Marjolein Dennissen

27 Introduction young employee network believes that although young employees may be inexperienced, they have good, innovative ideas how work can be organized more efficiently and effectively and, therefore, should be given a voice. The network consists of a core team of approximately 12 members, including a chairman, a vice-chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer. Within this team, the age limit is 35 years, but other members are not restricted to an age limit as long as they support the progressive ideas of the network. The network is financially supported by a member of the organizational board of directors. Data collection In this dissertation, I used different methods of data collection that fit the different perspectives: discourse, intersectionality, and practices. For instance, the most suitable method for studying networking practices is participant observation to capture the actions of people and the interactions between them; that is, actually seeing what people say and do (Nicolini, 2009; Yanow, 2006). In line with the qualitative approach, I collected my empirical material through interviews, observations, and documents. In this section, I briefly discuss my data collection methods. Extended explanations of the data collection are particular for each chapter and, therefore, are further elaborated on in each separate chapter. Table 1 provides an overview of the material collected. Interviews I conducted 51 in-depth semi-structured interviews with active networkmembers: 33 interviews frommembers at Finance and 18 frommembers at Govt. The interviews took place at a location agreed upon by the interviewee, which was usually at work. The interviews were guided by an interview guide (see Appendix 2) with questions about the network’s history, goals, meetings, activities and events, member motivations to join diversity networks, and any collaborations with other networks. In addition, the semi-structured, open-ended nature of the interviews allowed for a detailed reflection of network members on observed network meetings or other meetings that I as a researcher could not attend for observation. The interviews were conducted in Dutch, lasted between 45 minutes and two hours, and were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim for the analyses. Observations In situ observations formed an important part of my data collection as they allowed me to examine what happens in diversity networks. Organizations are described as political sites (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000), and observations allow taking political organizational processes into account when they unfold. For example, by means of observation, I was able to witness how diversity networks network, what happens during meetings with organizational management, or how equality is addressed during network events. Examples of observed network meetings include network boardmeetings, activities, or events that were organized by diversity networks,