting between one
and four hours, they were able to reveal how the men constructed their own identity
in the process of moving from a rural context to an urban space. The men’s narratives
showed how they deployed traditional cultural resources while in the process of con-
structing modern, urban-located masculine identities in the workplace (Lin and Mac
an Ghaill 2013: 501).
Analysis from critical perspectives will often take a reflexive approach, requir-
ing participants to reflect on their knowledge and experiences. For example, Saha
(2012) used critical management incidents to explore the impact of values and beliefs
on hiring decisions in India. Critical management incidents support the participant
to remember critical moments in decision-making and to actively reflect upon them.
Saha found that even those managers who were more in favour of hiring minority can-
didates had mixed attitudes towards those candidates, demonstrating that personal
attitudes alone are not sufficient to determine the implementation of recruitment strat-
egies. It is perhaps not surprising that behaviour is not necessarily reflective of attitude,
as those involved in the process of transformation towards diversity have complemen-
tary and conflicting ways of constructing their own self (Bendl and Schmidt 2012). As
a result, the way they construct others is likely to be even more conflicted, inhibiting
their ability to understand the different needs and perspectives of those who do not fall
within the norm and hence their approaches to diversity management and inclusion
(Bell 2011).
Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical Perspectives    547

Assessing the Role of the Researcher

Another methodological decision to be discussed concerns the position of the
researcher in the production of knowledge about diversity. Scholars using critical per-
spectives argue that the role of the researcher in the research process is not value free
(Reinharz 1992). Researchers examining diversity in organizations from critical per-
spectives are (like researchers in general) expected to reflect upon their own role in the
research process (Chapter 16, this volume) to evaluate how they are part of the construc-
tion of knowledge (Reinharz 1992; Essers and Benschop 2009). In a reflection upon her
life-story interviews with women entrepreneurs of Moroccan or Turkish origin, Essers
(2009) argues for the explication of the different social locations of the researcher and
the participants examined to show how power structures may be reproduced. She
argues that balancing power relations in the data collection, data interpretation, and
writing phase of research is difficult to achieve and that researchers should not strive to
do so: rather she argues for recognizing the agency of both researcher and participant
in accomplishing organizational change (Essers and Benschop 2009). Bleijenbergh,
van Engen, and Vinkenburg (2013) reflect upon learning from the way deans in Dutch
universities portray women academics as opposite to the ideal academic. The research-
ers’ disciplinary background in arts made them expect publishing in international
peer reviewed academic journals to be the requisite for excellence. This was indeed
confirmed by interviews with arts deans, but the science deans considered visibility in
popular media and valorization of knowledge more important requisites for excellence.
The researchers learned that the characteristics of excellence were fluid and changeable,
while the deans consistently assumed that women academics deviate from the ideal.
The most radical position a researcher can take within the research process is within an
action research, aiming at changing organizational reality (e.g. Reid 2004; Bendl and
Schmidt 2012). The aim to improve the position of marginalized groups in organizations
calls for an involved rather than neutral and distanced position for researchers towards
research participants.

Assessing the Research Contribution

As we have argued, studying diversity in organizations from critical perspectives will
often lead to context oriented knowledge. How to assess the theoretical contribution
of such studies? The overview in this chapter shows that the research contribution, for
example, can be found in understanding the interplay between norms and opposite in
a specific context, in understanding the way different identity categories intersect, and
how inequality, discrimination, and unequal power relations are both reproduced and
can be altered. For example, Essers and Benschop (2009) have shown how the theoreti-
cal concept of the entrepreneur is based on Western norms and how entrepreneurs with
a migrant background switch between identities to meet demands from their ethnic
community and the hegemonic Western societal norms. The theoretical contribution is
548    Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

showing how entrepreneurial identities are adapted and negotiated to fit with the spe-
cific context. Bleijenbergh, van Engen, and Vinkenburg (2013) showed how the image of
the ideal scientist that deans at Dutch universities reproduce is fluid and varies between
different academic disciplines, but that the process of ‘othering women’ is constant. Here
the theoretical contribution is that the norm of the ideal worker depends on the specific
context, but that its masculine characteristics are continuously reproduced. Further,
Bryant and Jaworski (2011) demonstrated how assumptions about gender, embodi-
ment, and place influence how organizations understand and respond to skills short-
ages in the mining and food and beverage industry in Australia. The ideal of a bodiless,
abstract worker dominates the way these industries attract and retain workers in rural
and remote areas. The three studies mentioned above reveal how norms are both repro-
duced and can be altered in very different organizational contexts.
Another contribution of studying diversity from critical perspectives is increas-
ing our theoretical understanding about the relation between agency and structure.
Tomlinson (2010) showed the interplay between the agency of refugee women in the UK
in negotiating belonging and the structural processes of organizations in perpetuating
their status as outsiders. She compared the position of African and Middle East refugee
women in the UK with those of Iranian refugee women in the Netherlands (Ghorashi
1997), in that they want to be accepted as equal citizens but were treated as strangers.
She argues that refugee women should not be considered as passive victims, but rather
as active agents within the limited possibilities available to them (Tomlinson 2010: 292).
Consequently, researchers studying diversity in organizations from critical perspectives
produce contextual knowledge, but also contribute to larger theories. For example, they
contribute to theories about agency and structure by showing the complex interplay
between agency and structure for particular diversity identities in particular contexts.

Conclusion

In this chapter we have argued how examining diversity in organizations from critical
perspectives influences all phases of the research process, such as how to frame research
questions, what research strategies to select, which data sources to collect, and which
participants to choose, how to analyse the data, how to assess the role of the researcher,
and, finally, what contribution to make with the research in itself. Examining diversity
in organizations from critical perspectives calls for research questions that, for example,
examine organizational norms, reveal the intersection of different identity categories, or
examine the interplay between agency and structure. These questions are often asked for
specific places, groups, and time periods, since information about the context is consid-
ered very important for understanding social phenomena related to diversity.
We argue that using critical perspectives on examining diversity in organizations calls
for an emic perspective, that is, the empirical perspective of the marginalized ‘other’,
such as women refugees in labour organizations in their host country, lower class rural
Examining Diversity in Organizations from Critical Perspectives    549

workers in an urban context, and entrepreneurs with a migrant background. Sometimes

insiders, such as white, male managers in Western organizations, may be research par-
ticipants as well. Scholars include them in their research with a reflective approach to
involve them in organizational change process and to prevent the hegemonic perspec-
tive being taken for granted.
We found that scholars studying diversity from critical perspectives often use qualita-
tive research strategies, such as case studies, field studies, or action research, and per-
form a broad range of methods of data collection, such as participant observation, open
interviews, and collecting documents and cultural artifacts, sometimes combined with
quantitative research strategies, such as surveys or desk research, analysing existing
data. They collect policy documents, but also cultural artifacts, such as records, films,
subjects, and buildings, to show how unequal power relations are produced and repro-
duced. To reveal the perspective of minority groups or outsiders to organizations they
may also collect personal documents or ask respondents to produce personal docu-
ments for the purpose of the study. Sometimes the use of quantitative research strategies
such as surveys is particularly relevant in revealing how particular groups or perspec-
tives have been ignored in theorizing or policymaking.
Examining diversity from critical perspectives calls for an active reflection upon the
role of the researchers in producing knowledge, both in performing interviews and
observations and in analysing and reporting upon empirical material. With such an
approach the agency of both the researcher and the examined is taken into considera-
tion. The knowledge contribution of research is, for example, found in understanding
about how organizational norms are reproduced and adapted in specific organizational
contexts and what the interplay is between agency and structure for specific groups in
specific places at specific times.
This chapter shows a considerable amount of research on diversity in organizations
from critical perspectives. Nevertheless, this line of research is of limited size compared
with mainstream research on (diversity in) organizations. The future research agenda
in this field would be to explore further on an empirical basis areas such as the intersec-
tion of different categories of identity in particular contexts and the agency of outsid-
ers in changing organizational structures. In particular, the intersection of (dis)ability,
sexual orientation, and class with other identity categories is relatively underexplored
(Chapters 9 and 22, this volume). More research would be needed on the position of
non-Western organizations in a Western context, or diversity in organizations in the
upcoming economies such as those of the BRICS countries (Chapter 20, this volume).
The ultimate aim of this chapter is to contribute to the validity of research about
diversity in organizations, by discussing how methodological decisions in different
phases of the research process influence the knowledge that is derived and the theo-
retical contribution that can be made. Scholars in organization studies need to define
explicitly what they consider valid knowledge about diversity in organizations and how
they think this knowledge should be produced. They should not reproduce hierarchical
organized dichotomies in organizations by taking them for granted, but rather reveal
the implicit norms that prevail and question them from different perspectives. Using a
550    Inge Bleijenbergh and Sandra L. Fielden

critical empirical perspective not only potentially influences the whole research process,
but ultimately has consequences for the position of the researcher within this process
as well. With the discussion and overview in this chapter we hope to support the fur-
ther development of a critical research practice, in which the researcher recognizes and
actively reflects upon her or his role in producing knowledge about diversity in organi-
zations, considering the active role of the ones that are examined in this process as well.
Being part of this practice calls for the researcher to reflect upon what the research
results mean for making organizations more inclusive.

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 Chapter 27

F u t ure Challe ng e s for

Pr actices of Di v e rsi t y
M anage me nt
in Organiz at i ons

Yvonne Benschop, Charlotte Holgersson,

Marieke van den Brink, and Anna Wahl

Introduction

Diversity in the workforce in terms of social identity categories such as gender, race,
ethnicity, age, and class has become a prime concern for organizations in both the public
and private sectors, because in today’s globalized world organizations need a diverse
workforce in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities (Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle
2006; Zanoni and Janssens 2007; Ortlieb and Sieben 2013). Scholars and practitioners
seldom contest the importance of diversity in organizations any more. How to achieve
the organizational change that is needed to transform organizations into more inclusive
and diverse places to work is, nevertheless, much less obvious.
Organizational processes are complex and difficult to change and we still lack knowl-
edge of which practices have proven to be the most effective in different settings and
contexts. Diversity management practices refer to formalized practices developed and
implemented by organizations to manage diversity effectively (Yang and Konrad 2011).
Different strategies for change have been developed for diversity in general (Jewson
and Mason 1986; Kirton and Greene 2010) and gender in particular (Ely and Meyerson
2000b; Benschop and Verloo 2011; Wahl et al. 2011). Overall, the common sense among
diversity scholars seems to be that transformative strategies aimed at changing the ways
that work is divided, organized, and valued will be most effective to counter inequal-
ity. There are different examples of such transformative strategies. First, the post-equity
554    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

approach that focuses on improving organizational effectiveness by interrupting the

processes that produce gender inequalities (Ely and Meyerson 2000b). A second exam-
ple is diversity/gender mainstreaming that aims to ensure that organizational policies
impact evenly on all personnel and eliminate inequalities in organizational routines
(Benschop and Verloo 2006; Bacchi and Eveline 2009). Third, strategies to create inclu-
sive organizations use the diversity of knowledge and perspectives that members of
different groups bring to the organization to shape the organization’s strategy, work,
management, and operating systems and its core values and norms for success (Holvino,
Ferdman, and Merrill-Sands 2004). However, the transformative diversity interven-
tions that are highly regarded by scholars are still rare in organizational practice. This
has to do with their unattractiveness for policymakers and practitioners, because they
challenge the core organizational values and practices and there are few practical guide-
lines on how to achieve transformation (Benschop and Verloo 2011).
In this chapter, we zoom in on a set of diversity practices that prevail in organiza-
tions: training, mentoring, and networks. These practices meet scholarly critique for
their lack of transformation. They are often seen as targeting ‘the Other’ employees to
get them on a par with the majority employees, leaving the current system intact (Ely
and Meyerson 2000b; Zanoni et al. 2010) (see also Chapter 15, this volume). However,
it can be questioned whether values, practices, and routines indeed remain intact in the
organizations that engage in diversity training, mentoring, and networks.
The aim of this chapter is to assess more effectively the transformative potential of
these popular diversity practices. The notion of transformative potential means the
potential for diversity practices to diminish inequalities, defined as systematic dis-
parities in power and control over goals, resources, and outcomes (Acker 2006), by
changing organizational work practices, norms, routines, and interactions. The chap-
ter is structured as follows. We start with presenting a model that enables a systematic
comparison of the transformative potential of diversity training, mentoring, and net-
works. We then take stock of these three diversity practices and review the literature
around them to assess their transformative potential. We end with concluding remarks
about the theoretical and practical implications of the model and the future of diversity
practices.

The 3D-model

Our starting point for this text is a model originally developed by Wahl (1995) and elab-
orated by Holgersson and Höök (1997) and Wahl (2003). This model has been expanded
further through our joint efforts in discussing and evaluating the different methods for
this chapter. The purpose of the model is to structure different key dimensions in man-
agement strategies within a gender equality and/or diversity approach. In this compara-
tive analysis, the model will be used to discuss and analyse the transformative potential
of the three selected diversity practices. We named this new model the 3D-model, which
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    555

Table 27.1 The 3D-model: dimensions for the design of diversity practices

Content (C) Participants (P) Format (F)

Focus Power perspective Target group Affiliation Frequency Design

Gender Absent or Minority Combination Single event Individual

equality harmonious
Diversity Individual Majority Internal Repeated Interpersonal
Inclusion Multidimensional Mixed External Programme Interactive

stands for Dimensions for the Design of Diversity practices (see Table 27.1). It is important
to note that the model is a matrix that can be read in numerous combinations. All head-
ings represent a question and a choice. Each of the three alternatives of Focus can be
combined with all alternatives of Power perspective, Target group, Affiliation, Frequency,
and Design. Gender equality programmes can be either power absent, individual, or
multidimensional. In addition to this, they can either target a minority group, a majority
group, or a mixed group. The same goes for Diversity programmes and Inclusion ini-
tiatives. A diversity initiative can, for example, be an internal single event, targeted at a
mixed group, with a power absent perspective and interpersonal design. Another diver-
sity initiative can, for example, be a combination of internal and external programme
with a multidimensional and interactive approach.
The 3D-model serves three purposes. First, it serves as an analytical framework when
comparing the set-ups, consequences, and outcomes of different practices addressing
diversity in organizations. Second, it helps when identifying where additional empirical
material, that is, case studies of diversity practices in organizations, are needed. Third,
the model can serve as an academically informed qualitative assessment tool for practi-
tioners wanting to assess management interventions addressing diversity.
The model helps to systematize knowledge on the different possibilities and com-
binations that can be chosen when designing diversity practices and work for change
and enables a comparative analysis on how different set-ups result in different learning
outcomes and implications for transformational change. Previous research has shown
that, for example, both the composition of participants as well as the content in terms
of underlying theories and concepts has consequences for group processes and learning
outcomes (Wahl 1995; Ely and Meyerson 2000b; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Höök 2001;
De Vries 2010; Kirton and Greene 2010; Wahl et al. 2011).
The 3D-model consists of three dimensions, Content, Participants, and Format, which
in turn are broken down into more detailed sub-dimensions: (C) focus and power per-
spective, (P) target group and affiliation, (F) frequency and design. Each sub-dimension
can be combined in several different ways in the matrix, which allows for an array of dif-
ferent set-ups.
Focus represents the content in terms of problem analysis and knowledge dissemi-
nation in the diversity practice. Many strategies are focused on inequalities related to
556    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

gender and on problems connected to women’s subordination in society. Other strate-

gies target diversity issues, and can be specifically linked to one category, for exam-
ple, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability, or the intersections of several of these. Diversity
practices can either include or exclude gender issues. Some practices are more gen-
eral in addressing inequalities, aiming at creating a more inclusive culture overall.
Whereas diversity is concerned with the numerical representation of diverse employ-
ees, inclusion addresses their belongingness and uniqueness in the organization (Shore
et al. 2011).
Power perspective refers to if and how the content in the diversity practices addresses
power in relation to gender, diversity, or inclusion. The content could be power absent
or with a functional and harmonious understanding of power, as is often the case in
cross-cultural management and socio-biological views on gender (Romani, Höök, and
Holgersson 2011). Power can be addressed as something exercised among and between
individuals, or power can be seen as multidimensional in the sense that it simultane-
ously operates on a societal, organizational, and individual level and that there are
inherent conflict of interests (Halford and Leonard 2001; Linghag 2009).
Target group concerns the group composition of participants in the intervention. This
is named minority, majority, and mixed in the model. The meaning of these labels varies
according to the problem addressed in the intervention. Minority often signifies groups
of women, ethnic minorities, LGBT, or young people, but is of course dependent on the
local context in the organization. Majority often indicates, for example, men or national
majorities. Mixed groups can mean any kind of compositions that represent different
categories in relation to the problem addressed in the initiative.
Affiliation is a way to describe where the intervention is located. Many interven-
tions are organized internally, meaning that all participants, sometimes also the course
leaders, work in the same organization. Other programmes are organized by external
companies or consultants and are composed of participants from many different organ-
izations. Finally, some interventions are a combination of internal and external, for
example, mentoring programmes where the mentors are recruited externally and the
mentees internally.
Frequency depicts the volume of the intervention. Sometimes it is a single event,
for example, one lecture or seminar with an invited speaker. The initiative can also be
slightly extended into a series of seminars, lectures or, for example, a three-day course,
in the model named as repeated. All initiatives that cover a longer period of time are
called programmes, signifying a longer and often more demanding commitment from
the participants.
Design refers to the fact that there are several established ways of organizing and set-
ting up interventions addressing diversity. Diversity practices can have a traditional
one-way-communication lecturing approach where the individual is addressed or focus
on interpersonal activities. There are programmes with more process-oriented and
interactive approaches that build on mutual exchange between organizers and partici-
pants (Amundsdotter 2010). Sometimes these interactive approaches include initiatives
for change or projects aiming at transforming the organizations.
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    557

In conclusion, the model will be used here to analyse and discuss the transformative
potential of diversity training, mentoring, and networks. Diversity interventions come
in many different forms and though there are studies on different specific practices, there
is no comparative study providing a more comprehensive picture of the consequences in
terms of organizational change. The aim here is to provide such a comprehensive picture
building on existing research on diversity practices, in order to understand more fully
how knowledge and power relations related to diversity are reproduced or challenged
in organizational practices. In the following sections we will discuss diversity training,
mentoring programmes, and diversity networks in relation to the different dimensions
of the 3D-model.

Diversity Training

Training has been one of the most common responses to anti-discrimination legisla-
tion and calls for increased diversity in organizations (Paluck 2006; Anand and Winters
2008). Diversity training is an essential component of diversity programmes in organi-
zations (Roberson, Kulik, and Pepper 2003). According to Bezrukova, Jehn, and Spell
(2012: 208), the main objective of diversity training is for people ‘to learn how to work
effectively with different others which may increase overall success for both organiza-
tions and individuals’. The methods employed vary along a continuum from instruc-
tional methods to experiential training. Instructional methods are meant to raise
awareness of problems associated with lack of diversity or the mismanagement of
diversity and of the benefits of diversity. They may convey information on legislation,
policies, and/or information about underrepresented groups supposed to replace ste-
reotypes and myths (Ferdman and Brody 1996; Paluck 2006). Experiential methods take
a more participatory approach including, for example, practising communication skills,
raising awareness of perceptions of diversity, group discussions on ‘differences,’ and role
plays featuring situations with characters with a diverse background (Paluck 2006).

Content
In terms of focus, diversity training comes in many varieties. Sometimes diversity is the
label used but the actual content of the training targets a specific issue such as gender
equality or inequalities based on ethnicity or race. Also, training builds on different per-
ceptions of diversity, either focusing on social categories such as gender, race, ethnicity,
disability, religion, sexuality, or on a broader definition including, for example, differ-
ences based on skills, work style, political, or philosophical views (Paluck 2006). Some
training programmes focus on inclusion, that is, emphasizing what the categories have
in common in order to transform the organizational culture so that everyone feels wel-
come and can contribute their skills.
558    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

Anand and Winters (2008) suggest three approaches to diversity training that
roughly correspond to the three diversity paradigms proposed by Thomas and Ely
(1996): ‘discrimination and fairness’ that focuses on numbers and compliance, supports
assimilation and colour- and gender-absent conformism; ‘access and legitimacy’ that
promotes acceptance and celebration of difference based on business case arguments;
and ‘learning and integration’ that acknowledges different perspectives and approaches
among everyone and focuses on learning and personal development. Scholars have cri-
tiqued both the ‘discrimination and fairness’ and ‘access and legitimacy’ approach for
not addressing power differences and conveying an image of harmonious differences
(e.g. Ely and Meyerson 2000a; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Höök 2001; Litvin 2002; De
Vries 2010). The ‘learning and integration’ approach, however, rests on the recognition
that the power structures in the organization have to change in order for different per-
spectives to be equally legitimate and for work processes to be changed. In practice, few
adopt the ‘learning and effectiveness’ paradigm (Anand and Winters 2008).

Participants
Diversity training can target a wide variety of groups. According to a review of diversity
training literature by Roberson et al. (2003), the composition of the group of trainees is
a recurring discussion. According to Roberson et al., some scholars, such as Kirkland
and Regan (1997) and Baytos (1995), argue for demographically heterogeneous groups,
particularly with respect to visible dimensions of diversity such as gender, ethnicity,
and age. The heterogeneity is believed to enhance the quality of discussions since there
are many different perspectives to be shared in such a group. However, other scholars
highlight the risks involved in heterogeneous groups, for example, of white men feeling
attacked (Galen and Palmer 1993) and putting minority participants in awkward posi-
tions (Katz 1978), and emphasize the importance of homogeneous groups in order to
provide a safer context for discussions about diversity, both for members from domi-
nant groups and disadvantaged groups as, for example, Paige and Martin (1996) and
Milliken and Martins (1996).
It is nevertheless common for diversity training to be geared towards all employees in
order to raise awareness of prejudice and build skills in order for individuals to monitor
their actions and responses to specific incidents in the workplace (Bezrukova, Jehn, and
Spell 2012).
Women-only management training has been a popular form of training that can
be seen as diversity training, although the aim is not to reduce bias but rather to pro-
vide career support. These trainings have been heavily criticized by scholars for fail-
ing to adopt a power perspective and thus making women the problem, or making
women responsible for the existing gender power relations (Ely and Meyerson 2000a).
Moreover, scholars have highlighted that such programmes also reproduce the privi-
leged position of a few white, middle-class women (Eveline 2004; Pini, Brown, and Ryan
2004). Women-only training can nevertheless have a more transformative potential if
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    559

‘a bifocal approach’ is adopted, that is, the training has a power perspective and focuses
both on women and on organizational change (De Vries 2010).
In fact, management training, either targeting women and/or men, seldom touches
upon issues of power. An exception is Sinclair (2000) who introduced the topic of mas-
culinities in a workshop held for a company executive group and in an MBA class. By
addressing masculinities she wanted to avoid focusing on minority groups. However, in
order to be able to do this, Sinclair argues that the training needs to foster a discussion
among managers about the culture of the dominant group that in turn requires a pro-
gramme structure that supports reflection and a context where participants can voice
vulnerabilities and doubts.
Another example of a diversity training programme that is guided by a power per-
spective and that has attempted to have an interactive approach targeting male managers
is the Walk the Talk-programme, implemented in 1998 at the truck company AB Volvo.
The programme included both practical and theoretical modules and aimed to raise the
manager’s awareness of values, and how they unintentionally include and exclude peo-
ple. Catalyst, a US-based organization promoting gender equality in the workplace, has
published reports describing successful initiatives focusing on male managers such as
the Walk the Talk-programme (Prime and Moss-Racusin 2009).

