A reflection on the value of a multi‐tiered perspective of diversity, discourse and equality in the global workplace: Global Diversity Management: An Evidence Based Approach

Citation

Bennett, T. (2009), "A reflection on the value of a multi‐tiered perspective of diversity, discourse and equality in the global workplace: Global Diversity Management: An Evidence Based Approach", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 448-450. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150910964295

Through the concept of global diversity management, Ozbiligin and Tatli offer the reader an insight into the study and practice of equality and diversity management that will appeal to both the needs of diversity practitioners and the interests of academics. As the authors rightly argue, “global diversity management is in its infancy” (p. 441). Unlike the study of equal opportunities and, more latterly, managing diversity which are now well developed as influential, but contrasting, perspectives on the drivers for equality and diversity in the workplace and beyond (Dickens, 1999; Kirton and Greene, 2005). The aim of the authors is to locate this and other debates within a broader framework of global diversity management.

To this end, one of the strengths of the book is that the authors present their discussion and analysis of diversity management framed within a model that conceptualises global diversity management as both multi‐tiered and interrelated at the global, national, sectoral and organisational levels of organisations and societies (p. 17). Their argument is that the task and study of managing diversity in our increasingly global economies and organisations must be considered simultaneously at a number of levels. For instance, in chapter three, the research on the Japanese global car industry demonstrates that national culture and equality legislation can have profound effects on the degree to which diversity management policy and practice can be transferred from one part of an organisation's international operations to another.

The transferability of diversity strategy is one of a number of key themes that run throughout the book. A second key tenet of their thesis is an analysis of discursive practices as played out in the language and rhetoric used by key stakeholders at different levels of their model. In chapter seven, the discussion focuses on the different discourses of academics, institutional agents in society and diversity managers, and offers an alternative perspective on the current debate about the contrasting language of equal opportunities and managing diversity (Kirton and Greene, 2006). Interestingly, the authors suggest that they found no evidence of “hegemonic dominance” (p. 247) in this “plurality of discourses” (ibid.) but rather that they reflected only partial accounts of reality (ibid.) that required all stakeholders to come together in order to better understand each others viewpoints of diversity and equality

Managing change is also a key theme that is covered in a number of chapters in the book. For example, in chapter eleven, the reader is presented with a persuasive account of both the challenges and barriers faced by the diversity practitioner seeking to initiate change in the workplace. Drawing on the concepts of agency and structure the authors identify the structural constraints faced by these managers, for instance organisational culture, and contrast these to “the dynamic agency of the diversity manager” (p. 411) to initiate change through discourse and their control of resources (ibid).

In line with their conceptual framework the book is structured, following the chapter on global diversity management theory, to introduce the reader in the subsequent chapters to the interlinked issues that present themselves first at the global level down to the level of the individual. In chapter, three the authors address the issue of managing diversity at the global level. The focus then changes in the next two chapters to issues at the national level. Where for instance in chapter four, through a national survey of diversity officers from around the UK, the research findings reveal that despite progress, “the diversity office and officers do not enjoy favourable status in their organisations” (p. 62). This highlighted a clear barrier to initiating change in the workplace. They further reported that in reality, “diversity management ..[is still]… predominantly driven by legal compliance concerns” (p. 63). Chapter five considers the issue of national policy and practice in addressing the gender pay gap. Whilst chapter six presents the views of national providers and users of diagnostic checks in order to establish what makes such checks successful in an organisation. It was concluded that despite a “current inflation of diagnostic tools” (p. 172) a well‐designed check can be effective if a network of equality champions is developed at “organizational, sectoral, regional and national” (p. 167) levels to promote its utilisation. Involving all stakeholders and, in contrast to chapter four, promoting the “bottom line benefits of equality and diversity” (p. 159) were also key findings from this research. Chapter seven, as discussed above, investigates the discourse of diversity as articulated by a cross section of managers in organisations within the UK.

The focus of chapter eight and nine is the sectoral level where the reader is presented with some interesting research findings on equality issues in the recruitment sector and with respect to work placements for students from higher education institutions. The latter study concludes that both host organisations and the HEIs providing the placement students need more rigorous checks and monitoring to ensure that students, for instance from different ethnic backgrounds, are not discriminated against in the process.

Turning to the organisational level, the research in chapter ten is based on a multi‐national car manufacturer. The key focus for the company was on the “business rationale for diversity management” (p. 373). However, in reality the needs of different social groups also impact on organisational strategy in terms of having self‐organised groups and following awareness raising training amongst the workforce. It is also a good example of a multi‐level analysis of a global company with respect to its global anti‐harassment policy and the role of its global diversity council. It demonstrates, “that even in a single company, which has a global diversity management policy, structure and practice of managing diversity [can also] vary across national contexts” (p. 415). The book concludes with two case studies focussing, as noted above, on the individual level.

In closing this review, Global Diversity Management is commended to readers of Equality Opportunities International for a number of reasons. As Lewin (1951) once stated, “nothing is as practical as a good theory”. He would, this reviewer believes, concur that this book offers both practitioners and academics a theoretically grounded yet practically focussed text to assist in the study and practice of managing equality and diversity strategy in the global workplace.

Furthermore, their elegant entwining of key themes throughout the book such as the role of diversity managers, the hegemonic contest between equality and diversity discourses and the need to understand the managing of diversity as a multi‐level discipline give us new insight into the subject.