Marjolein Dennissen

14 The Herculean task of diversity networks Diversity, as well as its management, is inextricably linked to power and every day micropolitics. This means that unequal power relations, marginalized organizational voices, and organizational practices and processes have to be taken into account to understand diversity and equality in organizations. A stream of critical diversity studies (e.g., Benschop, 2011; Kirton & Greene, 2000; Lorbiecki & Jack, 2000; Prasad & Mills, 1997; Zanoni et al., 2010) emerged in the mid-1990s to draw attention to issues of inequality and power in organizations and management. Critical diversity studies: Theorizing diversity and inequality Critical diversity studies are part of the larger field of critical management studies. Although it is difficult to demarcate critical management studies, critical approaches to management all share the assumption that “dominant theories and practices of management and organization systematically favor some (elite) groups and/or interests at the expense of those who are disadvantaged by them” (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009, p. 7). Critical management studies question managerial ways of organizing that normalize and reinforce oppression and subordination, demand conformism, and reproduce and legitimize inequalities (Alvesson et al., 2009). By doing so, critical management scholars aim to “unmask” unequal power structures that have been institutionalized in the status quo of management and organizations (Alvesson et al., 2009; Fournier & Grey, 2000, p. 19). The field of critical diversity studies focuses particularly on these aspects of power and inequalities related to diversity and its management in organizations. In line with critical management studies, critical diversity scholars question the moral defensibility of current managerial policies and practices (Adler, Forbes & Willmott, 2007). They critique the dominant business paradigm and the instrumental view of diversity in organizations and argue that the emphasis on the positive effects of diversity for corporate benefits and organizational performance has informed noncritical, functionalistic research ( Janssens & Zanoni, 2014; Zanoni et al., 2010). Considering diversity as a strategic asset and promoting a diversity management that is “palatable” (Hoobler, 2005, p. 55), the mainstream literature presents an overly optimistic view of diversity and underlines “feel-good ways of diversity management” (Hoobler, 2005, p. 55; Nkomo & Hoobler, 2014). This has implications for how organizational equality is studied. Critical diversity studies take issue with the way these studies make diversity too easily “doable” (Prasad & Mills, 1997, p. 11) because the focus on palatable, feel-good diversity management leaves little room for analysis of the processes of power. In doing so, studies tend to overlook structural, context-specific elements and everyday micropolitics that foster inequalities in organizations (Prasad & Mills, 1997; Zanoni et al., 2010). Critical diversity studies do incorporate a power perspective that addresses the power relations in which organizational inequalities are embedded. Since their emergence, critical diversity studies have uncovered how power processes contribute to shaping, maintaining, and reproducing inequalities related to diversity (Dick & Cassell, 2002; Litvin, 2006; Prasad & Mills, 1997; Zanoni et al., 2010).