Studying diversity at work from a class perspective: an inductive and supra-categorical approach

Kutscher, Gloria (2020) Studying diversity at work from a class perspective: an inductive and supra-categorical approach. In, Nørholm Just, Sine, Risberg, Annette and Villèseche, Florence (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Organizational Diversity Research Methods. 1 ed. New York. Routledge, pp. 216-227. (doi:10.4324/9780429265716).

Abstract

Incorporating social class into diversity research has a capacity to clarify the mechanisms underlying social and power processes that is as great as it is under-used. These approaches not only highlight how class is intertwined with inequality and marginalization in the workplace, but are particularly promising in their ability to uncover the classed structure in specific fields and their associated forms of difference and diversity. This chapter takes a structural approach to social class analysis; more specifically, cluster analysis is presented as an inductive method. The chapter also discusses how data from large-scale surveys can be used in such endeavors, and these considerations are applied in an empirical example focusing on cultural capital - a main building block of social class in the workplace. The results show interlocking patterns among the five identified cultural capital groups, work conditions, and diversity characteristics such as gender and nationality. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the meaning of these results as well as on how the resulting insights can be applied in diverse settings by diversity scholars.

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Contributors

Author: Gloria Kutscher

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