Format
Diversity training is most often carried out on one single occasion, maybe with a
refresher session after a certain period of time. There are nevertheless examples of
organizations that have more prolonged courses across weeks or months (Paluck 2006).
The training can be integrated into a system of diversity related activities within a more
comprehensive organizational development effort that would more correspond to the
learning and effectiveness paradigm referred to earlier. These integrated programmes,
that is, training that is conducted as part of a planned and systemic organizational devel-
opment effort, are deemed more effective compared to other programmes, in particu-
lar the stand-alone training with a ‘check-off-the-box’ approach (Bezrukova, Jehn, and
Spell 2012). There is, nevertheless, still little research into integrated training.
Many organizations have diversity training led by an external consultant, often with
one single signature exercise, for example The Story of O or Blue Eye/Brown Eye (Anand
and Winters 2008). Training that is carried out over a longer period of time often
requires a combination of internal and external consultants to be involved.
Most diversity training follows an intergroup approach, that is, the training is carried
out in groups. However, individual managers do receive some form of training when
being coached either by an in-house diversity officer or an external diversity consult-
ant. For example, gender equality consultants in Sweden report that there has been an
increase in what are called gender coaches who provide support for individuals regard-
ing gender issues (Wahl and Höök 2007). Interactive diversity training is not as common
since most training mainly employs instructional methods including lectures, exercises,
560    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

group activities, and discussions (Bezrukova, Jehn, and Spell 2012). Interactive methods
also require more time, which is why it is difficult to apply such methods if the training is
not part of a more sustained and integrated effort of organizational change.
In sum, our review of literature on diversity training suggests that these are popular
interventions but that they are seldom effective in transforming the structure and cul-
ture of an organization if they do not address power, if they are not part of a larger organ-
izational development effort, and if they do not adopt a more experiential approach.
According to our review, there are few examples of programmes that adopt a power per-
spective and an interactive approach to be found in the literature, and possibly also in
practice. There are some exceptions like the action research approaches suggested by, for
example, Paluck (2006) and Meyerson and Kolb (2000). Such training is part of a larger
organizational development effort and has an interactive approach. With the support of
knowledge, the participants identify a diversity related issue in their own context, they
discuss the problem and possible actions for change, and formulate an action plan. The
participants then implement the action plan and monitor the outcomes while continu-
ously reflecting upon the process as a learning activity.

Mentoring Programmes

Mentoring has become a popular diversity practice for advancing the careers of persons
from groups that are in a minority on management levels (Blake-Beard 2001; Baugh and
Fagenson-Eland 2007). The intervention aims at mimicking the informal relations that
exist between senior, more experienced persons and junior, less experienced persons,
and that support the junior persons’ careers (Ragins and Kram 2007). Formal mentor-
ing refers to relations that are initiated and developed with the assistance of an organiza-
tion (Ragins and Cotton 1999).

Content
Formal mentoring programmes can have different contents ranging from focusing only
on the career development of the mentee to having more transformational ambitions.
Scholars question the effectiveness of formal mentoring programmes that do not address
power relations in organizations (Pini, Brown, and Ryan 2004). Colley (2001), for exam-
ple, questions the individual focus that most mentoring programmes adopt, since they
seldom address problems on a more structural level. By not addressing power, mentoring
programmes send the message to the mentee that it is the mentee who should adapt to
the pre-existing conditions (Darwin 2000; McKeen and Bujaki 2007) and thus the status
quo in organizations is not challenged (Avotie 2008; De Vries 2010). Women-only pro-
grammes that do not address issues of power have been particularly criticized. For exam-
ple, Meyerson and Kolb (2000) argue that by not addressing structural disadvantage, focus
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    561

will be on women and not on the organizational culture itself. Mentors need to understand
that their contribution does not end with the individual mentee but that they must be
active in working for change within the organization (Thomas 2001; Johnson-Bailey and
Cervero 2004). Hansman (1998) suggests that training sessions when planning and imple-
menting formal mentoring programmes may be the answer to some of the concerns about
cross-race/cross-gender mentoring. She argues that by focusing on issues of gender, race,
class, ethnicity, ability, and sexuality, mentors may learn to understand the challenges their
mentees face and to critically assess cultural norms at play in organizations.
Indeed, mentoring programmes with the explicit aim of changing the organizational
culture often contain some sort of training. The content of this training can vary from
a more harmonious view on gender and diversity to a more multidimensional view of
power. For example, Höök (2001) describes a women-only management training pro-
gramme that contained a mentoring module where both the women mentees and the
male mentors received training in gender issues. The purpose of the mentoring pro-
gramme was to involve male managers in gender equality work and to increase their
level of awareness and knowledge regarding gender. Höök found that the male men-
tors did not prioritize the meetings that included training sessions. The meeting that
attracted most mentors was the one the CEO attended. On this occasion, the mentoring
programme provided an arena for homosocial networking for men, while the women
mentees remained in a peripheral position.

Participants
Formal mentoring programmes that are used as an intervention for change most often
couple a senior mentor with a more junior person from a group that is in minority
within the organization, for example, a senior male executive and a woman in the early
stages of a management career (Ragins and Cotton 1999; Ragins 2002).
The basic idea of a mentoring programme is that the mentor should offer the mentee
different kinds of support. Kram (1983) suggests that mentors can provide career sup-
port, through exposure and visibility, sponsorship, coaching, protection and access
to assignments, and psychosocial support, such as acceptance and confirmation, role
modelling, friendship, and counselling. Nevertheless, research findings suggest that
women receive less coaching, role modelling, friendship, and social interaction than
male counterparts in formal mentor programmes (Ragins and Cotton 1999).
Much of the literature on gender and mentoring is focused on the challenges in the
mentoring relationships between male mentors and women mentees. In a survey of
the literature on formal mentoring programmes, Blake-Beard (2001) identifies issues
related to the management of the internal relationship, such as lack of identification
between mentor and mentee and negotiating level of intimacy between mentor and
mentee, as well as challenges related to the management of the external relationship, for
example, handling the relationship with the mentee’s supervisor, managing the belief
that women participating in formal mentoring programmes are deficient, and dealing
562    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

with sexual innuendoes. Much of the problems involved in the relationship between a
male mentor and a female mentee are indeed related to (hetero)sexuality (Höök 2001).
Similar challenges in cross-race mentoring relations have also been documented. For
example, studies have documented that African American mentees experience less psy-
chosocial and career support from European American mentors (Harris and Smith 1999;
Thomas 2001). The mentor-mentee relationship is hierarchical in nature and this power
relation is magnified in cross-racial and cross-gender mentoring (Ragins 1997; Bowman
et al. 1999; Johnson-Bailey and Cervero 2004). This has implications for both the career
and the psychosocial support that are essential in successful mentoring relationships
(Thomas 2001).
Although less examined, there are formal mentoring programmes where both men-
tors and mentees are women. Some scholars argue that there are advantages of such
mentoring relations since women mentors can be better role models for the women
mentees and have greater opportunities of offering emotional support (Gilbert and
Rossman 1992). Nevertheless, other studies show that female mentees with women
mentors also face dilemmas, such as women mentees having psychosocial unrealistic
expectations of their women mentors (Eldridge 1990).
According to our review of the literature, the formal mentoring programmes that are
most often discussed in the literature are internal programmes that involve participants
that are all employed in the organization. There is, however, little research into external
formal mentoring programs that are administered by an organization and where men-
tors and mentees come from a variety of organizations.

Format
Traditional mentoring programmes assume a one-way relationship, where the mentee
learns from the mentor and where the mentor should ‘help’ the mentee. The focus is
thus on the individual mentee and the mentee’s needs (Ragins and Kram 2007; De Vries
2010). There are, nevertheless, programmes that view the mentor-mentee relationship
as a two-way learning relationship where the mentor is also expected to learn from the
mentee (Ragins 2002; Baugh and Fagenson-Eland 2007). There are different approaches
to the two-way relationship. Some programmes aim at making individual mentees from
underrepresented groups visible to the mentors, assuming that this may alter the men-
tor’s attitudes towards these groups. Although male mentors have, for example, argued
that they have learnt something about the organization and women’s conditions from
meeting with the women mentee (Eliasson, Berggren, and Bondestam 2000; Höök 2001;
Avotie 2008), this does not necessarily mean that their perception of why women are not
advancing in organizations has changed. In fact, some studies such as Avotie (2008) sug-
gest that mentor’s perceptions of women not being willing or being able to pursue a career
had been strengthened.
Other programmes have a more explicit two-way relationship approach to mentoring
where mentors are also expected to see not only individual mentees but also the barriers that
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    563

disadvantaged groups meet in organizations (De Vries 2010). One example is the mentoring
programme in Höök’s study (2001) where the mentees were women and the mentors were
(almost) all men but where it was made clear that it was a mutual relationship and the mentors
would receive training as well. Giscombe (2007) provides another example of a programme
with an explicit two-way relationship where junior women mentored senior managers. In this
programme, senior managers learned about the barriers that women faced in the company
with the specific goal of changing the career culture within the organization.
More recently, other forms of mentoring have been developed. For example,
peer-mentoring programmes seem to be particularly common among faculty members in
higher education institutions (Ensher, Thomas, and Murphy 2001). The peer-mentoring
model tries to steer away from the traditional hierarchical mentor-mentee relationship
and create a network of multiple partners in non-hierarchical, collaborative, and recip-
rocal partnerships. Interestingly, traditional mentoring programmes can provide an
arena for peer-mentoring among mentees. For example, women in women-only men-
toring programmes argue that the most important lesson from the programme was not
the relationship with the mentor but the network developed among the women mentees
(Eliasson, Berggren, and Bondestam 2000; Höök 2001).
Scholars such as Darwin (2000) and Avotie (2008) question the potential of mentor-
ing programmes to contribute to structural change when the focus of the programme
is on improving the mentee’s individual career opportunities, in particular if the pro-
gramme lacks a power perspective. Avotie argues, however, that structural change has
to start at an individual level and that a potential for change exists when the mentees
draw on the opportunities provided by the programme to contribute to change on a
structural level.
De Vries, Webb, and Eveline (2006) provide an example of a mentoring programme
that has become part of a process of organizational intervention. The programme was
part of a larger management development initiative aiming to develop the women and
change the culture. Knowledge of the gendered nature of organizations provided the
foundation for the women participants when they collectively investigated and discov-
ered underlying assumptions, values, and practices within the organization. The male
mentors found that through mentoring they had become more aware of gender issues
and had an increased understanding of the situation of women and what issues need
to be addressed. Some saw tangible results in an increased numbers of women, others
noted a qualitative change in the culture. De Vries, Webb, and Eveline (2006) argue
that given that the mentors held senior positions, the significance of their insights from
mentoring should not be underestimated.

Diversity Networks

Networks are used in organizations as a diversity tool to provide employees from dif-
ferent backgrounds with information, advice, and social and career support. There are
564    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

a few different terms for such in-company networks that connect employees from dif-
ferent identity categories.1 Diversity networks are also called employee groups (Githens
and Aragon 2009), employee network groups (Friedman and Holtom 2002), or affinity
networks (Foldy 2002). The networks are either created by management or by members
of the organization in order to facilitate the inclusion and development of people with
different social identities in the organization. There are, for example, women’s networks,
ethnic minority networks, networks for younger, older, and LGBT employees.
While diversity networks are an often-used intervention in organizations, this popu-
larity is not paralleled by scholarly attention for these networks. In comparison to the
many studies on other diversity practices such as training and mentoring, or in com-
parison to the vast amount of research on organizational networks, there is less atten-
tion for these specific types of networks in organizations. Studies that do address this
diversity practice focus mostly on in-company women’s networks (Bierema 2005; Singh,
Vinnicombe, and Kumra 2006; Hersby, Ryan, and Jetten 2009; Coleman 2010; Durbin
2011; Gremmen and Benschop 2011), ethnic minority networks (Friedman, Kane, and
Cornfield 1998; Friedman and Holtom 2002; Friedman and Craig 2004), and LGBT net-
works (Wright et al. 2006; Githens and Aragon 2009; Colgan and McKearney 2012).

Content
Diversity networks are group-level interventions that counter the social isolation of
members of social identity groups by providing a place for members to meet each other
and develop both strong and weak ties with each other (Friedman and Craig 2004).
Diversity networks differ in their focus, with some networks centring on the social and
career benefits for their members and other networks also striving for strategic change in
the organization (Friedman, Kane, and Cornfield 1998; Gremmen and Benschop 2011).
From our literature review, we observe that diversity networks are formally estab-
lished to counter the power of informal ‘old boys’ networks’ in organizations. Diversity
networks tend to be institutionalized and visible as a formal group that organizes meet-
ings and invites members to those meetings. In contrast, an old boys’ network does not
have formal members, it does not present itself as a network, and, most importantly, its
informality is key to its functioning and power. Old boys’ networks function implicitly
as the norm for networks because only these networks are perceived as a powerful influ-
ence on individual careers and organizational strategy (Cross and Armstrong 2008).
Diversity networks are criticized because they would be easy tools for management
to pay lip service to diversity and inclusion (O’Neil, Hopkins, and Sullivan 2011) and
increase rather than decrease the isolation of minorities (Pini, Brown, and Ryan 2004).
However, some diversity networks have an explicit agenda to change their organizations.

1 In this chapter, we focus on in-company diversity networks only, and do not include

cross-organizational networks that exceed the boundaries of the company such as professional or sector
level networks.
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    565

These networks are more vocal about inequalities, discriminatory practices, and power
relations. Other networks tend to focus exclusively on community building and career
building for their members, and not so much on changing their organizations. The dif-
ferent aims of networks can be related to the relevance of who initiated the diversity net-
work. Some women’s networks in multinationals are initiated by management (Singh,
Vinnicombe, and Kumra 2006), whereas other women’s networks, ethnic minority, and
LGBT networks tend to have a grassroots character and are supported by the company
(Friedman and Holtom 2002; Githens and Aragon 2009). A more grassroots origin
does not, however, guarantee that the networks take issue with power, inequality, and
discrimination, but the networks that do take an activist stance are to be found among
these networks. Networks initiated by management as diversity tools are not likely to
address structural inequalities, as the benefits for employees and the benefits for the
organization tend to be stressed (Singh, Vinnicombe, and Kumra 2006). And even
networks that have grassroots origins often legitimize their existence by aligning with
organizational effectiveness, appealing to the business case, and stressing the added
value of diversity for organizational performance (Githens and Aragon 2009; Gremmen
and Benschop 2011).

Participants
Some diversity networks welcome all organizational members who identify or sympa-
thize with an employee group. Other networks restrict access to members of a specific
identity category, or even to a subset, as is the case with higher echelon networks (for
instance for women in higher management). Diversity networks are predominantly
organized around a single social identity. Gender, ethnicity, and sexuality are reported
as separate grounds for building networks among women (Bierema 2005; Singh,
Vinnicombe, and Kumra 2006; Hersby, Ryan, and Jetten 2009; Coleman 2010; Durbin
2011; Gremmen and Benschop 2011), among ethnic minorities (Friedman, Kane, and
Cornfield 1998; Friedman and Holtom 2002; Friedman and Craig 2004), and among
LGBT employees (Wright et al. 2006; Githens and Aragon 2009; Colgan and McKearney
2012). There is very little scholarly work on age-related networks for younger or older
employees that exist in practice. The available studies focus either on women’s networks
or on minority networks, without discussing the intersection of those marginalized
identity categories. Studies on diversity networks from an intersectionality perspec-
tive are missing hitherto. Much remains to be explored about diversity networks, for
instance, about additive inequalities such as the positions and experiences of ethnic
minority women in networks and other combinations of unprivileged and privileged
identities within diversity networks (Verloo 2013). Notably, in the old boys’ networks,
multiple privileged social identities—white, heterosexual, senior men—come together.
Networks that are meant as a diversity practice in organizations are typically organ-
ized internally within a single organization. This does not mean that there can be no
communication between similar networks in other organizations, as they sometimes
566    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

come together in groups or platforms to exchange experiences and strategies (Gremmen

and Benschop 2011).

Format
Diversity networks can be seen as programmatic rather than single events. Most net-
works plan to be present in the organization for a prolonged period of time and have
a calendar with multiple activities. Yet, whether members succeed in sustaining the
network over a longer period of time depends on the continuous efforts of the people
who run the network. Research about the compensation of network board members
is lacking, but anecdotal evidence suggests that board members are largely volunteers
(Singh, Vinnicombe, and Kumra 2006), who at best receive a small time compensation
for their work.
Networks by their design organize different activities. Lectures and training address
individuals by traditional one-way communication. Networks also stimulate interper-
sonal contacts between members, sometimes in the form of informal coaching. But
network activities are typically characterized as interactive events; social gatherings,
drinks, discussions about company issues and/or career issues, and conferences bring
people together around common interests (Friedman and Holtom 2002). The timing
of such activities is subject to debate: activities can be planned during work time or can
take place after work in employees’ spare time. The timing depends on cultural norms
about work hours and is certainly a controversial topic in women’s networks that are
sensitive to work-life balance issues (Gremmen and Benschop 2013).
Overall, we find that diversity networks, as diversity tools, are relatively easy for
organizations. The mere presence of the networks can help the organizations parade
their diversity. Since these networks are often run voluntarily by employees, many tend
to function rather separately from the organization (Donnellon and Langowitz 2009).
As such, they render people from minority groups responsible for solving their own
isolation and career difficulties. Networks that only focus on community building may
meet the needs for social support, but fail to address deeply embedded inequalities in
the organization (Gremmen and Benschop 2013). A large part of the diversity networks’
activities do not require changes in the work routines and practices.
However, we do see the transformational potential of networks when they address
inequalities and engage with daily work practices. Networks that focus on strategic
change tend to function as a sparring partner for management and offer strategic advice
in several areas. The literature points to several areas for strategic advice: from diversity
issues such as creating an inclusive organization, more specific issues such as work-life
arrangements or partner benefits, or business issues such as product innovation (Scully
2009; Gremmen and Benschop 2013).
The story of the ‘LGBT and Allies Network’ in Metropolitan Healthcare reported by
Githens and Aragon (2009) is an example of a diversity network striving for organiza-
tional change. After fifteen years as an informal network, this network was invited by
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    567

the diversity manager to become a formally recognized network and take part in the
‘Diversity Council’. The group addressed the at times hostile climate towards LGBT
workers by increasing awareness of LGBT issues. They collaborated with the women’s
network to institute domestic partner benefits and to facilitate diversity education ses-
sions to improve the workplace environment.

Discussion and Conclusion

This chapter aimed to come to a better understanding of the transformative potential

of three popular diversity management practices. These practices—diversity training,
mentoring programmes, and diversity networks—have been critiqued for emphasiz-
ing the deficits of diverse employees instead of changing deeply rooted inequalities in
organizations. From our review, we found that training, mentoring, and networking can
denote many different things. It is as incorrect to dismiss any single of these interven-
tions, as it is to praise them in general. We discussed these three diversity practices using
the 3D-model.
Overall, we find that there is not one complete configuration of the 3D-model that
generates transformative change. There are, however, specific choices concerning the
dimensions of content and format that show stronger links to transformative potential,
in combination with any set of participants. These recommended configurations can be
found in Table 27.2.
We argue that the key to transformative change is the sub-dimension power perspec-
tive. A multidimensional power perspective is needed when choosing content of the
diversity practice and when disseminating knowledge. An individual power perspec-
tive can help the individual participant to better cope with a problematic situation, but
will not necessarily lead to participants challenging organizational inequality struc-
tures. Power absent content does not address inequalities in organizations and will
hence not aim at organizational transformation. Only with a multidimensional power

Table 27.2 Recommended combinations of the 3D-model for diversity

training, mentoring programmes, and diversity networks aiming
at transformative change
Content Participants Format

Focus Power perspective Target group Affiliation Frequency Design

Gender Absent or Minority Combination Single event Individual

equality harmonious
Diversity Individual Majority Internal Repeated Interpersonal
Inclusion Multidimensional Mixed External Programme Interactive
568    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

perspective that acknowledges the interplay between structure and agency, can mentor-
ing, networking, and training generate organizational change. For example, networks
can address power issues at a strategic level in the organization through their strategic
advisory role.
Regarding the subdimension of focus in content, the chosen focus (gender, diversity,
or inclusion) will of course both affect and limit the kind of inequalities addressed. But
every focus can have transformative potential as long as a multidimensional power per-
spective is used that can challenge structural discrimination and addresses conflicting
interests. Diversity training that fosters awareness among dominant groups about their
privileges is an example of the beginning of a transformation of power relations. A focus
on gender equality does not necessarily mean that one only focuses on women since a
multidimensional power perspective enables discussions on the intersection of gender
with other inequalities.
The dimension of participants is the most varying dimension when aiming at organi-
zational change. The choice of participants is often related to a specific targeted inequal-
ity, but that is not necessarily so. The target group can be the minority, the majority,
or a mix of both. Sometimes it is better to limit the participation to the subordinate or
minority groups. This will create a ‘room of one’s own’ when discussing strategies for
change and forming a pressure group. In other situations, a mix of participants will be
preferred as this opens up dialogue between majority and minority representatives of
the organization when discussing transformative actions and goals. This analysis has
highlighted the need for more research on majority groups in diversity practices aiming
at change, for example, all male participants in diversity training with a multidimen-
sional power perspective aiming at critical reflection and action for change. Majority
groups often, but not always, represent the norm of a category. Diversity practices build-
ing on reflective and critical perspectives involving participants representing the norm
are scarce, and could be developed further. Our review of the literature suggests that the
affiliation of the participants can also vary. The combination of internal and external
participants is sometimes fruitful in mentoring programmes and management train-
ing. The external approach often leads to an exchange of experiences and learning from
other organizations’ diversity practices.
The format dimension consists of the subdimensions frequency and design. Single
events and limited activities in frequency can work as a kick-off or an inspirational start
for further discussion and reflection in the organization. Full programmes often offer a
longer term commitment and more challenging format in diversity practices. Our anal-
ysis suggests that programmes are preferred when choosing frequency, if the intention is
to not only put diversity on the agenda but also trigger actions for change. The same goes
for design of the format where an interactive approach is preferred over individual or
interpersonal approaches, as this will facilitate collective actions being taken involving
groups of participants instead of isolated individual agents for change. The interactive
design often includes a mix of knowledge input and collective reflections and assign-
ments that helps participants to integrate new insights with awareness of the importance
of transformative actions.
 Future Challenges for Practices of Diversity Management    569

Theoretical Implications: Evaluative

Remarks about the Model
In this chapter, we have used the 3D-model to take stock of the transformative poten-
tial of diversity practices. Most of the studies referred to have been possible to relate to
the dimensions and subdimensions in the model. The core contribution of this model
is its systematic way of assessing multiple diversity practices. Some of the combina-
tions in the model have proved difficult to find in the academic literature even if they
exist in organizational practice. Our use of the model has thus allowed us to uncover
gaps in research and in practice. One gap pertains to the need for more research on
majority groups in diversity practices aiming at change, for example, all male partici-
pants in diversity training with a multidimensional power perspective aiming at criti-
cal reflection and action for change. Another gap is research reporting on diversity
networks that address power. As for practice, diversity practices building on reflective
and critical perspectives involving majority participants representing the norm, for
example, training in which majority participants unpack and challenge the implicit
norms of the ideal worker, are scarce.
A second contribution is that the model can serve as an academically informed quali-
tative assessment tool for practitioners. Practitioners can use the model to make more
informed choices when designing diversity practices. The model can also enable a better
understanding of consequences, limitations, and possibilities when formulating a diver-
sity practice.
A third important contribution is the core attention to power. This has major implica-
tions for diversity practice designs since engaging with power is absolutely necessary for
transformational change, even though it is seen as high in scary radicalism. The impli-
cation is that vested interests in the status quo are at stake and that decision makers in
organizations are basically asked to give up their privileges and change their views on
organizational practices. In contrast, the legitimacy of diversity practices as contribut-
ing to improved performance taps into a managerial discourse and may be an easier way
to propagate diversity practices. To address multidimensionality of power requires that
structures of privilege and disadvantage are exposed, reflected upon, and changed. This
long-term thorny endeavour may, however, not be popular among diversity practition-
ers and other change agents.
This brings us to some final reflections on the future challenges for research and prac-
tice on diversity practices. One such challenge concerns the way that diversity champi-
ons can present the need for diversity practices to address multidimensional power to
decision makers. Another core challenge is the attention on intersectionality in diver-
sity practices. Most diversity practices tend to focus on single identities, missing the
complexities of multiple identities and the simultaneity of disadvantage and privilege
(Boogaard and Roggeband 2010). To design diversity practices that can address multiple
identities requires a close collaboration between diversity scholars and diversity prac-
titioners. This collaboration helps to combine state-of-the-art theoretical insights with
570    Benschop, Holgersson, VAN DEN Brink, and Wahl

local knowledge to address the simultaneity of disadvantage and privilege at work. The
design of diversity practices that do justice to these complexities is a true challenge to
the field.

