Marjolein Dennissen

103 Diversity killjoys? According to the network members, managerial support means financial resources and legitimacy to invest time in network activities. Without support of the management, they believe it would be (more) difficult to perform network-work next to one’s daily job. Next to an instrumental reason, diversity networks also seek to involve the organizational management to call upon their influence on the organizational culture, policies and processes that either help or hinder organizational equality. Changing structures means working with those in power (Wahl & Holgersson, 2003) and diversity networks endeavor to draw the attention of the management in order to challenge them on diversity- and inequality-related issues. In the following, I present two examples of diversity networking practices of diversity networks challenging the organization: appealing to organizational responsibility and shaping organizational policies. Appealing to organizational responsibility Appealing to organizational responsibility for equality is one way of how diversity networks can challenge the organization. Appealing to organizational responsibility is particularly practiced in meetings between the network members and the organizational top management, such as the CEO or other members of the Board of Directors. My analysis showed that there can be different ways how diversity networks appeal to the responsibility of the organization, which, in turn, may lead to different reactions from the management. I will first describe two instances of appealing to organizational responsibility consecutively, after which I present my analysis. “Croquettes anyone?” The first instance inwhich I have observed appealing to organizational responsibility, is during a meeting of the ethnic minority network in Finance. The ethnic minority network has invited a member of the board of directors to attend a lunch meeting to discuss diversity-related issues within the organization. Network members attending the meeting responded to an announcement and invitation on the organizational intranet that was posted by the network. Although places were subject to availability, basically every network member could attend. During the meeting, the director invites the 16 attending members of the network to give their honest opinion about how they feel about the current state of affairs within the organization with regard to diversity: At some time during the meeting, the director asks the network members whether they are bothered by the public debate about Black Pete 3 . A network member responds, but in his answer addresses the Ramadan instead: “During Ramadan, you get these questions whether 3 Public debate in the Netherlands about the controversial blackface-tradition during Dutch Christmas (Sinterklaas) and whether it should remain because it is a long-lasting tradition, or it should change because it entails racism (Wekker, 2016).