Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work: A Research Companion

Citation

Al Ariss, A. (2010), "Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work: A Research Companion", Personnel Review, Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 674-677. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481011064208

This book discusses equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) matters in the context of the workplace. At first sight, the front cover of this book showing an image of open hands of diverse colours excited me about opening the book for an initial cursory browse. After reading the contents page, my interest was aroused by the various subjects discussed throughout the 31 chapters of this volume. The book is suitable for postgraduate students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers who are interested in theory and practice of EDI mainly in industrialised countries such as the US and UK.

I saw three main interests in this book. First, it tackles EDI matters from different perspectives such as sociological and psychological views. Second, it adopts different levels of analysis i.e. micro‐individual, meso‐organisational and macro‐contextual. Third, it covers under‐researched EDI themes in as various settings as academic work and trade unions. There were many chapters that made me reflect, counter intuitively, on themes such as the divide between EDI theory and practice (part VI) as well as the absence of men as change gender agents in EDI literature (part VII).

The book's 31 chapters are organised into seven parts. Part I focuses on inequality in the context of academic scholars. This subject is under‐researched in management literature. Part II discuses the meanings of diversity from macro, meso and micro level perspectives. EDI's exploration from sociological and psychological approaches is presented in parts III and IV respectively. Part V investigates the relation between trade union organisations and EDI. Part VI presents a critical appraisal of the changing context of EDI at work. Finally, Part VII discusses the influence of men on EDI in the context of the workplace.

In the introductory section, Özbilgin defines the meanings of EDI in the context of the workplace. Equality is understood in terms of power relations, diversity refers to difference, and “the term ‘inclusion’ adds a purposive and strategic dimension to the investigation of interventions to relations of power at work” (p. 2). The importance of history and context in understanding EDI is highlighted in this introductory section. History provides an understanding, in terms of past, and present experiences, and render it possible to envisage the possibilities for change. Context allows situating experiences in their settings. Ignoring context, which is sometimes done in management studies on diversity, leads to failure in considering issues facing various national, cultural and institutional settings.

In chapter 1 Bell draws on her academic experience in examining challenges facing EDI scholars and points to opportunities that this field of scholarship offers. Bell offers eight suggestions for scholars entering the field of EDI. In my view, the idea of carefully investigating potential journal outlets is essential for overcoming exclusion when attempting to publish in EDI matters. For instance, this helps avoiding sending papers to journals that are not open for publishing issues on diversity. Roos examines in chapter 2 the way subtle forms of gender inequality operate through beliefs, attitudes and relations in the context of academic employment. For example, the chapter shows how gender discrimination is “reproduced within workplace interactions, and how they are written into subjective policies and procedures institutionalized in the academic workplace” (p. 34). The chapter offers an important contribution by initiating an awareness of how implicit discrimination mechanisms operate in the context of scholarship. In chapter 3, based on her research on work‐life balance in academic employment in the UK and Japan, Woodward provides a cross‐national account of gender inequality and offers suggestions for combating these inequalities in accommodating work and life demands. In chapter 4, Fotaki contends that feminist and sociological research do not offer adequate understanding of the dynamics underlying gender discrimination. This is because research, and more generally the academic field, has been historically the product of male discourse. The author suggests that a better representation of women in the context of power in the academic field allows them to refuse their “role as the eternal other in the imaginary/symbolic system established through centuries of patriarchal thought” (p. 68).

The six chapters in part II reframe the way EDI is conceptualised in different work sectors. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 offer a multilevel understanding of EDI at work. Using Bourdieu's sociological theory, Pringle in chapter 5 conceives diversity as a balance of structural and individual actions. In chapter 7, Syed shows the case of gender diversity management in Muslim majority countries and argues that each society has its own reality concerning diversity. Lerner et al. demonstrate in chapter 8 that the exclusion of women in the labour market pushes them towards entrepreneurship. In chapter 9, Koall and Bruchhagen examine diversity paradoxes in organisation. Finally, Kelan and Nentwich present in chapter 10 a critical examination of gender research and suggest conceptualising gender as a social process, that is to say “something flexible and fluid and something one does rather than one is” (p. 138). The authors give an example of how gender is created a priori. In their research on IT employment, Kelan and Nentwich found that social skills for women were rewarded less than those for men as it was assumed that those skills come naturally to women. The authors argue that researchers studying gender as a social process have to consider “what is seen by the research participants as well as the researchers themselves as gendered and how that differs in different contexts” (p. 141). In sum, part II shows a need to acknowledge the influence of work sectors on EDI in order to better comprehend the dynamics of diversity at workplace.