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 Chapter 28

F rom Here to T h e re
and Back Ag a i n
Transnational Perspectives on Diversity
in Organizations

Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

The idea of diversity in the workplace and in organizations can be commonly traced
back to the Workforce 2000 report (Johnston and Packer 1987), a research project funded
by the US Department of Labor in the mid-1980s. Conventional scholarly citations to
this work have focused mostly on demographic changes—race and ethnicity in particu-
lar—that were assumed to have taken place in the US workforce by the end of the twen-
tieth century and thereafter, and on addressing how organizations would have to cope
with such changes. However, some scholars also noted that this report was produced at
a particular moment in US history; a period during which there were debates over exist-
ing legal mandates and government policies, such as equal opportunities and affirma-
tive action, aimed at remedying systematic workforce inequalities and discrimination,
and to which diversity management might then become a substitute. That is, diversity
and diversity management appeared as concepts and tools that could replace the US’s
legal rulings to inclusion and equality arising from the women’s rights and civil rights
movements of the 1960s (e.g. Kelly and Dobbin 1998). Recent literature has noted as well
that diversity management facilitated the neoliberal political ideologies of US adminis-
trations promoting deregulation, privatization, and a concomitant ‘flexible’ workforce
(e.g. Holvino and Kamp 2009).
Altogether, while appearing to be a depoliticized and benign managerial approach,
the heritage of US diversity management is specific to both the social and political
contexts of its time and place, and has not gone without critique (e.g. Litvin 1997,
2006; Lorbiecki and Jack 2000; Prasad, Mills, Elmes, and Prasad 1997). Lately, even
the assumption that notions of diversity in the workplace originated in this report has
576    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

been historically reassessed by Nkomo and Hoobler (2014), who note the racist ide-
ologies reinforcing US management practices and writings since the late 1800s.
Despite these critiques, there is still little attention given to the fact that the Workforce
2000 report was not just about demographic changes but also about the structural eco-
nomic conditions of the US in relation to other nations at the time (e.g. regarding trade).
From the start this report outlined the integration of world economies and suggested
other nations would emerge as challengers to US economic dominance, a proposition
that was conceived as a potential national threat in the political climate of the late 1980s.
In this context, the report, coupled with the prevailing government priorities of the
time, could be read as promoting diversity as competitive advantage for the US; that is,
the changing demographic trends in the US workforce furthering a form of nationalism
through which business and economic competitiveness would meet those global chal-
lenges (Calás and Smircich 1993).
Since then much has happened. The notions of diversity and diversity management
that emerged and took root in the US have travelled, guiding organization and man-
agement practitioners and scholars the world over to focus on demographic categori-
zations when examining relationships between workers’ activities and organizational
outcomes. Critiques notwithstanding, in principle these ideas have had a successful
global career by addressing explicitly whether and how diversity could differentiate
between individuals, differentiate between or within groups, and within or between
organizations, and how such differences can enhance organizational performance
or somehow limit productive workplace behaviour (e.g. Nishii and Özbilgin 2007).
More importantly, however, having left the domestic US setting, these original ideas
have also spawned a variety of conceptual modalities beyond simple demographics
regarding diversity in organizations (e.g. Boxenbaum 2006; Calás, Holgersson, and
Smircich 2009).
Meanwhile, the concurrent expansion of contemporary organizational forms (e.g.
multinational and transnational) under conditions of globalization and the acceleration
of migratory populations strongly suggests that today the nation-state has gradually lost
its privileged position as a dominant form of identification for both organizations and
people. Thus, the point of articulation for our observations in this chapter as transna-
tional perspectives on diversity in organizations rests on the intersections of these two
events: the production and diffusion of diversity and diversity management as schol-
arly literature beyond the original US perspectives, and the concurrent decentring of the
nation-state as identity marker for organizations and many populations the world over
(e.g. Jack and Lorbiecki 2007; Calás and Smircich 2011).
Embedded in these dynamics, the idea of diversity in the scholarly context of man-
agement and organization studies has become an unwieldy subject. The field has
developed such a multiplicity of definitions and conceptualizations that ‘diversity’
has become in some senses meaningless (Konrad 2003). Given this plethora of defi-
nitions and concepts several scholars have tried to impose some kind of order. For
instance, Nkomo and Stewart (2006) suggested a useful but very general definition,
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    577

where diversity is ‘a mixture of people with different group identities within the same
social system’. Guided by this definition, in their view the field of diversity research
comprises various schools of thought including social identity theory, demography,
research on racioethnicity and gender, and critical and postmodern contributions.
At about the same time, Prasad, Pringle, and Konrad (2006) organized diversity
research around four assumptions including epistemological stance (i.e. positivist or
non-positivist); degree of awareness of power relations between identity groups; level
of analysis (i.e. individual, interpersonal, or structural); and concept of identity (i.e.
fixed or fluid).
Considering these conceptual and definitional complexities and limits, it may seem
that the task here of putting a frame around what constitutes ‘the transnational diversity
in organizations literature’ would resemble Borges’s Chinese encyclopedia, as quoted
by Foucault (1973) where ‘ “animals are divided into (a) belonging to the Emperor,
(b) embalmed, . . . (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, . . . (h) included in the present classification,
(i) frenzied . . . (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off
look like flies” ’ (Foucault 1973: xv—our abbreviations)1. But, as Foucault also observes,
‘In the wonderment of this taxonomy [. . .] the thing that, by means of the fable, is dem-
onstrated as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own,
the stark impossibility of thinking that’ (Foucault 1973: xv).
Thus, with this caveat in mind, in the following pages we have cautiously drawn
some boundaries as a taxonomy defining a very imprecise space—the contours of
the contemporary transnational diversity in organizations scholarly literature—with
the hope that it will make sense at least within our own current system of thought. As
such, this is not intended to be an exhaustive review of what may now have become
an incommensurable literature (see, for instance, Özbilgin et al. 2012). Rather, our
aim is to delineate a temporary holding space for understanding this shifting terri-
tory while exploring a few relevant examples. We also acknowledge that this framing
stems from our work and life space—being located in the US—as well as from our
membership in communities of critical management scholars inside and outside the
US, and from our own experiences as ‘naturalized’ US citizens, each of us having
been born elsewhere in ‘the periphery’. It is from this mutable ‘here’ that we examine
the formation and transformation of the subject of transnational diversity in organi-
zations, starting from the ‘original’ as it travelled beyond the US. As we will discuss,
this focus on the formation and transformation of the subject facilitates understand-
ing the ontological shifts supporting our taxonomical exercise. At the end, we return
to Borges’s fable to reflect on what are perhaps the most fundamental limitations to
exercises of this nature.

1 Foucault cites this example as a heterotopia ‘which combine and juxtapose many spaces in one site,

creating an intensification of knowledge’ (Topinka (2010: 70); that is, making strange the familiar in such
a way that one is moved to reflect on the foundations of what has become conventional knowledge—in
this case the emphasis on a logic of categorization in Western knowledge.
578    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

Framing the Subject of Transnational

Diversity in Organizations

We begin by looking at the theoretical background, focusing on identity and demo-

graphic categorizations, that is the basis of the subject in US scholarly ‘diversity in
organization’ literature. We use this background as a point of reference for better
understanding the fundamental transformations of this subject as the diversity lit-
erature has spread to other destinations. As we consider these other destinations, the
first type of works we examine took their cues directly from the US literature, root-
ing their arguments within these same notions of identity and demography as if it
were a universal subject. While some scholars acknowledged difficulties when apply-
ing these ideas to other settings and engaged in culturalist adaptations, most left the
original subject unexamined (Adeleye 2011). In our view, these modes of diffusion,
which we label internationalizing diversity, were and continue to be a transnational
event in their own right. In fact, sometimes the original US notions have also become
‘others’ upon arrival at various destinations. That is, even when following conven-
tional US conceptualizations as a starting point, at times enough epistemological
translation and re-assembling have taken place to make the ‘original’ conceptualiza-
tions unrecognizable.
Yet, at present, we can observe at least three additional modes of diffusion within
the transnational conceptual space, the first being a mode of provincializing diversity.
Functioning both as a critique of the subject in conventional US literature and offering
an alternative, this mode accounts for the local conditions of its destination. Literatures
within this mode make visible the fundamental diversity of the idea of diversity, dislodg-
ing the notion of a universal subject from any conceptualization. The next mode, the
simultaneity of diversity, has acquired a transnational tone while navigating the concep-
tual space of intersectionality derived from feminist perspectives (e.g. Holvino 2010).
In this case, the focus is not on who or what is ‘diverse’ but on how ‘diversity’ becomes
and on how such becoming functions in any particular place and time. Here, identity
categories dissolve by acquiring fluidity and multiplicity, and sometimes become a point
of interrogation for all categories of identification. The last mode of diffusion, the for-
mation of mobile subjectivities, differs from the other two, however, in that its stance
is beyond context. It is first and foremost a request for observing a balancing act, the
phenomena of mobility and transnationalism, as a contemporary form of existence and
experiences for various populations the world over. The focus of this mode is thus the
processes recasting subjectivities as people and organizations become ontologically
mobile entities.
At the end we discuss the incommensurability (un)defining the theoretical contours
we have traced while we examined these modalities of diffusion. In fact, we present their
different contributions independently from each other while also suggesting that there
is value in maintaining ontological separation. As we see it, to represent the people in
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    579

the world in which we all live today we must be able to keep in view a repertoire of very
different ontological perspectives on diversity. More importantly, to do justice to this
world now we must be able to articulate a post-identitarian transnational understand-
ing (e.g. Calás, Ou, and Smircich 2013).

The Point of Inception in the US: Identity

and Demography
The dominant modality from which the study of diversity in organizations emerged and
still relies mostly uncritically in the US, social psychology research, is worth consid-
ering (see, for instance, Kulik and Bainbridge’s 2006 review). This serves as a starting
point for understanding its internationalization as well as the ontological limitations
it poses for developing transnational perspectives on diversity. In this literature, the
concept of identity derives from the ‘rational, cognitive individual self ’ forwarded by
Western liberal humanist philosophies and, in particular, by Anglo-American versions
of psychology supported by these philosophies. Social psychology expands upon this
individualized concept of the self by acknowledging the social aspects of identity for-
mation, such that an individual arrives at a notion of her/himself through an exchange
with those around her/him (Hogg, Terry, and White 1995; Hogg 2006). The exchange is
based on dimensions of difference—for instance, gender, race, ethnicity, class, and so
forth—salient for the context and encounter in question but, paradoxically, emphasizes
‘identity’ as differentiation, separation, and individualization. Less visibly, behind these
assumptions there is also a normative ‘ideal self ’, which presupposes an individual asso-
ciated with the values of Western modernization.
The diversity research literature borrows heavily from various theoretical perspec-
tives in social psychology scholarship, in particular social identity theory and rela-
tional demography. In both of these perspectives, the subject—that is, one’s notion of
self—is born out of an exchange with another; however, the focus of the research is not
on the exchange itself but on the identity differentiation that occurs as a result of it.
Concurrently, demographic categories of identification exist a priori and are considered
as stable over time and place. This subject of social psychology poses particular limita-
tions for transnational perspectives on diversity when it appears as a complete national
identity (e.g. American, Chinese) anywhere in the world without consideration of how
social relations may (re)produce different selves and identities across time and space
(Triandis, 1995, 2003; Louie 2004). In much of these literatures national identities func-
tion as boundaries between a particular ‘us’ and a generalized ‘other’ and signal their
differentiation.
To illustrate these arguments, below we discuss two examples, one from social iden-
tity theory and another from relational demography, which apply these theories to
international settings. We believe these two examples from the international manage-
ment literature clarify in the next subsection how diversity in organizations scholarship
tends to function under such theories when it crosses national boundaries.
580    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

An application of these notions in international management is exemplified by Toh

and DeNisi (2007), who developed a theoretical model addressing how the potential
success or failure of expatriate managers overseas may be related to whether and how
host country national (HCN) employees contribute to the expatriate’s socialization
in the host country. Drawing on social identity theory, the paper focuses on the role
of HCNs extra-role organizational citizenship behaviour in determining the social
adjustment of expatriate managers. Since HCNs may display or withhold socializing
behaviours that affect the adjustment of the expatriate, it is important that the expatri-
ate manager is not identified as in the out-group. In this case, the salience of different
national identities results in group boundaries.
The major points we want to illustrate with this example are the assumptions made
about the subject and the unreflective stance of the article regarding the theory it
deploys (i.e. social identity theory). This theory may represent the expatriate’s behaviour
and expectations (probably a Western individual ‘self ’) but may have no resonance with
the worldview of the (unidentified) HCNs. Thus, to assume that in their encounters the
potential behaviours towards one another can be explained by this one theory is akin to
assuming that the notion of humanity—that is, the subject—is universal.
Meanwhile, relational demography draws from social identity theory but the argu-
ment about identity formation in relationships is more pointed: demographic simi-
larities evoke attraction between demographically similar individuals, accentuating the
positive attributes of each other and leading to positive social identity and self-esteem.
Meanwhile, dissimilar individuals tend to view and treat each other less favourably,
impacting their identities negatively. As such, demography is a way to understand social
relationships between an individual and another as exemplified in dyadic relationships.
In these relationships the parties engage in comparing their demographic attributes and
social dynamics ensue from there.
In an example of how these notions have travelled to the international management
literature, Tsui and Farh (1997) compared and contrasted the Chinese idea of guanxi,
defined as the existence of direct particularistic ties between two or more individuals,
with the idea of relational demography used by US scholars as discussed above. With
these comparisons they aimed to develop an integrative framework comprising guanxi
and relational demography. They explicitly based their argument on the presupposition
that the idea of demography may be a universal concept with relevance for understand-
ing work behaviour in different cultural settings insofar as individuals in any social
cultural context may be characterized by demographic categories. This presupposition
extended notions of relational demography to the Chinese context by suggesting that
relationships between people based on a common background are also captured by the
idea of guanxi. Nonetheless, the authors also presented several culturalist caveats to
these presuppositions. They highlighted the possibility of very different social dynamics
underlying relational demography and guanxi by recognizing differences in the notion
of the subject in each of them: Chinese experiencing themselves as interdependent with
the surrounding social context; and this self in relationship to others becoming the focal
individual experience, while—in sharp contrast—the Western view, seeing each human
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    581

being as an independent, self-contained, autonomous entity, who behaves primarily as a

consequence of his/her internal attributes.
Not surprisingly, empirical data collected in Chinese contexts showed little overlap
between the relational attributes of importance for guanxi and for relational demog-
raphy suggesting that different processes influenced interpersonal and work outcomes
under each of these notions. However, the authors continued to insist in integrat-
ing these apparently incommensurable conceptualizations. They argued that modern
Chinese tend to assimilate Western values, and individual differences in modernity may
fundamentally alter the behavioural pattern of contemporary Chinese. They argued
further that an integrative framework may have relevance for cross-cultural research
because particularistic ties—such as guanxi—may be a universal phenomenon and also
that all individuals in any culture could be described using a set of demographic and
background factors.
We have used this article to illustrate how relational demography is internationalized,
and also as an example, in contrast to the earlier HCNs example (Toh and DeNisi 2007),
of a different way to internationalize the subject in question. While the HCNs article
advanced explanations of social identity theory as applicable to anyone, anywhere (i.e.
the formation of a universal subject), the Tsui and Farh (1997) article is clear in acknowl-
edging the possible formation of a different kind of subject outside of the premises of
relational demography. However, the resolution of the argument continues to maintain
the primacy of the Western notion of the subject insofar as it expects the assimilation
of ‘modern Chinese’ into Western values, and, in fact, uses Western culturalist expla-
nations to maintain a range of possibilities within this same system of thought. In this
way the argument retrofits relational demography rather than promoting guanxi as a
dominant explanation for future Chinese behaviours and contingent work outcomes. At
the end, the paper asks for cross-cultural research to ascertain the possibility that both
particularistic ties (present in guanxi) and demographics (present in relational demog-
raphy) are universal processes of identification beyond their cultural contexts. But what
the paper reiterates with this gesture is the impossibility of thinking beyond the exist-
ence of universal processes of subject formation; a mode of thinking dominating the US
literature.
In short, the self of this ‘identity and demography’ literature is a subject posi-
tion derived by ‘casting the Other’ through multiple forms of differentiation based on
Western social psychology of a positivist persuasion, evidently deemed as a superior
form of knowledge (see Tsui et al. 2004) and rooted within the same instrumental organ-
izational aims of managing those deemed different (Czarniawska and Höpfl 2002). As
discussed in the examples above, when this self travels to other parts of the world it dis-
guises possible subject formation processes relevant for the context and encounters in
question. That is, the self of social psychology becomes the representational gaze for
understanding and predicting the behaviours of different people in the world and in
organizations as if these processes were essential human universals. In the next section
we illustrate how the assumptions behind these theories have travelled under the guise
of diversity in organizations.
582    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

Internationalizing Diversity
The diffusion of conventional premises (what some address as ‘the mainstream’) from
US diversity in organizations research to other world locations took place during the
mid-1990s. Often this literature was developed by authors from the US engaged in inter-
national research, sometimes in partnership with local researchers, but also developed
as a local or single context research outside the US, and as a comparative literature. These
literatures share a common link to the domestic US diversity literature in that more
often than not they have adopted uncritically the ‘individual’ of liberal humanism, its
values, and attitudes as its core concept of the subject. Therefore, the categories to exam-
ine behaviours whether in single context or comparative modalities tend to be the same.
Notwithstanding the Anglo-American modernity from which such notions originated,
diversity in this literature has been framed as a form of identitarianism whereby peo-
ple are conceptualized as individuals framed a priori through particular demographic
categories regardless of context. As discussed above, this literature is mostly based on
socio-psychological constructs and constituted through more or less fixed demographic
categories, such as gender, race, class, and so forth, representing an idealized conception
of this individual (and its other). Nonetheless, there have also been some innovations in
this regard.
Pelled and Xin (2000) offer a relevant example of a conventional comparative study
based on relational demography. The issue in question is whether demographic simi-
larities affect relationships between supervisors and subordinates in the same way in
two different regions—the US and Mexico—and whether differences and similarities in
these two regions may affect the transfer of diversity management programmes across
the American–Mexican border. Starting from the premise that demographic similar-
ity between supervisors and subordinates shapes supervisor-subordinate relationship
quality in US settings, the study compares these effects between a US and Mexican
production facility owned by the same company. Results indicate that demographic
similarity influences the quality of relationships between supervisors and subordinates
in both locations but with differences in the patterns of these relationships across age
and gender (e.g. a reversal in the importance of these demographics in each location).
Despite stating that the findings were unexpected, the study holds relational demog-
raphy intact as capable of demonstrating that the same relational processes occur in
both contexts instead of considering the possibility that difference in patterns may also
have indicated different processes. Study limitations are reduced mostly to data quality
and measurements with the authors reiterating the value of these findings for diversity
management.
But there are also some examples in these literatures that question aspects of
social-psychological approaches to diversity. Using relational demography, Choi’s
(2007) single context study in Korea investigated the effect of individual-level dissimi-
larities as well as of group-level membership heterogeneity (group diversity) on crea-
tive behaviour of individual employees. The study emphasizes the need for a multi-level
approach to the study of organizational demography, including power relations in
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    583

diverse groups, something unusual in most other studies of this type. Importantly, at the
end the article recognizes the limits of organizational demography in cultures outside
the Anglo-American context. Specifically, the author notes that the relational meaning
of any demographic characteristic and the social implications of particular demographic
categories can be related to national, cultural, and temporal contexts and can differ
under these circumstances. Of particular relevance in this example is the emphasis on
different meanings for what otherwise would appear, according to these theories, as uni-
versal categories in subject formation. Taking recourse to humans as meaning-makers
is also conceding to the social construction of subjectivity, which would be anathema
to the ontologically essentialist premises supporting the concept of the subject in social
psychology.
Fixing the subject of diversity in this manner despite the apparent contradictions
of its ‘travels’—i.e. promoting diversity in a universalizing mode while obviating that
the context and conceptual space from which the notion emerged was very local—has
allowed the US-based perspectives to become a practical toolkit for addressing (i.e.
managing) differences in organizations and institutions around the world. As noticed
by some, the ‘management diversity industry’ has become global (e.g. Sayers 2008).
Pervaded by instrumental rationality as a human resources management (HRM) task,
these perspectives have spread pragmatically while conceptually they offer little oppor-
tunity for understanding the contradictions of the subject they claim to represent (e.g.
D’Netto and Sohal 1999; Scroggins and Benson 2010). In transferring US-based diver-
sity programmes, such as those in multinationals, to various destinations, there is some
recognition of local issues and the need to adapt. However, these concerns are associ-
ated with organizational practices for ‘knowledge transfer’ and the desirable manage-
ment outcomes—i.e. ‘the business case’—that should emerge from them, and not with
difficulties related to how the subject of diversity is conceptualized (e.g. Süβ and Kleiner
2007; Cooke and Saini 2010; Jabbour et al. 2011; Hirt and Bešić 2013). The next section,
however, provides different analyses and responses to these issues, as well as new ones
that emerge from them.

Provincializing Diversity
The literature in this section, some of which dates from as early as the mid-1990s (e.g.
Human (1996) regarding South Africa), represents a fundamental shift in the notions
of the subject as represented above. In principle it is a critique of the US diversity schol-
arly literature and its inability to recognize that context matters, not simply in terms
of diversity categories (e.g. Moore 2014), but also that diversity is a process of subject
formation. That is, ‘diversity’ is not something that exists a priori because people belong
or are ascribed one demographic category or another, no matter how context specific
such categories might be. Rather, ‘diversity’ is a socially constructed label that emerged
in a particular place and time to depoliticize for the most part—e.g. transform into an
organizational practice—difficult social relations that anteceded such a label in the
584    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

workplace and elsewhere. The theoretical arguments discussed above were the scholarly
side of the same process—that is, a literature that developed in the name of ‘diversity’
to provide ‘neutral scientific’ explanations that could be generalized, instead of politi-
cal and contextual explanations for social relations that already existed (e.g. Cavanaugh
1997; Omanović 2009). And for that purpose, social psychology was ready to hand in a
society, that of the US, for which psychological and behavioural explanations for most
social processes had become popular culture discourse (e.g. Cushman 1990).
In contrast, the literature examined in this section provincializes the US diversity
literature by highlighting—explicitly and implicitly—the very local conditions of its
appearance, both as a historical event and through its epistemological preferences, and
by focusing more generally on the social construction of diversity also as a local event.
Typically, the theoretical lenses employed to this effect are of interpretive and critical
sociological provenance, addressing the notion of the subject as a different ontological
entity. Often, but not always, this is a discursive subject, constructed in and through the
rhetoric and power relations embedded in processes and practices of ‘managing diver-
sity’ (e.g. Zanoni and Janssens 2004).The examples we review below draw attention to
this shift—namely changing the subject (Hollway et al. 1984). Later we also address how
managerial issues in the earlier literature shifted to other matters of concern under the
premises of this one.
In an early and well-known study, Jones, Pringle, and Shepherd (2000) stress that
the discourse of ‘managing diversity’ is based on US-centric assumptions about organi-
zational culture and the politics of difference, and, thus, is ethnocentric and culturally
limited in its framing. Their point of departure cautions that asking how universal-
ized notions of ‘managing diversity ’ from US-derived models can be implemented in
Aotearoa/New Zealand is the wrong approach. Instead, it is important to look at local
responses to the local context. In this context, the relationships between Maori (the
Indigenous, original population) and Pakeha (non-Maori settlers mostly of British
descent) had been codified in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, considered the founding
document of New Zealand. From there on, Aotearoa/New Zealand was represented as
a bicultural society, generating a discourse of partnership that was seen, at least in the
public domain, as requiring the sharing of power, resources, and responsibility between
two cultures. This approach was based on a framework of social justice, equity, and
eliminating inequality. Thus, the paper calls for a multi-voiced discourse on ‘diversity’
capable of representing many different contextual modalities. In the authors’ view this
can only happen if there is tolerance for the ambiguity of notions about difference in
organizations. That is, tolerance for the many ways in which the subject of diversity can
be constituted by the discourse—for instance, as partners in a bicultural society—rather
than as minorities and majorities through demographic classifications.
Several other studies around the world reiterate these critiques of the US normative
discourse and the importance of keeping in mind the historical, contextual, and discur-
sive construction of the subject of diversity more generally. For instance, Nyambegera
(2002) explores questions around Human Resources (HR) diversity programmes in
multi-ethnic societies in sub-Saharan Africa, noting that understanding of the complex
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    585

social structure in multi-ethnic societies is missing from contemporary Western models

