“Managing diversity” meets Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Argues that the discourse of``managing diversity'', emerging from the US management literature, cannot be simply mapped on to organisations in other cultural contexts. It uses the example of Aotearoa/New Zealand to show that a``diversity'' based on the demographics and dominant cultural assumptions of the USA fails to address ± and may in fact obscure ± key local``diversity'' issues. It argues that the dominant discourse of``managing diversity'' has embedded in it cultural assumptions that are specific to the US management literature. It calls for a genuinely multi-voiced``diversity'' discourse that would focus attention on the local demographics, cultural and political differences that make the difference for specific organisations.

Diversity and Emotion: The New Frontiers in Organizational Behavior Research

“…Nonetheless, our review of the history of diversity research highlights the need to acknowledge the role of socio-political ideology in the diversity paradigms used in practice and in research (see Eagly, 1995;Jones, Pringle, & Shepherd, 2000). In this respect, Eagly (1995) suggests that the literature on diversity issues in the US has been, and continues to be intertwined with social and political agendas and needs to be weighed in light of this.…”

Diversity management versus gender equality: the finnish case

“…Specifi cally, large companies are claiming diversity as a core value, and launching specifi c diversity policies and programs (Egan & Benedict, 2001). However, it has been diffi cult to root the DM concept outside Anglophone countries since its development has taken place in a specifi c multicultural context that is not directly comparable to other cultural contexts that have different histories of diversity, such as the Nordic countries (Billing & Sundin, 2006;Boxenbaum, 2006;Sippola & Smale, 2007), southern Europe (CabralCardoso, 2006), or Oceania (Jones, Pringle, & Shepherd, 2000;Sinclair, 2000).…”

Diversity Research and Policy : A Multidisciplinary Exploration

“…As already mentioned, some authors question whether diversity approaches and practices, inspired by demographic evolutions and cultural assumptions from the US, can be simply transferred to other (cultural or national) contexts with different diversity issues (Cassell & Biswas 2000, Jones et al 2000, Kossek et al 2006, Nyambegera 2002. Consequently, they argue for an approach that studies diversity while acknowledging the wider social, political and historical context ( Jones & Stablein 2006, Nkomo & Cox 1996) and how such elements affect the identities that become salient, the meanings attached to them, individuals' positions within organisations and power differences between them ( Jones & Stablein 2006, Kersten 2000, Litvin 1997, Nkomo & Cox 1996, Siebers 2009a, 2009b.…”

“…This dissemination often takes place through global policies emanating from the US headquarters of multinationals and the adoption of US best practices (Ferner, Almond & Colling 2005, Kossek, Lobel & Brown 2006, Süß & Kleiner 2008, Zanoni & Janssens 2008. Recently, scholars have raised the question of whether the US model of diversity can simply be superimposed onto new contexts with different social, political and historical backgrounds (Cassell & Biswas 2000, Kossek et al 2006, Jones et al 2000, Nyambegera 2002. A first concern is the difference in minorities at the heart of diversity debates.…”