Doing diversity differently: beyond the business case for diversity in an alternative organisation
2024 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Throughout this master thesis I explore the work of diversity practitioners as performed in alternative organisations with the aim to understand how diversity workers in this context navigate between the moral and the business case for diversity. I take as a starting point a norm-critical understanding of diversity work to allow a re-politicization of the practice of diversity in organisations. Using my own experience working at an investment fund in the male-dominated video game industry, I compare the practice of diversity work in this alternative organisation with previous interviews of diversity training practitioners. Organisations like The Gaming VC aim at challenging the norm through their actions but also through their form of organising, in this case by being a separatist organisation that excludes cis men, in an industry where they are the norm. My first contribution to Critical Diversity Studies is then to propose a concrete example of how diversity work can be performed otherwise through norm-critical orientations in an alternative organisation, a form of organising that still remains relatively under-studied (Christensen, 2020; Janssens & Zanoni, 2021). When comparing the practices of diversity training practitioners with the practice of The Gaming VC, I identified similar strategies leveraging the business approach of diversity management in order to effectively achieve its social justice objectives. The second contribution is expanding the concept of ethical practice as defined by Carl Rhodes (2017) to the practice of diversity in alternative organisations. The binary social justice/moral case for diversity versus business case is not particularly helpful to understand the practice of diversity work, even in alternative organisations.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024.
Keywords [en]
Diversity work; diversity management; norm-critical methods; ethical praxis; performativity; reparative reading; alternative organisation
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-69123OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-69123DiVA, id: diva2:1872741
Educational program
KS US Leadership and organisation: Societal challenges and organisational changes
Presentation
2024-05-29, Malmo, 15:47 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
2024-08-072024-06-182024-08-07Bibliographically approved