of HRM. Addressing Africa’s historical colonial roots, the author highlights how colo-
nizers would play ethnic groups off against one another as a divide-and-rule approach
to governance, and stresses that ethnic identity is susceptible to all kinds of political
manipulation for establishing control over populations. From this perspective, it is
questionable whether the concept of diversity management with its US cultural domi-
nance and emphasis on a priori categorizations can be easily transferred to countries in
Africa.
The two studies above point to the fallacy of attempting to universalize practices of
‘diversity management’ based on contemporary Anglo-American understandings and
applications. They emphasize the importance of historical events in defining local con-
texts and the notions of the subject constituted through them. Meanwhile, other stud-
ies address the functioning of actual discourses of diversity management in particular
locations and also draw attention to their heterogeneity. For example, Point and Singh
(2003) examined the websites of over 200 major companies in eight European countries
and found that definitions of diversity were often imprecise and idiosyncratic, more
likely to suit a company’s interests than following uniform and well-understood, con-
sistent notions. These discrepancies attest to the malleability of these ideas as well as to
their socially constructed nature, but what are the consequences of this for the construc-
tion of the subject? Zanoni and Janssens’ (2004) research offers one answer to this ques-
tion. Using critical discourse and rhetorical analyses of texts from various interviews
with Flemish HR managers, they examined how power enters these managers’ local
discourses of diversity. Focusing on the micro-dynamics of language, the authors show
that HR managers generally define diversity on the basis of a few selected diversity axes
and as a group phenomenon. These definitions fix diverse employees’ representations
by constructing them solely as members of reference groups sharing given essences.
Through this type of representation, diverse employees are discursively denied full sub-
jectivity and agency, which also reaffirms managerial hegemony.
There are other answers as well. Several studies conducted in Northern European
countries continue to highlight both the contextual specificity of diversity discourses
as well as their ambiguity. For instance, Kamp and Hagedorn-Rasmussen (2004) note
that in most European countries diversity management is seen primarily as a way of
integrating ethnic minorities, which are also regarded as social problems, into the
labour market. In this context, the authors explore whether the introduction of ‘diver-
sity management’ in Danish organizations might improve this situation. Addressing
the dynamic properties of this discourse and the ambiguity in its conception of differ-
ence and sameness, their study observed the introduction of discourses emphasizing
sameness and integration—even if pointed towards assimilation. That is, diversity in
this modality did not focus on individual differences, common in US diversity manage-
ment discourses. Later on, Risberg and Søderberg (2008) corroborated several points
also noted in the latter study, indicating that the discourse of social responsibility seems
to be a widespread aspect of managing diversity in European companies. This was also
the case in Denmark, as noted by Boxenbaum (2006) with the distinction that a focus
586    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

on integrating vulnerable groups appears to be unique to Denmark. In this case, incor-

porating ‘the other’ into the dominant population represents a gesture towards equality,
‘Danish style’, and therefore its construction of the subject of diversity.
Other studies speak directly about the effectiveness of ‘diversity management’ dis-
courses to adapt and reproduce pre-existing understandings of local social norms, some
of which could further social exclusion. For example, informed by Foucault’s notion of
discourse, Meriläinen et al. (2009) analysed the websites of the top twenty Finnish com-
panies (in terms of sales) to examine how diversity was represented. Their point was
recognition that gender equality is one of Finland’s key social discourses, and so it was in
these websites. However, the authors argue that by giving priority to differences between
men and women as social groups—the subject of this discourse—the Finnish diversity
discourse highlights power relations of in/equality and dis/advantage between men
and women but ‘leaves race- and ethnicity-based power relations invisible’ (Meriläinen
et al. 2009: 234). Similarly, Heres and Benschop’s (2010) discourse analysis of ten
Netherlands-based multinationals’ websites illustrates how adaptations of diversity
management may not replace existing local discourses of meritocracy (an individual-
izing social stance) and equality (a social policy issue) but leave them more or less intact.
In that sense, diversity discourses continue to remain stereotypical and applicable only
to those subjects constructed as different from the ‘norm’: minority and women’s issues.
The formation of the diversity subject becomes more complicated when leaving the
purely discursive domain to focus on processes and practices for changing organiza-
tions. One study from Switzerland and another one from Sweden illustrate these
dynamics. Ostendorp and Steyaert (2009) studied how six major Swiss-based organiza-
tions attempted to provide a variety of social interventions for their workers, some of
which were explicit as ‘diversity interventions’ and others that were not. Interviews with
providers and participants revealed interpretative repertoires for these interventions
that allowed for being different or not. The image of the ‘ideal worker’ was one norm
against which the possibility of difference was articulated, often defeating the intent
of ‘diversity’ programmes. In effect, ‘diversity’ could become forbidden even by those
expected to benefit from it. Differences could only appear and reappear if the image of
the ‘ideal worker’ was challenged by political negotiation.
Moving away from the discursive domain, Omanović’s (2013) longitudinal eth-
nographic case study in a large manufacturing company in Sweden focuses on a pro-
gramme to establish a diversity initiative. Articulating ‘diversity’ as a dialectical
production process, the issues that unfold over time in the workplace produce contra-
dictions and praxes, and reveal processes of domination over particular sectoral inter-
ests attempting to control the direction of diversity production. The dominant interest
here was represented by an association already made on the larger Swedish social scale,
where ethnicity, gender, and age were related to historically disadvantaged people. Seen
in this light, the people to whom ‘social diversity’ referred were minorities within the
organization—regardless of hierarchical or professional position—and their voices were
disqualified from the start as ‘less than’ voices, both in numbers and in value. Doing
so, however, did not imply the dominant majority was supporting senior management
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    587

and the formal hierarchy—who at the start of the case seemed to sympathize with social
and economic arguments for diversity. Rather, for most employees it was a way to sup-
port their own social (ethnicity, gender, class) ‘Swedishness’ hierarchy as the legitimate
members of the organization and the legitimate members of Swedish society.
These two studies show the other side of the story addressed in the website studies
above. While on the websites there are clear signals that the notion of ‘diversity’ can be
institutionalized for reproducing ‘the same’, when observed from the point of view of
actual organizational dynamics ‘diversity’ becomes a contested terrain, suffused with
power relations, and given to flux and transformation of its subject (e.g. Janssens and
Zanoni 2014; see also Katila et al. 2013).
Finally, another area of organizational scholarly work where the subject of diversity
has been provincialized comprises a series of studies examining legal domains that
include and go beyond organizational practices (Klarsfeld 2009, 2010; Klarsfeld, Ng,
and Tatli 2012; Tatli et al. 2012; Klarsfeld et al. 2014). Who is the diversity subject of legal
regulations? In an early study, Klarsfeld (2009) starts with the broader French context
to contrast how ‘diversity’ as a voluntary organizational practice in the United States
became a way to substitute legal mandates against discrimination, while in France vol-
untary practices and legal mandates coexist, requiring diversity practices to be under-
stood in their mutual relationships. This argument is formulated through French
regulation theory in clear contrast with other varieties of institutional analysis which,
unreflectively, seem to position themselves as ‘universal’ explanations. More generally,
the question that most of these studies set out to answer is: What is the local relation-
ship between equality and diversity? This question has formed the basis of two edited
collections. The first one (Klarsfeld 2010) had contributions from sixteen countries; and
the second one (Klarsfeld et al. 2014) comprises contributions from fourteen countries.
In several instances, the information that appeared in the first collection was updated
in the second, underlining the dynamic and changing nature of regulating the diversity
subject. In the words of the editors, ‘[t]‌he country cases . . . demonstrate the three key
characteristics of diversity management at work: contextuality, relationality and dyna-
mism’ (Klarsfeld et al. 2014: 5).
In short, in provincializing diversity the works in this section illustrate that the sub-
ject of diversity unfolds historically in a particular location, and it is always subject of/
to change. This includes the very constitution of diversity as a concept in regards to the
notion of humanity it represents, and in regards to the practices and processes where it
takes shape. Here the emphasis on a priori ‘identity’ categories and categorizations from
the US mainstream diversity literature has shifted to a relational understanding of how
differences—under the aegis of ‘diversity’—become meaningful in situated discourses
and practices. That is, differences and differentiation are produced relationally on loca-
tion, not pre-existent in individuals. These works also underscore that ‘diversity’ is not
a neutral descriptor or qualifier; rather, it is a malleable symbol enacted through power
relations when it is applied to people and practices. For instance, difference is invoked
and meritocracy serves as an alibi when certain organizational activities, norms, and
behaviours, historically associated with some (dominant) people and not others, come
588    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

into question. In other instances, the notion of diversity is resignified to only apply in
very reductive ways, reproducing traditional social understandings of the valuable and
the value-less.
More generally, observing its various locations and different understandings, this set
of literature highlights the complicated relationships between notions of diversity and
notions of inclusion and equality (e.g. Syed and Kramar 2009). In so doing, it serves
as additional evidence for challenging the financialization of diversity and its use as an
instrumental managerial tool available for managerial control, while offering ways for
understanding the multiplicity of the subject of diversity from its inception and observ-
ing what it might become on location.
The next literature we review can be considered to add an ontological twist insofar as,
for the purpose of this review, we are focusing on the formation of the subject of transna-
tional diversity in organizations. As we see it, this recent small literature on the simulta-
neity of diversity highlights the complexity of subject formation under the aegis of local
‘diversity’ discourses and practices, sometimes becoming a point of interrogation for all
categories of identification.

The Simultaneity of Diversity

The feminist literature on intersectionality, from which most other literatures claiming
an intersectional lens draw, has a complicated history that has become even more intri-
cate over time (Anthias 2013; Carbin and Edenheim 2013). Some recent critiques have
reiterated that the origins of intersectionality stem from ideas on US race and black fem-
inism, a literature that emphasized, ontologically, the interaction of power structures
and categories of oppression. Later, critical perspectives derived from poststructural-
ism—including postcolonial and queer theories, as well as diaspora studies—articu-
lated notions of intersectionality for conceptualizing ontologically shifting and multiple
identities which also coincided with notions of power in Foucault’s works (Davis 2008).
However, when the rubric ‘intersectionality’ became popularized as a ‘social construc-
tionist’ argument, which paradoxically took for granted the a priori existence and/or
stability of ‘identity categories’, it was also open to being adopted as a liberal feminist dis-
course free to ignore power relations and oppressive social structures. In short, intersec-
tionality has become, in Carbin and Edenheim’s (2013) critique, ‘a theory that provides
us with an ontology of neither the subject nor power. Intersectionality has foremost
become successful precisely because it does not meet the requirements of a theory and
hence “everyone” feels that it fits “their way of doing research” ’ (Carbin and Edenheim
2013: 245).
In light of this, while ‘intersectionality’ has also become popularized in the organiza-
tional literature, we exercise caution in how it is represented in this section. Specifically,
below we will highlight works on diversity in organization which, like the original inter-
sectionality literature, keep in view structures of oppression and questions of subject
formation within power relations (Collins 1990, 1993; Crenshaw 1991; Yuval-Davis 2006,
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    589

2011; Davis 2008; Choo and Ferree 2010). Similar to the literature in the previous sec-
tion, this literature acknowledges where it originated, and thus admits to a situationally
and historically produced diversity subject rather than to a stable set of identifiers for an
individual (Werbner 2013). However, one important aim of these works is to focus more
incisively on how experiences of the social world, especially in regard to marginaliza-
tion, inequality, and social hierarchy in organizations (e.g. ‘inequality regimes’ (Acker
2006)), take place simultaneously through gender, race, class, and so forth, not as iden-
tity categories but as material social formations (Holvino 2010; Zanoni et al. 2010).
Among these works, Boogaard and Roggeband (2010) put identity categorization
under a critical lens with their examination of the Dutch police force. Their study high-
lights how organizational inequality is (re)produced and called into question by ways in
which actors and organizations draw on intersecting gender, ethnic, and organizational
identities. Analyses of their findings shed light on two paradoxes: the first paradox
shows that by deploying more positive identities to empower themselves, individu-
als can de facto contribute to reproducing inequalities along those same identity axes.
However, the second paradox suggests that acknowledging minority officers’ specific
competences—such as an organizational action—calls into question inequality in terms
of gender and ethnicity. In short, by scrutinizing the subject of diversity under an inter-
sectional lens, the authors articulate its dynamic and agentic formation. What is at play
here is how ‘identity categorizations’ become materialized and mobilized by the actors
themselves. Similarly, Barragan and Mills (2013) argue that in the context of globaliza-
tion there are a variety of gendered cultural templates that women and men can mobi-
lize. They further contend that due to processes of globalized capitalism, senior women
managers in Mexico face local and global discourses offering a repertoire of subjective
positions for identity construction. Drawing on feminist poststructuralist conceptu-
alizations of intersectionality and micro-resistance, they observed how these actors
adopted, adapted, and rejected available subject positions by concentrating on relational
and contextual aspects of identity formation processes.
Meanwhile, several studies focus not on the management side but on the labour side
of this story. For instance, Zanoni (2011) examines the intersections of gender, disability,
and age in the automobile industry in Belgium with respect to the production and expe-
rience of inequality, and shows that the ‘diversity subject’ is a classed subject. Applying
intersectionality perspectives informed by black feminist standpoint theories, the study
addresses how the meanings of socio-demographic identities such as gender, age, and
(dis)ability—namely diversity—are informed by underlying class relations and how
such meanings inform class relations between labour and capital. The author counters
the identitarian emphasis of less critical intersectionality approaches by arguing that
re-conceptualizing diversity through class offers a powerful analytical tool to better
understand how unequal power relations play out in contemporary organizations.
In another example pertaining to labour relations, this time in the context of locked-
out hotel workers in Canada, Soni-Sinha (2013) goes beyond Marxian analysis and
deploys a poststructuralist feminist analysis. The aim of the study is to understand how
workers’ intersectional subjective identities are constituted and the interrelationships
590    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

between their investments in and constitution of collectivities with regards to indus-

trial action. Further, Alberti, Holgate, and Tapia (2013) use intersectionality insights
to examine precarious work from the perspective of trade-union practices regarding
equality and diversity. The study explores how unions in the UK organize and recruit
low-paid, vulnerable migrant workers and concludes that trade unions tend to consider
migrants primarily as workers, a universalized labour process subject, rather than as
migrant workers with particular and overlapping forms of oppression. Insofar as this
happens, unions dichotomize workplace and migration issues which exclude marginal-
ized and diverse workers.
In light of globalization, intersectionality can clarify the subject formation of various
immigrant groups within different experiences of inequality in organizations. For exam-
ple, Healy, Bradley, and Forson (2011) demonstrate that Bangladeshi, Caribbean, and
Pakistani women in UK public sector organizations experience inequalities differently
based on their own historically situated arrival in the UK but that things became more
complicated through their everyday organizational life. Informed by what Crenshaw
(1991) calls an ‘intersectional sensibility’, the authors frame their arguments through
Acker’s (2006) conceptualization of inequality regimes, to demonstrate the complexity
and unevenness in the way inequality regimes are produced, reproduced, and rational-
ized. For instance, at some points women were able to reconcile the work culture with
their personal values and exhibited a form of intersectional empowerment, while at
another points they experienced intersectional disempowerment resulting from the
struggle to reconcile racialized and gendered daily interactions. Similarly, Mirza (2013)
outlines how embodied intersectionality allows understanding of the ways in which
professional Muslim women who wear the hijab in the UK experience various forms of
discrimination both in society and in organizations. This study goes on to address the
various discursive and material strategies utilized by such women to challenge domi-
nant narratives of being ‘oppressed’ in their everyday lives.
Yet there is more to diversity in the context of transnationalism. Note that these
last examples of intersectionality pertain to mobile populations—immigrants—but
regardless of where they came from we considered them at their point of destina-
tion, and available for analysis of subject formation under the aegis of ‘intersection-
ality’. While understanding subjectivities as relationally constituted—the process of
subjectification—is a conventional anti-essentialist assumption in current social the-
ory and most conceptualizations of intersectionality, these understandings still anchor
the subject in time/space location. This gesture naturalizes located subjects as the norm
while ignoring subjects who embody mobile ontological experiences as the common
state of affairs. At best, these analyses would show how actors may become ‘others’ in
particular locations at different points in time, but they would miss new articulations
of subjectivity and the creation of new social fields produced through the actor’s move-
ment as she or he relates to others throughout time/space. As we will explore in the
next section, from the transnational perspective that informs this chapter, the mobility
and movement of people across borders necessarily changes the very ontology of the
subject and calls into question its constitution.
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    591

The Formation of Mobile Subjectivities

Some critics of the intersectionality literature, noting the ‘identitarian’ emphasis it has
acquired, often suggest that more attention should be paid to specific sites and locations
where new forms of subjectivation may be performed (Staunes 2003; Williams 2005).
In principle, they argue for recognizing that race, gender, and class are not properties
of individuals or of groups but political relations structuring people’s lived experi-
ences while reifying the structural relations of power where they are implicated (e.g.
Carastathis 2008).
Puar (2007, 2012) further complicates these critiques when noting the historical and
institutional inception of intersectionality in the academic context of women’s, gender,
and legal studies in the United States during the 1980s, a period of heightened identity
politics in the country. The same moment, we should add, when ‘diversity’ became part
of the US management literature. Thus, Puar asks for recognition of the existence of
intersectionality as an historical ‘event’, and its emergence and practice (by whom? and
for what?) in the particular context of the changing historical and economic landscapes
of neoliberal capitalism. In her argument it is necessary to rethink the notion of ‘iden-
tity’ and its categories as part of such event as well as to note that they are still part of
modernist colonial agendas from which the idea of a ‘discrete identity’ appeared.
Other critics, in particular those involved in transnational feminist and migration
research go further in highlighting persistent problems with categorization(s) of iden-
tities, including intersectionality, when borders are crossed. For instance, instead of
focusing on ‘identities’, Yuval-Davis (1997, 2006, 2012) recommends taking into account
transversal politics, a democratic practice of alliances across boundaries of difference,
while Anthias (2006, 2012) suggests the notion of translocational positionality—subject
positions tied to situation, meaning, and the interplay of social locations in complex
and often contradictory ways. In fact, recent empirical examples reiterate how Western
conceptualizations of selves, slotted into categories such as ‘gender’, ‘race’, and ‘class’,
are not meaningful everywhere. While Western theories of the subject often ‘travel’, in
the process their meanings change (Nagar 2002; Min 2008; Choo 2012). For instance,
Purkayastha (2012) shows how immigrant women from India and Uganda in the US
would be racially marginalized differently, consistent with the racist ideologies, interac-
tions, and institutional arrangements of this country. Yet, upon return to their ‘home’
countries, their situation might again change depending on who is part of the privileged
majority versus the marginalized minority within a country after having been away. In
Purkayastha’s words, ‘these hierarchies do not always fit the white-yellow/brown-Black
hierarchy extant in Western Europe and North America’ (Purkayastha 2012: 59).
Thus, how to proceed? In her 1993 book, Kathy Ferguson put forward the notion
of ‘mobile subjectivities’ as a way to reconsider feminist identity claims assumed to
be lost under the discursive turn of poststructuralism. This theory allows for main-
taining agency without relying on a stable location of either identity (no matter how
complex) or of place as a requirement for political engagement and for effecting social
change. Through it, the identitarian argument is turned around for ‘[i]‌n the shifting
592    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

temporal and spatial possibilities offered by specific locales, mobile subjectivities find
the resources for de-articulating and re-articulating themselves’ (Ferguson 1993: 163).
Concrete articulations of the possibility of mobile subjectivities can be found in
contemporary mobilities scholarship, developing important insights on interrela-
tions between global hypermobility and subjectivity formation (e.g. D’Andrea 2006).
The problem of the subject looms large in these arguments, often inspired by images
of nomadism (Deleuze and Guattari 1980; Braidotti 1994) and translocality (Appadurai
1996). Questions emerge about conceptualizations of subjectivity that frame identities
in the context of place and time insofar as their possible displacements are not taken
into account. Recognizing these limitations, mobility scholars have explored other
understandings of subjectivity. For instance, D’Andrea (2006) puts forward the concept
of neo-nomad for investigating the cultural effects of hypermobility under conditions
of globalization, a contemporary social experience for many, in self, identity, and soci-
ality. In another example, Conradson and Mckay (2007: 168) consider selfhood always
as a hybrid relational achievement and advance the idea of translocal subjectivities ‘to
describe the multiply-located senses of self among those who inhabit transnational
social fields’. They follow Appadurai’s (1996) notion of translocality which describes how
communities in a place become extended through the geographical mobility of their
inhabitants. A translocality becomes emplaced and recreated through transnational
movements and relationships—a transnational social field (see also Levitt and Glick
Schiller 2004; Calás and Smircich 2011).
In the process of developing these ideas, scholars have also questioned the assumed
relationships between who and what is deemed ‘local’ versus who and what is deemed
‘global’, in particular when ‘the local’ is associated with less affluent places and popula-
tions are imagined as fixed in time and space, while ‘the global’ is associated with afflu-
ence, mobility, and positive social change—e.g. modernization. Fortier (2006), among
others, draws attention to how certain populations, including immigrants, get lost in these
discussions. In her view, this situation requires analysis of the constant interplay between
micro and macrophysics of power. These arguments are part of a broader critique of
dominant Western social theory and its ‘sedentarist’ metaphysics (Malkki 1992; Cresswell
2006; Frello 2008), whose traditional analytical premises naturalize and privilege seden-
tary modes of life and identity such as belonging to a nation and having a home. Along
those lines, Wimmer and Glick-Schiller (2002) note that methodological nationalism,
the assumption that the nation/state/society is the natural social and political form of the
modern world, still informs much Western social theory and methodology. This implies
a ‘container model of society’ (Wimmer and Glick-Schiller 2002: 308) which remains
invisible. Transnational mobility, in particular migration movements, is seen as problem-
atic under ‘container’ theoretical models for ‘[c]‌ross border migration . . . appears as an
anomaly, a problematic exception to the rule of people staying where they “belong”, that is
to “their” nation-state’ (Wimmer and Glick-Schiller 2002: 311). Thus, in their view trans-
national analyses as well as analyses of new spaces constituted through cross-national
mobilizations of diverse populations—namely transnational social fields—still yield a bet-
ter understanding of contemporary social and power relations across the world.
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    593

In sum, these arguments point out to how difficult it is to imagine subjectivities that
could escape the grip of dominant Western social theory and the West’s dominant
social and political formations. Insofar as the mobile subject is seen as ‘the other’ of the
normally sedentary and nation bound subject, that is, ‘the citizen’, s/he is theoretically
constituted as marginal and exceptional, a ‘less than’ subject. Understanding mobile
subjectivities, their agency, and production processes—for example, being at some
time/space dominant, and at others subordinated—would require mobile conceptual-
izations. This may imply understanding multi-local conceptions of the subject in vary-
ing power relationships between those located and those on the move in a continuity of
time/space—a translocation. It would also include the transformation of known con-
ceptualizations, which may acquire new but temporary meanings in the process (e.g.
Purkayastha 2012), reiterating the importance of rethinking prevailing classificatory
schemes, including race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class, through space, time, and actual
bodies on the move (Fortier 2006).
We note, as well, that conceptualizations of subjectivity formation from mobilities
scholarship and associated critiques of Western epistemologies (e.g. Haverig 2011) con-
verge with current feminist conceptualizations of the subject under globalized capi-
talism and neoliberalism. At issue here is the emphasis on individualism, choice, and
self-empowerment exhibited by the desirable subject of contemporary neoliberal dis-
courses, and potential resistance to it (Gill 2007). What new subjectivities may be ‘in
formation’ under these now apparently global demands? Here we suggest that under
these circumstances the subject of diversity discourses and practices must avoid identity
categorizations and be understood, instead, as a mobile, precarious, and transitory form
of subjectivation (see also, Calás, Ou, and Smircich 2013).
Adib and Guerrier (2003) substantiate our arguments. This is a frequently cited exam-
ple in the diversity literature referring to intersectionality, however we argue that it is a
better example for observing mobile forms of subjectivation. This study addressed how
gender, nationality, race, ethnicity, and class intersect and are negotiated to shape the
work identities of women management trainees in hotel reception and chambermaid
work. All four trainees resided in the UK, but one was British and the other three were
immigrants from three different countries. Two, including the UK national, trained in
the UK and the other two, in a clear case of transnationalism, trained in the US. While
the study articulated the race/ethnicity and nationality of all the trainees, the signifi-
cance of the immigrant status of three of them is mostly ignored throughout the study
until almost the end, in the context of an incident in the US.
While in that country, one trainee, originally from Spain, was sexually harassed by
a co-worker from Latin America. In the research interview, the trainee explained that
it was mostly immigrant women from several countries who were harassed by this
same co-worker, and further noted that this may have been because he lacked a visa and
therefore he would not harass American women, who might create trouble for him. In
the interview she also reported being able to defuse the advances of the co-worker by
drawing on their common language (Spanish) and immigrant status, which helped her
claim solidarity with him insofar as they both were subjected to similar difficulties in the
594    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

workplace. However, while the analyses of this incident note the significance of differen-
tiation among immigrants, in this case from diaspora populations, and the intercrossing
of specific ethnicities and genders, for us there is more to the dynamics reported by this
trainee. To the extent that the overarching theme is the encounters trainees report in
their movements from place to place, they offer excellent examples of subject formation
processes that would only be seen, and become meaningful, if studied as occurring in
transnational social fields within the phenomenon of mobility itself. What boundaries
in time and space are these subjects crossing? What are they becoming as they move on
from place to place?
Leonard (2010) is another example of diversity studies worth analysing under mobil-
ity premises of subject formation. This study addresses the negotiation and construction
of new white subjectivities in the changing global workplace of Hong Kong. It explores
how recent changes in the social and political landscape are being accompanied by
complex transformations of work and working identities of British expatriates. Here
individuals perform as white subjects through discourses of gender and nationality in
the interplay between global and local discourses, highlighting how such subjectivi-
ties are always unstable. Despite its postcolonial framing, in this article the makings of
mobile subjectivities are obvious, precarious, and transitory, except that the subjects are
emplaced in the context of Hong Kong with little attention being paid to the fact that
expatriation is always already a mobile experience of subject formation. What happens
up on their return?
As we conclude this chapter, this latter example returns us to the start, where we
used an example of the subject of expatriation as understood under premises of social
identity theory. The arc we have traced from there to here hopefully underscores that
travelling through notions of subject formation, specifically moving after the subject of
transnational diversity in organizations, is not only a journey through places where the
subject forms, but also an expedition to displace ontological assumptions as we moved
along. In so doing, we are now arriving at our proclaimed destination—albeit clearly
temporary—through which we mark the end of the chapter.

