Barriers to Managing Diversity in a UK Constabulary: The Role of Discourse

Abstract

The literature on diversity management has tended to obfuscate some of the theoretical and methodological shortcomings associated with research in this area. Specifically, the literature tends to make a number of rather naïve assumptions about the experiences and aspirations of disadvantaged groups. This paper seeks to problematize the universalist and partisan tendencies that typify much of the diversity literature by focusing on the issue of ‘resistance’. Using a form of discourse analysis informed by Foucauldian principles, the paper explores how ‘resistance’ to diversity initiatives is expressed by both ‘dominant’ and ‘subordinated’ groups in a UK police force. It is argued that ‘resistance’ is better thought of as a discursive resource that can be drawn upon to justify or account for one’s own organizational experiences and, in turn, the need to both justify and account for one’s experiences is located in broader discursive fields that reproduce dominant ideologies of liberal democracies. The theoretical implications of this position are discussed and a case is presented for more critical and theoretical approaches in the diversity management literature.

Leaders’ Orientations to Diversity: Two Cases from Education

“…As evident in other studies, for example of the constabulary (Dick & Cassell, 2002) the text reveals arguments which are in tension with the rhetoric in most educational organisation policy documents of an interest in and commitment to diversity and equality (Zanoni & Janssens, 2003). Staff here generally argued that such issues were largely irrelevant …”

“…Stone and Collela (1996: 383) note the 'largely automatic, innate, and usually irrevocable' negative emotional reaction to people with disabilities. In common with other public sector workers (Dick & Cassell, 2002), the universal and structural embeddedness of a negative response to 'difference' is widely overlain by a rhetoric of socially approved orientation to equity amongst educational leaders.…”

Discursive managerial practices of diversity and homogeneity

“…Both sport and public safety have been characterized as white male dominated occupations, numerically and ideologically (Messner 1988, Dick and Cassell 2002, Lapchick 2010. In contrast, healthcare has been characterized as a feminized sector since the majority of its workforce consists of women of various ethnicities, and this sector is also assumed to be 'gay-friendly' (Zandvliet 2002, OSA 2005.…”

Les politiques de gestion de la diversité dans les organisations : Proposition de typologie à l’usage des chercheurs et des entreprises

“…La diversité peut se définir par une catégorisation des individus selon leurs caractéristiques objectives, mais elle peut aussi se fonder sur le sentiment d'appartenance des individus à une ou plusieurs catégories spécifiques. Dans ce dernier cas, les caté-gories sont interdépendantes, l'individu peut appartenir à plusieurs catégories, et la définition de la diversité peut évoluer au cours du temps (Dick et Cassell, 2002;Garcia-Prieto et al, 2003). Les politiques de diversité doivent donc prendre en compte la multiplicité des appartenances, en ayant conscience des combinaisons des différentes caractéristiques des individus (ou intersectionnalités) (Cornet, 2010;Özbilgin et al, 2011).…”