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The purpose of this paper is to share reflective insights on three key questions of concern to critical diversity scholars: what influences play a part in framing a research project and the research questions, what determines the chosen methodology and what knowledge contributions do we want our research to make?

The paper, drawing on organisational ethnography, incorporates key fieldwork experiences to provide reflective insights on an innovative research project design conducted in multiple organisation sites.

The paper highlights the author’s learning from the conceptualisation of an innovative research project to the actual “doing” of what was proposed. It reflects on the unforeseen dilemmas that required continual adaptations be made because of the shifting demands of the research settings.

The paper is important as it provides the sharing of ideas into the influences that shaped a major piece of externally funded research and highlights a range of practical considerations if planning a critical diversity research project where negotiating access to organisations is required.

By reflecting on some important learning and insights into the crafting of an innovative research project and the challenges of enacting what was proposed, the paper is of value to post-doctoral and early career scholars and/or researchers interested in some insights into operationalising an organisational ethnographic methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to reflexively reconsider the effects of the author’s pre-understandings, both academic and non-academic, on the subject matter and the research setting. The unforeseen implications of this disjuncture on our research practice and the expected deliverables are discussed.

The paper engages in a critical, self-reflexive dialogue of a journey through a stimulating yet, uncomfortable piece of feminist, organizational ethnographic research drawing on the insights from the author's research diary.

The account presented in this paper describes the problematic nature of undertaking a collaborative, reciprocal research project in the distinctive and foreign cultural landscape of the military. The author shows the importance of delving into matters of positionality and preparedness for what might emerge, as a form of closure.

The paper provides insights into the importance of sponsors to access “the field” and our obligation as researchers to produce written deliverables.

This paper contributes to the emerging literature on the significance of reflexivity in feminist inspired organizational ethnographies in highly gendered settings such as the military.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the social categories of gender, age and class influence networking practices and career progression in the 4–5-star hotel sector in Australia and New Zealand. It argues that in this type of workplace the practice of networking is so normalized that it is assumed an inclusive, gender-neutral activity.

This paper draws on 18 semi-structured interviews. Inductive analysis was used uncover themes, sub-themes and emergent patterns. An intersectionally sensitive approach was followed.

The significance of networking processes for career progression in the 4–5-star hotel sectors was a recurring theme. Networking reflects historically embedded gendering practices that heighten existing class-based structural privilege for groups of men.

The focus is on hotel employees in Australia and New Zealand with the findings are not implicitly generalizable.

Networks are important for women as their “merit” may not be immediately visible. Well-structured mentoring schemes need to be adopted as part of the affirmative action required to tilt the “skewed playing field”.

Studies that indicate how the gendering of networking practices reinforce career privilege and penalty in specific organizations have been lacking, as have studies favouring an intersectional approach. This study seeks to redress these omissions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore why workers remain in long hospitality careers and to challenge the frequent portrayal of careers in the sector as temporary and unsatisfactory.

The study took an interpretative social constructionist approach. Methods used were memory-work, semi-structured interviews and intersectional analysis.

A key finding in this study is that career longevity in hospitality is not solely dependent on career progression. Strong social connection, a professional self-identity and complex interesting work contribute to long careers.

The study contributes detailed empirical knowledge about hospitality career paths in New Zealand. Conclusions should be generalised outside the specific context with caution.

The findings that hospitality jobs can be complex and satisfying at all hierarchical ranks hold practical implications for Human Resource Managers in the service sector. To increase career longevity, hospitality employers should improve induction and socialisation processes and recognise their employees’ professional identity.

This paper significantly extends the notion of belonging and social connection in service work. “Social connection” is distinctly different from social and networking career competencies. Strong social connection is created by a fusion of complex social relationships with managers, co-workers and guests, ultimately creating the sense of a respected professional identity and satisfying career.

The contemporary concept of a successful hospitality career is associated with an upwards career trajectory; however, this paper suggests that at the lower hierarchical levels of service work, many individuals enjoy complex satisfying careers with no desire for further advancement.

The purpose of this paper is to operationalize context in diversity management research.

A case analysis provides an example of the influences of context at macro, meso and micro levels. Country context (macro) and professional and organization contexts (meso) are analysed in relation to the micro individual experiences of gender and indigeneity at work.

Tensions and inconsistencies at macro and meso levels impact on diversity management at a micro level. The authors demonstrate how power and context are intertwined in the biopolitical positioning of subjects in terms of gender and indigeneity. The contested legacy of indigenous-colonial relations and societal gender dynamics are “played out” in a case from the accounting profession.