Towards Post-identitarian
Transnational Diversity
and Organization Perspectives

In this last section it is only fitting that we go back to Foucault’s (1973) reflections on
Borges’s Chinese encyclopedia as a basis for our aims in this chapter. The particular argu-
ment Foucault was raising in this book was precisely how we have come to know what
‘knowledge’ ‘is’. Following historical traces of discourses from the sixteenth century on
in Europe, he observed how practices such as classification, dividing into classes, creat-
ing taxonomies, and so on became associated with science and knowledge as ‘human
 Transnational Perspectives on Diversity in Organizations    595

sciences’ across what we now take for granted as disciplinary boundaries in linguistics,
biology, and economics. What Borges’s fable does is to call into question what may be
missing for us—in our now conventional system of thought—for understanding such
odd classification, which includes a sequence of letters seemingly ordering incongru-
ous elements. What do all the items in that odd list have in common? Having a com-
mon ground would allow for things like ‘integrating’ or ‘comparing’; in other words, to
develop a common order —a ‘table’—for classification of its components, and therefore
fostering the possibility of commensurability along any form of classification. That is, to
be able to include and exclude, and to discard what doesn’t belong to a particular disci-
plinary discourse.
Needless to say, through the course of this chapter we have tried to challenge estab-
lished expectations. There are already well-organized classificatory schemes using
functionalist approaches for making sense of the literature we have addressed (e.g.
Syed and Özbilgin 2009; Tatli and Özbilgin 2012). Yet that is what we have tried to
escape (perhaps not very successfully) with each of our taxonomical categories: the
assumption that somehow these would be ontologically commensurable as categories
in the discourse of ‘diversity’. Rather, by fostering possibilities of ontologically incom-
mensurable forms of subject formation between representations in each category, we
were opening a door for another possibility: that the transnational subject of diversity
and organization should not be classified, as subject formation is an ongoing process
with ephemeral duration.
Thus, what we are asking instead is to keep in mind modalities in our ‘taxonomy’,
from internationalized social identity theory, to provincializing approaches, to the sim-
ultaneity of diversity in an intersectionality critical mode, as ontologically incommen-
surable while coexisting today in the transnational diversity in organization literature.
Together they have opened and continue to open spaces for disciplinary discourses of
psychology, sociology, and feminism as very different ways of understanding the diver-
sity subject. Yet they are all part of a common problem: their tendency towards keeping
alive that dangerous word: ‘identity’, despite the fact that in most cases they are referring
to incompatible metatheoretical notions of subject formation. Maintaining ‘identity’ as
a common lexicon has created a lot of confusion; a particular problem for addressing
transnational perspectives if at the same time one wants to address the fact that ‘identity’
is a ghost of Western individualism at its most fundamental.
Thus, here we put forward the notion of mobile subjectivities as another way to think
about the subject of diversity and organization. As we see it, it is perhaps a more appro-
priate understanding for contemporary subject formation in a ‘post-identitarian’ mode.
As such, developing this mode of thinking may make it possible to address conditions
and experiences of the larger world we all inhabit under globalized neoliberalism. That
is, this mode of thinking may highlight our common existence as subjects of a particular
kind of power relations, and our common predicaments under such relations, which
could easily be concealed by the apparently more benign label of ‘diversity in organiza-
tions’. Such a ‘benign’ label does nothing of the kind other than continue to divide us
into ‘classes’, ‘races’, ‘genders’ . . . as if it were all that matters.
596    Banu Özkazanç-Pan and Marta B. Calás

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 Index

Figures, notes, and tables are indicated by “f,” “n,” and “t” respectively.

AA. See Affirmative action ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)

Abdallah, C., 224 movement, 196
Abdulrahman, Mohamed, 529, 530–1 Action research, 543–4, 547, 549
Ableism, 474, 480, 488 Activism
Aboriginals. See Indigenous communities in academia, 33
Absenteeism, 260, 377 feminist, 20–1, 544
Abuse grassroots, 41, 565
of children, 27, 391n2 LGBT, 197
of migrant workers, 22 Activity limitations, defined, 469. See also
of power, 332 People with disabilities (PWD)
Academia, 357–69 Actor–network theory (ANT), 448
accommodation provisions in, 488 ADA. See Americans with Disabilities Act
activism in, 33 of 1990
ADVANCE initiative for, 111, 112–13 ADC (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
diversity management in, 359–60, Committee), 500
364–8, 364f Additive intersectionality model, 443–4
Eurocentrism in, 132–3, 135 Adib, A., 455, 463, 593
global, 130, 132–4, 136, 138, 141, 143 adivasis (indigenous aboriginals), 411
institutional level analysis of, 363–6 Adler, N., 375–6, 377
methodology for study of, 360–3, 367, 368 ADVANCE initiative, 111, 112–13
national differences in, 358 Affinity networks. See Diversity networks
overview, 8, 357–9 Affirmative action (AA)
politics of diversity and, 31–3 assimilation approach of, 84
practitioner activities and, 45–7 criticisms of, 29, 256–7
socialization into, 338, 339–40, 345 defined, 239
Southern Theory in, 168–9, 170 diversity management vs., 44, 237
translation of qualitative research to, 344–7 geographical differences in, 29–30, 29n7, 31
women in, 32 individual benefits of, 6, 239–41, 246
Academy of Management Executive (Cox & legal and moral rationales for, 220
Blake), 46 limitations of, 83
Access and legitimacy paradigm, 237 politicization of, 155
Accommodation. See Workplace positive effects of, 29, 31
accommodation quotas and, 42, 84, 240
achuts (untouchables), 411 in South Africa, 420
Acker, Joan, 19, 52, 158, 590 Affirmative internationalism, 137
604   Index

Afigbo, A., 30n8 overview, 5–6, 218–19

Africa queer theory and, 221–2
affirmative action programs in, 30 strategic, 222–5, 228, 230–1
globalization scholarship in, 139 Ambivalence
human resource diversity programs ambiguous diversities and, 228–30, 231
in, 584–5 of borders and boundary crossings, 184, 185
African-Americans. See Black and minority in colonialism, 161, 162, 163
ethnic (BME) groups of cultural authority, 185, 186
African National Congress, 420 in identifications, 188
Agamben, Giorgio, 512 in Pakistani law, 415
Age as resistance to the dominant cultural
age–ethnicity–class dyads, 454–62, 464–5 imperatives, 164
cultural context and, 457 of tempered radicals, 20
disability and, 471, 483 American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
discrimination, 373 Committee (ADC), 500
income inequality and, 459 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
of workforces, 456–7 (ADA), 470, 475, 478, 486
Age management programs, 456–7, 461 Analysis of variance (ANOVA) method, 443
Agency Anand, R., 558
ambiguous diversities and, 222, 230 Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY)
in business case for diversity, 264 Lands, 393, 393n4
in critical sensemaking method, 309, 310 Anderson, C. L., 478
defined, 309 Anderson, R., 391, 392
of female entrepreneurs, 397–8, 399, 404 Ang, I., 520
structure and, 548, 549 ANOVA (analysis of variance) method, 443
Ahl, H., 388 ANT (actor–network theory), 448
Ahmadiyya sect, 415 Anthias, F., 70n1, 462, 591
Ahmed, Sara, 197, 266 Anti-categorical approach, to intersectionality,
Ahonen, P., 159 70, 441, 442, 465, 523
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) Anti-Discrimination Board of New South
movement, 196. See also HIV/AIDS Wales, 528, 528n1
Alberti, G., 22, 590 Anti-Discrimination Directives (EU), 70, 206
Ali, Faiza, 8, 408, 419 Anti-Semitism, 504–5
Allah, 400 Apartheid, 166, 421, 425
Allen, A., 222 Appadurai, M., 592
Allport, G. W., 114 APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara)
Altman, J., 392 Lands, 393, 393n4
Alvesson, M., 100, 255, 304 Aragon, S. R., 566
Ambiguous diversities, 218–34 Arber, S., 545
agency and, 222, 230 Arciniega, L. M., 243
ambivalence and, 228–30, 231 Argentina, as vulnerable country, 409
case study of, 218–19, 224–5, 227–8, 229–30 Al Ariss, A., 462
contradiction and, 225–8, 230–1 Articulations, 306
definitions of, 221 Artifacts, cultural, 543, 544–5, 549
in diversity management, 219–20, 230 Ascribed identity, 117, 510
framework for study of, 221–30 Ashcroft, B., 186
future research directions, 232 Ashkanasy, N. M., 376
 Index   605

Ashley, L., 461 Barrett, M., 63

Asia, globalization scholarship in, 139 Barth, F., 185
Asian Dragons, 409 Bauman, Z., 331–2
Assimilation Baumfree, Isabella (Sojourner Truth), 67
in academia, 350 Baytos, L. M., 558
in diversity management, 46, 585 Beasley, C., 526–7
entrepreneurship and, 399, 403 Beatty, Joy E., 9–10, 469
heteronormative ideals and, 199, 212 Beck, Ulrich, 332
of indigenous research methodologies, 169 Beckles, H., 24, 24n5
of minorities, 83, 84, 389, 505 Bedell, K. W., 476
into organizational culture, 480 Behavioural disintegration, 244
Association of American Colleges and Belgium
Universities, 368 diversity discourse in, 463
Aull Davies, C., 100 people with disabilities in, 476
Australia Bell, E., 302
affirmative action in, 240 Bell, M. P., 462, 479, 480
business case for diversity in, 265 Belongingness, in work groups, 115, 284, 376
equality–diversity discourse in, 48, 49–51 Bending, in identity work, 401–2
feminist activism in, 20–1 Bendl, Regine, 5, 184, 195, 202–3, 544
immigrants in workforce in, 235 Benschop, Yvonne, 10–11, 294, 302, 543, 545,
Indigenous communities in, 390–5, 390n1 546, 547, 553, 586
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Bensimon, E. M., 359
Lands of, 393, 393n4 Benson, J. K., 95
race and gender laws in, 523 Bergmann, H., 187
settler–native relations in, 394 Bernstein, Ruth Sessler, 4, 109, 113, 114, 116
stereotype threat in, 481 Berry, D. P., 462, 480
Austria, diversity discourse in, 74, 454 Best, R. K., 445
Authenticity, 322–4 Bezrukova, K., 284, 557
Avotie, L., 562 Bhabha, Homi K., 135, 161, 162, 163, 164, 166,
Ayoko, O. B., 245 167, 175, 176, 185, 186, 187, 306
Bharat. See India
Baby Dragons, 409 Bias. See also Discrimination; Stereotypes
Bachan, R., 463 common method bias, 290, 292–3
Bairoh, S., 65 ethnocentrism, 83, 127, 184, 389, 584
Baldridge, David C., 9–10, 469, 482, 484 institutional, 46
Balkundi, P., 460 managerial, 240, 424, 485
Balser, D. B., 485 unconscious, 18, 112, 118, 120
Banerjee, S., 129, 131, 178, 393 Biculturalism, 48
Bangladesh, formation of, 409 Bilimoria, Diana, 4, 109, 111, 113, 117
Barbarism, 503 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 469
Barbosa, I., 266 Billings-Harris, L., 118
Barley, S. R., 319 Binary thinking, posthumanist critique
Barney, J., 237–8 of, 98–9
Barnum, P., 459 Biological racism, 506, 509
Baron, R. C., 479 Biomedical model of disability, 474
Barr, J. J., 481 Bisexuals. See Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
Barragan, S., 589 transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons
606   Index

Biswas, R., 54 Bosma, H., 402

Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. See Boundary work, 399, 400
also Ethnicity; Race and racism Bourdieu, P., 54, 458, 461, 462
access to power, 17 Bourgeoisie, 458
affirmative action, impact on, 239–40, Bowleg, L., 443–4
241, 246 Bowring, M., 200
career advancement of, 240 Boxall, P., 49, 288
career satisfaction of, 241, 287–8, 377 Boxenbaum, E., 585–6
economic restructuring, impact on, 22 Bracchitta, K., 481
entrepreneurship of, 301–2, 388–9, 403 Bradley, Harriet, 28, 590
equal opportunity initiatives for, 286 Braidotti, R., 98
in leadership positions, 376 Brain drain, 375
pay equity for, 240 Brantlinger, P., 161
police discrimination and, 26–7 Braverman, H., 326
unemployment among, 17 Brazil
Black Consciousness movement, 167n4 diversity management in, 542
Black feminism emergence of, 33, 409, 549
critiques of second-wave feminism, 51 Brewer, J. D., 18
defined, 436 Brewer, M. B., 524
on intersectionality, 67–9 Brewis, J., 200
sociological imagination and, 18–19 BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China)
Black Feminist Thought (Hill Collins), 18, countries, 33, 409, 549
69, 436 Brint, S., 113–14
Blackmail, 401 British Airways, 446
Blake, S., 178, 179, 262 Broadbent, E., 477
Blake-Beard, S. D., 561 Brown, C., 21
Blancero, Donna Maria, 4, 109 Brown, Michael, 26
Blaut, J. M., 506 Brown, R., 523
Bleijenbergh, Inge, 10, 539, 547, 548 Bruni, A., 388, 402
BME groups. See Black and minority Bryant, L., 455, 548
ethnic groups Buckley, T., 116, 118
Bodenhausen, G. V., 116, 119 Buen vivir (living well), 141–2
Bogaert, S., 91 Buitelaar, M., 402, 459
Böhm, S., 306 Burawoy, M., 32, 330
Bolivia, buen vivir in, 141–2 Burgess-Limerick, T., 343
Boogaard, B., 94, 589 Burke, R. J., 239
Boon, S. P., 303 Burkhauser, R. V., 478, 480
Boone Parsons, D., 545 Burrell, G., 65, 87
Borchhorst, A., 21 Buse, K., 113
Border control, internal, 164 Bush, George W., 139
Borders Business case for diversity, 255–77
as inclusion/exclusion mechanisms, 182, agency and subjectivity in, 264
184–5, 188 in codes of conduct, 209
internal, 390 consumer group representation in, 260–1
liminality of, 184, 186 contextual considerations of, 265–6
between self and others, 184 critical diversity studies on, 155–8
Bosch, Anita, 8, 408 critiques of, 6, 262–6, 318
 Index   607

decision-making, creativity and innovation neoliberalism and, 131, 193, 591

in, 261, 376, 377 normalizing power of, 196
defined, 255 as patriarchal structure, 69
as discourse of control, 263–4 Protestant work ethic and, 399, 507
dualisms in, 40–5 Carbin, M., 588
effectiveness of, 261–2 Career advancement, 240
elements of, 258–61 Career satisfaction, 241, 287–8, 294, 377
in emerging countries, 414, 426 Caribbean islands, reparation demands of, 24
employees, attracting and retaining, 259 Carrim, Nasima M. H., 8, 408
future research directions, 274 Cassell, C., 43, 54, 56
implementation and internationalization Caste system, 410, 411, 412, 413
of, 155–8 Categorization and elaboration model (CEM),
multiculturalism and, 178, 179 283, 284
organizational, 374–7, 380–1 Catholicism, 507
origins of, 255, 256–7 CDA (critical discourse analysis), 446–7
racism and discrimination in, 264–5 CEDAW. See Convention on the Elimination
reduced costs and, 259–60 of All Forms of Discrimination
social justice discourses and, 258–9, 266–73, against Women
268–70t, 371 Chadwick, K., 89
Butler, Judith, 197, 198, 200, 202 Chain referral sampling, 343
Buttner, E. H., 118 Chan, F., 473, 477
Chang, E., 91
Cabral-Cardoso, C., 266 Change agents, Turkish female entrepreneurs
Calás, Marta B., 11, 51, 177, 182, 445, 575 as, 398
Calori, R., 374 Chapman, D., 202
Caluya, G., 529, 530 Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU), 46
Calvinism, 399 Child abuse, 27, 391n2
"Camouflaging power and privilege: a critical Childcare facilities, in workplace, 417, 425
race analysis of university diversity Chile, emergence of, 409
policies" (Iverson), 366 Chilisa, Bagele, 169
Canada China
affirmative action in, 239–40 emergence of, 33, 409, 549
business case for diversity in, 265 guanxi in, 580–1
diversity discourse of employers in, 267–71, in management and organization
268–70t studies, 141
engineering profession, female peaceful rise framework and, 141, 142, 143
representation in, 307 in war on terror, 143
immigrant workers in, 235, 447 Choi, J. N., 582
pay equity in, 240 Choi, S., 287
people with disabilities in, 470–1, 478, 488 Choo, H., 436–7, 438, 524
Capitalism Chopra, R., 526, 527
class and, 76 Chrisman, J. J., 391, 392
colonialism and, 132 Christensen, Ann-Dorte, 69
contemporary nature of, 20 Christensen, K. A., 481
entrepreneurship and, 399 Christensen, S., 87
globalization and, 190, 589, 593 Christianity, 502, 506–7, 508
historical breaks and continuities in, 22 Chua, R. V. J., 119
608   Index

Cisgender, 198 in equal opportunity approach, 28, 34

Cisnormativity, 196, 197, 199, 210, 211, 213 in Islam, 400
Citibank Pakistan, 418–19 in systemic structures of inequality, 18
Citizenship, dimensions of, 504 Colleges. See Academia
Civil Rights Act of 1964 (US), 45, 500 Colley, H., 560
Civil Rights movement, 41, 51, 83, 506 Collins, Patricia Hill, 18, 69, 436, 438, 440, 442
Clash of civilizations theory, 129, 137–8, Colonial subjectivities, 161, 181
139, 502–3 Colonialism and colonization. See also
Class Postcolonialism
age–ethnicity–class dyads, 454–62, 464–5 capitalism and, 132
capitalism and, 76 cultural imperialism and, 160
definitions of, 458 defined, 160n1
discrimination based on, 17 in diversity management, 128, 129–30
disidentification with, 458–9 dominant group advantages of, 163
in diversity practice, 19, 589 global, 128, 129–30
institutionalizing processes in creating and legacies of, 24–5, 162, 167
maintaining, 458 in politics of diversity, 23–7, 30, 30n8, 33
middle class, 19n1 slavery and, 24
power and, 458 Coloniality, 128, 130, 131–2, 135–6, 140
Clegg, S., 307 Combahee River Collective, 67–8
Co-optation mechanisms Coming out process, 423
in business case for diversity, 273 Commatization, of oppression, 68
knowledge production and management Commodity diversity, 94
through, 133–4, 135, 139, 142, 143 Common method bias, 290, 292–3
radicalization of, 131 Communications Management Units, 501
Co-workers, reaction to workplace Communism, 95
accommodation, 485–6, 489 Competency
Coalition Government (United Kingdom), 29 of academics, 344
Cockburn, C., 20 of employees, 231, 272
Codes of conduct (CoCs) in individual-level diversity, 116–22, 121t
business case for diversity in, 209 multilingual, 457
defined, 204 of supervisors, 424
on harassment, 207–8, 209 Competitive advantage
on health and safety, 208 in business case discourse, 255, 257, 265
heteronormativity in, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213 diversity management and, 44, 84, 155,
laws and regulations in, 208–9, 212 178, 237
queer theory analysis of, 203, 204–12, workforce diversity as, 238, 261, 374, 375–6
207t, 213 Competitive individualism, 50
on relationships, 208, 211–12 Component theory of disability identity
sex–gender–sexuality in, 205–8, 207t, development, 472
210, 211–12 Compulsive heterosexuality, 200
Coding techniques, 92–3, 205, 361–3 The Condition of the Working Class in England
Cohen, L., 202 (Engels), 319n1
Cole, B., 439, 443 Conflict-oriented identity work, 401
Colella, A., 480, 485 Conley, H., 29n7
Collective identity, 520, 524 Connell, Raewyn, 168–9, 526, 527, 529
Collectivism Conradson, D., 592
 Index   609

Constitutive intersectionality model, 443 Critical discourse analysis (CDA), 446–7

Construct validity, of research methodology, Critical diversity studies, 539–52
290, 291–2, 293 assessment of research contributions to,
Constructionism, 64, 71 547–8, 549, 550
Consumer group representation, in business business case for diversity in, 155–8
case for diversity, 260–1 critiques of, 75, 101, 177
Containment mechanisms data sources, collection, and analysis
knowledge production and management in, 544–6
through, 133–4, 135, 139, 142, 143 defined, 539–40
of military, 137 dialectical tradition in, 95–7
in othering processes, 182 discursive tradition in, 93–5, 96, 180
radicalization of, 131 in diversity management research, 85, 93–7
Content mapping approach, 361 emergence of, 154, 156
Content validity, of research first-wave, 157–8
methodology, 291–2 future research directions, 549
Context model, of global diversity on language, 302–3, 446–7
management, 371 overview, 5, 10, 153–4, 539–40
Contradiction, 225–8, 230–1 phases of, 542–8
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms postcolonialism in, 166–70
of Discrimination against Women principles of, 85
(CEDAW), 40, 416, 418 qualitative research in, 345, 348, 350–1,
Convention on the Rights of Persons with 543, 549
Disabilities (CRPD), 486 research agendas in, 540–3
Cooper, J. N., 18 researcher’s role in, 547
Cornwall, A., 525, 526 second-wave of, 158–9
Cornwall, J., 53 strategies for, 543–4, 548–9
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) survey of, 154–9
Initiatives, 54, 204 textual analysis in, 300–1, 302–3
Cosmopolitanism, 129, 130, 132, 136, 140 Critical hermeneutics, 446
Counter-knowledge, 140 Critical Management Research (Alvesson &
Covering Islam: How the Media and the Deetz), 100
Experts Determine How We See the Rest of A Critical Psychology of the Postcolonial: The
the World (Said), 503 Mind of Apartheid (Hook), 166
Cowling, M., 464, 541 Critical sensemaking method (CSM), 300,
Cox, Taylor, 46, 178, 179, 237, 262 305, 308–11, 310f, 447
Crary, Marcy, 4, 109 CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons
Creativity with Disabilities), 486
contradiction and, 228 CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
in decision-making, 261 Initiatives, 54, 204
diversity and, 119, 209, 243, 262, 376, 377 Cultural artifacts, 543, 544–5, 549
entrepreneurship and, 395 Cultural diversity. See Multiculturalism
in qualitative research, 337 Cultural globalization, 138
strategic ambiguity and, 223 Cultural imperialism, 23, 160, 161, 162
Creed, D., 200 Cultural legitimacy, 528–9
Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams, 68–9, 435, 436, Cultural metacognition, 119
437, 439, 440, 518, 525, 590 Cultural pluralism, 16, 127, 177, 184
Crisp, R. J., 119–20 Cultural racism, 179, 506, 507, 508, 509
610   Index

