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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the contexts in which this special issue developed, along with the wider context in which research such as that included is conducted. It is believed that without the persistence of researchers in this field, the situation would be even worse.

Papers were selected from those submitted following a call for papers which went out after the Inaugural Equal Opportunities International Conference held at the University of East Anglia in July 2008. Two of the selected papers use qualitative, and two use quantitative, methodologies. The research was conducted in Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Each seeks to develop theory based upon fresh empirical work.

Compelling evidence provides insight to ways in which majority and minority ethnic employees experience organizations differently, along with the resultant differential outcomes, including career paths, quality and opportunities.

This paper maintains that each paper in this special issue (within its own context and as it currently stands) represents a robust example of qualitative or quantitative research in the field.

From the evidence of each paper published here, it is clear that academics and practitioners alike will gain insights to employer and employee behaviours at the level of the labour market and within the workplace itself. Such insights should encourage further action on the part of both. Employers should be prompted to review their polices and practices in the light of anti‐discriminatory legislation in such a way as to minimize discrimination therein.

This paper draws attention to matters of persistent inequality which remain so even in enlightened times wherein quite extensive legislation is in place to outlaw such inequality. As such, the guest editors would like to see, as a result of both academics and practitioners reading the work within this, and all other, editions of the journal, concerted efforts, in the case of the former, to continue to conduct and disseminate high‐profile research in the area of discrimination and equal opportunity, and, in the latter, to address their policies and practices. In the latter context, the guest editors would like to see an impact on public and private employment policies and the seriousness with which corporate social responsibility is undertaken. In that respect, public attitudes might eventually be seen to be changing for the more equitable.

The paper brings together the findings of four different pieces of original research in such a way as to demonstrate the commitment of researchers to addressing inequality in today's workplaces, which themselves continue to be inequitable.

The aim of this paper is to examine gendered identities of women academics by exploring the interplay and exploitation of internal and external, personal and academic, identities. The paper also considers the relative prioritisation of the three main academic activities of teaching, research, and administration, in which an enhanced emphasis on research performance, as opposed to teaching and administration, is what is often deemed to represent “success” in academia.

Drawing on autoethnographical detail, the paper reflects on the complexities of identities as they are constructed, developed, experienced and understood both by themselves and by others. By presenting several short autobiographical vignettes, the paper examines perceptions of the gendered identity of women in academia as caring, “motherly” and nurturing, and demonstrates attempts to exploit so‐called “natural” feminine, mothering traits as a means of fulfilling the pastoral and administrative components of universities.

In considering such stereotypes, the paper addresses examples of their self‐fulfilment, whilst considering how academic structures and practices also impose such distinctions, in a context where academic “success” is often typified by research, publications and academic networking.

The paper considers both possibilities for resistance and the negative implications for the career success of women academics, arguing that, until these gendered stereotypes are challenged, women academics will continue to be disadvantaged within academic institutions.

The paper aims to explore tensions around race, ethnicity, culture and religion and discusses the potential impact on the delivery of quality health care in the UK through the National Health Service (NHS).

This is a conceptual paper that examines how individual and collective resistance may compromise the provision of quality care and performance targets in the NHS with regard to equality and change. Existing literature and previous empirical work by the authors are utilised in order to discuss pertinent issues and propose further research in the area, suggesting appropriate methodologies and research designs.

The performance measurement agenda does not address issues of racism and discrimination faced by NHS staff and customers, effected by both colleagues and the public, which impact upon the delivery and receipt of care within the NHS. Performance measurement methods that do not take into account socio‐cultural conditions for those delivering and receiving care are futile. To make such measurement meaningful it is necessary for the NHS to acknowledge and challenge the racism inherent in its service delivery.

Problems or limitations of conducting primary research in this field are discussed. Nevertheless, key issues around the need and type of further research in this under‐researched area are presented.

The paper challenges current performance management practices and suggests alternative ways forward.