Within critical diversity studies context and power are linked in a reciprocal relationship; analysis of both is mandatory to strengthen theory and practice. The multi-level analytical framework provides a useful tool to understand advances and lack of progress for diversity groups within specific organizations.

While many diversity scholars agree that the analysis of context is important, hitherto its application has been vague. The authors conduct a multi-level analysis of context, connecting the power dynamics between the levels. The authors draw out implications within one profession in a specific country socio-politics. Multi-level analyses of context and power have the potential to enhance the theory and practice of diversity management.

The purpose of this paper is to seek the potential of an intersectional methodology to scholars interested in processes of exclusion and subordination in organizations in particular the sport sector. The amateur sport sector in New Zealand is used as a case to address the theme: intersectional practices of organizing and their consequences.

The conceptual paper brings together strands of interdisciplinary research to model an intersectional framework for future research development. In the paper, the interplay of shifting forms of inequality, inclusion and exclusion that are implicit in processes of elite amateur sport management, are made visible.

The paper argues for an intersectional framework to understand the complex processes of inclusion, exclusion and subordination in the elite amateur sport sector. Institutionalized change is a process that can have negative or positive consequences; it depends on perceptions of those affected by it. Sport in the wider environment is portrayed as intrinsically a “good” thing, yet the paper argues that sport reflects and reinforces social inequalities. There is a clear need for intersectional analysis of the work-life experiences of unpaid athletes involved in elite sport development processes.

The paper argues for the use of intersectionality as a multi-level methodological approach for scholars to understand the complex processes of inclusion, exclusion and subordination in organizations, including those involved in the delivery of elite amateur sport. The authors anticipate this methodological approach will contribute a valuable insight to understanding institutional power dynamics.

The purpose of this paper is to build on contemporary intersectional literature to develop a grounded methodological framework for the study of social differences.

A systematic literature review serves as the foundation for a discussion of the challenges associated with intersectional research. The findings assist in positioning the proposed methodological framework within recent intersectional debates.

The review shows a rise in intersectional publications since the birth of the “intersectionality” term in 1989. Moreover, the paper points to four tensions within the field: a tension between looking at or beyond oppression; a tension between structural-oriented and process-oriented perspectives; an apparent incommensurability among the macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis; and a lack of coherent methodology.

On the basis of the highlighted tensions in contemporary research as well as the limitations of that research, the present presents a methodological framework and a discussion of the implications of that framework for the wider diversity literature.

The paper suggests an empirically grounded approach to studying differences. This provides an opportunity, for scholars and practitioners, to reassess possible a priori given assumptions, and open up to new explorations beyond conventional identity theorization.

The paper suggests a need for an empirically grounded approach to studying social differences, which would not only create an opportunity to reassess common assumptions but also open up for explorations beyond conventional identity theorizations.

The framework departs from traditional (critical) diversity scholarship, as it is process oriented but still emphasizes stable concepts. Moreover, it does not give primacy to oppression. Finally, it adopts a critical stance on the nature of the macro, meso, and micro levels as dominant analytical perspectives. As a result, this paper focusses on the importance of intersectionality as a conceptual tool for exploring social differences.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the use of an auto‐ethnographic life history can provide rich, original data to critically analyse the interplay between the socially constructed self, a career journey over time and societal change.

A reflexive auto‐ethnography is used as a conduit to explore a career journey. The author draws on the fluidity of ageing to make visible gendered organizational processes. The setting is New Zealand.

To understand the interplay of a career journey through a life history approach and intersectional analysis reinforces the life‐long significance of gender with ageing.

The author suggests that by reflecting on the complex interplay of one's own life through an intersectional approach can add a further dimension to scholarly thinking on the “doing” of intersectionality when considering the career journey of others.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the identity and diversity literatures and discuss how a better understanding of the theoretical connections between the two informs both diversity research and diversity management practices.

Literature review followed by a discussion of the theoretical and practical consequences of connecting the identity and diversity literatures.

The authors inform future research in three ways. First, by showing how definitions of identity influence diversity theorizing in specific ways. Second, the authors explore how such definitions entail distinct foci regarding how diversity should be analyzed and interventions actioned. Third, the authors discuss how theoretical coherence between definitions of identity and diversity perspectives – as well as knowledge about a perspective’s advantages and limitations – is crucial for successful diversity management research and practice.

The authors argue for a better understanding of differences, overlaps and limits of different identity perspectives, and for a stronger engagement with practice.

The work can encourage policy makers, diversity and HR managers to question their own practices and assumptions leading to more theoretical informed diversity management practices.

The theoretical connections between identity and diversity literature have so far not been reviewed systematically. The work foregrounds how important it is for diversity scholars to consider identity underpinnings of diversity research to help further develop the field within and beyond the three streams the authors discuss.