Dacin, M. T., 458 Demography, identity and, 579–81

DAL (diversity-authenticity-leadership) Denis, J.-L., 224
triangle, 323, 324 DeNisi, A. S., 480, 580
Dana, L., 391 Denissen, A. M., 303
D’Andrea, A., 592 Denmark
Danowitz, Mary Ann, 8, 357 diversity discourse in, 585–6
Darwin, A., 563 trade unions in, 29
Datta, K., 529, 530 Deshpande, S., 412
Daus, C. S., 376 Developmentalist fallacy, 133
Davenport, S., 222 Diagnostic equality checks, 378–81, 382
Davidson, D., 113 Dialectic transformations, 54–6, 55t
Davies, A., 447 Dialectical tradition, in diversity management
Davis, Angela, 68 research, 95–7
Davis, Kathy, 439 Dickens, L., 29
Davison, H. K., 484 Differences. See Diversity
Dawkins, Richard, 505 Dill, B. T., 438, 520
De Beauvoir, S., 23 Dimensions for the Design of Diversity
De Dreu, C. K. W., 283 practices. See 3D-model of diversity
De Lauretis, Teresa, 196n3 management
De Neve, G., 526 Dinsbach, A. A., 90, 91
De Vries, J., 563 Disabilities, defined, 469. See also People with
De Vries, R. E., 90, 91 disabilities (PWD)
Deakin, S., 27 Discourse approach, to equal opportunity, 42
Dean, D., 20 Discourse of control, business case for
Debebe, G., 116 diversity as, 263–4
Deblaere, C., 519 Discourse theory (Laclau & Mouffe), 7,
Dechant, K., 258 300, 305–8
Decision-making Discrimination. See also Bias; Oppression;
bureaucratization of, 42 Stereotypes and stigmatization
creativity and innovation in, 261 age-based, 373
critical moments in, 546 apartheid, 166, 421, 425
ethical, 238 in business case for diversity, 264–5
information/decision-making concept, 88 career satisfaction and, 241
Declaration of Human Rights (UN), 40 class and, 17
Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous in employment. See Equal opportunity
Peoples (UN), 390 (EO) initiatives
Decoloniality, 127–8, 130–2, 133–4, 135–6, at global vs. local levels, 372
140–3, 144 at higher education institutions, 358,
Deem, R., 362 363, 366
Deep-level diversity, 88, 89, 114, 236 in India, 411, 412
Deetz, S., 100 institutional, 299
Defensive internationalism, 137 intersectionality and, 86
Dehumanization, of Muslim populations, language and, 299, 302, 423
511, 512 of LGBTI persons, 372
Deleuze, G., 97, 98 of Muslim populations, 397, 499–501,
Democracy, organizational, 330 509–12, 590
Demographic imperative, 256 in Pakistan, 417
 Index   611

of people with disabilities, 473, 474, 477, Diversity-authenticity-leadership (DAL)

480, 483, 488 triangle, 323, 324
by police, 26–7 Diversity dividend, 109, 111, 116, 120, 122, 283
positive. See Affirmative action (AA) Diversity literacy, 424
religious, 500–1 Diversity management (DM), 127–49. See
systemic, 44 also Diversity management outcomes;
in UK labour market, 373 Diversity management research; Global
of women, 40, 416, 418. See also Gender diversity management
differences affirmative action vs., 44, 237
Discrimination and fairness paradigm, 237 ambiguities of, 219–20, 230
Discursive closure, 181 colonialism in, 128, 129–30
Discursive tradition, in diversity management conceptual contradictions of, 226
research, 93–5, 96, 180 critical turn in, 262–6
Distancing, in ethnographic research, 320 critiques of, 156–8, 157t, 180–4, 298–9, 575–6
Ditomaso, N., 459 definitions of, 358, 359–60, 367, 553
Diversity in emerging countries, 127, 128, 129
ambiguous. See Ambiguous diversities Eurocentrism in, 129, 131, 134, 143
business case for. See Business case for evolution of, 256–7, 282, 317, 576
diversity globalization and, 127, 128, 136–43, 144, 576
categories and constructions of, 63–5, 71 heteronormativity in, 195–6
commodity, 94 in higher education institutions, 359–60,
constructionist perception of, 64, 71 364–8, 364f
deep-level, 88, 89, 114, 236 individual benefits of, 6, 239–41, 239n1, 246
definitions of, 44, 110, 236, 281, 576–7 intersectionality, implications for, 65,
disabled persons. See People with 72–6, 77
disabilities (PWD) itinerant, 321–6
essentialist perception of, 64, 71, 183 knowledge and, 4, 128–36
ethnicity. See Ethnicity as multiculturalist discourse, 178–80
gender. See Gender differences; Women politics of diversity in, 28–9
innovation and, 89 postcolonial critique of, 180–4
internationalizing, 155–8, 578, 582–3, 595. queer theory in discourse of, 202–3
See also Transnational diversity relational levels of, 358, 361
intersectionality of, 70–2, 70n1 rise of, 1, 42–4, 83–4, 127, 128–9, 155
linguistic deconstruction of, 71–2 theoretical frameworks for, 236–8
moral case for, 40, 209, 230, 238. See also 3D-model of, 554–7, 555t, 567–9, 567t
Social justice universalization of, 128, 131, 132, 139, 141, 182
multiculturalism, 175–94. See also Diversity management outcomes, 281–97
Multiculturalism belief in diversity as factor in, 242, 247
organizational. See Organizational diversity career advancement, 240
politics of. See Politics of diversity career satisfaction, 241, 287–8, 294, 377
provincializing, 578, 583–8, 595 fault lines and, 243–4, 247
race. See Race and racism individual, 239–41, 246
simultaneity of, 578, 588–90, 595 organizational, 6, 244–6, 247
surface-level, 236 overview, 7, 281–2
workplace. See Workplace diversity pay equity, 240
Diversity, Ethnicity, Migration at Work (Healy strategic orientations and, 245
& Oikelome), 30 survey research on, 7, 282, 284, 285–93
612   Index

Diversity management outcomes (Cont.) DM. See Diversity management

task types and, 243 Dobbin, F., 155, 246, 286
team and group, 6, 241–4, 246–7 Doherty, A., 92
for work groups, 283–4 Domaining effect, 321–2
Diversity management research, 83–108. Dominquez, C. M., 117–18
See also Critical diversity studies; Donaldson, L., 45
Ethnographic research; Qualitative Dovidio, J. F., 114
research; Quantitative research; Survey Down, S., 319n1
research Draine, J., 479
comparative nature of, 182–3 Draper, W. R., 480
critical traditions of, 85, 93–7 Du Bois, W. E. B., 436
future challenges for, 569–70 Dualisms, 39–61
interpretative tradition of, 84, 85, 91–3, 93n3 in Australian context, 49–51
methodology for, 86–7 dialectic transformation of, 54–6, 55t
multi-level approaches in, 292, 293–4, in diversity discourse, 42–5, 43t
299, 303–5 in equal opportunity, 28, 41–2, 43–4, 43t
multiculturalism in, 187–90 gender vs. “other” diversity dimensions,
overview, 4, 83–6 51–2, 55
positivist tradition of, 53, 84, 85, 87–91, global perspectives vs. local economies,
93n3, 183 47–51, 55, 371–2, 382
postcolonialism in, 188–9 mind–body, 97–8
posthumanist feminism and, 85, 86, in New Zealand context, 48–9
97–100, 101 overview, 4, 39–40, 40t
queer theory in, 54, 199–203, 201t practitioner activities vs. academic
representational nature of, 183 research, 45–7
textual analysis in, 7, 301–5 in quantitative vs. qualitative
Diversity networks methodological approaches, 52–4, 56
content of, 564–5 in social justice and business case for
criticisms of, 554, 564, 567 diversity, 40–5
format for, 566–7 Duggan, Lisa, 197, 199
for LGBT persons, 564, 565, 566–7 Durkheim, Émile, 67
participants of, 565–6 Dutch Foundation for Psychotechniques
purpose of, 563–4, 568 (NSvP), 322, 332
Diversity professionals, defined, 20 Dweck, C. S., 119
Diversity Research Network, 262, 287 Dwyer, S., 89
Diversity scorecards, 359 Dye, Kelly, 6, 255
Diversity toolkits, 8, 47, 372, 373, 378–82, 383
Diversity training programs Economy. See also Business case for diversity
content of, 557–8 equal opportunity and, 45
criticisms of, 554, 567 global restructuring of, 22
on disabilities, 481 of good expectations, 331
format for, 557, 559–60 hybrid, 392
participants of, 558–9 neoliberalism and, 199
for police, 27 Ecuador, buen vivir in, 141–2
in South Africa, 424 Edenheim, S., 588
for supervisors, 112, 559 Education. See Academia
for women, 558–9 Edwards, P., 22
 Index   613

EEOC (Equal Opportunity Employment of ethnic minorities, 301–2, 388–9, 403

Commission), 500, 510 of female migrants, 302, 388, 395–9,
Ego–bodily relations, 167, 167n4 400–3, 404
EGOS (European Group of Organization Indigenous, 390, 391–5, 403–4
Studies), 2 individualism and, 388, 392, 395, 399
Egypt, emergence of, 409 intersectionality and, 398–9, 403
Ehrenreich, B., 319n1 overview, 8, 388–9
Eibach, R. P., 523 postcolonialism and, 394, 403, 404
Eisenberg, E. M., 222, 223, 224, 228 stereotypes in, 388, 389
Eisenhardt, K. M., 460 EO initiatives. See Equal opportunity
Ely, R., 46, 237 initiatives
Emerging countries, 408–31. See also BRIC Epistemological approach of intersectional
countries analysis, 442
business case for diversity in, 414, 426 Equal Opportunity Employment Commission
characteristics of, 408, 409 (EEOC), 500, 510
classification of, 409 Equal opportunity (EO) initiatives. See also
comparison of, 425–6 Workplace diversity
diversity management in, 127, 128, 129 codes of conduct on, 207
India, 409, 410–15 defined, 239
overview, 8, 408–9 discourse approach to, 42
Pakistan, 409–10, 415–19 diversity management critiques
South Africa, 410, 420–5 of, 156, 157t
Emic approaches, 465, 523, 541, 543, 548–9 dualisms in, 28, 41–2, 43–4, 43t
Employee network groups. See Diversity economic rationale for, 45, 220
networks for ethnic minorities, 286
Employees/employment history of, 83
affirmative action, impact on, 239–40 in India, 412, 413
attracting and retaining, 259 individual benefits of, 6, 239–41, 246
authenticity of, 322, 323 legislative policies on, 40–1, 50
diversity. See Workplace diversity liberal approach to, 41–2
host country national, 580, 581 in Pakistan, 416, 417, 418–19
of people with disabilities, 475–8, 486–7 politicization of, 155
public policies, impact on, 478 radical approach to, 42
survey research on, 286–90, 293 social justice and, 281
workplace accommodation and, 482–3 in South Africa, 420
Empowerment survey research on, 286
diversity initiatives and, 163, 382, 542 Equality. See also Equal opportunity (EO)
intersectional, 590 initiatives; Social justice
psychological safety and, 116 income, 240, 241
sociological imagination and, 18 moral case for, 40
in South Africa, 420–1, 422, 424 multinational corporation policies
of women, 19 on, 382
Empson, L., 461 neoliberalism, impact on, 17, 48
Empty signifiers, 307 Equality toolkits, 378–82
Entrepreneurship, 388–407 Erkut, S., 243
capitalism and, 399 Escalating indecision, 224
contextual factors in, 399–403 Essed, P., 158
614   Index

Essentialism European Group of Organization Studies

on difference, 64, 71, 183 (EGOS), 2
Eurocentrism and, 132 Eveline, J., 563
on language, 71 Exclusion
Muslim populations and, 502–5, 510 age and, 457
Essers, Caroline, 8, 302, 388, 396, 546, 547 by heteronormativity, 203
Ethical decision-making, 238 historical examples of, 16
Ethnic groups, defined, 457 identity categories and, 399
Ethnic wars, 137 of Muslim populations, 504
Ethnicity. See also Black and minority ethnic Exclusionary inclusion, 129, 130, 132
(BME) groups; Indigenous communities Expatriation, 73, 91–2, 462, 580, 594
age–ethnicity–class dyads, 454–62, 464–5 Exploitative relationships, cultural aspects
cultural context and, 457–8 of, 198–9
as negative marker of difference, 26 Expository textual analysis, 301–2
in Nigeria, 30–1, 30n8 External intersectionality, 72–4
in Pakistan, 416–17 External validity, of research methodology,
Ethnocentrism, 83, 127, 184, 389, 584 290–1, 294
Ethnographic research, 317–36
in critical tradition, 96, 543 Fairclough, N., 304, 306
history of, 319, 319n1 Fanon, Frantz, 136, 161, 166, 167
in interpretative tradition, 92 Farh, J. L. L., 580, 581
intersectional analysis in, 443 Faria, Alex, 4, 127
on itinerant diversity management, 321–6 Fault lines, 243–4, 247
multi-level designs for, 304 Fear Inc. (Center for American Progress), 512
on organizational democracy, 326–30 Featherman, D. L., 461
overview, 7, 317–19 Federal Human Capital Survey, 287, 291
subversive potential of, 318, 320, 331, 332 Feij, J. A., 90, 91
on workplace diversity, 319–21 Females. See Gender differences; Women
Etic approaches, 464–5, 523, 541 Feminism. See also Black feminism;
Eurocentric liberalism, 130, 139 Posthumanist feminism
Eurocentric universalism, 128, 129, 130, 134, 135 activism and, 20–1, 54
Eurocentrism fragmentation of, 51
in academia, 132–3, 135 on intersectionality, 67–9, 76–7, 474
defined, 160 postcolonial, 165
in diversity management, 129, 131, poststructuralism and, 303, 589
134, 143 research methodology of, 53
in gender and diversity research, 159 second-wave, 40, 51, 67
globalization as radicalization of, 130–1, 137 transnational, 51, 70
longue durée of, 130, 130n1, 131, 132, 135 Feminism without Borders (Mohanty), 70
postcolonialism and, 159, 160–1 Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Europe/European Union (EU) (hooks), 68
aging workforces in, 456–7 Ferguson, Kathy, 591
Anti-Discrimination Directives, 70, 206 Ferguson (Missouri) race riots (2014), 22, 26
Charter of Fundamental Rights, 46 Ferree, M., 436–7, 438, 524
management perspectives in, 374 Feyes, K. J., 481
pay equity in, 240 Field of discursivity, 306, 308
people with disabilities in, 470 Fielden, Sandra L., 10, 539
 Index   615

Fieldwork, in qualitative research, 340–4 Gedro, J., 202

Finland Gender coaches, 559
business case for diversity in, 266 Gender differences. See also Men; Women
diversity discourse in, 75, 586 in access to power, 17
organizational democracy of software in disabilities, 471
engineers in, 326–30 in entrepreneurial stereotypes, 388, 389
term for diversity in, 71–2 ethical orientation and, 238
Fireplace mentoring sessions, 321, 325, 326, 332 in firm performance, 89
First-wave critical diversity studies, 157–8 in income/pay, 40, 240, 241
Fiske, S. T., 479 in India, 413–14
Fleischmann, A., 184, 202–3 institutional practices of, 365
Fletcher, J. K., 303 intersections with sex and sexuality, 197–8,
Fleury, A., 409 197f, 205–8, 207t, 210, 211–12
Floating signifiers, 306, 307 Islam and, 400
Flynn, R. J., 118 legislative policies on, 21
Foldy, E., 116, 118, 242 in Pakistan, 418–19
Foley, D., 390 resistance to normative constructions
For-profit organizations, diversity discourses of, 303
of, 269–72, 270t in UK labour market, 373
Ford, Michele, 526, 527, 530 Gender performance, 198, 202
Forson, C., 590 Genocide, 391, 391n3
Fortier, A. M., 592 Ghadar, F., 375–6
Foster, T., 262 Gherardi, S., 402
Foucault, Michel, 98, 167, 197, 200, 446, 577, Ghorashi, H., 185, 189
577n1, 588, 594 Ghumman, S., 510
France Gilbert, J. A., 286–7
diversity discourse in, 75 Gill, C., 472
higher education institutions in, 358 Gilroy, P., 23, 24
people with disabilities in, 476 Gilson, S. F., 472
term for diversity in, 71 Ginkel, W. P., 89
Fraser, N., 455–6, 459 Giscombe, K., 563
Frederick, H., 390 Githens, R. P., 566
Freeman, S., 91 Glick-Schiller, N., 592
F-Secure Corporation, 320, 327–30, 331 Global academia, 130, 132–4, 136, 138, 141, 143
Functionalism, 87, 183, 262, 273 Global Burden of Disease Study (2010), 469
Fundamental critiques, of diversity Global colonialism, 129–30
management, 156–8, 157t Global coloniality, 128, 130, 131–2, 135, 136, 140
Fundamentalist Islam, 138 Global Compact (UN), 40–1
Furunes, T., 92 Global diversity management, 370–87
business case for organizational diversity in,
Gaertner, S. L., 114 374–7, 380–1
García, M., 485 diagnostic equality checks in, 378–81
Gaunt, P. M., 479–80 implementation in local economies, 47–51,
Gay Rights movement, 52 55, 371–2, 382
Gays. See Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, methodology for study of, 377–8
intersex (LGBTI) persons models and frameworks for, 370–1
Gebert, D., 284 overview, 8, 370–3
616   Index

Global diversity management (Cont.) Hagedorn-Rasmussen, P., 585

toolkits for, 8, 372, 373, 378–82, 383 Hahn, H., 474
in UK labour market, 373–4 Hakim, C., 240
Globalization Hall, J. P., 479
capitalism and, 190, 589, 593 Hall, S., 181
cultural, 138 Hallock, K. F., 477
diversity management and, 127, 128, 136–43, Hampden-Turner, C., 457
144, 576 Handbook of Workplace Diversity
hypermobility and, 592 (Prasad), 162–3
intersectional effects of, 73, 590 Hannappi, G., 455, 458
neoliberalism and, 128–30, 131, 593, 595 Hannappi-Egger, Edeltraud, 9, 454, 455, 457,
as radicalization of Eurocentrism, 130–1, 137 458, 460–1
workplace diversity and, 32 Hansman, C. A., 561
Goffee, R., 391 Haq, Rana, 8, 408, 413, 541
Goldman Sachs Investment Bank, 409 Harassment
Golnaraghi, Golnaz, 6, 255, 499 caste system and, 412
Gomez-Mejia, L., 179, 183 codes of conduct on, 207–8, 209
Gooden, M., 476 at higher education institutions, 366
Gotanda, N., 509 of Muslim populations, 499
Gouws, A., 425 of people with disabilities, 477
Grace, M., 343 of women, 17
Graham, M., 205 Harcourt, M., 477
Grassroots activism, 41, 565 Harcourt, S., 477
Gray, B., 458 Hardy, C., 304
Greene, A.-M., 20, 28–9 Harris, L., 545
Grewal, I., 70 Harris, Sam, 505
Grice, S., 273 Harrison, D. A., 115
Griffiths, G., 186 Härtel, C. E. J., 91, 376
Groeneveld, Sandra, 7, 281, 318 Harter, L. M., 226, 263
Grosfoguel, R., 133 Hate crimes, 500
Grosz, E., 97 Hausa-Fulani tribe (Nigeria), 30n8
Groups Hawking, Steven, 482
inclusion practices for, 113–16, 120–2, 121t Hazer, J. T., 476
intersectionality and, 524–5 HCN (host country national) employees,
performance outcomes and diversity, 6, 580, 581
241–4, 246–7 He, J., 457
social identity theory and, 524, 525 Health, codes of conduct on, 208
workplace diversity practices of, 113–16, Healy, Geraldine, 3, 15, 22, 23–4, 28, 30, 590
120–2, 121t Hearn, Jeff, 4, 62, 69
Groupthink, 243 Hegel, Georg, 95
Growth orientations, 245 Hegemonic masculinities, 69, 526, 527
Guanxi, 580–1 HEIs (higher education institutions). See
Guattari, F., 97, 98 Academia
Guerrier, Y., 455, 463, 593 Helms Mills, Jean, 7, 9, 300, 304, 305, 435, 447
Hendricks, D. J., 477
Haberstam, Jack, 197 Hendry, C., 376
Haberstam, Judith, 197 Henry, J. D., 481
 Index   617

Herbert, J. I., 301 Horwitz, S. K., 110

Heres, L., 586 Host country national (HCN) employees,
Hernández-León, R., 463 580, 581
Herring, C., 375 Houkamau, C., 49, 288
Heteronormativity Houlette, M. A., 244
in codes of conduct, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213 Houssay-Holzschuch, M., 409
definitions of, 198–9 Houtenville, A. J., 480
in diversity management, 195–6 Hubbard, E., 359
exclusion by, 203 Huddy, L., 522–3
LGBTI performances of, 199 Human resource management (HRM)
in organizational culture, 196, 198 actual vs. perceived policies of, 292
power structure of, 197, 198, 200, 202 in diversity management, 46, 112, 246, 247,
Heterosexual matrix, 197–8, 197f, 200, 202, 203 258, 583
Heterotopia, 577n1 good practice standards, 22
Hewitt, J., 306 performance outcomes and, 284, 292
Hickey-Moody, A., 529 positivism and, 89
Hierarchy of oppression, 23, 24 survey research on, 285–6
Higher education institutions (HEIs). See Human rights
Academia academic discourses of, 136
Hijabi Muslims, 501, 510, 590 in Australia, 391n3, 439
Hilde, Rosalie, 7, 298, 310, 318, 447 in Canada, 470
Hindustan. See India Declaration of Human Rights (UN), 40
Hitchens, Christopher, 505 intersectionality and, 518
HIV/AIDS, 196, 420 macro framework for, 41
Hofhuis J., 118 same-sex relations and, 52
Hofmann, Roswitha, 5, 195, 203, 454 in South Africa, 420
Hogg, M. A., 522 universal values of, 510
Holgate, J., 22, 590 Humbert, A. L., 396
Holgersson, Charlotte, 10–11, 177, 553, 554 Humphries, M., 273
Holvino, E., 155, 458, 522–3 Hunt, B., 481
Holzer, H. J., 239 Hunt, C. S., 481
Homan, A. C., 118, 242, 283 Huntington, Samuel, 502–3
Homo sacer (sacred or cursed man), 512 Huntingtonian racialism, 139, 141
Homonormativity, 197, 199 Hybrid economies, 392
Homophily, 460 Hypermobility, 592
Homosexuality. See Lesbian, gay, bisexual, Hypervisibility, 509
transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons
Hong Kong Identitarianism, 582, 589, 591
emergence of, 409 Identity. See also Social identity theory (SIT)
people with disabilities in, 476 ascribed, 117, 510
Hoobler, J., 179, 576 collective, 520, 524
Hook, Derek, 166–7 in critical diversity studies, 180
Höök, P., 554, 561, 563 definitions of, 437
hooks, bell, 68 demography and, 579–81
Hornscheidt, A., 72 essentialism vs. constructionism on, 64
Hörschelmann, K., 528 of female migrants, 302
Horwitz, I. B., 110 of LGBTI persons, 200, 510
618   Index

