Background
Diversity and inclusion have become a political battlefield. A range of policies and initiatives – especially in working life – aim to improve the inclusion and and status of disadvantaged groups through what is often referred to as diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) work. Yet we know little about how diversity and DEI efforts are actually conceptualized, discussed, and responded to by different groups of employees.
Purpose
The purpose of BATTLE is to investigate what signals of diversity and DEI work organizations send to their employees, and how different groups of employees respond to such signals. The overarching goal is to generate new knowledge about why DEI efforts foster sustainable inclusion in some contexts while fueling resistance and backlash in others.
Approach
The project consists of three empirical studies:
- Unpacking different understandings of—and justifications for—diversity. Drawing on theories from political philosophy, we develop a typology of understandings and justifications of diversity and use this to analyze how diversity is conceptualized and legitimized in companies’ DEI efforts.
- Analyzing what shapes employees’ perceptions of diversity and responses to DEI initiatives. Using surveys, vignette experiments, and linked register data, we examine how perceptions of diversity and responses to DEI initiatives vary between different groups of employees—across different organizational contexts.
- In-depth examination of employee responses to organizational diversity signals. Through a qualitative study, we analyze in more depth how responses to DEI initiatives are formed among majority and minority employees.
Together, the project contributes new knowledge that can address one of the most pressing challenges in today’s labor market: creating meaningful inclusion rather than resistance to diversity.
