Diversity policies in organizations: a matter of speech?

Abstract

The objective in this article was to analyze to what extent organizations are able to effectively implement diversity stimulating policies in the organizational environment. A case of a multinational company has been studied, which adopted, in the 1990’s, a worldwide diversity and inclusion stimulating policy. Based on a qualitative methodology, official documents were analyzed and employees representing minorities and non-minorities were interviewed, and that material was later handled by means of discourse analysis. Results show contradictions between the company speeches and the employees understanding on the policies it adopts. That is possibly due to ingrained prejudicial processes from the employees themselves, to a certain permissiveness at the managerial level, and to diversity and inclusion stimulating policies focusing more on the market than on society requirements.