Identity (Cont.) organizational climate for, 283–4, 289, 376

multiple levels of, 524–5 at organizational level, 111–13, 120–2, 121t
othering processes and, 86, 100, 161, 181–2 principles of, 45
of people with disabilities, 472–5 Income. See also Class
performances of, 199, 222 gender differences in, 40, 240, 241
postcolonial theory and, 448 inequality in, 16–17, 40, 240, 241, 373, 459
in qualitative research, 340–4 of people with disabilities, 476
shifting nature of, 186, 187 India, 410–15
social confirmation of, 98, 99–100, 116 affirmative action in, 240
social construction of, 53, 117 caste system in, 410, 411, 412, 413
stage theory of, 119–20 comparison with Pakistan and South
Identity blindness, 288 Africa, 425–6
Identity politics, 98, 525 education in, 412
Identity work emergence of, 33, 409, 549
of female entrepreneurs, 400–2 equality and diversity as defined in, 410–11
individual-level factors impacting, 118 independence of, 409
intersectionality and, 86, 399 legislative and current history on diversity
levels of, 524 and equality, 411–12
manifestations of, 400–2 organizational diversity practices in, 413–15
organizational, 164 religion in, 409–10
of researchers, 350 socio-political dynamics in, 412
Igbo tribe (Nigeria), 30n8 women in, 411–12, 413–14, 426, 541
ILO (International Labour Organization), 40 Indigenous communities
Immigrants and immigration in Australia, 390–5, 390n1
abuse of, 22 entrepreneurship in, 390, 391–5, 403–4
assimilation of, 83 knowledge systems of, 161, 162, 168,
critical sensemaking method in analysis of, 169–70, 391
309–11, 310f oppression of, 390–1
female migrant entrepreneurship, 302, unemployment in, 390
395–9, 400–3, 404 Indigenous Research Methodologies
politics of diversity and, 21, 22, 25–6 (Chilisa), 169
racialised masculinities and, 530 Individualism
social networks of, 462–3 competitive, 50
in workforce, 235, 373, 375, 447, 590 entrepreneurship and, 388, 392, 395, 399
Impairments, defined, 469. See also People in equal opportunity approach, 28
with disabilities (PWD) neoliberalism and, 593
Imperial Leather (McClintock), 70 religious, 400
Imperialism, cultural, 23, 160, 161, 162 sociological imagination and, 18
Imrie, R., 472 voluntarism and, 27, 28, 34
Inclusion Individuals
borders as mechanisms of, 184–5 diversity management benefits for, 6,
defined, 110 239–41, 239n1, 246
diversity training programs on, 557 workplace diversity competencies of,
exclusionary mechanisms of, 129, 130, 132 116–22, 121t
at group level, 113–16, 120–2, 121t Indonesia
identity categories and, 399 rise of, 33
leadership and, 284 as vulnerable country, 409
 Index   619

Industrial relations, as field of study, 32n9 external vs. internal, 72–4, 75

Inequality. See also Discrimination; Exclusion feminism on, 67–9, 76–7, 474
in access to power, 17 globalization and, 73, 590
defined, 554 history and development of, 66–72, 436–7,
in income/pay, 16–17, 40, 240, 241, 373, 459 518, 588
societal effects of, 16–17 implications for diversity and diversity
Inequality regimes, 52 management, 65, 72–6, 77
Information/decision-making concept, 88 masculinities and, 69
Innovation methodological approaches to analysis
in decision-making, 261 of, 440–4
diversity and, 89, 377 oppression and, 52, 66, 435, 436–7, 438, 522
Innovative orientations, 245 overview, 4, 9, 62–3, 435–6
Institutional bias, 46 paradigms and applications of, 444–9
Institutional discrimination, 299 in policy development, 69–70
Institutional practices of gender, 365 political, 440
"Institutionalisation of Gender and Diversity in politics of diversity, 17, 19–20
Management in Engineering Education" positivism and, 445
(Leicht-Scholten et al.), 365–6 postcolonialism and, 70, 448–9
Institutionalized oppression, 420 postpositivism and, 445–9
Integration and learning paradigm, 237, 283–4 poststructuralism and, 447, 588
Interaction structuring practices, 114–15 research challenges and, 464–5
Intercategorical approach, to intersectionality, of sex–gender–sexuality, 197–8, 197f, 205–8,
70, 441, 442, 443, 474, 489 207t, 210, 211–12
Interdependence, 72 social identity theory and, 521–3, 531
Interdiscursivity, 322 structural, 440
Internal border control, 164 transnational diversity and, 73, 74, 588–90
Internal intersectionality, 72–4, 75 Intersex persons. See Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
Internal validity, of research transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons
methodology, 292–3 Interviews
International Convention on the Elimination protocols/guides for, 92
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in qualitative research, 339, 340, 341–4
(UN), 40 semi-structured, 339, 340, 342, 350, 543
International Labour Organization (ILO), 40 Intracategorical approach, to intersectionality,
Internationalizing diversity, 155–8, 578, 582–3, 70, 441–2, 474, 489, 523
595. See also Transnational diversity Irish migrants, 25
Interpretivism, 84, 85, 91–3, 93n3, 300 Islam and Muslims
Intersectional invisibility, 523 in Bangladesh, 409, 410
Intersectional sensibility, 590 clash of civilizations theory and, 502–3
Intersectionality, 62–82, 435–68 comparison with Jewish populations, 504–5
age–ethnicity–class dyads, 454–62, 464–5 dehumanization of, 511, 512
of categories and differences, 63–5, discrimination of, 397, 499–501, 509–12, 590
70–2, 70n1 entrepreneurship and, 399, 400
challenges of, 76 essentialization of, 502–5, 510
criticisms of, 435, 442, 588 of female migrant entrepreneurs, 302, 397,
definitions of, 52, 437–9, 455 399, 400
discriminatory impact of, 86 fundamentalist, 138
entrepreneurship and, 398–9, 403 gender segregation in, 400
620   Index

Islam and Muslims (Cont.) Kaasila-Pakanen, Anna-Liisa, 5, 175

harassment of, 499 Kalev, A., 246, 286
hate crimes against, 500 Kalokerinos, E. K., 481
Hijabi Muslims, 501, 510, 590 Kalonaityte, V., 75, 154, 164–5, 167, 175
in India, 409–10 Kamp, A., 155, 585
Orientalism on, 399, 503 Kaplan, C., 70
overview, 10, 499–502 Kärreman, D., 255, 304
in Pakistan, 409, 410, 415, 416, 417 Katila, S., 544
phenotypes of, 508–9 Kauzya, J. M., 30
racialised masculinities of men in, 529 Kearney, E., 284
racialization of, 502, 509 Kellough, J. E., 286
sharia and, 500 Kelly, C., 424, 425
Shia Muslims, 416, 417 Kelly, E., 155, 246, 286
stigmatization of, 501 Kennedy, John F., 507
Sunni Muslims, 416 Kenway, J., 529
Islamic fundamentalism, 138 Kenya, age management programs
Islamophobia, 141, 499, 501, 504–5, 512 in, 457, 461
Italy Ketner, S., 402
diversity discourse in, 74 Key performance indicators (KPIs), 224, 225
female entrepreneurs in, 402 King, Martin Luther, 26
Itinerant diversity management, 321–6 King, Peter, 501
Ivancevich, J. M., 286–7 Kirby, E., 226, 263
Iverson, S. V., 366 Kirkland, S., 558
Kirton, G., 16, 20, 28–9
Jabbour, C. J. C., 542 Kish-Gephart, J. J., 458
Jack, Gavin, 5, 44, 87, 94, 153, 181, 256, 257, Klarsfeld, A., 587
262, 263 Kleiner, M., 91
Janssens, M., 94, 188, 263, 264, 302, 541, 546, 585 KMLG (Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group), 419
Jaworski, K., 455, 548 Knights, David, 4, 83
Jay, Alexis, 27 Knowledge
Jayasinghe, Laknath, 10, 518 categorization of, 72
Jehn, K. A., 284, 557 counter-knowledge, 140
Jews, comparison with Muslim dislocation of, 99
populations, 504–5 diversity management and, 4, 128–36, 303
Jewson, N., 41, 42 Indigenous systems of, 161, 162, 168,
Joh, J., 119 169–70, 391
Johnson, L., 242 politicization of, 182
Johnston, W. B., 84 power and, 93–4, 96
Jones, D., 23n4, 42, 584 procedural, 365
Jones, K. C., 522 of social identities, 119, 521
Joshi, A., 460 sub-knowledges, 128, 133–4, 135–6,
Jovic, E., 485 138, 139–42
Joy, S., 117 subalternization of, 131, 136
Ju, S., 479 Western construction of, 265
Just, Sine Nørholm, 5–6, 218 Kochan, T. A., 243
Just-in-case approach, to workplace Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group (KMLG), 419
accommodation, 487–8 Kolb, D. M., 560–1
 Index   621

Konrad, Alison M., 9–10, 65, 177, 239, 243, 245, Layder, D., 15
246, 370, 469, 577 Leadership. See also Supervisors
Kosofsky Sedgwick, Eve, 197, 202 authenticity in, 323, 324
Kovera, M. B., 485 ethnic minorities in positions of, 376
KPIs (key performance indicators), 224, 225 transformational, 245, 284, 289
Kram, K. E., 561 in workplace diversity, 245, 247, 284, 289
Kramer, V., 243 Learning frames, 118
Kristinsson, K., 88–9 Leasher, M. K., 476
Kulik, C. T., 112, 119 Lee, D., 32
Kulkarni, M., 479–80 Lee, H., 202
Kumar, K., 242, 262 Legge, K., 331
Kunda, G., 319 Legislation. See Laws and regulations
Kurtulus, F. A., 240 Leicht-Scholten, C., 365
Kwek, D., 183 Leitch, S., 222
Lengnick-Hall, M. L., 479–80
Labour Government (United Kingdom), 21 Leonard, J. S., 460
Laclau, E., 7, 300, 304, 305, 306 Leonard, P., 175, 594
Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, 7, Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex
300, 305–8 (LGBTI) persons. See also Queer theory
Lam, H., 477 activism among, 197
Langley, A., 224 coming out process for, 423
Language discrimination of, 372
critical diversity studies on, 302–3, 446–7 diversity networks for, 564, 565, 566–7
discrimination and, 299, 302, 423 exclusion from liberation movements, 196
essentialist vs. constructionist heteronormative performances of, 199
perspectives on, 71 identities of, 200, 510
interdependence and, 72 legislative rights for, 52
in making of meaning, 255 organizational diversity and, 224
in Pakistan, 417 racialised masculinities and, 530
in qualitative research, 346–7 in South Africa, 422–3
in South Africa, 423 Levinas, E., 98
Larsen, Jørgen Elm, 69 Levine, D. I., 460
Latin America Lewis, A. P., 200
buen vivir in, 141–2 Lewis, Bernard, 502, 503
decolonial scholarship in, 130–1, 132, 134, 135 Liang, X., 111, 117
gender relations in, 447 Liberal approach, to equal opportunity, 41–2
Laws and regulations Liden, R. C., 459
in codes of conduct, 208–9, 212 Life-politics, 332
on equal opportunity, 40–1, 50 Liff, Sonia, 41
on gender equality, 21 Limerick, B., 343
intersectionality in, 69–70 Lin, X., 455, 546
for people with disabilities, 470–1, 475, Lindisfarne, N., 525, 526
478, 487–8 Lindsay, N., 391
in politics of diversity, 27–31 Lindsay, S., 91
on race relations, 21–2, 45 Linnehan, F., 239, 246, 370
on same-sex marriage, 52, 422–3 Linstead, S., 129, 131, 178
Lawsuits, 259–60, 377 Liquid Modernity (Bauman), 331–2
622   Index

Little Gitmos, 501 Manipulation, in identity work, 401–2

Litvin, D., 42–3, 258, 263, 264, 267, 302, 458 Mäntylä, H., 544
Liversage, A., 302 Maori peoples, 48, 51–2, 584
Lobel, S., 262 Marcus, George, 320
Longue durée, of Eurocentric coloniality, 130, Marginalized masculinities, 69
130n1, 131, 132, 135 Marriage, same-sex, 52, 422–3
Loo, R., 476 Martin, J., 304, 558
Lorbiecki, A., 44, 87, 94, 256, 257, 262, 263 Martins, L., 283, 558
Lorde, Audre, 69 Marx, Karl, 67, 95
Loretto, W., 472, 473 Marxism, 67, 139, 161, 305, 332, 458
Lorey, I., 72 Masculinities. See also Racialized
Louvrier, Jonna, 4, 62, 75 masculinities
Lowe, K. B., 118 entrepreneurship and, 388, 389
Lowson, E., 545 hegemonic, 69, 526, 527
Luhman, J. T., 330 intersectionality and, 69
Lupton, B., 464, 541 linear rational thinking and, 97–8, 99,
Lutz, Helma, 68 100, 101
Lyons, Lenore, 526, 527, 530 of people with disabilities, 473
Mason, D., 41, 42
Mac an Ghaill, M., 455, 546 Masuch, C., 304
Mackinnon, C., 41 Maternity leave, 414, 416, 418, 419
MacNab, B., 114 Mayer, D. M., 284
Macro level research Mayer, K. U., 461
critical sensemaking method for, 308 McCall, L., 70, 71, 441–2, 443, 455, 465, 523, 525
elements of, 358 McClintock, A., 70
on higher education institutions, 361, 367 McCoy, L., 304
intersectionality in, 438, 520, 524 McCurley, K., 522
politics of diversity and, 20 McEnrue, M. P., 377
on women’s employment challenges, 419 McKay, D., 592
Maghreb, emergence of, 409 McLaughlin, M. E., 479
Magnusson, E., 437 McLeod, P., 262
Magoshi, E., 91 McMahon, B. T., 473, 477, 480
Malaysia, emergence of, 409 McMillan-Capehart, A., 243
Males. See Gender differences; Men Meekosha, Helen, 69
Malhi, R. L., 303 Men. See also Gender differences;
Management and organization studies (MOS) Masculinities
decoloniality and, 141, 142 paternity leave for, 414
globalization and, 127, 128, 129, 130, 139 racialized experiences of, 529–31
pluriversality and, 143, 144 Men and Masculinities in Southeast Asia (Ford
postcolonialism in analysis of, 175 & Lyons), 526
Managers. See Leadership; Supervisors Mental representations, of tasks, 89
"Managing a Meritocracy or an Equitable Mentoring programs
Organization? Senior Managers’ content of, 560–1
and Employees’ Views about Equal criticisms of, 554, 560, 567
Opportunities Policies in UK external organization of, 556
Universities" (Deem), 362 fireplace sessions, 321, 325, 326, 332
Mandal Commission, 411 format for, 562–3
 Index   623

participants of, 561–2 Mir, Raza, 10, 32, 33–4, 499

for women, 560–1 Mirza, H. S., 590
Mercer, Danielle, 9, 435 Misra, J., 522
Meriläinen, S., 94, 266, 345, 544, 586 Mitchell, T. R., 485
Merritt, D., 242 MNCs. See Multinational corporations
Meso level research Mobile subjectivities, formation of, 578,
critical sensemaking method for, 308 591–4, 595
elements of, 358 Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, 70
on higher education institutions, 361–2, 367 Molden, D. C., 119
politics of diversity and, 20 Moore, Mark E., 9–10, 469
queer theory as applied to, 202–3 Mor, S., 119
social identity theory and, 520, 524 Moradi, B., 519
on women’s employment challenges, 419 Moral case for diversity, 40, 209, 230, 238.
Metacognitive strategies, 119 See also Social justice
Metcalfe, B. D., 158, 159, 165 Moral obligation, of Western world, 23, 160
Methodological nationalism, 592 Moreton-Robinson, A., 394
Mexico Morgan, G., 65, 87
emergence of, 33 Moroccan female entrepreneurs, 302, 396,
identity construction in, 589 399, 400–3
relational demography in, 582 Morris, M. W., 119
Meyer, B., 244 MOS. See Management and organization
Meyerson, D., 20, 228, 229, 560–1 studies
Michaelsen, L. K., 242, 262 Moser, Ingunn, 69
Micro level research Mouffe, C., 7, 300, 304, 305
critical sensemaking method for, 308, 311 Muchiri, M. K., 245
elements of, 358 Mueller, S., 389, 399
on higher education institutions, 362 Mufti, A., 160, 504
intersectionality in, 438, 520 Multi-level analyses, 292, 293–4, 299, 303–5
queer theory as applied to, 200, 202 Multicultural personality questionnaires,
social identity theory and, 524 325, 326
on women’s employment challenges, 419 Multiculturalism, 175–94. See also Diversity;
Middle class, 19n1 Ethnicity; Race and racism
Migrants. See Immigrants and immigration age and, 457
Millennium Development Goals, 19 business case for diversity and, 178, 179
Miller, C. E., 476 cultural difference vs., 184–7
Miller, J., 53 diversity management and, 178–80
Milliken, F., 283, 558 limitations of, 183–4
Mills, Albert J., 9, 435, 446, 499, 589 overview, 5, 175–7
Mills, C. Wright, 18, 31 paradigms of, 87
Mind–body dualisms, 97–8 postcolonial critique of, 175, 180–4
Minorities. See Black and minority ethnic in research methodology, 187–90
(BME) groups; Visible minorities in third space, 184–7, 188, 189–90
Minority group model of disability Multinational corporations (MNCs)
identity, 474–5 business case for diversity and, 265
MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and codes of conduct, queer theory analysis of,
Turkey) countries, 33 203, 204–12, 207t, 213
Mir, Ali, 10, 32, 33–4, 499 diversity-related policies and practices of, 246
624   Index

Multinational corporations (MNCs) (Cont.) survey research among public sector

equality policies and procedures employees in, 288–90
for, 382 Turkish female entrepreneurs in, 302,
global policies of, 371–2, 379, 380, 381 396–8, 400–1
in India, 413–14 Network groups. See Diversity networks
intersectional transnationalizations Neumark, D., 239
of, 73, 74 New York Police Department (NYPD), 500–1
in Pakistan, 418 New Zealand
workforce diversity of, 375–7 affirmative action in, 240
Munir, K., 458 as bicultural society, 584
Muñoz, J. E., 530 diversity management outcomes in, 288
Munshi, D., 265 equality–diversity discourse in, 47, 48–9, 51
Muslim populations. See Islam and Muslims immigrants in workforce in, 235
Mustapha, A. R., 31 pre-colonial groups in, 23n4
Mutsaers, Paul, 7, 317, 320 Ng, Eddy S., 6, 235, 239, 242, 245, 246
Mykletun, R. J., 92 Nigeria
emergence of, 33
Naff, K. C., 286 ethnic diversity in, 30–1, 30n8
Naples, N. A., 442 9/11 attacks. See September 11, 2001 attacks
National Science Foundation (NSF), 111, 113 Niqab (face veil), 499
National Security Entry-Exit Registration Nishat Chunian Group, 419
(NSEER) Program, 500 Nishii, L. H., 284, 292
Nativism, 83 Nkomo, Stella M., 8, 65, 179, 408, 576–7
Naturalization, 181 Noble, G., 528–9
Nemetz, P., 87 Nodal points, 306, 307
Nentwich, J. C., 42 Nomadism, 592
Neocolonialism, 162, 162n2, 188 Non-fundamental critiques, of diversity
Neoliberalism management, 156, 157t
capitalism and, 131, 193, 591 Non-profit organizations
diversity management and, 575 diversity discourse of, 269–71, 270t
economic, 199 social justice discourse of, 271, 272
globalization and, 128–30, 131, 593, 595 workplace diversity practices of, 113, 116
growth of, 18 Noon, M., 28, 29, 156, 179, 318, 377
impact on equality, 17, 48 North Korea, emergence of, 409
normalizing power of, 196 Norway, women in management positions
principles of, 43, 512 in, 240
voluntarism and, 27 Nottingham/Notting Hill race riots
Neo-nomads, 592 (1958), 21
Nestlé Pakistan, 418 Nouri, R., 243
Netherlands Novak, J., 481
coordinated market economy of, 397 NSEER (National Security Entry-Exit
diversity discourse in, 74, 585, 586 Registration) Program, 500
ethnic minority representation in NSF (National Science Foundation), 111, 113
organizations in, 286 NSvP (Dutch Foundation for
itinerant diversity management of police Psychotechniques), 322, 332
officers in, 321–6 Nyambegera, S. M., 584
people with disabilities in, 470 NYPD (New York Police Department), 500–1
 Index   625

OBC. See Other backward classes workplace diversity practices of, 111–13,
Obesity, as disability, 478 120–2, 121t
O’Brien, Mary, 68 Orientalism, 25, 161, 162, 181–2, 399, 503
Occupational upgrading, 463 Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient
OECD. See Organisation for Economic (Said), 161, 181, 503
Co-operation and Development Ortlieb, Renate, 9, 238, 454, 457
Ogbonna, E., 545 Osella, C., 526, 527
Oikelome, F., 22, 23–4, 30 Osella, F., 526, 527
Ojha, A., 413 Ostendorp, A., 586
Old boys’ networks, 564, 565 Østergaarda, C. R., 88–9
Omanović, Vedran, 4, 83, 87, 96, 178, 586 Ostrander, R. N., 473
Omi, Richard, 505–6, 511 Oswick, C., 28, 156, 179
Ong, Aihwa, 512 Other backward classes (OBC), 410–11, 412,
Openness to experience, 118 413, 414–15
Oppression. See also Discrimination; Othering processes
Exclusion in entrepreneurship, 388, 403
colonialism and, 162 Orientalism as, 161, 181–2
commatization of, 68 postcolonialism and, 403
hierarchy of, 23, 24 in social confirmation of identity, 100
of Indigenous communities, 390–1 third space and, 186
institutionalized, 420 Otten, S., 118
intersectionality and, 52, 66, 435, 436–7, Özbilgin, Mustafa F., 8, 29, 358, 361, 370, 461,
438, 522 464, 520, 523, 541
Optimal contact practices, 114, 115 Ozkazanc-Pan, Banu, 11, 165, 541, 575
O’Reilly, C. A., 262 Öztürk, Mustafa Bilgehan, 8, 370, 372
Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), 204, 235, Packer, A. H., 84
469, 470 Paetzold, R., 485
Organizational democracy, 326–30 Paige, R. M., 558
Organizational diversity. See also Workplace Pakeha peoples, 584
diversity Pakistan, 415–19
business case for, 374–7, 380–1 comparison with India and South
critical diversity studies on, 539–50 Africa, 425–6
in India, 413–15 creation of, 409–10
LGBTI persons and, 224 equality and diversity as defined in, 415
in Pakistan, 417–19 ethnic diversity in, 416–17
in South Africa, 423–5 legislative and current history on diversity
Organizations and equality, 415–16
diversity management outcomes for, 6, linguistic diversity in, 417
244–6, 247 organizational diversity practices in, 417–19
gendering of, 53 religion in, 415, 416, 417
heteronormative culture of, 196, 198 socio-political dynamics in, 416–17
inclusion practices for, 111–13, 120–2, 121t women in, 415–16, 418–19, 426
maintenance of group differences in, Palich, L., 179, 183
163–5, 167 Paluck, E. L., 560
queer theory in discourse of, 202, 213–14 Paludi, Mariana Ines, 9, 435, 447
survey research on, 285–6, 293 Pan American Airways, 448
626   Index

