Marjolein Dennissen

23 Introduction Methodological approach “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted” (Einstein, as quoted in Gioia, Corley & Hamilton, 2013, p. 2) In line with a critical diversity perspective, this dissertation focuses on organizational processes, discourses, and practices and how organizational members construct and understand these organizational processes, rather than on numerical outcomes. Thus, I relied on a qualitative research strategy that is “typically oriented to the study of socially constructed reality… questioning either the wider context of it or the processes forming it” (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000, p. 1). Attention to asymmetrical relations of power, taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs, and silenced or marginalized voices necessitates a qualitative approach. Qualitative data allow for studying diversity networks in a wider cultural, economic, political, and organizational context (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000) and exploring the how of social phenomena (Bluhm, Harman, Lee & Mitchell, 2010). Therefore, a qualitative research approach is expected to yield a deeper understanding of equality in organizations and how it can materialize. I collected my empirical material by means of multiple cases (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2009). The cases were different diversity networks, which I further describe in the next section. A case study facilitates the analysis of complex and little understood phenomena and is well suited to examine the how and why of dynamic processes in real-life organizational contexts (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007; Yin, 2009). Moreover, multiple cases allow for a broader elaboration of the research questions (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Thus, a case study of multiple diversity networks supports the explorative character of my research and enables a fine-grained and in-depth analysis of how diversity networks contribute to equality in organizations. To this end, I have selected two organizations in the Netherlands with multiple diversity networks. Cases During a period of two years (2014–2016), I collected my empirical material of ten diversity networks at two large Dutch organizations: a for-profit organization in the financial sector and a nonprofit governmental organization. These organizations were selected first and foremost because they accommodate different diversity networks. As indicated above, studying multiple diversity networks would provide a broader exploration of the research questions. Collecting data in two different organizations presents the opportunity to investigate different organizational contexts in which diversity networks maneuver. Below, I briefly introduce the two organizations and the ten networks studied. The data provided on the composition of the board and the total number of members was based on the situation at the time of my data collection.