The implementation of a diversity policy as a process of organizational legitimization
Type de matériel :
64
Based on an empirical study that took place between 2010 and 2013, this article proposes to study, retrospectively, the strategic motives that led large French companies to launch, from 2005 to 2006, policies to promote diversity. It questions, in mirror image, the issues that contribute to perpetuating and feeding the commitment to diversity of these organizations and that preside over their operational translation; and this, at the very time when these approaches are reaching a certain maturity. Understood as a process of change (Bruna 2013 a,b; Bruna and Chanlat 2015), the implementation of a diversity policy is considered, from a neo-institutionalist perspective, as a lever for strategic repositioning and a vector of legitimization (moral, pragmatic, and cognitive) of the company (Suchman 1995). The launch of a diversity policy can be interpreted, in effect, as an attempt to connect ethical concerns, legal constraints, economic calculations, and a quest for compliance with stakeholder expectations (Barth 2007; Singh and Point 2009). The analysis draws on a field study based on a corpus of thirty-five interviews with figures involved in the development and implementation of diversity policies within large French companies (HRDs, HRMs, managers, and diversity experts), as well as informal conversations with these same actors.
Réseaux sociaux