Parent, M. C., 519 Pinar, M., 91

Parker, K, 479 Pio, E., 302
Parker, M., 202, 203, 221 Pitts, D. W., 285, 291
Participant observation, 319, 341, 543, 549. See Pluralism. See also Multiculturalism
also Ethnographic research cultural, 16, 127, 177, 184
Participation restrictions, defined, 469. See defined, 1
also People with disabilities (PWD) religious, 508
Paternity leave, 414 Pluriversality, 127–8, 130, 131, 134, 143, 144
Patil, V., 70 Poggio, B., 402
Patriarchy, 19, 23, 27, 69, 401 Point, S., 265, 266, 585
Patriot Act of 2001 (US), 500 Police
Pay/pay equality. See Income discrimination by, 26–7, 500–1
Peaceful rise framework, 141, 142, 143, 144 itinerant diversity management of, 321–6
Pearson, Noel, 392 multicultural skills initiatives for, 94
Peer-mentoring programs, 563 Policy development. See Laws and regulations
Pelled, L. H., 460, 582 Poling, T. L., 243
Peng, P., 240 Political intersectionality, 440
People with disabilities (PWD), 469–98 Politics of diversity, 15–38
access to power, 17 academic careers, influence on, 31–3
discrimination of, 473, 474, 477, 480, colonial history in, 23–7, 30, 30n8, 33
483, 488 in diversity management, 28–9
employment outcomes of, 475–8, 486–7 history, society, and biography in,
future research directions, 488–9 18–22, 33–4
harassment of, 477 immigration and, 21, 22, 25–6
identity of, 472–5 intersectionality in, 17, 19–20
in India, 411, 413, 414 overview, 3, 15–17
legislative policies for, 470–1, 475, 478 transversal, 591
overview, 9–10, 469–71 voluntarism and regulation in, 27–31, 34
prevalence of, 469, 470 Porter, Janet, 7, 298, 318
in South Africa, 420, 422 Portugal, diversity initiatives in, 266
stigmatization and stereotyping of, 473, Positioning theory, 64
478–82, 484 Positive discrimination. See Affirmative
unemployment among, 470, 472, 475, 482 action (AA)
workplace accommodation for, 470, 478, Positivism
482–6, 487–8 in diversity management research, 53, 84,
PepsiCo, 260 85, 87–91, 93n3, 183
Peredo, A., 391, 392 human resource management and, 89
Peretz, Martin, 503–4 intersectionality and, 445
Performativity, 197, 198, 202, 203, 222 principles of, 85
Perkins, D. V., 479 survey research and, 90
Pettigrew, A., 376 textual analysis and, 300
Phenotypes, of Muslim populations, 508–9 Postcolonial feminism, 165
Philippines, emergence of, 409 Postcolonialism, 159–70
Phillips, D., 443 advantages of utilizing, 175–6
Phillips, N., 304 in critical diversity studies, 166–70
Pieterse, A. N., 89 defined, 159–60
Pillow, W., 347 diversity management and, 180–4
 Index   627

in diversity management research, 188–9 Pragmatism, 402

entrepreneurship and, 394, 403, 404 Prakash, G., 161–2
Eurocentrism and, 159, 160–1 Prasad, Anshuman, 159–60, 162–4, 163n3, 165,
identity and, 448 167, 175–6, 265, 399
intersectionality and, 70, 448–9 Prasad, P., 25, 65, 175, 177, 181, 183, 184, 577
modes of analysis in, 161–2 Pre-colonial history, 23n4
multiculturalism and, 175, 180–4 Prejudice. See Bias; Discrimination;
prefix debate regarding, 162n2 Stereotypes
on workplace diversity, 25, 153–4, 162–6, 265 Pringle, Judith K., 4, 23n4, 39, 65, 177, 577, 584
Posthumanist feminism Process model, of global diversity
on binary thinking, 98–9 management, 370, 371
in diversity management research, 85, 86, Proletariat, 458
97–100, 101 Protestant work ethic, 399, 507
Postidentitarian transnational diversity, Provincializing diversity, 578, 583–8, 595
579, 594–5 Psychological safety, in work groups, 116
Postpositivism, 300, 445–9 Psychopolitical theory of racism, 166–7
Poststructuralism Puar, J. K., 591
on discourse, 64–5, 507 Public policy. See Laws and regulations
feminist, 303, 589 Public-politics, 332
on gendering of organizations, 53 Pullen, A., 303
intersectionality and, 447, 588 Purdie-Vaughns, V., 523
meanings in, 186 Purkayastha, B., 591
rise of, 42 PWD. See People with disabilities
Powell, Glen, 10, 518
Powell, N. G., 84 Qualitative research, 337–54. See also
Power Ethnographic research
abuse of, 332 in critical diversity studies, 345, 348, 350–1,
asymmetry of, 181, 190, 299, 303, 306 543, 549
class and, 458 discipline-specific methodological norms
coloniality and, 130, 131, 137 in, 338–40, 350
contextual factors and, 47, 55, 159, 541 on entrepreneurial aspirations in
in exploitative relationships, 198–9 Indigenous communities, 393–5
hegemonic masculinities and, 69 fieldwork in, 340–4
heteronormative, 197, 198, 200, 202 in interpretative tradition, 92
hierarchical, 185 intersectional analysis in, 443
inequality in access to, 17 interviews in, 339, 340, 341–4
knowledge and, 93–4, 96 language issues in, 346–7
in managerial relations, 302 overview, 7, 337–8
micro and macrophysics of, 592 power and identity in, 53, 340–4
performative elements of, 530 quantitative research vs., 52–4, 56, 339
politics of, 394 reflexivity in, 347–50, 546
of privileged groups, 25, 26 social justice and, 53
in qualitative research, 53, 340–4 translation to academic writing, 344–7
race and, 502, 507 Quantitative research. See also Survey
social relations of, 15, 64, 67, 76 research
in 3D-model of diversity management, 556, intersectional analysis in, 443
567–8, 569 qualitative research vs., 52–4, 56, 339
628   Index

Queer theory, 195–217. See also Lesbian, gay, Razack, S., 512
bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) Re-categorization practices, 114–15
persons Reaganomics, 43, 45
ambiguous diversities and, 221–2 Reconquista, 502, 506
codes of conduct, analysis using, 203, Recruitment practices, 46, 73, 377, 461, 542
204–12, 207t, 213 Red herring bills, 500
definitions of, 202 Redistribution–recognition dilemma, 456, 459
in diversity management research, 54, Reflexive Ethnography (Aull Davies), 100
199–203, 201t Reflexive Methodology (Alvesson &
on gendering of organizations, 53 Sköldberg), 100
as multifaceted theoretical concept, 196–9 Reflexivity, in research, 53, 99, 100, 347–50, 546
in organizational discourse, 202, 213–14 Regan, A., 558
overview, 5, 195–6 Regulations. See Laws and regulations
Queerness, defined, 221–2 Reid, C. A., 480
Quotas, in affirmative action, 42, 84, 240 Reinharz, S., 544–5
Qur’an, 400 Relational approach, to
intersectionality, 440–1
Race and racism. See also Black and minority Relational demography, 579, 580–1, 582
ethnic (BME) groups; Discrimination Religion. See also Islam and Muslims
biological racism, 506, 509 discrimination based on, 500–1
in business case for diversity, 264–5 in India, 409–10
colonialism and, 24 individualism and, 400
cultural racism, 179, 506, 507, 508, 509 in Pakistan, 415, 416, 417
legislative policies regarding, 21–2, 45 in US, 505–8
in mentoring programs, 562 Religious pluralism, 508
origin and evolution of, 505–7 Renegar, V. R., 225–6, 228
psychopolitical theory of, 166–7 Research methodology. See also Diversity
race riots, 21, 22, 26 management research; Ethnographic
in UK labour market, 373 research; Qualitative research;
in US, 26, 505–8 Quantitative research; Survey research
Racial formation, 502, 505–6, 511 of feminism, 53
Racial Formation in the United States (Omi & Indigenous, 169–70
Winant), 505–6 for intersectional analysis, 440–4
Racialization process, 502, 509, 511 multi-level approaches, 292, 293–4,
Racialized masculinities, 525–31 299, 303–5
examination of, 525–7 multiculturalism in, 187–90
legitimacy and, 528–9 social justice and, 53
men’s experiences with, 529–31 validity of, 290–3, 294, 539, 545–6, 549
spatial contexts of, 527–9 Reservation system, in India, 411, 412–13,
Ragins, B., 53 415, 426
Rainey, H. G., 287 Resource-based theory, 238, 246
Rancière, Jacques, 330 Return-to-work plans, 470
Rand, E. J., 221–2 Reverse discrimination, 29, 85, 256. See also
Rao, A., 91 Affirmative action (AA)
Rao, D., 479 Riach, K., 472, 473
Räsänen, K., 544 Rich, Adrienne, 197
Rasky, C., 435, 437, 438 Richard, O. C., 89, 179, 237–8, 243, 245
 Index   629

Riots, race, 21, 22, 26 Scully, M. A., 20, 200, 228, 229
Risberg, Annette, 5–6, 218, 585 SDSs (strategically deployable shifters), 324
Rivard, P., 116, 118 Sears, G. J., 245, 246
Roberson, L., 112, 558 Second-class citizenship, 504
Roberson, Q. M., 111 Second Sex (de Beauvoir), 23
Roberts, E., 479 Second-wave, of critical diversity
Roberts, L. M., 117 studies, 158–9
Robinson, G., 258 Second-wave feminism, 40, 51, 67
Rodriguez, N., 463 Secret behaviour approach, 402
Roggeband, C., 94, 589 Selbee, L. K., 461
The Roots of Muslim Rage (Lewis), 502 Self-identity. See Identity
Rosen, B., 285 Self-techniques, 199
Rosenblatt, V., 114 Semi-structured interviews, 339, 340, 342,
Rotherham child abuse, 27 350, 543
Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Sennett, Richard, 328
Intersectionality book series, 76–7 September 11, 2001 attacks, 139, 140, 499, 500
Rubin, Gayle S., 197 Sex discrimination. See Gender
Ruscher, J. B., 479 differences; Women
Russia, emergence of, 33, 409, 549 Sex–gender–sexuality, 197–8, 197f, 205–8, 207t,
Ryan, A. M., 510 210, 211–12
Rynes, S., 285 Sexuality. See also Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons;
Sabelis, I., 185, 189 Queer theory
Safety, codes of conduct on, 208 intersections with sex and gender, 197–8,
Saha, S. K., 546 197f, 205–8, 207t, 210, 211–12
Said, Edward W., 23, 25, 161, 162, 163, 175, 176, neglect in diversity management
180–1, 182, 399, 448, 449, 503 discourse, 195–6
Salary. See Income racialization of, 530
Salipante, P., 114, 116 South African protections on, 422–3
Salzer, M. S., 479 Shachaf, P., 91, 92
Same-sex marriage, 52, 422–3 Shane, S., 399
Sampling techniques, 92, 343, 546 Shapero, A., 390
Sardy, R., 202 Sharia (Islamic law), 500
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 161 Sharma, J., 198–9
Sawyer, J. E., 244 Shaw, L. R., 473, 477
Scandinavia Sheehan, M., 463
affirmative action in, 31 Shepherd, D., 23n4, 584
gender equality in, 21 Shia Muslims, 416, 417
Scase, R., 391 Shields, S., 437–8, 443, 518–19, 520
Scattered Hegemonies (Grewal & Kaplan), 70 Shimoni, B., 187
Scheduled castes (SC), 410–11, 412, 413, 414–15 Shore, L. M., 284
Scheduled tribes (ST), 411, 412, 413, 414–15 Shuey, K. M., 485
Scheid, T. L., 479 Sieben, B., 238, 457
Schermuly, C. C., 244 Siim, B., 21
Schmidt, A., 544 Silverstein, M., 322
Schwabenland, C., 94–5, 175, 258, 266, 267, 271, Similarity/attraction concept, 88
272–3, 371 Simkhada, P. P., 481
630   Index

Simpson, R., 303 in critical discursive tradition, 93

Simultaneity of diversity, 578, 588–90, 595 in diversity management research, 155,
Sinclair, A., 559 157–8, 184, 189–90, 579
Singapore, emergence of, 409 implications of over-focus on, 298–9
Singh, P., 240 in positivist tradition, 88, 183, 581
Singh, V., 265, 266, 585 Socialism, 95
SIT. See Social identity theory Socialization
Skeggs, B., 458–9 into academia, 338, 339–40, 345
Sköldberg, K., 100 of expatriates, 580
Slavery, reparations for, 24 gender, 399
Slonaker, W. M., Sr., 484 identity and, 64
Small and Medium Enterprises Development organizational, 90, 462
Authority (SMEDA), 418 Socially shared cognition perspective, 89
Smircich, L., 51, 177, 445 Socioeconomic status. See Class
Smith, Dorothy, 304, 443 Sociological imagination, 18–19, 31
Smith, N. J., 32 Søderberg, A. M., 585
Snowball sampling technique, 92, 343, 546 Soni-Sinha, U., 589
Social categorizations, 88 Soper, B., 262
Social change, functionalism vs. radical South Africa, 420–5
structuralism on, 87 affirmative action in, 240
Social class. See Class apartheid in, 166, 421, 425
Social confirmation, of identity, 98, Black Consciousness movement in, 167n4
99–100, 116 comparison with India and Pakistan, 425–6
Social constructionism, 523, 588 equality and diversity as defined in, 420–1
Social constructivism, 98 Indian populations in, 410
Social identity markers, 52 legislative history on diversity and
Social identity theory (SIT), 519–25 equality, 420–1
emergence of, 519 linguistic diversity in, 423
on expatriate managers, 580 organizational diversity practices in, 423–5
on identity differentiation, 579 socio-political dynamics in, 421–3
intersectionality and, 521–3, 531 women in, 421, 422, 426
on multiple levels of identity, 524–5 Southern Theory, 168–9, 170
overview, 10, 519–21 Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics
positivism and, 88 of Knowledge in Social Science
Social integration practices, 114, 115 (Connell), 168
Social justice. See also Affirmative action Sowards, S. K., 225–6, 228
(AA); Equal opportunity (EO) initiatives Spatial contexts, of racialised
in business case for diversity, 258–9, 266–73, masculinities, 527–9
268–70t, 371 Special Economic Zones, 512
dualisms in, 40–5 Spell, C. S., 557
equal opportunity and, 281 Spicer, A., 306
in non-profit organizations, 271 Spinoza, Baruch, 98
policies for promoting, 16 The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for
research methodology and, 53 Everyone (Pickett and Wilkinson), 16
Social networks, of immigrants, 462–3 Spivak, G. C., 448
Social psychology Srinivas, M., 413
business-oriented paradigms of, 176, 178 Srivastava, S., 527, 528
 Index   631

ST. See Scheduled tribes competency of, 424

Stafford, Z., 26 in diversity management
Stage theory of identity, 119–20 implementation, 542
Stakeholder theory, 238 expatriate, 91–2, 580
State of Exception (Agamben), 512 training programs for, 112, 559
Steele, M., 374 Surface-level diversity, 236
Stephenson, Jacqueline, 6, 235 Survey research
Stereotype threat, 119, 481 characteristics of, 281
Stereotypes and stigmatization. See also Bias; on diversity management outcomes, 7, 282,
Discrimination; Heteronormativity 284, 285–93
biological basis of, 115 on employees, 286–90, 293
colonial, 163, 167 in experimental designs, 283
defined, 479 in field studies, 283
in diversity discourses, 586 future challenges in, 294
in entrepreneurship, 388, 389 methodological issues in, 290–4
of Muslims, 501 multi-level designs for, 292, 293–4
in othering processes, 183 organizational, 285–6, 293
of people with disabilities, 473, 478–82, 484 positivism and, 90
reinforcement of, 184 Süß, S., 91
uncertainty reduction concept and, 88 Sustainable development theories, 133, 142
Stewart, M. M., 65, 576–7 Sustainable livelihoods, 394
Steyaert, C., 586 Sweden
Steyn, M., 424, 425 diversity discourse and initiatives in, 74,
Stolen Generations, 391n3 75, 586–7
Stonewall movement, 196 gender coaches in, 559
Strachan, Glenda, 4, 39 racial hierarchies in, 164–5
Strategic ambiguity, 222–5, 228, 230–1 social production of diversity ideas in, 96
Strategic model of global diversity term for diversity in, 71–2
management, 370, 371 Swift, M. L., 484
Strategic orientations, 245 Switzerland, diversity initiatives in, 586
Strategically deployable shifters (SDSs), 324 Syed, Jawad, 8, 358, 361, 408, 462, 520
Stringer, D. Y., 479 Syed, M., 440
Structural intersectionality, 440 Systemic discrimination, 44
Structuralism, 87. See also Poststructuralism
Sub-knowledges, 128, 133–4, 135–6, 138, 139–42 Taiwan, emergence of, 409
Subalternization, of knowledge, 131, 136 Tajfel, H., 519, 521
Subjectivities Taksa, Lucy, 10, 518
in business case for diversity, 264 Tapia, M., 22, 590
colonial, 161, 181 Tatli, Ahu, 8, 29, 370, 461, 464, 523, 541
mobile, 578, 591–4, 595 Teams. See Groups
Subordinated masculinities, 69 Tedmanson, Deirdre, 8, 388, 393
Sufism, 399 Tempered radicals, 20, 228–9, 230, 231, 339
Sullivan, Kevin, 257 Terrorism, 140, 307, 500. See also September 11,
Sumption, M., 463 2001 attacks; War on Terror
Sunni Muslims, 416 Textual analysis, 298–316
Supervisors. See also Leadership applicability of, 299, 311–12
bias of, 240, 424, 485 coding techniques for, 205
632   Index

Textual analysis (Cont.) intersectionality and, 73, 74, 588–90

critical hermeneutics and, 446 mobile subjectivities and, 578, 591–4, 595
critical sensemaking method in, 300, 305, modes of diffusion, 578
308–11, 310f, 447 overview, 11, 577
criticisms of, 304–5 postidentitarian, 579, 594–5
data sources for, 300 Transnational feminism, 51, 70
of discourse and rhetoric, 302 Transnational patriarchies, 69
in diversity management research, 7, 301–5 Transversal politics, 591
expository, 301–2 Triandafyllidou, A., 520
Laclau & Mouffe’s discourse theory for, 7, Trompenaars, F., 457
300, 305–8 Truth, Sojourner, 67
multi-level approaches to, 299, 303–5 Trux, Marja-Liisa, 7, 317, 320
in theoretical perspectives, 300–1 Tschopp, M. K., 479
Thailand, emergence of, 409 Tsui, A. S., 580, 581
The Third Jihad (documentary), 501 Tung, R. L., 242
Third space, 135, 176, 184–7, 188, 189–90 Turkey
Thomas, A., 389, 399 emergence of, 33, 409
Thomas, D., 46, 237, 558 female entrepreneurs from, 396–9, 400–3
Thomas, P., 306 Turner, R. N., 119–20
Thomas, R., 236, 237, 238, 447 Turnover rates, 260, 284, 377, 424
3D-model of diversity management, 554–7, Tusler, A., 472
555t, 567–9, 567t Tyler, M., 202
Tiffin, H., 186
Timmermans, B., 88–9 Ukur, G., 457, 460–1
Toh, S. M., 580 Uncertainty reduction concept, 88
Tomlinson, F., 175, 258, 266, 267, 271, 272–3, Unconscious bias, 18, 112, 118, 120
371, 543, 548 Under-accommodation, 482, 483, 485
Toor, Saadia, 10, 499 Unemployment
Top management teams (TMTs), 244, 247 of ethnic minorities, 17
Tracey, P., 458 in Indigenous communities, 390
Trade unions of people with disabilities, 470, 472, 475, 482
dichotomization of workplace and Unions. See Trade unions
migration in, 590 United Kingdom (UK)
membership declines, 17 affirmative action in, 29, 29n7
politics of diversity and, 29 business case for diversity in, 265, 374–5,
Training programs. See Diversity training 380, 381
programs diversity management outcomes in, 294
Transformational leadership styles, 245, feminist activism in, 21
284, 289 gender equality in, 21
Transgender persons. See Lesbian, gay, immigration in, 235, 373, 590
bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) income inequality in, 17
persons labour market in, 235, 373–4, 375
Translocational positionalities, 591, 592 liberal market economy of, 397
Transnational diversity. See also migrants in, 21, 25–6
Multiculturalism national self-esteem of, 23–4
conceptualizations of, 577, 578 non-profit organizations in, 272
demography and identity in, 579–81 people with disabilities in, 471, 478, 483
 Index   633

police discrimination in, 26–7 Value-in-diversity hypothesis, 237, 242

race relations in, 21–2 Van den Brink, Marieke, 10–11, 543, 545, 553
recruitment practices in, 461 Van der Zee, Karin, 118, 325
trade unions in, 29 Van Dick, R., 242
Turkish female entrepreneurs in, 396–8 Van Engen, M., 547, 548
United Nations (UN) Van Ginkel, W. P., 242
Convention on the Elimination of All Van Hoven, B., 528
Forms of Discrimination against Van Knippenberg, D., 89, 242, 283
Women, 40, 416, 418 Van Laer, Koen, 7, 337, 339–40, 343–4, 346–7,
Convention on the Rights of Persons with 349–50, 541, 546
Disabilities, 486 Van’t Veer, J. T. B., 480
Declaration of Human Rights, 40 Varma, A., 480
Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Veiga, J. F., 482
Peoples, 390 Venkataraman, S., 399
Global Compact, 40–1 Verbeek, Stijn, 286
International Convention on the Verfremdung (distancing), 320
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Vertovec, S., 317
Discrimination, 40 Vietnam, emergence of, 409
intersectionality in policy Vinkenburg, C., 547, 548
development of, 69 Violence. See also Abuse
United States (US) hate crimes, 500
affirmative action in, 29 race riots, 21, 22, 26
business case for diversity in, 265 Visible minorities, 256, 265, 328
Civil Rights movement in, 41, 51, 83, 506 Vloeberghs, D., 91
diversity management discourse in, 42–3 Voicing, in ethnographic research, 320–1
feminist activism in, 20 Voluntarism, 27–31, 34, 374, 382
higher education institutions in, 358, Von Bergen, C., 262
359, 368 Von Hippel, C., 481
identity and demography in, 579–81
immigrants in workforce in, 235 Waddington, L., 486
income inequality in, 17 Wages. See Income
Latinization of, 163 Wahl, Anna, 10–11, 553, 554
9/11 attacks, 139, 140 Wajcman, J., 22
people with disabilities in, 470, 471, 476–7, Walby, S., 69
478, 483 Walenta, C., 184, 202–3
race in, 26, 505–8 Walgenbach, K., 72
religion in, 505–8 Walk the Talk-programme, 559
Universal design approach, to workplace Wallraff, G., 319n1
accommodation, 487–8 War on Terror, 139, 143, 512
Universal diversity, 128, 131, 132, 139, 141, 182 Ward, J., 200
Universities. See Academia Warner, Michael, 197
Untouchables, 410, 411 Warrior ethic, 399
Urciuoli, B., 324 Watson, W. E., 242, 262
WCAR (World Conference against
Valentine, G., 525 Racism), 439
Validity, of research methodology, 290–3, 294, Webb, C., 563
539, 545–6, 549 Weber, Max, 20, 67, 399, 507
634   Index

Weheliye, A., 365 in South Africa, 421, 422, 426

Weick, K. E., 308, 447 on top management teams, 244
Weldon, S. L., 440–1 Women, Race and Class (Davis), 68
Wendt, A. C., 484 Women of Color movement, 196
Westwood, R., 181, 183 Wong, D. J., 32, 33–4
Whiteness Woodhams, C., 158, 159, 165, 464, 541
Christianity and, 508 Workforce 2000: Work and Workers for the 21st
in normalization of Western experience, Century (Johnston & Packer), 42–3, 84,
403, 506–7 155, 256, 575, 576
political economy of, 394 Workforce diversification practices, 111, 112, 113
WHO (World Health Organization), 469 Workplace accommodation
Williams, Fiona, 68 childcare facilities, 417, 425
Williams, K. Y., 262 co-worker reactions to, 485–6, 489
Williams-Whitt, K., 484–5 maternity/paternity leave, 414, 416, 418, 419
Wimmer, A., 592 for people with disabilities, 470, 478,
Winant, Howard, 505–6, 511 482–6, 487–8
Winstanley, D., 200 under-accommodation, 482, 483, 485
Winters, M.-F., 558 willingness to request and provide, 483–5
Wodak, R., 520 Workplace diversity, 109–26. See also
Woehr, D. J., 243 Equal opportunity (EO) initiatives;
Wolbring, G., 480 Organizational diversity
Wolffram, A., 365 chronological development of, 39
Women. See also Gender differences definitions of, 50
in academia, 32 disabled workers. See People with
access to power, 17 disabilities (PWD)
affirmative action, impact on, 239–40, diversity management outcomes
241, 246 for, 283–4
career advancement of, 240 dualisms in. See Dualisms
Convention on the Elimination of All ethnographic inquiries into, 319–21
Forms of Discrimination against fault lines in, 243–4, 247
Women (CEDAW), 40, 416, 418 as field of study, 32
disabilities and, 471 globalization and, 32
discrimination of, 40, 416, 418 group-level practices of, 113–16, 120–2, 121t
diversity training programs for, 558–9 immigrants and, 235
economic restructuring, impact on, 22 individual-level competence in, 116–22, 121t
empowerment of, 19 leadership in, 245, 247, 284, 289
in engineering profession, 307 levels of, 243, 247
as entrepreneurs, 302, 388, 395–9, literature review, 110–11
400–3, 404 organization-wide practices of, 111–13,
firm performance and, 238 120–2, 121t
harassment of, 17 overview, 4, 109–10
in India, 411–12, 413–14, 426, 541 policies and practices for, 246
maternity leave for, 414, 416, 418, 419 postcolonial perspectives on, 25, 153–4,
mentoring programs for, 560–1 162–6, 265
in Pakistan, 415–16, 418–19, 426 relational dynamics in, 96, 358
pay equity for, 240 World Bank, 19, 412
 Index   635

World Conference against Racism Yeagley, E. L., 244

(WCAR), 439 Yoneyama, E., 374
World Health Organization Yoruba tribe (Nigeria), 30n8
(WHO), 469 Young, Iris Marion, 16, 26, 34
Worthley, R., 114 Yuval-Davis, N., 439, 518, 591
Wrench, J., 156, 272, 274
Wright, P. M., 292 Zambrana, R. E., 438, 520
Zanoni, Patrizia, 7, 94, 153, 154, 157–8, 159, 182,
Xenophobia, 425 188, 263, 264, 299, 302, 337, 338–9, 341–3,
Xin, K. R., 460, 582 345–6, 347–9, 455, 458, 463, 464, 476, 519,
543, 585, 586
Yap, M., 241 Zhang, D., 479