What is going on?
Inquiries into the contradictions of leading cultural diversity
Leading cultural differences and diversity in large organizations is quite a successful theme today and rests on well-established theoretical and empirical tools and models to leverage this cultural diversity. Yet, some researchers have recently advanced evidence that the management of differences is not as successful as it seems, despite scholars and practitioners’ best intensions. These researchers are preoccupied with understanding power structures in organizations and processes of social change, in the spirit of ‘critical management studies’. They point to empirical evidences and theoretical considerations indicating that the definition and management of differences are done in ways that can reproduce power inequalities and thus undermine the entire purpose of diversity and cross-cultural management. This means that the way cultural diversity management addresses its own fundamental questions and endeavor is said to undermine its raison d’être. Worse, some argue that cross-cultural and diversity management are dehumanizing employees and thus, are unethical.
How is this possible? We aim to investigate this state of affairs, this interconnection between an active leadership of cultural diversity and the alleged reproduction of inequalities and unethical practices. How can cultural diversity management theories and practices be said to contribute to something which so opposite to their endeavor? We aim at an in-depth (ethnographic) investigation of current practices of ‘diversity management’ in order to better understand ‘what is going on’ and to contribute to the further development of ethical inclusive leadership.
Read preliminary research findings
Read the full project description
Project leader:
Laurence Romani
Project team:
Laurence Romani, Katharina Pilhofer, Lotte Holck and Julie Lorenzen (CASL), Charlotte Holgersson (KTH & CASL), Sara Louise Muhr and Annette Risberg (Copenhagen Business School and CASL)
Publications
Barmeyer, C. Romani, L and Pilhofer, K. (2016), Welche Impulse liefert interkulturelles Management für Diversity Management? , in Petia Genkova and Tobias Ringeisen (Eds), Handbuch Diversity Kompetenz: Gegenstandsbereiche, Spinger.
Benschop, Y., Holgersson, C., van den Brink, M., & Wahl, A. (2015) Future challenges for practices of diversity management in organizations, in Bendl, R. et al (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Diversity in Organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bleijenbergh, I., C. Holgersson, & I. Ryan (2016) Diversity, diversity management and identity in organizations. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(1).
Christensen, J. and Muhr, S. (2018) Failed diversity and symptomatic anxiety: Theorising organizational diversity as Lacanian lack, Culture & Organization. Available on-line first.
Essed, P. and Muhr, S. (2018) Entitlement Racism and its intersections: An interview with Philomena Essed, social justice scholar, Ephemera.
Holck, L. and Muhr, S. (forthcoming) Extreme sites of ethnography: Investigating intersectionalities in the Greenlandic police force. In S. Just and A. Risberg (eds.) Methods for Diversity Research. London: Routledge
Holck, L. Muhr, S. and Villeseche, F. (2018) Managing Diverse Talent. In I. Tarique (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Talent Management. Routledge.
Holck, L. and Muhr, S. (2018) Joanne Martin and organizational culture, in A. Pullen and R. Mc Murrey (eds.) Women Writers in Organisation Theory: Rethinking Culture, Organisation & Management. Routledge.
Holck, L.; Muhr, S. and Villesèche, F. (2016) ‘Identity, diversity and diversity management: On theoretical connections, assumptions and implications for practice’, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 35(1), 48 – 64.
Holgersson, C., Tienari, J.; Bendl, R. and Meriläinen, S. (2016) Executive search as ethnosociality: A cross-cultural comparison. International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management. 16(2), 153–169.
Holgersson, C. and Romani, L. (forthcoming 2020) Tokenism revisited: when organizational culture challenges masculine norms, the experience of token is transformed, European Management Review
Kirkegaard, L. and Muhr, S. (2018) Uniform bodies/embodied uniforms: An affect analysis of body possibilities in the military, in A. Pullenand and M. Fotaki (eds) Diversity, Discourse, Affect and Materiality. London: Routledge.
Mahadevan, J. Primecz, H. and Romani, L. (2020), Cases in Critical Cross-Cultural Management: An Intersectional Approach to Culture, Routledge.
Murh, S. and Ashcraft K. (2017) Coding military command as a promiscuous practice? Unsettling the gender binaries of leadership metaphors, Human Relations, https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726717709080
Muhr, S. and Sløk-Andersen, B. (2017) Exclusion and inclusion in the Danish military: A historical analysis of the construction and consequences of a gendered organizational narrative, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 30(3): 367-379.
Pilhofer, K. & C. Holgersson (2015) Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion Scandinavian Journal of Management, 31(3), 453-454.
Primecz, H., Mahadevan, J. & Romani, L. (2016), Why is Cross-Cultural Management blind to power relations? Investigating ethnicity, language, gender and religion, International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 16(2), 127-136.
Risberg, A. & Pilhofer, K. (2018) Diversity and difference research: a reflection on categories and categorization, Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization. 8(1): 131-148.
Risberg, A. and Noerholm Just, S. (2015) Ambiguous diversities - Practices and perceptions on diversity in organizations.” In (Eds) Bendl, Regine, Inge Bleijenbergh, Elina Henttonen and Albert Mills. The Oxford Handbook of Diversity in Organizations. Oxford University Press.
Romani, L. and Binswanger, C. (2019) Critical perspectives on Diversity Management, in E. Hanappi-Egger and H. Mensi-Klarbach (Eds) Diversity in Organizations: concepts and practices. Houndmills, Palgrave.
