Chapter 13 Diversity Management as a Career: Professional Identity of Diversity Managers as a Multi-level and Political Construct

Diversity management is now a well-established field of research in organisation and management studies. Yet, the majority of the managing diversity studies are based on quantitative research, whereas some others use qualitative data or case studies in order to explore issues related to diversity management. This chapter is a rare example, which offers an analysis of empirical data by incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods. As the mainstream diversity management literature engenders a tendency to de-contextualise the diversity management process by isolating it from its socio-economic and organisational settings, overlooking the issues of power which are embedded in organisational processes of diversity management is particularly relevant. But the agency of diversity managers, who are the most visible actors in the process of managing diversity, still continues to be an under-researched area. This chapter acknowledges that diversity managers, whose agency is relational and multi-layered, are important actors in diversity management process, using a Bourdieuan approach in order to understand diversity managers as a professional group through the combined explanatory power of individual, organisational and societal influences.