Marjolein Dennissen

37 Networking for equality? Introduction Diversity networks are a widely popular practice in current organizations to promote organizational equality (Benschop et al., 2015; Kaplan et al. , 2009). As part of the larger diversity management agenda, these in-company networks are initiated to inform, support and advance employees with historically marginalized social identities (Foldy, 2002). Hitherto, research has provided some insights into the value of diversity networks for women, ethnic minorities and LGBT employees. For instance, diversity networks are perceived to have a positive effect on members’ career advancement (Cross & Armstrong, 2008; O’Neil et al., 2011), facilitate a safe space for members to share experiences (Friedman, 1996, 1999; Pini et al., 2004), and provide possibilities to advise management about diversity- and equality-related issues (Colgan & McKearney, 2012; Gremmen & Benschop, 2013). Despite their contribution to the field of diversity management research, these studies present several important limitations. First, the majority of these studies seem to make diversity too easily “doable” (Prasad & Mills, 1997, p. 11). Diversity networks have met scholarly critique for their lack of power to challenge organizations as they would have no choice but to follow the managerial agenda (Foldy, 2002). Yet, there is little dispute about the value of diversity networks as a popular diversity management instrument. Much of the diversity network literature emphasizes the beneficial effects for diversity and equality in organizations and ignores tensions, conflicts and contradictions (with Bierema, 2005; Colgan, 2016; Foldy, 2002 as notable exceptions). Managing diversity is power-laden, contextual, and ambivalent (Ahmed & Swan, 2006; Prasad & Mills, 1997; Tatli, 2011), and accomplishing organizational equality by means of diversity networks is more complicated than simply creating a network (Bierema, 2005). Addressing diversity networks in a “feel-good way” (Hoobler, 2005, p. 55) overlooks asymmetrical power relations that foster inequalities in organizations. Second, studies are ambiguous about whether diversity networks achieve their intended results (Bierema, 2005; Kalev et al., 2006). Diversity networks possibly benefit bothmarginalized groups and the organization as a whole, but it remains unclear if and how networks fulfill this potential. Diversity network research presents a scattered field and the implications of diversity networks for organizational equality remain an understudied terrain. Hitherto, an overarching theoretical framework on the function of diversity networks as diversity management instrument is lacking. Hence, there is a need for better theoretical insights into the potential of diversity networks to diminish organizational inequalities. To address these limitations, I turn to critical diversity studies (Lorbiecki & Jack, 2000; Oswick & Noon, 2014; Prasad & Mills, 1997; Zanoni et al., 2010) that specifically focus on inequalities in organizations and the underlying processes, practices and discourses that maintain and reproduce it. Taking into account inequalities and marginalized organizational voices, critical diversity studies provide “unique and important ways to