Leinonen Minna
Otonkorpi-Lehtoranta Katri
Ylöstalo Hanna
Work Research Centre
University of Tampere
firstname.surname@uta.fi
The 6th Nordic Working Life Conference, Elsinore, Denmark, April 25th-27th 2012
Session: Diversity management and promotion of equality – contested terrain
v. Minna Leinonen, Katri Otonkorpi-Lehtoranta, Hanna Ylöstalo, Work Research Centre, University of
Tampere
Relationship of diversity and equality in the field of working life research
The presentation is a theoretical and methodological introduction to the diversity and equality themes. In
working life research, diversity is viewed especially from diversity management point of view. The origin of
the term diversity management lies in the multiculturalism of the United States and in the Anglo-American
theoretical discussion, but it has been understood and used in various ways, depending on the national and
cultural context. The term and its meaning have been critically assessed, among other things, from the
following starting points: the paradigms and assumptions behind diversity management, the use of social
categories and the strengthening of stereotypes, and taking into account the social context. The analyses
focusing on diversity management as being an individual capacity and neglecting the structural and social
orders of an organization have been critiqued. According to this critique, especially emphasizing differences
without examining the basis of inequality or power hierarchies has been considered a risk. (For more
information, see Meriläinen, Tienari, Katila & Benschop 2009)
The equality and equal opportunities perspectives have emphasized similarity instead of differences. The
concept of equality and this emphasis on similarity have been challenged in the international debate on
intersectionality, which is linked to diversity and multidimensional discrimination. The concept of
intersectionality has been presented as “a tool to analyze how sociocultural hierarchies and power
differentials interact and produce in/exclusion around discursively and institutionally constructed
sociocultural categories such as gender, ethnicity, race, class, sexuality, age/generation, nationality, etc.”
(Lykke 2005, 8).
Suprisingly, the international discussion on diversity management and debate around intersectionality
issues have advanced separately. In this introduction to the diversity management and equality issues, we
consider what new theoretical and methodological problem settings and research needs as well as new
challenges for research this discreteness has presented. At least from the perspective of dialogue between
theoretical debate and development work – promoting equality on the organizational and workplace levels
– this discreteness can be seen as a limitation. It seems that both perspectives include the risk that
attention is paid to differences, but not to power relations operating behind these differences. In that case,
the analysis focuses on micro-level and social categories. We call for an analysis that aims to intertwine
agency with structural and contextual dimensions. Development work done in workplaces requires a
multidimensional perspective whose starting point is to make invisible practices visible.