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The purpose of this paper is to paper investigates whether different perceptions exist with regard to diversity management within an organisation. Additionally, if such differences exist, what contextual factors influence these perceptions?

The approach of this study is based on inductive and interpretative case research, which aims to compare diverse perceptions in two different organisational units of a company. For this purpose, 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted.

The findings in this paper highlight the importance of contexts in the study of diversity management. That is, contexts such as workforce composition and power (e.g. organisational status) in an organisation as well as the social environment’s impact on social identity processes, which results in discrepant focusses on and recognition of diversity management within the same organisation.

This study contributes to research on a more nuanced approach to diversity by proposing an importance of contexts for the process of social identity and further perceptual discrepancy.

Qualitative research on and findings about perceptual discrepancy help to close the gap between the practice and rhetoric of diversity management.

Departing from extant empirical research on diversity at the workplace, which relies predominantly on quantitative methods, a qualitative design of this study allows a refinement of previous findings. Also, this paper provides deeper insight into the sense-making process, resulting in different diversity perceptions by different employees according to their work and social environments or contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the multilevel factors that influence the way in which an organization approaches ethnic diversity management in France. Syed and Özbilgin’s (2009) relational framework was adopted to understand and contextualize ethnic diversity management in a car manufacturing company in France.

In total, 37 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees of different hierarchical levels in a French organization have been conducted and analyzed using the Gioia method.

The findings show that the lack of clear laws and the universal citizenship model on macro-level coupled with the gendered industry and superficial engagement with ethnic diversity on meso-level overlooks the difficult situation of ethnic minorities in the workplace, especially women. However, the findings also stress that it is on individual level that resilience and agency can be expressed, which means that despite the perceived barriers on societal and organizational level, ethnic minorities are motivated to improve the way they are treated in organizations.

Ethnic minorities are an understudied dimension of diversity management in organizations. The findings underscore the importance of the intersection of ethnicity and gender as this affects the career development possibilities and daily work experience of ethnic minority women.

This conceptual paper develops a theoretical framework to provide insights with respect to enhancing focus on entrepreneurial sustainability initiatives in the context of emerging economies. The unique idiosyncrasies of the institutional environment of emerging economies are identified along the concept of scripts.

Sense-making and social identity theory are utilized to draw propositions along with the dimensions of the three stages of the sense-making process: enactment, selection and retention, in order to identify factors that are likely to motivate the next generation of business leaders in emerging economies to undertake greater levels of sustainability initiatives.

When organizations face competing demands of meeting both social and financial goals, sense-making by next-generation leaders becomes relevant. Leaders with greater entrepreneurial orientation (EO) are more likely to take actions decoupled from local isomorphic pressures, such that they turn opportunities for sustainability into novel sustainable initiatives.

This paper proposes a framework to provide insights and directions for future research with respect to enhancing an organizational focus on sustainability initiatives in the context of emerging economies.