The paper focuses on an under‐researched area and examines the performance measurement literature through “equality lenses” and investigates how racism and stereotyping can affect the delivery of quality care.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how ethnicity remains relevant to the workplace experience of minority ethnic graduate employees in contemporary British organizations.

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 British Black Caribbean graduate employees drawn from a range of public and private‐sector organizations to examine the ways in which they felt their ethnicity impacted on how they experienced their places of work. Template analysis was used to analyse the data.

The paper finds that racial discrimination, social class and ethnic identity were key elements of the way in which ethnicity was experienced by these minority ethnic graduate employees. The paper discusses the differing ways racial discrimination is experienced and conceptualized in contemporary British organizations; and highlights the ways in which social class may play a role in how a group of (largely) working class minority ethnic graduates progress their careers in (largely) middle class organizational environments. Presented for the first time is a theory on the key facets of the ways ethnic identity might be experienced at work.

Further research would be required to see if the findings are replicated with graduates from other minority ethnic groups.

The paper provides insights into ways in which majority and minority ethnic employees may experience organizations differently.

This paper provides some new insights into the role of ethnicity at work. It also attempts to address some of the issues with organizational psychological research on ethnicity at work identified by Kenny and Briner.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how UK black professionals construct and negotiate ethnic/gender identities at work.

Separate semi‐structured focus groups for three females and four males are used.

Ethnicity, gender and their intersection play important roles in identity construction of black UK professionals, who frequently encounter identity‐challenging situations as they interact with explicit and implicit models of race and stereotyping. Males use agentic strategies to further their careers, drawing strength from “black men” identities. Women are less agentic, reframing challenging episodes to protect/restore their identity.

This study helps understanding of workplace experiences of UK black professionals beyond entry level. Several years after graduation, they still engage frequently in identity work, facing stereotyping and expectations based on intersecting gender and ethnic social categories. The paper shows how aspects of “black identity” provide a resource that supports career progress. Main limitation is small sample size.

People managing diverse professionals and HRM specialists need to recognize how much identity work (e.g. frequently countering stereotyping) has to be done by black professionals in cultures that do not value diversity. As they gain access to senior positions, this will be increasingly an issue for talent retention.

This paper provides some rich understanding about identity construction of black male professionals, an under researched group. This paper extends the work on ethnic minority females, comparing them with male peers. It is shown that minority groups are not homogeneous, but may undergo different workplace experiences and adopt different strategies, drawing on various aspects of the generic “black identity”. This has implications for how organizational diversity is understood, managed and researched.

This paper reports the findings of an original piece of case study research conducted in a voluntary sector organisation engaged in the provision of care in the community. The organisation caters for three client groups: the elderly; people with learning disabilities; and people suffering from mental ill health. The aim is to promote a good quality of life through personal dignity, individuality and self‐determination; and to provide a high standard of nursing care and social support within a homely environment. The organisation employs both professionally qualified nurses, i.e. Registered General and Registered Mental Nurses (RGNs and RMNs), and non‐professionally qualified staff, i.e. care/support workers, in order to achieve those aims. The circumstances leading to the decision to introduce the NVQ in Care is examined, as is the level of success with regard to how candidates, their assessors and their managers perceived enhancements in candidates’ work performance.

This paper aims to introduce a special issue, consisting of a selection of papers on the subject of gender, paid employment and life issues in accounting practice and education.

The paper identifies relationships between work, life and identity in accounting practice and education.

The paper finds that the vast majority of those taking up WLB initiatives are women, who organize their paid work around the needs of their children.

The paper raises challenging and perhaps demoralizing questions and it is hoped that it goes some way to reinvigorating discussions and debates around the work‐life intersection in accounting practice and academia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore corporate communications related to climate change in both a voluntary and mandatory setting. Adopting a critical perspective, the paper examines how companies who participated in the voluntary UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) and the UK Government’s mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme positioned themselves within the climate change debate. In particular, the analysis draws attention to how companies, through their communicative practice, helped to constitute and reproduce the structure of the field in which they operate.