In part III, chapter 11 and 12 respectively examine problems of depoliticisation of gender and intersectionality in the context of organisations. For example, Fleischmann in chapter 12 states the need to include the intersectional nature of subjects such as gender, class and ethnicity as a theoretical framework to further the understanding of discriminatory discourses. Mills and Mills offer in chapter 13 offers an interesting presentation of possible uses of agentic sensemaking to overcome inequities in organisations. The chapter calls for an understanding and re‐configuration of rules that contribute to organisational discourses and knowledge that reproduce inequality. Finally, Hunter points in chapter 14 to the problem of the denial of the reproduction of racism, sexism and other social inequalities in organisations. The author calls for a de‐normalisations of the complex, contradictory and conflicting articulations of “gender, race, class, age, sexuality and physical ability” (p. 180). In sum, part III demonstrates the importance of taking into consideration intersectionality in EDI research. Agents emerge in this part as key players in improving EDI practices.

Part IV presents five chapters that investigate the psychology of EDI. Rank proposes in chapter 15 a model of individual, group and contextual level facilitators of employee voice. Employee voice is understood in terms of constructive criticism that is helpful to improve the workplace. April and April provide in chapter 16 a critical assessment of the psychological reaction of immigrants to discrimination in the workplace in South Africa. Their study draws on 243 interviews conducted with employees. Their findings show that companies often discriminate against foreign employees in South Africa. This discrimination makes employees feel “distrusted, overlooked and undervalued by those in authority and their co‐workers” (p. 223). In chapter 17, Beauregard finds that diverging expectations of men and women reduce the effectiveness of some individual strategies for reconciling the demands of work and home. For example, men are found to be constrained to a stereotype of being more involved at their work rather than their homes. Kravitz in chapter 18 challenges the common assumptions about reactions to affirmative action. Finally, Garcia et al. offer in chapter 19 an explanation of the implications of “people accounting” for equal opportunity in the workplace. People accounting is a hypothesis that a simple numerical imbalance in representation along nominal social category lines can affect managers' decisions on how to allocate rewards and opportunities in the workplace. The author contends that this is true even when the social categories themselves are not gender or racial ones (e.g. university affiliation and geographical location). The authors suggest that people accounting is helpful to avoid intergroup conflict at workplace. Understanding the psychology of EDI emerges in part IV as an essential element toward a better diversity at workplace.

Part V focuses on labour politics in the context of EDI. Management scholars focus on the dynamics of gender, class, and ethnicity in organisations with less attention given to labour politics. Therefore, part V contributes to filling this knowledge gap. In chapter 20, Greene and Kirton present main features of diversity management, which potentially threaten trade unions in the broader employment relations context in the UK. First, unions are supposed to be sceptical about the business‐driven approach of Diversity Management (DM). Second, from a trade union perspective, DM is found not to focus on social group‐based difference as within Equal Opportunities (EO). Following that, in chapter 21, Ledwith proposes that there are future possibilities for trade unions to become more gender inclusive. Through a more diverse leadership of trade unions, Ledwith offers an optimistic vision for trade union renewal. Part V offers a reminder for EDI scholars of taking into account labour politics in their research. It suggests future possibilities for labour unions to play a key role in promoting EDI at workplace.

Part VI challenges the idea that EDI scholarship is more interested in documenting inequalities and forms of discrimination than proposing future strategies for change and promoting, in practice, EDI at workplace. Da Rocha in chapter 22 offers a comparative approach to understanding multiculturalism. Gatta in chapter 23 highlights the opportunities of collaboration between practitioners and academics. She illustrates her point by examining an innovative job training program in the US that helps providing poor working single mothers with access to education via the web. In chapter 24, Swan argues that equal opportunities and anti‐racist training, while extremely important for disruption of inequalities, are considered by managers and academics to be ‘soft skills’ training. In chapter 25, Klarsfeld investigates a range of voluntary and coercive measures to promote effective management of equality and diversity in France. Burke gives in chapter 26 an assessment of a wide range of initiatives supporting women's career development. Finally, Martin examines in chapter 27, compensation discrimination, and concludes that job evaluation in organisations should be subject to more scrutiny to eliminate gender‐ and race‐based prejudices. In sum, part VI gives many examples of how EDI can be promoted and practised in organisations.

Finally, in part VII, Kimmel discusses in chapter 28 the need to include men in the theory, politics and practice of gender equality as agents of transformation. Furthermore, in chapter 29, Hearn and Collinson debate the idea that men are absent in formulations of equality and diversity. In chapter 30, Hearn provocatively asks what are the promises, dangers and implications of bringing men into gender equality formulations. The book concludes with chapter 31, by Gregory, who demonstrates the relevance of “talking sport” to the pervasive processes of masculinity to construct knowledge, skills, difference and acceptability at work in a way to exclude women and ethnic minorities.

In summary, this book provides a detailed exploration of EDI in the context of organisations and industrialised societies. At first sight, many chapters of this text appear to address concepts that are well established such as diversity management and equal opportunities. Nevertheless, an in‐depth reading shows that this book contributes strongly to EDI knowledge by drawing on these same concepts in a way to encompass a positive spirit of change that is rarely documented in the diversity literature. In my view this book would please readers of Personnel Review very much, in particular postgraduate students and academics researching and teaching in the areas of diversity and human resource management.