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The Social Construction of Diversity Discourses: Critical Perspectives on Diversity Management, Power and Inequality

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Critical Studies in Diversity Management Literature

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Psychology ((BRIEFSPSYCHOL))

Abstract

Diversity management involves a strong ethical component. Not infrequently, diversity policies are evaluated in conformity to the tangible benefits they incur, both to the organization and to various stakeholders. Such criteria, if adopted and properly operationalized may come to imply that, once DM is no longer perceived as beneficial to an organization, it may cease to exist as an autonomous and distinct management practice.

In this respect, established organizational processes tend to invariably replicate social differences codes, thus exacerbating, or perpetuating inequality within organizations. Far from developing pro-diversity beliefs that unconditionally affirm and value otherness, this conception diminishes the importance of differences; the latter appear as objectified or neutralized, by further reproducing and perpetuating structural inequalities. This process stems from and is effected through various societal discourses that appear to reflect dominant value-systems, as well as prevailing power relations. Accordingly, minority employees tend to either conform to established organizational norms by experiencing assimilation, or retain their valuable uniqueness, at the expense of their effective integration in a work group.

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  1. Department of Philosophy and History of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Ano Ilissia, Athens, Greece

    George Gotsis & Zoe Kortezi

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Gotsis, G., Kortezi, Z. (2015). The Social Construction of Diversity Discourses: Critical Perspectives on Diversity Management, Power and Inequality. In: Critical Studies in Diversity Management Literature. SpringerBriefs in Psychology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9475-6_4

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