“Diversity” has become one of the most commonly used words by U.S. corporations.
Indeed, many companies claim that they have spent millions, sometimes billions of
dollars to create an egalitarian workplace for all workers. Given the amount of money
spent and the increased amount of research that corporations have done on the issue of
diversity, we should expect some progress in terms of equality or equal rights for
minority and female workers. However, while there has been a substantial increase in the
rise of corporate philosophy espousing diversity, there is also overwhelming data that
suggests minorities and women are still unable to obtain opportunities or to achieve
success at the same rates as their white male counterparts. How can we explain the
apparent contradictions? Furthermore, why are many companies that have historically
barred minorities and women from their workplace now publicizing their support for
racial and gender integration? I suggest that corporations are using the word “diversity”
as an ideological tool designed to promote themselves at the forefront of equality in the
U.S. Using in-depth interviews conducted with 40 middle and senior-level managers and
upper-level executive officers from Fortune 1000 companies, I find that while the word diversity is frequently uttered by managers (and strategically used in various media
outlets), most managers are unable to clearly define diversity. Moreover, while managers
claim their companies are interested in diversity, there is no convincing evidence that
would suggest this is true. Thus, my findings suggest that many corporations use
“diversity” as a shield to hide the fact that nothing has really changed in the structure of
U.S corporations. That is, U.S. corporations have been, and continue to be, exclusive
clubhouses for upper class white males.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1201 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Embrick, David Geronimo Truc-Thanh |
| Contributors | Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, Saenz, Rogelio |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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