A context-sensitive discursive analysis of 99 stand-alone reports produced by companies participating in the UK ETS and CRC over a nine-year period. The analysis is informed by Thompson’s (1990) depth-hermeneutic framework, which mediates the connection between linguistic strategies and the institutional field.

The analysis suggests that companies tended to adopt particular linguistic strategies in their communications related to climate change. For example, the strategy of “rationalisation” was employed in order to emphasise the organisational “opportunities” resulting from climate change; in this sense, companies sought to exploit climate crises in order to advance a doctrine that endorsed market-based solutions. A noteworthy finding was that in the mandatory CRC period, there was a notable shift towards the employment of the strategies that Thompson (1990) refers to as “differentiation” – whereby companies attempted to displace responsibility by presenting either government or suppliers as barriers to progress.

This paper explores how disclosure on climate change evolved while organisations participate in voluntary and compulsory climate change initiatives. In this respect, the analysis is informed by the social and political context in which the disclosure was produced.

Several Flemish social scientists argue for the existence of a dual Flemish labour market as a result of ethnic stratification. Flanders is the Northern, Dutch speaking region of Belgium, which inhabits around six million people. The poor educational level of ethnic minority youngsters is generally considered to be one of the main explaining factors. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether ethnic minority graduates, who have successfully completed their higher education, also face ethnic stratification in the labour market, even though the educational argument does not apply. Therefore, the paper examines differences in labour market positions of the third (Italian) and the second (Turkish and Moroccan) generation immigrants, and a matching Flemish ethnic majority control group.

The study is essentially of a quantitative nature. A postal survey was used to ask recently graduated ethnic minority and majority students from two schools of higher education and one university in Flanders about their career on the labour market after graduation. Universities provide education leading to master diplomas whereas schools of higher education train professional bachelors.

The waiting period between leaving school and entering the labour market is longer for ethnic majority graduates than for ethnic minority graduates. However, once on the labour market the differences in labour market position tend to disappear. Differences in first job wage, contract modalities, labour regime or the executive character of the job were small and non‐significant. Yet 61 per cent of the graduates of Turkish and Moroccan origin feel they have to try harder both in gaining access to the labour market and once in employment.

Further studies will need to confirm these findings, perhaps even with ethnic minorities of other educational levels, in other locations.

The results suggest that closer attention should be paid to the psychological dimension of the school‐to‐work transition of ethnic minority graduates as their psychological contract is under pressure. As they feel their efforts are not sufficiently rewarded – since they feel they have to try harder than others and are rewarded the same – chances are they will reduce their efforts.

The paper focuses on the under‐researched area of ethnic stratification among higher educated graduates. Moreover, it is not limited to factual labour market positions. The inclusion of subjective variables such as opportunity perception and self‐confidence allows additional insight in existing differences and similarities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the representation of migrant employees in German organizations and to demonstrate that their employment opportunities are outcomes of diversity strategies – i.e. patterns of personnel practices and the reasons that cause them or are alleged to do so.

The study is based on a typology of diversity strategies where elements of strategy and diversity research are combined with resource dependence theory. Propositions on the strategies’ relation to personnel structures and practices are examined through empirical data stemming from telephone interviews conducted with HR managers of 500 German companies.

Empirical analyses revealed that diversity strategies are tightly related to personnel structures and practices. The best employment opportunities and career prospects for skilled migrants are offered by companies pursuing a diversity strategy labelled learning. In addition, the findings demonstrate the robustness of this typology.

The empirical data suffer from common method bias: information was gathered on the pursued strategy, the personnel structure and practices of each company by interviewing one single person. Moreover, to dig more deeply into the relation with career prospects, a supplementary qualitative approach would be fruitful.

The results highlight conditions which are beneficial for advocating the integration of migrant employees. Equally, they may incentivise organizational decision makers with the “good reasons” to employ migrants.

By this paper's typology of diversity strategies, an innovative approach is contributed to the theoretical foundation of diversity research as their relation to personnel structures and practices is empirically analysed for the first time.