Managing the Organizational Melting Pot: Dilemmas of Workplace Diversity

407 Pages·1997·38.178 MB·English

by  Pushkala Prasad, Albert J Mills, Michael Elmes, Anshuman Prasad

Managing the
Organizational Melting
Pot: Dilemmas of
Workplace Diversity

Pushkala Prasad
MANAGING THE
ORGANIZATIONAL
MELTING POT
Dedicated in loving memory of my mother
—Pushi Prasad
For Bert and Jill Mills—
and in loving memory of
Winifred (Pat) Mills, 1922-1995
—Albert J. Mills
To Anne, Katie, and Sarah
—Mike Eimes
Dedicated to my mother and
to the memory of my father
—Anshuman Prasad
MANAGING THE
ORGANIZATIONAL
MELTING POT
Dilemmas of
Workplace Diversity
Pushkala Prasad
Albert J. Mills
Michael Eimes
Anshuman Prasad
editors
SAGE Publications
International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
Copyright © 1997 by Sage Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information:
SAGE Publications, Inc.
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E-mail: [email protected]
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Managing the organizational melting pot: dilemmas of workplace
diversity / editors, Pushkala Prasad ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-8039-7410-8 (acid-free paper). — ISBN 0-8039-7411-6 (pbk.:
acid-free paper)
1. Diversity in the workplace. 2. Multiculturalism. I. Prasad,
Pushkala.
HF5549.5.M5M365 1997
658.3Ό41—dc20 96-35610
97 98 99 00 01 02 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acquiring Editor: Marquita Flemming
Editorial Assistant: Frances Borghi
Production Editor: Michele Lingre
Production Assistant: Karen Wiley
Typesetter/Designer: Danielle Dillahunt
Cover Designer: Lesa Valdez
Print Buyer: Anna Chin
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
I. INTRODUCTION
1. From Showcase to Shadow: Understanding
the Dilemmas of Managing Workplace Diversity 3
Pushkala Prasad and Albert J. Mills
IL THEORIZING THE DILEMMAS
OF WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
2. (In)corporating the Other? Managing the
Politics of Workplace Difference 31
J. Michael Cavanaugh
3. The Sexually Specific Subject and the Dilemma
of Difference: Rethinking the Different in the
Construction of the Nonhierarchical Workplace 54
Co lie tie Ο seen
4. The Unbearable Whiteness of Being:
Reflections of a Pale, Stale Male 80
Roy Jacques
5. Class Discipline: IR/HR and the
Normalization of the Workforce 107
Richard Marsden
6. The Protestant Ethic and the Myths of the Frontier:
Cultural Imprints, Organizational Structuring,
and Workplace Diversity 129
Pushkala Prasad
7. Dreams of Diversity and the Realities of
Intergroup Relations in Organizations 148
Michael Eimes and Debra L. Connelley
III. DILEMMAS OF DIVERSITY
MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE
8. Dueling Discourses: Desexualization Versus
Eroticism in the Corporate Framing of Female Sexuality
in the British Airline Industry, 1945-1960 171
Albert J. Mills
9. Women in the Academy:
Cycles of Resistance and Compliance 199
Patricia Bradshaw and David Wicks
10. "We Have to Make a MANagement Decision":
Challenger and the Dysfunctions of Corporate Masculinity 226
Mark Maier
11. When Organizations Do Harm: Two Cautionary Tales 255
Paula Caproni and Jocelyn A. Finley
12. The Colonizing Consciousness and Representations
of the Other: A Postcolonial Critique of the Discourse of Oil 285
Anshuman Prasad
13. Triple Jeopardy: Immigrant Women
of Color in the Labor Force 312
E. Joy Mighty
14. How International Is International Management?
Provincialism, Parochialism, and the
Problematic of Global Diversity 340
Diana Wong-MingJi and Ali Η. Mir
IV: CONCLUSION
15. Issues in the Management of Workplace Diversity 367
Anshuman Prasad and Michael Eimes
Author Index 377
Subject Index 385
About the Authors 391
Acknowledgments
Editing a book is often a long and difficult process involving the efforts of a
host of people. As the editors of the book, we are the most visible or public
element of the process and we would like to pay tribute to all those who gave
of their time and energy. This project began as an attempt to examine the more
challenging aspects of workplace diversity. With this end in mind, we organized
a symposium, at the Eastern Academy Meetings in 1993. Much to our surprise
and delight, our ideas provoked considerable discussion and excitement. Fol-
lowing the symposium, Harry Briggs of Sage Publications first planted the idea
of an edited book in our minds. Many thanks therefore to Harry Briggs and to
Marquita Flemming for their unstinting support and patience. Our thanks also
go to Sandra Mahoney, Dianne Foley and her staff at computer services at Saint
Mary's University, and to Julene Koslowski and Debbie Neilson at the Faculty
of Management at the University of Calgary.
vii

PART
I
INTRODUCTION