Romani, L. Boussebaa, M. and Jackson, T. (forthcoming 2020) Critical perspectives on Cross-Cultural Management, in B. Szkudlarek, L. Romani, J. Osland and D. Caprar, The Sage Handbook of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management, London: Sage.
Romani, L. Holck, L. and Risberg, A. (2019) Benevolent discrimination: explaining how Human Resources professionals can be blind to the harm of diversity initiatives. Organization. Online first. Open access
Romani, L. and Holgersson, C., (forthcoming 2020) Inclusive leadership for sustainable work practices, in L. Zander (Ed.) Research Handbook of Global Leadership: Making a difference, Edward Elgar, UK.
Romani, L. and Holgersson, C. (forthcoming 2020) Global Diversity Management: when diversity and cross-cultural management meet, in B. Szkudlarek, J. Osland, D. Caprar and L. Romani, The Sage Handbook of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management, London: Sage.
Romani, L., Mahadevan, J., Primecz, H., (2018) Critical Cross-Cultural Management, International Studies of Management and Organization.48(4) 403-408. Open access
Romani, L. Mahadevan, J. and Primecz, H (forthcoming 2020) Methods for Critical Management Research, in B. Szkudlarek, J. Osland, D. Caprar and L. Romani, The Sage Handbook of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management, London: Sage.
Romani, L., Barmeyer, C; Pilhofer, K.; Primecz, H. (2018) Cross-cultural management studies: state of the field in the four research paradigms, International Studies of Management and Organization. 43(3) Open access.
Romani, L. Holck, L. Holgersson, C and Muhr, S.L (2017), Diversity Management and the Scandinavian Model: Illustrations from Denmark and Sweden, in M. Özbilgin and J.F Chanlat (Eds.) Management and Diversity: Perspectives from National Context, Volume 3, London: Emerald. Pp. 261-280.
Selected conference contributions
Dobusch, L., Holck, L., and Muhr, S.L. (2017) Towards fragmented inclusion: Diverse organizing in Greenland Police. Paper presented at the workshop on diverse organizing/organizing diversity. CBS, Copenhagen, May 2017.
Holck, L., and Muhr, S.L. (2017) The socio-materiality of intercultural encounters: An analysis of flesh, skin, bullet proof vests and other objects in Greenland Police. Paper presented at SCOS, Rome, July, 2017.
Holck, L and Romani, L. The benevolent manager: practices of unwanted discrimination in the recruitment of migrant workers. Responsible Leadership Conference. March 2017, Johannesburg.
Holck, L. and Romani, L. (2016) Inequality regimes of diversity and class: exploring the intersectionality of ethnicity, gender, and class in a medical company employing high-skilled ethnic minorities. Paper presented at the Second Workshop on Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion, Copenhagen, Denmark, May 26-27th, 2016.
Holck, L. & Muhr, S. (2016): ‘The social materiality of cross-cultural encounters: The case of Danish Police officers in the Greenland police service. Paper preseneeted at the 6th Organizations, Artifacts & Practice (OAP) Workshop.
Muhr, S. (2014): ‘Creating women initiatives without explicit diversity management practices: Thoughts from a participatory study’. Paper presented at the 30th EGOS conference, Rotterdam, July 2014.
Muhr, S. and Ashcraft, K. (2014): ‘Military, Metaphors and Masculinity: The Construction of Gendered Practice in Leadership Studies. Paper presented at the 13th Studying Leadership Conference, Copenhagen, December 2014.
Muhr, S. and Ashcraft, K. (2016): ‘Masculinist Metaphor and Military Practice: Unsettling the Gender Binaries of Leadership Studies’. Paper presented at the 6th Conference on Rhetoric and Narratives in Management Research’.
Pilhofer, K., Holgersson, C., Romani, L. (2014) Inclusive leadership: Reconciling different views on leadership, Conference paper presented at the workshop on leadership, diversity and inclusion at the International Studying Leadership Conference in Copenhagen.
Pilhofer, K. and Risberg A. (2016.) A critical reflection on categorization in cross-cultural and diversity management. Presented at EURAM, June, Paris, and SCOS, July, Uppsala.
Risberg, A. and Romani, L. Employable but not employed: ambiguities in mentoring programs for migrants. Responsible Leadership Conference. EGOS annual symposium, Copenhagen, 2017.
Romani, L. and Holck, L. & Risberg, A. Inequality regimes despite all: Exploring the intersection of ethnicity and class in the employment of high-skilled migrants, Critical Management Studies Conference, Liverpool, July 2017.
Romani, L.; Mahadevan, J. and Primecz, H. Critical cross-cultural management: outline and emerging contributions. Critical management studies conference, Liverpool, July 2017
Romani, L. Holck, L. Holgersson, C and Muhr, S.L, (2015) Diversity Management and the Scandinavian Model: Illustrations from Denmark and Sweden, Paper presented at the Diversity Management and Equality Symposium, Paris, October 2015.
Romani, L.; Lorenzen, J.; Holck, L. and Muhr, S. (2016) Expatriate’s and Host Country National’s professional learning in adverse conditions: a case study of Danish police officers stationed in Greenland, Paper presented to EGOS annual symposium, Napoli, Italy, July 2016.
Status:
Financed by the Ragnar Söderberg foundation 2014-2019
