Reconstructing Diversity Management and Communication from a Constitutive-Polyphonic Perspective

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Authors

This paper is concerned with examining the underlying conceptualizations of communication in the extant literature on diversity management. Looking at the dimension of communication is important if we consider the fundamental communicative embeddedness of organizations in broader society. Our paper is based on the observation that the extant literature on diversity management, i.e. both from the strategic-instrumental tradition and from the critical-normative tradition, is primarily concerned with the ways in which intra-organizational workforce diversity is accomplished (i.e. among individual employees). In this paper, we add to this literature by developing a complementary, communication-centered perspective that opens up diversity management also towards extra-organizational discourses. Specifically, we propose to draw on works from the “communication constitutes organization” (CCO) perspective. Based on this view, our study contributes to the extant literature on diversity management by moving away from categories among organizational members towards a processual understanding of diversity as diversity as polyphony of internal and external voices. A constitutive-polyphonic reconstruction of diversity management considers in particular the role of third parties for adding to the communicative constitution of organizations. Accordingly, we understand diversity management as a form of organizational boundary maintenance.
Original languageEnglish
Article number15071
JournalAcademy of Management Proceedings
Issue numberJanuar 2014
Pages (from-to)Art-Nr. 15071
Number of pages1
ISSN0065-0668
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Management studies - “communication constitutes organization” (CCO), boundary management, Diversity Management