Workplace Diversity

Abstract

Workplace diversity appears to have a rather short history as a field in organization studies if one locates its emergence only within contemporary scholarship (Nkomo & Cox 1996). Issues that commonly fall within the study of workplace diversity have always existed. Yet, early conceptualizations of organizations were rooted in universalistic approaches that largely ignored race, ethnicity, gender, culture, sexuality, and other social identities (e.g., Clegg 1990). Race and gender in organizations gained some attention after the passage of equal employment legislation in the United States during the 1970s as well as in the UK. This work appeared under the rubric of women in management and in studies of the effects of affirmative action and workplace discrimination (for a review see Cox & Nkomo 1990).